Bruno
03-29-2008, 05:12 PM
Friday was "opening day" for the HPT at the Gates, and I went up there yesterday, to play in some of the $80 sattellites to the $340 Main Event qualifiers. Last year, the top 2 would get a certificate for entry into the $340 of the holders choice. This year, you get the cash!?!?! I think it's a bit weird that a bunch of people who don't know how to play short stack turbo sit-n-gos want to play them but, they had a large turnout for them. I went 1 for 4 (broke even for the day after including a tip), but should have been 2 for 4 except I did "the stupidest" thing and went out 3rd in one. I was an idiot in that one, horrifically misplaying the bubble and I'll leave it at that.
The Gates had some of the usual registration issues at first. But ironed out the kinks out of their process fairly quickly, although I'm not so sure that their process can handle the amount of people that I expect up there today(Saturday). I imagine a much larger crowd and that a lot of people will be unhappy with registration and seating-to-play waits with Saturday/Sunday crowds.
As for the play, almost all of the people I played with do not understand the correct strategy for playing these short stack turbo sit-n-gos. I think there is a certain skill set (learned) that can be very profitable in the short stack turbo sit-n-gos. Mark Holland's work is the best I've read on this. And if you do that, as bad as the other players are playing for the conditions (short stacks, 10 min blinds, etc), you will be a winner at them.
But it will take a lot of time to play in one, then register for another, wait until they call your name,,,,,rinse, repeat.....It took somewhere in the vacinity of about 2 hrs total time from starting one until starting another one. I would expect that time to increase on weekends. You might be able to cut a bit of time out of that by registering for another one while you are registered for one that is about to start. I did and it worked for me. Never the less, If you are going up for the day, you might be able to get in a total of 5 of the $80. The $45 will take you a bit longer (playing down to one winner).
My original plan was to play in 20 of the $80 s-n-gs (I think the $45 one winner s-n-g is a bad value) over the 2 weeks of the HPT, with expectations of winning (final two) ten times (I think this is reasonable expectation for me based on internet results and recent live results in essentially same format). Last year they gave the $340 certificates and you could trade 5 of them for direct entry into the Main Event. I was going to trade the certificates in for Main event seats and sell one seat and play the other. Not so sure I'm going to do that now. I'd rather play in a format that allows for less of a luck/unluck factor. Thinking of playing in a combination of $340s and $80 s-n-gs instead. I think it's a question of time for me, more then anything else. Each his own....
The Gates had some of the usual registration issues at first. But ironed out the kinks out of their process fairly quickly, although I'm not so sure that their process can handle the amount of people that I expect up there today(Saturday). I imagine a much larger crowd and that a lot of people will be unhappy with registration and seating-to-play waits with Saturday/Sunday crowds.
As for the play, almost all of the people I played with do not understand the correct strategy for playing these short stack turbo sit-n-gos. I think there is a certain skill set (learned) that can be very profitable in the short stack turbo sit-n-gos. Mark Holland's work is the best I've read on this. And if you do that, as bad as the other players are playing for the conditions (short stacks, 10 min blinds, etc), you will be a winner at them.
But it will take a lot of time to play in one, then register for another, wait until they call your name,,,,,rinse, repeat.....It took somewhere in the vacinity of about 2 hrs total time from starting one until starting another one. I would expect that time to increase on weekends. You might be able to cut a bit of time out of that by registering for another one while you are registered for one that is about to start. I did and it worked for me. Never the less, If you are going up for the day, you might be able to get in a total of 5 of the $80. The $45 will take you a bit longer (playing down to one winner).
My original plan was to play in 20 of the $80 s-n-gs (I think the $45 one winner s-n-g is a bad value) over the 2 weeks of the HPT, with expectations of winning (final two) ten times (I think this is reasonable expectation for me based on internet results and recent live results in essentially same format). Last year they gave the $340 certificates and you could trade 5 of them for direct entry into the Main Event. I was going to trade the certificates in for Main event seats and sell one seat and play the other. Not so sure I'm going to do that now. I'd rather play in a format that allows for less of a luck/unluck factor. Thinking of playing in a combination of $340s and $80 s-n-gs instead. I think it's a question of time for me, more then anything else. Each his own....