My thoughts on SNG's

I have been messing around with SNG's (sit and go tornys) this month, mostly the two table 18 manners and have come to the following conclusions.

The bad beats are shocking, the amount of times you get your stack in, which you inevitably have to do once the blinds get large, and end up losing and knocked out when you have like 70% chance to win is unbelievable. I have sat there almost flabbergasted at times.
Compared to cash games, you are seeing 10 times more hands go all in against each other and i presume your mind seems to notice it more when you are knocked out of tornys more times than the odds say you should.

A typical all-in, your KK vs AQ, your KK has a 70% chance of winning or 7 times out of 10. So obviously three times out of 10 the AQ is going to beat you. So suppose you are running slightly unlucky and the AQ beats you 4 times out of 10 as opposed to the 3 times it statistically should.  This in your mind almost feels like half the time.  And say the 4 times out of 10 your opponent has more chips than you when he pushes, you are knocked out 4 times. On some of your 7 wins, you had more chips than your opponent and were never in a position to get knocked out, so when you win it doesn't register in your mind as much as getting knocked out the torny. It wouldn't take much of this for your mind to perceive that your getting really F*cked over more times than you should.


Change the odds slightly again to hands like your AK (which seems a monster) All-In against say 9T, your Ak will win 60% of the time, i.e 6 times out of 10. Repeat the above and again in your mindset it seems like you are getting A** raped.


Now we all know in poker that when you start feeling like the rabbit in the headlights, your game has every chance of going to pot, along with your decision making when it comes to bankroll management, game selection and even life decisions!!


Reading pro blogs like James Atkin, who says he has had 80 buy-in downswings and even a 130 buy-in downswing, just goes to show the variance in the games even when you are playing optimally.


With so many aspects involved in playing these sngs i think you should concentrate on sorting the things you can control rather than worrying about the things you cant, and definitely do everything to stop your mindset quickly deteriorating.


I have come up with the following that i am going to try and stick to.


just play 18-man SNG's  (so i know them inside out)
play with a 200 buy-in roll   (to take the swings)  ($350 for $1.5 games)
start at the bottom of the ladder and play the $1.50 games  (to avoid tilt)
play 16 tables, (so not to get too caught up in the stress of bad beats/increase VPPs)
turn of the table chat  (so not to get distracted)
activate "hide from search feature"  (to make it hard for other players to see how many tables your playing)
hide your VPP status (another clue to other players as to how you might be approaching the game)
Try not to even look at your results each day (avoid tilt)

I am going to make every effort to put in a load of volume to see how i get on during this year, if it doesnt get me anywhere then i think i might well fook poker off for a while, especially me taking it as seriously anyway. I think i would rather spend a quarter of my time at the computer playing Football Manger, something i used to enjoy back in the old days. 

I was playing the other night and bumped into BurnleyMik at the tables who i have known online for prob the last few years. he has started playing SNGs again and by reading his recent posts seems to be encountering exactly the same as me.  Also during the same session a player "Mrmoomoo" who i had never played against before said hello in the chat and said he read my blog and as it turned out he lives where i used to live which i thought was pretty cool (and by doing so is eligable to join our pokerstars home game club!!!!! lol, Much Hoole Old boys poker club (I.D 32599 , code Smithy Inn)