Sit N Go level changes

Hello,

If useful --about me:
I've been playing Sit N Go's on Full Tilt for a while now, and have been quite diligent in ensuring I don't play too far outside my bankroll allowances. On Full Tilt I almost always play a 6 player SnG for $2.25 or $5.50 buy in.

Currently i've played just over 150 games, and am looking at an overall ROI of 19% most of which was at the lower 2.25 amount. Feeling confident, and having learned alot I started playing more of the 5.50 which is probably around 12% ROI.

Overall I've found the two levels very similiar with the big difference being a few more all-ins at the lowest level.

Questions
So my questions to you more experienced and better players are:

1. What has been the biggest differences you found as you also moved up from 5 to 10 to 20 dollar SnGs?

2. How many games in a certain level, and what was your ROI or other factor that you used before you felt comfortable moving up? Is there a better indicator that I should be using?

3. I don't even know if someone can answer this, but I'll ask anyway. If in the money I find that I come in 2nd probably 70% of the time. (in 6 handed top 2 cash) Usually I go into heads up as the underdog with the chip leader having at least 2-3 times the chips I do. Should I be accepting that 2nd is not bad and good playing? Is a good SnG player someone who cashes or someone who comes in first?

Thanks in advance, and love the chat/advice I read on here.

VF

Well first of all, you sound like you are taking poker seriously, even playing at relitavely low stakes, which is a good thing, that gives you an edge over a lot of players down there straight away.

I will answer your questions from my own experiences.

(1) You got it right, the lower the level, the more people are to keen to shove all their chips into a dry pot, without actually thinking about it, very few players will fold when they have some money in the pot, and they over value Ace Jack and lower. There are some good players at $10 level, really there are, but there are a lot of awful players too, the key is to pick the bad players out.

If you can beat the $5 sng, you can almost certainly beat the $10 ones, and more than likely pay a more fair amount of rake. Stick to a simple strategy, what ever is working for you now will work for you at $10. I am not that certain it gets much better at $20 level, there are bad players at all levels, I have seen some right donks on $200 sng, but the percentage of good player is much higher obviously.

Probably need to work on your flop play a bit as you move up, know how to fold top pair top kicker,and how to pick the right spots to make your moves.


(2)To be honest I don't think there is any amount of games that you need to move up, just sufficent bank roll. I have heard some say 20 buy ins is enough. But I think 50 is a much safer amount, then it gives you chance to move back down without to much damage being done if things are going bad. That is the main thing, if you aren't beating the game, move back down, and work some more on your game. Don't panic if you start off poorly, but don't play scared, if you are worried about your bank roll, move back down right away,

(3) The money is in first place in 6 seat sng, so you need to get a fair share of those in as well, it will help you get your ROI up no end. Finishing second often isn't a bad thing. Work on your heads up play, sounds to me like you play a tight game, and scrape in to the money, which is no bad thing, In my experience going in to the heads up short stacked, just be aggressive with any decent cards, they will often call you with nothing just to try and finish you off quickly. Only takes one double up and you are right back in it.

Hope that has helped in some way

Your chronic underdog syndrome suggests that you play very tight (and therefore missed some lucky moments & got some blinds stolen).

It is not a bad thing in lower-stake games where weak players call you without a brain and outdraws you based on their odds.

Here are my little advises:

(1) Play more aggressively when you get good cards. A good player controls pot size. For example, when you flop the nuts you should still bet, just to build up the pot so people are willing to invest more to draw dead.

(2) Play very aggressively heads up. Blinds are big and you have to steal often. Fold hopeless cards pre-flop as the SB (about 20% of the time) but do raise as often as you can (even with 84o). Raising gives you information about your opponent's hand. The rest is just luck.

Thanks for reply guys. Sorry for delay, but been on road last few days and didnt have a chance to hear your advice.

I do take it serious and want to follow proper bankroll management. I love the competition and trying to outhink each other. Originally I put in $40, and two months later was able to take that back out by playing 5/10 cent NL ring games and 2.00 SnG. I'm at $240 now, but have been playing SnG games mostly now at the $5.00 range. LOL takes a while to go up at this level!

It was surprising to read you think its the same all the way to the $20 range. I guess I expected the level of play to increase tenfold at that range. $20 seems like alot of money as an ante if you aren't any good. Donks at $200! Wow.

Maltz, your advice is very good. At the low levels I have noticed I can continuation bet and win many pots. I like the SB advice you gave.

Thanks again guys. If anyone else has thoughts on the differences of SnG levels please feel free.

By current bankroll management feeling, you don't have enough to move up to $10 yet. Check out the BM threads and pick one that suits you. Most say 50x to 100x buy-in, so you should have $500 to $1000. If you play the occational $10 to see how you do, that would be better than jumping totally.

It's not exactly the same up to the $20 level, you do find a slightly higher percentage of better players in each level as you move up but from my experience it has more to do with any given specific table than anything else. I've had $5 SNG's that were rather tough, and one $10 one that I literally folded into third place.

I remember about a year ago my brother in law and I had this same conversation. He had won enough to jump from $6 to $10 SNG's but was apprehensive about it. Jump to a year later, and he's moving from 10's to 20's and laughing that he was worried the $10 ones would be full of sharks. In reality the play hasn't been much different at all. You just end up against people that have more money to play with.