Variance in MTT's

[tjh]

I am focusing on my single table tourney skills at the moment. I play $11 10 player SNG at Ultimate Bet. When my bankroll is up I reward myself with a Multi Table tourney or else I take a shot at higher Buy in SNG. I used to play NL ring games but once I started closely tracking my losses.. I quit playing those.

My question has to do with Variance in MTT vs SNG.

I would imagine that the variance in MTT is huge. I suppose a good player could go for quite a while before scoring a big win. My question is the reverse.

How far can a bad player get ?

I am trying to get a feel for wether or not I am MTT material. Now that I keep close records this should be easy but my sample is tiny.

Here is my brief history.

I used to play a few MTT every week. Cheap $5 to $20 on UB mostly, sometimes STARS. I would frequently get in the money, the tiny little pitiful consolation prize money. I was close to breaking even on them. Probably down a little bit, say $1,000 buy in $800 return. Then I spent a good bit of time polishing my SNG game. I am decent ROI in those games, mostly at UB.

So tonight I reward myself with a 11 turbo with 277 players. Man the turbos are INSANE. So I crawl into the money at the bottom 1/4 of the crowd and work my way up and into second place. Those guys fold too much and I got lucky on occasion.
Also obviously (?) my SNG experience has helped in my MTT play.

The results..
I got second place !
Can I be that bad of a MTT player to get second ? Should I begin to study the MTT strategies posted here ? If so, who are the MTT gurus, where are the good threads?

Thanks for your help. I will stick to SNG for a while because they are more predictable but may add more and more MTT as time goes on.

I will begin to read this forum regularly and get a feel for the game. Thanks folks.

Maybe the $11 turbos are just full of dummies? Those blinds get so crazy high that I do not think they realize that they can not afford to NOT steal them.

--
tjh

[DireWolf]

[ QUOTE ]

I got second place !
Can I be that bad of a MTT player to get second ? Should I begin to study the MTT strategies posted here ? If so, who are the MTT gurus, where are the good threads?



[/ QUOTE ]

I think you should sell your house, move to vegas, and play every wsop event you can. You will make a kiling.

[A_PLUS]

Ouch, the sarcasm...

Check out the **official** threads for the big MTT tourneys. The best players usually congregate there, then check out their older posts. Also, their was a 'top 10' post floating around somewhere, a lot of the good players were named.

If you ever need help blowing off a huge stack, feel free to PM me, and sweat some of my games. Not only can I give away chips, I do it with style...style.

To answer another question. You can be a horrible player (not saying you are) and win a MTT, especially a turbo. My early online experience was similar to yours. You will need to find your own style, but my next step from where you are at was turning up the heat early in MTTs. I bust out much more often, but I have changed finishing just in the money a respectable amount, to occasionally pulling down a top 3 and a nice payday.

GL

[DireWolf]

heh, sorry about that. didn't mean to be so sarcastic. I guess my point was, just because you finished 2nd in a turbo doesn't mean you are a great tourny player. You might be, i don't know. But one second place turbo finish does not guarantee that

[Trainwreck]

Yes, the variance is huge!

You can't refill so one error and you could be a goner!

You need to play more of them, I'd suggest making a spreadsheet and keeping track of 100 MTT with same buyin, if you manage 60%+ in the money you are on your way....

In cheap ones my ITM rate was 70% over 150 of them.

>TW<

[A_PLUS]

So true. But remember the feeling of your first high finish. The world is yours!

I remember one weekend UB was down, so I decided to play at Pokerroom. I made two final tables, and was convinced I would be retired in 6 months. Now, the only thing I am convinced of is that I have given away more TCs firing that "third bullet" than any player alive.

[A_PLUS]

70% ITM????? HUH?!

How many final tables / wins?

[Trainwreck]

Final 3 20 times...

Final table 30 times...

10 wins...

Rough estimates, I didn't keep extremely good notes.

I should note: this includes Limit/PL/NL HE and O8B tourneys, I prefer to do all things at least above average. 8)

I am a short stack/survivor specialist... 3 times out of all of those did I get to the FT with a huge stack, won 2 of the 3, 3rd on the other.

>TW<

[A_PLUS]

See, now you set this poor guys sites too high!

Great job.

[MLG]

I haven't slept much so I'm guessing my sarcasm detector is just out of whack. But on the off chance that its not, and you're serious, then you should either stop deceiving yourself or when you decide to lie at least make it realistic.

25% ITM is a fantastic rate for anybody to maintain.