low stake vs mid stake 9man sng's

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R1ace

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I tried a couple of mtt's + 9man sng's and realised I am better at these than cash games so I think i'll give them a try as I think it's good to try out new things rather than playing 1 type of game if i might just be better at a different one.

Anyways, I just wanted to ask, I know how everyone says you should play worse players who would give their $ or chips away to you but some of them go all in too often and it's hard to know what to do in certain situations. Therefore, will it get easier playing 7$/15$/30$ sng's than 1.50$ sng's since players will be more sensible? or is playing vs such "bad" players still more profitable ?
 
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cheaptrix

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all you have to do is look at the stats of regulars and you will notice they have a higher ROI at the lower limits over any significant sample. i haven't really played much online since BF but back then the $6.50 9mans were not much different than the $3.40 9mans. i didn't play lower so idk what the dollar games were like. the jump to the $16's was when i noticed many more reg's so i was happy sticking with the $6.50 turbo's.
all this was on stars, i know the buy-ins have changed since then so not sure what they compare to now but you can expect to have a reduced ROI the higher you go up.
 
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spstevens

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What I have noticed is when you jump up significantly you actually have to play all the players at the table. In the lower stakes there are usually 3 or so very bad players that just seem to be there to donate to a solid strategy , so yes it is a bit different.
 
vegasjj

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What I have noticed is when you jump up significantly you actually have to play all the players at the table. In the lower stakes there are usually 3 or so very bad players that just seem to be there to donate to a solid strategy , so yes it is a bit different.

The field often gets reduced fairly quick at lower limits (I do not play higher so do not really know), which I assume is direct result of more poor players. However once you down to 4-5 people the game is significantly tighter (way more enjoyable too). This leads me to believe that your ROI would be better at these games as most of the time solid play will take you to top 4-5, so your odds of cashing/winning are pretty good.
 
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Poker Orifice

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some of them go all in too often and it's hard to know what to do in certain situations.
At what blind levels? (how deep are effective stacks?).
What you might be assuming is wrong has a good chance of actually being correct (shoving often).
'hard to know what to do in certain situations' < research shove/fold game, shoving ranges, ICM, etc. It is key to mid-late game SNG play.
 
Arjonius

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It's very optimistic to think games will get easier if you move up a few levels. There won't be as many situations where players do crazy things for no discernible reason. But there will be a higher overall level of aggression, so more situations where you're put under pressure, forced to make marginal decisions, etc.

Related to this, you'll have to learn to cope with advanced elements that are uncommon, even almost non-existent at lower levels, such as polarized ranges.
 
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WiZZiM

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I tried a couple of mtt's + 9man sng's and realised I am better at these than cash games so I think i'll give them a try as I think it's good to try out new things rather than playing 1 type of game if i might just be better at a different one.

Anyways, I just wanted to ask, I know how everyone says you should play worse players who would give their $ or chips away to you but some of them go all in too often and it's hard to know what to do in certain situations. Therefore, will it get easier playing 7$/15$/30$ sng's than 1.50$ sng's since players will be more sensible? or is playing vs such "bad" players still more profitable ?

flawed logic unfortunately.

"all in too often and it's hard to know what to do in certain situations."

This is called learning. You don't know what to do because you havent' encoutered that situation before, or are unsure of how to deal with it. This is great! You now recognize that you have a problem, now the solution is to study, or work out how to deal with it so next time you will know.

"Therefore, will it get easier playing 7$/15$/30$ sng's than 1.50$ sng's since players will be more sensible?"

Players in these games are going to be better than you, so long term they will make less mistakes than you will. So long term you will lose more, and they will win more, simple as that. The worse people play, the more mistakes they are obviously making, if they are making more mistakes than you are, you should make more money.

"or is playing vs such "bad" players still more profitable ?"

Yes. However, having a 10% ROI in the $1.50 games is going to be worse than having a 3% ROI in the $7.00 games. However you need a lot of skill to even make 3% roi over the long haul in the $7 games these days.
 
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R1ace

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poker orifice - They do it on all blind levels. I know that in the later phases of a sng i should sometimes shove to steal the blinds but even with cards like AJ or pocket pairs 77-JJ im scared to shove because someone might call me with either worse and hit a better hand or call with AK-AQ and catch a higher pair.
 
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andrewsz1991

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I prefer midstakes. One I like the competition. And two I find it hard to avoid the mindset of when players play wrong to exploit that. i always stick to my guns
 
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WiZZiM

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poker orifice - They do it on all blind levels. I know that in the later phases of a sng i should sometimes shove to steal the blinds but even with cards like AJ or pocket pairs 77-JJ im scared to shove because someone might call me with either worse and hit a better hand or call with AK-AQ and catch a higher pair.

You should steal blinds as much as you can, as often as you can.

I'll link you to this post too, really good well written and it's something i see a LOT of in SNG players mindsets.

http://www.bluefirepoker.com/blogs/featured/andycarlson/fear-in-sngs/

Hope it's ok to link bluefire..
 
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