Stars has a $120 bonus - worth playing the SNGs?

[Isura]

I noticed that Stars has a 20% $120 bonus. With their FPP system, this makes playing sngs there essentially rake free. My question is regarding the toughness of their sngs, both the regular $10-$30 and the turbo $15 and $27. How would they compare to Party $20?

[Rockatansky]

Bump because:

1) I have the same question as OP; and

2) I'm wondering how many SNGs I canplay per hour if I'm four-tabling them.

[Superfluous Man]

From my limited experience, 'stars $22s play tighter than Party $22s, but this can be both a good and a bad thing. The bad thing is you're less likely to find someone who will simply spew chips at you during the early levels, but the good thing is that people are generally more cautious, and thus you can take more pots sans showdown. Patience and controlled aggression seem to rule the day in these, as your stack will be decent-sized compared to the blinds for more hands than it will be in a Party SNG.

If you don't mind the variance, the $27 turbos are pretty nice, as the vig is less compared to the buy-in. I found that by becoming almost a maniacal blind-stealer near the bubble in these, I could do decently. The blinds increase so quickly that you have to try and augment your stack by stealing them. If you get called, well, sometimes you have to suck out. But given that people generally tend to play too tight on the bubble in these, stealing constantly is +EV.

The $22 sngs (regular speed) take longer than a regular Party sng. I'd estimate about 15-20 minutes longer on average. Maybe you can average 1.25 or so per hour, so 5 total per hour if you're 4-tabling. Perhaps this estimate is low.

[Amid Cent]

FWIW, I have stopped playing the Party skins SNG's and play only Stars for tournaments. The players at the 10 level are pretty bad, about the same as the Party 10's. However, the average player at the $20's and up are definitely better than at the same Party level.

HOWEVER (and this is a huge plus) the starting chips and blind structure significantly make up for the fact that there are fewer donks. You start with T1500 vs T800 and the blinds increase every 10 minutes instead of each orbit. This allows a good player much more leeway to play different styles without having to push every raise after level 4.

The one drawback is that tournaments take much longer. I average 45 minutes for the Turbos and over 1 hour for the regulars. 4-tabling will only get you 4 tables per hour (although I think you can 5 table at Stars).

Hope this helps.