Grubby at PokerWorks

“You suck less than me,” my friend said as he threw me two $20s.

I had put out a challenge to him to play 50 of the Full Tilt $11+1 SnGs over the past weekend and the loser would have to buy the other a copy of Tourney Manager.  If either of us didn’t reach 50 tourneys, he’d forfeit.

We both had visions of easily attaining a 10 percent ROI.  We’d basically be spending our winnings on buying a copy of the software, which runs $40.

When I said 10 percent, I was lowballing.  I was expecting to see at least 20 percent.

Boy, was I wrong.

How bad do we suck? 

Instead, I was -19 percent ROI and lost $117 (over 51 SnGs — I played an extra one just in case).  I had played 80 of the $11s before the challenge, and this poor showing dropped my overall ROI there to 1 percent for a total profit of $8.

My friend cut his losses at 48 after an ROI of -42 percent and losing $239. If he’d forfeited at the beginning, he could’ve bought six copies and I could’ve bought three.

I even decided to give him a good shot at catching up by losing the last eight in a row to horrible river beats, lesser hands calling all-ins and getting lucky, and losing coinflips.  Before my losing streak, I’d suggested a side bet if either of us lost five in a row, but he didn’t take me up on it.  Good thing.

We sat at the same table once, and when he pushed, I called with QQ. He showed AJo and nothing on the flop, nothing on the turn, and bam there was the Ace. As bad as his luck was during his 48 games, my luck trumped his when put to the test.   From then on, I didn’t feel bad when someone would suck out on him.

Why are the $11s so hard to beat?  Whatever strategy I’m using for the $33s and $55s is not working for the $11s. 

Granted, 50 SnGs are not nearly a sizeable enough sample.  Out of a sense of competition and wanting to fix these $11 leaks, I may suggest another challenge (100 $11s?) to see if we can dig ourselves out of this mess. 

But at least currently, I’m glad to finally be rid of the damn things and will return to the $33s and $55s. Let’s just hope the stink from the $11s doesn’t stick — early results in two $33s and two $55s show I may be on a downswing in general regardless of the level.

The problem I have with getting continual beats is that I feel I need to make it up and make it up fast, and the only way to do that is in the 6max. Each time I lost two buy-ins, I’d jump a level. Began with 3/6, 5/10, then 8/16, where I was run over each time.  I don’t seem to be able to win in this game either, even though I won on Party.  Another adjustment I’m not making.

Overall, it was an expensive weekend with lots of wasted time in the $11s.

But at least I won the bet.

And isn’t that all that matters?

This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 8:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.