Online Poker Forum - ? about the average time a 9 handed sng takes at $5 vs. $20

agharta · High Card Joined: 12 Nov 2009 Posts: 1

I just played a few 9 handed $20 + $2 sngs after playing exclusively $10 and under for years and people actually seemed to go out faster than at the $5 level. I figured it would be the other way around with presumably higher level play at higher stakes. Was this a fluke or do tourneys not finish quicker at the lower levels? Is there any way to see stats on this kind of thing? Are people generally more aggressive at higher stakes and maybe that leads to more big hands earlier on higher stakes sngs?

Danduy · Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 6:49 am Post subject:

I played some 20+2 s&g's. Before the 4th blind level kicked in, we where playing for the bubble.
At another one, the first hand 3 people went all-in witk: AK - 88 - TJ

I guess that at the lower levels it's sometimes harder to play then on the higher levels. Because more people have the proper bankroll to play the 5$ s&g's and these stakes are more bankroll builders for the players who want to move up.
I think many players at the 5$ s&g's have the skills to play at a higher level, but their bankroll doesn't allow it.

fat rugger · Message Board Junkie Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 1066

Over the last 33 $20 STT's that I have played to the end (1st or 2nd) the average time was 64.78 minutes. On $30's it has been 59.55 minutes over a similar sample size.

I don't have any data for the 5's

DforDissent

OP, in an ideal world you could "estimate" to a fair degree of accuracy the time a standard NLHE-9 will take... but in reality it depends on players and cards.

There have been times I played a $1 buyin that took 70 minutes FOR THE BUBBLE TO POP -- we were 6handed until the average stack was <10bb, yikes. And there have been times a $30 buyin was 6handed in the first level, and by the third level we were ITM. Both times it was as a result of a loose player getting lucky and/or tight/solid players both waking up with premium hands and getting it all in preflop, and these are just a few that stand out from memory.

If you are talking turbos, you can presume a range from 25-50 minutes but usually ending around the 35-40 minute mark. For non-turbos it's about 50% longer, rarely finishing before an hour, sometimes going more than 80 minutes... but in practice it really doesn't seem to be directly related to the BUYIN amount -- once you get to the bubble there's usually 4 solid players there (or 3 solids and 1 lucky idiot, yay!) and it doesn't matter if the difference between 1st and 3rd is only 2bucks or 50... they're just chips, it's all about making the right choice to get the highest place on the ladder. Maybe 5 years ago things were that much different, but with the learning materials out there nowadays, I think there's tons more smart players even at the lowest buyins Sad

da da90 · Pair Joined: 17 Jul 2009 Posts: 43

agharta you are exactly right. I'm not sure whether at the 5$ level the majority of people are very risk adverse, and are content with just making the bubble by just folding into it and making a relatively small profit, most of the time. Or they generally way too tight passive. Either the way, the play at 5$ (and especially the 5$ 45man) is extremely tight. The 5$ 45 man will almost always last for well over 2hrs and the 10$ and 24$ 45 man rarely last longer than 2 hours.

AllInDrawinDead

Sand Wedge_100 · Message Board Junkie Joined: 27 Sep 2007 Posts: 1943

The blinds have more to do with the "AVG" time a tourney last than the buyin
FTP tourney times that Ive experienced these are from $5-$10 & $5-$26 in the 45s
9s 65-75 mins
18s 90-100 mins
27s 100-110 mins
45s 120-125 mins
PS Tourneys tend to take longer but havent played enough to be sure.

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