Playtech STT structure, strategy etc.

ArmaniJeanss

OK, my Tribeca background is that I could basically play STTs there on autopilot, had 25%+ ROI (mainly single-tabling) at all levels up to $25s, all 9 seaters.

Struggling to get the hang of Playtech/iPoker/NewPPP, whatever we call it.
Maybe anybody who plays a lot of STTs might have some ideas, heres some thoughts anyway. They are mainly negative thoughts.

The major differences as I see it are 1, blind levels,2, players numbers, 3, starting stacks, 4, blind increases (chips), 5 blind increases (clock).

1+2+5 lead to far less hands being played per level. I counted 3 at level1 and 4 at level2 in $20 9seater earlier. This is caused by
a) an inital delay at the start of the game with the first hand often not starting til 60seconds have elapsed
b) the extra player means more potential actions per hand
c) the clock continues to go down if a hand is being played as a level changes. On Tribeca, each level in an STT started with a fresh 8 minutes, on Playtech, there might only be 5 minutes left when the first hand of a new level is dealt.

At first glance the starting stacks look attractive, 100 BB compared to the 50BB on Tribeca. However as said above, not a lot of hands are getting played at the early levels.

Then the blind increases kick in with the first 2 rises both being 100% rises from 5/10 to 10/20 to 20/40. Suddenly by level3 someone with a starting stack has 25BB compared to 20BB at level3 on Tribeca (where more hands would have been played).

Level5 50/100 is the equivalent chip wise of level4 100/200 on Tribeca. Genereally on Tribeca there was usually 3->6 people left at this stage.
I'm finding on Playtech that for whatever reason (prob how few hands are being played at each level) that there is normally between 5 and 8 people left at this stage. Every game I've played seems to turn into a crapshoot round about now.

Then the big sickener comes along, an absolutely savage increase of blinds from 50/100 to 100/200, yet another 100% increase, the third of the game. Equivalant of missing out the 150/300 level on Tribeca and going straight from 100/200 to 200/400.
Lets say we've been card dead through the first few levels and started 50/100 with 800 chips (M5), we managed to steal twice (which would be a great result seeing as maybe only 6or7 hands get played) and not be stolen and we've upped our stack to 1100 (M7). This horrid increase of blinds plummets us back to an M of 3.5. This is dreadful.

The last game I played had 6 people left at this stage, average stack 1600, blinds 100/200. Not fun.

I'm not sure what the solution is (I'm not looking for STTs to last 80/90 minutes like on FullTilt). However I just feel that the structure on iPoker is allowing almost no play in the later stages, because the later stages are arriving before enough hands have been played to allow people to get knocked out.

I think it really really needs a 75/150 level to make it more playable, perhaps at the expense of the 5/10 level.

Any of the STT regulars any thoughts, how are ye handling the differences etc ?

AJs (long and rambling !!).

RoundTower

I think the idea of SNGs is to know the numbers cold and outplay your opponents just at the point where you are complaining it's a crapshoot.

RoadSweeper

I think the buy in choice is worse.

I was a fan of $5+ 0.50 STT's and now all i've got in that region are satellites and jackpot tables and crap like that.

White Knight

Road Sweeper

• Go to table list
• Click Sit & Go Tournaments.
• Press the little + sign beside All Sit & Go
• This will populate list of all buy ins available
• Then click $5 and hey presto as if by magic $5+$0.50 games

ditpoker

AJ, i found many of the same issues as yourself. playing on tribecca i could happily fold to the last 5 players then play more aggro from there. I spent a good % of my online banroll to discover i cant do this on iPoker.

What i've done is switched from 10 handed to 6 handed which i have a had a little bit more success with, but would still not be my usual way of playing. This is based on a very small sample, so i could very easily be back on here in a few days bitching about 6 handed stt's.

RoadSweeper

White Knight wrote:

Road Sweeper

• Go to table list
• Click Sit & Go Tournaments.
• Press the little + sign beside All Sit & Go
• This will populate list of all buy ins available
• Then click $5 and hey presto as if by magic $5+$0.50 games

oh yea i see them, but they're all 6 handed. I prefered 9 or 10 handed.

Wisesmurf

RoadSweeper wrote:

oh yea i see them, but they're all 6 handed. I prefered 9 or 10 handed.

Make sure you click 'reset filters' at the top of the tables list.

White Knight

10 handed ones are there also. Make sure your filters are off

EDIT: it depends what site you are on - PPP have specific 10 man non jackpot games

RoadSweeper

yea, all the 10 handed games are maui jackpot games.

Wisesmurf

RoadSweeper wrote:

yea, all the 10 handed games are maui jackpot games.

Sort the tables by name and look for 'molly malone' or 'craggy island'

RoadSweeper

oh im GJP!

willietherock

iVE ONLY PLAYED A FEW $30 10 seater ones and the dynamic has certainly changed from the 9 seater tribeca.
Its seems that you simply have to accumulate chips early on and when it comes to push time there are 7 players still left ( comepared to 4/5 on tribeca) turning into a complete crapshot.

P.S I have to type a 3x raise becoz the slider wont to it. Anyone else with the same problem?

dvdfan

I played a decent amount of stt's too and i usually beat them easily enough on tribeca. It could well be just getting used to the new system but i hate the new structure and im off to play full tilt and party for a few days before deciding where to move.

Its too much of crapshoot as the blinds increase quickly and its too easy to lose alot of your stack that you managed to build up, it makes it very hard to steal blinds and bully smallers stacks near the bubble which was one of my main strentghs.

Try raising/stealing off someone with 200/400 blinds even with a 3500 stack a 2x raise would put 1/4 of my stack in play and any shortstacks are forced to call with any 2 cards because of the size of the blinds. Even with a huge stack you cant bully the small stacks because they know they have to make a move soon. Its ridiculous and ive lost a nice portion of my stack and luckily enough i won it back on a $3 rebuy the other night. Im sure there is a strategy for beating turbo's but id imagine its more luck than strategy to a certain extent.