FTP Steps thoughts?

Ok so I have a couple Step 1 tickets.

The plan is to get them up to Step 3 and then covert them into cash.

But I keep tossing back and forth the best avenue to get there.

Either the 6 man or the 18 man tourneys?

With the 6 man you get a step 2 with 1st place, step 1 with 2-3 and then 2.70 for 4th.

With the 18 man you get step 2 with 1-4, step 1 with 5-10.

I don't know which is a better path for success from the limit experience I've had with these and was hoping if someone else out there has messed around with this a bit more than I have.

Thoughts welcomed.

In the 18 man you have to finish in the top 55% to cash, the 6 man you need the top 50. However the 6 man is less opponents. In the 18 man is it 2 tables of 9 players or 3 tables of 6?

On a side note I've had a question about these steps tournies. I want to know how often a final step tourny actually gets going.

IIRC it's 2 tables of 9. The only other advantage I see in a table of 6 is that 4th gets you some money back (or if you have a ticket from points, money in general) thus giving you a 66% cash. But for my goal I want to get to step 3....

Honestly have no clue how often the step 7's get going. I try to cash out at step 3 if possible when I get a ticket.

How do you cash in steps tickets or any tickets for that matter?
You need to be able to convert them to tournament dollars & I haven't figuired out how to do that yet.

You can use the Step tickets for equal amount "like" tourneys.

the first spot you can jump off is Step 3. it's equal to a 26 dollar buy in. there are a couple of SNG's you can use them on. That is what I have done in the past. Works well.

IIRC step 5 is another spot. I think there is one more but it might be 4 or 6. I'm not totally sure on that.

I believe that when you finally make it to step 3 that it is a good idea to go ahead & keep playing! You will get a step 1 ticket if you finish in sixth place(with 9 a man table), a step 4 ticket is worth $76, and you will get more ftps for your money!

I have made it to step 4 3X so far, but I have never had any success at making it to the next level.

I like to play 9 man turbo, and super turbo. Ftp has good instructional videos from Aaron Bartley & Howard Lederer on how to play 9 player SNG's. The Bartley videos & the Lederer acadamy challenge have helped me tremendously .

I also like play the 18 man turbo sometimes, because you will still keep playing if you can only make it to the final table.

I thought that the main idea was to keep playing with my original buy-in for as long as I could. With a little bit of luck it wasn't hard for me to earn 200 ftps in one day...

I appreciate the info you gave me , and good luck at the tables!

Yeah I thought so too (going all the way to the end) and then I started looking more into it and was working on a angle to make money from it.

Glad to shed some light on the step program from a different angle for you.

Good Luck to you also at the tables.

I have done this a lot of times and in my experiences the best way is the 9-man super turbos. Now this sounds like there would be too much varience in this, but if you play smart, and are patient then you should be able to make it. The keys are when you have a good oppurtunity steal the blinds, but make sure you have a somewhat decent hand when you steal just in case. Also, avoid the first hand or two unless you have AA KK and maybe AK or QQ, depending on your position. Once, you get to 5 players left people stop going all-in all the time and you can start to play for real. There are a lot of soft players in these and they are easy to beat. I did my own little challenge with these where I played 9 step-0s and went to step-3 to get the $26 ticket and I profited $40, so these can be profitable. If you want to be sure of making money with your ticket then I suggest a matrix as it almost guarentees you money especially the 6 player ones.

Now I have a step 3 ticket. I tried to register & unregister from a
$26 90 man ko-turbo, and all I got back was my step 3 ticket. How do you cash in these tickets?

well if i'm pretty good at the 6 mans so i'd play those and wont mind getting a ticket again and again and i'm sure i'll finish in top 2,so i'll keep playing untill i win which should be if not the first,by the 3rd-4th time...so i suggest the 6man

i think you can try the 36 man step 1...is a shootout of 6 man for table and the final table all in the money and the first 3 or 4 take the step 3

You don't cash them in. Step3 ($26) is the first level at which you can then use your ticket to play say a $26mtt or $26sng,....then, 'if you cash', this is how you're getting cash back for your ticket.

With the step sng's there are multilple 'bubble spots'. One needs to alter play accordingly.
I'd suggest playing the type of game you're familiar with (be it 18man reg. speed, turbo, or 9plyr reg. or turbo... OR.. > super turbo) & then obviously alter/adjust play on account of multilple bubble spots.

I've played a bunch of 18man sng's in the past when they had 'tokens' ($26) instead of steps (tickets). It was top 5 getting the ticket & 6th getting some cash. Personally I preferred the reg. speed for these (turbos were easy.. 'if' you actually get a hand to double with in early-mid. levels.. whereas the reg. speed give you lots of time to look for spots to take advantage of weak players). If you're an avid 9man sng player then I'd suggest playing the 9man games for steps. The super turbos have a bunch of regs. in them, mixed with a few donkeys (it's nice to know who's who,.. ie. the donks will be calling too wide in early levels & likely shoving in EP with any Ace, whereas the regs. will be tighter in early levels.. and easy to steal their blinds (unless they're priced in of course, which is often the case in super turbos). The variance is kinda high in the super turbos but if you're playing even a bit of volume they can be ok (if you're experienced with that format).
Personally I played mostly super turbos while obtaining Step3 tickets. I started out with 10 step0 entries & 10 step1's & ended up with 8 step3 tickets (but it took ALOT of games to get them!).

So far I've taking one step 1 to a step 2 then back to a step 1, then another step 1 then finally 2.70 LOL.

That was playing all 6 man turbos. I'm looking today to switch to the 9 man turbo and see how that goes or at least test it out a little.

I still have 3 more step 1 tickets so we'll see how that goes.

thanks for the input all.


/edit

wow not doing 9 man turbo again... that or just really bad bad bad luck. AQ raise 3x, get called by small blind. Flop 2 pair he goes all in. I call, has pocket 3's. hits 3 on the river. struggle.... bubble... get dealt QQ shove called by AKo. hits Ace on the river out in 6th.