So I decided to give a few of these SNGs a try to get into a higher buy in tournament than usual. 18 players, top 5 get a $26 token and 6th gets $14. I figure just played tight and solid and this will be no problem to at least make 6th. Nope. These were far more sharky than I expected. In one of my games 3 players at the table had those Iron Man badges! Very solid players. After busting out of two of these, I profiled my third table and 7/9 players at the table had rankings > 90% on OPR.com. After busting out of the third I won a $5 18 man for $36 without much trouble. Seems to me that these token SNGs are tougher than they are worth. Any thoughts?

Thats an interesting finding Sj, and one that re-enforces my perspective on Tilt / Stars. Can not answer specifically for the token games but do have a couple of thoughts... one specific and one general.

The specific came from a recent PxF video where the instructor pulled up some datamined stats on a 50c / $1 table at Full Tilt (this was a banned program, but that is another story).... every single opponent with data (7 out of 8) was a winner and tagged as either a shark or a rock. Apparently this is often the case, especially with the multi-tabling rocks who squeeze out a few BBs / hour on many tables... at a 50c / $1 table - to me that is very scarty (!)

More generally, think about your average small-stakes pro grinder. Where do they play?

The vast majority are at Stars or Full Tilt right? .... enough liquidlity at the tables to keep several games going, big and regular enough tournaments. Whether an individual is good enough to beat them at whatever level then I really think people should be asking themselves a simple question:

Why play against tables full of winning players when there are alternative sites with far more fish!??!?

Answers on a postcard to...

(or just post them here!)

Cheers, Mark

Good points. These were obviously multitable grinders as I saw several guys registering for sequential tables in these SNGs. Maybe I need to open a bodog or cake account and see what new waters will bring....

I am going to have to try one of these. I am not worried about the grinders too much considering how many spots pay out.

SJclar: What is a OPR.com ??????

officialpokerrankings.com , sorry for my dumb question