I am often asked by players, what the best 'deal' is as far as online tournaments go. Well, the biggest one is certainly PokerStars Sunday Million which has gotten so big it is not the Sunday 1 1/2 Million! For $215 you will get into a NL Hold'em tournament that will pay at least nearly $250k to the winner, most times more than that.

    Of course, you can satellite in if you want to take the time for all kinds of lesser amounts or even FPP's but really for $215 you can't find better leverage on your money. This is the largest weekly prize pool on the net and one where you can really clean up with you go deep into it. It is pretty easy to find in the PS lobby, just use 'tournament' and 'regular' tab and you will find it, or simply type 'sunday million' into the filter. If you play online poker on Sundays like I do, this is one you don't want to miss.

 I busted out of the Razz tournament on Full Tilt last night after a pretty unspectacular tournament. I just could not catch any decent starting hands and if I got something half way close, the next cards were likely to be K-K-Q or something of that sort. I know I rolled trips more than my fair share and also ended up with full boats way too much! Not a good thing in a Razz game. This is a good example of why you can't count on one tournament too much. Sometimes you just can't get any traction and it is not your tournament.

    Played some cash games at the same time on PStars and had moderate success in those. I like playing 6-hand Omaha/8 FL at levels with higher blinds. These games tend to have players that raise way too much with hands that don't pan out on the river, so they end up building a pot that you can take away from them when their low draw doesn't hit, etc. I also played a stud game where my Q's full of T's lost to a straight flush and I had one end of his straight flush! That most definitely was not my game!

     Anyway, more tournaments to play today and I am back on my coaching schedule if anyone wants more coaching, just let me know.

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   The following is a Q&A that I got the other day from a fellow poker player. I thought it was a useful discussion to clarify a few points that I made have made incorrectly in one of my posts:

Q: Hi, just wanting to know what situation it is where you mention betting 2x the pot to push an opponent off of a hand? That seems like to large of a bet."

A: I have no idea what context my comment about betting 2x that pot was in, so I have no idea how to respond to your question. 'It all depends' is the only answer I can give without knowing the situation that I was talking about at the time. Are you talking about 2x the Big Blind rather than 2x the pot? Obviously, if you are talking about a $300 pot and you bet $600 or 2x, then a person would have to have a big hand to call. If you are talking about a $30 pot early in a tournament and betting $60, then that would be a different story.......

Q:In any case, the Flop came Q-9-2 rainbow. At this point, we were the only 2 players in a pot with about $600 in chips in it. My opponent immediately made a bet of $1200 or double the pot. This immediately made me think that he did not connect with the Flop. If he had, why bet so much? Obviously, this was a try to push me off my hand. While I didn't have a great hand, I had hit high pair with a decent kicker. Not bad based on my analysis of my opponent.

I decided to raise and right after I did, he re-raised all-in. What now? Call. He flipped over pocket 8's and my Q's held up enabling me to double up my chip stack.

Is this a simple analysis? Maybe. But, many times, the simple one is the correct one. There is nothing wrong with making a continuation bet, but there is really no need to make such a large one. All that 2x the pot size bet served to do was to alert me to the fact that he wanted me out of the pot. I guess he could have wanted me to think that he had A-A or K-K or even A-Q, but if so he should have made smaller bet. That would have made me proceed with caution, since I was concerned about my kicker.

In any case, if you totally miss a flop, betting double the pot is not going to make your opponent think that you hit it. On the contrary, it will most likely cost you a lot of your chip stack as it did in this instance.

I was trying to get a feel for what is "normal? after blinds start antes at about 150-200 read that i should c-bet 2.3-2.5 times the pot but my mind is such that i cannot remember  ....are you talking about something different?

A:That clarifies it to me a bit. I am really not an advocate of betting 2x the pot, because of the situation that you just described; it is too big of a bet. I think what I may have been talking about in the instance that you read was a pre-flop steal bet, in which case I would have been talking about the BB rather than the pot? Again, not sure without finding the quote, and it is more than possible that I mis-typed something! lol.
Anyway, my strategy would be to bet 2.5x-3x the BB, not the pot, so in $150-$200 blinds with antes, I would be betting $450-$600 giving me positive equity on the chips I am risking,  if I want to push them into a fold preflop. If I have a big hand and want some action, then I will lower it to 2x the BB.
  As far as after the flop, turn or river, I seldom if ever make a bet more than 1/2-full pot sized depending on what reaction I am looking for. The closer you get to a pot sized bet, the tougher it is to call without a hand. 1/2 pot is more looking for action when I hit. However, I cannot think of where I would bet 2x the POT because you are putting too many chips at risk for too little gain. In other words, I don't want to risk $600 to gain $300. Even a $90 pot I would not be betting $180 to take it down. My guess is if I said that in a post, then I must have mis-typed; I'm only human!
Thanks again for the question.

    One of the keys to being a successful tournament player is to not give up. Even if your chip stack has gotten low, you should still play to try and get back into the game. You get paid the same in, let's say a 90-player tournament for finishing 70th as you do 17th, so why not make it a priority to get to 9th and get paid?  Of course, we all do, right? I mean no one gives up when they get to the bubble or within sight of the bubble do they? Actually, that is just what many players do.

     What happens is tournanment play, is the pressure increases as the game goes along in length. Many players who are not used to this 'crack' just a little bit due to the pressure of the blinds, antes, and just in general getting close to making the money. Think about it. How many times have you seen a player play fairly tight and then get all his chips in with a crap hand like K-8o or A-4o close to the bubble? I have seen it many times in every tournament I play in. The justification is "well, I had to make a move, it was getting late." or "I play to win, not finish in 7th place." What the reality is, is that the pressure of the situation has come into play, just a little bit and it seeps into the subconscious of a player.

    Of course, no one set out to make a bad play. Sometimes when it is right on the bubble, players make a bad call or bad play just to try and put another player out, get past the bubble, and the pressure of being the last player ousted without any money. But, this is the wrong attitude to have if you want to be a winning tournament player. You should be doing anything possible to stay in that tournament until you make the money, I don't care if that includes going to the bathroom and sitting out some hands.

     Let's look at an example. 4 players left in a 9-player SnG. You have a chip stack of $2800, the player to your right has $2000 and the other two players are the big stacks with $6500 and $4800 respectively. Blinds are $200/$100. The action is folded to you in the BB and the short stack pushes you all in. You have A-6o. What should you do?

    Unless you have a strong read on this player, you should fold. If you call and lose you are crippled and may miss the money. This is not a good enough opportunity simply because of the equity you would gain by putting him out. He may be pushing with anything, but he certainly would with any pocket pair (which would put you a slight to big dog) or a better Ace or any 2 paint cards. At this point the blinds are not eating you up, let it go. There will be better opportunites, trust me on that. Especially in this example, because you can probably steal the blinds on the next hand or 2 anyway, so why take the chance here? You would not believe how many players will take chances like this and blow getting into the money just because the pressure of the bubble has gotten too great. You are not going to win every tournament you play. But, once you learn to 'money' in absolutely as many as possible, no excuses, you will be a much better tournament player and will increase your bankroll accordingly.