Solid play in this FTOPS event by the eventual winner. This is the final table that includes all the big hands.
1st - 263,500 - _FlaxmarZ_
2nd - 159,600 - MK376
3rd - 102,600 - xqsays
4th - 80,200 - nfa1080
5th - 60,300 - JBS07
6th - 40,000 - lonolin
7th - 35,100 - pocket-five
8th - 26,700 - papychulo777
9th - 19,800 - Highbury90
A very insghtful post from JP in the forum reads:
There's always talk of ROI and how long it takes to make a profit. It's
not a job for most of us and we aren't going to make $20 an hour
average or more to have a great ROI, quit our day jobs and become a pro
with poker our new living. Most of us can make a darn site more money
in our work than we have at poker. If it was easy, everyone would do
it. If it's only about ROI, there's better ways to consistently earn
decent hourly returns that don't include poker.
It's about playing right and winning, coming out on top. Sure, the
more on top (ROI) the better. But you have to have a start point and a
goal. If you are building a br then you have to be concerned with
results in the br, not the roi. As long as the br is moving up then the
roi is meaningless unless you have some time frame in your equation to
meet. People that go for the quick build may get hot and fly but they
may also flame out, crash and burn.
First build the skill sets. Then build the br (bankroll). Then worry about roi
what yields the best results based on what you have already laid out
and done using your own data for analysis.
The 45 seater has a nice payout structure for the top 3 only, the
other 3 suck. You have to outplay 39 people just to cash in a 45 in a
STT you only need to beat 6 to cash. 45 seaters normally run about 2
hours, 9 seaters about an hour. Pay slots only reward the top 13.5% in
a 45 seater. STT's reward the top 33%.
It takes 1 win to wipe out 20 loses in a 45. You have to win 1 in 4 to break even in STT's.
The $1 90 seater has a good pay top 5 slots but it takes 4 hours
usually as it's a deep stack. Perfect game for solid ABC poker and
TAG/Rock players and skill building. Donks flame out first hour with
rapid climbs then death. Some flash out first hand chasing to a made
hand. I don't like the $1 stt at all. I would rather play the $1 turbo
first it's just as much a luck fest. My preference to "build" starting
with $50 is the $2-$5 sng. I wouldn't multi-table until I got my skills
better. I didn't multi-table for a long time and even now some days I
prefer to concentrate on one at a time. Sometimes I'll play 2-3. 6 has
been my max. But I found that multi-tabling trying to build from
starting br was the quick way to reload. Any flaw in my game was
multiplied and losses mounted faster. First fix flaws, have consistent
results, then branch to multi-tabling.
It's possible to "own" the $5 games. Once in a while you hit a zone
and just can't be beat at the stt or mtt-sng $5/18-45 seater game.
I DO like the $2 180 seat sng-mtt on Full Tilt for br building as part of
the plan. 1 win is very good money. Affordable to play 1 daily as part
of the stt mix and a nice break from the $2 stt insanity that is often
found.
I found the same that you did in the $6 turbo's. Cashing/winning 8
of 10 then hitting the skids the next 10-20 then again cashing
consistent. It was a real roller coaster. Tho I suspect a good part of
that was also mistakes on my part. I haven't played them in a while and
my game has improved. However, I don't like the play in the $6 turbo
but do like the $5 and $10 regular along with the $11 turbo. My opinion
is the $11 turbo is a softer game. Too many in it normally that don't
belong there but think moving up will be better for them and too many
that did better lower and have the br level but not the skill level
yet. That's my opinion of course and jaded by my own play and
success/failure at them 
I have had mixed results in the 18 seaters. Mostly I used them to build
skills for bigger games. The pay is a little better, don't take that
much longer than a stt and the opponents are mostly luck seekers it
seems. (perception is they are also lucky in them but that's just my
perception )
I think the best all around for me was the $2 sit and go regular to build from tiny br then the $5 games.
My "goal" is to get my br on Full Tilt back in the 2k+ range again, then begin
the "ringfencing" and taking out the profit rather than try to keep
going up. I beleive that was my downfall the last time. kept going up
and up before I took out but didn't drop back when I did and just
plummetted.
Sort of like pot control. If I manage my br and keep it in target,
AND if I stay in my established limits that GOT me there, I can control
it, keep it there and start siphoning off regularly. That's my goal for
that site.
Have you seen the smiley faces in the lobby at Full Tilt Poker? I guess they are trying to build traffic at certain times, possibly looking to attract more European players, an area of sales Full Tilt has been trying to improve this year. Anyway, if you do play one of the ring games or tournaments that has a happy face alongside, it simply means you can earn up 3 times the amount of Full Tilt Player Points...
Full Tilt Points can be used to enter tournaments, especially qualifiers, and you can also shop online at Full Tilt's store for poker related apparel and gadgets.
Playing Sit and Go Tournaments at Full Tilt Poker with Proper Bankroll Management is still a BIG mystery to most online poker players.
I loaded up my tournament indicator poker calculator and played a full slate of sit and go games over the weekend at Full Tilt, Poker Stars, and Cake Poker. I am happy to report that I made upward trends in the bankroll at each website, but not without the usual frustrating bad beats and random coolers getting in the way on occasion.
The good thing about bad beats is that someone has made an error playing against you, so really, they are bound to give their winning back simply because of indisputable laws of poker math. Poor decisions will result, over time, in losing money. However, the poor decisions do not necessarily start at the table. As I found while playing this weekend, table buy-in and competition is your first big decision.
You can view the lobby of a sit and go tournament while it is filling up, so when I play the $20 and $30 buy-ins I sharkscope my opponents before I commit. There was one 9 seated $30 table that had 4 players patiently waiting for 5 more entries. I scoped each one of those players to find they were all sharks with rounder style graphs reaching for the sky – all four of them I am not kidding. Even when I play my best, these guys know how to adapt and exploit my weaknesses to the point it made no sense for me to join that table. In fact, I think at least two of them should have reconsidered playing that sit and go. I mean why seek out the toughest competition? So that was a good decision for me.
In joining other games that day at these levels however, the above example was actually rare. I researched every opponent I had that day and found that the majority of players were playing above their bankroll. How do I know this? Well sharkscope does offer information like ROI%, but it also shows total profit and from there it’s easily discernable that a player sitting down at a 30 buck sit and go table with a lifetime earnings negative $338 simply shouldn’t be there.
At $20 and $30 sit and go tournaments your bankroll should be at least $500, To me a $1,000 is probably more like it, especially if your skills aren’t up to par with a bankroll you may have padded with a “fortunate” win.
Here are some other observations of random players I saw at these tables:
Total profit of $112 over 2,354 games.
Total profit of (negative) -$3,225 over 1,821 games.
Total profit of (negative) -$1,003 over 231 games.
It went on and on. Is it any wonder then that the majority of players lose money playing online poker? You simply are not giving yourself a chance to win in the long run, by playing tables higher than your bankroll allows. Astoundingly, at least 4 of every 9 players at at each table I searched over the weekend were there above their poker bankroll and long term losers at sit and go tournaments.
From Richard in the poker forum:
MTT have a larger element of the statistical misfortune (or luck, to
those that believe in it) factor than cash games, because of their time
span and rising blinds - as this forces you to play a different style
and take risks.
Therefore you need a poker edge. How do you get an edge?
Plan ahead.
Know the MTT structure
Know the number of hands to antes/ITM/FT
Know the expected M Zone levels and at what stage they may start to apply
Know the number of PAIR/RED/BLUE hands you expect during each stage
Know the EXACT hands you will push with or make a stack committing
call/raise with at each stage, in each position - at each M Zone level.
Know the type of style you will play and the point at which you will change.
Know the EXACT number of chips you need to reach ITM and the expected number of hands you will play
Know the mix of blind/pot steals you will need at each stage.
Know the MINIMUM number of chips you should need to reach ITM (slightly different from EXACT above)
Know the target number of chips you need at the end of the average M Zone colour change.
The above is the MINIMUM you should know before having an edge.
Have you ticked all the boxes above? If you have, very good. I haven't
yet and I am sure very few have.
It is not about a poker formula (that gimmick only sells books),
but forward planning and applying skill and knowledge through a large
number of games to go deep ITM and/or onto a final table - because
statistically, only 15% get paid.
Hey Marty.. Love the MZone videos they were great... I have bought the sit and
go 3PAKK and the MTT5PAK videos and the poker calculator Tournament Indicator. Also I have signed up for the sit and go report
and the MZone report. I play almost always sit and go tournaments though never
multi-table.... Well I mean sometimes ... but I am trying to find further
reading on sit and go strategy... I am a winning sit and go tournament player
but of very small stakes. I have read
Collin Moshman's Sit and Go tournament Book... which was very good. I also
bought Johhny Rothman's sit and Go Pro, after hearing good things about it .....
but i was very disappointed about it lack of information and it only tells
obvious things that most people know already. Other than that i cant find
anything that has to do with sit and go's. I seem to only find multi-table
tournament strategy's and i thought maybe you might know some books i could buy
or maybe some other places to look. I saw on your site that you read Dan's
Harrington's books. Is that to do with Sit and Go's to or just Multi-table
Tournaments... I also signed up for real poker training but i found there sit
and go tournament teachings to be a bit basic...... If you know of any sources i
could look into or programs to buy on the internet or any good books, you have
read that might be useful to me ... I would greatly appreciate it ....
thanks for your time ....
....\
And I look forward for the next Mzone point series video.......
Good videos, especially the poker tournament strategy ones, keep them coming. You don't do much different from what I would do, but it's interesting to hear your thinking behind your moves, as you mention a couple of things I probably wouldn't think of, which has got to lead to better decisions in the long run. I like the way you'll sometimes show two identical hands in a row and how you'd play them differently in different situations so as to give some balance.
Thanks
200 players, $2 bucks to get in. Rarely do your hands survive (even when ahead) this frequently playing at Full Tilt, so I was feeling good as there were no game-ending suckouts. Even better, I was getting good hands and position to raise frequently and that resulted in some opponents simply losing thier cool with me and they ended up handing me their stack. Of course used the poker calculator Tournament Indicator for reads, odds, and assessment of what to do based on my MZone and GCI hands.
You may have read in poker forums or tips from the pros about keeping track of your hourly rate when you play poker. The idea behind this is to help the professional player (rounder) understand where he plays best, playing which poker game, and under what structure in regards to limits, tournaments and cash games.
Upon knowing such information a player should trend toward where his hourly rate is most profitable. For example, if a player has figured to earn an average of $17 an hour at the local casino playing the 2/4 limit hold’em game and compares it with his hourly rate of $29 multi-tabling online at the .50/1.00 NL hold’em tables on Full Tilt, then barring any other factors this is clearly a decision for playing online that night.
Monitoring and determining your hourly rate however at different games and locations is one of those concepts though that some new players get too caught up in and which may result in poor decisions because of it, when really they should be paying very little regard to hourly rate. Let me explain.
Professional rounders should absolutely be keeping close tabs on their hourly rate, because it is part and parcel of making good decisions in poker. It increases the odds that they will be profitable and since most pros rely on being profitable, this becomes a simple “business” decision.
However for new players in the bankroll building stage, other issues are more important, like learning the game for one. Playing at the right level (usually low) lends itself to learning the more intricate parts of the game like patience, position, timed aggressiveness, reading opponents.
Since a new player is far more prone to making errors in the game, it will likely cost money, but the idea is to keep that cost low while getting as much value from your bankroll as you can. This translates to playing time, which in turn builds on your ability to make the correct play at the right time.
As for hourly rate, you should be paying no heed at all while bankroll building, especially if your game is to beat multi-table tournaments since it may take you 50, 100, 150 or more tournaments for a substantial cash.
When you have learned enough of poker, and moved up a few levels and are firmly using OPM, (other players' money) essentially playing free poker - then you can surely adapt an hourly rate strategy into your game, but until then your hourly rate should focus on what you learn, not what you earn.
