New Full Tilt Matrix SnGs

[fjuanl]

Has anyone played these yet? Basically you sign up for one SnG where you 4-table with the same players. Looks pretty fun

http://w.fulltiltpoker.com/matrix-tournaments

The Dominatrix

Prove your poker supremacy by claiming victory at all four tables and become the Dominatrix. If you have the skills to take down all four tables you’ll be rewarded not only with the top prize for winning each individual table, you’ll scoop the entire Matrix prize pool!

lul

[hangchiong]

everything is 4x,especially the buy in.havent tried them yet thou
but winning a table -small prize pool since its /4.so i guess if i play at $5 stakes,i have to play at $20 matrix tables,to maximize my per hr rate.

pretty scared as i might run in to $20 FT regs and i get thrashed.its not about making the money to win the matrix pool-you need to knock people out to get points(more points knocking out than survival),although survival gives you 1 point.its a pretty confusing matter the way the scoring system goes.

in terms of reads i think would be easier-same opponents,but having a one screen monitor,it sucks to play this IMO.

[Stripclubjunkie]

Do they ever fill up

[cag8f]

A matrix is different from a regular SNG in that you play 4 simultaneous SNG's against the same 8 players. If I read the payouts correctly, there is no money added by FT. So the $90 prize pool (for a $10+1) is split into fifths: one fifth goes to the cashers in each SNG, and one fifth goes to the top three 'overall' players (determined by a cumulative points system based on how you play--knockouts, how long you last, etc).

As said earlier, the only advantage I can see is that you would be playing 4 SNG's against the exact same opponents, so reads would be a little better. But the big drawback I can see is that the prize for winning a single $10+1 SNG falls from $45 to $9. One would have to win all 4 SNGs plus the overall score to equal the payout of winning one SNG. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this doesn't sound too advantageous. I would think my ROI from playing 4 standard payout SNG's against different opponents would be higher than playing 4 limited payout SNG's against the same opponents. i.e. The bigger advantage I have by knowing my opponents better wouldn't make up for the smaller payouts. One way to find out for sure is to have someone play a few thousand SNG's vs. Matrixes (Matrices?). But then again, there may be a quality factor in that softer (or harder) players may tend to play the Matrixes...

Thoughts? Are there any other advantages/disadvantages I'm missing?

[givememyleg]

they fill up quite quickly, played a 24 a couple days ago for fun to try it out. seems like they would be pretty low variance, but low return per tournament. i placed 6th 6th 2nd 2nd, 3rd overall and won $31 for my $24 buyin. you need to do well in each tournament (ldo). if i had been playing regular sngs i would have won $129, but paid $96 in entries.

i think if you usually play the $5s you can comfortably play the $20s since the prize pool is split 5 ways, it's kind of like 5 $5 tournaments at once.

the best thing i like about them is the fact that youre playing with the same people in all 4 tournaments, so reads are very very important.

[fjuanl]

cag8f, you basically have to play 4x above your normal amount. So if your a reg at the $5 limit you can play a $20 matrix and its basically like 4-tabling the $5s with less rake

Pros:
- lower rake
- less variance

Cons:
- gives people an incentive to play better (ie: not go busto due to point structure, make +EV shoves on shortstacks to get knockout points)

[kmind]

yeah I can't wait to play these. Heard they are soft.

[Alexos]

yeah I can't wait to play these. Heard they are soft.

*shakes head in dismay*

[kevster]

I still can't work out where I stand on these. Might have to just try a few.

[Nakamura]

I just tried one and a few thoughts popped to mind.

An ICM calculation has to incorporate the points you get for knocking out an opponent (2 points), which go to your matrix score. You would have to calculate for example whether to fold to a shove on the basis of how many points you might earn if you fold and sit tight. In some way value has to be attributed to these matrix points.

There are interesting table dynamics. For example you also may want to consider folding (rather than pushing AI) against an opponent who is ranked higher than you in the matrix board (and has more chips at the table). I didn't and it gave valuable points to my opponents around me, allowing them to top me in the table.

Overall opponents seemed soft and a bit dim. For example, an opponent with 20 chips in front of them pushes AI. 3 opponents after this folded their hands! Of course you should seize any opportunity to stack an opponent with a very small stack (in the process giving you a chance to accumulate 2 points at very low cost). So here in the sb I 3x 98os in the hopes the bb would fold and I could have a chance to knock out the opponent HU.

Fun overall, but I think just too complicated for my poor brain to work out the best strategies.

[mukaka]

I'm just afraid that these matrix tourneys will take away lots of fish from the turbo sngs..

[kevster]

Just had a pop at an $11 one of these. Kinda fun. I placed 1, 1, 3, 9 and 1st overall for $30.60. It's hard to see how you could hope for much better than that so I'd still rather stick with standard SNGs.

[JeffreyGB]

If these were run in a way that didn't make finding a game at quasi-high stakes near impossible (no one is playing the $500's - certainly not the normal $109 players), I would consider making SNGs my focus again. The downside that the stakes of the game are cut into 1/4 is a pretty big one, unfortunately.

An upside that hasn't been mentioned yet include the ability to have killer reads on your opponents. That's huge! You now have 4 times the opportunity to figure out how to exploit your opponent.