UB tourneys VS Stars
 

Someone posted in another thread about the blind structure being better at UB than at Stars. I have played in a ton of tourneys at Stars and just a couple at UB and as much as I bad mouth UB, there may be something to the MTT's there. The blinds don't raise near as quickly giving you the opportunity to play your cards and your opponents instead of having to play the blinds at Stars. I like the smaller field sizes as well, sure it would be nice to win one of those 1500+ player marathons at Stars for a big payout, but you honestly need to be super fortunate to do it, so many all-in pots contested between 3 or 4 players and the blinds force you to play super tight or go in with a hand that is less than what you would want to. I played in a game at UB yesterday where I got rag after rag after rag and only played 7 hands outside the blinds and still finished 38th with top 30 getting paid. I still wonder if I could have just folded to the money since one of the hands I lost with was a couple hundered chips with JJ.
Perhaps I am taking a liking to the UB MTT thing adn not just because I made a final table this morning. The blind structure and small field size suit my game alot better, the trade off is the smaller payoff, but it seems like a decent player should cash much more often at UB. I've only played a couple and I want to try one of the 6-handed ones as well so we'll see how it goes.

Anyone else play at both and have an opinion?

Playing the TEC rebuy right now, after 15 mins the biggest stack is 6000, at Stars someone would have about 25K by now.

Smaller payout, but also shorter tournament, so I guess payout/time spent ratio would be an interesting calculation.

I've only played 2 O8B MTTs at UB. Won 1 and the other had all kinds of connection problems. The 1 I did win netted me $246, and took just under 4 hours. I really cannot sit in front of a computer screen basically motionless for any more an amount of time.

Thats another thing about Stars, if they lowered the blind structure the tournament may never end.

I agree. Since UB increased their starting stack size, they give you much more play before the blinds start to eat you up.

I did well for a while on Pokertropolis's $200 added limit tournies, which only drew 80-100 (about 60 for the Sat. morning one), so I see where you're coming from. Harder to stay disiplined and avoid the big suckout in a megatournament.

Just like the WSOP, online players like Fossilman and Moneymaker come out of nowhere. Bigger tourney= more luck wins IMO.

Fossilman is not an "online player", nor did he come out of "nowhere". He is a long-time high-limit cash game player at Foxwoods, cashed in the main event at the WSOP a few years ago, has had many high finishes in the World Poker Finals, and has long been considered one of the most respected tournament theorists in the country. I've been following his tournament advice at 2+2 since '01. The sad part is, now that he won the WSOP, he has little time to offer advice online any more.

It just happened that he won his entry to last year's WSOP in a double shootout at 'Stars. In '03, he won his WSOP entry in a satellite at Mohegan Sun, beating about 150 others (myself included) in a $50 +5 rebuy satellite.

UB has never been my favorite sites (I don't like the interface - the table setup and betting buttons, mostly), but I admit, I am a BIG FAN of their MTT blind structure. I've only played in a couple, but I've done pretty well, and not felt "rushed" to stay ahead of the blinds. I plan on playing in more of these in the near future... I may take a few cracks at the $100+9 (17k guaranteed) they run daily (I think). Decent field size, and pretty nice payouts.

I see they have a 10+1 rebuy 20k guaranteed at 9:00 tonight. That looks nice too......

I'm in the $10+1 turbo right now, not really all THAT bad when your used to playing at Stars. I'm 37th of 53 after the first break. Took a big hit with KK agains AK, he got his chips in pre-flop and caught an Ace, though I had the stack to survive it. Would have put me in the top 3 winning the hand and for sure in the money, but as it is I have some work to do to see a payday here.

TURBO game and the blinds are 300/600 after the break, I think at stars we would be at 100/200 in a regular game by now, right?

34th, 30 get paid. Had Tens agains a set of 8's, what can you do?