E-Penis post (1000 22s) and some tips for low limit SnGers....

[The Don]

At the end of June I told my parents that I was going to play poker professionally for the summer and that I would be able to make $1000 per week. They were skeptical to say the least, and didn’t want me to fall into the life of a degenerate gambler. They were certain that I would end up broke and begging them for money. This was even though I had made about $5000 online ( First Post) during the 04-05 school year. Well long story short… I proved them wrong and now I can rub these graphs in my dad’s face (turns out I averaged about 1700 per week). My goal was to play 1200 SnGs during July for an 18% ROI. I did these 8 tabling in sets which I think is definitely the best method because I really like to concentrate on my decisions in the late game. I started with $1k in each account. I only finished 1000… I lack mental stamina… I don’t see how raptor and others play 10 hours per day. Luckily my ROI was high enough so that I made more money in 1000 than I had expected to make in 1200. Here are my stats and below I give some tips for low-limit SnGers.

Started playing on July 6: Actual ROI was 24.5% and actual ITM was 40.5%. At the peak of the profit graph I had a 29% ROI and 42% ITM (after 890) but two days of playing 8 hour sessions while running bad and on tilt dropped me to 24.5 and 40.5. Not too bad when you drop 22 buyins and your ROI goes down to 25% though. I would liketo remain incognito for now so I won’t reveal my screen names (although I’m sure the $22 8 tablers can easily figure out who I am through simple deductive reasoning).










Tips (If you think I am a luckbox you don’t have to take them):

First, before I started this 1000 I spent 3 weeks playing a lot of NL100 and 200 6max (some ring too) because I noticed there was a lot more post flop play since the structure change. This gave me a better sense of hand value short handed and also helped my deepstack play a lot (only applies to L1 really).

I don’t use eastbays program or anything and I don’t think it is a necessary investment for low limit players (especially since it may cost 15-20% of your BR). To improve my bubble and open pushing game I simply searched all of curtains’ back posts and tried to see what he was doing differently than me. Curtains is the technical master of SnGs and he also gives up a TON on valuable information and responds to almost every hand that is posted. So many that you can base your bubble game almost entirely on his wide array of posts. He bases his game off of ICM but he is not stupidly overaggressive (a style that seems to be popular here) and takes stack and future blind sizes into account when making a decision. He passes up marginally +EV spots a lot of the time if the situation calls for it. I do disagree with curtains on a few things after playing this 1000 (primarily I prefer a standard raise when he chooses to push in some situations). Basically, from experience I know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to open pushing or coming over the top late game (a few things are counter-intuitive and took me a while to figure out... not as many as a lot of people on this forum seem to think though).

Curtains had a post one time that said something along the lines of “don’t expect a read every time… there are so many different players at lower limits and it is necessary to know what the ‘average’ player will do.” I think a lot of my success had to do with knowing the average player very well. This allowed me to open up a bit in the early game and take advantage of more +EV spots than I use to. I probably play looser in L1, 2, and 3 than any low limit SnGer who beats the game for more than 15%. I believe that I hedge my risk this way. The edges you are able to take advantage of early are much larger than the ones you gain late by open pushing with < 10BB. I really don’t think anything much above 20% is possible if you are playing ultra tight early (like according to Aleo’s guide) even if you are playing perfectly according to ICM late.

Not only am I trying to double through early but I am always attempting to increase my stack. There is a HUGE difference between entering L4 with 900-1000 chips and playing ultra tight and entering with 600. Of course I may lose a pot early playing more hands early and be forced to get a little desperate in L3 with around 500. This is not a huge problem because I can play exactly like I would if you had 1000 in L4, a situation I am very used to. I am not doing anything fancy early… Basically if I think that my hand is likely to be better than any of the hands in later positions (or a hand that flops well like J10s) I will raise it up (opening of course… I normally ignore limpers unless there are a ton) and see a flop. I use my reads on the average $22er after the flop.

Along the same lines as this… I always attempt to put a player on a hand. I practice doing this on every hand which I am involved in or observe. I make decisions based on what I think my opponent has and not “because this is the right play when I have this hand in this situation of an SnG.” If you read the back posts of all of the great players like ZJ, Gigabet, Strassa2… they know their opponents very well and are always very confident in their reads. This is the way to be successful in any form of poker. Don’t be afraid to put you chips in if you think you have the best hand (whether it is a big hand or K high) or put all of your chips in if you believe that your opponent will fold.

Finally, I think (as almost every poker book ever written says) it is important to develop your own style. Sure I took a ton of info from “world champions” like curtains but I used it in the context of my own play. If you read my back posts you will see that I am one of the most disagreeable players on this forum (of course I am most likely to respond to posts that I disagree with). Form your own opinions… as an old philosopher once said, “following the herd is always a path to mediocrity.”

Future Goals: Be a 10% player at the 215s within the next 6 months. I said I was going to play the 55s this month but I had to cash out about 4k to pay for some stuff and I don’t feel comfortable unless I can play with at least 50 buyins in each account. My goal for August is 800 $33s for a 20% ROI and to play more MTTs.

[Whisper]

are you illmatic112? just a guess.

[Benholio]

Good post.

Good luck on the 30's, and keep us updated.

[gigastack]

beautiful profit graph, gl [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[TheWeakling]

nh.

Useful information. Good luck to you at the $33s.

[nate_king1]

GL.

[rvg72]

[ QUOTE ]
To improve my bubble and open pushing game I simply searched all of curtains’ back posts and tried to see what he was doing differently than me.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the best advice you could give - I have been doing the same for a while and it has really helped my game.

There are many other's here that have a lot of valuable things to contribute but bang for the buck you could simply read his thousands of responses and improve your game many fold.

Great results by the way!

rvg

[jgunnip]

nice post and good luck in the future.

[The Don]

[ QUOTE ]
are you illmatic112? just a guess.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope.

Blah the image host is messed up or something. Here is the profit graph.

[DeathbySuckout]

Very nice work in the 22s. And thanks for the tips. I need them.