Questions and thoughts about HU SNGs
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 3,048
So I've been playing HU SNGs lately. The structure is 10/20 blinds, 1500 stacks, and blinds increase every 6 minutes. Usually I play $50 games with $2.50 rake.
So far I have recorded 227 games. 133 wins and 94 losses. So I'm winning about 58.6% of the time for a ROI of 11.6% or $6.09 per game. My true winrate is +/- 7% within a 95% confidence interval which seems pretty good. So if I play 10 games a day I should probably be making around $60.90 a day which sure beats crappy factory work. If I played 20 games a day this would double! This almost seems too good to be true. Is this too good to be true?
Sometimes I face the problem of not having people to play however. Which is a real bummer. I remember times where I have sat a lobby for over an hour and no one comes. Usually it is somewhere from 7 to 15 minutes for someone to play, but on some occasions the action has been dead. Often times I end up playing other regs, but I think there is much more money to be made from recreational players. How should I go about deciding to sit a lobby or sit other people myself?
One day I got 27 games in, but it is really hard to get a number that high. I had to play a lot of other regs and some of them are pretty good players I'd rather take money from people that don't show up everyday. On one hand, I feel like a dick sitting the same reg over and over again. On the other hand, I do make money that way. However, I could see this coming back to haunt me in the future. The other regulars don't seem to sit one another. I know I might not like it if the same player was to keep on playing me. So as of now, I sit a variety of regs in moderation. Unless they are hogging all the lobbies then I don't even think twice about it.
I don't like to multi-table because I like to keep my mind focused on one game also sometimes my internet is stupid and goes offline. Also the game server has crashed in the past when I've had too many tables open so I just do one table.
When I play I have a deck of cards to my left where I keep track of my wins and losses. I need to do this in order to keep track of my statistics, but at the same time it kind of is stressful. If I look over and see 2 wins and 2 losses then that is a $10 loss due to rake. Sometimes I get this little fear thing before I play. I see I've won 5 games and lost 4. If I lose this next one I'll be losing for the session. I get this small little stomach churn when I register sometimes. I don't like it. I try not to look at the cash register after my games because I don't want to be results oriented over a short run, but sometimes it just sucks. On the day I played 27 games I ended up winning 11 and losing 16. So that was -$300ish. Yuck. Any tips on how to deal with this better?
Whenever I read poker stuff I hear this stuff about rakeback and extra money. That sounds really good. I'd like to have rakeback. How do I get this, how does it work?
How many games a day do you play? I'm attempting to do about 10 to 15 a day. I read about these people online playing like 100s of games a day, but they do hyper tournaments which aren't the same thing.
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 1,472
I assume you live in a country where you can't play on Stars? At what room do you play? With a bit of practice playing 2 tables focused is very doable. It's a very easy way to improve your hourly.
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 3,048
Yeah, I'm in the US. I can't play on Stars. :'(
Instead I play at BetOnline.
The software seems less glitchy nowadays so I might two table eventually. As I'm typing I've been waiting 13 minutes for a match. I'm about to lose patience and play the other regs.
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 389
Let me make a few suggestions to you:
1. Don't quit your day job. Living in the US, the current climate for these offshore sites is uncertain. Especially if you are playing only 50s exclusively.
2. Add a 2nd site to increase your volume. I am a $200 player on bovada, and although there are times where I have to wait 30-40 minutes for a game at that level, I can always drop in stakes and play games.
3. When you aren't getting into games, drop down stakes and battle regs at the level below you. This will not only help you get better, but the constant pressure on their bankrolls will keep them from moving up faster. (the downside is if they think you suck, they will come up in your regular stake to play you)
Goodluck
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 3,048
Thanks for the good advice. How many games do you usually get to play in a day on average?