read to shoot myself, hand me a gun!

[Scooterdoo]

Well not quite that frustrated, but...

As some of you know from my posts, I've been a regular Party SnG for a while now. I've always done well getting in the money 50-60% of the time, but never realized how the blind structure brings so much luck into actually winning the thing. I've recently been trying for the cruise semis and keep on finishing 2nd and 3rd over and over.

Yesterday I played really good, strong poker and led from the 1st hand on. Built my chips to T3500, about 3 times my next closest competitor with 4 players left. However in two hands one guy managed to knock out the other two and had an instant chip lead on me. With the blinds at the 500/1000 level and no good hands for about 6 times through I quickly went way behind, had to gamble a bit and see ya later, another 2nd.

Tonight I just finished playing. Was up, then down and almost out, scraped my way up. Won 3 all-ins by getting people to call my nut hands. Got to one on one and played heads-up for quite a while with the blinds getting to the 600/1200 level. Finally got him down to about 5500/2500 and he went all-in pre-flop. I had JJ and followed him in. He turned out to have TT and pulled a T! Of course I then go to have 4-5 good hands (Ax-ish), but never pulled a thing on the board. Once again I'm 2nd!

The blinds get so big, that if you play someone that is even close to your ability it is very hard to last if you get 3-4 bad hands against your opponent.

On a side note I got dealt big slick twice in a row -- never happened before. Lost the first time fairly large, won the second for a net loss. Oh, well.

Just thought I would vent a bit. Do any of the other sites have better SnG blind structures -- e.g., they stay much lower as a % of stack size even at the end. It seems a little ridiculous for the opening bet to grow to 20-50% of your stack. Where's the skill in that? The one thing I love about Party is the fact that you don't have to wait long for a table. I've tried Paradise for a while but you can wait 30 minutes over there.

[sam h]

Pokerstars has a much slower structure, but you will often have to wait for a table - especially if you're looking for limit.

I wouldn't argue with a 50-60% rate of making the money, however. It seems likely that the structure on Party is actually working to your favor. While it does become somewhat of a crapshoot at the end, having high blinds versus stack sizes does allow bad players to make the truly catastrophic mistake of being too tight.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Scooter

I like paradise much better. It's worth the wait. Just my opinion. I thought stars SNGs had better structures, but I have consistently done MUCH better on paradise. There's a lengthy discussion on the tourney forum in a thread I started last week, if you care to look for it. Despite repeated attempts, I still absolutely hate party SNGs, even tho I play no limit and pot limit there (and hate the structures there too).

As for guns, well... having spent time in uh, the "south," I (of course) know all about guns. You need guns with big bullets in the cases you mentioned. I would think at least 20 guage slugs, if not 12 guage. You could go with rifle bullets, but it's a lot easier to saw through a shotgun barrel than a rifle barrel. Handguns are much easier of course, but they make you F-in wait some ungodly amount of time, like three days or five F-in days! "But I'm mad NOW!" You must of course wear the proper safety equipment, like a finger protector, to keep your trigger finger from getting calloused from playing SNGs.

al

[MaqEvil]

I like Party's structure; I'm about the opposite of you. I have only ~40% in the money, however, more firsts than seconds and thirds combined. As mentioned in a post above, many of the players actually play too tight when it gets shorthanded. When it gets heads up, many of the players have no clue. I like the big blinds at this point, as many of my opponents don't defend well, nor are they aggressive enough stealers.

[Scooterdoo]

The gun idea sounds good, but then I won't be able to play much on Paradise! Actually, I have played there prior to finding Party, but you can wait quite a bit of time for a table. I need to spend more time there and try Stars and keep stats for a while to see where I do best. I do think the blind structure at Party works just fine to get into the top three, but once there the blinds get so high that luck becomes much too big a factor to actually winning the thing. I have found in the $50 tables if you're against a tight player who doesn't open up when the blinds get big you can actually win quite easily. However against a skilled player it becomes much too much about luck since if you get 3-4 bad hands in a row you're just about sunk.

[Bozeman]

It's "But I'm angry Now", if I remember correctly

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Ol' Homer J. said that... Was hoping someone would catch it.

al