Should I play $30+$3 or $20+$2?

[quinn]

Hey,

I've been playing SNGs for several months now. I started at 10+1, and made profit of about 16 buyins over 180 or so SNGs.
Then I moved to 20+2 and did about 30% ROI over 300 SNGs, playing 2-4 tables at a time.

Then..I quickly moved up to the 30+3 level, and started playing way more tables at the same time. I played up to 8 tables at a time. I played 350 SNGs with only a 13.6% ROI. I began to think that the 30+3 players were dampening the effectiveness of my strategy by simply calling a lot of my all-ins at the end of tournaments. I was also wondering whether it was wise to play 8 at a time in the first place. I stopped, once and for all, the practice of loading up 8 tables at the same time, and trying to get them all done in 45 minutes.

I deemed that I could actually make more money going back to the 20+2 level. I felt like I dominated the 20s consistently, but was grinding to pull profit through 30s.

I moved back to the 20+2 and refined my strategy slightly. After 400 SNGs, 9 SNGs/hour (that means 8 tables quite a bit of the time), I have a 23% ROI.

Now strictly mathematically, a 23% ROI dictates that if I can pull a 15.33% ROI or higher at the $30+$3 level, while playing the same amount of tables per hour, then it would be wise to play $30+$3. (By the way, my bankroll is such that it is not a consideration in this decision).

My thoughts are these:
- Even if I can pull a slightly higher $/hr rate at the 30s, I'm not sure this is the best decision. Variance is bigger at the 30s, since I will have a lower ROI. Big swings are bad for my mind. I am afraid that sometimes they affect my life outside of poker, and that is negative EV in life.

-On the other hand, it seems that I should be able to feel better about big swings by just reveling in my profits.

-Playing the 30+3 level allows me to make progress and come closer to playing the $50 level, which I hear is surprisingly soft these days. I imagine I could pull a ton of $/hr playing the 50s..but I feel I need to go through the 30s first to adjust to the change in strategy necessary to dominate the 50s.


I'm sure a lot of you have gone through this decision before..I would greatly appreciate your input.

Thank you

[raptor517]

i would just jump to the 55s and try it out. but then again, im one for taking shots. i played the 30+3 for a couple days to get used to dual monitors, got in like 250 or so with a 19% roi, was acceptable, as it was an adjustment to the 8 tables, but moved to 55s and had 26% after like 600, maybe i was running well, buuuut, i think the 55s are quite easy. give it a shot.

[Apathy]

I too play the 50s, but only 4 tables and find them not much tougher then the 30s, the extra starting chips makes them better as well imo, although they take slightly longer.

My advice is to try them out for a while and then decide, definetly don't play if you can't deal with the swings though, that is a seperate issue entirely.