I feel the need... the need for speed.

Another operation!!! "What's with this guy?" you ask! I dunno. Some nerdy need to blog :)

So I had a BR of about $1k last october and started on an operation to grow my roll. I started off mainly with $1/2 FR LHE and then some SHNL at $50 and later $100NL.
It grew to $4k and $200NL before an almighty colapse. Is around the $2k mark now.

Over the last month or so I've played well, but a few bad results has really irritated me and I realise that at the moment I'm just not enjoying playing as much now.

So I'm making a switch and playing tournaments. I'm withdrawing about half of my remaining roll and am starting afresh a bit.

I'm playing speed SNGs on party (speed mainly because there's more chance of me playing it through before an interruption hits).

My aim is to play 500 SNGs at the $11 level. That's the first step.
My speed history to date is:

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/8145/opstartmn1.jpg

Which I think is a bit deceptive. (Yesterday I fired up 5 SNGs and then my interconnection died and I got blinded out of them. Which is obviously a large portion of this small sample).

Anyway. That's the plan, play 500 of them. I take my starting BR to be $1100 = 100 BI.
If I reach a profit of $1100 I'll move up. But I reckon I'll hit 500 SNGs first.

I'll also be playing some MTTs but while I may post about that, it's not the focus of this op.

Good luck. Cashing out a little is probably a good idea, buy something cool that you can think of when the horrible swings of the turbo sng world makes you want to tear your hair out!

At least I think they're pretty swingy, being a total crapshoot and all.

My advice would be to play around with pokerstove and figure out good ranges to be calling preflop shoves at certain M's (similar to normal SnG's but ranges will probably be a lot looser).

I am really tempted to do this too :) three months in a row of just about breaking even and being kept afloat by bonuses and rb have been a bit depressing, to be honest (though last night I had a really positive session, first in a while).

SNGs offer a different challenge, a more fun one in a way as you get to play lots of different styles of poker rather than simple odds-based grinding. And, of course, it sucks to be sucked out on the bubble, but it can't cost you more than $11 a time :)

So good luck - I think you'll absolutely PWN the $11s, move up to the $22s in a couple of weeks, have a downswing and get all angsty again ;)

Thanks for the encouragement fellas. And I think it'd be cool to see you playing more tournies Biondino. They're fun and you'd pwn :)

My evening session:
SNG 1 Finish 5.
Played some ropey stuff early. Good position. AI TT v33 he sets which decimates my stack, I push short JT and get lucky and then finally get it all-in with KQ v J8 and don't.
Verdict: I'm okay with that :) but gotta watch this KQ post-flop.

SNG 2 Finish 4.
Meh. Didn't really get going here. Lost an AI with JJ v KK and then at the end when I was short I pushed AK v 66 and he quadded up on the flop.
Verdict: Overly slow-played my quads. Otherwise nothing seems terrible.

SNG 3 Finish 6.
Got short, pushed AQ in the CO and lost.
Verdict: Non-event. Perhaps too tight.

SNG 4 Finish 1.
Doubled up early. Built an ok stack and got ITM. Middle stack, got a nice stack with a push Ax v QJ. Pushed again Ax up against AK so lead went.

Called AI with AT v a push from 3rd stack. Lost to AJ.
All but out. Got a nice hand 44 setted to double up. sucked out K8 v K9 to double up again. Went into HU 5k v15k and took it down.

Verdict: Too loose pushes when I won the chip lead. When I calmed down I let 1st eliminate 2nd and then pushed my edge HU.

I think I deserved more from my games today than I got. I was in a good place to finish ITM in 3/4, so to only money in one was a bit sick. Still, it was first and so profit for the day :)
I got a bit lucky as a really short-stack in the last one. But still I think I played better than my opponent HU.

Okay, so learning, learning.

I had my longest OOTM streak so far (13). Hit my ROI considerably.

Some graphs of the story so far:
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6668/80sng11bt5.jpg

Good news: I'm not very good at SNG poker.

Why is that good news? Consider the alternative "I've just lost $100 off my roll and don't know why."

Things that I definitely need to work on:
* Don't chase draws when the blinds grow
* No, really, stop it
* Being 54% in a bubble stack off still means getting paid $0 about half the time.
* First in vigorish is v.v.important.
* "Focus dude, focus"

It seems to me that I'm busting out a whole lot in 4th and 5th. Not playing right at the bubble.
On the other hand, heads-up is going well for me. Ka-ching!

I made a list of my finishes and looked for whether the deciding hand was good or not. there were too many draws, too many calls on the bubble when I should have let it go.
There was also a stack of bad luck (twice PP v lower PP pre-flop, they go on to make quads and eliminate me...) and sadly when I've sucked out it hasn't always lead to money for me.

Anyway. Will keep working on my bubble play and the rest... let's see if I can be a winning player after 500, or whether I'll nee another 500 after that :D

My friend, a quick word of advice:

Do not play SnG's at Party Poker, if you do not wish to experience tremendous downswings.
For whatever reason, the blinds over there are killer. At Turbos', they are three times as killer. And the donks will do what they do best constantly: suck out on you.
1 thing though: You will learn Push/Fold poker pretty quickly while playing these. That's about the only positive thing I can say.
If you wish to play SnG's for proper profit, I'd recommend UB (ten-handed) or FT & PS (nine-handed).

My 2 cents.

Jack: I'm only playing properly on EU sites. So UB, Stars and FT aren't really options other than the odd tourney.

At the moment I'm continuing with my speed $11s even though it's gone a bit bad.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3497/11s129pa1.jpg

There's a good deal of sucking out going on, but then that's not supposed to be a problem long-term.
It may be that turbos are too much of a lottery, but then there are a lot of solid players who manage.

It's a bit disappointing that at this level I'm doing so poorly.

The new plan is to
1) stop mutli-tabling
2) limit myself to 4 SNGs per day, max
3) review thoroughly with SNGWizard etc
4) post on FTR for help and advice with tricky stuff
5) read more

Basically switch focus from play to study for a bit.

why?

Not to your last post but to this whole premise. You already know you don't have that great of an edge in these things and then you decide to play the turbos where your edge is reduced even moreso. You're a ring player, if you are going to play SNG's you want to play the structure that gives you the greatest room to play.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by someone sometime

If you wanna flip coins we can flip coins

---

-that's all you're doing and you're paying the house to do it.

best piece of advice ill ever give u on sngs: PM trikflow

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bigspenda73

why?

Not to your last post but to this whole premise. You already know you don't have that great of an edge in these things and then you decide to play the turbos where your edge is reduced even moreso. You're a ring player, if you are going to play SNG's you want to play the structure that gives you the greatest room to play.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by someone sometime

If you wanna flip coins we can flip coins

---

-that's all you're doing and you're paying the house to do it.

---

It's a valid point. Although I'm not convinced they're quite the crapshoot people claim.

I play turbos for convenience (don't always have the chance to play for too long uninterrupted) but also because I can see that I can improve lots of things in terms of my understanding of ICM, push/fold, bubble and HU play and these things seem valid here.

Well, the 1-table at a time, review more carefully has had good results so far.

8 SNGs since wednesday:
2, 9, 1,7,2,6,5,1

Total luckbox tournament from last night, but SNGWiz seems to like most of the plays where I sucked out... although I'm not 100% that I use that program rightly.
http://www.flopturnriver.com/Online-...ment-1151.html

So it's probably variance. It still seems fairly random at times. But it's nice to see that when I import into SNGWiz there are more ticks than normal; and often now the issues it has is with me folding when it wants a push... but I still have trouble in these any two situations! :)

Maybe this will make me a better LAG in the future :)

Played a bunch of MTTs last night as a "treat" for myself.

I need to define treats better, I reckon.

I played a Partypoints $1.5k to start with and did okay to start, with, but ended up with approx 10BB and pushed QJs in the SB and of course villain had a hand (AK).

Still, not too bad.
I then played a scandinavian-masters sub-qualifier (a speed $1r+a) and played like a complete donk for the first 15 minutes until no one believed anything I did. I then managed to quadruple up as loose call followed loose call.
critical moment came when I got all-in with AK v QT with a similar sized stack, could have put myself in with the chip leaders there, but the river put a straight on the board and we split.
Went downhill from there and in the end pushed stupidly with 5bb on the button with air and got called down.

I played a $15+1 MTT on iPoker, which was going a little poorly from the start. I got it all-in with KK v 44 only for a 4 to flop. I actually got a flush on the river, but unfortunately it was a spade the only spade that could pair the board.... *sigh*

Lastly I played the $15k garunteed on stars (actually pool was $25k). Played for three hours before going out in 198 for a total prize of $17.51 (buy-in $11). $2 an hour... weeeeee

MTTs are okay, but obviously need a better luckbox and more aggression.

Typical, but just sa I got things level it's all gone pear-shaped again.

Played 20 $11s this month, finishes:
10, 7,6,7,2,1,3,6,9,9,3,4,5,6,4,4,10,4,5,5

That 3rd place ten SNGs ago was the only thing stopping this latest downswing being a new OOTM record for me.

Here's a quick review of the seven SNGs I played yesterday.

1) 6th.
Get rockets early, make 400 in chips. Blinds go around a few times until I'm sitting on 2100 for 10.5BB in the BB. Call a push from shorty on the button, he has A5 and I lose half my stack. SNGWiz (still evaluating that one) gives this a warning.
It likes my push with JTo next hand which bust me out.

2) 4th
Doubled up early with TT. Am coasting as clear chip leader with 6 left. Lose a few pots so have about 3k left, blinds hit 200/400 and I make some good calls.
Then we get to situations like: I have 85s in the BB, it's folded to the SB who completes. SNGWiz wants me to push, but I'm too much of a wimp.
Next hand 84o in the SB, folded to me and I fold when I'm supposed to push.
The fact that I never seem able to make these plays is probably a serious leak.
Last hand I'm BB around 4BB stack, so I push Q4o with a caller and a completed SB. SNGWiz wants a "fold" (I guess a check). *sigh*

(NB: I've not set up the ranges at all here, so I could be well misusing this program).

3) 4th
basically checked until blinds reached 200/400 with 6 players left.
SNGWiz gives me lots of check marks,
I finally push AKo in the BB after CO limps and SB folds. CO calls me with his KQ and flops a straight. gg

4) 10th
A hefty raise from EP so I push(!) with AKo. Doh!
He has KK, it finishes badly.

5) 4th
Playing okay with about 2k stack (basically not moved much from start) when we reach 200/400. SNGWiz doesn't like my folding 83o in the SB, (as usual), but many checks for my play.
Hates my push over a shorty who pushed UTG. I have KJ, this is another leak it seems "oooh, high cards, let's call".
SNGWiz calls me on two more SB open-folds and one BB where I failed to call a BTN push with Q8o!!
Last hand I get A4 so push with like 2BB left, villain has AA. G'night.

6) 5th
Bumble along to 5th, stack=1840, Blinds 200/400 (as usual) when I push with 22 in the SB after a UTG limper.
I get called by A2s who flops and A and turns trips. SNGWiz has only checks for me today.

7)5th
Fold my way to a short stack, blinds 200/400, again not pushing some SBs I should.
I push with A9o from the BB over a minraise UTG (SNGWIz says yes).
Villain had AQo and another OOTM finish.

Okay, a long rambling diary post there, but I think I'm looking at the following:

1) Leaving it too long to get going? Still having a 2k a stack when the blinds are 200/400 has to be bad, right? Even if card dead I should make a move or two sooner?

2) Have to know when to push bad hands in good positions (especially when folded to in SB).

3) Have to stop over-valuing face-cards short-handed when the position is NOT right.

4) Have to get my luckbox re-painted. I was due a money finish in a couple of these.

Overall judgement:
I'm holding my own at the $11s. I'm winning my fair share (ITM =30%) so it's the rake that's doing for me. I just need to be a liiiiiitle bit better.... otherwise maybe I'll move down.

Don't you fucking dare move down :)

(hi from Chicago! Email me if yr bored!)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by biondino

Don't you fucking dare move down :)

---

Gah! Bah! Mcah!

Well, had some positive variance today and managed to blow it anyway :S

Nah, was playing ring $50NL and finished up a few BI and just wanted to play a quick session of SNG.

4-tabled, it was going well on all of them and then it gets ropey.

The first I bust out when I have 42 inthe BB, one limper, we see a flop and there's a 4 in it, so I think: meh, that 1k in chips would really be nice, let's go for it.
He has 44 so he ain't folding so I'm out in 6th.

I manage to squeak ITM on the next table thanks to terribly passive big stacks. Next thing I know I'm in second, woo.

I squeaked ITM again, amazingly 4th stack is down to <1bb and is put AI as the BB. He wins heads up and then doubles up again off me in a blind battle. He is then doubled up again by former big-stack donk and suddenly I'm waaaay behind.
Fortunately for me, this guy then busts out one of the donks and I take 3rd.

Okay, so that's $50 from $44 so I'm up. Should be a good night as I'm in 3rd with two small stacks behind me and 2nd has 100 more than me.

UTG shorty pushes for 630 (bb is 600). I am SB with 45s and decide to push back with my 4k stack to get heads up. Only for BB to call.
He has TT, UTG has K8s, I'm like 20% here.

Flop is 568, but I don't hit my gutshot. I would have beaten original raiser but TT takes it down and I bust out in 4th from what should have been easy money.

Okay, it's a majorly stupid move, but one I'd probably often get away with but BB had a hand to call with.
Part of me is berating myself for the stupidest of stupid moves, but the rest of me is wondering how many SNGs it will take to "make up" for that lost, what, $20 at least.

Since my ROI is currenly negative I guess it's when Hell freezes over.

Woah.

Won't be doing that again in a hurry.

Decided to try 8-tabling $11s. Weeee.
Not a great problem poker-wise, but the interface was tricky. Why must pusing be so tricky with the stupid slider bar?

Anyway, made a couple of errors. One calling an all-in where I should have known better (Had KJo in the BB... my typical "oooh shiney high cards" mistake).
I missed a few pushes, but as usualy there was some crappy beats.

Lost what I won yesterday + a little more.

ITM play was horrible.
Flopped two pair just ITM but villain flopped a straight. Busto
AQ v A4, he flops a 4, turns a 4. Busto.

Utterly standard 30% ITM for me, but just all 3rds which sucks much.
I don't know how I go about boosting my ITM to 40%... perhaps it's variance. I know I'm making some key errors still, but I'm far from the worse player at these tables.

I'll keep plugging away for the time being.

Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sauce123

Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.

---

A penny saved is a penny earned?

Get SNG wizard and do the quiz.

I've been working on my push-fold with SNGWiz for a while. But still trying to implement some of it in the heat of battle.

Tonight I gave SNGs a miss in favour of the 10k R+A on Party.

Another "scraped into the money" finish. Made like $16 off 3.5 hours of play :dance:

Still, I can afford another shot some time... surely I should FT one soon :D

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/5395/11s269hb6.jpg

I'm on a good run at $11s speed, but a long way to go to start clawing back the almost $400 I'm down. Meanwhile regular $11s as gone all wrong. Meh.

Still only 250-odd to go, so probably won't go busto.

I've been around the bubble a lot recently and variance seems just horrible. Too many of these tournaments I'm losing and there's nothing wrong with the way I go out. Doesn't seem to matter whether it's turbo or not.

I don't think the number of mistakes I'm making justifies the losses I've suffered, not given the level of opposition. So... let's see where I am come the 500th SNG.

A day in the life of a donk

So here's what for me is a totally standard day. It's just 12 SNGs, but it's basically what's happened over a 250-sng sample so far.

1) $11 reg
Am down to very few chips when a suckout helps me into the money. It's back and forth as pushes run into bigger hands. In the end there's a clear chip 11k, me 5k, shorty 2.4k. I push 66 in the SB and he calls with JJ turning it around.
I catch rockets OTB and decide to flat call because I thought I'd see if I could squeeze some extra value out. Chip leader flops a straight. Fair dos, that's the risk of playing fancy. 3rd place.

2) $6 turbo
First hand, JJ in the BB, two callers. A-on the flop. My c-bet, I call a wussy turn bet but fold to a river push and have lost half my stack.
I claw some back but am blinded out in 6th.

3) $11 turbo
UTG I raise AQ for 3xbb, MP1 pushes all-in. I figure I have to call since I've put in 600 already and it's only 1100 more, against most PPs that's got to be +EV. Unfortunately he has rockets and so I soon go busto off my remaining 2bb stack. 9th

4) $6 turbo
AJ in EP I raise and get called. Here I figure I'm probably up against a better ace or a PP. Flop comes up AJx so I put him all in when he raises me with AK.
River K. Gnight. 9th

5) $11 reg
Doubled up early. Picked up a monster stack later and more or less cruised into the money and HU. Bust other guy without too much stress. 1st.

6) $11 turbo
Bumble along until I double up with KK. Get to the bubble. I have a 5bb stack as does another shorty. I pick up 22 UTG and decide to push (question mark, maybe..).
SB with AK calls and hits, I go out in 4th.

7) $11 reg
In the donkiest move I bet KJ on a T36TJ board not noticing that villain has picked up a runner-runner flush. 9th

8) $11 turbo
Am even with most others. With T4s in the BB I flop TPWK, throw out a 800 bet into 1000. Btn raises to 4100. This should be a warning sign of course. I call like a donk and his limped JJ pay off. 6th.

9) $6 speed
Double up early with rockets. 4 remaining, I'm even stacked with two others. BTN on 2x our stacks pushes from the button and I call in the SB with 88 and he hits his AJs hard and I go out. 4th

10) $11 turbo
I have AKs on a Q43 board with two of my suit, I raise hard and then call when QTo pushes back into me. I am 54% here but lose... them's the breaks. I have 130 chips left but battle back. Come the end I'm on 2.2k chips with blinds of 300/600 so I push from CO with AKs. SB calls with 77 and I bust out. 7th

11) $6 turbo
Find my way into the money. Am in thrid when I push K3o (blinds are 400/800, I have 5bb) he has AT and I finish in 3rd.

12) $11 reg
A long, long game and I'm still only on 1700 when the 100/200 blinds come around.
BTN pushes for 300, SB min raises to 500, I push my AQo for 1700 and get called.
I'm up agaisnt KQ and T9s (so am ahead at least here). Runner-runner flush gives it to T9 (the biggest dog pre-flop) and I bust out in 5th.

I'm not sure if there's any justification for getting out of the way in that last hand. Okay, even with their crap hands I was only 43% to win, but that's 43% to win $3.8k chips, and 70% to win 2.9k chips. So hugely +EV here.


Okay, if you've read this far it probably sounds like a bad beat moan; but if it's bad beats I'll eventually come good, but from my 12-game sample it breaks down like this:

ITM: 1,5,11
Perhaps could have played (1) a little better and yes, with blinds that high floating AA was probably a mistake, although to be honest about 8 times out of 10 I'll win enough chips to give me a much stronger shot at 2nd and maybe challenge more for first... I don't know still.

But basically these three I'm okay with. Get in the money and take it from there, even if at the moment an exagerated number of thirds is taking a mediocre ITM% and making for an appalling ROI.

In with the best: 4, 6(?), 9, 12
I have the best hand when I go out. Either clearly as in AJ v AK getting two-outed or PPs v overs etc.
I may question the wisdom of pushing 22 UTG (6), but there's no denying I was pre-flop favourite.

Obvious push: 10
Open-Pushing AK <10bb, or pushing K3 in the SB seem so standard that even if I run into a technincally better hand I can't fault it.

Questionables: 2,3,7,8
(2) I played horribly in the first hand JJ and never properly recovered.
(3) I fail to appreciate the dangers when he pushes over my raise from UTG. It's perhaps a tough spot, but I'm sure there was a fold here.
(7) Just misplayed a hand and it cost me big.
(8) Walked into a trap by calling an exagerated push with TPWK versus another largish stack.

So there's 5 SNGs that ended when I did the right thing and got busted for it (seems harsh, but it happens a lot). There are 3 that finished ITM and so are less of a concern right now.
Then there are 4 that contain large mistakes. (2) was bad, but (8) was throwing away a strong chance of an ITM finish.

So if I can move the 4 questionables into the more standard bracket will the odds see them come into the ITM column? I mean if I'm losing coin flips on the bubble then I only need a couple more to boost my ITM %. enough to get a positive ROI.

Oh well, 225 odd SNGs to go, see if I can't be playing winning SNGs for at least the last 100.
[/b]

I like starting new months, I just tick "hands since x" in PT and pretend the past mistakes don't exist :)

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/8...ngstartll4.jpg

A nice start. At least I have 9 SNGs before I can possibly be a loser again! :)

This includes yesterday when I had a few whiskeys before playing. Apparently relaxed-to-the-point-of-dozing does not stop me winning the odd SNG :)

I've just discovered that by playing my SNGs on betfred I'm going to be earning bonuses at the same time that equate to $10 per 33 SNGs. Which at the moment equates to about 30% rb. Hmm.

Do I want to play 1500 SNGs on iPoker to clear my bonus? Hmm.

Games aren't too tough neither and I've experimented with their turbos, regulars and double-stack variants.
So far august has been good with 22 SNGs at 40+% ROI. Be nice if it were sustainable.

Well really crawling towards the finish line with this operation now. Mainly because I've been concentrating on my ring play of late.

At the start of my reload my op stood like this:
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/4...treloadqr0.jpg

Not a shining history at all... but still. Could be worse (right? right?).

Since the reboot I've only played 9 tournaments, am slightly up (have cut out turbos on iPoker as I've not done so well there, whereas the regs have gone well).

Recently at least I've noticed when I'm not in a good frame-of-mind to play (often tired, or too many distractions) and quit. But of course that means less play.

My Bankroll at the reload was $220 (i.e. 20 BI), it's now $261. The plan is to try to run to the end of the 500-SNG target (accepting both turbos and regulars).
Hopefully I'll be showing a positive ROI plus bonus for the last 175 or so tournaments. If I fall below 15BI ($165) I'll move down (nooooOOOOOooo) and rebuild because I'm not willing to pump another $400 into learning SNGs.

My ITM is still too low, obv, and I'm concerned that I've got as many 3rds as 2nds and 1sts put together. When I get HU I tend to do well, but often don't get that far; probably because I barely limp past the bubble? Am I crippling myself during the bubble out of fear of not finishing ITM?

I'm not really sure what one checks with SNGs...

just from reading your description of the sngs you played you have some major leaks. If you are playing regulars you need to play REALLLLLY tight early and let some of the donkeys knock each other out. You need to play progressively more aggro as the sng progresses and use correct ICM strat when you get to 12BBs or less. This includes putting ops on calling ranges and estimating your fold eq on the players your pushing against. It is a huge leak to call/spew chips early...ie the jj hand, as you need those chips to use icm to your advantage. This is a very broad dumbed down analysis, but in general these are things you need to take into account when playing.

Just because I like to finish stuff off, I'm declaring this blog/op/thing done :)

My total $10+1 stats (I use HEM now... so no pretty graphics for the grand total) are:

Played: 510
Net: -$57

Which is not as bad as I thought it'd be. But I've given up on Turbos because I suck at those :)

Running okayish in 2009 so far (I don't play so often, just 96 SNGs so far this year).

BTW, in Regs I've played around 240 and profit is $322, which is, again, why I hate turbos.

Yeah, when I was playing SNGs I switched from turbos to normals and crushed. All the reg grinders play the turbos for the "lower ROI but more $ per hr coz they play more!" theory.