Makin' Money, Here's How !

I was curious this morning when I read 3 or 4 blogs about the new tournaments that Poker Stars have called "Double or Nothing" , then I read that they were turbo tournaments, and I like turbos, so I tried one out for myself. I bought into a $10 one with $1 rake, and 33 minutes later had $9 profit ! I was chip leader when it was over, but I only played a total of 7 hands, 5 with premium starting hands, 1 of which I lost, and 2 hands from the big blind that were not raised pre flop. I won both of these hands without contest by throwing out a small bet on the flop, and the other players folding to me.

After the game was over I went back to the blog that inspired me to play, by Me Tom, and posted my results, and after a few minutes, noticed a couple of more comments had been posted on the blog, so I went back to see who else had tried them. I noticed a comment that stated that the $9 return wasn't sufficient for the investment by another bird, and so I posted a second comment that outlined how someone could make $100 a day playing these games.

I had work to do so I logged off and went outside to go get it done, but after a couple of hours mowing, it started to rain, so I parked the mower and came back to the house and signed back on Railbirds. I had been thinking about the last comment I had left on the blog while I was mowing, and soon found myself registering to play a couple more of these games, at the same time. I cashed in both of them, and decided this was too good to be true, but enrolled in two more any way.

Now I am not much for playing more than one table at a time, but two at a time in this format isn't so hard to do. I got knocked out of one of these games in 8th place when my AA fell to Ak on a rivered flush, but cashed in the other one ! Being 4 for 5 so far, I figured that this was a good way for my fellow Railbirds to make some bankrolls grow.

Here is a simple strategy for you to try, if you want to give these games a go:

First, and foremost, realize that you don't have to play very many hands, and the hands that you do play, need to be winners ! I would expect that there would be no need to be involved in any more than 10 to 12 hands at the most, to get your share of the cash. Even though these are turbo games, you have time to wait for good starting hands, DO NOT play speculative hands in this format, if you don't have a top 10 starting hand, there is no reason to see a flop unless you are in the big blind and the pot has not been raised !

Patience is the key here, and even though the blinds raise quickly, you have enough starting chips to see several orbits around the table before you will start to feel the blinds are eating your stack.

When you do find a good starting hand, raise the pot somewhere around 3 times the BB, if someone has already raised the pot, re-raise them at least the minimum with the last half of the top ten hands, and at least double their bet with the top 5 starting hands.

What I saw was people are afraid of confrontation for the most part, and will fold rather than put many chips at risk, so when you play a pot, don't be timid with your betting, but then again, don't do anything stupid like re-raise all in with AK !

Try to only play pots with people who have smaller stacks than yours if at all possiable, that way if you lose thee hand to a suck out or even a better hand, you are not eliminated. In one game I was down to 640 chips at one point, but finished with 4200+, and cashed in.

If there are only two or at most 3 of you in a pot, and the flop comes rags, with you being first to bet, throw out a half pot bet at the least, even if you missed the flop. Chances are they missed it also, and usually in this case, first in wins, I took several pots down doing this very thing. If you get a call, and the next card helps you, or is another rag, bet half pot again, chances are it didn't help them either ! If you get raised, fold, but if there is a call, depending on the chips stack sizes, It might be better to check the turn, and if it is checked around, then put out another bet on the river, unless a scare card shows up, then checking is smart.

Play your position as strong as you dare, don't let someone buy you out of a pot if you have a decent hand, raise minimum bets into you, and if there is checking around to you, throw out something if you are last to act, even if you didn't hit the flop, I think most people are looking for an excuse to fold their hands in these situations.

When it gets down to 6 or 7 players left DON'T play any hand, unless it is a top 5 or 6 hand, and only against shorter stacks than yours. It is ok to fold pocket Queens to a pre flop all in, if losing puts you out on the bubble, you don't have to have all of the chips to win in this format, you just have to have A CHIP, when 5 others have been eliminated.

Avoid risk at this stage, and don't worry about pressuring the smaller stacks because it is essentially you and 4 others playing against the short stacks, and if you don't have a hand to knock them out with, someone else just might have. You don't want to find yourself in a confrontation with someone you can't eliminate at this point, and if two of you have a short stack all in, then just check it down, even if you have a good hand, you never know what the river might bring to your opponent, and it could just be the card that causes to you cash out. You would feel pretty bad if you doubled the short stack up, only to find out that if you hadn't bet, the player that folded to you, would have made a straight on the river that would have ended the game !

Be sure to keep track of who has how many chips in every hand you play, because in this format, survival is the key, it doesn't matter if you are 1st, or 5th in chips when the game is over, the message that appears says you are a winner !

I hope that this helps some of you win some extra money for your bankroll, and also hope that anyone else who has had success at these games gives their thoughts, and strategy in comments to this blog ! I would like to hear of a whole bunch of Railbirds winning a whole bunch of money in these games ! I am in no way saying that this is the only way to cash in these, all I am saying that this is basically what I did this morning to cash in 4 out of 5 of them. I would encourage anyone who has helpful comments to post them on this blog, to help the Railbird brother and sisters who read it, build their bankrolls !........Good Luck Everyone !

ADDENDUM : I published a second blog titled "More Money" on this subject, and it should be read as well to get full benifit. ..... Also, there has been an excellent blog published by PookieGirl2 that takes this strategy to an even higher level, and I reccomend everyone read it, here is the link : www.railbirds.com/blog/205503/the-icm-topcat-and-those-double-or-nothing-sngs.html

....play on ....Tc....