In my last blog post we took a look at position and starting hands – when should you play which hand and how. In today’s post I would like to explain what we hope to see on the flop and how to play our hand from there. Please take into consideration that my whole Sit&Go strategy blog is geared towards micro limit SNGs as stated in my first post (Sit&Go Preparation). While some of the basic principles may be used in SNGs with higher buy-ins you will have to keep in mind that the game is very different at higher limits.
So we have decided to call or raise pre-flop. Our pre-flop raise will be an impressive one in the first few blind levels of our micro limit SNG. We don’t simply raise to three or four times the BB but for example to ten times the BB. In our virtual SNG with the 10/20 starting blind level and our 1,500 chip stack such a raise thus would be around roughly 200 chips. Our general strategy aims to build up big pots even pre-flop. Whenever there is a flop we want to get the most out of our opponents. Therefore the blog title Flop or Drop – we invest chips in order to help the pot grow quickly.
Let’s assume our pocket cards are QQ – according to our last article we will either raise (if we see no raise before it’s our turn), reraise (if a player raises before us) or fold (if there are two or more raises). So our raise here would be 200 chips. But how high would our potential reraise be? That basically depends on the value of the first bet on the table – we will count all the chips in play and reraise to twice the amount or slightly more. So if a player before us raised the BB to 200 we will reraise him to at least 460 chips (200 chips + 20 BB + 10 SB = 230 chips, therefore twice the pot amounts to 460 chips). Our reraise must never be below the sum of our regular raise (according to our rule above) and the current pot.
Example: Pocket cards QQ, 10/20 blind level, a player raises the BB to 50 chips – we won’t reraise to a mere 160 (50 + 20 + 10 = 80, 80 x 2 = 160) but our regular raise amount (200) plus the current pot (50 + 20 + 10 = 80), which equals a total of 280 chips. We will always use the higher amount when deciding which of our two rules to use (double pot or raise + pot). If the reraise amounts to more than half of our stack we can decide to either go all-in or fold our cards. Under no circumstances do you want to see two thirds or more of your stack on the table and then see an ace on the flop which pretty much hurts our QQ – at that point you’d already be committed and would have to play the hand to the end anyway.
What is a good flop for us?
Lets take a look at your potential starting hands and the according flops that we want to see:
- Pocket Cards: A Pair
- Pocket Cards: No Pair
Let’s assume your pocket cards are a Pair. Once you see the flop check for a third card for your Pair. If you don’t hit the Set the next thing you want to check is whether you have the Overpair. In both of these cases you have a strong hand that you should play accordingly.
You see the flop with AK, AQ, AJ or KQ – what should you hope to find in the first 3 community cards? Well, preferably your highest card – 3 times. Presumably your opponents will however drop out with your first best in that case. The next best scenarios would be – in declining order – Full House, Straight, Triple, 2 Pairs or 1 Pair. A finished Full House or Straight on the flop is of course much less probable than hitting at least a Pair. So when should you continue playing your hand and when should you fold and drop out of the current hand? If you don’t hit on the flop you will either check or fold. If you hit a Pair and it is not the Top Pair you will either check or fold. In all other cases you can basically go for it and build some pressure by betting or raising.
General notes: Carefully check the flop in order to see whether it might be dangerous. If there are 3 cards of the same colour or 3 connected cards (like 8-9-T) on the table you risk running into a Flush or Straight. In that case you will probably be better off to be on the safe side and fold your cards if someone before you bets – unless you have a card that gives you a Flush Draw or Straight Draw (or even better, you actually hit the Flush or Straight right at the flop yourself). If you bet after the flop your bet at your typical micro limit SNG should be around 2 thirds of the pot – at this limit most of the players should be tempted to call.
We hit on the flop – what now?
If you are lucky enough to have hit something like Four of a Kind or a Straight right at the flop you should try and play it slowly in order to not frighten your opponents. You want to keep them in the hand so they can help build the pot. With pocket cards of AK and a flop of AAA even the craziest maniac will probably fold if you bet half the pot or more. Instead you can decide to simply check and with a bit of luck one of the other players will bet, either in order to attempt a bluff or because he has a pair in his hole cards. You can still decide to play the hand on the turn (and even then still pretty soft) and hope for one or the other player not to believe you have the Quad.
On the turn we stick to the same principle as on the flop: First make sure that the community cards are not dangerous and bet approximately two thirds of the pot (or go all-in if your remaining stack is only marginal). We want our opponent to either pay us big time or fold his cards.
Usually most players will fold before a potential river because at some point they should realise that we have a strong hand. If you actually happen to see the river and lost to someone with two pairs (for example AA88) keep in mind that a player who is willing to pay that much pre-flop with A8 had a much worse hand than you and will end up losing that hand more often than not which means he is a losing player in the long run. This player will make this mistake again and again and he will end up paying you out considerable amounts of chips most of the times. Of course you may even end up losing with your pocket aces to someone with 72 but our aim is to become a long term successful poker player. Unlucky defeats and bad beats are just part of playing poker and there is no use crying over spilt milk. Just keep in mind that you did everything right and lady luck sometimes just smiles upon someone else.