Review of the Month - Part 1 (SNGs)

I have been playing a lot of SNGs lately, and I wanted to report my December play as I believe I will continue to play in the upcoming months. First, I will set some goals, and then I will talk about where I stand in this month and show some of my stats.

As you know I have been playing NL Holdem, PL Holdem, Stud Hi/Lo and Omaha Hi/Lo. I think this will give me the chance to improve my overall game, and it makes me think a lot more about every play since it doesn't become "boring". I am currently playing the $10 SNGs at Party Poker. I am very excited to report that I am building my bankroll from a $50 deposit, which now stands at around 29 buy-ins.

I have played a total of 69 SNGs and I want to get to at least 150 before moving to the $20s. I guess that is my first goal. My second goal is to get closer to placing in the money (ITM) 48% of the times. I think it's very capable at the $10s. Most importantly I want my Return on Investment (ROI) to be between 33% to 40%. I am not sure whether that's possible, but I think I can do it and it's a nice goal.

Here are my stats for the month of December.

NL Holdem
Number of Tournaments 34
1st Place 2
2nd Place 5
3rd Place 4
4th Place 5
5th-7th 9
8th-10th 9
ITM 32.3%
ROI -13.3%
Return $ -44

I am not happy at all with my NL play. I have to improve several aspects of my game at No-Limit. I have to move a lot of the 8th-10th into 5th-7th places and most of those to 3rd through 4th. My stats show how horrible I am playing, but I think it's just lack of concentration and sometimes what I call "I'M TOO GOOD" syndrome which makes me play any 2 cards.

I think my results for the other 3 types of tournaments are much better, just because they are new to me and also because I haven't played enough, so I am just more careful with my starting hand selection. I am also very aware this is not enough tournaments to really have any realistic read into the numbers. But I want to do this to encourage some of my friends who are not doing it for themselves and they should.

PL Holdem
Number of Tournaments 13
1st Place 5
2nd Place 0
3rd Place 2
4th Place 0
5th-7th 6
8th-10th 0
ITM 53.8%
ROI 50.7%
Return $ 144

Omaha Hi/Lo
Number of Tournaments 11
1st Place 0
2nd Place 1
3rd Place 4
4th Place 1
5th-7th 3
8th-10th 2
ITM 45.5%
ROI -10%
Return $ 10

Stud Hi/Lo
Number of Tournaments 11
1st Place 3
2nd Place 2
3rd Place 1
4th Place 0
5th-7th 5
8th-10th 0
ITM 54.4%
ROI 34.2%
Return $ 63

Overall
ITM 42.4%
ROI 20.4
Return $ 155

This tells me I am playing a good tight game in Stud and PL Holdem, but not so in Omaha and NL. In NL, I have a tendency to push with AK and AQ and these hands are burning me a bit in the early parts of the tourney. In Omaha, I think I played well, but I am too loose early on which shows in the stats. There is no reason I shouldn't be able to place in the top 5 in Omaha Hi/Lo.

I am doing this to set goals for myself, and to show some players what they should be doing. I hope it helps as I know it helps me.