LT3: 3rd year SNE 6m Hypers (TLDR in OP)

Originally posted by joeburrows
Any advice for a fellow SnGer?

hey joe,

thanks for reading!

few pointers.

1. as soon as you can afford it buy holdem manager and SNG Wizard, both of these are a MUST for any serious SnG grinder imo.

2. learn ICM and keep practicing. i started out with a learning/playing ratio of about 50/50. as you get more confident in your ICM you can adjust.

3. post trouble hands on the forums! (everyone has different opinions and there is usually never a RIGHT or WRONG answer)

4. try and practice increasing your tables. start with 2 then go for 3 then 4 then 6 etc... find out what set-up works best for you (tiled,cascade,stacked). Ive tried all and i have to say i prefer tiled but, once again, everyone is different.

those are some basic points and if you need any further advice just send me a PM and ill add you on skype, im very approachable and always willing to answer questions.

5k Games!

Recently i hit the 5k lifetime games mark on HEM playing STTs (this includes both normal and turbos). I thought it would be good to see some graphs/stats over my time so far.

Ive made over $4k from these games starting from $50. <3 ps.com

<3

Statistics

Games played: 5066
Avg Buyin: $9.76
Length: 434.3hrs played
Average duration: 30.8min
Winnings: $2456 + $1123 rakeback +bonuses = +~$4000
Rake: $4158
$/hr: $9.21
ROI: 5%
EV$ Adjusted ROI: 6.7%

5k Games Graph

nice work on reaching 5k games dude. Crazy that you've been below EV for 1200 games, best of luck for the next 5k

so ive been pretty busy with RL lately. uni has gone back and im getting stuck into my classes. im on track to fulfill my goals for the month.

someone turned the heat on at FT. ive been running very very nicely so far over the few games ive played.

feels good to finally get the chance to 16 table like ive always aspired to. not only does it feel good to finally get the max tables on FT, but to feel myself playing the best game ive ever played and the cards falling my way as well.

<3

Sick!!

Are you playing in sets or firing up more as you bust/win?

Originally posted by 8979687
Sick!!

Are you playing in sets or firing up more as you bust/win?

sets

Nice score!

I can see on the graph that first 1000 SnGs was pretty hard to go up, wasn't it?

Do you play on stars and FTP?

Great work <3! Keep it up and improving over the next 5k

Originally posted by msliw
I can see on the graph that first 1000 SnGs was pretty hard to go up, wasn't it?

Do you play on stars and FTP?

the first 1k games was mostly $1-$3 sngs where the rake kills your roi, also i was only a beginner and my edge was quite small back then (8 months ago).

i gained most of my BR which allowed me to move up to the $6 games during the early days through bonuses (biggest bonus ever/year end bonus/first deposit bonus).

i play on FTP exclusively.

hey guys,

im still alive and grinding away. im confidently 16 tabling my way through the 12s still. my $/hr has gone up and my ROI hasnt suffered which is nice.

im in a bit of a BE stretch at the moment but i feel like im playing some of my best poker in months. hopefully the month will end with a nice heater.

uni is pretty busy and its nice to still get in 800games/month while playing a lot less than i was during the holidays.

im still rebuilding my BR up to an acceptable level to hit the 24s again. this time im not moving down so i want to have a cusion to keep me up with the big boys!

<3

Hello there,

Glad to hear that everything is going well for you. I cannot really get my head around what 16-tabling would be like. "Hectic and difficult" comes closest to it, I suspect.

But if you can pull it off then it's definitely the way forward.

Sorry I have not been around much lately to engage in any more reviews but I'm having to pace myself had little while my arm gets better.

800 games while being a full-time student sounds fantastic. I guess you must make close enough to 1 dollar per tournament so very nice addition to your pocket money!

Take care buddy,
Tim64

Heaters are always gooood. What was your BR when you first started taking shots on the 24s? I personally begin to think that 100BI is a good BRM for 6s and 11s, but for the higher limits it might actually be insufficient for obvious reasons - more skilled opponents -> higher variance and generally less ROI.

Cheers!

i took my first shot with 100BI but was disheartened when i ran bad and moved down. then i took another shot with 110BI but the same thing happened and it was a worse downer running 6% under EV which is just standard variance.

im building up a solid 175BI BR before i get back into the 24s... the variance is a lot bigger because your edge is about half what it is as a decent reg on the 12s. + the swings can be mentally tougher.

i think 70-80 is great for the micros and 100 probably best for the 12s. but i think i personally need closer to 200 minimum for mid stakes to ensure my survival.

Judging by your posts in the evaluation section you will be tearing up those limits in no time.

well, as I always say, there is no such thing as an ideal bankroll. 50 buy ins would be perfectly sufficient, so long as you were prepared to move down relatively frequently.

I'm sure 200 buy ins would be enough that you never had to move down (i.e. you could last any downswing) but if the reality is that you would always move downafter losing, say, 75 buy ins, then the extra 125 buy ins doesn't necessarily give you any more actual head room.

You have to weigh it up against the potential dis-benefits of failing to move up when you can play profitably at the next limit higher.

for example, 4% return on investment on the $24s earns you more than 8% on the $12s (because of rake back) so I think it's possible to overstate the benefits of staying at lower limits too long.

<3, I just wanted you to be clear that this isn't any criticism of your strategy --I realise that the reason you have stayed down at the $11s is that you wanted to perfect your multi-tabling skills. It's just that I think sometimes there is a kind of inertia that stops us moving up, because we fear the $losses, when in fact the sooner we come to terms with losing big amounts the sooner we put ourselves in a position to win big amounts.

on the other hand, we all have to be comfortable with whatever limit we are playing -- since that promotes quality poker -- which is why bankroll management is such a personal issue.

well said tim, in order for me to play my absolute A game i feel part of my preperation is having a nice cushion in my BR to withstand the swings. getting to 5% on the 24s would be a great achievement and i think with some work i could sustain >5% after a few months. the hardest part about starting a new limit is the first few weeks... setting the adjustments, figuring out the regs and the fish.

im hoping April 2010 will be my last month on the 12s after filling the hole in my BR after upgrading my pc.

poker update: im on the sickest heater of my life. running at 15% for the month and >$30/hr. hopefully i can finish the month off strongly.

<3

Here's hoping. I've a feeling our mutual sweat partner could do with some of yur good fortune...

i offered to put up another bet against him. he seems to run good like that.

ok, ive said it before but ill say it again.

Im always looking for competent/developing mid-stakes players to do some group review sessions over skype/team viewer.

Im also looking to hook up with a few more micro-stakes beginners. This would involve looking over some of your HHs and talking about how to improve your game in the micros as well as general advice on sng poker.

I live in Australia so the time zone differences are often a challenge but I am always happy to help out where ever I can. I really enjoy session reviews just as much as actually playing.

If you are a interested send me a private message and we can hopefully work something out.

<3

Hi, great blog!

I have only recently started playing poker, and I'm playing the $1 SNG tournaments on Pokerstars. However I am finding it really difficult to make any profit, for 3 reasons:

1) The rake is very big
2) I am not such a good player yet (however I would say I have some edge over the average player there)
3) I find it really hard since the quality of the players varies so much- e.g sometimes TPTK is the nuts and they will pay you off for their full stack if they have a weaker kicker, but other times it will be a set and I get busted. Also say I have AKs, raise 4 bb from early position- very often I get about 4 callers, miss on the flop and have to give it up.

I see you have grinded through the lower stakes and was wondering what advice you could give?

Thanks!