Changing of the guard
You know that multi-tabling sit&go thing I was doing a while ago? Well I stopped doing it because it was fucking with my cash game style. I was getting too wild and careless, and decided that it was my “tournament” brain interfering with my regular, conservative safe ring game play. Not sure if that theory is true, but I was losing and needed some kind of excuse. Since I stopped I did notice a decrease in losses, otherwise known as an increase in winnings. Of course that could just be some statistical coincidence.
Anyways, what was the point of this post? I sort of drifted off there…
Oh yea, so even though I had been doing better in cash games, the tournament bug that I thought I had fumigated out of my brain was actually only burrowed, and it found it’s way out when the dust had cleared. Late at night I found myself playing multiple sit&go’s, despite what I had told myself about doing it. It’s just too fun, and I actually turn profits by doing it. So I decided, why not try that for a while?
For statistical evidence, I’ve played 243 sit&go’s since November 10th. I have an average return on investment of approximately 1.51. Meaning for every dollar invested, I get 1.51 in return. Nothing spectacular, but I suspect that those numbers are a bit off, since I’ve been lazy tracking tournament results, as well as I feel I’ve improved a great deal since I started multi-tabling. The last 3 days I’ve gained end day profits of +$200, which is above my goal. I’ve been playing 6 – 9 person sit&go’s, total buy in of $165 (a mix of $20 and $30 games). I truly think my game is as efficient as it can be for playing 6 at once. Clearly I can’t put any really good reads on people, but as simple as it sounds, if you play good cards, you will do well. I basically just play the statistics. This is going to sound extremely basic, but if you raise with a statistically superior hand, in the long run, your play will show a profit. Take those Sklansky and Harrington starting hand charts and memorize them. They will play the game for you in these quick sit&go’s. The early game is where the only real skill is. Once the blinds get to around 50/100, there will be at least one if not two or three short stacks just pushing or folding. That will include you as well, don’t get down if you are under $1000 in chips with the blinds at 50/100, there is nothing you can do sometimes when you get down, its inevitable. Anyways, I am really rambling here, but what I’m saying is that the strong hands play the game for me, and I don’t need to concentrate as much on what my opponents are doing.
Hope that made sense, I don’t think it did.
Anyways, I realized something pretty significant about the difference of playing ring or tournaments for income. With ring games, you are always at the mercy of losing your buy in. There is no “fixed amount” you can lose. You could loose 1-5 buyins in a day without doing anything really incorrect (alternatively you could also win those buyins, but lets ignore that to make my distinction more credible). By playing multi tournaments, you are putting in a fixed amount of cash, and playing for a fixed amount of time. And if my calculated ROI is anywhere near accurate, I should show a profit over time. I guess it’s a way of stabilizing no limit poker.
Additionally, I enjoy playing tournaments more. My goal with this whole “playing poker for a living” experiment was to make a living without working. It’s debatable that playing poker could be considered “work” by any classical definition, but playing ring cash games was truly starting to feel like work sometimes. I wasn’t really enjoying myself, and perhaps, not doing as well because of it. There is no sense of accomplishment with ring games, well, other than the cash you win, which is important to some selfish people I suppose, but with me it is more about the game. I am a purist. Ok if you read that without throwing up and are still with me, what I mean is that in ring games, there is no start, no finish. The only highs and lows you feel are from winning and losing money, but it truly is only long ass session with no end in sight. With tourneys, especially sit&go’s, you get to win something. Coming first is especially invigorating. And for some reason, losing one sit&go isn’t as bad as some of the pain I’ve felt when losing a massive pot in a ring game. Even if someone makes a ridiculously bad play that knocks me out, the pain is mitigated by two things. One, the fact that I’m playing 5 other tourneys, and two, the loss of one hand is only representative of one tourney buyin, which is trivial really. The only real disadvantage of playing tourneys over ring games, is I lose that respect from my fellow poker brethren who grind it out in cash games every day. Barry Greenstein would be so disappointed in me. Oh yea, I don’t give two shits about what he thinks. He can say that shit to my face before I consider him.
Umm yea.
So, as long as I continue showing profits, I’ll be multi-tabling sit&go’s until the well is dry. I know with every other blog posting I change my mind on what strategy I’m going to take to make a living, but that’s why this is an experiment. I’m allowed to change it up.
Anyways, what was the point of this post? I sort of drifted off there…
Oh yea, so even though I had been doing better in cash games, the tournament bug that I thought I had fumigated out of my brain was actually only burrowed, and it found it’s way out when the dust had cleared. Late at night I found myself playing multiple sit&go’s, despite what I had told myself about doing it. It’s just too fun, and I actually turn profits by doing it. So I decided, why not try that for a while?
For statistical evidence, I’ve played 243 sit&go’s since November 10th. I have an average return on investment of approximately 1.51. Meaning for every dollar invested, I get 1.51 in return. Nothing spectacular, but I suspect that those numbers are a bit off, since I’ve been lazy tracking tournament results, as well as I feel I’ve improved a great deal since I started multi-tabling. The last 3 days I’ve gained end day profits of +$200, which is above my goal. I’ve been playing 6 – 9 person sit&go’s, total buy in of $165 (a mix of $20 and $30 games). I truly think my game is as efficient as it can be for playing 6 at once. Clearly I can’t put any really good reads on people, but as simple as it sounds, if you play good cards, you will do well. I basically just play the statistics. This is going to sound extremely basic, but if you raise with a statistically superior hand, in the long run, your play will show a profit. Take those Sklansky and Harrington starting hand charts and memorize them. They will play the game for you in these quick sit&go’s. The early game is where the only real skill is. Once the blinds get to around 50/100, there will be at least one if not two or three short stacks just pushing or folding. That will include you as well, don’t get down if you are under $1000 in chips with the blinds at 50/100, there is nothing you can do sometimes when you get down, its inevitable. Anyways, I am really rambling here, but what I’m saying is that the strong hands play the game for me, and I don’t need to concentrate as much on what my opponents are doing.
Hope that made sense, I don’t think it did.
Anyways, I realized something pretty significant about the difference of playing ring or tournaments for income. With ring games, you are always at the mercy of losing your buy in. There is no “fixed amount” you can lose. You could loose 1-5 buyins in a day without doing anything really incorrect (alternatively you could also win those buyins, but lets ignore that to make my distinction more credible). By playing multi tournaments, you are putting in a fixed amount of cash, and playing for a fixed amount of time. And if my calculated ROI is anywhere near accurate, I should show a profit over time. I guess it’s a way of stabilizing no limit poker.
Additionally, I enjoy playing tournaments more. My goal with this whole “playing poker for a living” experiment was to make a living without working. It’s debatable that playing poker could be considered “work” by any classical definition, but playing ring cash games was truly starting to feel like work sometimes. I wasn’t really enjoying myself, and perhaps, not doing as well because of it. There is no sense of accomplishment with ring games, well, other than the cash you win, which is important to some selfish people I suppose, but with me it is more about the game. I am a purist. Ok if you read that without throwing up and are still with me, what I mean is that in ring games, there is no start, no finish. The only highs and lows you feel are from winning and losing money, but it truly is only long ass session with no end in sight. With tourneys, especially sit&go’s, you get to win something. Coming first is especially invigorating. And for some reason, losing one sit&go isn’t as bad as some of the pain I’ve felt when losing a massive pot in a ring game. Even if someone makes a ridiculously bad play that knocks me out, the pain is mitigated by two things. One, the fact that I’m playing 5 other tourneys, and two, the loss of one hand is only representative of one tourney buyin, which is trivial really. The only real disadvantage of playing tourneys over ring games, is I lose that respect from my fellow poker brethren who grind it out in cash games every day. Barry Greenstein would be so disappointed in me. Oh yea, I don’t give two shits about what he thinks. He can say that shit to my face before I consider him.
Umm yea.
So, as long as I continue showing profits, I’ll be multi-tabling sit&go’s until the well is dry. I know with every other blog posting I change my mind on what strategy I’m going to take to make a living, but that’s why this is an experiment. I’m allowed to change it up.
posted by RikkiDee at 11:08 PM
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