200 SNG's in two weeks

[nflchad]

So I started this last Sunday, and so it has not gone as well as planned.
Here are my stats through 52 SNG's on party:
Finish % Number
1st 7.7% 4
2nd 9.6% 5
3rd 19.2% 10
4th 5.8% 3
5th 17.3% 9
6th 11.5% 6
7th 11.5% 6
8th 5.8% 3
9th 7.7% 4
10th 3.8% 2

ITM:36.54
ROI: -3.85%

I hit a 15 SNG stretch where I had 2 thirds and the rest were OOTM. I'm fairly sure that a downswing can last this long, otherwise I really suck and need to quit playing SNG's.

It's pretty obvious that playing 5 handed is where I start to fall apart, so does anyone have any suggestions for playing 5-2 handed. I feel like I've been pretty aggressive on the bubble attacking the mid stacks, and avoiding the big and small stacks. I think that because I play so tight in the beginning levels (1-4) I usually have to push or fold, typically with very weak hands on the button or cutoff when trying to steal. I think that having poor opponents hurt me here since they will call with weak hands that will cripple their stack when they don't have to.

Well as usual any advice from you guys on improving my game is much obliged.

[2Tone]

Good for you for taking on this ambitious endeavor. What buy-ins are you playing?

Even $5 SNGs on Party can last a while – you must be logging some serious hours. Are you multi-tabeling? Once you get down to five players, perhaps you need to be focused solely on that table to get a better read on what your opponents are doing.

Also, what’s happening when you reach the final three? Getting a more even distribution between those top three finishes(as opposed to more than half being third place) would make the difference between profit and loss on this. On the majority of those 10 third place finishes, are you going into the final three last in chips? Or are your opponents overtaking you late in the tourney?

[Windbreaker]

By strictly looking at your the places you finish alone, there's too many finishes at the 5-7 spot. 40% of your results are ending in that slot is a lot. I would recommend trying to push more aggressively when it's on the bubble than when there's 6-7 players left. The blinds should be higher when there's 4-5 players left, making it more advantageous to play aggressively allowing for more blind steals.

[Talking Poker]

I don't really have any advice, but I'm impressed that you are doing this and I'm glad to see you posting the results. It's something I've been considering doing (next month), just to see what my numbers end up being. I don't think I'll be able to make as high an hourly rate as I do playing cash games though.

[nflchad]

Tone, I'm 4-tabling the 22's, which I (suprisingly) don't find to be hurting me. The only time I have any trouble is when I manage to make it ITM or on the bubble on all of the tables.

I don't think that I am misplaying a great deal of my hands when I'm on the bubble but I do attempt to push the mid stacks around. When I get three handed I think my problem is that I have trouble switching gears to immediately laying off my pressuring style, and allowing the short stacks to bust in front of me. I think heads up I typically get my money in as a 55% favorite for all my chips, and thats that.

One of the things that is regarded as proper on another board is to just push in if you intend to call or raise more than 35% of your stack. Which late can be most hands that I do elect to play, including steals, I think that I have been fairly unlucky in this regard when running into big hands.

BTW 77 down and my ROI is now 9.8%, and the distribution of my ITM finishes is begining to even out.

Some of the observations I've made while playing:
*100 SNG's is not nearly enough to weed out variance
*22 players love to limp in for a large portion of their stacks
*Overbets in cash games(by fish)=big hands, overbets in SNG's(by fish)=big bluffs (not always but with no other info this is my assumption).
*SNG's on party last 40-55 minutes
*These can be very very profitable
*Downswings suck

[Windbreaker]

Starting my own SNG challenge on Poker Stars as part of the reload. I stictly play two player $10+1SNG's. I have done this in the past with quite a bit of success. So I'll periodically post updates of my results during this reload. My initial plan is to finish the bonus stictly playing 150 SNG's.

Number of SNG's 12
Buy In Total Amount $132
Finished
1 - 2
2 - 1
3 - 2
4
5 - 1
6 - 1
7
8
9 or worse - 5
Total Profit +$138
ROI = 138/132 = 105%
ITM - 5/12 = 41.7%
Remaining SNG's towards Bonus - 138

[Talking Poker]

I'm glad you guys are posting this. I think it's cool....

One question Windbreaker - if you are playing "two player" SNGs, isn't finishing worse than second really, really bad?

How have you been doing, nutbag?

[Windbreaker]

Opps, meant two table SNG's. I like how the chips and blinds move for two table. On one table, the blinds move so slow, that when you end up down to 2 or 3 players, the blinds are so small compared to the stacks that just makes the game drags on for too long. So might as well try to make more money on the 2 table SNG's. The play seems rather poor for it....I have thought about moving up to 20+2, but I don't really want the swings and don't really want to play against 4-5 more solid players. Usually find about half the field in the 10+1 to be rather poor players

[Talking Poker]

Interesting. I typically prefer slower moving blinds, but you make some good points here.

[Windbreaker]

Update

Number of SNG's 29

Buy In Total Amount $319

Finished

1 - 3

2 - 1

3 - 4

4 - 3

5 - 2

6 - 2

7 - 2

8 - 1

9 or worse - 11

Total Profit +$149

ROI = 149/319 = 46.7%

ITM - 11/29 = 37.9%

Remaining SNG's towards Bonus - 121


Some notes to add:

- Winning just one tourney can make up for a lot of bad finishes.
- Expecting to get a bad beat eases the pain when it does happen
- Even though you think people at the 10+1 level can't call your all in during a certain spot, you just won't ever know. (eg. Chip leader ~9000 chips, raises 3x my BB with AJ. I hold QQ with ~8000 chips, I know I'm ahead and push all in - really just wanting him to fold. Yet he still makes the call and I get knocked out 4th)
- I'm getting knocked out in 9th or worse a lot more than I expected. Sometimes it's due to the situations, a few bad decisions, and sometimes just no luck.
- Looking at my own numbers, it looks like I push hard for the win in most situations. The only second place finish I got was when I was about 20-1 down in chips to the eventual winner =P.
- Although 29 SNG's isn't much of a base, I expect more finishes between 1-9 in the future and fewer in the bottom half.

[omahilo]

sounds like your doing well... your doing this on stars right?

I hate stars SNGs, they seem so tight to me... Ive played in $5 1 table SNGs and fought for a hour to get ITM.

so far so good it looks like... keep it going man.

[MAYHEM45]

one word: Turbos.

Love em.