While the pros can play the players and win with any two-card starting hand, I would not suggest you do it until you develop the ability. In the meantime, it is crucial you only get in a pot with the best holdem starting hands.

Playing the wrong starting hands is the difference between a winning player and a loser. To help you through the maze of starting hands in holdem is this excellent video. It has great content, but the quality of the picture is lacking. Probably would have made a better podcast.

It would be an understatement to say that Stephen must have position to properly defend against the c-bet. Though it is important that you defend against c-bets, you will still need to fold to them most of the time. Too many defended c-bets will lead to exploitation by opponents the same way that too few will. My rule is 1 out of 5 times.

Stephen Krex says you must first put your opponent on a range before you try to defend against his continuation bet. It’s always possible that he hit the flop hard and is making a legitimate bet. So why should you defend against the c-bet? There are two reasons: one, to prevent your opponent from stealing every pot from you. Secondly, you need to disguise your hands so that it isn’t obvious when you do hit the flop. The 1 out of 5 rule will help with this.

To put your opponent on a range, you need to gather some information on him. Whether you take mental or paper notes or use a program, check out his stats. If he’s a tight player, odds are that he’s got a good hand. Likewise, if he’s a loose player, it is more likely that he’s just making a c-bet. In addition, note his position. A player who raises under the gun or in early position is more likely to have a good hand than one who raises on the button or in the cutoff position.

So if you have determined that your opponent is making a continuation bet and you want to defend, you now have two options: call or raise. Just calling is a good idea against tight players, who are likely to check/fold to you on the turn. Call rarely, as a player who notices your line might fake weakness by checking on the turn and then proceed to re-raise you. Keep in mind what hand you’re representing. Against these tight players consider calling on a flop with an ace or king, because your opponent will likely put on you a pair. If you call on a low board, though, your opponent will probably put you on a draw. This will make it hard to raise on the turn if the “draw” isn’t completed and you will almost certainly be facing another barrel.

Raising is a good option on low boards that aren’t likely to have hit your opponent, like 268, or flops that look like a draw. If you raise a tight opponent on such a board, he may put you on an over pair and fold.

Be careful and remember that defending too often is a mistake.

If defending against the Continuation Bet is what you have been looking for, I suggest you check out Stephen Krex and watch his moves for yourself.

In the case of two time WPT winner Jonathan Little, you start sharing your knowledge and experience with others so that can succeed too.

To that end, Jonathan Little’s has released a poker tool called “Jonathan Little Secrets”. Over the past couple days I have had the chance to try it out and see if I can be the next $4 million winner.

Click here to see the Jonathan Little Secrets website.

Before I reveal my results with this training program I do want to say up front that I have played maybe one hundred online tournaments over the last couple years and have never made it to the final table.

However I’m not all that bad. I usually can make it to the top 1/3 finishers but have just never had the ability to get to the money positions. I could definately need some help in improving my game.

I recently came across the Jonathan Little Secrets training program

I was skeptical at first, but I walked away amazed and impressed.

Jonathan claims he started out grinding it out in small $2-$4 SNG tournaments. he would play 20 tables at a time and would usually play 8-10 hours a day. By following this strategy he claims to have made $500,000 online.

My strategy was a little different. I would also play in $2-$3 SNG's, but now wanting to be overwhelmed, I played only 3-4 tables at a time. I also decided not to play all day with this but to simply play until I won or got knocked out of the 3-4 SNG's I was playing.

The rest of the time I implemented the ideas and strategy I discovered in Jonathan's course.

The results were simply amazing. I showed a profit every day and I made the final table every day!

Jonathan’s training course really does work. On the first day I played in four $3 SNGs. My total cost was $12 and I ended up getting back $15. This profit was made because one of the SNGs was a 9 handed SNG and I took first place and the $15 prize.

The second day I played in two $3 SNGs and a $3 SNG. My total cost that day was $7 and I scored $11 in prize money by making the final table of a 180 player SNG (see the below video of me winning 8th place).

As you see I was able to grind out small profits playing online SNGs just like Jonathan did when he first started out. Now I know those profits are small but I was averaging $1 profit per SNG. Now imagine playing 100 of those a day = $100 a day profit.

Once the bankroll grows (and Jonathan will even tell you how to manage that) I will move up to bigger SNGs and increase my daily profits.

Now if I can do this course and win than anyone can do this and become a winner. Go here now and watch the free video and signup for the rest of the training. There is a money back guarantee if you are not happy so it’s really a no brainer.

Click here to see the Jonathan Little Secrets website.

The problem with playing the same types of hands the same way over and over again is that it makes it very easy for opponents to know how to play against you. Compound this with the note-taking tools built into just about every online site and very soon you’ll find yourself targeted by every alert opponent that likes to pay attention to how others play. Now this isn’t to say that you need to open up your hand selection to dangerous levels, but you may want to try and mix things up a little.

One of the easiest ways to get caught as a robotic player is to auto-check every time you miss a flop and then click on the “fold to any bet” box. What this tells other players is that you are only going to invest time in a hand where you flopped strong and want to play. Now all of a sudden if you raise out of nowhere, everyone at the table is going to know that you have a monster hand since up until that point you let the computer do all the work for you.

Predictability also allows you to get bullied very easily, which is something that advanced SNG players love to do. If you limp pre-flop, check on the flop and then fold to any bet, this is another major sign of weakness that will result in players betting into you even if they themselves don’t have a hand. The same goes with only betting/raising with top five premium hands like AA and KK. If every time you raise you end of up showing down a huge pocket pair, once again the rest of the table will know to stay away from you when you raise, killing your action, and then bet into you when you limp and check, effectively putting pressure on you the whole match.

The solution is to find as many ways as possible to mix it up. Make raises in late position if the action was checked around to you pre-flop and then put out a continuation bet on the flop. Maybe limp with a big hand in middle position with the hope that you can show it down on the river and prove to players that you won’t always play a hand the same way twice. Typically the only ways to change up your play is to get more aggressive, as defensive plays tend to put you more at risk as the hand progress. If you find yourself with a big chip lead in a SNG, take the opportunity to get involved in pots with hands you wouldn’t always play. Again, you don’t need your opponents to know whether or not you’re a good/bad player, you just don’t want them to be able to quickly identify how weak/strong you are in any given situation. Sometimes it only requires you to make a few plays outside of your comfort zone in order for this effect to be accomplished.

A combination of good hand selection, maximizing chip extraction and mixing up your play is about as solid as any SNG specialist can hope to play.