My strategy for success

Hey everyone

I've just joined the site so I thought I'd post a little bit about myself.

I started playing NLHE SnG about 12 months ago, making an initial investment of $5 on Blue Square ( I already had a sports betting account with them). I just played 0.10c buy in tourneys and freerolls, and within a couple of months I'd built my $5 up to $50. I decided to set myself a target, and I'd read somewhere that for SnGs you should play at a level where you have 30 buy-ins in your BR, so I started with the $1 tables.

My plan was to win enough for 30 buy-ins at the next available buy-in level, and keep going until I reached $100 buy-in tables, at which point I'd withdraw the profits and then play another 30 tables at the same level.

I expected it to take me a couple of years to get to $100 tables, but within about 4 months I've already reached the $20 buy-ins. My ROI has never dropped below 50%, after some levels it's been over 100%.

I feel confident that by Xmas this year I'll have reached the $100 buy-in SnGs, and then I can start reaping the rewards from my hard work.

I've also learnt a lot from Harrington's books, I'm almost at the end of Vol 3 now. It's nice to read something at lunchtime in work, then come home and try it out and see it working!!

Has anyone else worked out a plan like this, and how has it gone? Are you still making regular money from it?

Hai, and welcome to the forums.

Sounds like you have a good idea of strategy and bankroll management, which is great.

Just a word of warning, a 50% ROI is unsustainable - don't expect to be able to maintain this figure no matter how good a player you are. Around a 30% ROI at the micros and 20% at mid-stakes (give or take 5%) are generally considered to be 'plateaus' for long-term ROI. It seems like you're a good player, but you're also running good, so don't let it get to your head too much.

Welcome

It is easy to stick to your own rules when you are winning, but remember when the cold streaks comes this is where it is most important.

Good Luck in achieving your goals

Welly

I don't know if I agree with that. My ROI is over 55% playing $10 and $20 SnGs over the course of 152 sessions, and it's also been consistently above 50%. I know 152 SnGs isn't exactly a gigantic sample, but I'm near certain that it will never fall below 40%.

152 is indeed not a 'gigantic' sample.

It's not even a large sample.

How many would you request I get under my belt in order to disprove your theory?

Here's my stats since 12/2005:

541 SnG's, MTT's, STT's, & HU SnG's played.

-2.85 ROI% (that's negative)

-$102.63 Net Profit (that's also negative)

How's that sample size? Any comments? (I actually thought I was worse. Not far to get back to positive numbers, I guess.)

I'd suggest at least 2k before anyone is almost certain to be within 2-3% of their true ROI 'expectancy'. I'm basing that on nothing more than educated guesswork, though.

Thanks for all the advice and the welcome messages.

I've also got a "don't go broke" strategy. If I drop to halfway between my level requirements, then I drop back down to the next level. For instance, to start playing $10 SnGs, I needed $300 in my BR. If my BR dropped to $225 (halfway back to the $150 requirement for $5 SnGs) I'd drop back to the $5 tables until I'd built it up again to $300. My theory is that working like this it should be almost impossible to go broke.

I've been very strict with myself on this, and it's brought me more success than other methods.

I've also got an account on Spin Palace, I only opened it to play in a Shootout tourney organized by PokerPlayer magazine, and I made the final table and got $50. I decided it was "free money" so I could be a bit reckless with it. After playing in a couple of $20 SnGs I had over $100, so I played a few $50 SnGs. Within a couple of days I had nearly $500 in the account, but managed to blow nearly all of it in the space of a couple of hours. That taught me that I have to be strict with my BR and play within my affordable levels.

It looks like a very nice strategy indeed. Welcome to the site.