After starting this challenge/diary full of drive and enthusiasm, the pace of my play has very much slowed into a gentle plod around the MTT scene. I know exactly why this is. I've been breaking even recently and I'm a complete mental game fish, so the novelty has worn off and the level of desire to grind has faded. Still, a plod is better than a complete standstill and breaking even is certainly better than losing money.
Session wise, I played and uneventful and slightly losing Thursday night, took Friday off and returned for a slightly better time of it on Saturday. I even managed a very rare win in something, which was nice! It was just a tiddler really (a £500 gtd £11bh), but it was good to end what was starting to feel like a bit of a drought on the victory front. I'm only £3 shy of my profit peak now so I'll hopefully be breaking new ground again soon which may help fire me up a little more.
I started to write this before you moaned in a prizedraw win and a deep run in the main!
The reality is with MTTs you will have a lot of sessions which are probably going to be seen as boring. Brick the bigger games, have the odd deep run but end up breaking even or winning or losing small.
Key is making the deep runs count and trying to get the max out of each session. Getting a result in one of your last games when you try your best rather than make some punty plays because its only a small buy in for you will make a big difference at the end of the year.
Thanks Matt.
I'm definitely getting used to a lot of boring sessions!
Fortunately I'm not too much of a tilt monkey, even if I'm left one tabling after some cruel suck outs. When I do tilt it's often the opposite of what many player do in that I just tend to completely nit up (even more than my usual game, if you can believe that's possible!).
Get ready for another exciting and extremely samey update folks!
So, I played Sunday and Monday night and it was all generally the same story as the rest of July - I lost a few quid on Sunday and made a few quid back on Monday. I am at least at a new profit peak, but only just.
Monday brought one of those real mixed feeling kinda results in that I finished deep in the Main for 8th (yay!) but went out feeling full of frustration when my QQ couldn't hold all in pre vs A8o (boo!). I'm sure most tourney players think this way, but I really do feel like I've been getting more than my fair share of bad beats for a fairly long stretch now. I am a bit of a promo luckbox though, so I guess I can't moan too much .
It turns out that having a good whinge might just be +EV. I only played a small 10 game session for Turbo Tuesday but it was the most successful one in a fair while.
All the bigger stuff was a blank but I managed to win the £500 gtd £11bh (second victory in that particular tourney during the challenge) and it was tantalisingly close to a double with 2nd in the 7 at 7 - I was one 60/40 hold away from getting the job done there, but it wasn't meant to be I guess.
It's by no means the most profitable day I've had during this challenge but it feels great to finally be pushing upwards a little on the profit front after standing still for what felt longer than was probably the case.
I seem to have developed a bit of a routine schedule and I can't decide whether it's a good or a bad thing. It involves me starting at 6:30pm and then making sure I play the bare minimum number of games required to reach 100 points and maximise my daily ticket allowance for the Golden Ticket Giveaway promo. On the plus side, it stops me having some really lazy low volume sessions, but it also means I tot up the points total as I go and when it's on target I tell myself "that'll do" and stop registering for anything else.
So, Wednesday and Thursday continued in Groundhog Day fashion and along with the usual annoying bad beats, there was also a little bit more success too. Wednesday seemed to revert to the mean when I just about scraped through with a tiny £7 profit but I then went on to secure win number 6 of the challenge on Thursday. It appears I'm slowly climbing the £11 bounty hunter ladder and this time I managed to take down the £750 gtd version. My HU opponent was forum stalwart @Jac35 and I felt a little bad for him really - I played poorly HU but ran hot with both my pre and post flop holdings. It's hard to do much when you run into a fish on a heater! There were no other decent scores of note, but it did cheer me up after sucking out on the bubble of the 19:30 £22bh vs @Ironpump1.
That leaves just 75 games to go now. I know I can't really do anything to influence results (besides trying to play my best of course), but I'll be super chuffed if I can reach £2k in profit by game 500. Fingers crossed .
Regarding the schedule, it's the same with me. It's difficult not to get stuck in the same routine as the choice of suitable tournaments is fairly limited. This makes my diary updates a bit monotonous. "Played the same games, here are the results" kind of posts. You do well to keep yours entertaining though as you write far better than me. I hope you have some new targets going forward and keep this diary going after you hit your 500 game mark.
I seem to have developed a bit of a routine schedule and I can't decide whether it's a good or a bad thing. It involves me starting at 6:30pm and then making sure I play the bare minimum number of games required to reach 100 points and maximise my daily ticket allowance for the Golden Ticket Giveaway promo. On the plus side, it stops me having some really lazy low volume sessions, but it also means I tot up the points total as I go and when it's on target I tell myself "that'll do" and stop registering for anything else.
So, Wednesday and Thursday continued in Groundhog Day fashion and along with the usual annoying bad beats, there was also a little bit more success too. Wednesday seemed to revert to the mean when I just about scraped through with a tiny £7 profit but I then went on to secure win number 6 of the challenge on Thursday. It appears I'm slowly climbing the £11 bounty hunter ladder and this time I managed to take down the £750 gtd version. My HU opponent was forum stalwart @Jac35 and I felt a little bad for him really - I played poorly HU but ran hot with both my pre and post flop holdings. It's hard to do much when you run into a fish on a heater! There were no other decent scores of note, but it did cheer me up after sucking out on the bubble of the 19:30 £22bh vs @Ironpump1.
That leaves just 75 games to go now. I know I can't really do anything to influence results (besides trying to play my best of course), but I'll be super chuffed if I can reach £2k in profit by game 500. Fingers crossed .
Congrats on the win last night dude. I had some serious run good in that £22BH after the first hour of play, I couldn't miss even when I made some questionable calls for bounties.
I have been keeping up with your diary its always a good read, the nightly reports are great. Do you think it keeps you motivated to continue the MTT grind each night having the accountability? I have been doing monthly reports reviewing the overall profit/loss but I may have a crack at doing a session review like yours and @waller02 it seems like a good way to keep on track and pushing forward, my last three months have been pretty stagnant.
Regarding the schedule, it's the same with me. It's difficult not to get stuck in the same routine as the choice of suitable tournaments is fairly limited. This makes my diary updates a bit monotonous. "Played the same games, here are the results" kind of posts. You do well to keep yours entertaining though as you write far better than me. I hope you have some new targets going forward and keep this diary going after you hit your 500 game mark.
What works for me is playing on a new site from time to time.
I always have some tables up on Sky. Then if you add one with a roll to play similar-sized games, and a new one where you are playing smaller MTTs tring to build a roll on that one, it creates enough difference to keep the interest going-at least, it does for me.
Regarding the schedule, it's the same with me. It's difficult not to get stuck in the same routine as the choice of suitable tournaments is fairly limited. This makes my diary updates a bit monotonous. "Played the same games, here are the results" kind of posts. You do well to keep yours entertaining though as you write far better than me. I hope you have some new targets going forward and keep this diary going after you hit your 500 game mark.
What works for me is playing on a new site from time to time.
I always have some tables up on Sky. Then if you add one with a roll to play similar-sized games, and a new one where you are playing smaller MTTs tring to build a roll on that one, it creates enough difference to keep the interest going-at least, it does for me.
I've heard Unibet is fairly similar to Sky as far as MTT field sizes and start times are concerned. Do you play on there/recommend it? I can't really fit/or play anymore tables on my laptop though to be honest so I would be unlikely to play on other sites (unless the worst case scenario happens here in the near future).
Regarding the schedule, it's the same with me. It's difficult not to get stuck in the same routine as the choice of suitable tournaments is fairly limited. This makes my diary updates a bit monotonous. "Played the same games, here are the results" kind of posts. You do well to keep yours entertaining though as you write far better than me. I hope you have some new targets going forward and keep this diary going after you hit your 500 game mark.
What works for me is playing on a new site from time to time.
I always have some tables up on Sky. Then if you add one with a roll to play similar-sized games, and a new one where you are playing smaller MTTs tring to build a roll on that one, it creates enough difference to keep the interest going-at least, it does for me.
I've heard Unibet is fairly similar to Sky as far as MTT field sizes and start times are concerned. Do you play on there/recommend it? I can't really fit/or play anymore tables on my laptop though to be honest so I would be unlikely to play on other sites (unless the worst case scenario happens here in the near future).
Yes, I do. I think Unibet is closer to Sky than any other poker site. Schedule probably a bit stronger in the afternoon, bit weaker in the evening. Would definitely recommend.
In addition, the Unibet UK Poker Tour is almost identical to the Sky Poker tour-same buy-in, mostly same venues. Their next stop is also Rendezvous Brighton. Players aren't as friendly, and the Unibet staff are not as good, but players prob slightly worse.
Regarding the schedule, it's the same with me. It's difficult not to get stuck in the same routine as the choice of suitable tournaments is fairly limited. This makes my diary updates a bit monotonous. "Played the same games, here are the results" kind of posts. You do well to keep yours entertaining though as you write far better than me. I hope you have some new targets going forward and keep this diary going after you hit your 500 game mark.
I certainly get you with regards to the monotony of the schedule and then incorporating that into frequent diary updates. I think you're being a little unkind to yourself regarding your session reports though - they're far more interesting and eloquent than you give yourself credit for. Besides, I think that in both our cases, these blogs are more about keeping ourselves motivated and accountable rather than looking to entertain others.
As it stands, I'm probably going to wrap this diary up once I've reached 500 games, although I may yet change my mind/plans. My next reply to @Ironpump1 will probably explain more of the reasoning behind that.
I seem to have developed a bit of a routine schedule and I can't decide whether it's a good or a bad thing. It involves me starting at 6:30pm and then making sure I play the bare minimum number of games required to reach 100 points and maximise my daily ticket allowance for the Golden Ticket Giveaway promo. On the plus side, it stops me having some really lazy low volume sessions, but it also means I tot up the points total as I go and when it's on target I tell myself "that'll do" and stop registering for anything else.
So, Wednesday and Thursday continued in Groundhog Day fashion and along with the usual annoying bad beats, there was also a little bit more success too. Wednesday seemed to revert to the mean when I just about scraped through with a tiny £7 profit but I then went on to secure win number 6 of the challenge on Thursday. It appears I'm slowly climbing the £11 bounty hunter ladder and this time I managed to take down the £750 gtd version. My HU opponent was forum stalwart @Jac35 and I felt a little bad for him really - I played poorly HU but ran hot with both my pre and post flop holdings. It's hard to do much when you run into a fish on a heater! There were no other decent scores of note, but it did cheer me up after sucking out on the bubble of the 19:30 £22bh vs @Ironpump1.
That leaves just 75 games to go now. I know I can't really do anything to influence results (besides trying to play my best of course), but I'll be super chuffed if I can reach £2k in profit by game 500. Fingers crossed .
Congrats on the win last night dude. I had some serious run good in that £22BH after the first hour of play, I couldn't miss even when I made some questionable calls for bounties.
I have been keeping up with your diary its always a good read, the nightly reports are great. Do you think it keeps you motivated to continue the MTT grind each night having the accountability? I have been doing monthly reports reviewing the overall profit/loss but I may have a crack at doing a session review like yours and @waller02 it seems like a good way to keep on track and pushing forward, my last three months have been pretty stagnant.
Thanks @Ironpump1 and well done on finishing the job in the £22bh. Taking 12 heads from a field of 57 players is an impressive achievement!
Keeping myself motivated and accountable were the sole reasons I started this diary and frequent updates definitely help keep the momentum going. I'd always intended for this to be a short-ish diary/challenge though, so it felt like less of a commitment in terms of keeping up with that pace of updates. If you feel like you're stagnating a bit then I definitely think it may worth you trying that approach for yourself - you can always go back to just doing monthly round-ups if you prefer. You also tend to get a bit more interaction with regular updates which can help add a little fuel to the motivation fire.
I do find there is one drawback with this approach though, which I think I'll refer to as "diary tilt". Despite the lack of a big score, my results have been fairly decent since starting this thread and there is definitely some pride attached to that. The problem is that I can then start to feel protective of what I have achieved thus far and shy away from taking bigger variance shots and jeopardising all that good work, especially when I'm close to reaching a target (in this case my goal of 500 MTT's). I realise that I sound like a bit of a narcissistic tw*t, but this is the main reason I'll probably wrap this up once I've hit that 500 target. Then of course I'll find myself completely lacking motivation and the process will start all over again .
For me, the biggest drawback regarding Unibet is that the games are essentially anonymous due to their policy on screen name changes. Getting to know and adjust to the tendencies of frequently faced opponents is a big part of what makes poker fun for me and without that dynamic I'm far less inclined to play. That lack of familiarity, along with no chat box, probably goes some way towards explaining the difference in atmosphere between Unibet and Sky live events imo.
For me, the biggest drawback regarding Unibet is that the games are essentially anonymous due to their policy on screen name changes. Getting to know and adjust to the tendencies of frequently faced opponents is a big part of what makes poker fun for me and without that dynamic I'm far less inclined to play. That lack of familiarity, along with no chat box, probably goes some way towards explaining the difference in atmosphere between Unibet and Sky live events imo.
There are other reasons, too.
They don't have the Teekster-not sure Sky realise just how important he is in what makes Sky unique. And Stars need to realise that if they intend to keep this running.
Their sponsored players are a bit cliquey-oddly, the friendlier ones are the genuinely good players.
PS-I agree doing a diary can be both motivational and a bit of a bind. That is why I do one for about a month once every 18 months or so...
PPS-yours, like most, is well worth reading, and I wish I commented more.
For me, the biggest drawback regarding Unibet is that the games are essentially anonymous due to their policy on screen name changes. Getting to know and adjust to the tendencies of frequently faced opponents is a big part of what makes poker fun for me and without that dynamic I'm far less inclined to play.
This surprises me a little as I feel like you would be someone who would enjoy the different kind of challenge that anonymous poker poses. You are a smart guy who has a solid game with sound fundamentals you might also find you have a bigger edge over your opponents in this environment (with these restrictions) than on Sky where everyone has that familiarity with the option of backing it up with good note taking.
Your edge on Unibet (or other anonymous sites) will come from having a better default game than most of your opponents to begin with and then being smart enough to make better adjustments than your opponents are able to, even over a small sample size, and on the fly once you have a feel for their style/tendencies/have seen what they've been showing down in different spots with different lines. It's vital to make constant use of the hand replayer for hands you miss when you weren't involved. Keep mental notes on each player too - even if the 'notes' mostly just consist of a few generic buzzwords until you can flesh them out with time spent.
I really enjoy playing on Sky (obviously) but I love anonymous poker - I get more excited at the prospect of sitting down at a table full of unknowns (and being an unknown myself) with part of the challenge being finding out where I sit in the pecking order at that table and then, if I find myself outmatched by one or two (hopefully not three or four) players at the table, how can I best adjust to close that gap and negate some of that difference in ability or can I adjust better than the guys who are technically better than me and give myself an edge over the table(?)
Anonymous poker (or at least Unibet) trumps the rest for enjoyment AND profitability for me to be honest:
EDIT: There are also people who don't change their name for whatever reason (ego, laziness, just love a particular name) and so you can gain an even bigger edge in these anonymous environments by making sure you remain anonymous (never using the same name twice) and taking advantage of the history/knowledge/information you have on the guys who stick to a name for a period of time or indefinitely (I've been playing on the site for three years and there are a lot of guys who have had the same avatar and name combination for the duration)
To be honest, I'm equally surprised that anonymous would be your preference given a choice!
I've only played cash games there and, in fairness, I think there are more subtle dynamics involved in MTT's based around a greater variation in stack sizes and sometimes ICM factors too.
From purely a cash game perspective, it can often be rather dicey trying to make any significant adjustments from what you've seen over a very small sample. When playing on sites which allow HUD's, I've lost count of the number of times a player who for the first hour or so appears to be some hyper-aggressive loose sort turns out in the end to be an extreme nit who just happened to be card hot the first time you played them. With the exception of the occasional obvious nutty spew-monkey, you're better off making hardly any adjustments at all in an anonymous player pool as you end up levelling yourself and playing fundamentally worse poker based off insignificant observations. Although one can certainly do well in those games with a solid and balanced default strategy, you can ultimately achieve a higher winrate in situations where you have sound reasons for deviating into more exploitative lines, as well as having a more fun in the process too (at least for me anyway!). As long as there are other options available, anonymous poker will probably remain my last choice.
Comments
I'm definitely getting used to a lot of boring sessions!
Fortunately I'm not too much of a tilt monkey, even if I'm left one tabling after some cruel suck outs. When I do tilt it's often the opposite of what many player do in that I just tend to completely nit up (even more than my usual game, if you can believe that's possible!).
It turns out that having a good whinge might just be +EV. I only played a small 10 game session for Turbo Tuesday but it was the most successful one in a fair while.
All the bigger stuff was a blank but I managed to win the £500 gtd £11bh (second victory in that particular tourney during the challenge) and it was tantalisingly close to a double with 2nd in the 7 at 7 - I was one 60/40 hold away from getting the job done there, but it wasn't meant to be I guess.
It's by no means the most profitable day I've had during this challenge but it feels great to finally be pushing upwards a little on the profit front after standing still for what felt longer than was probably the case.
MTT's played: 403
MTT's won: 5
Profit/Loss: +£1,583.92
I seem to have developed a bit of a routine schedule and I can't decide whether it's a good or a bad thing. It involves me starting at 6:30pm and then making sure I play the bare minimum number of games required to reach 100 points and maximise my daily ticket allowance for the Golden Ticket Giveaway promo. On the plus side, it stops me having some really lazy low volume sessions, but it also means I tot up the points total as I go and when it's on target I tell myself "that'll do" and stop registering for anything else.
So, Wednesday and Thursday continued in Groundhog Day fashion and along with the usual annoying bad beats, there was also a little bit more success too. Wednesday seemed to revert to the mean when I just about scraped through with a tiny £7 profit but I then went on to secure win number 6 of the challenge on Thursday. It appears I'm slowly climbing the £11 bounty hunter ladder and this time I managed to take down the £750 gtd version. My HU opponent was forum stalwart @Jac35 and I felt a little bad for him really - I played poorly HU but ran hot with both my pre and post flop holdings. It's hard to do much when you run into a fish on a heater! There were no other decent scores of note, but it did cheer me up after sucking out on the bubble of the 19:30 £22bh vs @Ironpump1.
That leaves just 75 games to go now. I know I can't really do anything to influence results (besides trying to play my best of course), but I'll be super chuffed if I can reach £2k in profit by game 500. Fingers crossed
MTT's played: 425
MTT's won: 6
Profit/Loss: +£1,732.52
I have been keeping up with your diary its always a good read, the nightly reports are great. Do you think it keeps you motivated to continue the MTT grind each night having the accountability? I have been doing monthly reports reviewing the overall profit/loss but I may have a crack at doing a session review like yours and @waller02 it seems like a good way to keep on track and pushing forward, my last three months have been pretty stagnant.
I always have some tables up on Sky. Then if you add one with a roll to play similar-sized games, and a new one where you are playing smaller MTTs tring to build a roll on that one, it creates enough difference to keep the interest going-at least, it does for me.
In addition, the Unibet UK Poker Tour is almost identical to the Sky Poker tour-same buy-in, mostly same venues. Their next stop is also Rendezvous Brighton. Players aren't as friendly, and the Unibet staff are not as good, but players prob slightly worse.
As it stands, I'm probably going to wrap this diary up once I've reached 500 games, although I may yet change my mind/plans. My next reply to @Ironpump1 will probably explain more of the reasoning behind that.
Keeping myself motivated and accountable were the sole reasons I started this diary and frequent updates definitely help keep the momentum going. I'd always intended for this to be a short-ish diary/challenge though, so it felt like less of a commitment in terms of keeping up with that pace of updates. If you feel like you're stagnating a bit then I definitely think it may worth you trying that approach for yourself - you can always go back to just doing monthly round-ups if you prefer. You also tend to get a bit more interaction with regular updates which can help add a little fuel to the motivation fire.
I do find there is one drawback with this approach though, which I think I'll refer to as "diary tilt". Despite the lack of a big score, my results have been fairly decent since starting this thread and there is definitely some pride attached to that. The problem is that I can then start to feel protective of what I have achieved thus far and shy away from taking bigger variance shots and jeopardising all that good work, especially when I'm close to reaching a target (in this case my goal of 500 MTT's). I realise that I sound like a bit of a narcissistic tw*t, but this is the main reason I'll probably wrap this up once I've hit that 500 target. Then of course I'll find myself completely lacking motivation and the process will start all over again
They don't have the Teekster-not sure Sky realise just how important he is in what makes Sky unique. And Stars need to realise that if they intend to keep this running.
Their sponsored players are a bit cliquey-oddly, the friendlier ones are the genuinely good players.
PS-I agree doing a diary can be both motivational and a bit of a bind. That is why I do one for about a month once every 18 months or so...
PPS-yours, like most, is well worth reading, and I wish I commented more.
Ha, thanks @Essexphil. Am blushing here.
PS - Sky Sam will be at SPT Brighton. Feel free to tell him what you wrote here.
Sorry, not with you there. What is a "mention"?
Your edge on Unibet (or other anonymous sites) will come from having a better default game than most of your opponents to begin with and then being smart enough to make better adjustments than your opponents are able to, even over a small sample size, and on the fly once you have a feel for their style/tendencies/have seen what they've been showing down in different spots with different lines. It's vital to make constant use of the hand replayer for hands you miss when you weren't involved. Keep mental notes on each player too - even if the 'notes' mostly just consist of a few generic buzzwords until you can flesh them out with time spent.
I really enjoy playing on Sky (obviously) but I love anonymous poker - I get more excited at the prospect of sitting down at a table full of unknowns (and being an unknown myself) with part of the challenge being finding out where I sit in the pecking order at that table and then, if I find myself outmatched by one or two (hopefully not three or four) players at the table, how can I best adjust to close that gap and negate some of that difference in ability or can I adjust better than the guys who are technically better than me and give myself an edge over the table(?)
Anonymous poker (or at least Unibet) trumps the rest for enjoyment AND profitability for me to be honest:
Anonymous > Identified (with results)+Notes > Identified (with results)+Notes+HUD
EDIT: There are also people who don't change their name for whatever reason (ego, laziness, just love a particular name) and so you can gain an even bigger edge in these anonymous environments by making sure you remain anonymous (never using the same name twice) and taking advantage of the history/knowledge/information you have on the guys who stick to a name for a period of time or indefinitely (I've been playing on the site for three years and there are a lot of guys who have had the same avatar and name combination for the duration)
I've only played cash games there and, in fairness, I think there are more subtle dynamics involved in MTT's based around a greater variation in stack sizes and sometimes ICM factors too.
From purely a cash game perspective, it can often be rather dicey trying to make any significant adjustments from what you've seen over a very small sample. When playing on sites which allow HUD's, I've lost count of the number of times a player who for the first hour or so appears to be some hyper-aggressive loose sort turns out in the end to be an extreme nit who just happened to be card hot the first time you played them. With the exception of the occasional obvious nutty spew-monkey, you're better off making hardly any adjustments at all in an anonymous player pool as you end up levelling yourself and playing fundamentally worse poker based off insignificant observations. Although one can certainly do well in those games with a solid and balanced default strategy, you can ultimately achieve a higher winrate in situations where you have sound reasons for deviating into more exploitative lines, as well as having a more fun in the process too (at least for me anyway!). As long as there are other options available, anonymous poker will probably remain my last choice.
PS. Thanks for then kind words about my game