Poker Sit and Go Report: Elephants and Monkeys are Dangerous in

There are several good tools to use when playing online sit and go tournaments to use in profiling your opponents. Hold'em Indicator and Poker Prophecy come to mind as top rated software that work across the board on all sites. Knowing your opponent and his playing style often is the difference between making the money, or not. As a sit and go specialist, making the money consistently is a full time endeavor to be sure, made even harder by two types of players I call Elephants and Monkeys.

Your software can help you identify these players, so too can you notate their tendencies if you play on Full Tilt utilizing their color coding system. I code Elephants in GREEN, which means they are very loose players - loose/passive to be more accurate. They rarely raise, but they rarely fold too. I don't often try to take any players off their hand early, especially true, if I don't even have them profiled. Tip: this is yet another reason to sit and watch in the early rounds! An elephant is friendly and wants to be in many hands with friends. He will limp from any position, and often plays any two suited cards, and ace-anything. The bad thing about those hands, other than losing money is that they win once in awhile too, often to much stronger starting hands that create large pots for the elephant, allowing him to hang around and be friendly longer than expected. You cannot bluff an elephant. They can't read well, and don't respond to aggression, so your bluffs are pretty much useless against them, your weapon is patience and building a pot at the right time.

Monkeys are quite much the same profile as elephants except they are even worse in that they understand the game even less. At least elephants know what a winning hand is, where monkeys may have to be shown who had the winning hand, what the high flush was, or even that a flush beats a straight. They are not necessarily new to the game, just untrainable. In fact, they are sub-human poker players. You might be able to put an elephant on a flush draw, good luck trying to put a monkey on a hand. Again, setting these players up with your value hands is key, while avoiding aggression - you will need the best hand at the river so if you can't get there reasonably cheap - save your chips for another confrontation. I use the PURPLE color to know I have played monkey before.

Hold'em Indicator is a poker calculator I use in my sit and go games, and it helps in identifying these players because it also collects statistics on your opponents when you are playing. I find that aspect of it very handy, and have used it to avoid certain players, while making moves on others. I have a video presentation of this strategy in my free video series and you are welcome to it. In the meantime, try and spot the elephant at your sit and go table before you get involved in a hand.