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A small flash in a big pan.

FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
edited December 2013 in Poker Chat
After the talk lately of there being too many diaries, I thought, I know what I'll do, I'll start a new diary. :-)

I'll give a bit of background about me and what I've achieved in the past. A lot of you know who I am but there are a lot of newer players these days and as I'm not in any teams they won't know much about me.

I'll try and put some pictures up on this. Like anything I read, I prefer pictures. :) Sorry, but they will pretty much all be from Sharkscope, apart from me doing screen shots of my bank balance (classy) that's the only way I can show my progress!

My name's Charles, most people call me Charlie. I'm 26, been playing poker since I was 19/20 and I've been on Sky since pretty much day 1.

I started, like most people with a small deposit, I think it was £30, played a few £1 MTTs, won a bit lost a bit until I bust a few times like everyone does. After a while I decided to use BRM, and play properly. It went well, slowly started to creep up. It all changed over the space of a week or 2, when I won my first open (the 8pm tournaments) and also came 3rd in an SPT. This gave me a very nice bankroll compared to the £200 or so I had before. From there it was just a case of building up through all the different disciplines.


It must be about 4 years ago now, the Total Player promotion started, I was lucky enough to get picked to be on Matt Broughton's team. I did a fair bit of work with him, he helped me out chatting over MSN a few lunch times at work. I didn't get far, I was in an incredibly difficult group with the likes of ljamesl, sharksbite, launder and many others who were full time professionals.

After that I started to take poker very seriously. I was a regular grinder on the 50nl and 100nl tables, playing 6-12 tables at a time and making priority every month. I was toying with the idea of playing full time. The idea was my youngest would start school in September, so I would have all daytime free and obviously the evenings when they were asleep. It was about April time, I gave myself a figure I wanted to have in the bank before I would make that step. I soon won the open again (I think it was about the 4th/5th time by then) and just like that overnight, I seemed to run terrible! I couldn't get a winning session, I was waiting for the C4P each month to put me back in the + before it would start to go downhill again. It got to the point where my C4P wasn't even making up my losses. This went on for a good 6 months. I know people say it is possible to run bad for long periods of time, but when you are playing the amount of tables and as regularly as I was then that's more than variance.

With my morale going downhill just as fast as my bankroll I decided to have a break, which turned out to be for 4 or 5 months! The trouble with this, I relied on poker winnings to pay bills. With my income alone my bank balance was going down! So I decided to get back on the site, watch 865 and try and figure out where I was going wrong. Looking back, I let people tell me I was a 'nit' too much. There is no set way to play poker. OK there may be a 'best' way to play every situation, but that doesn't mean you can do it every time. Sometimes you just need to play to your strengths. Building big pots and then not knowing what to do with them when you get resistance can get expensive!

In November last year I started to give DYMs a go. I was playing £5 games, I did well, I figured out what I felt was the optimal way of playing them, I had a very impressive ROI for a while (I think around 12%) happily moved up the stakes to £11. I felt the regs were all at £22+ so was happy to stay between £5 and £15. Then inevitable happened and I started to run horribly. I don't think even now looking back I was doing a lot wrong, just spots where I was unlucky to run into hands, or my better hands were getting outdrawn.

You can see from the graph that I never had the right strategy for DYMs before, I was around £900 down on them before I swatted up a bit and took them serious. The lowest point was May 2012, but as soon as that starts to rise the date is 2nd November, so my profit at the time was actually pretty good.


One of my problems is I'm quite impatient, and I want to win everything I play, so for me to run bad for a month or 2 and barely make any profit if at all then I always think it's me doing something wrong and I need something new, so I went back to my old faithful, MTT's which I think my strength is.

That's pretty much where I am now. Grinding the MTTs, I've been pretty successful with them too. Making 3 figure profit weeks quite often. In the first week of August, I won the Primo for the first time for 3k, then only 4 or 5 weeks later I won it again for another 3k, so it really was like buses!

You can see on this screen shot, right in the middle of the graph is where I had my bad year or so, it was not only with cash but with MTTs also.

Thankfully the 2 primo wins at the end more than made up for it all!



Well anyway that's the background. Sorry I didn't mean to write that much. 

The reason I'm doing this, is I want to put extra volume in over December. I finish work on the 13th, and we don't go back until January, so I will have time in the day to fill. I'm basically going to keep a record of my wins/losses, I'll break it down for cash/stt/MTT, althought it will mainly be MTTs.

Any questions/anything you want me to add just ask. I'm on here a fair bit, normally just being a secret squirrel and not posting, so i should be able to keep it updated fairly regularly.

I'm out every Monday and Tuesday, so I won't actually be playing until tomorrow.

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Comments

  • jdsallstarjdsallstar Member Posts: 1,675
    edited November 2013
    Looking forward to reading this one!!

    You have any targets in mind or is it just a way to track your progress?

    GL
  • DiminuendoDiminuendo Member Posts: 222
    edited November 2013
    Good Luck with this mate

    Ive watched you on sky poker tv for a while now and played you a couple of times since joining and youve got a very good solid game on ya.
  • FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
    edited November 2013
    I didn't have any targets in mind. But you saying that, gives me an idea. I could do a 'Profit made' total and a 'Money spent on Christmas' total, and see if between now and 31st December I can pay for Christmas :-))
  • churchy18churchy18 Member Posts: 1,850
    edited November 2013
    will have a look as i do with most of the diary,s..always good seeing how others are getting on and trying to learn from them.
    good luck with this.but i doubt you will need it
  • liamboi11liamboi11 Member Posts: 2,141
    edited November 2013
    will follow with interest gl buddy
  • FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
    edited November 2013
    Well tonight has really not gone to plan! I entered 5 tournaments. 2 BH's an Omaha and the main and mini which tonight are the rebuys. With all that added up it came to £88, I've so far cashed £3,75! So not really what I was hoping for...

    I loaded up 2 50nl capped tables which I like to play, I feel they suit my game of small ball poker. Tonight however it didn't help and put me further into a hole. I was £30 up at one point, but ended up getting pretty unlucky in some all in spots and called it a day when £27 down to concentrate on the main and mini.

    Going into the break I'm currently 54th from 79 in the main (34 paid) and 17th from 91 in the mini (26 paid) so I need a good result to get me anywhere near profit for tonight!
  • FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
    edited November 2013
    Well as soon as I wrote that I was on the end of a bad beat on both tables at exactly the same time, so that has totally changed everything. The main, Mr. YoYo limped the SB when I'm sat with AA, I 3x it back, he shoved 15BB with Q8cc and goes on to make the straight leaving me with 5 bigs :(. The end came pretty quick after that.

    In the mini, I was SB with AK, early position 3x raised, I 3bet to a 3rd of his stack expecting him to either shove or fold. He flat called, the flop was 9 high so I set him all in, he called with AQ and rivered the Q.

    I'm now out of both, so really bad start to this diary. Probably ironically the worst night I've had at the tables for quite a while.

    MTT - -£84.25
    Cash - -£27.34
    STT - N/A

    Total - -£111.59
  • hhyftrftdrhhyftrftdr Member Posts: 8,036
    edited November 2013
    In Response to Re: A small flash in a big pan.:
    Well as soon as I wrote that I was on the end of a bad beat on both tables at exactly the same time, so that has totally changed everything. The main, Mr. YoYo limped the SB when I'm sat with AA, I 3x it back, he shoved 15BB with Q8cc and goes on to make the straight leaving me with 5 bigs :(. The end came pretty quick after that. In the mini, I was SB with AK, early position 3x raised, I 3bet to a 3rd of his stack expecting him to either shove or fold. He flat called, the flop was 9 high so I set him all in, he called with AQ and rivered the Q. I'm now out of both, so really bad start to this diary. Probably ironically the worst night I've had at the tables for quite a while. MTT - -£84.25 Cash - -£27.34 STT - N/A Total - -£111.59
    Posted by FlashFlush
    Vintage Julian ;)

    All the best with this, one of the best tourney players on the site so please keep clear of my tables :)
  • FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
    edited November 2013
    Another poor day in the MTTs. It's never good when it's 10pm and you're out of everything...

    I started later than usual tonight which meant I missed a couple of tournies I like to play, I did however play the 7:45 £400 BH. It was about 30 minutes in when I started. 1st hand QQ into KK and that was that. So that was £11 well spent!

    I picked up a bounty in the main, but again that was all. No joy in the 1k BH, or the mini. It probably worked in my favour that I missed some tournaments, that way it was a little easier to get used to the new layout. I'm not the sort of person that likes change, so it will take me a while to ge used to it.

    I loaded up a capped table again, I started this 1 myself. I had 2 people sit with half stacks which I managed to bust before the table filled. Nothing more exciting happened after that, but it helped cushion the blow.

    MTT - -£49.25
    Cash - +£37.01
    STT N/A
    Total - -£12.24

    Overall - 

    MTT - -£133.50
    Cash - +£9.67
    STT - N/A
    Total - -£123.83
  • FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
    edited November 2013
    In Response to Re: A small flash in a big pan.:
    if u want the old tables for a while longer check this out it shows you how to get them...gl https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby?action=show_static&page=poker_community_forums&plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3a57795ac2-1793-4377-b4cf-e124b0f555f4Forum%3adf77f82c-151f-4bea-aae1-fb423dcae1faDiscussion%3acc51f231-36b1-4c29-bea6-e9089502616d&plckCurrentPage=0
    Posted by churchy18
    Thanks for that.

    It sounds like it's only a matter of time before the new layout is permanent, so I'd better just carry on and get used to playing it I think.
  • MacMonsterMacMonster Member Posts: 415
    edited November 2013
    I enjoyed the read Charles, a player of your quality will soon turn it round and I look forward to reading about it here.

    Ian
  • FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
    edited November 2013
    I had some spare time this morning, so decided to play another capped table and a standard 20nl table. Really wish I didn't have that spare time! Managed to spew a stack off A10 vs AK blind on blind on the standard table. Then on the capped table I had an absolute mare. It was the type of table where you meet resistance on every pot, I was missing every flop, and Cbets were not getting through. Then I had K8cc vs 9,6 on a 9,8,X flop with 2 clubs, all the money went in and their held. I had another with AJ on an A high flop vs a player than doesn't have a fold button, only to find this time he had flopped a set. It started off HU, again vs a player I know that doesn't like folding, and similar to the 20nl table I made a stand with A10, only to find he had AK that time!

    £-90.03

    Overall

    MTT - -£133.50
    Cash - -£80.36
    STT N/A
    Total - -£213.86

    As I only really play for fun these days, I don't use strict BRM, so these last few days have really hit my bankroll, and I think for now, I might leave the main events alone in the evening as they are now a big chunk. I might start adding in some DYMs, see if I get any luck with that.
  • FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
    edited November 2013
    I didn't update last night. Mainly as I was so tired and tilted with stuff on and off the poker tables I snap shut down the computer and went to bed at 9!.. Yes 9pm!! So that's £22 I need to add onto my losses as well!

    I played 3 tournies, bust them all so quickly I still had time to de-reg from the mini. Like I said above, it's not just things on the poker table affecting me, but I feel like I sorted a lot of things out last night and today. Poker wise I just need to calm down, use that patience I have and the results will come. Today I did that and I had better results!

    It started off with me doing my usual accumulators on the football, had 1 of the 3 come in and made £35 profit overall, so that was a nice moral booster. I have also got a £10 bet on Charl Schwartzel @4/1 to the win the South African Open and he goes into tomorrow with a 1 shot lead, so fingers crossed.

    Today I played the £400 BH, which is a favourite of mine, I feel there is a lot of value in that, and if you can do the win it's still around £150. I snuck into the cash 9th with 9 paid. £11 buy in and a little over £14 returned, so not great but better than bubbling.... which is exactly what I did in the £200 GTD freezeout. £5.50 buyin, stone cold bubble, 6 paid, finished a frustrating 7th!

    I also played the £1k BH and the mini. I managed to get a bounty in the mini, was going along pretty well, nothing great but not in danger, then somebody decided to get it all in with A4 on a gutshot vs my KK and got there :(.

    The 1k BH was much better, finished 4th from 98 for £45 prize and £21 in heads.
    I didn't play any cash or any STT today.

    Today

    MTT - +£50.75

    Overall

    MTT - -£104.75
    Cash - -£80.38
    STT

    Total - -£185.13
  • chicknMeltchicknMelt Member Posts: 1,159
    edited November 2013
    In Response to Re: A small flash in a big pan.:
    I didn't update last night. Mainly as I was so tired and tilted with stuff on and off the poker tables I snap shut down the computer and went to bed at 9!.. Yes 9pm!! So that's £22 I need to add onto my losses as well! I played 3 tournies, bust them all so quickly I still had time to de-reg from the mini. Like I said above, it's not just things on the poker table affecting me, but I feel like I sorted a lot of things out last night and today. Poker wise I just need to calm down, use that patience I have and the results will come. Today I did that and I had better results! It started off with me doing my usual accumulators on the football, had 1 of the 3 come in and made £35 profit overall, so that was a nice moral booster. I have also got a £10 bet on Charl Schwartzel @4/1 to the win the South African Open and he goes into tomorrow with a 1 shot lead, so fingers crossed. Today I played the £400 BH, which is a favourite of mine, I feel there is a lot of value in that, and if you can do the win it's still around £150. I snuck into the cash 9th with 9 paid. £11 buy in and a little over £14 returned, so not great but better than bubbling.... which is exactly what I did in the £200 GTD freezeout. £5.50 buyin, stone cold bubble, 6 paid, finished a frustrating 7th! I also played the £1k BH and the mini. I managed to get a bounty in the mini, was going along pretty well, nothing great but not in danger, then somebody decided to get it all in with A4 on a gutshot vs my KK and got there :(. The 1k BH was much better, finished 4th from 98 for £45 prize and £21 in heads. I didn't play any cash or any STT today. Today MTT - + £50.75 Overall MTT - -£104.75 Cash - -£80.38 STT Total - -£185.13
    Posted by FlashFlush
    what did you have when you overshoved my isolation raise vs the SS? I folded TT btw!
  • FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
    edited November 2013
    AK soooted 
  • FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
    edited November 2013
    Just had a spare hour while the kids were at a party.

    Loaded up 2 10nl tables and a capped 50nl. Nothing major to report, made a nice little profit, no hands stick out in particular...

    Cash - +£19.38

    Overall

    MTT - -£104.75
    Cash - -£61
    STT - N/A

    Total - -£165.75
  • CraigSG1CraigSG1 Member Posts: 1,836
    edited November 2013
    Good luck FF. 

    I will read this with interest. Hopefully it will help me with my BR challange.
  • FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
    edited November 2013
    Quite a frustrating night. It was 1 of those, I don't really feel I did anything wrong, I was very patient, maybe too patient. Didn't put myself in too many tricky spots, but just didn't have the hands or situations to really contend in any of the tournaments.

    I played 5, Omaha, £400bh, £200 f/o, Mini Primo and 1k bh

    Never really got going in the omaha, was hanging on for most of it, finished 9th with 5 paid.
    £200 f/o. Almost the stone cold bubble again for the 2nd night running, but this time bust 11th with 9 paid, so 1 off lol. That was pretty frustrating, I was going along quite nicely, lost a big pot right near the money and soon went. 
    No joy in the 1k bh, I think I got off to a good early start, but then just slowly slipped backwards!
    mini primo, I managed to limp into the cash, Very nearly bust a long way out, I had a very weak player to my right who was limping every pot and not folding any flops, so I kept taking a few decent pots off of them, only for it to go in AQ vs their 44 and I didn't hit for them to leave me below 1k. Managed to come back and get 44th for a min cash.
    Got pretty much a min cash in the old trusty £400 bh. Didn't get any bounties, so it was only a £2 profit.

    I also threw in 4 all in sats to the roller after it had been late reg for a while to see if I could sneak in on the cheap, but no luck!

    So overall, cashed 2 of the 5, very nearly cashed 3 and still made a decent loss. :(

    -£26.15

    Overall

    MTT -£130.90
    Cash -£61

    Total -£191.90


    I am always out on a Monday and Tuesday night. So hopefully I can come back with some decent cashes!
  • FlashFlushFlashFlush Member Posts: 4,494
    edited November 2013
    I decided to play DYMs tonight. I wanted to have an early night. Well I finished before 9 o'clock and now 11 o'clock I still find myself up and on the internet, so that didn't work!

    I played 11 in total, 9 £5.50 games and 2 £11.

    I won 6 of the £5.50 games and won 1 of the £11's. Nothing major to comment on really got outdrawn as many times as I outdrew people so pretty standard session.

    DYM - £8.50

    Overall

    MTT - -£130.90
    Cash - -£61
    DYM - +8.50

    Total - -£183.40
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