550 games on $10+$1, need comments

[TappedOutAgn]

Background: I've read most of the poker books and played maybe 10k NL hands and 200 $10+1 and $5+1 tournaments, and then started keeping track of my $10+1 results with poker tracker. Btw even in 550 games there 3-4 instances of dropping 20 buy-ins from the high, so a lot of fluctuation.

Here are some stats from the 552 tables from the last month or so:

Games: 552 $10+$1
Net & ROI: $908, 14.95%
ITM: 37.32%
1/2/3/4/5: 72/70/64 - 45/68

VP$IP all levels: 29.51% (ranges from 25% to 60%)

Folded SB to steal: 82.56%
Folded BB to steal: 52.02%
Att to steal: 28.94%
WTSD: 38.50%
W$SD: 50.55%

Aggression, Preflop/flop/turn/river: 0.73/3.25/2.1/2.43,
Average aggression 1.18
Raising, PF/F/T/R: 13.25%/4.89%/4.29%/2.29%

Fold to River bet: 71.28%

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Anyways, I'd love some comments on the above stats. I know 15% ROI is kind of low, and I feel like I've been playing decent poker. I wonder if I need to be a lot more aggressive pre-flop, as in calling less with Axs and KJo etc and raising instead? My river raising is also very low, should that be higher? Also, at the $10+1 level, bluffing is a lot more prevalent, but I still tend to only raise if I have something and not re-raising weak bets as much.

Also, on the bubble, if I was the big stack, should I be pushbotting a lot? At this level even a min-raise will get a lot of people to fold if they don't have much, so I feel going all-in doesn't do that much more.

All your experienced people give me some pointers! I feel like I have the knowledge to hit 25-30% ROI if I made some key adjustments to my game.

[ QUOTE ]
I wonder if I need to be a lot more aggressive pre-flop, as in calling less with Axs and KJo etc and raising instead?


[/ QUOTE ]
I think in the first three levels you should definitely do less calling with Axs and KJ and similar hands in the early levels. I would probably fold instead of rasing with these hands, however. My current strategy 4 tabling 11s is fairly tight early, let the donks knock heads and only get involved with big hands. Then become much more agressive on the bubble. Whether to minraise or become a pushbot depends on stack sizes. If you have less than 8 BB, (or the people you are raising have less than 8) than pushing is the move instead of a normal raise. If stacks are deeper, say over twelve BB, different raise amounts can come into play. Inbetween 8 and 12 is a gray area, and just depends on judgement.
I hope I have been helpful.

[runner4life7]

My best advice would be play really tight early on in these levels especially and dont try and play fancy. That seems to always get me in trouble so just play solid poker and you can clean up on these morons.

[TappedOutAgn]

Certainly it would be really easy to play tight at the early levels.

But once it gets down to 4 or ITM, there's a heck of lot of bluffing going on, so take more risks and reraise/allin with any piece of the flop, is that the tendency?

Also, that short article on here about how to play the $10+1s, the advice is to play extremely tight. I.e. raising all-in on A7+ and pairs 66+, etc, even in the latter stages of the game. I don't know how this strategy is feasible, since the blinds will eat you up long before you hit a couple hands like that.

[Nicholasp27]

do a search for ICM

we base push/fold bubble play on that

[Taraz]

[ QUOTE ]

Also, that short article on here about how to play the $10+1s, the advice is to play extremely tight. I.e. raising all-in on A7+ and pairs 66+, etc, even in the latter stages of the game. I don't know how this strategy is feasible, since the blinds will eat you up long before you hit a couple hands like that.

[/ QUOTE ]

You generally don't have to be that tight late when you are pushing. It's highly dependent on the situation, but pushing any playable hand is correct a lot of the time.

It sounds like you're playing too many hands early. A large part of Party SNGs is having folding equity late. It doesn't matter if you gain an extra 200 chips early if it will cost 200 the rest of the time. Try playing super-tight until level 3 or 4 and see how that affects your win rate. I think you'll be surprised.

(Doing a search on ICM is a very good suggestion by the way)

[TappedOutAgn]

I'll look into ICM, I assume its calculations are simply, based on 30%, 40%, or 50% calling requirements of the remaining players, whether it's +EV to go all in.

Also, looking at the various blind levels, I'm at around .02BB/hand won positive on all blind levels except 75/150 and 100/200, in which I'm losing 0.005. I assume these are all the bubble levels, I guess I need to tighten up and be more aggressive. My aggression factors are around 1.6/1.9 for these levels.

[Seth Money]

First off I should say congratulations on coming here and posting your stats, things are on the up and up for you and this is the place to grow. On a side note, looking up ICM would be a great thing as the other guys have already suggested....

The tight strategy early, and the aggressive late is probably the best way for you to increase your ROI. But I think that having a goal like you said (25-30%) is a really good thing, the problems with goals sometimes however is that we set them too high. 30% is attainable at the 10's but you have to get to 20 then 25 first. I have a spent a lot of time at all buy-ins of SnG's and most was during my time at college at the 10's and 20's and even now going back to the basics with over 3000+ at each of these levels. My goal was always 25% at each, and I've probably seen close to a million hands in the past year and half and have proper strategy and I will say even with the donks its friggin hard to navigate in the 25% to 30% over a decent sample size (1000+) even if your playing your best because of variance and outside life factors.

My best advice is keep at it, get those goals in writing and play at the 10's for a certain number of tourneys, evaluate after that period and decide to stay or move up based on your results.

Keep at it.

Seth

[TappedOutAgn]

Eastbay's sng analyzer is down, anyone have a valid link?

[TappedOutAgn]

You know, although the 30% ROI is typically what people mention as the upper range, I've never actually seen anyone post stats on the $10+1s, or any level, for that matter, with a ROI of more than 25% over a long term (2000+ sngs).

I wonder if 30% is even possible or if people never stick around for 2000 games at $10+1 if they can get 20% ROI and move up immediately.

[ QUOTE ]
You know, although the 30% ROI is typically what people mention as the upper range, I've never actually seen anyone post stats on the $10+1s, or any level, for that matter, with a ROI of more than 25% over a long term (2000+ sngs).

I wonder if 30% is even possible or if people never stick around for 2000 games at $10+1 if they can get 20% ROI and move up immediately.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, 20% ROI is really good.

As others are saying, play MUCH tighter early. You should tend to limp PPs lower than JJ (possibly JJ as well) if you think you can get in cheap (less than 7% of your stack or so, assuming someone in the pot has you covered, otherwise less than 7% of the largest stack in the pot). Suited connectors are basically garbarge except in late position behind tons of limpers, and you won't really lose anything by folding them. You're basically looking to come into every pot with the best hand preflop.

Later on, understanding ICM is very important. A lot of it is somewhat intuitive (If you're on the bubble and there's a stack that's much bigger than you and a shortie about to go out, play ridiculously tightly.), but eastbay's program and screwing around with the ICM calculator (linked in the FAQ) will help a lot.