Question for those more capable with math than myself:

(Assumptions: 9 man STT with 50/30/20 distribution for 1st-3rd) non-multi table environment

1. What is the consensus among successful players as to a reasonable ITM% that over a large enough sample suggests your play is +EV? (I assume this % will be subject to buy in amount but could be wrong)

2. What is the consensus among successful players as to a reasonable % percentage of 1-4 finishes vs 5-9 finishes that over a large enough sample suggests your play is +EV? (I assume here that although busting out in 4th is undesirable, having a larger amount of 4th place finishes instead of a larger amount of 9th place finishes suggests you are playing such that you give yourself the best opportunity to make the money. Again, I could be wrong and don't mind being educated)

3. What is the consensus among successful players as to the reasonable ITM finish distribution? Obviously we'd love to finish 1st all the time we ITM, but I'm wondering if successful players can identify any pattern to their ITM distribution (i.e. mostly 1st and 3rd with few 2nds, or 33% each etc. )

I don’t think ITM% alone is a particularly good metric for assessing your SNG (or any tourney) performance. For an extreme example, consider a 9 man 10 + 1 SNG with a player having an ITM of 58%, but always finishing third when in the money. His ROI is -5% although he wins money in more than half of those SNGs he plays.

If he always finishes first when in the money, then ITM= 23% if ROI is -5%.

ROI directly measures profit/loss so why use a different metric, though one that is an ROI factor?

Agreed. I measure ITM and ROI as well as % of times I make the bubble. I'm trying to determine target values for each of these metrics.

the answer to most new player's questions is, "it depends"...and this is no exception

there are a lot of factors that can change the "consensus among successful players"
like whats the speed structure, what buy in is it(how soft it is), whats youre playing style, etc

http://prntscr.com/gz61f6

thats mine...but ive seen other regs have it totally different, with much less 1st and 4th witch leads to more 2nd and 3rd usually

to sum up, the answer to youre question cant be given IMO...and even if there was an average distribution among regs that you can magically find out....that info would be worthless

all you should be doing is working on youre pre and post flop ranges and sizings