Party vs Ultimate Bet

[tjh]

I have spent most of my SNG time at Ultimate Bet. Big stacks, slow blind escalation. Preflop play matters quite a bit there, you have elbow room and flexibility.

I did alright at Ultimate Bet, alright for a part time, casual player one tabling. I tried party poker and the structure killed me. I did not play enough hands, I blinded down to short stack, tried some aggression as an act of desperation and lost. Again and again...

After losing at party I returned to UB and won.

Playing more and more poker, I decided I needed rakeback. So I set up an account at Eurobet and found myself at the party SNG's again. This time I seem to be able to beat them and have moved to the 22's.

I like the structure now but the noobs and others need to know that the difference batween party and Ultimate Bet is like night and day.

The party skins start you at a stage of desperation that UB hardly ever even gets to. You always feel short stacked. You can hardly afford to make one mistake, make two and you are sunk. You gain some breathing room if you get down to 5 players or so.

At UB, you are flexible. You can make a bet of 200 chips to see if the other player has a hand. A probing bet just like NL ring games. If they play back at you getting away from the hand is an option. At party you never even think about making a bet to "see where you are at".

It seems like party is all about preserving your stack while UB is more about building your stack.

So if you are having trouble at one try the other and see if your style is more suited to UB rather than party. Be aware that they are different. You may do better at one than another.

I can not help but think that the control and precision that my game has gained from learning to beat the party SNG's will translate to me being even a better player when I return to UB or PR.

Party forces you to value each chip, take each chance that is given to you. Once you hit the bubble you get a brief pause in the pressure but in no time the blinds put the pressure back on again.

Low content for sure but just letting folks know once again that the various SNG's out there are very different.

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tjh