need some re-assurance

Hey everyone,
The last few days i've been playing the $3.50 9man Sngs on stars(turbos). I only have about 150 games played at this level but right now i'm looking at $42 profit. I seem to be going up and then down and then up and then down all the time. Losing coin flips left and right and just getting donked on. Do you think that there is a big difference between the $3.50 turbos and the $7.00 turbos. I have the Bankroll to play the $7 games but was really looking forward to beating this level first. A lot of the time I get called with 68o and 107o and garbage and end up losing my stack with AK or QQ. I can toss my holdem manager graph in here when I get home.
Pretty much I'm asking for those who played at this level if this is normal. I was at $64 profit and it keeps going down then up then down then up. How many buy-in swings should be expected?
How many games should I play before I can actually say if I am beating the level or not? 1000? 2000? And how much profit should I be expecting for this level.

I would say 2-3k games would be a pretty good number to judge your performance. I think the biggest thing is to look back at your HEM hands and see if there are any improvements you can make in your SnG game. If you have the proper bankroll, don't worry about the swings. SnG's are very swingy just like other forms of poker. You can lose 5, 10 or even 15 without a cash if you have an awful streak. Losing 4 or 5 in a row isn't an very uncommon thing. Focus on your early SnG strategy. I would say the optimal early play is to be pretty darn tight, and look to play pots with ppl who obv aren't good. Also focus on your strategy once you get to the cash. Are you being aggro enough 3 handed? How much are you winning when you do get to the cash? You have to want to keep improving. Focus on these things and not the swings, and you will succeed. If you have the proper bankroll, again, don't worry about the swings. They are part of the game and SnG's are no different than any other form of poker.

You will not find the quality of play to be all that much different at the $7 buy in level.

The 3s at pokerstars have become very difficult to beat lately, I only have a 200 plus games at the 3s..I play 18s and have a Stupid good roi of +60%....But big reason why ...I only play one at a time maybe 2 sometimes..I made a decent profit here but blew most of it on Mtts...when will I learn.
After Black friday most of the sng regs from Full tilt migrated to pokerstars so you see so many sng regs at the tables now. It is hard to cash in these... if you are playing turbos you have to be comfortable and know how to play the push/fold strategy.They are still beatable
Probably 1k games to get a good read.
Some questions? how many tables at once?
Hoping Wiz and Oz can give you better advice here.

Surely getting called with 107o when you have AK or QQ is a good thing? Or maybe your raise size needs to be bigger so you only get 1 or 2 callers preflop.

To be honest, this was probably a tilt post. It seemed like I was getting sucked out on every chance possible! Playing poker is stressful! haha. Anyways an update, my ROI is now at a nice healthy 27% with my ITM being around 30%.

STT's do have a lot of variance. i have gone weeks with break-even/losing stretches and then BOOM win 30 buy-ins in one day.
it happens.

Go play 180 mans or cash games.

Just looking at my graph from when i played these games, i had 1-2 $100-150 swings playing the $3 games just to give you an idea, however my playing style is probably far differant to yours.

cash games are the way of the future. at least for anyone living in the U.S.
wish i would have focused on cash games instead of SNG's the past 3 years. their is little reliable information on optimal cash game strategy compared to SNG's.
so it is the obvious choice if you want to have a big edge on your opponents.

and if online poker is ever taken away from you then live cash games are the only way your ever going to make enough money to make it worth your time.
SNG's are only worth your time if you can play multiple tables... good luck with that in a live environment. lol

LOL what if poker houses and casinos started all doing live SnGs lol i doubt it but that would be very ironic. and hey if Phil Hellmuth says online poker is gonna be legalized soon then you gotta take it to the bank