Explaining Heads-Up Hyper Turbo SNGs by Stakes

I haven’t talked much about my experience with heads-up hyper turbos yet, so I figured I’d do that today.
If you follow my Mental Game Blog, you’ll know that I’ m currently playing buy-ins between $100 and $300. I played mostly $60s and $100s for all of September, and then I added $200s at the start of October. I started registering for $300s just a few days ago and have only played a handful.
Because bankroll wasn’t much of an issue for me, I was able to go from playing $30s to $300s between August and now. I often read people asking about the differences between buy-ins while moving up, so I thought I’d briefly share my thoughts about it.
$30s are low stakes and obviously extremely soft. Since I didn’t play many $30s, I’m not too sure about the number of regs at this level. There are so many fish that play $30s, though, that it doesn’t really matter at all.
I spent a bit longer with $60s. There are definitely some regs at this level, but there are also plenty of games. This buy-in is quite popular, so I didn’t play regs that often and I never had to wait around to play.

Be prepared for protective regs juice cards

 

The change is a little more significant going from $60s to $100s. A much smaller number of these run, and there are WAY more regs. Not only are there more regs, some of them are actually competent at this level.
I’m sure that several poker players make a decent clip at $100s when rakeback is considered (which explains why there are so many regs).
The jump from $100s to $200s is even tougher. It comes as no surprise that even fewer $200s run, and unsurprisingly, some of the regs are quite good. If you don’t want to play regs, the games can be very difficult to get. If you are a new player in the lobbies and none of the regs recognize your screen name, you are probably going to play regs all day.
I played tons of regs when I moved up, and I still do. Some regs are protective of their lobbies and go out of their way to sit new players, which I have experienced quite a bit in the past month.

Higher Stakes, Tougher Regulars

The regs are also much more aggressive than the $100 regs, which I had trouble with at first. I have learned quite a lot about adjusting proper amounts rather than over adjusting like a lot of people tend to naturally do. Moving from $100s to $200s has definitely required more work than anything I have ever experienced when it comes to online poker.
I don’t currently have a lot to say about moving from $200s to $300s since I have only played a handful of $300s. Since almost all the $300 regs also play $200s, though, the jump almost certainly won’t be as difficult as it was when moving from $100s to $200s.

Moving from $200 to $300 should be easier.

 

Despite being in a tough stage of my learning process when it comes to hyper heads-up, I am really enjoying playing a lot. I am more motivated than ever when it comes to actually getting hours in, and working on improving every day has become a source of pride for me.
I try to post at the end of every session I play, so feel free to read my Mental Game Blog if you want to follow my progress.
If you are from the Vancouver area, you will probably know that the WSOP Circuit has come to town. The main event starts at the end of this week and has a $1.6k buy-in, so I’ll be taking a couple days off online poker to play that.
I’ll likely have a couple swaps in the event, which means I’ll probably be tweeting a few updates here and there. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @courtiebee if you want to know how I do.
Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. If you are playing in the Circuit event, see you at River Rock!