Out from the Shadows, a lurker becomes a poster

[acIdREIGN462]

Hi all, I am a new poster who has been playing poker for a couple of years now. I have been playing SNGs on party casually for nearly a year and a half with minimal success. I had figured out to play tight in the early rounds and had run across this site( Theorem of Blind Stealing (http://teamfu.freeshell.org/tournament/theorem_blind_stealing.html)) which gave me some insight into late game strategy, but I had trouble trusting its applications. Unfortunately I didn't follow the link at the bottom of that page to find 2+2!

I finally did come across this site about 3 months ago and have been reading this forum religiously since. I downloaded Aleo's spreadsheet, started tracking my progress, and began improving my game. I bought a monitor capable of 4 tabling w/ no overlap and slowly got to where I could play 4 10+1s at once confidently. Here is what happened:

$10+1
302 tourneys ITM 41.7% ROI 32.1%
1st 49 16.2%
2nd 40 13.2%
3rd 37 12.3%
4th 34 11.3%
5th 31 10.3%
6th 31 10.3%
7th 34 11.3%
8th 25 8.3%
9th 9 3.0%
10th 12 4.0%

Profit = $1068

WOW I was kicking ass. Unfortunately for my confidence and hourly rate, I decided to move up to the 20+2s where I realized how much of a luckbox I had been:

$20+2
500 tourneys ITM 33.0% ROI 2.2%
1st 62 12.4%
2nd 46 9.2%
3rd 57 11.4%
4th 69 13.8%
5th 74 14.8%
6th 56 11.2%
7th 62 12.4%
8th 35 7.0%
9th 21 4.2%
10th 18 3.6%

Profit = $240

It was profitable so I can't complain but I had hoped for better. I think it was a pretty bad run and that I will do better in my next 500.

So this is where I am in my Party SNG career. I hope to begin getting involved in some of the threads and posting some hands in the near future. I have talked to some 2+2ers at the tables (I played with Karak567 and watched Curtains own some donkeys on a few 215s) and told them "sup bro". I am not asking for any sort of analysis of these results although any insight is appreciated. Mostly I just wanted to introduce myself as I plan to start posting some.

Thanks to all for their contributions to the forum, and may the better half of variance smile upon you all.

AcidReign

[tomdemaine]

[ QUOTE ]
and had run across this site( Theorem of Blind Stealing (http://teamfu.freeshell.org/tournament/theorem_blind_stealing.html))

[/ QUOTE ]

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[acIdREIGN462]

Im not sure if this is sarcastic, but i dont think it is. If you are really concerned about me posting it here though, go to google and type in "party poker strategy" and you will see that the first listing is that site. It is easily found by anyone who has done the most basic internet search for poker strategy.

[KramerTM]

No way it was sarcastic.

But this is.

[Shilly]

One of the things I noticed when looking at your finish distribution is that when ITM, you finish in first the most often. While playing for 1st is a key to success in SNGs, I think that you're playing far too aggressively in order to build a stack that can win first. My guess is that your troubles are coming from when there are 4 or 5 players left. I'd guess that you're getting yourself into some bad spots, where a win would put you solidly in first and with a good shot to win, while a good percentage of the time you're going to lose and be crippled.

[curtains]

My highest placing when ITM is first place by a longshot. I don't think this is a problem.

[Shilly]

A distribution of 1sts, 2nds, and 3rds that is more even will yield a higher ROI.

(My current distribution of 519 SNGs is 12.5% 1sts, 13.8% 2nds, and 15.7% 3rds for about 23% ROI)

[acIdREIGN462]

I appreciate your input as I recently have been thinking about this problem. I do believe I am too aggressive late. I need to calm down with the "any 2" strategy b/c I seem to get called far too often. I am probably way off here but I would venture to say that in the time since the more experienced/respected posters played the low limits, calling standards have diminished. With 4 or 5 players left and 5-10 big blinds in their stack people frequently call me w/ any 20 or 21 and any pair if i have already pushed twice or more. This is probably just random, but I would like others opinions.

Thanks for the insight though and I will look into slowing down a bit with my bubble and near bubble aggression.

AcidReign

[Shilly]

[ QUOTE ]

My highest placing when ITM is first place by a longshot. I don't think this is a problem.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm guessing this is because you play much better. It's very possible to have the highest % of your ITM finishes be in 1st, but you can't deny that his thirst for 1st place is costing him in terms of ROI. Your case is different because you're probably better at playing HU and building a stack more carefully.

[Shilly]

[ QUOTE ]
I appreciate your input as I recently have been thinking about this problem. I do believe I am too aggressive late. I need to calm down with the "any 2" strategy b/c I seem to get called far too often. I am probably way off here but I would venture to say that in the time since the more experienced/respected posters played the low limits, calling standards have diminished. With 4 or 5 players left and 5-10 big blinds in their stack people frequently call me w/ any 20 or 21 and any pair if i have already pushed twice or more. This is probably just random, but I would like others opinions.

Thanks for the insight though and I will look into slowing down a bit with my bubble and near bubble aggression.

AcidReign

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't get me wrong, aggression is very important near the bubble, you're just going to have to pick your spots much more carefully.

[acIdREIGN462]

I plan to start posting some of these hands to find out if I am picking bad spots or not. I think once I went on a bad streak (-15 buy ins), I became carelessly aggressive just from being frustrated. This is a leak I need to work on in the future.

AcidReign

[curtains]

My most common finish is 5th place...

[acIdREIGN462]

[ QUOTE ]

My most common finish is 5th place...

[/ QUOTE ]

So is mine. If only the correlation between the quality of my play and yours followed these same lines I would be in great shape.

AcidReign