Although the Zynga game client doesn’t show a representation of this, a real shootout of this type would consist of 81 tables. This is because you need 9 Round 2 tables to have the 9 winners in Round 3. And to have 9 Round 2 tables, you need 81 tables in Round 1, each with only one winner. So to win a Zynga shootout tournament, you must actually place first among 729 poker players (9 times 9 is 81 and 81 times 9 is 729).
Now, for those who need tricks and tips to win these shootouts, first keep in mind that Zynga is a play-money site. This means that the players are very bad compared to real-money play. As a super low-stakes player on real-money sites online, I am still one of the better players in these Zynga shootouts.
To beat a single table of bad players, you need to start with the assumption that Round 1 is going to be an all-in fest in the beginning. This never happens in real-money tournaments, but it is typical to see 5 or so players go all in on the first hand in Round 1 of a Zynga shootout. You may be tempted to get involved in this kind of crazy technique, but I don’t suggest this as a tip except in limited situations.
Now, what is that situation? First of all, if you do this, do it ONLY in Round 1. The players are either better or at least more serious about winning in Rounds 2 and 3 and will likely only call if they have a monster hand. However, if you want to speed up the number of games you can play, then you can use this All In On The First Hand (or second or third hand) strategy in Round 1. But you should limit this to the following hands to give yourself a small mathematical advantage over the average player who uses this all-in technique:
AA/KK/QQ/JJ/TT/AK/AQ/AJ/AT/KQ/KJ/KT/QJ/QT/TJ
Those are the hands that are either big pocket pairs or high connecting cards that could turn into a big straight. In fact, straights are pretty common in this situation simply because so many people are entering the pot, increasing the chances of straights and flushes. It is also helpful in this Zynga shootout all-in tip to have cards of the same suit (both hearts, for example). Of course, that will increase your chances of hitting a flush in this All In On The First Hand strategy.
Now, I am not saying this is a preferred strategy. In fact, just by using my normal poker-playing abilities, I have won 24% of Zynga poker shootouts that I entered over about 6000 hands played. The rate is much higher in Round 1 because the players are so bad.
Over that 6000 or so hands played, I have already made Round 3 7 times, winning one time, placing 2nd twice, 3rd once, 4th twice and 5th one time. This has resulted in 1.3 million chips by Level 26, one of the highest marks I have seen for that level just by looking at my opponents’ total chip counts.
Now, let’s get back to that all-in trick. In a small (not statistically valid but somewhat instructive) sample of All In On The First Hand scenarios (I also include the second or third hand) using only the hole cards above, I won the hand 11 times and lost 14 times. But I still only went on to win 5 of the 11 times I won that all-in hand. In other words, unless you get it all in on the first hand against 4 or 5 opponents and happen to win, it’s really not that much of an advantage (and may even be a disadvantage) to go all in on the first hand even with premium cards only.
To win Zynga poker shootouts, you really only need to know basic SitNGo strategy. Each round is what is called a single-table tournament or SitNGo (STT). The very basic strategy for this is to initially hang back and play only monster hands in the beginning. In fact, this is very valuable on Zynga in the Round 1 SitNGo tables because all the maniacs will knock each other out at the beginning, often leaving you in the Top 3 or 4 after only a few hands.
At that point, you still have roughly your starting stack of 1000 chips. Now, at this point, the game tends to slow down in some cases. allowing you to play smaller pots. And this is where you want to play small pots to try to catch a monster hand on the flop. Just fold your really weak hands like 48, J6, etc. Call and get into pots when you have an AT or better or any pocket pair. You can also play slightly weaker starting hands like KJ and 98 when the table is willing to play a lot of small pots.
Note: Do not follow these tips when playing for real money. What is being described here is for playing against the bad players on Zynga poker. Real-money play is well above this level and requires intensive study of books, training or even the use of coaching to become a winning player. But with a little practice, almost anyone can win Zynga shootouts.
Now, assuming you are getting into some small pots, you are looking to hopefully flop at least one pair. Top pair, two pair and anything higher is usually good enough on Zynga to just push all in at that point. Yes, you will still lose often. But just move on to the next shootout when you get unlucky. However, second pair (ex: you have JT and the board comes KT4) is a hand you could easily be behind in. Try to keep these pots small and win those small pots unless you are forced to go all in due to having a very small stack or an aggressive opponent that keeps raising.
Warning: Although top pair and better is often good enough to get bad players to call, you want to avoid big all-in pots where you have a weak kicker unless your chip stack is so low that you can’t wait to get another hand. A kicker is the second card in your hand that does not pair the board. For example, if you limp into a small pot with 98 and the board comes 974, you could easily be beat by someone with T9. Since that T has your 8 beat, you will generally bust out and lose if all the chips get in because of your weak kicker.
So to keep it simple, you are looking to play big pots when you have at least top pair and a good kicker and smaller pots when you have anything less. To keep the pot small in those situations, just check each street. You can then bet if you get lucky and hit two pair, a straight, a flush, etc.
But if your chip stack gets to be less than about 10 Big Blinds, then you can just go all in if you hit any pair at all. You can see what the Big Blind is by looking at the lower right. For example, if it says 50/100, the Big Blind is 100 and the Small Blind is 50. As these blinds go up, keep track of how many Big Blinds you have in your stack.
For example, if you have 2500 chips, you would have 25 Big Blinds. This is plenty of time to play lots of hands unless the game has become an all-in fest due to hyper-aggressive players. But if your chip stack drifts below 1000 chips, it’s time to get it all in with any decent hand.
There are some things like pot odds and such that real-money players use to place a value on their hands and what size of bets to make. This is essentially meaningless in Zynga Poker shootouts. The strategy is really much simpler - just play small pots when you have something less than top pair and a decent kicker and at least 10 Big Blinds and big pots when you have something better than that or are forced to go all in due to having less than about 10 Big Blinds. Real-money players will be able to read the strategy provided in these Zynga shootout poker tips. But these bad players will generally have no idea what you are doing.
Finally, there are some special considerations when you get heads up with only one opponent. In this situation, you want to keep in mind that you have to call almost every time to play small pots. If your opponent bets the minimum, call even with 72 as long as you two are playing small pots. Virtually any pair is good for betting or even going all in heads up. In fact, you could easily just push all in every time with any Ace or King heads up and often be the favorite to win the hand.
However, when you have a very tight opponent that is only playing super-strong hands like AJ and KQ, then you want to be careful about pushing all in with weaker hands heads up. This is because that player is probably trying to trap you - that is, waiting until he has a monster hand and calling you when you push all in with a hand like QJ. The way to try to gauge (get a read on) your opponent is to play some small pots and see how he is reacting. Try to raise the minimum a few times, as well. This will allow you to see some of your opponent’s hands and figure out his approximate all-in range.
Example: If you follow this strategy, you will often be short stacked. A good way to double up here is to figure out if your opponent will call an all in with weaker hands like JT or even T8. Many of these players get their huge stacks by going all in on the first hand, and they are usually bad players. So you can often just wait around for any Ace or King and push all in. I routinely double up against these players twice and then crush them once I take the chip lead because they call all in with Q7 and other fairly weak hands heads up.
Summary:
1. Avoid those All In On The First Hand situations. These are generally not a good strategy for winning unless you happen to win against 4 or 5 opponents on the first hand. This does not happen often enough to be profitable.
2. Generally speaking, play small pots (checking and making small bets and calling only minimum bets) when you have something less than top pair and a good kicker AND at least 10 Big Blinds.
3. Fold right away when you have less then a premium hand (pocket pairs and Aces and Kings with good kickers) or connecting cards down to about 87 (KQ, QJ, T9, 87, etc). There is no reason to try to get involved with weak hands in Zynga shootout tournaments. Just stick with your good hands. Bluffing doesn’t work all that much because bad players call with bad hands and then get lucky by sucking out on you.
4. When you have less than 10 Big Blinds, it’s time to go all in with any decent hand (like the premium hands and connecting cards described above). However, you could still try to play small pots with 5 to 10 big blinds or so IF you have gotten a read on your opponents and feel that they are prone to folding. This requires a lot of practice, so just get your chips in with any decent hands when you go under 10 Big Blinds until you feel you are good at reading your opponents’ folding and calling tendencies.
5. Finally, regardless of the size of your chip stack, any top pair with a good kicker is typically good enough to get all the chips in in a Zynga Poker Shootout tournament. However, you may wish to keep the pot small until at least the flop to see what comes on the board. If it comes something like 789 or all hearts, those are strong draws that could help your opponents. You can choose to avoid all-in situations in these spots, but you should at least bet to get one or more of your opponents to fold, reducing the chances of allowing one of your opponents to draw out to a monster hand.
Betting about 75 to 100% of the pot is a typical amount to get those players to fold. But be aware that some Zynga players call almost every time. So you want to avoid betting too much when you see a player is simply not going to fold.
Ultimately, your goal is to just about break even in Round 1 and 2 combined and make your big wins in Round 3. Remember that Round 3 has five payout spots ranging from $25,000 to half a million for winning at the time of this writing. Play a little tighter in Round 3 to try to make the money.
In fact, you should get progressively tighter by rounds. Round 1 is a very fast tournament with lots of all-in players. You must loosen up a little and play more all-in hands to win those Round 1 tournaments. Round 2 is a little tighter with slightly better players, and Round 3 is ALMOST like a real-money shootout final table except that there will be some bad players that play too loosely and go all in too often (and more limping into pots with calls instead of raises compared to real-money SitNGo play).
Accordingly, you need to be a little tighter and more selective about going all in or playing large pots as the rounds progress. This is because the other poker players are slightly more likely to have stronger hands in Rounds 2 and 3 when they commit all their chips.
Jimmy Boyd
Founder
WritingShares.com
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