If I make ITM in all SnGs, why do I get mad if i come in 3rd place?

[AA suited]

I quad table SnGs.

if i make it to the $ in all 4, i have a 100% profit if i come in 3rd in all 4. anyone should be happy with a 100% profit in 1hrs work.

so why is it that i'm pissed at 3rd place finishes as if i didn't make it in the $ at all? /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Harv72b]

Probably the same reason that a professional football player is pissed that his team lost the Super Bowl...just making it to the Super Bowl is a huge accomplishment, and with today's salaries the additional bonus money paid to the winners doesn't really make a fiscal difference to any of them. They're just competitive--they hate losing. And for many fiercely competitive people, second place is nothing more than first loser (or third place, second loser).

Was it Doyle Brunson who said that money isn't really important in poker, that it's just a way to keep score? I suspect that a lot of us feel that way, and in a tournament setting vs. a cash game, the difference in prize money is often much less to us than the difference in "ranking", psychologically.

[mosdef]

because once you've got to third in all four you are now in 4 tourneys with 3 people and payouts of 75%/25%/0%. So each third is effectively an out-of-the-money after you have already made it their. in other words, you should be angry.

[Rasputin]

[ QUOTE ]
so why is it that i'm pissed at 3rd place finishes as if i didn't make it in the $ at all? /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I look at SnGs almost as three different games in one. From full table down to about five players, from five to three, then from three to the end. Does that sound familiar?

So you "win" the first stage then you "win" the second stage, but if you finish third, then you finished last in the final stage and finishing last sucks.

It's like nailing one of your older sisters best friends, but the ugly one not the hot one.

[Tilt]

Because being eliminated sucks. Period.

I finished fourth in a big MTT the other day. Won a grand, but I was steaming when I got knocked out. I couldn't be happy about my play for 2 hours at least. the money matters less than the competition.

[giddyyup]

Could you possibly be frustrated that playing multiple tables has caused the quality of your poker decisions in each SNG, on average, to not be as high as it could if you had played a fewer number of games at a time?

[SCfuji]

with a 100% roi i dont think you have any cause for concerns. of course, this is only if you really did get 3rd in every single tournament. that is not the case. you probably went into some of them with a big stack and lost it. sometimes youll go in as a small stack and win. poker is weird. just go with the flow.

[Bosox]

Here's my wierd SnG philosophy:
I think of third and second places as just place holders for when i bust out early. I don't even think of it as money, just as one or two buyins gained that will off set one or two out-of-the-money losses. In my experience, the only actual *profit* comes from when you take firsts, and that's your payday. That's why i get pissed with anything but first, because it's not actually a gain in my twisted head.