3rd place never better!

I have run into a dilemma: this is my SnG poker record for $1 buyin tourneys on crazy poker. Crazy poker pays $1.80 for third, $2.70 for second and $4.50 for first. I know for a fact I play a solid game, I have been at this for over a year, mostly at fun games to get the hang of odds and percents. I have read all the newbie articles and follow them religiously. This is the record I started keeping, I used the $10 no deposit bonus when I started here, I am hoping to get that into the $100's, pay off the 100 raked hands, and eventually graduate to WSEX poker room for some no rake poker . My dream has been shattered by this very strange losing streak. Each of these third place wins i had the big stack of 4000, but when the biggest blinds come around (320/640-640/1280) I am always the first one knocked out ITM for third place. I have tried playing tight, I have tried playing loose, but except for that one day, I have been unable to make it past the stumbling block! Help me out here, I could use some advice on what and what not to do.

$1 buyin levels all the time

12/29/06
3rd
9th
3rd
7th
1st
+$2.60
$16.04

1/1/07
7th
-$1
$15.04

1/2/07
4th
-$1
$14.04

1/11/07
5th
-$1
$13.04

1/12/07
3rd
+$0.80
$13.84

your encountering variance, look that up.

also you arent a solid player either, sooner you understand that you will be open to a world of info.

i see its your first post. Welcome, post hands, get better.

welcome.

you do realize there are only 9 SnG's there, right? this may be pure variance, or maybe you just arent the solid player you think you are. FWIW, i have gone 2/25 before where both of my ITM's were 3rds. this is nothing.

Play more! That's what everyone's gonna tell you. Welcome to FTR

Thanks, all of you.

I am pretty sure it's down to variance now, i know I have solid play because i made it to 100k play chips on Full Tilt with about the same win rate, a little better, used the bankrolling tips to slowly make it up instead of jumping into the 10k tournaments as soon as I had the chips, waited till I had 40k chips to go for the 2k buyins, you all know the drill. To this day I'm not quite clear about what all to do in the final rounds, I'm told to go all in with decent hands with 3 or less people and huge blinds, since technically the whole table is short stacked when it's a blind of 1280 and only 10k chips in the tourny (I play single table SNGs), but so far I haven't gotten many, and when I do, it's just not enough to steal the blinds once or twice. So, what can I do to improve my odds? I believe this is the weakest point in my game, so to improve here would probably add a lot to my EV, and I believe raise my ITM rate over 60% (after all, $1 buyin single table SNGs play just like fun money games).

Originally Posted by egan0000

Thanks, all of you.

I am pretty sure it's down to variance now, i know I have solid play because i made it to 100k play chips on Full Tilt with about the same win rate, a little better, used the bankrolling tips to slowly make it up instead of jumping into the 10k tournaments as soon as I had the chips, waited till I had 40k chips to go for the 2k buyins, you all know the drill. To this day I'm not quite clear about what all to do in the final rounds, I'm told to go all in with decent hands with 3 or less people and huge blinds, since technically the whole table is short stacked when it's a blind of 1280 and only 10k chips in the tourny (I play single table SNGs), but so far I haven't gotten many, and when I do, it's just not enough to steal the blinds once or twice. So, what can I do to improve my odds? I believe this is the weakest point in my game, so to improve here would probably add a lot to my EV, and I believe raise my ITM rate over 60% (after all, $1 buyin single table SNGs play just like fun money games).

I dont mean to sound mean or anything, but play money doesnt mean anything. I tried once and said "NAH". Deposit 100 dollars or so and play some small stakes SnG's. Post some hands and we'll try to help.

Oh and for odds, get an odds calculator and use it. It will eventually become 2nd nature.

Lol, these tables are almost pure fish. I just now had one call all in on J-10s with a respectable stack. These tables DO play just like play money.

play doesnt count at all

trust me, until you actually post a whole bunch of hands and get critisim then it is your ego telling you that you are a solid player.

Hi and welcome to FTR, it's good to have you here. I agree with the other posters, post some hands in the SNG forum and we'll take a look.

I think Slash's suggestion to deposit $100 and play some $3.40 turbos at Pokerstars is a good one. If you're going to learn SNGs then Pokerstars (or maybe FT) is really the only place to be since the games don't dry up as you improve and move up.

Also, I agree with the others about play money. Poker is a game that needs to have something at stake, even it is a $1 buyin. How can you threaten somebody with elimination from a tourney when that entry isn't worth anything?

I agree with the other FTR members that your poor results are down to a small sample size and the fact that you are not as good as you think you are.

Real money is not the same as play money. But you can learn the basics of the game playing with play money. I learnt the basics playing with play money and whenever I would play with my friends I would win because I was more used to the game than they were.
But what you learn playing with play money really is basics. You learn the rules and you get a feeling of what a good hand is. But that's it. When you play for real it's completely different.

Also, you have made $0.4 from $9. that's about a 5% increase. you have made a profit.

Also, you're not as good as you think you are. Everybody has a huge ego at first (I still do). The members here are here to help you and themselves get better. They're not being rude. the same thing happened to me.

You can either leave FTR and never come back or just accept that you're a bad player and that you need to improve a lot. Just keep playing the game and you'll get better and better. Even Phil Ivey was a bad player once upon a time.

You might be a better player than me - but I guarantee you that you're not better than a lot of the members here. Listen to there advice. It will help. You don't have to follow them word by word, but take in what they say

i know I have solid play because i made it to 100k play chips on Full Tilt with about the same win rate,

Wrong!!!!
Play money is completely different.

Best advice I can give for SNG's, is play for 1st and your ITM's will be more of 1's and 2's instead of 3's. Limping into 3rd with a stack of 3BB you will end 3rd 90% of the time.

Cheers.