It is annoying when you start getting into a run of losses on cash tables but what's great is you keep the amount you loose low. We do have a very simular feeling when playing poker and our preferred style of play is very similar, the table dynamic on the cash tables didn't have the right choice of players.
I've been going at it fairly hard on the cash tables over the last few days and, all told, it's been pretty frustrating stuff frankly. Without wanting to turn this diary into one long moan, I am continuing to run rather poorly. I think most of us tend to think we run worse than we really do, and I'm certainly no exception to that, but I do like to consider myself at least somewhat objective when it comes to poker. On Sunday night alone I managed to lose five successive 80/20's, which I'm sure would be enough to make even the most cheerful of you out there a touch miffed! Having said all that, I am actually rather enjoying my time at the tables and my appetite for the game seems to be returning to its previous levels, which bodes well. Although it's not quite where I'd have hoped it would be, I have managed to book a profit from cash games of +£130.26.
Tournaments have really been taking a back seat and I've only played the Saturday night mini (in which I managed to last a whole six minutes ) and the mega stack from Friday where I managed to creep into the money. With a possible run at making priority in mind, I think my tourney volume may remain at these rather pathetic levels over the next couple of weeks (unless I get completely fed up with running bad in cash and go full on Matt Bates stylee!). Tournament losses totalled -£1.93.
Finally, it's rakeback day! Volume has been moving ever upwards and is almost at priority pace now. Points for the week totalled 2,382 for £47.64 in rewards payments.
I've been running well, which is nice. After my last couple of updates I was in danger of becoming one of those incessant poker doom mongers, which would probably result in me getting on my own nerves, let alone anybody else's. Nothing too stellar but my strong favourites have been holding up and I've also had a few big hands run into some other big (but not quite so big) hands - full houses/quads vs nut flushes etc. The only slight negative is that my volume has dropped off a fair bit, so I'll need to up the pace if I'm to make priority this month. Total cash game profits come to +£195.00.
Next to nothing to report from tourneys. I played the Triple Takedown series on Monday and just the one mini. One minor cash brought a small rebate to what otherwise amounts to a loss of -£4.88.
Finally, given how my updates seem to be getting increasingly dull, it's great to see a couple of new diaries/challenges popping up so best of luck to @JJBinks and @LnarinOO.
It's been a while since my last update which is mainly due to having very little to report. My cash game play has been perfectly balanced over this last week with solid well disciplined sessions being offset by me spewing like a total moron at other times. I'd estimate I've probably donked off circa £300 through really badly chosen bluffs and ill-considered hero calls, but hey ho, it's still been fun! On the plus side, at least I'm not having it as bad as @mongo229, who is running about as well as an overweight three-legged asthmatic donkey (shout out as promised bud ). The good has just about outweighed the bad in eking out a small profit from cash of +£66.17.
I've jumped into a total of 10 MTT's over the week which consisted of the Triple Takedown series, a few mini's and a few mega/deep stack freezeouts. I whiffed everything with the exception of a 4th place in the newly introduced Saturday mega stack, which just about puts me in the green from tourneys with a +£6.69 total profit.
Monday saw a little bit more rakeback to add to the kitty. Total volume has dropped off a bit so I'll certainly need to pick things up a fair whack if I have serious aspirations of making priority this month. I always find this a bit of a quandary as I'm never that keen on persevering in dry games solely for the sake of rakeback, but it kind of becomes a necessary evil if making a push for priority. I guess I'll see how things are looking come the end of week three and, if it's close, I'll spend a few days pretending I'm @Donttelmum. 1,692 points brought in +£25.38.
I've had a decent couple of sessions at the cash tables. Compared to the previous few weeks, I've been playing a bit nittier post flop. I've still been mixing in a reasonable proportion of bluffs at appropriate times but have cut back on floating in some of the more marginal spots and have also reduced some of my river hero calls - it seems to me the majority of regs in these games are just too value heavy come the river so over-folding here is probably a +EV adjustment. Whilst this is a bit less exciting and likely makes me somewhat exploitable to those paying enough attention, I think this may well be a better approach for me moving forward (at least in the lower stakes games). Total cash profits came to +£232.32.
The only MTT I played was the Friday mega stack. With my mind very much focused on cash games I was actually finding this an unwanted distraction. As a resulted I ended up 4bet shoving JJ in a spot where I really knew it was not a good idea, but I just wanted the game out of the way - hardly the best approach to have for a tournament strategy! -£5.50.
That's all for now and best of luck to all the runners in Manchester this weekend.
I've had a decent couple of sessions at the cash tables. Compared to the previous few weeks, I've been playing a bit nittier post flop. I've still been mixing in a reasonable proportion of bluffs at appropriate times but have cut back on floating in some of the more marginal spots and have also reduced some of my river hero calls - it seems to me the majority of regs in these games are just too value heavy come the river so over-folding here is probably a +EV adjustment. Whilst this is a bit less exciting and likely makes me somewhat exploitable to those paying enough attention, I think this may well be a better approach for me moving forward (at least in the lower stakes games). Total cash profits came to +£232.32.
The only MTT I played was the Friday mega stack. With my mind very much focused on cash games I was actually finding this an unwanted distraction. As a resulted I ended up 4bet shoving JJ in a spot where I really knew it was not a good idea, but I just wanted the game out of the way - hardly the best approach to have for a tournament strategy! -£5.50.
That's all for now and best of luck to all the runners in Manchester this weekend.
Progress so far:
Cash: +£894.94 MTT's: +£181.97 Rakeback: +£156.50
Total: +£1,233.41
Good stuff Dues, ticking over very nicely.
Interesting hearing about those adjustments- that's certainly how I feel about/am approaching 10nl now... not sure if you're referring to 20 and 30nl here though(?).
I think it's clear that you haven't caught the tournament bug then... Bates and lool can rest easy
I have certainly yet to catch the tournament bug - I think I just find the game play fundamentally less interesting. Firstly, I much prefer the complexity of the decision processes in deeper stacked play and, secondly, I really enjoy finding exploitative adjustments to make versus specific opponents and getting to play a greater number of total hands against familiar names affords me this opportunity.
As for those adjustments, I think they become more relevant the lower the stakes. I've been playing a mixture of 10nl-50nl of late (although the majority at 20nl and 30nl) and the lower the stakes, the more the overall population tendencies seem unbalanced in favour of value bets on the river, so taking a similar approach to 10nl sounds bang on to me.
So is it safe to say you have now caught the cash game bug?
So is it safe to say you have now caught the cash game bug?
I'm actually not sure yet.
I have put in (what for me is) a tonne of volume at 10nl over this past month or so- playing 2 or 3 tables and averaging around 4 hours most nights (with just a few tournaments on the side). I'm happy that I'm now consistently taking money from poker again over all but it feels like a wasted night with little enjoyment if I do end up breaking even or dropping a few buy-ins.
I can't seem to kick MTT's completely, even though they continue to repeatedly kick me... there is still no sign of me winning in these spots again on Sky (deep in tournaments for big stacks/chip leads) when will it end?
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
MynaFrett
Small blind
4000.00
4000.00
237938.50
Dewi-cool
Big blind
8000.00
12000.00
172739.50
Your hole cards
J
J
vickirockx
Fold
westyefc15
Fold
flashly
Fold
MynaFrett
Raise
14000.00
26000.00
223938.50
Dewi-cool
All-in
172739.50
198739.50
0.00
MynaFrett
Call
162739.50
361479.00
61199.00
MynaFrett
Show
J
J
Dewi-cool
Show
5
5
Flop
3
Q
5
Turn
A
River
Q
Dewi-cool
Win
Full House, 5s and Queens
361479.00
361479.00
The guy who beat me in the hand said he has been running like me in these spots for 12 months! It's been almost 4 months for me now losing in these spots and it's so deflating. It has taken me to the brink of quitting MTT's altogether and I think the outcome in the next similar spot will determine whether my future lies in cash or MTT's...
So, to answer your question Dues, I don't think I have caught the cash bug but my tournament bug is making me so ill I may have to give them up in favour of cash anyway.
Anyway, how have you been getting on since your last update?
Last I heard he went busto and he is currently trying to get a hold of JJBINKS for a loan, but he is currently on his brand new yacht floating around the world.
Sorry to take a while replying. Binksy has had me hard at work below deck on his new super-yacht. He likes his solid gold toilet seat to be extra shiny and keeping his all white wardrobe clean is quite a task too (he's dressing like a successful rapper these days ).
Poker has been very much break-even these last few days so I haven't really felt compelled to write a 'nothing happening' update. Will do a proper round up soon though.
@MynaFrett, it sounds like you're stuck in a bit of a poker limbo at the moment. MTT variance can be pretty brutal and knowing that you're not a super high volume player means that can equate to a long time period of frustration. Playing 10nl cash is also not really going to replace the buzz of a few tourney scores (or the boost to the finances), so I can understand if that is leaving you a little cold too. If you're still a bit fed up with MTT's, I'd suggest giving yourself a little bankroll challenge in cash games with the aim of moving up a couple of stake levels asap. If you could successfully transition up to 50nl then your good nights will be giving you returns akin to taking down some of the smaller MTT events on Sky, which may ultimately rekindle your overall poker enthusiasm levels. Whatever you do, it can help to put some specific goals in place for cash poker as reaching specific targets helps break up the monotony of grinding in my opinion - hence me starting this diary. Good luck with it either way .
Comments
I've been going at it fairly hard on the cash tables over the last few days and, all told, it's been pretty frustrating stuff frankly. Without wanting to turn this diary into one long moan, I am continuing to run rather poorly. I think most of us tend to think we run worse than we really do, and I'm certainly no exception to that, but I do like to consider myself at least somewhat objective when it comes to poker. On Sunday night alone I managed to lose five successive 80/20's, which I'm sure would be enough to make even the most cheerful of you out there a touch miffed! Having said all that, I am actually rather enjoying my time at the tables and my appetite for the game seems to be returning to its previous levels, which bodes well. Although it's not quite where I'd have hoped it would be, I have managed to book a profit from cash games of +£130.26.
Tournaments have really been taking a back seat and I've only played the Saturday night mini (in which I managed to last a whole six minutes
Finally, it's rakeback day! Volume has been moving ever upwards and is almost at priority pace now. Points for the week totalled 2,382 for £47.64 in rewards payments.
Hopefully the next update will be less whiny.
Progress so far:
Cash: +£401.45
MTT's: +£185.66
Rakeback: +£131.12
Total: +£718.23
darryl1976 Big blind £0.20 £0.30 £40.43
Your hole cards
Q
A
Duesenberg Raise £0.60 £0.90 £20.10
popp Call £0.60 £1.50 £29.06
DickLarge Fold
Donttelmum Call £0.60 £2.10 £56.58
Brayer1972 Fold
darryl1976 Call £0.40 £2.50 £40.03
Flop
10
J
K
darryl1976 Check
Duesenberg Bet £1.88 £4.38 £18.22
popp Call £1.88 £6.26 £27.18
Donttelmum Raise £5.95 £12.21 £50.63
darryl1976 Fold
Duesenberg All-in £18.22 £30.43 £0.00
popp Fold
Donttelmum Raise £28.30 £58.73 £22.33
Donttelmum Unmatched bet £14.15 £44.58 £36.48
Duesenberg Show
J
K
Donttelmum Show
Q
A
Turn
6
River
K
Duesenberg Win Full House, Kings and Jacks £42.78 £42.78
Wasn't all bad Chris
I actually put you on AQ in that hand James. It's just that knowing you're the ultimate endboss of runbad, I was jamming for value!
I've been running well, which is nice. After my last couple of updates I was in danger of becoming one of those incessant poker doom mongers, which would probably result in me getting on my own nerves, let alone anybody else's. Nothing too stellar but my strong favourites have been holding up and I've also had a few big hands run into some other big (but not quite so big) hands - full houses/quads vs nut flushes etc. The only slight negative is that my volume has dropped off a fair bit, so I'll need to up the pace if I'm to make priority this month. Total cash game profits come to +£195.00.
Next to nothing to report from tourneys. I played the Triple Takedown series on Monday and just the one mini. One minor cash brought a small rebate to what otherwise amounts to a loss of -£4.88.
Finally, given how my updates seem to be getting increasingly dull, it's great to see a couple of new diaries/challenges popping up so best of luck to @JJBinks and @LnarinOO.
Progress so far:
Cash: +£596.45
MTT's: +£180.78
Rakeback: +£131.12
Total: +£908.35
Come on mate, your diary isn't even on the front page any more... pull your finger out
Weekly updates now?
It's been a while since my last update which is mainly due to having very little to report. My cash game play has been perfectly balanced over this last week with solid well disciplined sessions being offset by me spewing like a total moron at other times. I'd estimate I've probably donked off circa £300 through really badly chosen bluffs and ill-considered hero calls, but hey ho, it's still been fun! On the plus side, at least I'm not having it as bad as @mongo229, who is running about as well as an overweight three-legged asthmatic donkey (shout out as promised bud
I've jumped into a total of 10 MTT's over the week which consisted of the Triple Takedown series, a few mini's and a few mega/deep stack freezeouts. I whiffed everything with the exception of a 4th place in the newly introduced Saturday mega stack, which just about puts me in the green from tourneys with a +£6.69 total profit.
Monday saw a little bit more rakeback to add to the kitty. Total volume has dropped off a bit so I'll certainly need to pick things up a fair whack if I have serious aspirations of making priority this month. I always find this a bit of a quandary as I'm never that keen on persevering in dry games solely for the sake of rakeback, but it kind of becomes a necessary evil if making a push for priority. I guess I'll see how things are looking come the end of week three and, if it's close, I'll spend a few days pretending I'm @Donttelmum
Progress so far:
Cash: +£662.62
MTT's: +£187.47
Rakeback: +£156.50
Total: +£1,006.59
I've had a decent couple of sessions at the cash tables. Compared to the previous few weeks, I've been playing a bit nittier post flop. I've still been mixing in a reasonable proportion of bluffs at appropriate times but have cut back on floating in some of the more marginal spots and have also reduced some of my river hero calls - it seems to me the majority of regs in these games are just too value heavy come the river so over-folding here is probably a +EV adjustment. Whilst this is a bit less exciting and likely makes me somewhat exploitable to those paying enough attention, I think this may well be a better approach for me moving forward (at least in the lower stakes games). Total cash profits came to +£232.32.
The only MTT I played was the Friday mega stack. With my mind very much focused on cash games I was actually finding this an unwanted distraction. As a resulted I ended up 4bet shoving JJ in a spot where I really knew it was not a good idea, but I just wanted the game out of the way - hardly the best approach to have for a tournament strategy! -£5.50.
That's all for now and best of luck to all the runners in Manchester this weekend.
Progress so far:
Cash: +£894.94
MTT's: +£181.97
Rakeback: +£156.50
Total: +£1,233.41
Good stuff Dues, ticking over very nicely.
Interesting hearing about those adjustments- that's certainly how I feel about/am approaching 10nl now... not sure if you're referring to 20 and 30nl here though(?).
I think it's clear that you haven't caught the tournament bug then... Bates and lool can rest easy
gg
I have certainly yet to catch the tournament bug - I think I just find the game play fundamentally less interesting. Firstly, I much prefer the complexity of the decision processes in deeper stacked play and, secondly, I really enjoy finding exploitative adjustments to make versus specific opponents and getting to play a greater number of total hands against familiar names affords me this opportunity.
As for those adjustments, I think they become more relevant the lower the stakes. I've been playing a mixture of 10nl-50nl of late (although the majority at 20nl and 30nl) and the lower the stakes, the more the overall population tendencies seem unbalanced in favour of value bets on the river, so taking a similar approach to 10nl sounds bang on to me.
So is it safe to say you have now caught the cash game bug?
I'm actually not sure yet.
I have put in (what for me is) a tonne of volume at 10nl over this past month or so- playing 2 or 3 tables and averaging around 4 hours most nights (with just a few tournaments on the side). I'm happy that I'm now consistently taking money from poker again over all but it feels like a wasted night with little enjoyment if I do end up breaking even or dropping a few buy-ins.
I can't seem to kick MTT's completely, even though they continue to repeatedly kick me... there is still no sign of me winning in these spots again on Sky (deep in tournaments for big stacks/chip leads) when will it end?
The guy who beat me in the hand said he has been running like me in these spots for 12 months! It's been almost 4 months for me now losing in these spots and it's so deflating. It has taken me to the brink of quitting MTT's altogether and I think the outcome in the next similar spot will determine whether my future lies in cash or MTT's...
So, to answer your question Dues, I don't think I have caught the cash bug but my tournament bug is making me so ill I may have to give them up in favour of cash anyway.
Anyway, how have you been getting on since your last update?
Poker has been very much break-even these last few days so I haven't really felt compelled to write a 'nothing happening' update. Will do a proper round up soon though.
@MynaFrett, it sounds like you're stuck in a bit of a poker limbo at the moment. MTT variance can be pretty brutal and knowing that you're not a super high volume player means that can equate to a long time period of frustration. Playing 10nl cash is also not really going to replace the buzz of a few tourney scores (or the boost to the finances), so I can understand if that is leaving you a little cold too. If you're still a bit fed up with MTT's, I'd suggest giving yourself a little bankroll challenge in cash games with the aim of moving up a couple of stake levels asap. If you could successfully transition up to 50nl then your good nights will be giving you returns akin to taking down some of the smaller MTT events on Sky, which may ultimately rekindle your overall poker enthusiasm levels. Whatever you do, it can help to put some specific goals in place for cash poker as reaching specific targets helps break up the monotony of grinding in my opinion - hence me starting this diary. Good luck with it either way
keep at it ,im sure i will see u at the cash games