Still searching for that elusive first "1st Place"

Well, I played a $10+$1 at Paradise last night. Played very tight early and took the chip lead with 4 remaining. One guy just would not die. He was down to 45 chips, won 4 consectutive all-ins with 1-3 callers and got up to 1100 chips before busting out on his 5th all-in. I think he became enamored with his all-in luck up to that point and pushed it one too many times.

Down to 3 and the short stack pushed all-in. I called with pocket 3's and flopped quads to take him out. Down to me and the other guy who was now the chip leader (roughly 6000 chips to 4000 chips). Tried increasing my aggressiveness ala Rippy and couldn't catch much or steal many blinds from this guy. We traded blinds for a while until it was about 6500/3500 in his favor. The blinds by the way were 250/500 at this point.

Then I get dealt AA. Well, I tried the old philosophy of slow-playing a monster when it's down to head's up play. Unfortunately, I ended up with all of my chips in the pot and he called holding 34o only to have a 3 and a 4 show up on the board. Mad

I had the perfect opportunity to win my first SNG and blew it. Oh well, it was still $30 and I will keep on plugging away. Rolling Eyes

On a side note, I, like Rippy, am not doing all that well in this, my second go-around with Paradise. I'm thinking that I will just stick to SNG's (Paradise calls them "minis") until I either lose my remaining $35 that I have in there or build the old bankroll back up.

I'm only placing ITM in about 29% of my SNG's since I started online. Albeit, I have played only 38 total SNG's since I started in January. 6 second places and 5 third places. I started out playing the $5 SNG's but have moved up to the $10's. Same rake, twice the payout, slightly better play but not nearly enough to make that big of a difference.

The majority of my SNG's played (23) have been at Ultimate Bet (their $5 SNG's only have a $.50 rake so that's where I started out playing SNG's). I've played 8 SNG's at Party Poker, 4 at Empire Poker and 3 at Paradise Poker.

I've had some rough stretches. After placing ITM in 5 of my first 8 SNG's, I then went on a stretch where I placed in only 1 of my next FIFTEEN (that lone win came almost smack in the middle of those 15 so I had lost 8 straight, placed, and then lost 6 more in a row).

I have been primarily a ring game player but I would definitely like to play more SNG's if I can become more consistent in them. I enjoy them but I definitely have some work to do to improve in them. I'll keep you all posted on my progress (hopefully Rolling Eyes

) for anyone who cares.

I hear you man. I usually play a SNG every morning before I start off my days chores. (Pregnent wife demands attention at night. Wink

) And placed 4th (10+1 SNG). So I play another. 4th again. Finally won the thing on my third attempt. So if my math's correct. All that effort for a measly $17 bucks profit. Granted I'm still in the black, but I like to top three the first game and call it a day. Today it felt like slave labor.

I play mostly Party SNG's. I feel they are the easiest for consistently making the money. I am by no stretch of the imagination a poker master, but I seem to make the most money playing this particular type of tourney. Today was a good example of my faith in the badness of the players there. I followed the same strategy each time, and won it the third time out. Both 4th place finishes were the result of the two short stacks going head to head. I lost both.

So for this week. Out of the the 7 SNG's I've played. I've been ITM 5 times ( 1st twice, 2nd once, 3rd twice). I think that helps my play too. I'm just looking for money, not 1st place. So I play more relaxed.

There have been many different stategies posted on the net about how to beat SNG's. Some better than others. The one thing that is always the foundation of each though is to avoid early action, and let as many maniacs pick each other off as you can afford.

The best money is to be made in the middle rounds. Some say 50/100 blinds. I feel the 25/50 level is the place to rack up. The point either way is that in the first two or three levels, even a 4xbb bet won't scare many people off at party. They'll chase it down to their demise. So unless you have premium hands, why risk it? If you have slightly more than your starting stack when the 25/50 hits, you're in great shape.

It's too bad you can't post other forums links here. Because there is one place that has what I believe is the definitive strategy for SNG's. That plus some of my own playing style is helping me do well at SNG's. I don't have a huge bankroll, but it's also been a good long while since I've deposited any money. (I should have never remarried, Razz

Wife and Kid= No Poker Money)

Ha! Ain't that the truth!

Yeah, I like playing the SNG's but I guess I just haven't played enough of them to really get into a groove. I love the ring games and I have done fairly well at them which is probably why I haven't devoted as much time to SNG's.

I too try to play pretty tightly in the early rounds and loosen up in the middle rounds. I'll just keep plugging away and see what happens!

keep at it jm - i truly believe that a good ring player can be a good SNG player, and vica versa (i'm actually playing ring again and winning).

fyrfytr has some good advice - and i would add play a little looser (draws) when the BB is still 15 and 30, but don't invest too much. ideally, you hit a big hand early, and one of the bozo all-in gamblers has been slowplaying (or hits) a big pair, and you can double up.

i'll keep my mouth shut about the bubble - cough i'm bubble boy cough - but once you're in the money, become a terror. either raise huge (if you're the small stack of the last three, this pretty much means all-in) or fold. at this point, the play isn't very subtle.

i think you're just seeing the bad side of your variance. it'll get better.

Thanks for the encouragement fish!

Well, I played another $10+$1 at Paradise and placed ITM again. Although this time I went out 3rd. Still, that's 2 consecutive ITM (2nd and 3rd) so I am not complaining. I know I will win one eventually. It would be nice to turn at least a couple of the 2nd's and 3rd's into 1st's.

I have decided to just play $10+$1 SNG's with the remainder of my money in Paradise until I can either build up the bankroll enough to begin cashing some out or I bust. After my recent bad run at Paradise (Rippy I know you can identify Crying or Very sad

) I got my bankroll on their site down to $16 which is when I decided to just use it up playing SNG's. I'm now at $44 after my 2nd ($30) and 3rd ($20) place finishes. So, we'll see how it goes from here.

I have most of my total bankroll still in Party and Gaming Club and am just playing ring games at both of those sites. As I mentioned in another post somewhere, I also have a marginal amount of my bankroll in InterPoker since they offer the recurring monthly Bonus ($30-$50/month - They tell you at the beginning of each month how much the monthly Bonus will be) when you've reached your 300th hand played of the month (I haven't gotten a firm answer as to whether it's 300 "raked" hands played or just 300 "total" hands played but I would assume that it's raked hands. However, they told me I had X amount of hands played for the month and it seemed to be my total hands played so I am unsure. I have an e-mail into them for clarification.)

Here's to keeping the ITM's coming! Shocked

Keep at it bro! I finally got my 1st place win last night in a 20 + 2 sng. I played pretty tight and then when I got to be chip leader I used some stuff I learned here. But.. I'm still very green. If you want to tear my hands apart I posted my hands in the beginner forum under too many tourneys for beginners

Oddly enough, when I first signed up at Paradise,... All I played with the mini-tournaments or SNGs (someone tell me what SNG means?) I'd play the $20+1 or +2 I don't know... but it was the $20 to get in.. 10 players... 100-75-25 payout i believe... and I would take first place ALOT... and if not I would definately be in 2nd.. Lately, though, it seems as though I just finish in or out of the money in these types of tournaments. I get the feeling that if you play in one type of game too long or too often,... that the cards simply stop comming (or comming as often) which is why i like to mix-up my play. I recently played in a $30 SNG (haven't played one is at least a month) and finished 3rd... which paid for my Multi-Table tournament $30 entry..

I think i've stopped making sense. LOL.. but in any case, i think as for being a part of an online poker community-- we need to be versatile and mix up our play.. Sometimes just NOT PLAYING for a couple of days I think is the most important. Gives your brain a rest and also (in my paranoid big brother mind) lets the servers/poker software see that "hey, this guy hasn't played in a while, we better give him some decent action so he comes back and spends more money"...

I find if I play multiple days in a row--- either due to my game not being as sharp...( from playing too much) or.... because i've been playing too much-- i'm experiencing more of the ups and downs over a longer period of time and for whatever reason-- after longer streaks/runs... the bad streaks seem to make themselves much more prevalent.

again, not sure if i'm making sense Smile

sng means sit and go or whatever the site decides to call the single table tournaments

Well, I finally got the ""SNG 1st Place" monkey off my back! Saturday night... I have $44 left in my Paradise bankroll (built up from $16 with a 2nd and a 3rd in two $10+$1 SNG's). I decide to play another $10+$1. I do horribly. No cards. Bad decisions on my part when I do get good cards. I bust out 6th. Evil or Very Mad

At this point I'm not happy (although I had no one to blame for my bad showing in that SNG but myself). I break my own ban on Paradise NL ring game play and sit down at a $25 NL table. I promptly pick right up where I left off at the Paradise NL ring games and lose $20 in about 30 minutes. Evil or Very Mad

Now my Paradise bankroll is down to $13.83 and I'm not feeling good about my game or Paradise. I figure I'll play one last $10+$1 and if I don't place in the money in that one (and I was not feeling any confidence at all at this point) I would take my last $2.83 and go to the $2 NL tables that Paradise has and blow it there.

I start up the $10+$1. Playing very tight early on. Cards are not running terribly cold but I'm being very selective about what I decide to play as I know I should early one. Players get down to 6 and I'm right about at the starting chip count with 1150 (starting SNG chip count at Paradise is 1000).

I start to open it up a little more. Catching some good cards, pllaying the hands I do play aggressively, stealing some blinds. Slowly building up my chips to about 6500 with 3 of us remaining so I have a nice lead over 2nd place (2500) and 3rd place (1000). Unfirtunately 2nd place busts out 3rd place and now where looking at me with 6500 and 2nd place with 3500. 2nd place has been very tight all game and has not shown any tendency to open up his game as it became more and more short-handed. I had been able to buy pots from him by PFR. However, I took a big hit on one particular hand and all of the sudden our chip counts were reveresed (he had 6500 and I was at 3500) and I'm thinking, "Oh no, here we go again." After a few hands of not catching anything on the flop and not being able to buy a pot from him (he hadn't changed his play he was just catching part of the board now) I was down to about 2000 chips with the blinds at 250/500. I have KJ of hearts. I PFR he calls. The board comes AJrag (one heart). I go all-in with a piece of the board and only 1000 chips left. he turns over A5o Crying or Very sad

. Well, I catch runner, runner hearts to take that pot and now I'm back in the game. It was pretty much mine from that point on. The blinds increased to 500/1000 shortly thereafter and they eventually ate him up.

Man, did it feel good to finally win one of those damn SNG's. Took me 41 tries (my god that sucks) but I finally won one. $50 for 1st palce and my Paradise bankroll sits at $52.83.

EVERTIME I THINK I'M OUT, THEY PULL ME BACK IN!

"No Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament Summary for table "Island Harbour"
$100 Prize Pool, $10 Buy-In, $1 Fee, 10 players

Tournament started 2004/07/10 @ 22:15:05 (CST) -- Game #539,632,283

1st: jmrogers7, $50 prize awarded (Level IX, Game #3) ***
2nd: jambmx, $30 prize awarded (Level IX, Game #3)
3rd: Stillwaterb, $20 prize awarded (Level VII, Game #6)

4th: shmengy1 (Level VII, Game #1)
5th: vegasmom (Level V, Game #10)
6th: butterbean33 (Level V, Game #6)
7th: Muckmeister (Level V, Game #6)
8th: $Mati$ (Level IV, Game #3)
9th: collettaz (Level IV, Game #1)
10th: firegisha (Level I, Game #4)

Available account balance before payout: $2.83
Prize payout: $50
Available account balance after payout: $52.83

Tournament finished 2004/07/10 @ 23:18:34 (CST) -- Game #539,676,836"

good job, jm! mr 1st place!

there is definitely money to made in SNG land.

ahh sweet may more 1st places come.. (stays away from Paradise I'm not one of your cattle to slaughter Wink

)

Crazy stuff, man. I go 40 straight SNG's without ever placing first, and now I've won 2 consecutive $10+$1 SNG's. I don't feel that I played this last one particularly well (I've posted the hand history of the tourney for critique in the "Hand History" forum) but I will take it.

For some reason, I seem to do better at the SnG's at Paradise vs. Party, although I have has some small success at both so far (lots of room for improvement though...I just become a total maniac when it gets shorthanded and eventually someone catches on. I've been chip leader 2-3 times in the final three only to bust out in 3rd Confused

).

One thing I like about Paradise is time. You have longer to set up a trap for the weaker players, because the blinds start smaller (5/10 vs. 10/15) and the stacks are bigger (1000 vs. 800). I find that too often in the Party Poker SnGs if I catch terrible cards before I know it the blinds are 50/100 and I'm at like 700 chips without having played a decent hand, and now it's time to play the "all-in" game (which doesn't feel like playing poker, and isn't fun). When I'm in a hurry I do prefer the faster Party Poker pacing though.

I don't see that having 700 chips equates to the all in game, I like to steal a few blinds, chip leaders are still afraid of 4bb raises, as long as you don't do it too regularly. I see the all in level at about 200-300 when the blinds are at 50. I'm happy going into the final 3 with a fairly short stack though.

Anytime I raise, it's usually for at least 3 times the big blind. Anytime I'm going in for almost half of my chips, I'm going to put them all in. Once the blinds are that high, it's rare that I will limp in with anything. So yeah, a 600-700 stack with blinds of 100 is all-in time IMO.

i'm really liking the Poker Stars turbo sng's - you start with 1500 but the blinds go up every 5 minutes.

nice format.

Just had to share this as it may be a long long time before this happens again. Had played several games with seeing only JJ on who knows how many hands......sitting in a SNG with 6 players left... dealt AcAs all-in before the flop with one caller ...took him out as he couldnt match,...on the very next hand was dealt AsAh.....i figured the odds on this as 48,841:1 of getting two AA hands dealt in a row...wow....needless to say went all in two callers one all-in and the other a significant part of his stack....AA held up took out another....and severely wounded another....what a rush....to have this powerhouse hand twice in row. The other players could not have figured me for this.

just had to tell someone....

Poker Forum

Join Our Poker Community!

Poker Forum Index

Multi-Table Tourney Tactics

Still searching for that elusive first "1st Place"