I'm beginning to wonder (even since my post yesterday) if I'm being overly optimistic about the donkeys playing higher and higher and visions of shiploads of new fish coming in. Actually, what follows is probably a complete contradiction to my post yesterday. Right now I'm taking a break of some as of yet unknown duration from cash games to focus on my SNG play, so I've bought myself a small bankroll with non-cash game money to grind out the Party $10 games.

A lot of them are very tight! I played in one game last night, blidns got up to 200/400 and the game was still 9-handed!!! Obviously at that stage no one really has a staggering chip lead over anyone else, so it's basically 100% a preflop push/fold game at that point. I wonder if these types of push-bot games, in the long run, are at all profitable.

Once in awhile I still play a game where 3 guys get knocked out before the first blind increase,I am able to outplay my opponents after the flop and "play" my way into the money and go from there, but sorry to say these games are getting rarer.

I guess the main question behind my babbling is...are there any adjustments we can make to increase our edge over these weak-tight games? One answer is be aggressive early, but that's not it - getting an extra t500 during round one or two does little to nothing to increase our prize pool equity.

Is the market really saturated to the point of non-profitability?

Since we now frequently run into situations where there's still 5 or more players left with the blinds high, our advantage comes from pushing and folding in the right situations. Understanding and applying SNG-PT has become more important than ever.

Yea , havent been playing poker for that long , but in the course of only 8 months I have seen a shift in the tightness of players in regards to the quality of players. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because it makes it much easier to profit in these events because players are essentially playing their cards face up. The problem comes in the fact that the edges we push with have been substantially decreased which has resulted in a higher amount of variance for me.

UB has some fierce competition even at low stakes like $22 SNGs, but I found their $11s ridiculously easy. I rarely play SNGs on UB anymore, but when I do, it's never above the $11s. $22s take forever and have more than half the table knowing what they're doing. Not fun and not much of an edge.

A quick example to show there is plenty of dead wood at the $10 SnGs

Sorry not sure how to convert hands as I dont usually post them

1st hand ... when he min raised me on the turn I thought he had also hit trips which is why I raised so big ...

***** Hand History for Game 4654234238 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:25579375 Level:1 Blinds(20/40) - Tuesday, July 04, 15:28:42 ET 2006
Table 2 - Table(758169) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: kingschneid ( 2000 )
Seat 2: ivan321111 ( 2000 )
Seat 3: IM_ALL_AINT ( 2000 )
Seat 4: Ironman253 ( 2000 )
Seat 5: NOD9IT ( 2000 )
Seat 6: nofoldstan ( 2000 )
Seat 7: feckler05 ( 2000 )
Seat 8: pokadottie ( 2000 )
Seat 9: ShnellShnell ( 2000 )
Seat 10: salbfree ( 2000 )
Trny:25579375 Level:1
Blinds(20/40)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to ShnellShnell [ Ks Kd ]
ivan321111 calls [40].
IM_ALL_AINT folds.
Ironman253 folds.
NOD9IT folds.
nofoldstan folds.
feckler05 folds.
pokadottie calls [40].
>You have options at Table 95253 Table!.
ShnellShnell raises [200].
salbfree folds.
kingschneid folds.
ivan321111 calls [160].
pokadottie folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4h, 9d, Kc ]
ivan321111 checks.
>You have options at Table 95253 Table!.
ShnellShnell checks.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6c ]
ivan321111 checks.
>You have options at Table 95253 Table!.
ShnellShnell bets [200].
ivan321111 raises [400].
ShnellShnell raises [1200].
ivan321111 calls [1000].
** Dealing River ** [ 4s ]
ivan321111 checks.
ShnellShnell is all-In [400]
ivan321111 is all-In [400]




wait for it





ivan321111 shows [ Jd, 9s ] two pairs, nines and fours.
ShnellShnell shows [ Ks, Kd ] a full house, Kings full of fours.
ShnellShnell wins 4100 chips from the main pot with a full house, Kings full of fours.
Player ivan321111 finished in 20 place

I switched to SNGs 43 months ago as i was struggling to make money on the cash games. Every time I played $ sites i seemed to win and when i played £ games I lost so net, i was bleeding money at 1/2 no limit levels. I switched to SNGs to mange the variances and (frankly) to limit my losses. Also to experience the enjoyment of winning tourneys. I've read about how to play SNGs from a number of articles/posts, including cactus jack and nash vegas BUT it is still so difficult to make money at $10/20 SNGs. There is always a point in the game where it becomes a crapshoot and a lottery. Playing at Prima and Crypto sites, the blinds move up every 10 hands, and there always seems to be at least 6 players remaining after the 3rd level. I'm actually thinking of reading a newspaper until level 4 and be blinded down until the action starts. As one of the posts states, it doesn't matter whether your opening chips increase by 500, when the blinds hit 100/200 so soon. At Party you get more play at the lower levels as the blinds are time rather than hand related. Are there any other sites where the blinds are time related?

I've now started playing the odd cash game again with a small measure of success and feel that my play has benefitted from my SNG experience so might mix the two for a while.

In conclusion, whereas I think a good player can certainly make money in cash games, this is not the case at SNGs, but they are great fun though.

|Been reading the forum for 6/7 months or so now but think this might be my first post. Keep up the good work.