Stars new KO SNGs

[Kijjo]

That's right folks, Stars just started some up and the fish are loving 'em, get your lures out, it's time to catch some whoppers!

[Nakamura]

lol, I wondered about this. The correct play in a lot of spots isn't obvious though.

[taipan168]

I haven't looked yet, what's the format?

[Nakamura]

I just played a few now and play is very soft. It feels like they take freaking for-damn-ever because you usually end up deep-staked, on the bubble at 50/100.

[Nakamura]

I haven't looked yet, what's the format?

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tour...pes/#knockouts

They are basically like FTP's Matrix tournaments. You need to make slight adjustments and call a little wider/push a little tighter.

[Kijjo]

You compare them to Matrix Nak?
The only ones I saw were single tables, and tried one out (didn't want to load up a whole bunch 'til I tried one, then ran out of time), but I'll be in these in the future! It just takes a couple guys to go crazy and like Nak says, you're on the bubble at 50/100 or 75/150. You can pick your spots very carefully and cash easily. If you're in the habit of winning, you have to KO a person or two anyways, so I don't think the bounty will really change your ROI much itself, though your itm should trend slightly higher I would think.
In the one I played I happened to KO 3 people. I'm not going to play any differently than usual, I think averaging 1 KO/game (which would cover the extra cost) will be ez.

[rong]

Yeah wow, these are super loose & super aggro at $6 level, gonna try & multi table a bit and see how I get on just playing super tight.

[rong]

Played 10 of the $5 + 1.25 + .5 ($6.75)
Cashed in 6
approx $20 in bountys.

They are really soft. The first 4-5 players bust in the first 15-20 mins. Bubble lasts quite a while, but tight play is enough to do well.

If I wasn't playing 8 tables I would have done better, well worth a go I think, good way to boost the bank roll.

[Nakamura]

You compare them to Matrix Nak?

They're similar in that you are rewarded to knock players out. Obviously you have 4 tables in matrix tournaments and the permutations as to whether to call or fold just make my head want to explode.

These are simpler in that you can view the tournament kitty and the bounty kitty as two separate prizes. If you have a deeper stack than your opponent, then you have an EV in getting it all-in against an opponent, while your opponent does not have any associated EV (wrt the bounty kitty). You can use the 9-man 50/30/20 WIZ settings to analyse most spots and it will be good enough to accept it as 'truth'.

BTW raising and c-betting is extremely profitable in these.

[fakedecoy]

Poker Tournament Types - PokerStars Structured Tournaments

They are basically like FTP's Matrix tournaments. You need to make slight adjustments and call a little wider/push a little tighter.

I'm confused by this. I thought you would always tighten or widen both your calling and raising range together. I don't mean to take the thread off track, but can you briefly explain this or point me to the concept?

[Kijjo]

Ok, last night played a few more. A spot to take uber advantage of -- if you're the chipleader and there's a real shorty, watch for people to try to limp to stay in the hand and they hope to take the shorty out with a marginal hand. I had one table that must have given me about 10-15bbs in steals in about 5 hands 'cause these guys kept doing that and I had playable hands, so I'd just shove. I went from slight leader to dominating leader quickly, and ofcourse ended up getting to KO the shorty myself as a bonus.

[Nakamura]

I'm confused by this. I thought you would always tighten or widen both your calling and raising range together. I don't mean to take the thread off track, but can you briefly explain this or point me to the concept?

Generally players (particularly big stacks) will call and shove a little wider, either to get your bounty or accumulate chips to be in a position to knock players out. This is the primary reason most people bust out before 75/150. To counteract these tendencies you need to adjust and shove a little tighter (since you are being called wider) and call a touch wider since most players' shoving ranges are a bit wider.

This is explanation is somewhat simplistic because there are other considerations as well though. If you have the big stack in a confrontation, you can generally shove and call a bit wider because you can now also win the bounty as well, which is worth something.

[Kijjo]

Ok, so tonight I loaded up a bunch of these $1 versions because there was a tornado coming through and I didn't want to chance a substantial loss to my br if I lost a connection for the night. So, after playing 16 of these, this might've been the most extreme, but come on, how am I only 50% itm in these?!!?!


Hand #1 of the game
PokerStars Game #43108233177: Tournament #266023467, $1.25+$0.15 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2010/04/24 0:28:38 CT [2010/04/24 1:28:38 ET]
Table '266023467 1' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: jibble229 (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: Desimondo (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: 2greeze (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: jeecro (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: elstabbs (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: BoofAZ (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: Kijjo (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: Samed64 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: Quaker20 (1500 in chips)
Desimondo: posts small blind 10
2greeze: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Kijjo [5c 9d]
jeecro: raises 100 to 120
elstabbs: calls 120
BoofAZ: calls 120
Kijjo: folds
Samed64: raises 1380 to 1500 and is all-in
Quaker20: folds
jibble229: folds
Desimondo: folds
2greeze: folds
jeecro: calls 1380 and is all-in
elstabbs: calls 1380 and is all-in
BoofAZ: calls 1380 and is all-in

jeecro: shows [Ts Tc]
elstabbs: shows [Ks Qd]
BoofAZ: shows [Js 9h]
Samed64: shows [Ad 3d]

[fakedecoy]

Edit: Nevermind, misunderstood something.

[Kijjo]

Ok, ran a few of the $1 KO 90 player games. Great thing is they don't get smarter, they get worse (if that's possible). The bad thing is that I thought these were turbos - I'd been playing 90T's a bunch lately and they run right around 2 hrs. SO, after 4 hrs and 15 mins, over 40 mins of which was headsup, I just started playing like a fool 'cause it was 4:30am.
So, until they give me the option of turbo, dont' think I can play these anymore, but that was soft, fun and actually very entertaining - instead of boring old fold-fold-fold-steal the blinds, you get to watch fish play against donks like their lives depend on this hand! Gimme that bounty!

[dneureiter]

Ok, ran a few of the $1 KO 90 player games. Great thing is they don't get smarter, they get worse (if that's possible). The bad thing is that I thought these were turbos - I'd been playing 90T's a bunch lately and they run right around 2 hrs. SO, after 4 hrs and 15 mins, over 40 mins of which was headsup, I just started playing like a fool 'cause it was 4:30am.
So, until they give me the option of turbo, dont' think I can play these anymore, but that was soft, fun and actually very entertaining - instead of boring old fold-fold-fold-steal the blinds, you get to watch fish play against donks like their lives depend on this hand! Gimme that bounty!

lol. just tried my first one.. similar experience.. but yea. not playing that again 2.5 hours just to get to final table.. see how i do. But a fun thing to try once in a while.