A few specific SnG questions

iraise50 · #1 06-09-2005, 05:28 PM

Hello everyone, and thanks in advance for any help that you might be able to offer some useful help. I've been playing poker for a few years, yet I'm relatively new to sit-n-goes...never really liked them, for one reason or other. I play small stakes ring games, usually no higher than $1/2. That being said I only work part time and make pretty good money playing poker. I make more than my wife playing poker than she does as a teacher. Recently, and I know this is a small sample size, I began playing $5 Sit-n0Goes at UB. It's the only place I play at right now. After 17 of these sngs, I have a ROI of 60.42%. I cash in over half the sngs I play in and and 2/3 of my cashes are top two. Ironically they are exactly even between first, second and third. I've been thinking about moving to $10 sngs...(Yes I added that 50 cent add-on fee into my ROI calculations)...but I've read on here most of you seem to think about 30 buyins to be minimum starting reqs for doing sngs seriously. I'm not sure if I want to devote that much to sng play exclusively. So...

1. When should I decide to move to $11 sngs?

2. After that, when should I decide to move to $22 sngs?

3. Does it make sense to focus solely on sngs, as there is more risk-control and seemingly less variance?

4. If UB games are decidedly tougher than Party, should I switch and start SNGing at Party or elsewhere?

Thanks again for your input, I really apprecaite it. This is an area of poker I've never really played in until jsut recently.

Moonsugar · #2 06-09-2005, 05:33 PM

Play a few $11 and see what they are all about. How the competition stacks up etc. Move to $22 whenever you feel like it. You can go up and down, no problems with that. No rule says you can only play one limit. I never played a UB SnG so can't comment on that. Have fun & good luck.

sweetpete98 · #3 06-09-2005, 05:58 PM

A bit of math - with some assumptions

You say you make more money playing $1/$2 ring games than your wife makes teaching. I'm going to plug in $38,000/year for that amount.

So if you make $38,000/year playing poker then you make on average $104/day (assuming you play every day of the year).

If you are working part time and playing poker part time then you might be able to squeeze in 8hrs/day at the tables. That means that you average $13/hr at 1/2 poker. Wow, that's 6.5 big bets per hour. That's quite a feat even if you are playing multiple tables at the same time.
I'd say stick to the cash games.

iraise50 · #4 06-09-2005, 06:07 PM

I multi-table the ring games, and my total yearly net was boosted by some MTT success. I have done well in a few casino tournies, which is where I've picked up a nice piece of that.

flyingmoose · #5 06-09-2005, 06:07 PM

UB games are not tougher than party at the 10s and 5s. At the 22s UB games are a little harder, and at the 33s they are much tougher than their partypoker counterparts.

What people like about Party is that the games are so much faster, not that they're always easier. You'll have a higher ITM and ROI at UB, but the games will take twice as long. UB games are also harder to multi-table, because you have to see flops and play poker.

The 30 buy-in rule is only for players who plan to permanently move up. There's nothing wrong with splashing around and trying an 11 here and there. It's +funEV and doesn't cost you much if you have the discipline to move back down if you lose a couple buy-ins.

If you're considering moving to party, try a couple UB Turbos. They're not quite as fast as party games, but you'll get the basic idea.