Bounty SNG

jazzaxe

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I am starting to play these more. There seems to be looser play because they concentrate on getting those bounties early. I find that patience pays off in this game. You can profit from a weak table image by getting a player to make the big mistake when you hit. I was a middle stack with four left and won the tourney in the next five hands with 3 bounties. I know this does not normally happen, but it seems that playing a solid game as you would without considering the bounties will pay off as well.
 
robhimself

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STT or 90 man on FTP? Never played the single table ones, but it seems like a funny concept. I suppose it can be to your advantage if the people ignore ICM and worry too much about collecting bounties (something that happens even deep in the 90 mans), but I wouldn't get too excited about results in a single SNG, a couple thousand are usually what's needed to get an idea of how profitable they should be for you in the long run.
 
arahel_jazz

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One problem you get in these SnG bounty tournaments is that people are more likely to call your agression than not. The variance is much higher, and you will find yourself against a much wider range of callers hoping to suck out on you. Particularly if they get a bit of a stack built early.

I find I do much better when I avoid them.
 
dmorris68

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It's a small sample size, but I actually have a pretty decent track record in the 90-man KOs on FT, at least better than the smaller field SnGs at the same buy-in. The competition tends to be both softer and overly quick to shove/call to score bounties. If you'll more or less forget about scoring bounties and concentrate on good play, while letting these bozos knock each other out, you'll be better positioned to cash or take 'em down. You will definitely get called down lighter, especially early on, but as long as you adjust you can exploit that.

For instance, the 45-player $26 SnGs are stocked with regs and can be very tough. The $26 90-player Turbo KOs are way easier. For some reason, recreational players who wouldn't drop $26 on a regular SnG are sucked in by the bounty format, and a lot of regs are turned off by the turbo format so they'll avoid them. The fact that it's a turbo is counteracted somewhat by the fact that it's a deep stack tourney. So you can afford to be patient early on while all the splashing is happening, then when you do have a big hand it's pretty easy to double up and score a few bounties along the way. But to me the bounties are just gravy, I don't really consider them much at all when it comes to strategy. Also, the bigger field of the 90-player KOs means bigger payouts, from a softer field. These guys chasing a few bucks in bounties by constantly putting themselves at risk when they could almost coast into a triple digit cash are nuts.
 
robhimself

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For instance, the 45-player $26 SnGs are stocked with regs and can be very tough. The $26 90-player Turbo KOs are way easier. For some reason, recreational players who wouldn't drop $26 on a regular SnG are sucked in by the bounty format, and a lot of regs are turned off by the turbo format so they'll avoid them. The fact that it's a turbo is counteracted somewhat by the fact that it's a deep stack tourney. So you can afford to be patient early on while all the splashing is happening, then when you do have a big hand it's pretty easy to double up and score a few bounties along the way. But to me the bounties are just gravy, I don't really consider them much at all when it comes to strategy. Also, the bigger field of the 90-player KOs means bigger payouts, from a softer field. These guys chasing a few bucks in bounties by constantly putting themselves at risk when they could almost coast into a triple digit cash are nuts.

The $26 90 mans are often comparable in number of regs to the $13 90s because of the presence of $26 tokens, although the regs in the $26s are obviously better. Not sure why people don't use these as much in the 45s, I don't play those because I think poker without antes is stupid. Most players I know playing MTT sngs for a living prefer the turbo format though, because although it decreases your edge over bad players, they take half as long as standard speed tourneys and proviode an ROI of more than half. People misunderstanding ICM and how it affects late game tourney play is one of the reasons MTT sngs are so profitable.
 
dmorris68

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The $26 90 mans are often comparable in number of regs to the $13 90s because of the presence of $26 tokens, although the regs in the $26s are obviously better. Not sure why people don't use these as much in the 45s, I don't play those because I think poker without antes is stupid. Most players I know playing MTT sngs for a living prefer the turbo format though, because although it decreases your edge over bad players, they take half as long as standard speed tourneys and proviode an ROI of more than half. People misunderstanding ICM and how it affects late game tourney play is one of the reasons MTT sngs are so profitable.
Good points, I've just heard a lot of regs and pros hating on turbos because of the increased variance and the loss of edge due to the rushed structure. I'm torn -- sometimes I enjoy taking my time to play real poker without feeling forced, while other times, like you said, I just don't have the energy to grind several hours in one tourney. But you're absolutely right that most players at those stakes have no concept of late game ICM and push/fold strategy. I'm always amazed at the folks who manage to survive to the late stages with a mediocre stack, and are still limp/folding pre with 10-12bb. I mean, at $2 SnGs it's to be expected, but at $26 you'd think they'd be thinned out a lot. Doesn't seem that way sometimes, must be the tokens like you said. Of course I love having them at my table, but they still make me laugh. :)
 
kmixer

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I have played in the 1.40 and 4.10 games on PS and the variance on them is deadly. I would say that playing tigher is gonna get you to the money more often but since the money to be made here is off the bounties a little looser play is required. Today I play in 4 of these and finish ITM in 2 and not in the other 2. I am down because of the extra that went in for rake and bounty fees. Not sure if this is a long term profit game.

Then again that goes for all poker when I am involved it seems.

LOL
 
robhimself

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I have played in the 1.40 and 4.10 games on PS and the variance on them is deadly. I would say that playing tigher is gonna get you to the money more often but since the money to be made here is off the bounties a little looser play is required. Today I play in 4 of these and finish ITM in 2 and not in the other 2. I am down because of the extra that went in for rake and bounty fees. Not sure if this is a long term profit game.

Then again that goes for all poker when I am involved it seems.

LOL

Playing in 4 tourneys and expecting to know whether you are a winner in that format or not is like eating 4 crumbs of cake and deciding if it's good or not. Or something.
 
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