Within the past month, I’ve noticed I have been playing more often on the SnG tables, more specifically the Astral - Orion tables.
There are many benefits to playing SnG’s. Here are a few of them.
You get to play at your own convivence - Sometimes when I log in I just want to start playing. I don’t want to wait 20 minutes for an MTT to start. SnG’s are a good solution to this problem. SnG’s usually fill up quickly (It may take a little longer during off peak hours.) It is a great wait to pass the time while waiting for an MTT to start.
You can meet new friends - What I’ve discovered is like MTT’s a lot of people who play SnG’s are regulars. I played in multiple SnG’s one day and have seen some of the same players from previous tournaments earlier in the day. Playing SnG’s are a good way to make new friends.
Not getting balanced - What sometimes annoys me in MTT’s is you can play almost an entire MTT at one table then all of a sudden get balanced to a different table and have to completely change your strategy. Yes I know it’s part of MTT’s but it’s also a little annoying when your in the middle of a conversation with another player then get moved suddenly to another table without warning. With SnG’s you don’t need to worry about getting balanced. You only have to worry about that one table and trying to win the tournament.
Quick way to make chips - If you become a good SnG player you can quickly build up your bankroll. You can do this by winning SnG’s and by ranking good in the leaderboards. Before you know it you’ll have a good, healthy bankroll to play with.
Do you play SnG’s often? What do you like about them?
Sngs are great, its great that they dont take awhile, and they even have high stakes sngs regularly. The only issue I have with sngs is that they are the easiest game to beat. In the real money poker world, sngs aren’t very profitable because once you get to the highest levels everyone plays pretty close to perfectly. Obviously I and almost no one here is perfect but if I ever choose to go to real money poker I think Mtts or cash games would be more profitable and easier to move up. Nevertheless, Marc gave some great points about the pros of sngs and I do play them sometimes.
Be careful what you wish for, Epic. If they pay more places, they’d have to reduce the “prizes.” RP is usually in the range of the top 1/6th or so of the finishers getting chips. Would the same number of players bother to enter if the prizes went down? When the 7-stud Freeroll events debuted, they were paying the top 48 players–and numbers 32 or so through 48 got 777 chips each instead of the “normal” Freeroll payouts of 30 players getting at least 1000 chips each. Not all players were happy about that; some only entered because the games were fun; I know because I was one of them.
I hear what your saying that not everyone would like it. Just like not everyone likes the “World of Antes” tournament where blinds never increase from their starting value. However, since the World of Antes tournament only runs once a day; it’s easy to avoid if you don’t like it.
I just wish for the occasional tournament to pay the top third of players. To have that option to play something with a different prize structure. I know it’s going to be a trade-off for a better chance at getting a prize VS size of those prizes.
I checked the most recent 7-stud freeroll, and the top 30 players got paid at least 1777 chips; more than the normal freeroll. The prizes only seemed to be reduced for the top 8 spots.
