Realised I wrote this first bit but hadn't quite finishes and never posted!
I had a losing/breakeven spell for about 6 weeks and 750 MTTs about a month ago. I was bothered and I moaned loads but also looked at a load of hands and tried to stay in the right frame of mind while playing.
With results, sometimes there is nothing you can do and you wont win. I think bigger frustration is not playing well/making big mistakes.
I agree about the line up point. There will be some games that are super tough so I don't see the point in playing them. If there are some 110 games that look good then I dont see the harm in you playing them as long as You feel you can play optimally in a bigger stake game (no point being scared money) You feel it wont effect you mentally if you brick the bigger games It wont effect the games you normally play if you brick the bigger games
It should be treated as a shot so normal BRM/buy in rules can kind of be ignored.
Thanks Matt, before this thread I didn't keep a poker roll, would just play a bit of what I fancied and hope for the best. Needless to say, whenever I made a final table, especially in something bigger, I would shy away from +EV lines and hope to ladder. Would also spend the whole of my short stay at the final table feeling nervous and clammy
Having a roll has helped so much with this and trying to play more aggressively for the win and x no. of buy-ins rather than 'this next pay jump looks like a lot of real life money - maybe I should just aim for that'.
Yuk, fair play to you admitting it bothered you even with your past results. Imagine being a live tournament pro - can you even build up a sample of 750 games in a lifetime? :S
Realised I wrote this first bit but hadn't quite finishes and never posted!
I had a losing/breakeven spell for about 6 hours and 5 MTTs about a month ago. I was bothered and I moaned loads but also looked at a load of hands and tried to stay in the right frame of mind while playing.
With results, sometimes there is nothing you can do and you wont win. I think bigger frustration is not playing well/making big mistakes.
I agree about the line up point. There will be some games that are super tough so I don't see the point in playing them. If there are some 110 games that look good then I dont see the harm in you playing them as long as You feel you can play optimally in a bigger stake game (no point being scared money) You feel it wont effect you mentally if you brick the bigger games It wont effect the games you normally play if you brick the bigger games
It should be treated as a shot so normal BRM/buy in rules can kind of be ignored.
@MattBates when you have losing/breakeven sessions over several hundred MTTs, do you try and maintain your typical daily/weekly volume and power through or do you reduce it at all? Had a rough breakeven patch over the last 1-2 months and it greatly reduced my desire to keep playing the same number of tournaments and I found myself taking a lot more days off.
@MattBates when you have losing/breakeven sessions over several hundred MTTs, do you try and maintain your typical daily/weekly volume and power through or do you reduce it at all? Had a rough breakeven patch over the last 1-2 months and it greatly reduced my desire to keep playing the same number of tournaments and I found myself taking a lot more days off.
It depends how I perceive myself to be playing. If I am playing well but not getting results then its just a case of powering through! Sometimes I will drop the odd game, like quickdraw, just to ease the variance. Other times it is best to take a complete break for a day or a few days. Sometimes you can lower table count to try and give focus more to less tables. It is kind of a trial and error thing to work out what works best for you.
Played last session before UKOPS and it was a winning one, which is always nice In London until Sunday night so missing first few days of UKOPS but will play Sunday and most probably every day after that depending on how nackered I'm feeling mid-week. This 'grinding' lark can get tough on a low volume player
PLO8 story!
Not really familiar with the nuances of PLO8, though I do know the rules at least, which I'm not convinced 100% of players in the games do haha! UKOPS last year on the day the PLO8 event was running I spent about 4 hours brushing up on strategy and ranges and different kinds of exploits... and bust the event second hand with a massive punt Not played since
Had a fun week playing UKOPS! This time last year I played a lot of events and didn't manage a single cash! So a few days into this series I was down £200 and feeling quite happy with that at a pretty high ABI. In the end I finished +£400 for the series despite bricking every £110, which on the one hand is a pretty uninspiring, but on the other hand a definite improvement on last time!!
Had lots of deep runs and fairly brutal bustout hands. Did manage to make one final table though - the £55 rebuy which ended up being the highest buy-in of the series for me, so it was nice to get a result in that one. Won a lot of flips to get there too so can't complain
For the month before the series, my main motivation for working on my game so much was to try and make myself competitive in the UKOPS High Rollers, especially with more 220s running than usual. When the time came, however, I looked at the fields and really wasn't sure if I'd be +EV in them. If I played them infinity times I think I'd expect to be a losing player, and whether that's true or not, I decided it wasn't a good idea to jump in when feeling unoptimistic about them. Having said that... rumour has it @Allan23 won a High Roller entry for a day he was supposed to be having a romantic weekend away and ended up playing it on his phone in a restaurant, before getting in K3s for a gazillion big blinds because his girlfriend wasn't too thrilled So definitely some dead money to be found in that event for sure!
UKOPS as a whole was a really enjoyable experience, with good fun community around it and the blogs of course! Looking forward to the next one (fingers crossed...)
October results: absolutely insane for me compared with past results and a lot of rungood involved! More profit than I managed in the whole of 2017. Roll up to 7k - had been having some shots at the Sunday Major, but will probably play it each week from now on.
Got busy couple of months before Christmas but will play any evenings I can play (mostly Sundays) on Sky. Any daytimes will mostly be elsewhere (sorry...) with a couple of Sky games thrown in.
Last year I played almost exclusively on Sky, whatever the time of day, but you end up playing something like ABI 20 on a Sunday and ABI 3 for a daytime sesh, which is never going to end well lol!
When the time came, however, I looked at the fields and really wasn't sure if I'd be +EV in them. If I played them infinity times I think I'd expect to be a losing player, and whether that's true or not, I decided it wasn't a good idea to jump in when feeling unoptimistic about them.
I was thinking about the old days of online poker. No one really had a concept of table selection, they just took a seat and played. How fun it was.
Then stables, training sites, blogs, study groups etc came along and table selection became this standard thing that everyone would **** out (I did too on 865) so now pretty much every poker player, even fish, factor in. And that is one of the things that has helped kill off the cash games. Oh yeah guys, table select and get position on the bad player too. Don't forget to multi-table everyone! Don't limp! Tilt is bad, just take a break. We really did kill it good. Now every VLOGGER, Podcast and Twitter pro is saying all the same thing 100x a day.
Anyway.
The more that I think about the mental side of the game, the only person you are really competing against is yourself.
About 5 years ago I was at an EPT. The table was full of teenage Germans, all 3/4/5 betting every hand and loving it. At the time I remember thinking yeah this game isn't for me no more, out of my depth etc. 2 of the Germans I ended up recognising a couple of years later as Fedor Holz and The Goose and we all know where they are now. And here I am typing this post!
Mike McD said it best...if you're too careful, your whole life can become a fkn grind.
btw I don't even know where I am going with this reply. Just that part of your post got me thinking.
Speaking of mental game, it was under your recommendation in another thread that I tried Primed Mind.
RE table selection, thoughts on HUNL? Sometimes on a Friday night I'll find myself a couple of beers in, waiting for my gf to hurry up and get ready to go out, I'll wander on over to battle at HU cash - seems a good idea right? Anyway, it's really hard to get a game with anyone at NL50 and below and I'm not playing higher in what is my worst format! Whilst I'd like to think it's because everyone trembles with fear at the sight of King Angmar sitting down... I think it's just down to the points you are saying about game selecting to the extreme/not wanting to battle when there's high rake, etc
Any idea when the next Ukops may be? I've got a vague recollection of a shorter incarnation happening last Christmas, but I might be imagining things - I never really used to care about this donkament malarkey
I believe there's usually a 4 day one in between Christmas and New Year. @Tikay10 sometimes pops into this thread to drop cryptic teases about upcoming MTT offerings...
Wasn't able to play much because of work (busiest time of year for musicians) and played lower ABI than previous months. Was on track for first losing month in a while but found a little heat this week to turn it around
Should be able to play a whole lot more in the second half of December. Not really sure what goals will be. Am around 400 shy of 10k YTD so that is an obvious one but seems pretty manageable (fingers crossed...) Maybe a volume goal as my volume is usually pretty atrocious! No idea what a realistic number would be though!
Played a bunch on Saturday in lieu of playing on Sunday. In the end I also played literally 3 tournaments on Sunday and somehow binked the Christmas Cracker prize draw to the UKOPS Main Event! Talk about rungood - odds on that must be astronomical! Cheers!
@Tikay10 Massively grateful and wouldn't wish to look a gift horse in the mouth...
However, over New Year I'm away with friends in some cottage in the back end of nowhere - no wifi and I'm not sure if there will be mobile signal.
I will 100% be playing UKOPS on 27th and 28th, is there any way at all I could play the Main on one of those days instead please? Not to worry if not, thanks for the gift!
Look mate... I know sometimes when you have free entry to a big event, in the right romantic setting, with Lady Allan gazing fondly at you across a candlelit table, jamming K3 for 200bb can seem like a great plan.
But sometimes when you have free entry to a big event, it's nice to play it at home with no trousers and a turkey sandwich, folding K3 to 3bets.
Comments
I had a losing/breakeven spell for about 6 weeks and 750 MTTs about a month ago. I was bothered and I moaned loads but also looked at a load of hands and tried to stay in the right frame of mind while playing.
With results, sometimes there is nothing you can do and you wont win. I think bigger frustration is not playing well/making big mistakes.
I agree about the line up point. There will be some games that are super tough so I don't see the point in playing them. If there are some 110 games that look good then I dont see the harm in you playing them as long as
You feel you can play optimally in a bigger stake game (no point being scared money)
You feel it wont effect you mentally if you brick the bigger games
It wont effect the games you normally play if you brick the bigger games
It should be treated as a shot so normal BRM/buy in rules can kind of be ignored.
Having a roll has helped so much with this and trying to play more aggressively for the win and x no. of buy-ins rather than 'this next pay jump looks like a lot of real life money - maybe I should just aim for that'.
Yuk, fair play to you admitting it bothered you even with your past results. Imagine being a live tournament pro - can you even build up a sample of 750 games in a lifetime? :S
@MattBates when you have losing/breakeven sessions over several hundred MTTs, do you try and maintain your typical daily/weekly volume and power through or do you reduce it at all? Had a rough breakeven patch over the last 1-2 months and it greatly reduced my desire to keep playing the same number of tournaments and I found myself taking a lot more days off.
PLO8 story!
Not really familiar with the nuances of PLO8, though I do know the rules at least, which I'm not convinced 100% of players in the games do haha! UKOPS last year on the day the PLO8 event was running I spent about 4 hours brushing up on strategy and ranges and different kinds of exploits... and bust the event second hand with a massive punt
Gl to everyone in the series
Hey guys,
Had a fun week playing UKOPS! This time last year I played a lot of events and didn't manage a single cash! So a few days into this series I was down £200 and feeling quite happy with that at a pretty high ABI. In the end I finished +£400 for the series despite bricking every £110, which on the one hand is a pretty uninspiring, but on the other hand a definite improvement on last time!!
Had lots of deep runs and fairly brutal bustout hands. Did manage to make one final table though - the £55 rebuy which ended up being the highest buy-in of the series for me, so it was nice to get a result in that one. Won a lot of flips to get there too so can't complain
For the month before the series, my main motivation for working on my game so much was to try and make myself competitive in the UKOPS High Rollers, especially with more 220s running than usual. When the time came, however, I looked at the fields and really wasn't sure if I'd be +EV in them. If I played them infinity times I think I'd expect to be a losing player, and whether that's true or not, I decided it wasn't a good idea to jump in when feeling unoptimistic about them. Having said that... rumour has it @Allan23 won a High Roller entry for a day he was supposed to be having a romantic weekend away and ended up playing it on his phone in a restaurant, before getting in K3s for a gazillion big blinds because his girlfriend wasn't too thrilled
UKOPS as a whole was a really enjoyable experience, with good fun community around it and the blogs of course! Looking forward to the next one (fingers crossed...)
October results: absolutely insane for me compared with past results and a lot of rungood involved! More profit than I managed in the whole of 2017. Roll up to 7k - had been having some shots at the Sunday Major, but will probably play it each week from now on.
Plans going forward? Still play lots on Sky or reduce volume now the big promos and series have finished?
Got busy couple of months before Christmas but will play any evenings I can play (mostly Sundays) on Sky. Any daytimes will mostly be elsewhere (sorry...) with a couple of Sky games thrown in.
Last year I played almost exclusively on Sky, whatever the time of day, but you end up playing something like ABI 20 on a Sunday and ABI 3 for a daytime sesh, which is never going to end well lol!
I was thinking about the old days of online poker. No one really had a concept of table selection, they just took a seat and played. How fun it was.
Then stables, training sites, blogs, study groups etc came along and table selection became this standard thing that everyone would **** out (I did too on 865) so now pretty much every poker player, even fish, factor in. And that is one of the things that has helped kill off the cash games. Oh yeah guys, table select and get position on the bad player too. Don't forget to multi-table everyone! Don't limp! Tilt is bad, just take a break. We really did kill it good. Now every VLOGGER, Podcast and Twitter pro is saying all the same thing 100x a day.
Anyway.
The more that I think about the mental side of the game, the only person you are really competing against is yourself.
About 5 years ago I was at an EPT. The table was full of teenage Germans, all 3/4/5 betting every hand and loving it. At the time I remember thinking yeah this game isn't for me no more, out of my depth etc. 2 of the Germans I ended up recognising a couple of years later as Fedor Holz and The Goose and we all know where they are now. And here I am typing this post!
Mike McD said it best...if you're too careful, your whole life can become a fkn grind.
btw I don't even know where I am going with this reply. Just that part of your post got me thinking.
Speaking of mental game, it was under your recommendation in another thread that I tried Primed Mind.
RE table selection, thoughts on HUNL? Sometimes on a Friday night I'll find myself a couple of beers in, waiting for my gf to hurry up and get ready to go out, I'll wander on over to battle at HU cash - seems a good idea right?
Any idea when the next Ukops may be? I've got a vague recollection of a shorter incarnation happening last Christmas, but I might be imagining things - I never really used to care about this donkament malarkey
I believe there's usually a 4 day one in between Christmas and New Year. @Tikay10 sometimes pops into this thread to drop cryptic teases about upcoming MTT offerings...
Wasn't able to play much because of work (busiest time of year for musicians) and played lower ABI than previous months. Was on track for first losing month in a while but found a little heat this week to turn it around
Should be able to play a whole lot more in the second half of December. Not really sure what goals will be. Am around 400 shy of 10k YTD so that is an obvious one but seems pretty manageable (fingers crossed...) Maybe a volume goal as my volume is usually pretty atrocious! No idea what a realistic number would be though!
Made it over the line with a few weeks to spare
Must do better volume-wise next year...
@Tikay10 Massively grateful and wouldn't wish to look a gift horse in the mouth...
However, over New Year I'm away with friends in some cottage in the back end of nowhere - no wifi and I'm not sure if there will be mobile signal.
I will 100% be playing UKOPS on 27th and 28th, is there any way at all I could play the Main on one of those days instead please? Not to worry if not, thanks for the gift!
But sometimes when you have free entry to a big event, it's nice to play it at home with no trousers and a turkey sandwich, folding K3 to 3bets.