[roundest]

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Playing your first 500 SNGs at the 55s and 109s is probably one of the worst ideas I ever heard of. (unless I misread your post). Even if you have extensive poker background at limit or NL ring, you should never jump to its "equivalent" in another area of poker. i.e. playing 109 SNGs and then switching to 5-10 LHE without any limit ring background.

If you're having problems, this is the first place to look. Bubble play is where most of the cash in SNGs is made. Learning it at the 109s isnt worth the money invested when you could learn it much cheaper below.

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I disagree. If your net worth is in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, and you are serious about becoming a solid SNGer, AND you don't mind "paying" a few grand to shave some time off the learning cycle, jumping in at mid or higher limits can prove fruitful. You are exposed to a somewhat higher level of play learn a lot more by observing other players. Playing the $5+1s will actually make you stupider. I'm not saying it can't be profitable.... just that you aren't learning as much per hour.

If you are in your early twenties and have much more time than cash, sure, you save money by learning small stakes and progressing organically.

If you are in your 30s or 40s, playing lots of low limit SNGs is -$EV. If someone has the money, they might rather "pay" $20/hr for the first month to learn the $55s than "make" $4/hr at the $6s and not improve their game that much.

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Playing the lower limits for a month or two is not going to somehow make you a worse player. You need to build a solid foundation somewhere.

Using your logic, some wealthy noob could jump into the 4k/8k at the Bellagio for the next 3-4 months and magically be transformed into a better player than 99% of the people here because he somehow learned that much more by playing at that level.