Has certainly been a good first week back on the challenge, and has seen us add almost £70 to the overall bankroll. Had one of my biggest weeks in terms of volume put in for a while and ended the week with over 200 points, albeit the UKOPS tourneys I played on the Monday accounted for a good chunk of this.
I ended up playing 2/4 cash for 4-5 hours on Saturday evening. The first hour was wretched and I got into some horrible spots. Managed to flop top set twice and end up losing a big pot (one of which was my fault for playing it too slowly and letting a flush draw get there). There was also set vs set, KK v AA, flush vs better flush, the lot. Was down 5 buyins for the first hour, and once we got KK in vs AA for a second time, I was getting ready to abandon the session and go and watch the Masters Golf instead. However, we were able to spike a king on the river and the session turned around from there. I seemed to hit everything after that point, and we went on to record close to £30 profit in the end. At one stage, across the six 2p/4p tables I was playing, I had nearly £60 worth of stacks. Certainly one of my best sessions for a while and was pleasing that I managed to cope with playing six tables at once, as I've previously mentioned that it might be too many for me. Could have all been completely different without that KK v AA hand though.
Despite me cutting my tournament volume for a while, I still played the takedowns last night.
Takedown 1 - 41/97 (-£2.00) Takedown 2 - 71/91 (-£1.00) Takedown 3 - 2/87 (+£22.86, including £6.94 for 8 head prizes) (weekly £2.30 token used)
The first two takedowns were non-events. Won a few small pots, lost a few small pots, and then got eliminated from both after getting my chips in ahead. Takedown 3, however, was very chaotic and there were plenty of crazy hands. For the most part, I benefitted from it all and managed to take 8 bounties across the tournament. My stacked dipped below 10 BBs a couple of times en route to the final table, but we were able to fight our way back. We made the final table relatively short of chips. One player immediately busted, and when another went all in with a stack I marginally covered and a £11 bounty on his head, my chips went in with KQ, and the shortest stack also went for it - it turned out I was up against AA and JJ. The aces held and the end result was me being 4/4 with a few big blinds, so all looked lost at this point. It was, therefore, a pleasant surprise to find myself heads up 10 minutes later. We couldn't quite complete the comeback, as my AJ suited was beaten by KQ suited in an all-in, but it was still a decent run and a nice little boost for the bankroll.
Will likely continue grinding it out on the 2/4 tables this week. I was tempted by the DYM Streak Week promo, but then remembered that I'm completely useless at Sit N Gos and have stayed away from them for now, especially after a good week on the cash tables. I may have a bash at the £1.10 and £2.20 ones for the second week of the promo, we'll see.
With your balance and the fact that this is a great promotion for all, you should consider giving it a shot this week certainly at the two lowest stakes. Even if you only commit to one game at each level. if you win then take a second.
@coo1-um - Yeah I probably should have a go to be fair, especially with the incentive of leaderboard money. Generally though, I just don't seem to enjoy SNGs as much as cash and MTTs
Are the turbo DYMs or regular DYMS better for this? The regular speed ones would suit me better, but if they last 30 mins+ it could take me a while to build up even a remotely decent streak. I'm assuming the turbos would be better.
Might give the £1.10s and £2.20s a go towards the end of the week, if not, will certainly have a go next week.
Not a great deal to report on over the past week as I haven't played too much, but we have at least made it over the £200 mark. Played a few cash sessions on 2/4, including one last night, but didn't run anywhere near as well as I did last week and it was fairly slim pickings. I did manage to pick up a couple of good pots with AA v 22 (the villain decided to get his £7 stack in on a K K 3 flop) and KK v AK (on a K 4 4 flop) but other than that there were very few spots to get excited about.
For the second week running I managed to blank all the rewards freerolls, so haven't been able to add to the bankroll from those.
I've been tempted into having a go at the DYM Streak Week next week for the £1.10s and £2.20s. I don't really play SNGs too much but it's a promo worth having a go at on the off chance that I'm able to build a decent streak. Even if I don't, the hope is that I can at least break even over the ones I play. I played four 28p Turbo DYMs yesterday whilst waiting for seats on cash tables, and managed to lose all four... So it appears that I may be better playing the regular speed DYMs to try and build a streak.
Other than tomorrow's Takedowns, I will have another week away from tourneys to focus on cash and the DYM promo. I aim to return to tourneys the following week and try and play most of the micro league schedule.
Still got 25 points or so to make today to earn the weekly £2.30 token, so looks like I'll be on the tables again tonight.
Been a bit of a lazy week with the challenge so far, although the bankroll still continues to head in the right direction.
Have only played a few small sessions on 2/4 cash so far, but have managed to gain a few buy ins despite not putting in much volume. I keep being tempted by the 5/10 tables, but I would like to increase the bankroll a bit more first before playing those.
I did have a couple of attempts at the £1.10 DYMs as part of the Streak Weak promo. The first saw me run a flopped set into a higher flopped set, and then the second one saw my "streak" curtailed after I made an ill-advised shove with J 10 off from late position. I had a go but I don't get enough enjoyment from DYMs to motivate myself to start a new streak. Also, I've mentioned previously that I'm not great at DYMS, and the chances of me building a good streak without being hit by the deck or making a streak-ending blunder are slim to none. I may have one more shot towards the end of the week, but otherwise will just stick to cash games. Still a good promotion nonetheless.
The takedowns didn't go particularly well this week. We managed a pair of 19th place finishes in takedowns 2 and 3, but we didn't play well or run well overall. My exit hand from Takedown 3 summed up the evening. Got pocket queens in against A 10 and A5 - effectively only needed to dodge two aces and I couldn't dodge either of them! Did take a few bounties at least. Still can't buy a tourney win at the moment - maybe that will change when I play a lot of the MML schedule next week.
Unlikely to play much tonight, but I will put more volume into the cash tables this weekend. Have a lot of work to do if I'm to make 100 points this week - might have to endure some 28p DYMs to assist this.
Away from the poker, it's a relief that the European Super League plans have been quashed (for now). Was great to see fans of all clubs come together to combat the proposals. Just such a shame that some people in football are only concerned about the money involved and have no regard for the fans whatsoever.
Has been a decent few days since the last update and the bankroll is (for now) still heading in the upwards direction.
The cash grind continued for the remainder of last week and we managed to secure several buyins worth of profit at 2/4. Didn't run as well as I have done in previous weeks, particularly on the Saturday evening session, where I had good tables but wasn't hitting much at all. And the hands I did hit seem to get me in to trouble. Had a small 30 minute session on a 5/10 table as well - finished it £7 up. Am hoping to be able to move-up and play more 5/10 sessions in the near future, however don't think I quite have the confidence or the bankroll to do so as yet. For now, will just stick to the odd small session when I feel like it and continue to grind 2/4.
FTT 2 saw me lose AA v JJ in a pre-flop all in, whilst FTT 3 saw me lose QQ to J5 in a bizarre post-flop all in. Got my chips in ahead, just couldn't hold. So we departed early in those 2. After I got my 15 BB stack in with KQ against AK in FTT1, I was ready for an early night. However, thanks to the failure of @Enut to hold with his dominating hand, I was deprived of an early night and we continued on. And then 2 and a half hours later, I found myself heads up. The opponent had a 4 to 1 chip lead, and after spending 15 minutes failing to make much inroads in the chip deficit, we got pocket 3s in against A8 in a fair flip but couldn't hold. Got very fortunate on my way to heads up and it certainly made up for my two beats in the other tourneys. The run without a tourney win goes on but at least we secured a decent little profit for the evening. I even managed to cash last night's rewards freeroll for the first time in the best part of a month!
I'm ready to start playing a few more tourneys again this week and will try and play some of the MML schedule. Not sure what tourneys or buyins I will play yet, but after a few good weeks with this challenge we've got a decent bankroll to work with now. I will still aim to play a few cash tables, which will hopefully cover any losses incurred from tourneys.
On an unrelated note, had an issue this week with the tables. It seems that any time I play 3 or more, my screen seems to start flickering at random intervals. The more tables I play, the worse it gets. Have never had this issue before up until midway through last week. I initially thought that it was my laptop, but having tested it on another poker site and on other gaming software, it's an issue exclusive to Sky. Haven't been able to work out what's causing it, so if there are any tech whizzes who read this and might know what the problem is, please let me know. It's more inconvenient than anything, however there were one or two of occasions where my screen completely froze for a few seconds and I ended up missing a couple of hands as a result. I suppose the easy solution is to play less tables, but I'd rather not do that, especially when I'm trying to get back into tourneys again.
A fairly short update today, as haven't made much progress since the last one. Have slowly started to get back to playing tourneys this week, as mentioned previously. Not played as many games as intended but have more or less broke even so far.
Tuesday saw me make the final table of the 6:05pm £2.20 BH, and with 3 left I had a good chance of getting my first win for a while. However, I was cruelly eliminated when my KK was cracked by 99 in a pre-flop all in, the villain rivering a straight. We also had a good run in one of the micro deepstacks, before fizzling out to finish 10th.
Wednesday's session didn't go well and was curtailed early. Had a few awful tournament-ending beats in early evening tourneys when putting my chips in ahead, and then decided to go and watch the football instead. I did end up playing PKRPar's Twitch stream homegame in the evening away from Sky, but wasn't paying much attention to it and ended up larking about by playing hands in ways that I normally wouldn't. Unsurprisingly, I didn't win.
I didn't play yesterday as I felt a bit under the weather, and not sure if I'll end up playing tonight either.
It was great to see another Sky SPT Online event announced yesterday, along with 200 free seats on offer. I didn't play poker at all in January, so missed the chance to qualify for the first online SPT. I would love to win a seat for this one, though, and will certainly be upping the volume to try and be one of those lucky 200. Might mean I play more tourneys and 5/10 cash to rack up the points and boost my chances. Might even have to play the 28p turbo DYMs in bulk...
Lastly, managed to win a £5 tourney token for the April Takedown competition. Was a bit surprised as I thought I had done rubbish in this months one, but we'll take it. Will likely be used next Friday on a BH or the Mega Stack.
Despite making profit and surpassing the £300 pound mark, it's been an underwhelming week at the tables, at least that's how it has felt.
The main problem seems to be the tourneys. I had the motivation to start playing them again last week, and now this seems to have gone again. Can't string any form together at all and the cards haven't been too kind of late. I suppose it's just variance, but when the hands you get beaten by become dafter and dafter each tourney, it starts to cause frustration. I didn't even particularly enjoy playing the Takedowns last night, which is rare, and failed to cash any of them. Bust FTT 2 early by playing pocket jacks too passively pre-flop - I decided only to flat an UTG raise from a tight player and ended up stacking off to a junky holding which came along and ended up rivering the nuts. Certainly an error on my part there. However, the other two I had good stacks towards the latter stages and just had rotten luck. My FTT 3 exit epitomised how tourneys are going at the moment - the villain deciding to call my 25 BB 3-bet jam with their 67 suited, which of course got there despite being well behind. And that was the first time I've gotten agitated at the tables for a while. I'm certainly not playing brilliantly at times and I should probably put some more time into tournament-related study, but just can't catch a break right now. Maybe I'm just not very good at tourneys.
On the plus side, have played more 5/10 cash this week and that has gone okay overall. A loss of £20 for the Saturday afternoon session was followed by a £40 profit for the evening session. We also made profit on the small session that we played yesterday, although that was down to a good slice of luck when getting AK suited in against AA pre-flop and hitting a flush. Overall, I feel fairly comfortably playing 5/10 now across multiple tables. Just need to make sure I pick my tables correctly, because there are some good regs out there.
The plan for this week is to keep accumulating points towards the SPT Online draw and continue trying to hold my own playing 5/10 cash. I appreciate the absence of tourneys makes this diary less interesting, but just not getting much enjoyment from playing them right now. Perhaps I should just be trying to put in more volume but I just feel like I'm going to blow a big hole in the bankroll by doing so right now. I might play a few later in the week - have got a £5 token to use at some point anyway.
The first setback for a while, albeit just a small one. Most of the loss was due to a poor session on 5/10 on Tuesday evening. It was one where I was predominantly card-dead, with the majority of cards that I was dealt being unplayable from any position on the table. And then when I was dealt AA and JJ, it typically led to me losing 2 big pots. I screwed up with the JJ hand but the AA hand was just unlucky. Ended up being down £25 for the session.
We managed to repair some of the damage with a £10 cash in Wednesday's rewards freeroll, and we also had a break-even session on 2/4 and 5/10 cash yesterday evening, before it was curtailed by the site-wide issues with tables not loading.
Only managed to get a dozen or so tickets for the this week's SPT seat draw, and as expected, wasn't one of the lucky 50 on this occasion. Turns out that I may well be going away over the bank holiday weekend which is when the SPT online takes place, so that could end up being awkward if I was to win a seat. In my defence, I had already opted into the promotion before finding out. I would probably find a way to play it anyway should I be lucky enough to win a seat.
I did state in my previous post that I wasn't getting much enjoyment from tourneys, hence not putting in much volume recently. However, I do need to start putting more volume in if I'm to get better results than recently. So for now, I've decided that I will dedicate two nights a week to tournaments: Fridays and (probably) Mondays. All being well tonight, I will be playing as much of the £5.50 or lower schedule as possible. Might throw in the odd tournament on other days as well, but if I primarily stick to this for now, it should get my motivation up for playing again whilst not blowing too much of a hole in the bankroll.
I don't usually do updates on consecutive days, but given we played a bunch of tourneys last night I ought to do so. Going forward, I will probably do diary updates every Saturday and Tuesday so I can go over the results from my Monday and Friday tourney sessions.
As mentioned in yesterday's update, I decided to put some volume into tourneys again. It paid dividends last night and we had a decent session overall. We also broke our long run of tourneys without a win.
5:15pm £100 Rebuy - 1/72 (+£58.09) 5:30pm £300 BH - 8/96 (+£15.68 [£6.10 for 3 head prizes]) - £5 tourney token used 5:30pm £20 Omaha Freeroll - 14/178 (+£0.29) 6:05pm £200 BH - 9/108 (+3.85 [£2.59 for 3 head prizes]) 6:30pm £1000 BH - 223/265 (-£5.50) 6:30pm - £1000 Rewards Freeroll - 255/780 (+£0) 7:00pm 7 at 7 BH - 18/178 (+£5.89 [£5.24 for 1 head prize]) 7:15pm Orfy Deep Stack - 29/43 (-£3.30) 7:15pm £300 Deep Stack - 68/145 (-£2.20) 8pm £500 BH - 44/296 (+£1.03) [£3.23 for 4 head prizes]) 8:25pm £500 Mega Stack -104/151 (-£5.50) 9:15pm £200 Deep Stack - 46/111 (-£2:20)
Was pleased to take down the £100 Rebuy. Only a small tourney but has been a while since I've won one, so we'll definitely take it. Ran well throughout and played quite well heads-up to turn around a chip deficit. Despite being £100 guaranteed, the prize pool ended up being £211 - one opponent on my starting table must have rebought at least a dozen times before busting. So the win ended up being a bigger boost to the bankroll than expected. I also did well in the £300 BH, managing to secure a decent return from my £5 token that I won in the April Takedown competition. It looked like I was going to make another final table, but my pocket Kings were beaten by 8s in a pre-flop all in. The 7 at 7 saw me try and take multiple bounty spots, but was only able to get 1 head prize from them. Still managed to hang in there despite being low on chips on more than one occasion and ended up with a min cash. Finished 29/43 in the Orfy deep stack, which is probably an above average placing for me given my previous record in it... I fell victim to a villain's pocket 8s hitting a set for the second time in the evening and crushing my pocket aces. Never really got much above starting stack in the other two deep stacks I entered, whilst in the Mega stack I lost with JJ v A8 after getting my chips in on a 5 6 8 flop. The villain seemed to be hitting everything and had already eliminated a few players, so it was no surprised that they hit their ace on the turn.
Overall, a decent set of results with a win and a few deep runs. Has been a while since I enjoyed a tourney session, and ended up increasing my bankroll by a good amount in the process, and that was despite running badly at times.
And in more good news, the flickering screen issues that I mentioned previously stopped occurring last night. Not sure what I have done to make the issue go away but it will certainly make multi-tabling much easier again, assuming that the flickering doesn't return at some point.
Will play some low stakes cash tonight to get me to 100 points for the week, and then will probably take a day off from the poker tomorrow. Hopefully back to the tourney grind on Monday.
Ended up playing another batch of MTTs last night. Didn't go as well as Friday and I didn't play too great either, but I've had worse sessions. Made 2 final tables, although 1 was in the Omaha Freeroll so that probably shouldn't count.
The session didn't start well as I failed to make the add-on in the £100 rebuy. On a J 2 2 flop, the villain decided to go all in with his pocket 9s. I made the fatal error of thinking that my pocket Qs would hold, and a 9 on the river saw me eliminated. Wasn't the first 2 outer on the river that I fell victim to last night. Resisted the urge to rebuy so there was no repeat of the Friday win. The best result of the night came in the £300 BH where I made the final table. Ran pretty well throughout and successfully took several bounty spots. Leaked a few chips through failed bounty attempts towards the end but we still ended up at the final table with a decent stack. With 4 left, there was a 20-30 minute stalemate with plenty of raises and shoves not getting any action. Eventually, I kindly broke the stalemate by shoving QK suited into aces, and that was us out in 4th. Could've been better but did ensure a profitable evening. Aside from that, the rest of the session was rather uninspiring with very little to shout about. I did fairly okay in the takedowns without managing any good results. Departed from Takedown 1 after getting Aces in vs Queens and getting rivered, whilst I once again managed to shove into Aces in Takedown 3. I did at least spin up from a few big blinds in Takedown 2 and ended up cashing, but departed soon after.
Managed to finish £10 or so up at the end of session. Given that I didn't play or run particularly well, this wasn't too bad. 2 profitable tourney sessions out of 2 so far and I'm starting to find a bit of enjoyment for playing them again, the real test will come when I have a run of bad sessions. Trying not to think about that though.
I did play some 5/10 cash over the weekend. Didn't turn out to be a wise decision - did okay for the most part but after a bad beat I became a little tilted and started playing maniacally. Finished £5 down but it could've been worse. Will probably step back to 2/4 for a little bit to refocus. At least I racked up plenty of points in the process, so should have a decent number of tickets in the SPT draw on Friday.
Found this cash hand from Saturday evening quite interesting. Mixed feelings on the hand - part of me thought that I didn't play this particularly well but contrastingly I may well have lost the minimum here.
In hindsight, I wished I had 3-bet 7s from the SB to a min-open from the button, but I'm not sure medium pocket pairs are the best to do that with.
Certainly didn't not like my hand on the river after the villain had called a flop raise and called the turn. I decided to go into check-call mode on the river, although I did consider folding given how tight I perceived the villain to be and the texture of the board. In reality though, I think our hand is too good to fold.
If any cash regs are reading, any thoughts/tips on what I could've done better would be appreciated.
Comments
Even if you only commit to one game at each level. if you win then take a second.
Are the turbo DYMs or regular DYMS better for this? The regular speed ones would suit me better, but if they last 30 mins+ it could take me a while to build up even a remotely decent streak. I'm assuming the turbos would be better.
Might give the £1.10s and £2.20s a go towards the end of the week, if not, will certainly have a go next week.
Not a great deal to report on over the past week as I haven't played too much, but we have at least made it over the £200 mark. Played a few cash sessions on 2/4, including one last night, but didn't run anywhere near as well as I did last week and it was fairly slim pickings. I did manage to pick up a couple of good pots with AA v 22 (the villain decided to get his £7 stack in on a K K 3 flop) and KK v AK (on a K 4 4 flop) but other than that there were very few spots to get excited about.
For the second week running I managed to blank all the rewards freerolls, so haven't been able to add to the bankroll from those.
I've been tempted into having a go at the DYM Streak Week next week for the £1.10s and £2.20s. I don't really play SNGs too much but it's a promo worth having a go at on the off chance that I'm able to build a decent streak. Even if I don't, the hope is that I can at least break even over the ones I play.
I played four 28p Turbo DYMs yesterday whilst waiting for seats on cash tables, and managed to lose all four... So it appears that I may be better playing the regular speed DYMs to try and build a streak.
Other than tomorrow's Takedowns, I will have another week away from tourneys to focus on cash and the DYM promo. I aim to return to tourneys the following week and try and play most of the micro league schedule.
Still got 25 points or so to make today to earn the weekly £2.30 token, so looks like I'll be on the tables again tonight.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Been a bit of a lazy week with the challenge so far, although the bankroll still continues to head in the right direction.
Have only played a few small sessions on 2/4 cash so far, but have managed to gain a few buy ins despite not putting in much volume. I keep being tempted by the 5/10 tables, but I would like to increase the bankroll a bit more first before playing those.
I did have a couple of attempts at the £1.10 DYMs as part of the Streak Weak promo. The first saw me run a flopped set into a higher flopped set, and then the second one saw my "streak" curtailed after I made an ill-advised shove with J 10 off from late position. I had a go but I don't get enough enjoyment from DYMs to motivate myself to start a new streak. Also, I've mentioned previously that I'm not great at DYMS, and the chances of me building a good streak without being hit by the deck or making a streak-ending blunder are slim to none. I may have one more shot towards the end of the week, but otherwise will just stick to cash games. Still a good promotion nonetheless.
The takedowns didn't go particularly well this week. We managed a pair of 19th place finishes in takedowns 2 and 3, but we didn't play well or run well overall. My exit hand from Takedown 3 summed up the evening. Got pocket queens in against A 10 and A5 - effectively only needed to dodge two aces and I couldn't dodge either of them! Did take a few bounties at least.
Still can't buy a tourney win at the moment - maybe that will change when I play a lot of the MML schedule next week.
Unlikely to play much tonight, but I will put more volume into the cash tables this weekend. Have a lot of work to do if I'm to make 100 points this week - might have to endure some 28p DYMs to assist this.
Away from the poker, it's a relief that the European Super League plans have been quashed (for now). Was great to see fans of all clubs come together to combat the proposals. Just such a shame that some people in football are only concerned about the money involved and have no regard for the fans whatsoever.
Has been a decent few days since the last update and the bankroll is (for now) still heading in the upwards direction.
The cash grind continued for the remainder of last week and we managed to secure several buyins worth of profit at 2/4. Didn't run as well as I have done in previous weeks, particularly on the Saturday evening session, where I had good tables but wasn't hitting much at all. And the hands I did hit seem to get me in to trouble.
Had a small 30 minute session on a 5/10 table as well - finished it £7 up. Am hoping to be able to move-up and play more 5/10 sessions in the near future, however don't think I quite have the confidence or the bankroll to do so as yet. For now, will just stick to the odd small session when I feel like it and continue to grind 2/4.
Played the Takedowns as I usually do last night:
Takedown 1 - 2/115 (+ £35.26)
Takedown 2 - 78/93 (- £1)
Takedown 3- 49/64 (+£0) (weekly £2.30 token used)
FTT 2 saw me lose AA v JJ in a pre-flop all in, whilst FTT 3 saw me lose QQ to J5 in a bizarre post-flop all in. Got my chips in ahead, just couldn't hold. So we departed early in those 2.
After I got my 15 BB stack in with KQ against AK in FTT1, I was ready for an early night. However, thanks to the failure of @Enut to hold with his dominating hand, I was deprived of an early night and we continued on. And then 2 and a half hours later, I found myself heads up. The opponent had a 4 to 1 chip lead, and after spending 15 minutes failing to make much inroads in the chip deficit, we got pocket 3s in against A8 in a fair flip but couldn't hold. Got very fortunate on my way to heads up and it certainly made up for my two beats in the other tourneys. The run without a tourney win goes on but at least we secured a decent little profit for the evening. I even managed to cash last night's rewards freeroll for the first time in the best part of a month!
I'm ready to start playing a few more tourneys again this week and will try and play some of the MML schedule. Not sure what tourneys or buyins I will play yet, but after a few good weeks with this challenge we've got a decent bankroll to work with now. I will still aim to play a few cash tables, which will hopefully cover any losses incurred from tourneys.
On an unrelated note, had an issue this week with the tables. It seems that any time I play 3 or more, my screen seems to start flickering at random intervals. The more tables I play, the worse it gets. Have never had this issue before up until midway through last week. I initially thought that it was my laptop, but having tested it on another poker site and on other gaming software, it's an issue exclusive to Sky. Haven't been able to work out what's causing it, so if there are any tech whizzes who read this and might know what the problem is, please let me know. It's more inconvenient than anything, however there were one or two of occasions where my screen completely froze for a few seconds and I ended up missing a couple of hands as a result. I suppose the easy solution is to play less tables, but I'd rather not do that, especially when I'm trying to get back into tourneys again.
Do you use the download or the browser?
I have occasional similar issues .Usually a stalling screen.
I use Chrome browser and I have a few extensions lurking.
When I tried to fix this issue a few weeks back I learnt the extensions could be causing this.
I have uninstalled some extensions and turned others off , it seems to have fixed it, though I can't be 100% sure.
I mostly use Microsoft Edge, although I did try using Chrome to see if that fixed the issue, which it didn't.
I'll have a mess around and see if I can get the flickering to stop.
A fairly short update today, as haven't made much progress since the last one. Have slowly started to get back to playing tourneys this week, as mentioned previously. Not played as many games as intended but have more or less broke even so far.
Tuesday saw me make the final table of the 6:05pm £2.20 BH, and with 3 left I had a good chance of getting my first win for a while. However, I was cruelly eliminated when my KK was cracked by 99 in a pre-flop all in, the villain rivering a straight. We also had a good run in one of the micro deepstacks, before fizzling out to finish 10th.
Wednesday's session didn't go well and was curtailed early. Had a few awful tournament-ending beats in early evening tourneys when putting my chips in ahead, and then decided to go and watch the football instead. I did end up playing PKRPar's Twitch stream homegame in the evening away from Sky, but wasn't paying much attention to it and ended up larking about by playing hands in ways that I normally wouldn't. Unsurprisingly, I didn't win.
I didn't play yesterday as I felt a bit under the weather, and not sure if I'll end up playing tonight either.
It was great to see another Sky SPT Online event announced yesterday, along with 200 free seats on offer. I didn't play poker at all in January, so missed the chance to qualify for the first online SPT. I would love to win a seat for this one, though, and will certainly be upping the volume to try and be one of those lucky 200. Might mean I play more tourneys and 5/10 cash to rack up the points and boost my chances. Might even have to play the 28p turbo DYMs in bulk...
Lastly, managed to win a £5 tourney token for the April Takedown competition. Was a bit surprised as I thought I had done rubbish in this months one, but we'll take it. Will likely be used next Friday on a BH or the Mega Stack.
Enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend all!
Despite making profit and surpassing the £300 pound mark, it's been an underwhelming week at the tables, at least that's how it has felt.
The main problem seems to be the tourneys. I had the motivation to start playing them again last week, and now this seems to have gone again. Can't string any form together at all and the cards haven't been too kind of late. I suppose it's just variance, but when the hands you get beaten by become dafter and dafter each tourney, it starts to cause frustration.
I didn't even particularly enjoy playing the Takedowns last night, which is rare, and failed to cash any of them. Bust FTT 2 early by playing pocket jacks too passively pre-flop - I decided only to flat an UTG raise from a tight player and ended up stacking off to a junky holding which came along and ended up rivering the nuts. Certainly an error on my part there. However, the other two I had good stacks towards the latter stages and just had rotten luck. My FTT 3 exit epitomised how tourneys are going at the moment - the villain deciding to call my 25 BB 3-bet jam with their 67 suited, which of course got there despite being well behind. And that was the first time I've gotten agitated at the tables for a while.
I'm certainly not playing brilliantly at times and I should probably put some more time into tournament-related study, but just can't catch a break right now. Maybe I'm just not very good at tourneys.
On the plus side, have played more 5/10 cash this week and that has gone okay overall. A loss of £20 for the Saturday afternoon session was followed by a £40 profit for the evening session. We also made profit on the small session that we played yesterday, although that was down to a good slice of luck when getting AK suited in against AA pre-flop and hitting a flush. Overall, I feel fairly comfortably playing 5/10 now across multiple tables. Just need to make sure I pick my tables correctly, because there are some good regs out there.
The plan for this week is to keep accumulating points towards the SPT Online draw and continue trying to hold my own playing 5/10 cash. I appreciate the absence of tourneys makes this diary less interesting, but just not getting much enjoyment from playing them right now. Perhaps I should just be trying to put in more volume but I just feel like I'm going to blow a big hole in the bankroll by doing so right now. I might play a few later in the week - have got a £5 token to use at some point anyway.
The first setback for a while, albeit just a small one. Most of the loss was due to a poor session on 5/10 on Tuesday evening. It was one where I was predominantly card-dead, with the majority of cards that I was dealt being unplayable from any position on the table. And then when I was dealt AA and JJ, it typically led to me losing 2 big pots. I screwed up with the JJ hand but the AA hand was just unlucky. Ended up being down £25 for the session.
We managed to repair some of the damage with a £10 cash in Wednesday's rewards freeroll, and we also had a break-even session on 2/4 and 5/10 cash yesterday evening, before it was curtailed by the site-wide issues with tables not loading.
Only managed to get a dozen or so tickets for the this week's SPT seat draw, and as expected, wasn't one of the lucky 50 on this occasion. Turns out that I may well be going away over the bank holiday weekend which is when the SPT online takes place, so that could end up being awkward if I was to win a seat. In my defence, I had already opted into the promotion before finding out. I would probably find a way to play it anyway should I be lucky enough to win a seat.
I did state in my previous post that I wasn't getting much enjoyment from tourneys, hence not putting in much volume recently. However, I do need to start putting more volume in if I'm to get better results than recently. So for now, I've decided that I will dedicate two nights a week to tournaments: Fridays and (probably) Mondays. All being well tonight, I will be playing as much of the £5.50 or lower schedule as possible. Might throw in the odd tournament on other days as well, but if I primarily stick to this for now, it should get my motivation up for playing again whilst not blowing too much of a hole in the bankroll.
I don't usually do updates on consecutive days, but given we played a bunch of tourneys last night I ought to do so. Going forward, I will probably do diary updates every Saturday and Tuesday so I can go over the results from my Monday and Friday tourney sessions.
As mentioned in yesterday's update, I decided to put some volume into tourneys again. It paid dividends last night and we had a decent session overall. We also broke our long run of tourneys without a win.
5:15pm £100 Rebuy - 1/72 (+£58.09)
5:30pm £300 BH - 8/96 (+£15.68 [£6.10 for 3 head prizes]) - £5 tourney token used
5:30pm £20 Omaha Freeroll - 14/178 (+£0.29)
6:05pm £200 BH - 9/108 (+3.85 [£2.59 for 3 head prizes])
6:30pm £1000 BH - 223/265 (-£5.50)
6:30pm - £1000 Rewards Freeroll - 255/780 (+£0)
7:00pm 7 at 7 BH - 18/178 (+£5.89 [£5.24 for 1 head prize])
7:15pm Orfy Deep Stack - 29/43 (-£3.30)
7:15pm £300 Deep Stack - 68/145 (-£2.20)
8pm £500 BH - 44/296 (+£1.03) [£3.23 for 4 head prizes])
8:25pm £500 Mega Stack -104/151 (-£5.50)
9:15pm £200 Deep Stack - 46/111 (-£2:20)
Was pleased to take down the £100 Rebuy. Only a small tourney but has been a while since I've won one, so we'll definitely take it. Ran well throughout and played quite well heads-up to turn around a chip deficit. Despite being £100 guaranteed, the prize pool ended up being £211 - one opponent on my starting table must have rebought at least a dozen times before busting. So the win ended up being a bigger boost to the bankroll than expected.
I also did well in the £300 BH, managing to secure a decent return from my £5 token that I won in the April Takedown competition. It looked like I was going to make another final table, but my pocket Kings were beaten by 8s in a pre-flop all in.
The 7 at 7 saw me try and take multiple bounty spots, but was only able to get 1 head prize from them. Still managed to hang in there despite being low on chips on more than one occasion and ended up with a min cash.
Finished 29/43 in the Orfy deep stack, which is probably an above average placing for me given my previous record in it... I fell victim to a villain's pocket 8s hitting a set for the second time in the evening and crushing my pocket aces.
Never really got much above starting stack in the other two deep stacks I entered, whilst in the Mega stack I lost with JJ v A8 after getting my chips in on a 5 6 8 flop. The villain seemed to be hitting everything and had already eliminated a few players, so it was no surprised that they hit their ace on the turn.
Overall, a decent set of results with a win and a few deep runs. Has been a while since I enjoyed a tourney session, and ended up increasing my bankroll by a good amount in the process, and that was despite running badly at times.
And in more good news, the flickering screen issues that I mentioned previously stopped occurring last night. Not sure what I have done to make the issue go away but it will certainly make multi-tabling much easier again, assuming that the flickering doesn't return at some point.
Will play some low stakes cash tonight to get me to 100 points for the week, and then will probably take a day off from the poker tomorrow. Hopefully back to the tourney grind on Monday.
Ended up playing another batch of MTTs last night. Didn't go as well as Friday and I didn't play too great either, but I've had worse sessions. Made 2 final tables, although 1 was in the Omaha Freeroll so that probably shouldn't count.
5:15pm £100 Rebuy - 66/76 (-£2.10)
5:30pm £300 BH - 4/95 (+£30.97 [£15.57 for 6 head prizes])
5:30pm £20 Omaha Freeroll - 6/196 (+£1.10)
6:05pm £200 BH - 28/129 (+£1.69 [£1.69 for 2 head prizes]) (weekly £2.30 token used)
6:30pm £1000 BH - 136/262 (-£5.50)
6:30pm £1000 Rewards Freeroll - 159/847 (+£1)
7:00pm 7 at 7 BH - 173/188 (-£7.70)
7:15pm Takedown 1 - 43/106 (-£2.00)
7:45pm Takedown 2 -14/81 (+£1.20)
8pm £500 BH - 47/296 (-£1.26 [£0.94 for 1 head prize])
8:15pm Takedown 3 - 17/89 (-£2.00)
The session didn't start well as I failed to make the add-on in the £100 rebuy. On a J 2 2 flop, the villain decided to go all in with his pocket 9s. I made the fatal error of thinking that my pocket Qs would hold, and a 9 on the river saw me eliminated. Wasn't the first 2 outer on the river that I fell victim to last night. Resisted the urge to rebuy so there was no repeat of the Friday win.
The best result of the night came in the £300 BH where I made the final table. Ran pretty well throughout and successfully took several bounty spots. Leaked a few chips through failed bounty attempts towards the end but we still ended up at the final table with a decent stack. With 4 left, there was a 20-30 minute stalemate with plenty of raises and shoves not getting any action. Eventually, I kindly broke the stalemate by shoving QK suited into aces, and that was us out in 4th. Could've been better but did ensure a profitable evening.
Aside from that, the rest of the session was rather uninspiring with very little to shout about. I did fairly okay in the takedowns without managing any good results. Departed from Takedown 1 after getting Aces in vs Queens and getting rivered, whilst I once again managed to shove into Aces in Takedown 3. I did at least spin up from a few big blinds in Takedown 2 and ended up cashing, but departed soon after.
Managed to finish £10 or so up at the end of session. Given that I didn't play or run particularly well, this wasn't too bad. 2 profitable tourney sessions out of 2 so far and I'm starting to find a bit of enjoyment for playing them again, the real test will come when I have a run of bad sessions. Trying not to think about that though.
I did play some 5/10 cash over the weekend. Didn't turn out to be a wise decision - did okay for the most part but after a bad beat I became a little tilted and started playing maniacally. Finished £5 down but it could've been worse. Will probably step back to 2/4 for a little bit to refocus. At least I racked up plenty of points in the process, so should have a decent number of tickets in the SPT draw on Friday.
In hindsight, I wished I had 3-bet 7s from the SB to a min-open from the button, but I'm not sure medium pocket pairs are the best to do that with.
Certainly didn't not like my hand on the river after the villain had called a flop raise and called the turn. I decided to go into check-call mode on the river, although I did consider folding given how tight I perceived the villain to be and the texture of the board. In reality though, I think our hand is too good to fold.
If any cash regs are reading, any thoughts/tips on what I could've done better would be appreciated.