Features/Strategy

This guide is designed to allow any player to consistently beat long-handed sit-and-go tournaments. I will forewarn you though, this will require some strong mental discipline. Eventually, you should be winning 1/3-2/3 of all sit-and-go's. But remember, when I say 2/3 of all sit-and-go's, we are talking over a long period of time (preferably a month). Sometimes you will encounter cold runs of cards that could allow you to lose 5-10 tournaments in a row. This is perfectly normal.

I have a number of non-poker playing friends who continually ask me to teach them the basics of how to play poker which got me thinking about the various mediums potential players can use to learn how to play poker.

We can all agree that there are many skills you need to win consistently at MTTs. Many of us have enough experience to form an opinion on which skill is the most valuable and important. Here are a few skills that I think are extremely important in becoming a top MTT player.

The Zone System was first introduced by Dan Harrington in his highly acclaimed book Harrington on Hold'em, Volume II: The Endgame. The system divides a poker tournament into five different zones based on a player's stack size as compared to the blinds and antes. Each zone will affect your play and correct strategy will vary dramatically as a result. The ratio of your stack compared to the blinds and antes is referred to as your "M." For example: You have $750 in chips and the blinds are $25/$50 with no antes. This means that you have 10 times more than the starting pot and your M is 10.