SNG report.

Unknown

I've been playing a lot of $200 SNG's on Party.  A whole happy bunch of them.  Most of them, win or lose, don't bear writing about, but I thought this one was interesting enough to post.

6 left at 150/300, which is in itself unusual... usually we're down to 3 or 4 by now.

I'm in the cutoff with 1575, which puts me slightly in second place, but it's anyone's game.
I get TT.  UTG goes all in for 780.  I re-raise all-in, everybody else folds.  UTG has A8.
Board: J88QJ, and I'm down to 795.

Very next hand (which puts me UTG +1) I am dealt AT.  UTG folds, I move in, nobody calls, I'm up to 1245.

Very next hand (UTG) I am dealt QQ and move in.  BB calls all-in, I have him just barely covered.  BB has A9.
Board: 6A477, and I'm down to 165.

Very next hand (BB) I am dealt Q9o and am all-in for less.  Folded to SB who calls the 15.  He has AcJc.
Board: 924K4 no flush for him, and I double up to 330.

Very next hand (SB) I am dealt 58o, after posting my SB for almost half my stack.  There is an all-in raise, and an all-in re-raise in front of me.  I muck.  Down to 180.

Very next hand, now 5 of us left.  I am the the button with 180.  I'm dealt ATo.  UTG+1 raises 500, only I call.  UTG+1 has As2s.
Board: T7JT3 no spades, and I almost quadruple up to 690 because of the blinds.

Very next hand I'm MP with Q5o and fold.

Very next hand I'm UTG with Ad 2h and move all-in.  I get called by the button (all-in for less at 400) and by the BB, who throws in the extra 390.  Button has 8h8c.  BB has Qs7s.
Board: Jc Ac 7c 5c 9c.  The button triples up and then some, and I chop what's left with the BB.  Down to 290.

Very next hand I'm all-in for less in the BB, with ATo.  Folded to SB who calls.  SB has Q8o.
Board: 79686, and I double up to 580.

Very next hand, the blinds go up to 200/400.  I am in the SB for 200, and I'm dealt 88.  Folded to me, I move in, and the BB calls the extra 180.  BB has 7h3h.
Board: 5d Ac Qh 6h Td.  I double up to 1160.

Very next hand I'm the button with Q5o and fold.

Very next hand I'm MP with Ah7s and move in.  I don't get called, up to 1760.

From that point on, it's back to 'normal'.  I went on to take first, but I would have posted this even if I missed the money.  That ride from 1575 to 165 to 690 to 290 to 1760, where I'm all-in on just about every hand I'm dealt for 2 orbits, was pretty fun.  Frustrating at times, but fun nonetheless. 

I hope you don't feel like I just wasted five minutes of your life; as always, these sorts of occurrances are usually more interesting to the person who actually experiences them. 

Tigerscott

Watched you one night..
Tried to say hi but you must have obs off

Unknown

It's possible, but unlikely. More likely, I was looking at another screen when u typed something, and the text in those chatboxes moves by so fast that by the time I was back at that screen, your text was gone. Try again next time... I wasn't ignoring u.

ryanhealy

Do the blinds go up as fast in the 200 Sit'N'Gos as they do in the lower buy-in ones???

I played STEPS today just to kill some time. I ended up making it to Step 3 before I got knocked out, but in all three it seemed liked the blinds got high REALLY fast. From 10-15 to 50-100 in less than 30 minutes.

Also in all three I played when the blinds got up as high as 50-100, there were still 7-9 players left, and then within the next 10 minutes it'd be down to 3 or 4 and then done soon after that due to the players getting short-stacked so quickly.

Seems like you either have to build your stack early on or get lucky soon after in order to win these,

Just wondering if its the same at the higher limits? Cause it seems like an attrocious structure and I know on some sites like Pacific Poker, the structure gets better as the buyins become more substantial.

Chugs

Now that's a fun ride, and really one where you had to make very few actual decisions. When you're short on chips, the decisions seem to make them selves.

Only spot where maybe you think is when you have 58o in the SB. You more or less need magic in a bottle, but passing there gave you the possibility of waiting a hand or two before being forced into an action. That was the TSN turning point folding the SB with half your stack in the pot.

Unknown

That was the TSN turning point folding the SB with half your stack in the pot.

Agreed.  Thanks for noticing!    You're right that most decisions made themselves.  As you said, quite the ride.

ryanhealy: the thing about the Party SNG's is that they don't go by time/level.  They go by number of hands, ten to be precise.  So the amount of time it takes will always be a factor of how long your opponents take to make decisions, etc...

That being said, your point is well-taken about it being a faster-than-average structure.  I for one love it, and here's why.  A lot of players don't know how to adapt to this SPECIFIC structure.  Party SNG's in particular need to be played like this:

Limp in with a wide assortment of hands in the first couple of levels, try and hit a big hand, take someone's stack.

At 25/50 and 50/100, stop limping.  Raise with good hands, the occasional junk hand sometimes, and try and conserve--if not build--your stack for the dreaded 100/200 all-in bonanza.

After 50/100, it's all about your stack, the number of opponents remaining, and what you've noticed about those opponents.  Blind-stealing is the way to chip up, and every now and again you'll be raising with legitimate hands, and you might catch someone off-guard.

To sum up, the first half is very passive/conservative unless you have a monster, and the last half plays like a turbo, or the end of a MTT, when the blinds are huge and everyone is more or less shortstacked.  Lots of all-in bluffs and semi-bluffs.  The gap theory plays a huge role in the late stages of a SNG, especially when you're down to 4.  Raise liberally.  And if you're the big chip leader with 3 or 4 left, raise every hand, pretty much.

At least, that's how I play them, and I'm happy with my results.

The blind structure for the $200 sng is as follows, 10 hands/level, regardless of the number of players.

1000 to start.

10/15
15/30
25/50
50/100
100/200
150/300
200/400
250/500
300/600 (capped here)

Yorkpoker

Does the CNPL include SnG's ? I will buy in to a day of your $200 games

Graham

I was thinking it would be a wise move for CNPL to work with SNGs because you can usually fold your way into 5th place before starting to play..so yes, it's something we'll be doing.

sinc

That was awesome, damn lucky sob AA

Unknown

sinc wrote:

That was awesome, damn lucky sob AA

I know, I know.  I have had more than my fair share of luck in the last couple of years.

However, it must be said: that whole roller coaster ride started when my TT was beaten by A8. 

Glad you enjoyed the read, it was a rush, that's for sure.  The best part is when I got back in the game at 1760, after all of that chaos, I knew I was going to win... no doubt in my mind.

sinc

Hahaha I know Aces, its just funny to rib ya about your luck. Remember that like 52o or 42o in that one stars sunday tourney i was sweating ya. You got some big flop and busted a guy up pretty good, and got the whole table/observers stired up hehe.