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Poker sit and gos offer excellent value in comparison to multi table tournaments because they normally pay out to the top 30% of players whereas the multi table tournaments pay out to the top 10%, so it's much easier to make a profit from them. You don't have to schedule your day around them like with multi table tournaments either, you can choose to play whenever you like just by simply sitting down at a table and waiting a few minutes for it to fill up. There is a lot less risk playing Sit & Go's over ring games because the most you can lose is your buyin, allowing you to make a slow and steady stream of profit in a low variance environment.

It's worth doing a poker blinds structure analysis to understand how the STT is likely to be played. Size of starting chip stacks plays a part too, the smaller the stack the less options you have and more aggression you need to employ, the bigger the stack the more skill involved and more intricate post flop play that is likely to occur, bigger stacks favour better players. Therefore it's worth shopping around to find a sit and gothat suits your situation, if you are a strong player look for a game which favours skillful play, if you are weak it's better to find a game where luck plays more of a role in order to offset the skill advantage of the better opponents, with a long term look to transitioning to a more skillful format once you possess the necessary experience.

It is widely accepted that you should have a minumum of 20 to 30 times the size of the buyin, so for a $10+1 game your bankroll should be between $220 and $330, this should be considered as a good rule of thumb for amateur enthusiasts but the bare minumum for a professional poker player who lives off of their income. Infact, a professional may wish to choose a much bigger amount because their exposure to losing streaks is greater, as is the need for a resilient bankroll.

One of the highest level poker books currently on the market, a strong understanding of mathematics is required to get the most out of this book; for those of us that are'nt mathematically blessed, this book will be a struggle, but a fruitful struggle nevertheless. The content is'nt totally reliant on the need to understand the underlying maths behind it; although the authors provide the calculations for all mathematical problems in this book, it's not necessary to fully understand how they reach their results in order to fully understand the concepts behind the math even for topics like bankroll management and expectation; there is plenty of game theory to contend with too, special focus has been given to exploitive and optimal play. It's fair to say this book is a challenging read from all angles, but the serious Hold'em player will be required to read this, if only to keep up with the ever changing face of poker strategy.

This book is heavy going and certainly geared towards intermediate players looking to become more expert in their approach to cash games, rather than tournaments. Although No Limit Hold'em Theory and Practice is'nt marketed as a cash game book, the concepts and strategies discussed indicate that cash game players will benefit the most from reading it. Novice players will definitely find this tough to read, but also hugely beneficial as an eye opener into the mental minefield that will need to be overcome if they are to reach the higher levels of the game. As Sklansky puts it himself "This is not a recipe book. We don't tell you what to do if you have top pair and your opponent bets. We tell you what factors you should consider when you make your decisions. We teach you how excellent players think about the game". Having read this book over and over, I highly recommend using it as a reference book for cash game players at all limits.

For anyone that is serious about tournament poker, these are your bibles. Dan Harrington in conjunction with co-author Bill Robertie have produced the definitive text for Hold'em tournament players; their offering is split into 3 volumes, volume 1 covers basic strateic play suited to the early stages of a tournament, volume 2 deals with the type of play found at the end of poker tournaments and volume 3 brings all the information together using a multitude of worked examples. Despite being produced by 2+2 Publishing who are known for their heavy going poker titles, these books are remarkably easy to read, especially considering the high level subjects they cover at length.

If you search Amazon.com for books with the words "poker" and "win" in their title, you will find 122 publications listed, if you look for books with "poker" and "lose", you find a mere 3 books; one of which is now out of print, another that was written in the 1970's and finally this book. It's fair to say that this book is unique in its method of teaching, the authors have identified 18 of the most common situations or 'leaks' that cause players to lose money in the long term, they provide solutions to help plug up all the leaks in your game. There are no profound revelations or new game theories to digest, just the 18 biggest reasons why people lose at poker.

A book for novice and intermediate players that delivers a large number of key poker concepts in an easy to understand manner. This is the first book written by Daniel Negreanu, so this is the first time we get the opportunity to delve inside the authors' head and find out what strategies this multiple World Series of Poker bracelet winner suggests you employ. There are many books with a similar content, but this one includes more tips and lessons without compromising readability. His book is divided into 50 easy to digest sections, it's incredibly easy to read and is the perfect foundation to build a poker book collection around.

Poker is a game of angles, the more you have on your opponents the better your chances are of beating them. Although the term angling also refers to using borderline illegal tactics, it is understood this article pertains to fair angles that every online player has the opportunity to benefit from.

All pro poker players have angles, in one form or another, over their opponents and this is especially true with online poker; in order to increase your chances of online success at the poker tables it is advisable to create a number of profitable angles to assist you in making easier and more well thought out decisions.
List Of Poker Angles
One of the fundamental rules of profitable poker is to play opponents that are worse than you, this is arguably the biggest angle one can have; if you are in the top 25% best poker players on a site, you should be looking to play the 75% of players who are worse than you. You will lose in the long term by playing opponents who are better than you. Find the fish and then exploit them; a good place to find fish is at the jackpot and bad beat cash tables, where players often play with skewed judgement because of the chance of winning the jackpot / bad beat prize.

Choosing not to play at online cardrooms that only offer poker and looking for sites which have casino and sportsbook clientelle is another angle. A site that only offers poker to its customers is more likely to attract a better quality of player who is more serious about the game than a site which offers casino and sportsbook betting, where you're more likely to find novicy players who are there to gamble and have fun rather than play profitably. We have more about this in How To Choose An Online Poker Room.

Sites which advertise heavily in non poker related areas will attract a higher ratio of novicy type players. Cardrooms that advertise in casino magazines are generally a good place to find weak players, any cardroom that advertises outside of the normal poker channels is a good starting point.

New poker sites that offer large signup bonuses are a good place to find weak players, especially ones that have a big advertising campaign to promote themselves; you are looking for the sites that attract weak players rather than a site which appeals to the 'experienced' poker enthusiasts.

Player note taking in poker is one of the most obvious angles that you can have, yet the majority of online poker players don't even use this feature, despite nearly every cardroom offering this facility. Recording how an opponent played the last time your paths crossed will stand you in good stead the next time you meet, as you will have more information to use to assist your decision making process.

There are two schools of thought over whether it is better to play against known opposition or unknown; playing regulars is good because you have the chance to take advantage of the notes you have made for them; the obvious downside to this is that the players you see regularly are more likely to be above average standard and that's not what we're looking for. Playing with strangers, although we have no notes on them and have most likely never seen them on the site before, we hope that they are below average players and therefore exactly the type of opponent to profit from most easily.

Look for people who like to play on multiple tables/sites and exploit the fact they can't be giving each table their undivided attention, sometimes their attention is divided between 3, 4 or more tables. The downside is that they may be above average players, if you can find a weak multi tabler, that can be a real goldmine, though.

Poker table selection through reading and understanding the lobby is an underrated skill; master this to exploit an angle before you've even sat down, so many people sit down at the first available seat; by spending a few minutes scouring the lobby, you can gain a significant edge, one that is likely to have a big positive effect on your bankroll.

The ability to change sites in search of a juicy game is an often overlooked edge, all it takes is a little spreading of your bankroll over a few sites.

Limit Hold'em lends itself to a small edge for beginners. You are limited by how much you can bet, so fish are protected against making technically incorrect moves like calling all-in with bottom pair when their opponent holds top set. Because the size of the bets are limited, an inexperienced players losing edge is much smaller. Alternately, an experienced player is able to have a much bigger edge over weak opposition in a no limit game because the liabilities are higher.

Straightforward play can be just as useful an angle, too much fancy play can be a bad thing, especially against opponents who are'nt skilled enough to appreciate what you've just done. Against fish, playing solid poker is an angle in itself.

Using the chat facility is an angle, you have the potential to distract or even influence your opponents actions based on something you've typed. This works both ways, it's advisable to turn the chat facility off if you feel it is effecting the quality of your play.

Understanding the mathematics of poker is a huge egde; you will be making more well informed decisions if you understand the underlying mathematical concepts.

A lot of tiny edges add up to one huge edge over your opponents, make sure you afford yourself the same opportunities that your opponents have over you.

The following list of 3rd party poker software is by no means a comprehensive guide to all available poker software, nor is it an endorsement of their reliability. The list provides details of some of the software features for each product.

Poker Office
Texas Holdem graphical software which is capable of tracking your opponents actions, there are icons to help visualise an opponents style of poker play, it can be used to analyse how a certain poker playing style affects profitability, there are numerous filters that can be applied to the statistics to generate all types of useful information such as how much a player defends their blinds, it comes with a built in odds calculator and shows realtime details of opponents mucked cards where possible.

Poker Tracker
Texas Holdem, Omaha Poker , Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo and Razz tracking software, stores and summarises hand history data, tracks your ring game and tournament play across multiple sites, it provides many useful statistics like how many times you raise or see the flop, you can track players by position, session/tournament, hand results or by quality of opposition. There are many add on programs that run in conjunction with Poker Tracker:

Poker Ace
Imports statistics from Poker Tracker and visually represents them on screen as you play, very useful addition.

Sixth Sense
A poker table selection tool that uses collected Poker Tracker data to help you choose the right table for your style of poker play.

Poker Pal
Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud and 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo software which calculates hand odds instantly, provides potential win hand analysis and opponent strength analysis, it also offers unlimited support and upgrades aswell as round the clock customer service.

Poker Edge
Texas Holdem tracking tool for your own statistics, it details when you are playing too loose or tight, it also identifies and categorises your opponents as either loose or tight players based on how many hands they play. The sofware is quite involving initially, requiring the user to provide manual input, but after that the process is mostly automated.

Poker Stove
Texas Hold'em high level utility which makes poker equity calculations using ranges of hands an opponent might hold, or using hand distributions. Claims to use a much more advanced algorithm than other rival poker simulator software products.

Cardplayer.com Odds Calculator
Texas Hold'em and Omaha poker odds calculators, provided for free on the Cardplayer.com website. Users manually enter the hand information into the calculator and recieve the exact poker odds for all hands involved. Reasonably quick and easy to use, despite not being automated.