My first 2-table SNG on Stars(Warning - Newbie content!)

[Gomez22]

DISCLAIMER - If you do NOT like reading posts that talk about basically nothing, and are merely about observations and maybe some questions I had during my 1st 2-tabler on Stars, please STOP NOW!!!








OK - For those of you slightly intrigued, I'll proceed...

WOW!!! This was awesome!!! Much more of a thrill than playing a 1-table SNG tourney.... It honestly almost sorta felt like an actual tournament setting (not to mention that I finished 2nd after being down to T600 chips with 5 players remaining, and the blinds 100/200).

Are there any other sites that offer this format???

Are there any "different" strategies between the 2-tables tournies and the 1-table tournies that anyone here employs with any degree of success?

For future reference, should 2-tablers be posted here, or in the MTT forum?

[laceratedsky]

Something totally unrelated to your post:

I noticed you live in Ohio, and by the BlueJackets logo it looks as though you live in Columbus. Did you play in a live NL tournament a couple weeks ago at the VFW by Cooper Stadium?

Sorry for the off-topic post.

P.S.- Where are you playing 2 table Sit N Gos?

laceratedsky http://www.wtfman.com/poker/

[Gomez22]

[ QUOTE ]
I noticed you live in Ohio, and by the BlueJackets logo it looks as though you live in Columbus. Did you play in a live NL tournament a couple weeks ago at the VFW by Cooper Stadium?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not Colunbus... Zanesville - about 45 miles east. Never played at the VFW by Cooper Stadium... Would have loved to have known about it, though.

You must also be from Ohio... where ya from?

'Mez

[Lori]

not to mention that I finished 2nd after being down to T600 chips with 5 players remaining, and the blinds 100/200

Congrats again /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

The strategies are very similar. There is a case for making the occasional, and I mean occasional, loose button call if you feel you have very large implied odds (IE: Very loose opponents post flop) as the first prize and second prize are both larger than a normal 1st place finish.

Also to be noted is the different prize structure, with 3rd being worth double that of 4th, meaning some risks can be taken to secure the 3rd place money.
(Simply, if you are short and feel you have a better than 50-50 shot at finishing 3rd rather than 4th, it is worth a go. You'll have to put your own take on this sentence, but it gets the idea across I hope)

It is a good schooling ground for the transition from SNG's to MTT's or visa-versa and for learning both (which appears to be your current mission) I would think they are pretty much ideal.

Something that just occured to me that may be of interest is that Party have play money sngs, you might want to test some alternate strategies there for a laugh and see why what you are doing is considered the 'best' way.

Lori

[Gomez22]

The one thing that I learned in this one, Lori, was how much I could steal by being small stack, on the bubble.... The only weapon I had for maybe 4 orbits was all-in.

I was amazed by how many times the opponents folded to me when I pushed all-in PF. I may have to remember this... these guys were playing scared until we got to 4 players, then it loosened up again, but it was something... even the big stack wouldn't call me..... luck had a lot to do with it, but the fear of busting out on the bubble is a new "weapon" for me to take advantage of, I think.

The winner(nice guy, BTW - we talked a little after the tourney)... said he really liked my play - nice and aggressive, was how he put it. Finally nice to meet another player out there with some courtesy and "personality", rather than some of the dregs that usually inhabit poker tables. To be honest, probably the last 6 guys left were great... best table I think I've ever played at(player-personality-wise).

Made for a very nice 1st time 2-table experience

[laceratedsky]

Columbus, OH /images/graemlins/smile.gif

You never answered where you played the 2 table tourney at.

laceratedsky
http://www.wtfman.com/poker/

[Gomez22]

[ QUOTE ]
You never answered where you played the 2 table tourney at.

[/ QUOTE ]

OOOOOPS!!! It was at Poker Stars... Look under the Sit-N-Go button, you can find a tab that says 2-table....

Simple as that!

Good luck,

'Mez

[PrayingMantis]

An important thing to notice is how play changes when the tables collapse, since you actually play twice full table, and twice short-handed, if you don't bust earlier.

Some plyers do not adapt well to this transition, which is uniqe to 2-tables. Naturally, you gerenrally play looser when the first table becomes SH, and then tight again when it's final table. This is a very sudden change - so be aware of it, and of how others do it.

[peiper]

Hey guys, I live up in Akron. There is a web site:

ohiocharitygaming.com that lists Hold'em tournament events that they hold in the Columbus area. I haven't played in one yet, but have definately been meaning to.

Have yet to play in a 2 table SNG, but have definately been meaning to. Maybe this weekend??

[Gomez22]

Nice to meet ya, Peiper... I'll have to check out that web-site.

Thanks for the input.

'Mez

[t_perkin]

I would agree with this.

People's inability to adjust to the number of players at the table is the only major difference.

You should take advatange of this by trying to stack build a little bit more when the play is short handed (with 2 tables) and by sitting a bit tighter when at the start of the final table (but don't be afraid to play a good hand - people will be playing worse hands and becoming big stack at the start of the final table can be very beneficial.

My $/hr is nowhere near as good for 2 table as 1 table SnGs, although this is on a relatively small sample and I tend to play my 1table SnGs at Party...so not much of a comparison really. Maybe someone else would like to comment on ROI for 2table SnGs?

Personally I find them pretty slow and boring, and without the $/hr of ring.

Tim

[Bigwig]

Yes, I agree about player's adjusting. Because of the nature of 2 table tourney's, you start with a full table, go to a mid-sized one (5, 6 players) and then back to a full until eventually you're short-handed again. I think that switch to the final table messes people up.

[southerndog]

[ QUOTE ]

The winner(nice guy, BTW - we talked a little after the tourney)... said he really liked my play - nice and aggressive, was how he put it. Finally nice to meet another player out there with some courtesy and "personality", rather than some of the dregs that usually inhabit poker tables. To be honest, probably the last 6 guys left were great... best table I think I've ever played at(player-personality-wise).

Made for a very nice 1st time 2-table experience

[/ QUOTE ]

Its nice to hear a person make a post about how they enjoyed playing. I think a lot of posters on here are either not interested or forget that part of playing is for fun. For me its all about fun.

[PrayingMantis]

My results after 90 2-tables games at the 22$ level:

ITM: 35.6%, ROI: 52.7%.

Places won (for 1,2,3,4): 9, 10, 5, 8.

Interesting note: after 65 games my ROI was at 81% (I was thinking I'm the new god of poker). But I had a pretty bad run, comparingly, during my last 25 games... /images/graemlins/grin.gif. Still, good results, I believe.

I don't play them too much these days, tho, as I stick to the turbos.

[Jonathan]

[ QUOTE ]

My $/hr is nowhere near as good for 2 table as 1 table SnGs, although this is on a relatively small sample and I tend to play my 1table SnGs at Party...so not much of a comparison really. Maybe someone else would like to comment on ROI for 2table SnGs?

Tim

[/ QUOTE ]

I did a comparison with about 150 games each and found that my win rate $/hour was less on 2 table. Since then I've more or less given up on 2 table, but I'm thinking of trying them again as some practice for MTT.

One of the things that I didn't like about 2 table was that the 1st place prize was truncated....i.e. the 4th place prize comes entirely out of the 1st place pocket. So if you are a strong player with a better than average expectation of placing 1st, then I felt that the 2 table prize structure penalized you.

Suerte,
Jonathan