My thoughts on the 4 person SnG Heads up tourneys

[mike4066]

For those of you with a good heads up game I recommend trying the 4 person tourneys.

It's a two table tourney, if you win your table and you play the winner of the other table. Winner take all.

I played the 2 man HU games and did well, but my ROI wasn't great. I was ready to go back to full table SnG's when I saw the 4 man heads up.

In the 2 man you'd need to win 52.5% of the tourneys to break even.
your getting 1:1 on your money. (rounded for ease)
In the 4 man you'd need to win 26.25% of the tourneys to break even.
your getting 3:1 on your money. (rounded for ease)

The players are fairly tight and weak. Its easy to get out of the way of their infrequent raises.

There are tough beats, but just watch what your doing and you can minimize those.

Heres a few stats I have. These are just from the last 3-4 days so I'm sure the'll normalize a bit.

I'm running about a 75% win rate HU [20 matches]. ( 142% ROI )
I'm running about a 66% win rate for 4 man tourneys [less than 10]. ( 253% ROI )

I haven't been in very many 4 man tourneys yet, so my ROI will probably lower. I'm still expecting it to be about 50% more than my 2 man HU ROI.

I'm winning LESS of the 4 man tourneys but I'm winning almost 100% more.

Food for thought
The payout is almost the same as the 9 player SnG.

$5 .25 level
I'm not a great heads up player, but I can hold my own. I have played in almost 30 matches. Of those I've seen 3-4 people who actually gave me a run for my money and only 1 person who outplayed me.

Give it a shot see what you think.

[Fnord]

HU can be very streaky though. Also, in the 4 person shoot-outs you sometimes need to wait for the second match to end. Time you could have put elsewhere. Perhaps that's why the really good HU players stay away from them?

[Humphrind]

I witnessed Rippy play a Multi Table heads up tournament.

128 started. Every match was head-to-head.

You only needed to win 3 to get into the money (they paid the top 16)

But it was a lot of waiting. Play your game, then wait for ALL the tables to finish (about an hour). Then start the next round with 64 ppl and wait for ALL the tables to finish. Next round is 32. etc.

Rippy lasted quite a while and made it to the money.

It's Rippy's money so I don't want to say how much, I'll let him tell you if he wants. But he was not happy about how much time he put into this for such little profit.

The structure of this tournament had it's pros and cons. You would only need 3 wins to get into the money (final 16) and 7 to win the whole thing. But when everything is head-to-head you are putting your tournament on the line in every round. You don't have to make more money and outlast your opponents, you have to bust your opponent.

[mike4066]

I thought about entering one of those this weekend. I now that you mention the waiting i'm glad I didn't. I don't think the payout would be worth the 4 hours.

But if you like HU play then maybe thats your thing.

[DrNoChance]

Just a thought on the 4 man HU tourney:

If you DO happen to finish your match first, I assume you get to watch the conclusion of the other match if desired? If so, at least you get the opportunity to scout your opponent out for the next round without them getting to do the same to you (if desired).