As I expected, cake time has been pretty elusive since my last post...
Due to my absurd schedule this semester (three jobs and two classes), I've only played when I was either (1) stressed and needing to blow off some steam, (2) drinking, or (3) procrastinating when I should have been studying or writing. None of those put me in quite the right headspace, so I spent most of the last month and a half drifting up and down between $90 and $120. Playing too many hands, calling draws against the odds, refusing to lay down AQ preflop, etc... just making textbook bad decisions.
The process has also confirmed that I'm not a great grinder in ring games... I tilt easily, especially after two or three bad sessions, and I spend way too much time watching and stressing about my bankroll, instead of playing my game.
Which has led me back to tournaments... mostly $5 10 man SNGs, but with occasional guaranteed multi's thrown in, as well. No big wins in the multi's yet, but I've broken about even with a few small cashouts. The SNGs, however, have been a steady earner for me, and I've worked my way up to $156 at the moment.
I don't quite understand how I so easily brush off a bad run of luck in SNGs (like busting out on the bubble 4 times in a row), when the same exact hands in a ring game would result in two shots of whiskey and an ill-advised rebuy (or how this is only an issue for me online)... but at least I've identified my strengths and weaknesses. If the past is any guide, I'll probably have success playing ring games intermittently, but get into a bad headspace if I use it as my primary game.
On a side note -- Has anybody been playing rebuy tournaments? I've excluded them from my repertoire for now, for two reasons: (1) I haven't decided how to work them into my Ferguson rules and (2) I don't like playing multi-tourney's for less than $5, because there are too many players, the play is too unpredictable, and the payouts too small; and I know for sure that my bankroll can't support $5 rebuy tourney's yet.
Anyway. Any thoughts on rebuy/addon tourney's? Is anybody else playing them? What sort of bankroll should I have before I start playing in $5 R+A tourney's?
My gut says at least $400, since a typical tourney includes at least 2 buyins (the initial buyin plus a instant rebuy to load the table and maximize my starting stack), and an addon after the first hour... and, on a bad day, as many as half a dozen true rebuys. So if we call that an average of 4 buyins (2 initial buyins + addon + an average of one more rebuy), and follow the Ferguson 5% rule, then I need 80 times the buyin, or $400 for a $5 R+A tourney.
Thoughts?
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5 comments:
Congrats on the tourney trail! Do whatever works for you. Many players use tournaments as a way to enforce bankroll management since it is harder to bleed off cash when it takes so long to wait for and run through a SnG.
I think that going through the different stages of a tournament helps to clear the head because it forces you to switch gears. Trying to mow the table over for 5/10 blinds or whatever the tourney starts at is just useless.
As for R+A I would stay away. Unlimited rebuy tourneys sounds like d0nkville and ripe for generating all of the bad play symptoms that cash games give you. Maybe try a play money one first or at least just observe one at the very least but I think it is going to be nothing but trouble for you.
I think your BR estimate is pretty close at ~400 bucks. I played one rebuy tourney so far, but it was a 3.00 one I think, and I actually didn't realize it was a rebuy tourney until I was in it (I blame Ryan). The play was predictably atrocious, and it seemed to me that the variance on one of those goes up quite a bit. I think that you have to be realistic about how many rebuys you will need and plan accordingly.
Ferguson says 2% max of your roll I believe for MTT's, but doesn't mention rebuys. I would just estimate liberally how many you will need and go from there.
Nice work on the SNG's, I have considered dabbling in them, but haven't committed to it yet.
I used to stay away from rebuys, for the donkville reasons you both mentioned, until I read an article by Negraneu (which I can't find) talking about his rebuy strategy, which really changed the way I thought about it--
Your goal, during the rebuy period, shouldn't be to stay out of trouble the way you would in a typical MTT, nor is it to accumulate as many chips as you can. Rather, your goal is to get as many chips on your TABLE as you can, and trust that you'll be able to get them back. So you come in with the attitude that a rebuy is no big deal, you play more pots than you normally would, and you turn it into a deep stack table. If things are going your way, your table mates pay for the extra chips but, if not, you pay for some of them and it's no big deal, as long as you follow the golden rule: always rebuy.
Then, in the second hour and approaching the bubble, your table-mates have deep enough stacks that they don't move into "fold or shove" mode quite so quickly, which means you get to make some decisions on the flop and, in theory, since you're a good player, that benefits you.
That's the theory at least. Another way to look at it is that a rebuy is just a deep stack tourney with an overlay and a lot of fish.
Anecdotally, I've found some truth to the theory... every rebuy tourney I've played since then (pre-Cake, mostly on Bodog -- probably ten tourney's or so), I've been able to run really deep into the tourney, and have felt more comfortable than I typically do in those situations, because of my high M ratio.
Interesting. I have read and considered this strategy too. I guess it really comes down to whether or not you really are the best player at your table...
At first glance it seems like if you are that good then why not have everyone else pay for the chips on the table and you keep vacuuming them up but if you need a giant war chest to take deeper into the tourney I guess you have to feed the table some chips.
But doesn't that strategy run the risk of having someone that you fattened up move to another table?
I had seen a quick clip in Negreanu using that strategy in some past WSOP footage. Very interesting. It would seem that you would need a long enough tourney for this to work though, no? Not only to d0nk off enough chips so you can keep rebuying. But also enough time to crank the ship around in the opposite direction and get play enough hands to grab the chips back while still allowing for the fact that you could run into a suckout.
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