Just some stats after level up, thoughts, comments, concerns?

[Jurollo]

Well July was $10+$1 month for me. I had a week off to do nothing and on the month ended up playing 748 SNGs.
$10's
1st - 98 (13.1%)
2nd - 96 (12.8%)
3rd - 113 (15.1%)
ITM - 41%
ROI - 22%
Net - $1812.00

For a college kid on summer break I was astounded at how much could be made from playing one level of SNGs and being smart about what you play. Add in 2 Heads Up titles on Poker Stars and I made about $2500 in the month. Starting August, with some motivation from stupidsucker I moved to the $20+$2 level and have had great results so far, through 120 tournies.
1sts - 23 (19.2%)
2nds - 15 (12.5%)
3rds - 10 (8.3%)
ITM - 40%
ROI - 36.4%
Net - $960

This has been a great run but I doubt the distribution can keep up like it is now, I have gotten some decent luck heads up but the overall decrease in 3rds has been due to an increased tenacity on the bubble. When I got to thinking about it I realized that while 4th nets $0 in prize money it is most definately +EV on the lower buy inss to push, at appropriate times on the bubble due to the tightness of your opponents as this can be hugely profitable and help to give you a bigger stack when 3-handed. Thoughts? I have been withdrawing everything but $600 each week and possibly after the month I may move to the $30's. Does anyone think the play at the $30's is noticeably better? I would hesitate to move up to the $50's after that due to the increased starting chips but how much different are the $30's then the $20's? I currently plan on at least playing out the month of August in the $20's and hope to get at least 400-500 under my belt to make sure that the 120 I have finished havent just been an anomaly.

[tallstack]

Jurollo,

I will give you my newbe 2 cents since no one has responded yet.

The first thing that jumped out at me from your stats is how many you are playing in a month. I take from this that you must be playing many at a time and for pretty long hours.

I know many good posters here would consider a 22% ROI in the 10's as not so great, but I think you must be trading some ROI for volume.

The second thing I noticed from your results is that your improvement in the 20's seems due to better finishing once you have reached the money, since your ITM% remained nearly the same. This really highlights to me the importance of converting more of those money finishes into wins. This is something that I know I struggle with.

FWIW, I have been playing PP SNG’s for 4 months and I have had results very similar to yours. So far I have moved from the 10's to the 30's. I played 4 at a time at the 10's and 3 at a time in the 20's and 30's. I have had a nearly constant ROI in the 20% to 30% range and ITM% between 40% and 42%. I haven't noticed any appreciable difference in the quality of players between these levels.

I look forward to seeing how the rest of the month goes for you.

Dave S

[Jurollo]

Thanks for the response Dave. Well my ROI in July wasn't what I would have liked it to be but I feel I did make a trade off for volume, however, I also had a streak of about 90 SNGs where I was down about $200 over that period which tanked my ROI, so I think that has something to do with it, not to mention the disproportionate amount of 3rds. I think throughout my months (almost a year) of playing poker and reading this column I have finally begun to understand just how insignificant ITM really is. That has been accompanied by a new technique on the bubble to get myself more 1sts and 2nds to pump up my ROI, at the expense of my ITM which could be much higher in the $20's.

[NegativeEV]

Just some thoughts as you move up to the $22 & $33 tables:

The skill level increases only slightly from $11 to $33 IMO. Rather than increased skill, what I've found is an increase in weak/tight play at the $22/$33 tables. This causes more $22 & $33 games to carry 7+ players through level 3 and into level 4 than is typical on the $11 scene (obviously you will still see plenty of games with 4 left by level 4, but it is less frequent). This causes a bit of a challenge and conflicting thoughts for me occasionally. With 7+ weak/tight players left at level 4, you will be able to steal blinds fairly easily if you target the appropriate weak/tight players and focus on the appropriate situations. The problem you may find is that some of these weak/tight players have very little patience for blind stealing and will begin to call you with marginal hands. Becasue this is DEFINATELY NOT what you want, you need to be careful in the situations you choose for blind stealing when the table still has many players. Generally you want to make sure you are first in the pot and you want to target specific players for your steal attempts. Picking up the blinds will be critical for these types of tables as you may find yourself with 5+ players left when the blinds hit 150/300 and you'll need some room to work with at that point.

This type of table takes a lot of concentration and a bit of skill IMO as it is much more difficult to control than the $11 tables which frequently have fewer players left at the late levels. I struggle with these tables if I am multi-tabling more than 2 at once. Becasue of this, I'm only playing 2 tables, and I am staggering the games so I'm not in bubble play on both tables simultaneously. You may want to consider this if you start to struggle on the $22 or $33 scene. Again, you will find plenty of tables that have few players left by level 3 at the $22 and $33 SnG's, they are just less frequent.

As far as ROI at these levels, if you are only playing 2 tables you should be able to eclipse your 20% that you experienced at the $11s. However, if I were to play 3 or more tables at once at the $22-$33 levels, I would struggle to be over 15% ROI, but there are better players who are able to keep 30% ROI at these levels pretty consistently even when playing 4 games at once.

[Jurollo]

I play 4 tables at once currently at the $20's. Bascially play ABC poker the first 3-4 levels then loosen up.

[NegativeEV]

Are you able to target specific players for blind stealing opportunities when 4-way multitabling? I am hugely inneffective at getting quality reads on players when playing more than two tables which greatly hurts my bubble play. Maybe I'm being to "read-dependent", but when the cards are not strong or the table is exceedingly tight, I have not had luck at the late stages unless I'm targeting specific players based on my reads. I guess my question is how do you get quality reads with 4 tables?