Could one actually be superior to another, or are they just different styles of play?
I have always maintained that the regular and the turbo PokerStars SnGs can both be beatable at the same rate, because they are 2 different kettles of fish (no pun intended) and should be played different ways. But as of the last few weeks I've been turning to the other way of thinking, thinking that regular SnGs are actually beatable at a higher rate than turbos. Am I being nieve? Probably. Am I right? Just maybe.
I've had ample previous experience with the single-table turbo SnGs, winning some at them (exact ITM/ROI remain unknown due to my early days of poker never being recorded). But it goes without saying that they are swing.. very swingy. You need a certain amount of luck to win them (eg. needing a big 60/40 to hold up when 5 handed because the blinds are so high that it's a push-fest). However, huge upswings can occur when those big coinflips hold up time and time again.
In the (small) sample of 40 regular SnGs I've played, I've noticed a huge difference in strategies used, as I expected, but I feel this difference does give you an edge. There is not so much luck involved due to the slower blinds (duh, I'll elaborate). This means that there is not so much variance, so less rough downswings happen, and less great upswings happen. Your results go in more of a smooth upward curve, which in the long run should level out with the turbo SnG profit line, except that line is a lot more jiggly-jaggly wiggly-waggly.
But I feel that the edge you gain in regular SnGs over turbo SnGs is emotion. I'm sure most of you reading this have suffered from tilt and you probably still do occasionally suffer from tilt. I'm not going to hide the fact that I have problems controlling my tilt. You've got this emotional advantage in the regular SnGs because your results are not all over the place in the short term (short term is around 100 SnGs in my opinion) like you are in the turbos. Therefore you will not be getting into the two types of tilt (frustration - downswing & complacency - upswing) as much. Therefore it is easier to keep your head on, consequently easier to play your 'A' game, and therefore your overall results will inevitably be better.
That is why I think the regular PokerStars SnGs are more profitable then the turbo PokerStars SnGs. Feel free to give your opinion on this in my blog comment thread.
In regard to how I have actually been doing result-wise, I'll update my little table once I receive full tournament summaries from Stars (they're lagging for some reason). I'm up around $217 through 40 SnGs, I can't draw any conclusions from this however, as my sample size is small to the point of meaningless, but hey, +$217 is still sweet.
Until next time,
dwarfman.
I have always maintained that the regular and the turbo PokerStars SnGs can both be beatable at the same rate, because they are 2 different kettles of fish (no pun intended) and should be played different ways. But as of the last few weeks I've been turning to the other way of thinking, thinking that regular SnGs are actually beatable at a higher rate than turbos. Am I being nieve? Probably. Am I right? Just maybe.
I've had ample previous experience with the single-table turbo SnGs, winning some at them (exact ITM/ROI remain unknown due to my early days of poker never being recorded). But it goes without saying that they are swing.. very swingy. You need a certain amount of luck to win them (eg. needing a big 60/40 to hold up when 5 handed because the blinds are so high that it's a push-fest). However, huge upswings can occur when those big coinflips hold up time and time again.
In the (small) sample of 40 regular SnGs I've played, I've noticed a huge difference in strategies used, as I expected, but I feel this difference does give you an edge. There is not so much luck involved due to the slower blinds (duh, I'll elaborate). This means that there is not so much variance, so less rough downswings happen, and less great upswings happen. Your results go in more of a smooth upward curve, which in the long run should level out with the turbo SnG profit line, except that line is a lot more jiggly-jaggly wiggly-waggly.
But I feel that the edge you gain in regular SnGs over turbo SnGs is emotion. I'm sure most of you reading this have suffered from tilt and you probably still do occasionally suffer from tilt. I'm not going to hide the fact that I have problems controlling my tilt. You've got this emotional advantage in the regular SnGs because your results are not all over the place in the short term (short term is around 100 SnGs in my opinion) like you are in the turbos. Therefore you will not be getting into the two types of tilt (frustration - downswing & complacency - upswing) as much. Therefore it is easier to keep your head on, consequently easier to play your 'A' game, and therefore your overall results will inevitably be better.
That is why I think the regular PokerStars SnGs are more profitable then the turbo PokerStars SnGs. Feel free to give your opinion on this in my blog comment thread.
In regard to how I have actually been doing result-wise, I'll update my little table once I receive full tournament summaries from Stars (they're lagging for some reason). I'm up around $217 through 40 SnGs, I can't draw any conclusions from this however, as my sample size is small to the point of meaningless, but hey, +$217 is still sweet.
Until next time,
dwarfman.
