Hourly rate considerations for 4-tabling

[Donating]

Although I think that your ROI is higher - I am guessing that your hourly rate is lower than what it could be. Assuming 4-tabling, you are effectively playing around 2 SNGs per hour here, vs. someone who is constantly restarting getting in between 5-6. This means that your ROI needs to be >2.5x in order to compensate for this. This is just back-of-the envelope math here - I am totally off in my thinking?

[SuitedSixes]

I figure I play about 5 1/3 SNGs an hour (at the 800 starting chip level). My average is 38 min. per tournament, but I figure it at 45 min. per set (in case I have a long HU or bubble), so in an hour I get 4 complete tournaments and 4 others about 1/3 of the way done.

I think my hourly rate takes more of a hit when I am just playing one that I started after a quick bust-out but I don't have time to start any more when I don't play in sets.

[Donating]

OK - so assuming you don't start another set until the first one is totally complete, the aggregate time you are giving up is equal to the difference between the time it takes to complete your average longest tournament (over sets of 4) less the time it completes your average tournament (over sets of 4). It seems to me that the difference you give (38 min vs. 45 min) is extremely small. Is this because you typically make it very deep into tournaments and the vast majority of the time is spent going from 10-->4-5 players and very little time from 4-5-->End. If this is the case, you are giving up much less time than I would suspect.

[raptor517]

hourly rate is WAY higher when not playing in sets. if you run 8 tables constantly, and start one as soon as you bust, you may be able to get in 70% or so more sngs than you would if you waited until every single one of them was done. possibly even more. i dont think there is any way your roi can take that big of a hit running the sngs constantly. if you can, try to play continuously, your roi might drop 3%, but your hourly rate will shoot up. holla

[Donating]

I did some decent back-of-the-envelope math on this. I made some assumptions about tournament length given various finishes (I don't keep length of SNG data but I don't think I'm far off here). I used my average finish to determine how much time is wasted on a 4-set basis. Using this, I came up with a figure of closer to 20%. If this is the case and someone loses 3% of their ROI - they must be above a 15% ROI to not be negatively affected. If I had good data - I could come much closer to the actual amount of time wasted, but I think it's good enough for government work. Bottom line – if on average you are regularly making it deep into tournaments, I don't think that people who are running 4-sets are losing out on that much here if it noticeably improves their play.

[Mr_J]

Totally agree. Playing continuous maxes your hourly rate. The higher the buyin, the greater the difference (since sngs last longer, sets will last longer, also that you bust out early more often which means even more opportunities to start new).

When I 4tabled (I 5table now which is my max only because of hardware), I'd average somewhere around 6.5 to 7 tables an hour. Think that might've been because of my breakeven run, but I think 6 to 6.5 is definately doable. With 5 tables I'm looking at 7-8 compared to just 5 or 6 (if I played in sets).

As for ROI drop I don't think it's very much at all if you are used to multitabling. Instead of 2 bustouts and 2 bubbles, you have 2 level 1s and 2 bubbles, is there really any difference?? The shorterhanded games will naturally get more attention. I think the problem might be to how automatic your decisions are. I take a quick glance at the table and know what I'm going to do right away and how I'm going to react to another bet/raise/push in whatever position. If you do have a hand you want to think about, take your time.

Also, most of the 2+2ers I've run across never use the auto fold. It really saves alot of time in the early levels allowing you to focus on the shorthanded tables.

[BradleyT]

I'm lazy, I play 1 or 2 sets of 8 a night.

Maybe I'll give the continuous thing a try this weekend.

[1C5]

autofold, does that mean you fold KK and AA early if you don't notice them in time and are in early position so you would fold within a second of getting them?

[Donating]

I simply meant that I'm folding the great majority of my hands - I don't use the auto-fold button. Given my extreme tightness early in the tourney coupled with the fact that I think early tournament play is so different from late tournament play (and the associated reads) - I don't have to spend much time on tournaments in the first 3/4 levels.

[Degen]

3) because i played better poker when i was on the same level on all tables.


Degen