Yet another change in plans
I’ve always been aware the 2+2 forums since I started playing poker, but I’ve never really put much value in what anyone was saying, figuring it was a bunch of elitist “know-it-alls” making fun of anyone posting a bad hand - with a bad layout. And it is. But, it also has some decent information in there, as well as some actual knowledgeable and helpful posters. As well as the home of my dad, Dan Harrington, so how bad could it be?
Throughout this weekend, I’ve been reading as much info on SNG’s as I possibly can. While most of the posts about SNG’s are of the “what should I do with this hand in this spot” nature, there are some really decent posts regarding improving ROI, maximizing $/hour, efficient table selection and multi-tabling. What’s interesting is that there is this whole SNG multi-tabling culture that everyone seems to be a part of there. It is quite common for people to be 10+ tabling even $200 buy-in games. What shocked me though is that for the most part, everyone, good and average players, are all playing on Party Poker.
For those unfamiliar, Party Poker’s SNG structure is vastly different from Poker Stars’. First, you start off with only 800 chips compared to 1500 at Stars. Additionally, the blinds start at 15/30 rather than 10/20 and go up every 10 hands, rather than Stars’ 10 minute blinds. This makes for exceedingly fast games, where skill is much less of a factor. My first reaction to this was, why were all these “pros” wasting their time on Party when they could undoubtedly have a much higher ROI% at Stars, if they indeed are skillful. I searched all over for a direct answer for this, but nothing satisfactory came up. Eventually someone mentioned that Party offers a nice rakeback program, basically giving a % of their rake that they pay back to them, depending on how often they play. Seemed like kind of a weak answer to me. I mean, Stars has a new improved FPP system, which has to compare at least somewhat. What was I missing? Then it hit me. It was posted before, just so subtle I glanced over it. The players are not concerned solely with ROI%, they are first and foremost concerned with $/HOUR – which makes complete sense. Who cares if you are getting a better ROI% when you could be making much more $/hour by simply playing more games? And since the Party games take half as long as Stars games, they can get that many more in, within the same amount of time. And to be honest, time is as important a variable as any, especially if you are trying to grind out a living.
So they’ve all become masters at the late game push or fold strategy. Once the blinds get to a certain level, its push time if you weren’t lucky enough to double up early. They have done extensive calculations as to what hands are +EV to push against your opponents calling range. I know, where’s the skill and fun in that? Well obviously they aren’t that concerned with all that. They are concerned with the only thing that any poker player should be concerned with, $/hour. I can’t believe I missed that.
Now, I’m not abandoning the Stars ship. I’m just too damn comfortable playing there right now. But I am going to give this strategy a go. How do I do that? The answer is turbo games. I’ve never really paid much attention to those blue turbo games at Stars before. I never saw the need for them unless you were short on time and desperate to play a tournament. Other than that, the blinds move up way too fast to make it any more than an all in luckfest. But that is essentially what I want. Since the blinds in turbos are 5 minutes less than the regular games, I can essentially play twice as much in the same amount of time. Yes, I’ll be giving up a little bit of my edge over the field, but that will hopefully be overcome by the increased $/hour. Additionally, you receive more FPP/hour this was as well as slightly less rake % (i.e. $20+2 regular SNG verses $25+2 turbo SNG). I can also probably play more tables as I really am giving up all reads and move ability just to play strictly ABC, mathematically correct push / fold strategy. No reads necessary. Well, not as many. My newly registered PokerAce Hud should help me out with the reads.
So far I’ve ran three trial runs of 22 games total at the $25+2 level. My results so are decent:
1st – 3
2nd – 5
3rd – 2
Total buy in: $600
Total Revenue: $765
ROI%: 27.5
Profit: $165
Total Time: 1.5 hours
$/Hour: $110/hour
The only thing that upsets me is that I fear that I’ll become so dependant on the push or fold strategy that I’ll start using it too much. Using it too much in cash games, other tournaments and live games could really screw me up. Additionally I’ll never really improve my tournament or cash game. It will basically stagnate. Do I want to be stuck in turbo mode just to increase my $/hour? At the moment, I can’t say for sure, since I’ve only played one day. I need to try this for a month or so to get a good understanding of its implications. But I imagine I’ll continue to throw in the odd tournament and cash game here and there to keep myself grounded / sane.
So heres to another experiment. Watch in 2 weeks I’ll be playing at Party… sick.
Throughout this weekend, I’ve been reading as much info on SNG’s as I possibly can. While most of the posts about SNG’s are of the “what should I do with this hand in this spot” nature, there are some really decent posts regarding improving ROI, maximizing $/hour, efficient table selection and multi-tabling. What’s interesting is that there is this whole SNG multi-tabling culture that everyone seems to be a part of there. It is quite common for people to be 10+ tabling even $200 buy-in games. What shocked me though is that for the most part, everyone, good and average players, are all playing on Party Poker.
For those unfamiliar, Party Poker’s SNG structure is vastly different from Poker Stars’. First, you start off with only 800 chips compared to 1500 at Stars. Additionally, the blinds start at 15/30 rather than 10/20 and go up every 10 hands, rather than Stars’ 10 minute blinds. This makes for exceedingly fast games, where skill is much less of a factor. My first reaction to this was, why were all these “pros” wasting their time on Party when they could undoubtedly have a much higher ROI% at Stars, if they indeed are skillful. I searched all over for a direct answer for this, but nothing satisfactory came up. Eventually someone mentioned that Party offers a nice rakeback program, basically giving a % of their rake that they pay back to them, depending on how often they play. Seemed like kind of a weak answer to me. I mean, Stars has a new improved FPP system, which has to compare at least somewhat. What was I missing? Then it hit me. It was posted before, just so subtle I glanced over it. The players are not concerned solely with ROI%, they are first and foremost concerned with $/HOUR – which makes complete sense. Who cares if you are getting a better ROI% when you could be making much more $/hour by simply playing more games? And since the Party games take half as long as Stars games, they can get that many more in, within the same amount of time. And to be honest, time is as important a variable as any, especially if you are trying to grind out a living.
So they’ve all become masters at the late game push or fold strategy. Once the blinds get to a certain level, its push time if you weren’t lucky enough to double up early. They have done extensive calculations as to what hands are +EV to push against your opponents calling range. I know, where’s the skill and fun in that? Well obviously they aren’t that concerned with all that. They are concerned with the only thing that any poker player should be concerned with, $/hour. I can’t believe I missed that.
Now, I’m not abandoning the Stars ship. I’m just too damn comfortable playing there right now. But I am going to give this strategy a go. How do I do that? The answer is turbo games. I’ve never really paid much attention to those blue turbo games at Stars before. I never saw the need for them unless you were short on time and desperate to play a tournament. Other than that, the blinds move up way too fast to make it any more than an all in luckfest. But that is essentially what I want. Since the blinds in turbos are 5 minutes less than the regular games, I can essentially play twice as much in the same amount of time. Yes, I’ll be giving up a little bit of my edge over the field, but that will hopefully be overcome by the increased $/hour. Additionally, you receive more FPP/hour this was as well as slightly less rake % (i.e. $20+2 regular SNG verses $25+2 turbo SNG). I can also probably play more tables as I really am giving up all reads and move ability just to play strictly ABC, mathematically correct push / fold strategy. No reads necessary. Well, not as many. My newly registered PokerAce Hud should help me out with the reads.
So far I’ve ran three trial runs of 22 games total at the $25+2 level. My results so are decent:
1st – 3
2nd – 5
3rd – 2
Total buy in: $600
Total Revenue: $765
ROI%: 27.5
Profit: $165
Total Time: 1.5 hours
$/Hour: $110/hour
The only thing that upsets me is that I fear that I’ll become so dependant on the push or fold strategy that I’ll start using it too much. Using it too much in cash games, other tournaments and live games could really screw me up. Additionally I’ll never really improve my tournament or cash game. It will basically stagnate. Do I want to be stuck in turbo mode just to increase my $/hour? At the moment, I can’t say for sure, since I’ve only played one day. I need to try this for a month or so to get a good understanding of its implications. But I imagine I’ll continue to throw in the odd tournament and cash game here and there to keep myself grounded / sane.
So heres to another experiment. Watch in 2 weeks I’ll be playing at Party… sick.
posted by RikkiDee at 8:35 PM
3 Comments:
Wait... you are saying that your father is "the" Dan Harrington? Author of two incredibly great books on NL Hold'em tournaments?
hehe no, I just refer to him as my dad since he has taught me so much. Never met him.
Yo, why are you so interested in $/Hour? You have an unlimited amount of time; you have no commitments, why bring more luck into the equation. All that a shorter S&G would do is give you fewer chances to catch cards. Although they go faster and you are able to play more hourly do you even play for more then like 3-4 hours? In an S&G with blinds increasing so quickly one misplayed hand cripples you, why would you have to put your self in that position to play flawlessly? Your ROI in regular ones is great and you didn’t you win a deep stack tourney?
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