Star 11$ got harder? or how long can a downswing last?

[anarchoi]

Hello,

Ive played more than 500 5,5$ SNGs and 250 11$ SNGs in the 1 year ive been playing poker. So far it has made me a little over 1000$ and my ROI% is 38% at the 5,5$ tables and until last month it was around 25% at the 11$ tables (now its all the way down to 14% because of june and july).

Late may early june I had to take a break from poker and ever since that i've been on the worst downswing ever. Ive played 65 11$ tournes in from june 1st untill now and have lost 150$. I have only 2 1st places and 10 2nd places. My 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th places are normally equally divided between them.

My real question is : has the level improved at the 11$ at stars? Anybody else really struggling at the moment?
How long can a downswing last? I know its a hypothetical question but I want to hear from the veterans who have been in lots of downswings.
Im really starting to doubt its just a downswing and I guess the worst thing that can happen right now is i loose faith in my playing-style.

Regards,
David

[dstir2]

here's the thing. i have played several sng's at those same levels. at first, i experienced pretty good success. eventually though, i noticed a huge downturn in my profitability from playing stars. it's as simple as this. the players on stars are the BEST online. it's incredibly hard to make profit when your facing players who are equal in skill, some maybe even better. if you're in it to make money, i highly recommend leaving stars. its what i did and i am very certain that i dont regret the move. try out sites with lots of players and nice blind structures like poker.com. hope that helps.

[renostud]

the players on stars are the BEST online.

The players are not good at 5.50s and 11s, no matter what site you play at.

As far as the OP goes, my best recommendation would be to not conclude anything from 65 SNGs. To give you a better idea, 65 is about 2-3 days for me and I have experienced everything in a 2-3 day period from losing 20+ buyins to gaining 20+ buyins.

If anything, the competition should be getting softer now that WSOP has started up, leading to a whole new batch of fish in the pond.

[jdubs]

the players on stars are the BEST online.

The players are not good at 5.50s and 11s, no matter what site you play at.
As far as the OP goes, my best recommendation would be to not conclude anything from 65 SNGs. To give you a better idea, 65 is about 2-3 days for me and I have experienced everything in a 2-3 day period from losing 20+ buyins to gaining 20+ buyins.

If anything, the competition should be getting softer now that WSOP has started up, leading to a whole new batch of fish in the pond.

But relatively speaking, could some sites have worse players at these levels than others? Granted they are all probably fish infested- but perhaps stars has a few less than most? I dont know, because I have only been playing at stars for the past 6 months, and am wondering if I might move my BR over somewhere to take advantage of deposit bonuses and maybe see if I can find softer competition.

[renostud]

I play at both Party and Stars and the competition does seem a little bit softer at Party, but I don't think the change is large enough such that a player could be a loser at PS but a winner at PP.

I think an often overlooked thing is to play at a site where you're accustomed to the blind structure. Since I'm used to Party, sometimes I'll start making moves too early at PS because the smaller starting stacks have me thinking I'm in a more desperate situation than I really am.

[taipan168]

I think an often overlooked thing is to play at a site where you're accustomed to the blind structure. Since I'm used to Party, sometimes I'll start making moves too early at PS because the smaller starting stacks have me thinking I'm in a more desperate situation than I really am.

This is a good point, it does take some time to adjust to a new structure. I play both PS and PP (although I've played much more on PS) and when I first switched to the PP speeds I would not get into push/fold mode soon enough because I thought I was deeper stacked than I actually was. The 9 vs 10 player format also makes a slight difference too.

[vqc]

so realisticall ur down like 15 buyins over 65 SNGs?

thats nothing!

Its possible for a winning player to be negative over more than 200 SNGs.

[bruinblue]

can someone post the blind and prize structures for party sngs? im kinda confused by their lobby there

one reason ill always like stars - simple, clean easy to understand interface

[renostud]

20/40, 30/60, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400, 300/800-50, 600/1200-75....... I think. Starting stack is 2000.

Prize structure is the same as PS: 50/30/20.

[Rockymv]

In Sngs it's possible for a good player to break even over a span larger than 500. It's not as likely at the 11's, but still, it's something to keep in mind.

[anarchoi]

Thanks for the input.

I decided to use my day reading the forums and came across alot of posts about equity, ICM and software called Power Tools and Pokerstove - I have never heard of it before.
Can someone explanin to me what equity means? Ive ofcourse tried to find out myself but the explanations i get is something like this :

equity (%) win (%) / tie (%)

Hand 1: 50.3340 % [ 49.39 00.95 ] { 2s2h }
Hand 2: 49.6660 % [ 48.72 00.95 ] { random }

So the deuces have a equite of 50.3340 % - what does that mean?


Im using pokertracker and pokerace hud.
Should I be getting Pokerstove or Power tools and if so which one will you recommend?

[spyderracing]

For real, this isn't a bad swing. I 4 table the 10$ sngs right now and if variance feels like coming for a visit sometimes I can drop 8-10 buyins in a day, but some days I gain them back that same day just because I don't let it change how I play. I try to note which games I donked out of and which games I got in with the best hand and just got pwnd (lost a 70/30 or 80/20). Helps keep things straight and your game on so you dont tilt your roll off.