Just came 2nd in a $100+8 SnG

[pokerroomace]

Today I won a satellite for a ticket to a $108 SnG. I just played it and came 2nd! But I should have taken first! I really messed up.

In the heads up I went allin preflop with 45o and he called with K8o. The flop came 84x. The turn is a 4 and I think OMG I'm gunna win. And then the river is an 8! An 8! I couldn't believe it. I then got back into it and then when our stacks were about even we went allin. My AJ vs his 66. A jack and a 6 flopped and he won it.

Played well through most of the tournament. I was very lucky that the person to my right when we playing 4 handed folded basically every single hand. And I was just taking his BB nearly every single round.

I didn't really hit any big hands in the SnG or get lucky at any point. I just got my stack bigger slowly but surely.

I'm really pissed off that I didn't come first! I would have had $200 more in my account!I don't know why I made the allin move with my 45o. There was no great need. The blinds were big. But the stacks were quite a bit bigger.

At one point I should have knocked the guy that won out when his T7 beat my A8. I messed up on maybe 2/3 hands the whole SnG, but I really should have won!

I was playing out of fear a lot and maybe if I hadn't been I might have done a bit better. Or maybe the fear got me to where I got. I wasn't afraid to bluff in SnG near the beginning, but towards the end I got quite scared.

The 108 SnGs are completely different to the $5.5/11/22 ones I usually play. It's even different to the $54 that I once qualified for. Nobody gets knocked out for the first few rounds. It's a much higher level of play.

[bigred]

NJ/. Just make sure you're not going out og your bankroll trying to qualify for higher tournies and such.

[jdubs]

Since when are there satellites to SnGs? I never heard of this..does stars do this?

[bigred]

I was kind of wondering this as well, actually.

[nogenius]

I believe the satellites are at Ongame sites (Pokerroom, Holdempoker, etc.)

Just curious, how fast do the $108s fill up there?
Also, how was the quality of the play?

[Stalley]

Surely for those who are bankrolled to play at this level (108s) this would be the ideal place to play. With people qualifying in from low buy in SnGs the standard is going to be a lot lower than stars/party for example.
Good work by OP by the way.

[pokerroomace]

I believe the satellites are at Ongame sites (Pokerroom, Holdempoker, etc.)

Just curious, how fast do the $108s fill up there?
Also, how was the quality of the play?

Ye.. the satellite was at HoldemPoker. They have satellites for the 22, 33, 54 and 108s every 15 minutes or so. There are also SnG satellites but these are empty most of the time.

The actual $108 SnG filled up every quickly when I entered it. I was the 8th person to sign up, so we only needed 2 more. I think that normally they take much longer to fill up though. I barely ever see 108s with a lot of people signed up. But this was the first 108 I've played.

The quality of play is much stronger than the usual 5.5/11/22 SnGs. It took about 30 minutes for the first person to get knocked out. In the lowstakes SnGs a few players get knocked out in the first 10 minutes. The players there are very capable of laying down hands. Stealing pots and bluffing is much, much easier than in the low stakes games. I had a very tight table image at the start and nobody really messed around with me when I tried to steal a pot or made a bluff. I did get into a bit of trouble once but I think my opponent had a very big hand then.

There were weak players though but they weren't maniacs. For example, when we got down to the last 4 the player on my right was folding every single hand preflop. He was playing like he was really, really scared and could well have been a qualifier. I stole his blinds about 10 or 15 times and he just didn't ever resist. That's the main reason I did so well in it - because this guy was just giving blinds away. The other players didn't really defend their blinds either though. My stack grew enormously just through preflop stealing towards the end. A super-aggressive player should do well at the 108s, but there's no chance of playing super-aggro at the lower stakes.

Surely for those who are bankrolled to play at this level (108s) this would be the ideal place to play. With people qualifying in from low buy in SnGs the standard is going to be a lot lower than stars/party for example.

Possibly, there aren't a huge number of qualifiers for the higher stakes SnGs and they still cost quite a bit to enter. It cost me $14+1.5 to enter the satellite. Also, anyone that does win a ticket has to be a fairly decent player to win it and when they do play in the 108 they definitely won't throw it away in a hurry. They'll be playing very tight. Especially with the 2000 chip stacks (usually 1500) and 10 minute (usually 8 mins) blind levels.
Also, the players that enter these satellites are quite decent. The level of play in the satellites seems to be quite a lot stronger than players in the equivlent regular SnGs.