Why aren't you better?

[bones]

I've always wondered what separates the good from the very good in SNG play. I can usually tell what people at my skill level need to work on and what their strengths are, but it's usually something that's easily correctable. But I'm really interested in what separates a very good 215er from a good 109er. What separates you from a winning player at a higher level, or what separates you from a winning player at a lower level?

As a 2nd question mostly for lower limit players, if you're beating the 22s, why aren't you playing the 33s? Assume that bankroll considerations aren't a factor, unless it's too psychologically stressful to lose at the higher limit. Why do you play at the level you're at?

[citanul]

i'm [censored] amazing, i don't know what you're talking about.

sometimes, i even impress myself.

c

[citanul]

bah, i guess that i'll write a real answer:

the overwhelming reason that more people aren't very good/great at these games is that they either don't work very hard at it or don't know what to work on. this can take on the form of not having an open enough mind to consider that things besides the things you concentrate on or are good at are important to success and improvement. another reason is that they are very poor poker players.

[junkmail3]

9-5 + wife

[Bonafone]

Well I would like to think I'm still improving, but I think playing more than 4 tables is slowing me down from making the jump to the 215's. Also I'm quite the p00sy, if it wasn't for deuce2high I would still be in the 55's. I think the only thing stopping me from moving up is confidence.

Any yes, citanul is a [censored] amazing.

[playtitleist]

[ QUOTE ]
don't know what to work on

[/ QUOTE ]

[downtown]

When I was in engineering undergrad, I would try to plug things into a formula. Or I would try to find the formula in the book. Then, one day, I sort of "got it" and was able to figure things out better on my own when problems weren't so straight forward.

Really low level SNGs are sort of formulaic, and the approach is similar for a lot of players. Look at all the posts that say "tell me what to do here," rather than asking why or allowing or allowing for all variables to be taken into account.

The easy formula at the beginning aspect of SNGS is what makes them easy to learn, and it's how I got into SNGs in the first place. Moving up is sort of like not being able to plug into the quation anymore, but having to take into consideration more variables. The higher you go, the more considerations there are.

And to answer the second part of your question, since I only play the 55s, what holds me back personally is not having played enough to figure out what all those variables are and what all the necessary changes are as you move up. Also, wanting to play as many tables as possible in order to maximize my hourly rate, rather than fine tuning my game slows my progress upward, so I try to compensate by surfing 2+2 a couple of times a day at work.

[raptor517]

balls. the bigger yer balls, the better u do in poker. ok the diff between a great 109er that struggles in the 215s and a great 215er that pwns everything is pretty simple. PERFECT bubble play. and i mean perfect. no mistakes. not occasionally making a -ev shove, occasionally letting someone keep their bb when u dont wanna shove 23o, etc. perfect. perfect early game. this means not folding AQ from the bb on lvl 2 to a SINGLE raise to 90. this means being able to play a flop, turn, and river well. this means implementing cash game strategies to gain chips in the early stages of the stt. thats really all there is to it. holla

[The Yugoslavian]

Focus
Discipline
Empathy

Not necessarily in that order.

Yugoslav

[fluorescenthippo]

i think about this a lot and honestly i have no idea. i feel like i have gotten so much better in the last 5 months yet my ROI is basically the same. i also find myself agreeing with the top posters in almost all hands posted. but i still suck [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]