I am primarily a turbo sng grinder. I almost never play cash games and when i do its microstakes for fun. I also can't beat cash games so that is the primarily reason and i like sngs because its pretty easy to multitable and play. I'm a overall winner though in turbo sngs.

My question is really directed to you grinders out who play lots of tables in sngs or cash games, do you ever feel like trying to play tournaments and then get a nice hefty payday? The thing about me is i almost never ever play tourneys. I would play at most 5 tourneys a month and that is probably on the weekends. During the weekdays, i'm always grinding my turbo sngs if i'm playing online poker.

I watched the episode of the Micros and how there is a main character who plays tens of thousands of hands but then is just up about $3.48 in the micros and making like 2 cents an hour. Then he has a friend who plays even smaller micro limits but he is too chicken to step out of the micros. Then he talks to himself and decides on whether or not to take a shot at the million dollar tournament. He says things like he should play it because at least it would give him a chance to get excited about SOMETHING and break out of breakeven streak he was in.

Though i'm a winning sng player, the things he was saying in that video were things i always said to myself too. I know that most of you sng and cash game grinders, the ones who play 12+ tables and rarely play much tournaments. Does anyone of you grinders feel like him a bit? I always tell myself i'm going to take some shots at playing some tourneys and trying to hit a big score instead of grinding almost everyday if i'm playing poker but i always make excuses to not play it and then continue to play my normal turbo sngs.

I know that many of you people who play tournaments only have it tough because of the long schedules and long days and some of you probably don't like it. But to those grinders out there who don't play any tourneys or play so little every month, don't you feel like you won't ever get a chance to hit a big payout because of all you do is grind sngs or cash? I mean you can win good amounts on your daily grind whether cash or sngs and its your BREAD AND BUTTER but it would be near impossible to hit a big score in one day like a tourney. Heck even the daily 40 grand tourney on stars pays around $7000 to 1st place and that is not possible to make per day if you are a sng grinder or if you play 200NL and below. I mean if you are a grinder and make $4000 per month on average, that is good but if you win 1 tourney and its at least a $10 tourney on stars, 1st place is probably going to be at least $2500.

I feel like i'm missing out on a chance because i keep avoiding tourneys even though everyday the thought comes in my mind that i want to go and bink a tourney.

I'm just wondering if anyone of you GRINDERS out there are like me and can give your opinions on this. I know there are lots of people that take shots by playing higher than they should in cash game and tourneys and playing tourneys higher than they should. But anyone else just avoid taking shots like me even though they always tell themselves they want to win a tourney?

Thanks.

I think a lot of grinders get free tickets so they are constantly trying to bink tourneys because it is free to try so why wouldn't you?

I've had about 10 shots at $11 tourneys because of free tickets. There's also the VIP tourneys on stars and the rakeback freerolls and iron man freerolls on tilt. Lots of free chances to bink a tourney out there.

playing 6hrs only to bubble= life tilt...

Hey reptar, i don't get many of those free tickets. But i do play those star vip tourneys they have. But i'm not only talking about these tourneys. I mean tourneys like in the $10-$55 range. The price of a buyin doesn't affect me because i'm a mid stakes turbo sng grinder.

I just keep avoiding tourneys even though at least 2-3 times a week i will tell myself i want to play a tourney like the stars $11 40k Guaranteed buy just avoid it and play my mid stakes sngs.

because many players dont want to play for 5 hours whithout cashing, and if you do, then its maybe little over your buyin

Not at all. Because it's harder to play 24 tournaments, than 24 cash game tables/s&g.

I heard about lots of donks in massive MTT, giving you a potential huge ROI, but if you need to play 4x less tables, it's not good enough.

I play exclusively MTTs at the moment. Playing really large field ones is terrible. The largest field size I play is ~400 and most of the ones I play are under 100.

what stakes do you play chris?

its harder to play cash tables

Are these high bi mtts?

or on some random site?

As a cash grinder I never fantasize about winning MTT's simply because I know the time investment required to do so. I require immediate results from my sessions. I cant dedicate an entire week of playing 100 tourneys and not place in a single one of them. I cant even dedicate 10 hours of a day only to have nothing to show for it. It's funny because I could still end up losing or breaking even for a day/week in cash, but there's something different about winning real tangible money after each hand, whereas in a tournament you feel like you just wasted a day of your life if you bust deep near the bubble.

Yeah it would have been nice to win 1.6 mill + a lambo last weekend. But winning the sunday mill is like winning the lottery when you factor in all the players/variance. I think I'd have a better chance at grinding up to nosebleeds and just buying the damn lambo myself lol.

Basically what Javi ^^^ said. The variance is just too big. I hate it when I play great, win a couple of big blinds at the start, then get card dead and have to shove A9 or so and lose against KT. Tournaments just not for me.

Yeah tourneys have their downsides too, of course. But it really sounds like you need some adrenaline! Play a few more micros, smaller fields if possible. 5 a week instead of 5 a month. As long as you stay within your BR it'll add some spice to your bland grind... and may even get you a nice score. Why not? Maybe even try some 45s, 90s or 180s which are good practice for larger MTTs. Personally I really like the 45s.

op, i am exactly like you. i want to play more mtt's but i never do. like everyone says, you need a ton of luck/run good to bink 1, and grinding all day to only min. cash would put me on life tilt.

i do however play micro mtt's just for the fun of it from time to time. when i just feel like relaxing and don't really mind if i bust or not.

i remember when i had my last $10 on full tilt when i started to play poker, and didn't know wtf i was doing, and came in 2nd place in a 3k guarantee mtt. ive grown as a player and know so much more than i use to, and haven't binked a mtt since. just shows how much luck/run good you need.

the 11$ 40k is a good one along with the 5.50 20k that starts about an hr earlier. do those and load up some sngs imo

another thing about these huge MTT's is most players just don't have the time. I don't even have time to play SNG's really which is why I now almost always play HUSNG's. So I'm really lucky if I can dedicate like 10 hours to an MTT. Just doesn't happen though. And again what Javi said about winning money right away, even through a downswing, makes you feel better than winning a couple of bi's over a few days or weeks

i play alot mainly but i always take shots at tournies especially the larger ones, i am playing a bunch of the miniFTOPS events this year and probably will play the SCOOP too. I think i am decent at tournaments but they are terrible to play alot of because they take so long and are such high variance.

Play them on sundays.

I'm Australian so I can play the euro sites, there are about 5 or 6 sites that I spread my play between. Buyins vary heavily, I'm currently playing one tourney that is 200 euro buyin and one that's 100 euro rebuy. But then later I'll be playing a couple tourneys which are $5 rebuy, and I play all sizes in between. It's all about what fits into my schedule, like with the $5 rebuy ones they come up later in my session when I have slots free and they're fast-structured so they finish at a time that's in line with when my other tourneys finish.

Large tourneys are pretty terrible imo because even though ROI is higher, hourly rate isn't much higher if any, and the combination of long play times and soul destroying variance will make you want to kill yourself. If you just want a get rich quick dream then fair enough, but I'd rather just concentrate on high EV and low variance.

tournaments and SNGs make me want to slit my wrists and pour bleach inside them.

I play SSMTTs (27s and under) along with MTTSNGs and the swings are quite /wrist worthy but def nice when u win an MTT and can freeroll the whole day

Learn Cash is the best advice I can give.


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