Steps on Stars

[McMelchior]

OK, here are my results so far.

After initally winning a Step 1, a Step 2, a re-try at Step 3 and then busting as the usual 70% fav I decided to stick it out with Step 1 until I had twelve (12) Step 2 tickets - and then NEVER play Step 1 again!

I ended up playing total of 41 Step 1 (puke):

11 times I busted OOTM
4 times I finished #4 for $1.50
16 times I finished #3 for a re-try
12 times I won a Step 2 ticket

So - playing Step 1 (including my first try) I've spent a net total of $204 and won a total of thirteen (13) Step 2 tickets worth $351, for a ROI of 76% on my net investment.

Times spent totals 40 hours 20 min, but since I 3-table most of the time my net estimate is 16 hours, for a profit of $9.57 per hour.

That's actually a higher hourly rate than I've managed to make playing MTTs over the last 5 years. It just doesn't make the Step 1s more palatable to play.

I'll get back when I've burned my Step 2 tickets.

Oh yeah, this might help a few of you:

After the first couple of failures I downloaded SnG Wizard (it has a free 30 day trial mode), customized the software for the special Step pay-out structure and spent a few minutes after each set of tourneys analyzing my play.

They obv. play differently from "normal" SnGs because of the flat top pay-out, and I made some good adjustements to my play - I believe it paid of.