True or False...

[NYCNative]

When playing at a SNG that starts at 1500 chips, it is not a bad idea to play less conservatively early than at the 800 chip games for two reasons:

1) There are so many more chips in play - 15,000 compared to 8,000 - that you don't want to miss chances to accumulate them so the blinds hit 50/100 and you're on the bubble you are not short-stacked.

2) With more chips to play with an early misstep will not cripple your chances to be a force in the tournament. You lose 100 in the first hand, you still have 1400 left; you lose 100 at the 800 level and you're down 1/8th of your stack. Lose 400 in a bad beat on the first hand and you're crippled with the 800 stacks whereas you've still got 1,100 - 550BB at lvl1 - which is plenty.

What do you experts think?

[curtains]

Your ideas are clearly correct. Play is very often dictated by the blind to stack ratio.

[Bigwig]

[ QUOTE ]
When playing at a SNG that starts at 1500 chips, it is not a bad idea to play less conservatively early than at the 800 chip games for two reasons:

1) There are so many more chips in play - 15,000 compared to 8,000 - that you don't want to miss chances to accumulate them so the blinds hit 50/100 and you're on the bubble you are not short-stacked.

2) With more chips to play with an early misstep will not cripple your chances to be a force in the tournament. You lose 100 in the first hand, you still have 1400 left; you lose 100 at the 800 level and you're down 1/8th of your stack. Lose 400 in a bad beat on the first hand and you're crippled with the 800 stacks whereas you've still got 1,100 - 550BB at lvl1 - which is plenty.

What do you experts think?

[/ QUOTE ]

Starting stack sizes are not important.

What's important is the stack size in relation to the blind structure. This should certainly dicate your play. As should the payout structure--specifically MTT (10% avg) vs STT (30% avg).

[NYCNative]

But we are assuming that all thing are equal. I know the payouts of the different internet SNGs are the same (the vig on the $5 game varies slightly though) but the blinds are the same, I believe.

If all other factors are equal, stacks do matter, don't they?

[curtains]

blinds are different on stars/party and UB. Also later in the tournament on stars you get many more hands per blind level, especially in the partypoker S+Gs due to the time based rounds as opposed to hand based rounds.

[Bigwig]

[ QUOTE ]
But we are assuming that all thing are equal. I know the payouts of the different internet SNGs are the same (the vig on the $5 game varies slightly though) but the blinds are the same, I believe.

[/ QUOTE ]

The blinds are not the same.

Regardless, that doesn't change the point of my post.

[NYCNative]

What is the difference? UB has ten minute blinds (five minutes with Turbos) and the following steps:

<font class="small">Code:</font><hr /><pre>Pot Limit and No Limit
(Under $100 Buy-in)
Level SB BB
1 10 20
2 15 30
3 20 40
4 30 60
5 50 100
6 75 150
7 100 200
8 150 300
9 200 400
10 300 600
11 400 800
12 600 1,200
13 800 1,600
14 1,000 2,000
15 1,500 3,000
16 2,000 4,000
17 3,000 6,000
18 4,000 8,000
19 6,000 12,000
20 8,000 16,000
21 10,000 20,000
22 15,000 30,000
23 20,000 40,000
24 30,000 60,000
25 40,000 80,000
26 60,000 120,000
27 80,000 160,000
28 100,000 200,000
29 150,000 300,000</pre><hr />

[Sykes]

And UB tournaments are infinte long. I've gotten to level 10 in a sng. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] Not fun times.

[NYCNative]

If the difference in payout is nil and the difference in blind structure is only marginally different - I can't believe that the early levels of the different SNGs would be that markedly different and we are discussing early SNG play here - then what you have in front of you has to dictate your play.

I agree that if there is a marked difference in payout and/or blind structure that the difference is less palpable. However in the case of internet SNGs with similar payouts and nearly similar blinds (at least early) that having nearly twice as many chips has to change strategy no less than the amount of chips you have later in a tournament will change your strategy.

People win consistantly at the 800 chip level by playing INCREDIBLY tight in the early rounds. I feel that in a 1,500 chip tourney that you can win this way but a lot of times you will also find yourself short come bubble time. Maybe this is why when I see the stats of many SNG pros that they have an inordinate amount of middle finishes...

[Phill S]

Recipe for 1500 chip games:

Early game: stay tight. AK, AQ and pairs are gold. Raise no different to party.

Middle game: open up more than party. Make less all in raises - try to double the same however.

End game: most raises wont be all ins, but other than that most games end no different to party games - only thing is its about 10 minutes later than party style games that it does end.


And there you have it in 3 stages. The only difference is basicly the mid game, where blinds are 50/100 through to 150/300.

Phill