Stars SNG seem tighter these days

Tie Twist

Playing mostly the $20 SNG's, overt the last month the play seems much tighter than usual.

What's going on? Small sample (40 SNG)?

Players getting better?

I'm on crack.

Pick one.

Irah

I find it depends on what time of day you are playing.

It seems like around 7-8 pm most nights people play wild.

I guess it depends on your style aswell. I prefer a tight table at a sng, simply because i can steal more blinds.

And finally, 40 sngs is a very small sample size, so it is hard to tell.

P.S. I hope you are NOT on Crack.... its a nasty addiction (supposedly worse than poker) :P

GL

GTA Poker

Well, if you notice this then it's probably a good thing, just take advantage of it.

AcidJoe

I have noticed this on poker room as well. So I started getting more aggressive, however people started noticing the aggression and then my blind steals were met with all ins in response. Gotta love the dynamics that are poker.

Zithal

I think the time of day is a big thing. I was playing a $5 SnG at 5am and played was retardedly tight.

So, I completely loosened up and kept stealing blinds. They noticed... but it didn't matter. Here's the conversation I had.

MrTighty: "That's the 5th time you raised my blind!"
Me: "Then call."
MrTighty: "I will once I get a hand"

LOL. Thanks for the info, I stole the next three blinds, then folded when he *finally* pushed back. I actually ended up 4th as I pushed a little too much.

Raised on the button with T9c, the player (a different one than above), FINALLY pushed back and I called getting 3-1 on my money. Her turned over.... J2o. Man, he must have been pissed off with me stealing his blind every rotation.

Tie Twist

I am a tight player in these things (usually the tightest at my table), and try to adjust while at a tight table (not my comfort zone though..lol). I definately prefer the wild tables, as you just need to wait for your first good hand usually to boost your stack.

At any rate, I see the "problem" as not getting paid with my good hands. Stealing blinds is fine, especially late when they escalate, but early on there isn't a lot of benefit versus the risk in my view.

A bunch of tight passives is one thing, and that's easy to deal with. But I'm talking about the 3 to a flop games where there is usually a raise. In other words "solid play". Usually by the 100/200 level, you'd be at the money, or at least down to 4 people. Lately it seems like I'm there with 6 others usually....which could be an anomoly, but really "feels" like a shift in calibre of play to me.

I usally play at night, betweeen 8-10 PM, maybe later on the weekends.

If people are playing more solidly (lets assume this is the case for the discussion), I have yet to learn my best approach. I know you should generally be playing opposite to your opponents, playing looser if they are tight for example, but I still have a hard time assuming I can get a TAG to make a tough (good) laydown, with a well timesd bluff. I can't shake the truth that this is still low-limit and the guy will likely call with a pocket second pair more often than not. I know I know, well is the game tougher or isn't it you ask? They can't be TAGs and also calling stations. I don't know what my question is really, but this is the first time where I have gone a month and not fealt like a much better player than the average player at the table.

I probably have had 4 losing months out of 24, starting two years ago at the $5 tables, but this current one feels like the most discouraging. I can actually go a whole SNG without shaking my head even once at someone's stunned play in dis-belief!

I have noiticed upwards of 75,000 people on stars these days, versus the 40,000 I remember when I started...and I would expect the sconsequence to be WORSE PLAY. Hopefully it is simply a blip, but how do you play a table of solid players? Even if I am wrong and the play will be bad again, as I move up and play does get better, what is the evolution ( those of you who layer higher in tourney's and SNG's - like Aces for example) you perform? When do I start playing 9,10 suited in MP for a raise?

I guess I should be happy others don't see the same change I feel like I'm seeing.

GTA Poker

It would be great if we could all just sit there and freeroll into the money whilst sitting on our hands. Perhaps you should try Party for this approach (not kidding).

Personally, I play poker from the outset. I play the $38 6 handed sngs on Stars and they are pretty easy to run over. My ITM is over 70% and what I do is play around when the blinds are still low to evaluate who I can run over and who is a solid player. I think that your problem may be one that I used to have and that is not wanting to lose any chips at any time. I don't mind at all if my stack dips to 1100 or 1200 in the early rounds from picking a fight with the wrong player, it's basically an investment for the latter rounds. The sngs area dynamic process for me not a static uphill climb. Now, if for some reason I dip below 900 I lock it up and play tight for the remainder of the game (until I double-up). I still have quite a few chips in comparison to the blinds if not in comparison to the rest of the table. You'd be surprised how playing any two cards at times and trusting your reads will outperform your tight play. Now, this will take some time to get used to, and it is hard to pull the trigger at times, but I think you'll improve your results and enjoy playing more than praying for others to lose.

Oh, and I haven't found any change in the $38 6handed sngs. I generally don't play full-table anything online, but hope my advice helps at the 9handed games as well. Could I also recommend trying out the $13 6 handeds on stars? The short tables tend to be looser than the full table sngs.