Hey guys, I currently play both SNGs and MTTs. I've noticed lately I've been getting better results at MTTs. I've been playing SNGs daily for over three months straight recently. I've labelled most of the winning regulars that I encounter in the games. Lately, I've just noticed alot of the player pool is made up of winning regs. I'd don't see lobbies with many unknowns or weak players. Are these games just out dated and no longer a profitable way to play poker?

I just notice that most of the discussion and study people have about the NLHE is based on cash games and MTTs. I just thought alot of people enjoyed SNGs because it is a simple format that I'm sure alot of people are accustomed to. I started playing poker in home games of 6-10 people, so an SNG is the closest thing to that. I just thought there would be more casuals playing those as well. I'm just curious about the state of that form of poker. I also noticed there aren't many discussion threads on SNGs in this forum.

MTT's are just a better form of poker IMO. I like Live MTTs the best which are essentially 4-5 tables the ones I play.

I grew up playing SnGs but they basically died when Black Friday hit. MTTs became more popular and there just wasn't the player pool to support them. I used to have money on a few sites and noticed that SnGs never filled on many of them. Lately I've started playing some of the 18-45 man ones on Stars when I don't have enough time to devote to a full MTT and I've noticed that the quality of play is significantly worse than what I see at the same level of MTT. Could also be because I play turbos and the SnGs move really fast.

Definitely been a slow decline in volume over the years on stars anyway. When they changed the rake back system that killed a lot of action. but they do still run and money is still there to be made

SNGs are low winrate and high volume formats, with the decline of traffic most regs (the not very good ones) lost interest. Recreationals also enjoy other formats a lot more, this is why you see almost exclusively see strong players at the tables.

Just an example, I could have sustain 20 tables of 45man turbo SNGs opened and play 100 games in a 4.5 hour session. Now I maybe could do that mixing all formats during only prime traffic. I also could have 30 9max turbos fired up within 15 minute timeframe, now playing 30 games in 2 hours might be possible. Games has gotten faster so that a plus, but not nearly enough to offset the decline in traffic.

Currently the 18man turbos being played the most, but again, mostly from Europe evening you could count on good traffic, especially above micro stakes its the only format might worth dabble into.

Thanks for the input guys. Ya SNGs seem like a format of game where grinders are trying to edge out a low positive ROI, with volume. I'm mainly playing the 9 and 18 mans myself at $3-$10. Recently, I was doing 6-8 tables at once to grind bonuses, but I'm now more into focused game play. I hate making mistakes because I had to quickly make one while missing a bunch of factors regarding the game. It makes me lazy as well and push all in more, rather than make plays that require more attention.

I've been doing that for three months straight everyday now. I just want to be able to pick a form of poker that is the best use of my time. Maybe it is SNGs and MTTs. But I've also considered other things like cash games, Zoom NL, Zoom PLO and also thought about specializing in winning satellite seats.

Stars ****ed the SnG scene when they got rid of the MTTSNGs - 6man and 9mans are full of regs now just passing money around paying rake. HUSNGs can be fairly good if you know who the regs are.

I think nearest thing if you want the flexibility of SnGs (i.e not committing to a 6hour session with 5 min breaks every hour) then Spins are probably best now. <$10 BIs are usually full of recs and it's a pretty black and white game to learn, especially at those stakes where most players are just gambling. High variance ofc, but you can put in a much higher volume.

Spins are brutal. Mind-numbingly boring and super high variance.

Time is exactly why I exclusively play turbos. I can't commit to a 10-12 hour block of time and turbo MTTs are done in 4 hours max.

I've tried Spins from those chest tickets they give away. Today I played like ten $2 spins and ended up ahead $1 after all that lol. I'm not sure if that format is really for me. Its cool getting short handed and heads up practice, but the stacks are so shallow it doesn't allow for much play. I'll keep dabbling in them occasionally to see if I get into them.

As far as MTTs, the turbo ones, or ones with a few hundred people aren't too bad time wise. I guess I have been doing both MTTs and SNGs because it allows for some flexibility depending on time contraints and game availability.

The multiday event ones can be inconvenient when they have a day 2 and day 3 on Mon and Tues. I did my first multiday one this past weekend for the Big 20 $55 and made it to day 2. Fortunately, I work from home so I was able to play it, but it is definitely not a preferred situation.

miss mttSngs on stars

Yeah, I miss the days of SNG tournaments to, unfortunately they have almost died in all rooms. (

SNGS arent as profitable as they used to be which can be said for pretty much all forms of poker. But you can still make 6 figures a year playing SNGS if you multisite and im not even talking about playing hypers.

Ok that is interesting. What is the advantage of playing multiple sites as opposed to just one? It seems like with one site you can focus on their rewards system which tends to get better with more play.

I don't think there's anyone made 6 figs this year pre-rakeback, but I'm happy to stand corrected

Can assure you that you are wrong I know at least 3 on bovada that make 6 figures.

Yeah just looking at SS leaderboards pre-RB profits in a very clear trend for the past decade, but Bovada is untracked unfortunately. You may share SNs as the site is still searchable, or post graphs yourself with SNs hidden.
My initial thought was not surprisingly the biggest winner likely are at US-friendly smaller networks.

honestly wish I hadnt said anything in the first place dont wanna draw attention to bovada.

I don't get why people will try to lump in MTTs without a fixed starting time and STTs as if they're the same game or attract the same players. They're nothing like each other, and while there will be some crossover (I certainly played the 90 mans on FTP back when that was a thing despite STTs being my main game at the time, simply because they were the softest MTTs I've ever seen), to imply that it's all "the SnG scene" is quite inaccurate

To answer the OP's question, it depends on what he is meaning by SNG - if he means STT then yeah, optimal play has been known for quite some time, the edge for many players was only there because of rakeback, then that disappeared along with the elimination of mass volume based reward schemes

sngs are ****ed. in nj pokerstars, it's only hu sngs and spins which are so ****ing stupid you're better of playing hu but they don't. The funny thing is the mtts on these sites are really just mttsngs like the old days now.

The US desperately needs to join the global player pools again.