Poker Strategy

Practising Your Endgame

Published by admin on September 10, 2010

Practising Your Endgame

Practising your endgame is something that all multi table poker tournament players should do. Whenever you start a tournament, your goal should be to get at least as far as the final table – the point at which you start collecting a significant multiple of your buy-in. Those who enter hoping to hit the top 10-15% and win a prize of any nature will do just that, and never make any serious money playing poker.

Getting to the final table requires skill, discipline and a fair degree of luck, and when you get there, the nature of the game can change quite dramatically. Players who were cautiously playing their short stacks of chips previously play a little more extravagantly now, while chips leaders want to maintain their positions for a top three finish. How to prepare for the final table can be a bit of a head-scratcher as, although it is a destination we would like to be visiting frequently, it does not happen that often.

The answer is to play single table sit ´n´ go tournaments more often – but with a difference. Single table sit ´n´ go tournaments represent the final table of a multi-table poker tournament inasmuch as there are nine players seated around it, and when one gets eliminated nobody comes and sits in their seat. However, one major difference is that everybody starts off with an equal amount of chips – not a scenario you will find occurring very often on the final table of the Sunday Million! Speaking of the Sunday Million on PokerStars, new players who use a PokerStars bonus code can receive a poker bonus of up to $600.

Therefore, to create the different scenarios that you will face, bet aggressively and loosely over the first couple of hands. This will result in one of two outcomes – you are either going to be the chip leader, or you are going to “start” the game short-stacked. The experiences thereafter will be a good training ground and excellent practise for your endgame in a multi table poker tournament and will give you the edge on players who reach the final table and play like scared rabbits.

If you use this method of practising your endgame, make sure that you do it at a lower level of buy-in than you normally would or play at an easier poker site such as Bodog, which has one of the biggest poker bonuses available of $1100. For although the skill levels of the players may not be the same as yours, they will generally be more experienced than you at single table sit ´n´ go tournaments (a factor which will negate their skill deficiency) and you wouldn´t want to lose the buy-in for a later tournament playing recklessly in practise.

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