Can anyone turn a constant profit at headsup SNGs???

thebroker

This is my first post on here so not sure if this question has been asked and answered in the past but here goes.

I first registered with sky some 3 years ago I asked for my account to be deactivated due to a overwhelming amount of bad beats (across all types of holdem)

I have since spent the last several months playing heads-up SNGs on two other site typically £5-£15 buy-ins and have made a small but steady profit from both.

Last week I decided to give sky another try and stick to this one game type which I am now very comfortable with.

After spending first 3 hours of playing I was still around the even mark I then lost 7 consecutive games of which I was only behind once when the chips went in – the remaining 6 games I was ahead (between 60%-95% favorite to win) but somehow still got outdrawn and lost, below is 2 examples my better hands have lost to

QQ vs 77 – shove and call you guessed a 7 on the flop GAME OVER

K9 vs K8 – 9,K,8 flop then the obvious shove and call and you guessed again 8 on the river GAME OVER

The odds of me being so far ahead 6 consecutive times and losing them all must be astronomical and not even worth trying to work out - and this was within my first 5 hours back on sky, where as I have never seen anything as bad on this in 100s of hours playing on both the other sites

In none of the games tho can I blame my opponent as considering the game format where we where at with the blinds etc and the hands we had on each occasion the shove/call they where within there rights to of called or shoved but somehow I lost each and every hand. - In the 100s of hours I have played on both my other site this has never even come close

So my question is has anyone on here managed to turn a profit from regularly playing heads-up SNGs if so is it common to see such a unrealistic amount of outdraws or is the sky RNG software configured to help balance the playing field?

DOHHHHHHH

Yes I have.

No there is nothing dodgy going on with the RNG, although lots of people will agree with you. You will find it hard to find a winning player who agrees with you, although there are 2 or 3 who I'm sure you will get to know pretty soon.

Heads up sngs r brutal for swings. 

The most successful sit n go player on the site this year (in terms of profit) plays ONLY HEADS UP sit n gos.

2 or 3 other HU sng players are well in the top 20 on the site for profit.

I'm currently taking a long break from them as I have lost my last 12 HU sngs I think (which is nothing, but I was playing above my usual level, so it hurt more)

I'm sure you know that confidence and MOMENTUM are really important heads up, so when you get on a losing run, it's hard to get off.

Don't blame the rng though, that's not gonna help.

Good luck.

GaryQQQ

There's nothing strange about a cluster of 6 beats. I assume that for the first three hours the luck was evenly distributed between you and your opponents? You can't condemn a site on the basis of just 6 hands. If you are a profitable HU specialist on other sites you will be profitable here too. After a few thousand games you will have a good idea of what sort of ROI you can expect to make in the long run, but you won't after after only 3 and a bit hours.

unknown_username

This is interesting. When we talk about profit and being profitable is it what we think it is?

Dohhhhhhh is a profitable S&G player. You can see this from his Sharkscope which says he played 2,029 games and shows a profit of $2,490. On the face of it this looks good - very good some would say. But how good is it really? This isn't aimed a Dohx7, I'm just using his stats as he was first to post on this topic. 

So how good is that? Well there's a profit so that's good - better than a loss. But for anyone wanting to play anything other than recreational poker it's not very good at all. Anyone wishing to turn a profit and thereby be semi-professional or even professional needs to understand what it really means. 

In a nutshell it means that the ''profit'' was just a little more than $1 per game with an average stake of $12 per game. If we assume each game averages 15 minutes then that's an hourly rate of about £3 or much less than half the minimum wage. My paper-boy earns more per hour!

As a form of recreation it's great, there aren't many things that you can really enjoy doing that pay you to do them. However if you are looking to earn any sort of living from poker then it's a hard way to achieve it unless you are very good and play relatively high stakes.

As for the RNG, well your guess is as good as mine. It's interesting that you perceive a difference to other sites you have played. Variance seems to run in very thick veins on Sky.

DOHHHHHHH

In Response to Re: Can anyone turn a constant profit at headsup SNGs???:

This is interesting. When we talk about profit and being profitable is it what we think it is? Dohhhhhhh is a profitable S&G player. You can see this from his Sharkscope which says he played 2,029 games and shows a profit of $2,490. On the face of it this looks good - very good some would say. But how good is it really? This isn't aimed a Dohx7, I'm just using his stats as he was first to post on this topic.  So how good is that? Well there's a profit so that's good - better than a loss. But for anyone wanting to play anything other than recreational poker it's not very good at all. Anyone wishing to turn a profit and thereby be semi-professional or even professional needs to understand what it really means.  In a nutshell it means that the ''profit'' was just a little more than $1 per game with an average stake of $12 per game. If we assume each game averages 15 minutes then that's an hourly rate of about £3 or much less than half the minimum wage. My paper-boy earns more per hour! As a form of recreation it's great, there aren't many things that you can really enjoy doing that pay you to do them. However if you are looking to earn any sort of living from poker then it's a hard way to achieve it unless you are very good and play relatively high stakes. As for the RNG, well your guess is as good as mine. It's interesting that you perceive a difference to other sites you have played. Variance seems to run in very thick veins on Sky.
Posted by elsadog

Not as good as it was 12 games ago!! lol

unknown_username

In Response to Re: Can anyone turn a constant profit at headsup SNGs???:

In Response to Re: Can anyone turn a constant profit at headsup SNGs??? : Not as good as it was 12 games ago!! lol
Posted by DOHHHHHHH

LOL  -  not aimed at you JJ  - I've done my own on another thread - I find it interesting )

thebroker

Thanks for the advice and info so far – please keep it coming am looking for as many opions as possible from you regulars on this site

 

Just to answer a few questions from those who have already posted tho

I do agree the swings in heads up are brutal and can be really bad I have often gone hours and even days with only the odd win, its just I never had so many leading hands get beat consecutively as I have had on here (and within 5 hrs of re-registering)

 

Also am not looking at poker for full or even part time unfortunately I have a mortgage, car, 2 kids and an expensive wife to support and cant rely on the poker gods (or should I say RNGs) so will be sticking with my regular work for a while yet.

 

I play for just fun my profits are usually between £40-£150 per week which is for about 10-15hrs play obviousitly I have the odd week here and there where I might lose £50 or so but that just means the wife gets one less dress that week lol  

 

I will stick it out a few more weeks hopefully that was just a random bad run which wont be repeated again anytime soon

 

Please keep the posts coming

Thanks guys and good luck all