Adeventures in Small Buyin Tournaments.

I recently began using my poker account again. I had, at one time, about 8x my original deposit. I then started getting back beats in little SnG tournaments and heads up games, so I too an extended break. I would play a little here and there. Eventually, my stack dwindled down to just over 2x my original buy in.

I have always been a decent tournament player. I really enjoy them. However, I hadn’t been playing these games very often.

I decided to take a chance on some $3+.3 90 player games. Much to my surprise, I won. I took first place, which started me on my current poker binge.

I started playing these, usually about 1-3 a day. Most SnGs take about an hour to win. There are 9-10 players (depending on the site) and the top 3 pay. In a 90 player (10 9 player tables), the top 9 pay. But the payout is pretty progressive. The top player makes 28.8x the buy in. If you win a 9 player tournament, you win 4.5x the buy in. The initial payouts start at a paltry 2x buy in on the 90 player, there is significant advantage to making it deeper into the pay cycle. Second place is slightly less than half the amount paid to first.

Anyway, with this, I have been doing quite well and placing, for a while, in about 40% of the tournaments I played, including 2 firsts.

I have had a couple droughts, including a 13 tournament run without any payout (minus a couple bounties). I was bubble boy on one, and very close to the money a couple others.

After I reach back to 6x my original buy in, I plan on trying the $6 + .6 buy ins to try my luck.