S
strtwlknchta
Rising Star
Bronze Level
Actually, it's two problems. One is these godawful swings. The other is my unusually high rate of 4th and 5th place finishes. Assistance on either issue would be appreciated.
I mostly play the $1 and $3 single table (and some $1 18 and 45 multi) SNG's at pokerstars. My play is pretty solid and I am getting better as I learn and move up in stakes. My approach is a patient and disciplined one and focuses solely on getting in the money in these things, while trying to never put myself in a position to get blinded out or call off my entire stack on any one play. Start out tight and play only premium hands, avoid making mistakes, and then get looser as players drop, blah blah blah, the usual.
So far, reasonable success: my ITM percentage is about 41% for all tourneys, and my ROI is 10% for the $1 games (about 350 tournys) and a very nice 30+% for the $3 games (about 85 tournys).
Sometimes, though, for no apparent reason, I hit a ditch and can't money to save my life for something like 10 tournys in a row. I look down and a quarter or as much as a third of my BR is missing from where I started. Similarly, there are times where I will go on a tear and hit the money in 5 or 6 in a row (my record is 7), hit a payout in like 10 or 11 out of 15 tournys, and win or place second in most of those.
Usually these swings are back to back.
I am unable to identify what is causing the differences in results.
My play does not change from one tourny to the next. I've learned to deal with the bratty little kids, the bad beats, and the otherwise general stupidity of other people. I think I have figured out how to keep myself in check and not let things that happened last hand or game affect the decision(s) that I have to make on my current hand. With little exception, I still play the same cards in the same position the same way, but sometimes it just doesn't work. Go check out my sharkscope graph (player=strtwlknchta) to see what I am talking about.
Is there a cure for this? Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to reduce the downswings? Or is this just a "welcome to the world of micro SNG's you noob" kinda thing?
As for my fourth place finishes, I don't get this either. When you look at the chart I've made of my finishes, I have more eighths than ninths, more sevenths than sixths, and so on down the line all the way to first, except that there is a big increase relative to the rest of the finishes for fourth and, to a lesser extent, fifth place finishes. I have to be doing something wrong, but, as with the above swings, I really can't see a whole lot of change in my decision making as I progress in a tourny. I consistently play pretty much the same way from the start of a tourny to finish and progressively make the correct adjustments in my play as players drop out. I think that if I could get this one anomalous kink worked out of my game, it would make a huge difference in my bottom line and I would feel a hell of a lot better about moving up in stakes.
So what gives? Any workarounds for these issues? I thought these issues would start to go away as I got better. I am definitely getting better, but both issues seem to be getting worse.
I mostly play the $1 and $3 single table (and some $1 18 and 45 multi) SNG's at pokerstars. My play is pretty solid and I am getting better as I learn and move up in stakes. My approach is a patient and disciplined one and focuses solely on getting in the money in these things, while trying to never put myself in a position to get blinded out or call off my entire stack on any one play. Start out tight and play only premium hands, avoid making mistakes, and then get looser as players drop, blah blah blah, the usual.
So far, reasonable success: my ITM percentage is about 41% for all tourneys, and my ROI is 10% for the $1 games (about 350 tournys) and a very nice 30+% for the $3 games (about 85 tournys).
Sometimes, though, for no apparent reason, I hit a ditch and can't money to save my life for something like 10 tournys in a row. I look down and a quarter or as much as a third of my BR is missing from where I started. Similarly, there are times where I will go on a tear and hit the money in 5 or 6 in a row (my record is 7), hit a payout in like 10 or 11 out of 15 tournys, and win or place second in most of those.
Usually these swings are back to back.
I am unable to identify what is causing the differences in results.
My play does not change from one tourny to the next. I've learned to deal with the bratty little kids, the bad beats, and the otherwise general stupidity of other people. I think I have figured out how to keep myself in check and not let things that happened last hand or game affect the decision(s) that I have to make on my current hand. With little exception, I still play the same cards in the same position the same way, but sometimes it just doesn't work. Go check out my sharkscope graph (player=strtwlknchta) to see what I am talking about.
Is there a cure for this? Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to reduce the downswings? Or is this just a "welcome to the world of micro SNG's you noob" kinda thing?
As for my fourth place finishes, I don't get this either. When you look at the chart I've made of my finishes, I have more eighths than ninths, more sevenths than sixths, and so on down the line all the way to first, except that there is a big increase relative to the rest of the finishes for fourth and, to a lesser extent, fifth place finishes. I have to be doing something wrong, but, as with the above swings, I really can't see a whole lot of change in my decision making as I progress in a tourny. I consistently play pretty much the same way from the start of a tourny to finish and progressively make the correct adjustments in my play as players drop out. I think that if I could get this one anomalous kink worked out of my game, it would make a huge difference in my bottom line and I would feel a hell of a lot better about moving up in stakes.
So what gives? Any workarounds for these issues? I thought these issues would start to go away as I got better. I am definitely getting better, but both issues seem to be getting worse.
