Updated Beriac 100 SNG Poker Challenge

The challenge: Play 100 'Stars SNGs at the $20+2 level, non-turbo, full table.

The objective: Achieve an ITM% that allows for a positive ROI% with an eye toward good bubble play in the form of low 4th place %.

I've updated my challenge because after some great discussions with ChuckTs and others, while I believe the turbos have merit I also believe that they do less to improve my game and their results are less a function of my skills -- to the extent that I have any.

Off we go!

Oh, and please note: questions, comments, critiques, suggestions, etc are all most welcome.

Beriac

Okay, so I spent most of the evening starting this thing out. A big reason for that is that I struggled early as I adapted my game to the non-turbo style and the level of play at the $20+2, but eventually I got the hang of it and things turned around (my ROI was negative until the very last game in this sequence). Unlike with the turbos, I found my success/failure was a consequence of my own good/bad play and improvement here was at least partly because I was playing a better game. I found the level of play was quite good and in some cases very sophisticated at this level, which was fun, but there were still just enough maniacs to make it worthwhile $-wise.

I will start putting my general comments and stats at the top and game by game comments below. All in all, I'm pretty happy with my start, more because of the improvement I showed as I went on. I'm really sticking to basic Harrington here, for the most part.

Note: This session also reflects a reversal of another habit I had with the turbos, which was to get worse as I played for longer, which I think had to do with me going on semi-tilt at the random beats you get (by definition, some of those beats will be bad!).

Stats!
Games: 14
ITM: 42.9%
ROI: 12.1%
4th: 7.1%

Pretty good start. Not blockbuster, but this is my first foray into the 20's on a regular basis.

Comments (note: I know these are long. I wanted to include them in full the first time, but I promise I will make them shorter as we go on.)

- Game #1: 5th of 9. Very slow going which is a nice change of pace, 2 maniacs are out in the first 5 minutes then no one for the next half hour, I don't play many hands at all and try my first steal at Level 4 (successful), second one 2 hands later (successful), then beautifully I pick up AKo the next hand so I get called and flop a K and pick up the pot but not my rep has changed so I have to hang back again, win a legitimate hand an orbit later, then try to steal and get re-raised all in (fold), then the very next hand I try to raise from the button with 55 and get re-raised all-in by BOTH the SB and BB (fold) -- they had KK and AQ, an orbit later again I raise and get re-raised all-in by 2 people (77 and KJ) -- this is starting to hurt!, finally after another set of blinds I am forced to go all-in with 33 and I lose to 66-turned-straight... I lost, but at least it was because of my decisions as much as the cards! Less: I think I played that one a little too passively, and some of my raises should have been pushes toward the end.
- Game #2: 9th of 9. Lost in 9th here when my AJs turned into a pair of aces and flush draw on the flop, AQ went all-in on a fairly large pot and I called… loose call?
- Game #3: 7th of 9. I am finding the play a lot tighter than the turbos but there are some real "fish" here, lost in 7th when my QT SB with flop 36T lost to KT from the big stack who I erroneously thought was bullying
- Game #4: 5th of 9. Didn't get much early and kind of ground down to 5-way, AJ beat by the big stack's 88
- Game #5: 4th of 9. Win a few small pots to get me to 4-handed where the scrapping begins, finally the big stack traps me with a made straight on the turn (to my middle pair and inside straight draw) to bubble me out
- Game #6: 1st of 9. Late in the game we're still 8-handed, and a fairly aggressive player with a short stack raises on my SB so I put him all in with 88 -- he calls with AJ and hits his J on the flop (I am thinking… naturally!) but I missed the 8 that also came on the flop, immediately after someone goes all-in while I hold AA to add to my chip lead, I turn away for 2 seconds and someone has eliminated 3 people to take over the lead (fine with me!), key hand: I min-raise to get rid of the blinds with A9 and get 1 caller (the other big stack) resulting in a A98 flop bet raise re-raise all-in call he shows AJ and my 2 pair holds to make me the leader, heads up I'm tempted to go re-raise all-in with JJ but don't and am thankful when I fold after a AQ9 comes up on the flop
- Game #7: 7th of 9. Chase with an average hand early and am punished for it with a big raise on the river, double up with AK over AQ, get blinded for awhile, finish with a TERRIBLE play where I re-raise all-in someone who I see multi-tabling who has raised from the SB over my BB 3 times in 4 rounds with trash that loses easily to his overpair
- Game #8: 6th of 9. Won a strange hand early off a guy with 77 who kept betting while there were 2 overcards on the board 1 of which I had paired, whoa the the exact same thing happens the following hand (I am writing this guy's name down), another pot comes from AKs + QKQA board but I bet half the pot and get a fold, AA doesn't do much for me as the preflop caller/raisers fold, we're down to 6-handed and I'm over-stealing now cause I'm getting re-raised here, #$%^$ mis-click puts me all-in with 82o @#$@#$@
- Game #9: 9th of 9. VERY FIRST HAND I limp with 33 flop Q83, check all around, I bet the pot, 1 caller, A falls, I bet the pot again, call, now a 2 -- no flush possibility, I bet the pot again, he raises all-in, I'm getting like 10:1 at this point so it's an insta-call... 88... he just reeeeeeeled me in
- Game #10: 3rd of 9. First hand I limp with 55 hit my trips and take top pair top kicker all-in for his whole stack, big stack has been insane and raising all-in (why?) over and over so I call with 99 and beat his AK to take the lead
- Game #11: 3rd of 9. Play seems to be getting a lot weaker, I am winning pots here against passive players calling with questionable hands, lose a bunch of chips to a maniac small stack that had me dominated AK to A9 and am the small stack out of 4, make a questionable all-in call on the river with 3 diamonds showing but my broadway straight holds up to beat top pair 3-kicker (?), entered final 3 in 3rd and that's where my AK got beat by 77 (fair enough considering the next game)
- Game #12: 2nd of 9. Getting NO hands down to Level 5 5-handed, double up on Ax, further grinded down until my 77 holds up against AK despite a K on the flop (thank you "riverstars") then bust the same dude with KK next hand, dance around 3-handed forever til the big stack takes out #3 but by then no cards and no chips equals a gamble and 2nd place
- Game #13: 3rd of 9. I speculate a little too much early on and am punished for it with a reduced stack, we get down to 5 and I double through AK with 88, then this thing called "pot odds" loses me a bunch of chips as I chase a barely profitable straight/trips draw, KK does nothing for me 5-handed, down to 4 some passive players allow me to catch a straight on the river cheap, patience gets me to 3-way, which is how the story ends
- Game #14: 1st of 9. 9x bet (re-raising 3x the bet of a 3x blind re-raiser) on level 1 with QQ scares no one and I lose some chips folding after 3 people follow me to the flop and find a K, a few good hands allow me to raise all-in and collect blinds as they rise, suckout straight knocks out 4th place and puts me ITM... this game went the longest of any SNG I have ever played, 150 hands and nearly 90 minutes, but I had a blast with the other final 2 who were funny in addition to good players... icing on the cake is that I won it

Thoughts welcome!

Cheers
Beriac

Sweet... My session last night not only earned me a Poker Stars t-shirt, but unlocked my re-load bonus too! Score!

I am thinking I will maybe pick up a hat or something, and then start saving for something big.

Looking pretty good! As a suggestion, maybe you could add % of 1st place finishes in your stats section? I can see why you have 4th place, but I'd have to say that 1st is a very important stat as well, for obvious reasons. Along with others, I'm sure, I'll be checking up on your progress and wishing you good luck.

Beriac, why don't you use some of your FPPs to satellite into other tournaments? I've had some success doing the 100FPP and 400FPP satellites (pay 1 in 10 - just unregister if you qualify), and turned 375 FPP into 215 T$ back in February.

The hat is cool...but money's even nicer!

combuboom: Great idea. Done.

BKrywko1: Maybe. I used to play Titan, and I had accumulated a lot of Titan points, and I found that using them for tourney entries just wasn't that lucrative. You ended up in these massive tourneys where the number of entrants didn't affect the prizes and the return on time was just too low. I'm getting the hat for a lark, after that I'll save for something more cash-like. Maybe a STT for $1,000 with one of the champs or something (this will take months).

Beriac, just a quick question. Do you have an ROI for some of the ring games you played to get an idea of if it's more profitable to your BR to play ring or sng??

The results speak for themselves. I think my early and head's up play is okay, but the mid-levels are killin' me. When to steal and when to push-steal are skills I need to work on. And I'm doing that, but the variance in the mean-time is too much. So, alas, I must step down a level. While I think the switch to non-turbo was a good one so I'll stick with that, I think a trip to the $10+1 tables will (a) reduce the quality of my competition so increase my ROI in the mean-time and (b) give me more time to master the mid-level without doing too much bankroll damage.

But, this is not starting over. I'm going to carry-over all of the stats from my current experiment, except adjusted down as if they were $10+1 games so as not to affect my weighted average twice as much.

That said, here is the last update before the switch-over to $10+1. Be warned: it's not pretty.

Stats
# Games: 26
%ITM: 26.9%
ROI: -33.8%
1st: 7.7%
4th: 7.7%

Game comments
- 2nd. First hand I limp with A4s, flop T93 w/2 clubs, free turn is Q-of-not-clubs, gotta pay for the river but with 2 other players I have odds and it's Q-clubs - bet, 1 guy folds, raise, re-raise, re-raise all-in, call, my nut flush beats trip queens (was quite afraid of a boat here). Same dude next hand goes all-in post-flop with middle pair vs. high pair and sucks out! 3 left! NEXT hand my BB is 85o and I flop a straight and take half his stack. I finally put him out of his misery with K5o and am heads up.
- 5th. I'm trying to play Harrington here so when someone raised 5x BB before me from early position in the first orbit, I folded my JJ, then tried not to feel too bad about the J on the flop. Some solid players at my table, but also some wackos. I have an average stack at 5-handed, and the stealing begins. Re-raised all-in defending my BB with KJ and got busted by A6.
- 8th. My nut flush on the turn lost to a flopped full house. Nuff said.
- 7th. My first good hand comes 29 hands in, an AK, which splits the pot with another AK. My next good hand comes 3 full orbits later, 44, and I am busted by QQ.
- 7th. Finished in 7th after my KK busted by AA which was unnecessarily assisted by an AA3 flop.
- 7th. Made a bad call mid-level and got my top pair dominated by top 2 pair. Another bad call with A9 on a short-stack later didn't hurt since that was his hand also. All in with AK steals some blinds. All in with AK 2 hands later steals some more blinds. That elicits a call when I go all in with QQ, by an AK that catches an A on the river. Out.
- 5th. Double up right away when 66 calls my AQ all-in despite a Q73 rainbow board. Lost quite a bit of it many hands later with AQ-turned-straight-draw-turned-garbage.
- 5th. Double up right away when QQ calls my paired AK on the flop all-in. Play a great hand 5-handed where my AK doesn't hit but the short stack is betting and I put him on unhit lower cards, am right, but the one card that's left pairs him. Then I get knocked out by quad 8s over my overpair.
- 4th. Bubbled after winning a big hand early, being grinded down for quite awhile, and finally resorting to pushing and losing A7 to 88.
- 5th. Really struggled in this one, didn't win so much as hand, got down to 5-handed with a short stack, fought desperately to survive, doubled up on KJ vs. K9. Then how about this hand: all-in pre-flop AQ vs. 22, flop contains a Q and a 2, sure enough a river Q comes to save me... nope - that's a full-house for villain. Out.
- 6th. Late game pre-flop all-in with TT busted by KQ on the river.
- 6th. No hands, grinded down, a few successful steals, K9 busted by A2.

Yuck.

The comeback begins.

Note: Anyone with thoughts on reasons other than variance for the above suckage, especially with respect to mid-level play, please chime in.

Please note: yes I am starting to make my game notes shorter.

Sounds like you've had a tough run of cards. I'm sure you'll get back on track. Good luck!

Yeah, no worries. Variance is variance, and I am adjusting my game where able. I've never learned this much so fast before, this is a great process.

So lately I've realized that table selection is not just important in ring games, but in SNGs too. You can't judge the table yet unless you happen to know the players who are signing up, but you can choose from the myriad of types of games available.

ChuckTs, a few others, and I had some great discussions about the merits and disadvantages of turbos, and after a lot of thought and some experimentation I realized that the convenience and speed of turbos did not make up for the more erratic play, larger random component, and sometimes lesser learning experience.

ChuckTs also seems to have a penchant for the short table, though, which I'd played on Titan awhile back but I hadn't really tried since I started learning poker seriously. Anyway, I agreed with him that it's hard to get a read on 8-9 poker players at once only to have 3-4 of them disappear before you even really start playing, and after I tried a few 6-max SNGs I decided I quite liked them. It also partially made up for the loss of speed from switching to non-turbos.

Finally, on this message board and others, people have espoused the fishiness of players of Party Poker. While I enjoy the features and quality of player at Pokerstars, my goal right now is to build a bankroll by playing many SNGs, so I am looking for relatively winnable games.

I found Party to have a lot of loose/aggressive, loose/passive, and generally low quality players, but in the 10-player game I almost have to sit out for a half hour to avoid facing all-in bets from yahoos who might either have gotten lucky with their hole cards and drawn AA or decided that now is the time to make their stand with J5o. Meanwhile, the $20+2 6-max was just a little too high quality for me to start making money right away before I adjust to the format -- eg, you'd still have all 6 people left with 100/200 blinds.

I've learned a lot about SNG selection, which is great, but now it's time to buckle down and master a type. With all that in mind, I eventually settled on the 6-max $10+1 at Party. I'm re-starting my count for consistency, but I'll do it in this thread rather than starting a new one as I think there are probably some lessons to be learned in my experiences so far.

Well, I've had another hot start, but this time it's not just the numbers telling me things are going well, but the texture of the games as well. In these 6-max SNGs, I am having a lot of success being extremely-tight/aggressive early on. I raise big with huge hands (top 5, maybe top 10 depending on position) and take an all-in pre-flop with AA or KK, a little less if I have a read. I limp with suited connectors and pockets and try to break someone if the flop hits me hard.

Once we're down to 3-4 if the blinds are low I basically employ the same strategy, but once they're up to 100-200 I start to aggressively steal, especially down to 3-handed. It's very profitable: people seem to fold over 50% of the time to a 2-2.5x raise, only seldom to they re-raise forcing a fold, and much of the time a continuation bet wins me the pot post-flop.

Finally, once in the money, if the blinds are 200-400 or greater at this point (chip stacks will average 6,000), my typical strategy is to raise aggressively on any above average hand and call all-in re-raises with a top 30% hand (using Harrington's list). I think most people are too passive head's up and by the time my opponent realizes I haven't actually been dealt AA 5 times in a row and calls me all-in, I've stolen enough pots to be a large favourite and at that point I'm perfectly happy to take the flip.

Here are results from my first 8. I'm very happy with them, but obviously these numbers are coming way, way down real, real soon.

Stats
Games: 8
ITM: 75%
ROI: 100%
1st: 25%
3rd: 25% (basically 2 x 1st, 4 x 2nd, 2 x 3rd, and nothing else)

Game commentary
- 2/9. Pretty straight-forward match to head's up, I apply an aggressive strategy and end up all-in with K8 vs. J6 but he pairs the 6.
- 3/9. Basically get grinded down to nothing, I survive to 3rd place but I'm too passive and consequently have to make my stand without the benefit of good cards!
- 3/9. More of the same. I need to be more aggressive around with 3-4 remaining.
- 2/9. Patience and then some good hands get me to 2nd, where my aggressive head's up strategy appears to be working until I push with A8 and lose to AJ.
- 1/9. My good hands early on happen to coincide with the maniacs' desire to go all-in with nothing, and in a very strange last hand I win with quad aces but the board was 3AAAA, with my TT beating his 95 on the kicker side. To think I would have lost to J2!
- 2/9. By far the longest one yet, things go back and forth once we're down to 4 players forever, but the other players remain too passive when the blinds get obscenely large and I take advantage. QJ loses to 33 then AK loses to JT for the 2nd place finish.
- 2/9. You'd think pocket jacks were a good thing in against an aggressive head's up opponent, but you'd change your mind when their ace pairs up then trips up on the board.
- 1/9. Holy cow! AA in the pocket, 862 rainbow on the flop, bet/raise/re-raise/all-in, my opponent shows QTo, turn T, river Q. Unreal! Stack cut in half. I very politely asked the gentleman about the play, and he replied "well good cards weren't working for me today, so I thought I'd give this a try". My reply: if you're on time for your bus but it leaves early, do you arrive late for it the next day just to see what happens? I claw my way back to 2nd and win the head's up match.

Cheers,
Beriac

A question: ChuckTs, you seem the be the master of the 6-max (I'm sure several others are also highly proficient, but ChuckTs is the guy I know of who strongly prefers playing them and does quite well).

What's your strategy for approaching a 6-max as opposed to a full table SNG? Early game, mid-game (3-4 players, level 4-5 blinds), head's up?

Same question for anyone else with some experiences to share in this format!

Note: I accidentally marked my results above as being X/9 when they were in reality 6-game SNGs. Forgot to switch it in my spreadsheet. The should all read X/6.

I'm still pretty happy with my performance here and I feel that with some more experience, a little help, some reading, some thinking, and a more developed strategy, I can beat this particular game. Quite profitable so far.

Lessons: I need to work on my bubble game, not least in the case where I made a bad draw call out of spite. But out of 18 games, I have finished worse than 3rd twice.

Stats
Games: 18
ITM: 56%
ROI: 43%
1st: 17%
3rd: 33%

Game by game
- 5/6. I learn the hard way for the zillionth time that without help from the board, AKs is just ace high, as I call an all-in by a seemingly desperate short stack who actually is holding KK. My overly zealous comeback attempt is swiftly dispatched by a superior hand.
- 2/6. I do a little too much speculative chasing early here, it can really add up. Eventually my suited connector flops a nut straight and suddenly limp speculation seems like a great idea. I get no cards and my opponents are hyper-aggressive so I am too hesitant to steal and my chipstack
- 3/6. Quiz time: What would you need to hold in order to call an all-in bet on a medium-sized pot with a board of Q6789 (3 diamonds)? Well, one guy went all in and 2 others called it, while meanwhile I am sitting here with the AJ of diamonds and happily knock all 3 people out with the nuts. Some bad luck evens things out 3-handed. The fellow to my right goes all in 3 hands in a row when our M's are all in the range of ~6, finally I've had enough and call with A4 and lose to his 77.
- 3/6. Not much of interest here. I got beat by a better kicker toward the end, not sure what I could have done differently.
- 6/6. My worst performance. With about half a starting chip stack in the pot, I call an all-in bet with 2 cards to come and a draw to the nut flush. Here's the result: raiser was on a semi-bluff, with 2 low unpaired cards and nothing but a gutshot straight draw... which he hits! Ouch. Lesson: no need to take that much risk early? Well, at least my read was good, I had this note written about the raiser: "hyper aggressive, 2 huge overbets so far, probably a bluffer".
- 1/6. I think 3 people busted out when I sneezed or something. At this point I'm behind but the other 2 are fairly passive so I catch up the old fashioned way. Dumb move of the day: I am drawing to a 9-K straight (and flush, but I miss the flush), anyway I hit my straight on the turn but on the river the board completes its own 9-K straight. I figure we're in for a split so when villain checks it to me, I throw in a big raise (which is usually EV+ when the board is the nuts cause sometimes villain will fold incorrectly). Of course he just had to have an ace, which he called me with. Anyway, heads up I'm hyper aggressive, and eventually my all-in pocket pair gets called by 1 overcard.
- 2/6. I turned quad 9s pretty early and took a big chunk of several stacks, but I think somehow this made the other players afraid of me and a min-raise would garner 5 insta-folds. Oh my goodness I just hit quad 9s again. What are the odds? Anyway heads up I'm all in with KT against Q8 and there's no suspense as he hits his flush on the flop.
- 3/6. I feel like a donk as I get AA my first TWO hands, yet end up with 60% of my original stack (first hand I couldn't shake a flush drawer though I guess I gave him only slightly unfavourable odds, second hand no one would even call my pre-flop raise). I did something pretty dumb here, as I probably could have slid into 2nd place but I was getting pissed at the obnoxious chipleader and bet into him unnecessarily with an up and down straight draw, which he called with low pair and busted me. Actually it was really stupid. Really, really stupid. Lesson learned. I think.
- 2/6. In this game I get aces early and play them properly, just about doubling up. Hang on to heads up, but need too many coin tosses to take down the chipleader and don't get 'em.
- 3/6. Tried a check-raise when I flopped trip 2's but villain just checked to the turn, then called my bet and went all-in on the river when the 3rd heart fell. I felt like a jackass but at least I had the will not to call out of curiousity. Sneak into 3-handed with a tiny stack. Lasted awhile and made some headway pushing, but I didn't win the flip when I needed it.

Looking good, Beriac!

I'm not really familiar with 6-player SnGs. Would you mind telling me, does it pay 1st-3rd or only 1st and 2nd, and what are the payouts?

Good question. It's a very different dynamic. The 6-max games at Party pay 1st and 2nd place (or 1/3 of participants, the same as 9-player SNGs and comparable to 10-player). Interestingly, though, they pay 60%/40%. This means that bubble play is quite a bit different, as 80% of the prize pool is essentially given to the surviving 2 players, who then fight for just 20%. In that sense, it does not pay to be too aggressive when on the bubble until the blinds are high and you're doing it to survive.

I'm still getting my head around how to properly adapt my SNG strategy to 6-max, but so far a similar strategy seems to work as for full tables.

ChuckTs is the expert, he'd probably have something to say.

A string of 4 bad SNG results, but I was pretty happy with my play so I'm okay with calling them a cold streak for now.

Stats
Games: 22
ITM: 45.5%
ROI: 15.5%
1st place: 13.6%
3rd place: 40.9%

Comments
- 5/6. I bust another player right away when he calls down my KK with top pair queens. Interesting hand where I'm in against a short stack (eventually all-in) with top pair kings, but he traps me pretty well with trips (smooth calling, taking his time, etc). I lose a bunch of my chips when I fold to my opponent's all-in on the river with a hand of 88 and a board of 422K6, and I wonder if I made a bad fold here, as villain seemed aggressive, but he had called several big raises from me before raising me all-in. Finally with an M of 4 I make my move with A6 but get busted by QQ.
- 3/6. I have to fold my JJ after a K and 3 spades on the flop. Next hand I raise on AT in position and get re-raised all-in, further diminishing my chip stack. I try to make some back with AA but don't get much action. AA doesn't do it, but 84o almost doubles me up with a board of AA832 and a loose/passive villain. I get no hands and the blinds grind me down, finally I make me move 5-handed on the button with A6o, get called by AQo, hit my 6 on the flop but lose to an eventual flush. Oh well! When you don't get cards in the mid-game, can you play aggressively anyway?
- 3/6. Duel it out for awhile 3-handed, I re-raise with AQo by a reasonably loose player, get re-raised all-in, call, it's JJ, A on the flop, 4th club on the river, he has the 5th, game over.
- 3/6. Note to the guy on my left: call large bets on the river when you have top pair no kicker in the presence of 4-card flush and open-ended straight draws on the board at your own risk. Noting my streak of 3rd place finishes as a result of my aggressive bubble play, I try passive, which leads to simply more desperate bubble play later on when my stack dwindles.

3 bubble finishes! Partly that's the way the cookie crumbles, but I wonder if I need to shore up my bubble play. Then again, my 4th+5th+6th place finishes combine at 13.6% and my ROI is positive, so I must be doing something right.

The ones at titan are 1st/2nd with payouts at 70/30...I'm pretty surprised the ones you play are 60/40 Beriac - I've never heard of that.

VERY nice! Keep up the good work, Beriac
That bubble's a bitch...I've found myself victim of it too often as of late - don't let it get to you. It's often just a case of bad luck, but IMO the way we both play (tight aggressive early, loose aggressive late) that's the best place to bust if there ever was any. I mean you don't want to gamble and lose early, and you don't want to lose in the HU match and end up with the short end of the stick. I think it's just like MTTs - you go for the gusto - it's no dinky play at the bubble just to hit money, you play to win. It's either go for first, or bust trying to, and the bubble seems to be the most common place for that when you do bust.

lol hardly a master, those are just the ones I play most.
I can't really compare them to how I play full table, because I'm actually more used to the s/h ones.

I basically judge how loose I'm playing by how big the blinds are getting. At 5/10 and 10/20 I'm only raising with premium hands, and maybe the odd steal if I sense weakness.
When it hits 30/60 and 50/100, this is when usually there are 1 or more people who have busted, and It's down to 5 handed or shorter, so I really start to utilize my tight-agg. image and steal blinds (which are getting very valueable now - 90, 150 or 300 for one uncontested PF raise).
When they get bigger than that (100/200 and 150/300), there should be at most 3 people left, or else it is an irregular game. This is when I start pounding the small stacks with my bigger stack, or start pushing like crazy with my small stack if the other guys are upstacked on me.

When it gets heads up, I'm usually raising with any face card, or even without depending on how passive OP is. H2H is a whole different animal - I'm sure you know that. I'm basically raising %75 of my buttons, and just trying to overpower my opponent.

That's how I play anyways.

Harrington on Holdem II gave me a whole new light on heads up play. Harrington first goes through some basic precepts (you almost always have odds to call, betting when you miss the flop, what to raise/call raises with, etc), then a lengthy play-by-play on an Ivey/D'Agostino heads up match. It really improved my play, more so than any other single chapter of a book ever has! I recommend.

To your other comment, I double checked and indeed, for a $10+1 6-max SNG on Party, the payout is $36 for 1st and $24 for 2nd. According to a SNG strategy piece I once read by Howard Lederer, you base your bubble play on the prize distribution. If it's something like 70/30 as you say, then 60% is awarded to the final 2, who then fight for 1st and the remaining 40%. I can see your aggressive-or-bust strategy working well here. But in a 60/40, they give away 80% to the final 2, who then fight over table scraps (20%). Here, it would seem like a let-someone-else-do-the-busting strategy would work, no?

Of course, I've found it depends on 3 factors: stack sizes, blinds, and your opponents.

(1) All other things equal, if I have a big stack or a little stack, I will be aggressive. In the first case because I can be, in the second because I have to. If I have a medium stack I am more likely to hang back a bit. Also, if there is a very small stack among the other 2, I am more likely to hang back and wait for cards or let the small stack bust.

(2) If the blinds are pretty low still and we have to be down to 3-handed, I will play more conservatively. There's not much to win, and not much to lose. Once the blinds rise up, by necessity you have to start playing though, or you'll get grinded down. So I prefer to be the aggressor and hope to grind down my opponents.

(3) Finally, if I am playing against what I perceive to be 2 aggressive players, I am happy to let them duke it out and only get involved when I have great cards. If I am playing 2 tight players, they will never bust without my help so I am forced to get involved more and again, I choose to do so by being the aggressor. Finally, with 1 tight stack and 1 loose stack, I try to pick on the tight stack while hoping to get cards to bust the loose stack with.

But all in all, I think tight is still right with a 60/40 payout scheme (where 3 second place finishes are worth as much as 2 firsts), unless (a) my opponents are tight, (b) the blinds are getting very high, or (c) I have a very large or very small stack.

Thoughts?

$36 and $24 is not 60/40, actually. It's 66.66/33.33, which is closer to 70/30.

Two first places is equivalent to three second places in this system, so it's definitely important. However the most important thing is surely making it in the money at all, as you say, since you're looking at a $24 bubble.

Kind sir I must dispute your math. I'm gonna work it all out cause I am afraid to keep going if I'm wrong.

- $10+1 6-max SNG
- So the buy-in is $10 and the prize pool is $10 * 6 = $60
- 1st place is $36, 2nd is $24
- $36 / $60 = 60%
- $24 / 60 = 40%

Pretty sure I had it right...

In such a system I think ITM% matters way more than 1st %.

Yeah, I see my error now. I just did 24/36 = 2/3, but that's actually not the right way to find that. Sorry about that.

But yeah, I was right on the 2 first places being equivalent to 3 second places thing (which is the number my equation actually finds, not the percentage for first place as I accidentally thought)

Great minds think alike then... see the last line of the post I wrote before you pointed that out

Oops, I hadn't even seen that you already mentioned that.

Sorry Beriac. I am just goofing up all over the place today!

No worries man. I err all the time. I just like talking poker.

Whelp, I've got some 1sts to my name here, but otherwise it's further slight deterioration.

Clearly, my 3rd places are entirely too high. Does this mean I am playing too loosely and barfing up chips early on, only to find myself desperate come 3-handed? I don't think so. I attribute part of it to luck as I have quite a few bad beats that led to bubblings, and partly to not making optimal +EV push decisions. I need to work on that.

ITM is right where I'd like it, but I'd really hope to get that ROI above 10% again.

Stats
Games: 30
ITM: 40%
ROI: 6%
1st place: 16.7%
3rd place: 43.3%
Comments
- 4/6. I win some big ones early, lose a bunch of chips calling down a missed straight+flush draw to the river, then go all-in and all-out in 4th when my top pair top kicker gets beat by an achieved straight draw that did not have odds to call.
- 1/6. Not much goes on here early. Getting no callers on my raises I realize I am being too tight, though this coincided nicely with a rise in the blinds so I decided to start some thievery. KK all-in pre-flop almost gets busted by A2 when an ace falls on the flop but I am saved by a flush. Eventually I wind up heads up and I systematically dismantle my loose/passive opponent with some selectivity and huge raises.
- 3/6. Beautiful suckout beats me 3-handed as I raise 5x BB with AA, flop KQJ, raise/re-raise/all-in/call, he's got K4, turn is 7 river is 4.
- 3/6. My two pair loses to a drawn flush right off the bat, damn it I am already in catch-up mode. Immediately after, my top pair beats a pocket underpair to my amazement to make my chips back. Down to 3-handed, I relentlessly pick off the blinds of the gent to my left, and eventually realize that he will get fed up and make a stand so I decided to wait for a big hand so that I can punch back. I decide to do it with A2s, he goes all-in, I call, he shows J7s but draws both a J and a 7 on the board to boot me.
- 3/6. Here things boil down to 3-handed pretty quick, with me and another short stack plus a huge stack. It's quite a chess battle. Unfortunately the short stack doubles through the big stack again and again so there's no sliding into 2nd. Finally I re-raise all-in with AJ and get called by KQo, I pair the ace but he flushes and I am gonzo.
- 3/6. I think I am getting better with reads. On consecutive hands against different opponents, I call one river bet down with second pair to win when I identified a failed draw + river steal and then make a large river bet with no hand but 3 to a flush on the table based on perceived weakness and get villain to fold what I later discovered was top pair. This one takes forever and I finally go out in 3rd when my top pair loses to a stronger kicker.
- 1/6. Double up first hand when villain's AJo doesn't improve (and THEN he goes all-in) on the flop and neither does my AA but it doesn't really need to. We get down to 3-handed and I am the big stack, and we have a chance to make it heads up but the middle stack goes all-in on the flop instead of checking down and the all-in short stack wins when I would have beaten him had I stayed to the river.
- 5/6. Dull hole cards leads to a grind of steals and counter-steals, and I am starting to get blinded until I round up a bunch of limp pre-flop calls with an all-in with TT. Eventually I get ground further and am forced to go all-in with K8s, which as you might imagine goes less than well.

Cheers,
Beriac

That kind of thinking is just going to get you into trouble.
With 3 or 4 players remaining, you will make some poor folds, and lay off the aggression which will invariably cost you money in the long run.