This was my mega stack exit. There were a couple of things I could've done differently - I rarely limp pre-flop in tournaments and a better player may have brought in a raise here, however the villain would've peeled a flop and called a c-bet anyway so probably didn't make a difference to the hand. Additionally, I likely would've had to fold to a re-raise/jam from the blinds, so maybe limping wasn't terrible here. I also should've got my chips in on the turn rather than the river, but again didn't make a difference to the hand. The opponent had a somewhat eccentric playing style so I wanted to reel him in - can never really give him credit for a better hand here on the river. Busting whilst being 2/10 in a tournament is a complete disaster, but I think most people would stack off in this hand, so just got to take it on the chin and move on.
A mixed couple of days - 2/4 cash poker is still going awry, although a good performance in Mondays Takedowns more than covered those losses.
Takedown 1: 4/132 (+£16.74) Takedown 2: 73/123 (-£1.00) Takedown 3: 5/82 (+£7.19 [£3 for 4 head prizes])
TD1 didn't start well after I triple-barrel bluffed off a good chunk of my stack, and then managed to spill a can of lemonade over my laptop. Despite being low-stacked and rushing around frantically cleaning up the mess whilst trying to play 3 tables, we managed to get a few double ups and got ourselves back to an average stack. At the same time, we started well in TD3 with a few early bounties. I was second in chips with a table full of significantly lower stacks so all was looking well. However, Sky then decided to move me to the right of the chip leader, making further bounty opportunities difficult. We managed to keep chipping up in TD1 and TD3, before a roller-coaster spell in both where I was getting unlucky by losing key hands vs smaller-stacks but then getting lucky with some hands when I was all-in whilst behind. Eventually, we made the final table in both as one of the lowest stacks, where we ran out of steam and lost to a couple of effective flips.
Takedown 2 was fairly uneventful - I won a good pot early on after flopping a set of jacks, but nothing really happened after that. Eventually, we ran AQ into AA and then shoved the remainder of my stack into KK, and that was me out.
Was pleased to make two final tables for the evening, even if I didn't play amazingly. It appears that a score of 9 is enough to win the Takedown competition for this week, hence £25 worth of tourney tokens for next week. Not sure how I will utilise them yet - I may well use them on two £11 tourneys and one £5.50 tourney, although there is the temptation to have a bash at one of the weekday mains for a reduced price - will have to have a think about what will be best for the challenge. I still have a £2.30 and £5 token to use this week.
As alluded to above, cash poker hasn't been too kind of late. I ended up a few buy-ins down over a couple of lengthy sessions on Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon - aside from one hand at the end of the Tuesday afternoon session where I shoved KQ all-in out of frustration and lost to AK, I didn't do a great deal wrong and generally just got unlucky after putting my chips in ahead. I at least had a better Tuesday evening session and recovered a couple of buy-ins back. Will keep persevering with it for the time being. A few of the low-stakes regs have given me some tips for improving my play and mental game, which is much appreciated.
Not a great deal to update you on over the past few days, but the bankroll continues its upward trend and we have now made it to £100+ in profit. It may well dip below that after tonight's tourney session, but given that we were at a bankroll of £30 at one stage it's not too bad, especially as I've not have any major cashes so far.
Has pretty much been all cash poker since the last update. Managed 4 or 5 buy ins worth of profit, mainly from being in the right place when opponents were literally throwing away their money. That said, I don't feel I ran particularly great over these sessions, and lost multiple all-ins where I had the best hand and ended up either being outdrawn or the opponent hitting one of their minimal number of outs. Got a bit frustrating but that's the way it goes sometimes. Contrastingly, there was one huge (relatively speaking) pot I won with KK v two lots of AJ when the flop came with a king and a jack on, and then the turn also came a jack. With a bit more luck, the bankroll may well have been £170-£180 now, but at least we're still grinding out a little profit despite not getting the rub of the green at times.
Nearly managed to bink a Sunday Major seat in the Wednesday freeroll but we didn't get the big hands that we needed towards the end and ultimately had to jam mediocre holdings, which didn't win. Finished 12th in the end I believe. Also managed £2 in the Rewards Freeroll on the same day.
As with last Friday, I will be trying to play as many micro tourneys as I can manage. I definitely want to put more volume into tournaments going forward, especially with the micro stakes league soon to start up again. The £2.30 and £5 tokens will both be used tonight, so will hopefully be able to get a decent return from them like we did last week. May even throw in some tourneys on Saturday as well, in addition to trying to playing the usual 2p/4p cash. The bankroll may well have dropped a bit by Monday's update, but will still be good fun.
The Friday evening tournament session did not go to plan, and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. You know you've had a wretched session when your best result of the evening is a £3 cash in the Rewards Freeroll...!
I didn't feel as if I played particularly well, especially in the bounty hunters I entered, but nonetheless nothing went our way. After my pocket jacks were cracked by 82 in one of the early bounty hunters, I knew it wasn't going to be a great night. The majority of flips were lost, AK getting me eliminated from several tournaments whilst flipping/ahead, smaller pocket pairs beating my higher pocket pairs on all-ins, miracle run outs for opponents, you name it. It was all topped off in the 8:25 Mega Stack, where after 3-betting AK the villain jammed A9 all in - I called and predictably a 9 arrived on the flop. The remainder of the stack was lost a few hands later when I jammed A7 into JJ. Had played fairly well in the mega stack up until that point, but luck deserted us and we threw in the towel
The only decent run we managed was in the 6:05pm BH where we used the £2.30 token and took 3 head prizes, albeit still departed during the mid stages. On the bright side, I did make it past the first break in the Orfy Deepstack, something that I'm not used to doing! The session took the wind out of my sails and along with some good sport on the TV, meant that I didn't play over the weekend.
This is the way things were going for me pre-bankroll challenge and sessions like this were the main reason as to why I wasn't putting in much volume. I'm sure my fortunes will change at some point, but right now things aren't going my way at the tables. It may well be worth considering getting some coaching going forward, not only to improve my tournament play and address leaks in my game, but also to improve my mental resilience and encourage me to keep putting in the volume. I do believe that I'm good enough to be profitable - for the most part do the right things at the table and have proven I can win tournaments in the past, just need a bit more luck at crucial times and a win to boost my confidence. Hopefully the return of the Micro Stakes League will get me motivated for playing more tournaments, although if things continue the way they have been it may well result in me wiping out the current bankroll and failing the challenge.
In more positive news, as alluded to previously we did indeed win £25 worth of tourney tokens for 1st place last week. It does potentially give me the chance to play 2 £11 tourneys and 1 £5.50 tourney for almost nothing, however given that there are few £11 games that appeal to me, I may well end up playing the £22 Mega Stack BH or even one of the weekday mains. The tokens will likely be used later in the week either way.
Other than the Takedowns tonight, not got a plan poker-wise this week - will just take each day as it comes.
We're heading back in the wrong direction again now after a good few weeks, and confidence is very low. It has been solely tourneys over the past couple of days, and they haven't gone particularly well.
Played the usual takedowns on Monday but didn't trouble the scorers this week. Didn't get many good hands but the ones I did get ended in me losing chips. Two of my exits were caused by me making ill-advised jams for 15BBs and ended up being dominated, whilst my other exit saw me jam a strong draw on the flop and miss my outs. Aside from one hand where my pocket aces were comically beaten by pocket 7s who rivered a flush, no complaints about my luck/me not doing well.
I decided to play a few tournaments on Tuesday for the micro league and used a couple of tokens as well. Won 1 flip all night out of about a dozen, and regardless of how well/badly you play, if you lose all your flips you won't do well. Also contributed to my own downfall at times - in the £11 one that I entered (used a token), I ended up going all in on the wrong table by mistake when wanting to fold to a 3-bet pre flop and subsequently blew my stack. Typically, I then lost the all-in on the table which I meant to put all my chips in in the first place, despite being ahead. Took a few bounties across the evening, but those were from either being miles ahead when all-in or opponents making crazy plays, one of which saw my A6 suited beat pocket AA after the villain had limped in pre flop and I flopped the nut flush. No notable results/cashes all night - just can't win a simple flip at the moment, granted my poker play hasn't been too clever at times.
I only have 1 £10 token left now, which will likely be used on the Sunday Mini.
This will probably be my last update for a while - whilst the bankroll challenge was fun for the first month or so, now it just seems to hold me back somewhat. Tourneys are not going well at the moment and cash poker is the only likely source of bankroll profit, however I don't feel any motivation for playing cash at the moment. I also don't want to turn this into a misterpj-inspired bad beat/moan-about-my-luck-diary, which may well happen with the way I'm currently running, and it would be a waste of time to read. I just want to relax and play some tournaments without worrying about the bankroll, work on my game and try and get back to how I was doing last year. Poker is one almighty slog at the moment where I seemingly can't do anything right, hopefully things will turn around soon.
Thought I would do a quick update on the state of play, given that I haven't posted anything for a week. We've managed to take another chunk out of the bankroll since then and things still aren't quite going right at the tables.
Played a bunch of tourneys on Friday evening. Aside from cashing the Orfy Deepstack (which was a minor miracle in itself given my track record in it), we only came away from the session with a few bounties and no good results of note. My remaining £11 token was used for a reduced-priced entry into the 8:45 Mega Stack, however we once again came away empty handed. Didn't play much over Saturday & Sunday.
Played the takedowns on Monday as usual. We started well in all 3 tourneys, but after I lost most of my stack with pocket kings in the takedown 3, the floodgates opened. I soon departed from the same tourney with a predictable lost flip (QQ v AK), and then my AA got beat by 10 10 in takedown 1 and I subsequently departed from that too. At this point I was only left in takedown 2 with a low-ish stack, and with an unenticing prizepool and no prospects of winning any tokens for this week, I spewed my remaining chips off and opted for an early night. Was probably stupid of me to just throw in the towel but I wasn't particularly interested at this point given how the other two tourneys had gone, and had been feeling a bit under the weather that day anyway.
Although I'm not running well, it would be ignorant of me to not take some responsibility. As the hand I posted on the forum on Friday proved, I'm making some fundamental errors right now that aren't helping the cause. As a result, I've hauled myself away from the tables this week to work on some of the leaks I've found in my game, and also to refuel myself to give me the best chance of getting a good result or two in next week's UKOPS. I may play a few games on Friday, but other than that it will be a week off. With regards to UKOPS and this challenge, I will either withdraw the balance at the end of the week and continue the challenge after UKOPS, or I will abandon it altogether and instead turn this into a general poker diary without the added pressure and limitations of managing a bankroll.
Despite things not going to plan at the tables, I'm really enjoying the streams that various members of the Sky Poker community are putting on. We seem to have somebody streaming most days of the week now, which is great to see. As well as having a good laugh, I try and learn something from the poker that is played on the streams. Certainly a huge positive to come out of the community in recent times - long may it continue.
Not much change since the last update. It's the first increase that we've recorded for a few weeks, albeit a very small one.
Played most of the MML schedule on Friday + the 7 at 7. Finished around a fiver down for the evening, which isn't terrible all things considered. We did manage to run a bit better than we have been doing recently, especially in the latter stages of the £300 deep stack where we were all in KJ v A J and managed to river a straight, and then got 10s in vs KKs and turned a set. We were unable to make the most of our run-good in the end, finishing 13th after getting in my chips with a combo draw and missing everything. I did make a final table in the 6:05pm £200 BH, where I managed to finish 3rd, although I only secured two bounties. That said, I have been managing a 10 BB stack for 30-40 mins and was able to hang in there until the final table. Even on the final table as the short stack, I managed to ladder up to 3rd whilst other people self-destructed around me with bigger stacks. Only made £13 profit in the end, but was nice to make a final table. Secured a decent number of bounties elsewhere but there were no further cashes for the night.
Played a session of 2/4 cash on Saturday evening - managed to make back what I lost the previous night.
Yesterday I had a decent run in the rewards freeroll and was in contention for winning a UKOPS seat, however with the blinds steep I then managed to jam into KK from my small blind, and never recovered. We did at least secure an additional £5 for the bankroll. Also played the takedowns. Managed to bust takedown 1 pretty early - got a load of premium pocket pairs early on but they either ended up being beaten at showdown or I had to fold them to poor runouts. Maybe I need to work on how I play such hands, as they seem to get me into trouble more than they should. After I had to fold trips in takedown 2 to another poor runout, I decided to play very passively and try and get as good as score as possible from the two tourneys I had left - coming in to the night, I knew that with a good score, I'd have a decent chance of securing a £10 or £20 token for March Takedown competition overall, which could allow me to play an additional UKOPS tourney next Monday for next to nothing. I managed to get a 10th and a 12th in the end, which gives me a score of 22 for the week. Remains to be see what tokens I will pick up, if any.
As for UKOPS this week, I'm still trying to work out how much volume I put in. I don't want to start throwing money around like confetti on tournaments where I'm likely to be outclassed, however I also want to test myself and enjoy the week. I won't be playing any of the £110s/£220s but I'll have a bash at some of the £33s and lower, and hopefully I can pick up a good result or two. Will certainly be playing tonight, Friday and Monday. May play one or two other tourneys across the other days. Also looking forward to watching the various UKOPS streams that will be on offer throughout the week.
Good luck to all those playing in UKOPS - if you come across me at the tables, go easy one me
EDIT - forgot to include that I'll be halting the bankroll challenge at my current total and will resume it after UKOPS. Could be argued that I'm cheating the challenge here, but as mentioned above I just want to enjoy playing a few higher buy-in tournaments, which the challenge would otherwise prevent me from doing.
Keep up the dedication to this and you will get there no problem. It’s your challenge therefore it’s fine to pause it. As long as you don’t want to claim your winning as part of the challenge afterwards.
Ended up playing 3 events yesterday - the 7pm opener, 8:30pm mini and 9pm mega stack. Completely lost the plot in the mega stack and managed to bluff off pretty much all my stack in two separate hands within the first 30 mins of the tournament. Still don't know what my thought process behind it was, just rubbish from me really. There's another mega stack event later in the week, so we'll try and redeem ourselves in that. However, I played fairly well in the other two events. Ran well in both for the most part and managed to take several bounties, and also cashed the mini before succumbing to a counterfeited pocket 6s shortly after the bubble.
Ended the night around £5 down - not what we were hoping for but also not too bad in the grand scheme of things. Still enjoyed playing. I probably won't be playing tonight - never really liked playing rebuys and I'm still unable to understand PLO8 properly. Will likely just watch whoever, if anyone, is scheduled to stream tonight.
Bit of an eventful session last night. Kicked off by bubbling the rewards freeroll for a £110 UKOPS seat. Would've been great to get a shot at a big tournament, but wasn't to be. Made a few mistakes towards the end and folded a few spots where, in hindsight, I should have shoved. Never been in a scenario like this though. Something to learn from. We redeemed ourselves somewhat by final tabling the 6:30pm £5.50 BH. Had a good start, but two big hands lost with AK left me with around 5 BBs. Despite this, we were able to turn it around and was chip leader with about 20 people left. Then lost a crucial hand with my A J being beaten by A 10 in a pre-flop all-in, which would've given me a huge chip lead. Nonetheless, we still battled to the final table, however we couldn't quite get the luck we needed and finished 6th. Still a decent result and a £55 profit. Played 3 UKOPS events last night - the 7pm BH, 8:30pm Mini and 9pm Mega Stack. Ended up leading the mega stack early on after a few fortuitous spots, but couldn't quite push on after that. Took 3 bounties across the UKOPS tourneys I played but was unable to run deep in any of them. There was also a cash in the 8:25pm Mega Stack, but nothing else of note from the evening. Managed another fairly early exit in the Orfy Deepstack, after getting an overpair in against top pair who then turned trips. Would appear that I'm not very good at this particular tourney!
A bit of a mixed session where we ran well at times but also had some harsh beats. Played well for the most part and we still ended the session £15 or so up, which isn't too bad.
I plan to play 2 of the 3 remaining UKOPS days (likely today and Monday) - hopefully we can get a deep run somewhere.
After a frustrating Saturday evening session where pretty much nothing went right, we tried again last night for the final day of Easter UKOPS.
Things didn't go to plan straight away - I was aiming to use the tokens won from the previous week's Triple Takedowns to play the 8pm £33 UKOPS event at a reduced price and then have a second bullet if things went pear-shaped, however it turned out that the tokens hadn't been credited yet, so we bought in in full. Managed to take a bounty but never really got above my starting stack. After flailing about for a while with a short-stack, we eventually finished in 89th, well short of the money.
The 8:30pm mini started really well and we were one of the chip leaders early on. Managed to get to a stack of close to 20k, but we didn't really get the cards or spots to push on from there and it all fizzled out. Ended up being eliminated just short of the money in 68th place after shoving a bit wider than I probably needed to. Still took £23 and change with 6 head prizes, so managed to more than double the £11 used to enter.
The best result of the evening came in the 9pm UKOPS 42 BH, although it also felt like a missed opportunity. We didn't play very well at all in this, but on this occasion the cards kept bailing me out and allowed me to make a deep run. With 9 left, I was 1/9, although wasn't a huge chip leader by any means. However, after a few unsuccessful bounty attempts and being placed in a few tough spots, it started to slip away and we soon ended up as one of the short stacks. Managed to ladder up a few spots, but then my luck finally ran out as I got AQ in vs pocket 10s and failed to hit. That was us out in 7th, thus blowing our chance of a rare appearance in one of Tikay's brilliant write-ups. Definitely think inexperience played a part towards the end and we certainly made a few mistakes. It was still a very good run, albeit I made a few blunders and got lucky, the most notable of which involved me limping AJ in the SB with 20 BBs, being raised to 3x by the BB with a similar stack and then I decided to shove all in - managed to run into AK and ended up undeservedly winning the pot with a flush. Certainly a case of "what could have been" but £130 in cash & head prizes wasn't a bad consolation.
It turns out that across the 12 (?) UKOPS tourneys that I played in, I came out of it with a £50 profit. Given that I had prepared for a loss of up to £200 playing UKOPS, I was happy to finish up for the week across the tourneys I played, even if it was only a small profit. Managed to hold my own against some of Sky Poker's elite, and despite dropping a few clangers along the way, we played pretty well overall. Didn't get any major cashes/results but took plenty of bounties and made the occasional deep run. Might give me the confidence to take a few shots at some of the £33 mains going forward. Was an enjoyable week of tourneys - thank you to Sky for organising and running it all.
Away from UKOPS, we played a few other BHs and the usual Monday Triple Takedowns but failed to pull up any trees in those. Had some very unlucky beats in the takedowns. Finished with a score of 28 in the end, which is unlikely to win anything this week.
I will resume the bankroll challenge from tomorrow. Have got a few tournament tokens to utilise with me not being able to use them last night, but otherwise we will probably take a break from tourneys for a weeks and play mostly low-stakes cash. We took a bit of a hit to the bankroll before UKOPS, so hopefully we can get that going back in the right direction.
Hi Asho, Good chatting to you last night via Boxster’s stream. As I said, I’ve temporarily lost my enthusiasm for the game. I know bankroll management is important but I play for fun at low levels unless I qualify via sats to anything bigger. Personally, if I’m enjoying playing, then I just think about how I’m only spending a few quid for (hopefully) a few hours entertainment. If I’m not enjoying it, I don’t bother playing. The banter last night on Boxster’s stream helped me think about perhaps playing a little more again. It was fun and that’s what I want when I spend my money on something largely unnecessary.
Hi Asho, Good chatting to you last night via Boxster’s stream. As I said, I’ve temporarily lost my enthusiasm for the game. I know bankroll management is important but I play for fun at low levels unless I qualify via sats to anything bigger. Personally, if I’m enjoying playing, then I just think about how I’m only spending a few quid for (hopefully) a few hours entertainment. If I’m not enjoying it, I don’t bother playing. The banter last night on Boxster’s stream helped me think about perhaps playing a little more again. It was fun and that’s what I want when I spend my money on something largely unnecessary.
Hi @TVSpice , great chatting to you last night also. Was a good laugh on Boxster's stream.
Like yourself, I play mostly micro stakes (apart from UKOPS where I took a few punts on £22s and £33s) and it's certainly a lot easier to relax and enjoy yourself when you're only spending small amounts of money. A few months ago my enjoyment for the game went away, which was one of the reasons why I decided to start up this diary/bankroll challenge, as well as also trying to improve my overall discipline with my poker game. I do have aspirations to progress my game and move up the stakes in the future, but I'm nowhere near ready for that.
Hope you can regain your enjoyment for poker in the near future.
Hi Asho, Good chatting to you last night via Boxster’s stream. As I said, I’ve temporarily lost my enthusiasm for the game. I know bankroll management is important but I play for fun at low levels unless I qualify via sats to anything bigger. Personally, if I’m enjoying playing, then I just think about how I’m only spending a few quid for (hopefully) a few hours entertainment. If I’m not enjoying it, I don’t bother playing. The banter last night on Boxster’s stream helped me think about perhaps playing a little more again. It was fun and that’s what I want when I spend my money on something largely unnecessary.
Hi @TVSpice , great chatting to you last night also. Was a good laugh on Boxster's stream.
Like yourself, I play mostly micro stakes (apart from UKOPS where I took a few punts on £22s and £33s) and it's certainly a lot easier to relax and enjoy yourself when you're only spending small amounts of money. A few months ago my enjoyment for the game went away, which was one of the reasons why I decided to start up this diary/bankroll challenge, as well as also trying to improve my overall discipline with my poker game. I do have aspirations to progress my game and move up the stakes in the future, but I'm nowhere near ready for that.
Hope you can regain your enjoyment for poker in the near future.
Glad you enjoyed the stream, good banter. Forgetting the @MAXALLY quiz that all answers were 7 including 'how many goals Norwich scored' against my team
On a side not that deepy I entered before end of stream, I was still in it until just before 2am lol. Went out in 8th with 6 paid ... sigh. Was knackered!
Keep up the diary and see you at the tables. Good luck
The first few days back on the challenge haven't been too bad and have seen us increase the bankroll by close to £20. Most of that came from a couple of short sessions on 2/4 cash, where I seemed to hit everything and won a few big pots in a short space of time.
I had £25 worth of tokens from last month's takedowns, which were used last night on the 8:25pm mega stack and the 8:45pm mega stack BH, costing me only £2.50. Managed to reach the middle stages in both with decent stacks before the wheels came off. Wasn't happy with my play in the £22 mega stack towards the end, where I seemed to let the bigger stacks run all over me, but was still a decent few hours of poker. I did take one head prize in the £22 mega, which at least gave us a £5 profit for the two tournaments we played, but would've liked to have made more of the tokens.
Managed to blank all of the rewards freerolls this week, which is somewhat unusual for me. Otherwise, not much else to report. The plan is to play predominantly cash poker for the next couple of weeks, as I seem to have burnt myself out playing tournaments and it will likely start affecting my play if I don't take a break from them. In general I do prefer tournaments to cash, but I think the latter has the best chance of keeping the bankroll ticking along right now.
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.
A couple of the crazy hands from Takedown 3 last night. This was one for the blooper reel:
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
Sidasta
Small blind
40.00
40.00
685.00
retropete
Big blind
80.00
120.00
3285.00
Your hole cards
A
A
Asho28
Raise
180.00
300.00
9375.00
WATHEEE
Call
180.00
480.00
3837.50
MAXALLY
Call
180.00
660.00
3920.00
wynne1938
Fold
Sidasta
Fold
retropete
Call
100.00
760.00
3185.00
Flop
3
K
K
retropete
Check
Asho28
Bet
250.00
1010.00
9125.00
WATHEEE
Call
250.00
1260.00
3587.50
MAXALLY
Call
250.00
1510.00
3670.00
retropete
Fold
Turn
K
Asho28
Bet
560.00
2070.00
8565.00
WATHEEE
Fold
MAXALLY
Call
560.00
2630.00
3110.00
River
4
Asho28
Bet
1500.00
4130.00
7065.00
MAXALLY
All-in
3110.00
7240.00
0.00
Asho28
Call
1610.00
8850.00
5455.00
Asho28
Show
A
A
MAXALLY
Show
Q
K
MAXALLY
Win
Four Kings
8850.00
8850.00
Felt a bit stupid for losing nearly half my stack in this hand, but I'm not sure it was avoidable. Didn't love the flop, hence a small bet to try and work out where I was. Once the third king came, I had to think that I had the best hand. And once I was shoved on at the river and the penny had dropped, I was pot-committed and couldn't fold. Probably could've played it better with bet-sizing at whatnot.
Comments
I also should've got my chips in on the turn rather than the river, but again didn't make a difference to the hand. The opponent had a somewhat eccentric playing style so I wanted to reel him in - can never really give him credit for a better hand here on the river.
Busting whilst being 2/10 in a tournament is a complete disaster, but I think most people would stack off in this hand, so just got to take it on the chin and move on.
A mixed couple of days - 2/4 cash poker is still going awry, although a good performance in Mondays Takedowns more than covered those losses.
Takedown 1: 4/132 (+£16.74)
Takedown 2: 73/123 (-£1.00)
Takedown 3: 5/82 (+£7.19 [£3 for 4 head prizes])
TD1 didn't start well after I triple-barrel bluffed off a good chunk of my stack, and then managed to spill a can of lemonade over my laptop. Despite being low-stacked and rushing around frantically cleaning up the mess whilst trying to play 3 tables, we managed to get a few double ups and got ourselves back to an average stack. At the same time, we started well in TD3 with a few early bounties. I was second in chips with a table full of significantly lower stacks so all was looking well. However, Sky then decided to move me to the right of the chip leader, making further bounty opportunities difficult. We managed to keep chipping up in TD1 and TD3, before a roller-coaster spell in both where I was getting unlucky by losing key hands vs smaller-stacks but then getting lucky with some hands when I was all-in whilst behind. Eventually, we made the final table in both as one of the lowest stacks, where we ran out of steam and lost to a couple of effective flips.
Takedown 2 was fairly uneventful - I won a good pot early on after flopping a set of jacks, but nothing really happened after that. Eventually, we ran AQ into AA and then shoved the remainder of my stack into KK, and that was me out.
Was pleased to make two final tables for the evening, even if I didn't play amazingly. It appears that a score of 9 is enough to win the Takedown competition for this week, hence £25 worth of tourney tokens for next week. Not sure how I will utilise them yet - I may well use them on two £11 tourneys and one £5.50 tourney, although there is the temptation to have a bash at one of the weekday mains for a reduced price - will have to have a think about what will be best for the challenge. I still have a £2.30 and £5 token to use this week.
As alluded to above, cash poker hasn't been too kind of late. I ended up a few buy-ins down over a couple of lengthy sessions on Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon - aside from one hand at the end of the Tuesday afternoon session where I shoved KQ all-in out of frustration and lost to AK, I didn't do a great deal wrong and generally just got unlucky after putting my chips in ahead. I at least had a better Tuesday evening session and recovered a couple of buy-ins back. Will keep persevering with it for the time being. A few of the low-stakes regs have given me some tips for improving my play and mental game, which is much appreciated.
Not a great deal to update you on over the past few days, but the bankroll continues its upward trend and we have now made it to £100+ in profit. It may well dip below that after tonight's tourney session, but given that we were at a bankroll of £30 at one stage it's not too bad, especially as I've not have any major cashes so far.
Has pretty much been all cash poker since the last update. Managed 4 or 5 buy ins worth of profit, mainly from being in the right place when opponents were literally throwing away their money. That said, I don't feel I ran particularly great over these sessions, and lost multiple all-ins where I had the best hand and ended up either being outdrawn or the opponent hitting one of their minimal number of outs. Got a bit frustrating but that's the way it goes sometimes. Contrastingly, there was one huge (relatively speaking) pot I won with KK v two lots of AJ when the flop came with a king and a jack on, and then the turn also came a jack. With a bit more luck, the bankroll may well have been £170-£180 now, but at least we're still grinding out a little profit despite not getting the rub of the green at times.
Nearly managed to bink a Sunday Major seat in the Wednesday freeroll but we didn't get the big hands that we needed towards the end and ultimately had to jam mediocre holdings, which didn't win. Finished 12th in the end I believe. Also managed £2 in the Rewards Freeroll on the same day.
As with last Friday, I will be trying to play as many micro tourneys as I can manage. I definitely want to put more volume into tournaments going forward, especially with the micro stakes league soon to start up again. The £2.30 and £5 tokens will both be used tonight, so will hopefully be able to get a decent return from them like we did last week. May even throw in some tourneys on Saturday as well, in addition to trying to playing the usual 2p/4p cash. The bankroll may well have dropped a bit by Monday's update, but will still be good fun.
Have a good weekend all!
The Friday evening tournament session did not go to plan, and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. You know you've had a wretched session when your best result of the evening is a £3 cash in the Rewards Freeroll...!
I didn't feel as if I played particularly well, especially in the bounty hunters I entered, but nonetheless nothing went our way. After my pocket jacks were cracked by 82 in one of the early bounty hunters, I knew it wasn't going to be a great night. The majority of flips were lost, AK getting me eliminated from several tournaments whilst flipping/ahead, smaller pocket pairs beating my higher pocket pairs on all-ins, miracle run outs for opponents, you name it. It was all topped off in the 8:25 Mega Stack, where after 3-betting AK the villain jammed A9 all in - I called and predictably a 9 arrived on the flop. The remainder of the stack was lost a few hands later when I jammed A7 into JJ. Had played fairly well in the mega stack up until that point, but luck deserted us and we threw in the towel
The only decent run we managed was in the 6:05pm BH where we used the £2.30 token and took 3 head prizes, albeit still departed during the mid stages. On the bright side, I did make it past the first break in the Orfy Deepstack, something that I'm not used to doing!
The session took the wind out of my sails and along with some good sport on the TV, meant that I didn't play over the weekend.
This is the way things were going for me pre-bankroll challenge and sessions like this were the main reason as to why I wasn't putting in much volume. I'm sure my fortunes will change at some point, but right now things aren't going my way at the tables. It may well be worth considering getting some coaching going forward, not only to improve my tournament play and address leaks in my game, but also to improve my mental resilience and encourage me to keep putting in the volume. I do believe that I'm good enough to be profitable - for the most part do the right things at the table and have proven I can win tournaments in the past, just need a bit more luck at crucial times and a win to boost my confidence.
Hopefully the return of the Micro Stakes League will get me motivated for playing more tournaments, although if things continue the way they have been it may well result in me wiping out the current bankroll and failing the challenge.
In more positive news, as alluded to previously we did indeed win £25 worth of tourney tokens for 1st place last week. It does potentially give me the chance to play 2 £11 tourneys and 1 £5.50 tourney for almost nothing, however given that there are few £11 games that appeal to me, I may well end up playing the £22 Mega Stack BH or even one of the weekday mains. The tokens will likely be used later in the week either way.
Other than the Takedowns tonight, not got a plan poker-wise this week - will just take each day as it comes.
We're heading back in the wrong direction again now after a good few weeks, and confidence is very low. It has been solely tourneys over the past couple of days, and they haven't gone particularly well.
Played the usual takedowns on Monday but didn't trouble the scorers this week. Didn't get many good hands but the ones I did get ended in me losing chips. Two of my exits were caused by me making ill-advised jams for 15BBs and ended up being dominated, whilst my other exit saw me jam a strong draw on the flop and miss my outs. Aside from one hand where my pocket aces were comically beaten by pocket 7s who rivered a flush, no complaints about my luck/me not doing well.
I decided to play a few tournaments on Tuesday for the micro league and used a couple of tokens as well. Won 1 flip all night out of about a dozen, and regardless of how well/badly you play, if you lose all your flips you won't do well. Also contributed to my own downfall at times - in the £11 one that I entered (used a token), I ended up going all in on the wrong table by mistake when wanting to fold to a 3-bet pre flop and subsequently blew my stack. Typically, I then lost the all-in on the table which I meant to put all my chips in in the first place, despite being ahead. Took a few bounties across the evening, but those were from either being miles ahead when all-in or opponents making crazy plays, one of which saw my A6 suited beat pocket AA after the villain had limped in pre flop and I flopped the nut flush. No notable results/cashes all night - just can't win a simple flip at the moment, granted my poker play hasn't been too clever at times.
I only have 1 £10 token left now, which will likely be used on the Sunday Mini.
This will probably be my last update for a while - whilst the bankroll challenge was fun for the first month or so, now it just seems to hold me back somewhat. Tourneys are not going well at the moment and cash poker is the only likely source of bankroll profit, however I don't feel any motivation for playing cash at the moment. I also don't want to turn this into a misterpj-inspired bad beat/moan-about-my-luck-diary, which may well happen with the way I'm currently running, and it would be a waste of time to read. I just want to relax and play some tournaments without worrying about the bankroll, work on my game and try and get back to how I was doing last year. Poker is one almighty slog at the moment where I seemingly can't do anything right, hopefully things will turn around soon.
Thought I would do a quick update on the state of play, given that I haven't posted anything for a week. We've managed to take another chunk out of the bankroll since then and things still aren't quite going right at the tables.
Played a bunch of tourneys on Friday evening. Aside from cashing the Orfy Deepstack (which was a minor miracle in itself given my track record in it), we only came away from the session with a few bounties and no good results of note. My remaining £11 token was used for a reduced-priced entry into the 8:45 Mega Stack, however we once again came away empty handed. Didn't play much over Saturday & Sunday.
Played the takedowns on Monday as usual. We started well in all 3 tourneys, but after I lost most of my stack with pocket kings in the takedown 3, the floodgates opened. I soon departed from the same tourney with a predictable lost flip (QQ v AK), and then my AA got beat by 10 10 in takedown 1 and I subsequently departed from that too. At this point I was only left in takedown 2 with a low-ish stack, and with an unenticing prizepool and no prospects of winning any tokens for this week, I spewed my remaining chips off and opted for an early night. Was probably stupid of me to just throw in the towel but I wasn't particularly interested at this point given how the other two tourneys had gone, and had been feeling a bit under the weather that day anyway.
Although I'm not running well, it would be ignorant of me to not take some responsibility. As the hand I posted on the forum on Friday proved, I'm making some fundamental errors right now that aren't helping the cause. As a result, I've hauled myself away from the tables this week to work on some of the leaks I've found in my game, and also to refuel myself to give me the best chance of getting a good result or two in next week's UKOPS. I may play a few games on Friday, but other than that it will be a week off.
With regards to UKOPS and this challenge, I will either withdraw the balance at the end of the week and continue the challenge after UKOPS, or I will abandon it altogether and instead turn this into a general poker diary without the added pressure and limitations of managing a bankroll.
Despite things not going to plan at the tables, I'm really enjoying the streams that various members of the Sky Poker community are putting on. We seem to have somebody streaming most days of the week now, which is great to see. As well as having a good laugh, I try and learn something from the poker that is played on the streams. Certainly a huge positive to come out of the community in recent times - long may it continue.
Not much change since the last update. It's the first increase that we've recorded for a few weeks, albeit a very small one.
Played most of the MML schedule on Friday + the 7 at 7. Finished around a fiver down for the evening, which isn't terrible all things considered. We did manage to run a bit better than we have been doing recently, especially in the latter stages of the £300 deep stack where we were all in KJ v A J and managed to river a straight, and then got 10s in vs KKs and turned a set. We were unable to make the most of our run-good in the end, finishing 13th after getting in my chips with a combo draw and missing everything.
I did make a final table in the 6:05pm £200 BH, where I managed to finish 3rd, although I only secured two bounties. That said, I have been managing a 10 BB stack for 30-40 mins and was able to hang in there until the final table. Even on the final table as the short stack, I managed to ladder up to 3rd whilst other people self-destructed around me with bigger stacks. Only made £13 profit in the end, but was nice to make a final table.
Secured a decent number of bounties elsewhere but there were no further cashes for the night.
Played a session of 2/4 cash on Saturday evening - managed to make back what I lost the previous night.
Yesterday I had a decent run in the rewards freeroll and was in contention for winning a UKOPS seat, however with the blinds steep I then managed to jam into KK from my small blind, and never recovered. We did at least secure an additional £5 for the bankroll.
Also played the takedowns. Managed to bust takedown 1 pretty early - got a load of premium pocket pairs early on but they either ended up being beaten at showdown or I had to fold them to poor runouts. Maybe I need to work on how I play such hands, as they seem to get me into trouble more than they should. After I had to fold trips in takedown 2 to another poor runout, I decided to play very passively and try and get as good as score as possible from the two tourneys I had left - coming in to the night, I knew that with a good score, I'd have a decent chance of securing a £10 or £20 token for March Takedown competition overall, which could allow me to play an additional UKOPS tourney next Monday for next to nothing. I managed to get a 10th and a 12th in the end, which gives me a score of 22 for the week. Remains to be see what tokens I will pick up, if any.
As for UKOPS this week, I'm still trying to work out how much volume I put in. I don't want to start throwing money around like confetti on tournaments where I'm likely to be outclassed, however I also want to test myself and enjoy the week. I won't be playing any of the £110s/£220s but I'll have a bash at some of the £33s and lower, and hopefully I can pick up a good result or two. Will certainly be playing tonight, Friday and Monday. May play one or two other tourneys across the other days. Also looking forward to watching the various UKOPS streams that will be on offer throughout the week.
Good luck to all those playing in UKOPS - if you come across me at the tables, go easy one me
EDIT - forgot to include that I'll be halting the bankroll challenge at my current total and will resume it after UKOPS. Could be argued that I'm cheating the challenge here, but as mentioned above I just want to enjoy playing a few higher buy-in tournaments, which the challenge would otherwise prevent me from doing.
It’s your challenge therefore it’s fine to pause it. As long as you don’t want to claim your winning as part of the challenge afterwards.
Ended up playing 3 events yesterday - the 7pm opener, 8:30pm mini and 9pm mega stack. Completely lost the plot in the mega stack and managed to bluff off pretty much all my stack in two separate hands within the first 30 mins of the tournament. Still don't know what my thought process behind it was, just rubbish from me really. There's another mega stack event later in the week, so we'll try and redeem ourselves in that. However, I played fairly well in the other two events. Ran well in both for the most part and managed to take several bounties, and also cashed the mini before succumbing to a counterfeited pocket 6s shortly after the bubble.
Ended the night around £5 down - not what we were hoping for but also not too bad in the grand scheme of things. Still enjoyed playing. I probably won't be playing tonight - never really liked playing rebuys and I'm still unable to understand PLO8 properly. Will likely just watch whoever, if anyone, is scheduled to stream tonight.
We redeemed ourselves somewhat by final tabling the 6:30pm £5.50 BH. Had a good start, but two big hands lost with AK left me with around 5 BBs. Despite this, we were able to turn it around and was chip leader with about 20 people left. Then lost a crucial hand with my A J being beaten by A 10 in a pre-flop all-in, which would've given me a huge chip lead. Nonetheless, we still battled to the final table, however we couldn't quite get the luck we needed and finished 6th. Still a decent result and a £55 profit.
Played 3 UKOPS events last night - the 7pm BH, 8:30pm Mini and 9pm Mega Stack. Ended up leading the mega stack early on after a few fortuitous spots, but couldn't quite push on after that. Took 3 bounties across the UKOPS tourneys I played but was unable to run deep in any of them.
There was also a cash in the 8:25pm Mega Stack, but nothing else of note from the evening. Managed another fairly early exit in the Orfy Deepstack, after getting an overpair in against top pair who then turned trips. Would appear that I'm not very good at this particular tourney!
A bit of a mixed session where we ran well at times but also had some harsh beats. Played well for the most part and we still ended the session £15 or so up, which isn't too bad.
I plan to play 2 of the 3 remaining UKOPS days (likely today and Monday) - hopefully we can get a deep run somewhere.
Things didn't go to plan straight away - I was aiming to use the tokens won from the previous week's Triple Takedowns to play the 8pm £33 UKOPS event at a reduced price and then have a second bullet if things went pear-shaped, however it turned out that the tokens hadn't been credited yet, so we bought in in full. Managed to take a bounty but never really got above my starting stack. After flailing about for a while with a short-stack, we eventually finished in 89th, well short of the money.
The 8:30pm mini started really well and we were one of the chip leaders early on. Managed to get to a stack of close to 20k, but we didn't really get the cards or spots to push on from there and it all fizzled out. Ended up being eliminated just short of the money in 68th place after shoving a bit wider than I probably needed to. Still took £23 and change with 6 head prizes, so managed to more than double the £11 used to enter.
The best result of the evening came in the 9pm UKOPS 42 BH, although it also felt like a missed opportunity. We didn't play very well at all in this, but on this occasion the cards kept bailing me out and allowed me to make a deep run. With 9 left, I was 1/9, although wasn't a huge chip leader by any means. However, after a few unsuccessful bounty attempts and being placed in a few tough spots, it started to slip away and we soon ended up as one of the short stacks. Managed to ladder up a few spots, but then my luck finally ran out as I got AQ in vs pocket 10s and failed to hit. That was us out in 7th, thus blowing our chance of a rare appearance in one of Tikay's brilliant write-ups. Definitely think inexperience played a part towards the end and we certainly made a few mistakes. It was still a very good run, albeit I made a few blunders and got lucky, the most notable of which involved me limping AJ in the SB with 20 BBs, being raised to 3x by the BB with a similar stack and then I decided to shove all in - managed to run into AK and ended up undeservedly winning the pot with a flush.
Certainly a case of "what could have been" but £130 in cash & head prizes wasn't a bad consolation.
It turns out that across the 12 (?) UKOPS tourneys that I played in, I came out of it with a £50 profit. Given that I had prepared for a loss of up to £200 playing UKOPS, I was happy to finish up for the week across the tourneys I played, even if it was only a small profit. Managed to hold my own against some of Sky Poker's elite, and despite dropping a few clangers along the way, we played pretty well overall. Didn't get any major cashes/results but took plenty of bounties and made the occasional deep run. Might give me the confidence to take a few shots at some of the £33 mains going forward. Was an enjoyable week of tourneys - thank you to Sky for organising and running it all.
Away from UKOPS, we played a few other BHs and the usual Monday Triple Takedowns but failed to pull up any trees in those. Had some very unlucky beats in the takedowns. Finished with a score of 28 in the end, which is unlikely to win anything this week.
I will resume the bankroll challenge from tomorrow. Have got a few tournament tokens to utilise with me not being able to use them last night, but otherwise we will probably take a break from tourneys for a weeks and play mostly low-stakes cash. We took a bit of a hit to the bankroll before UKOPS, so hopefully we can get that going back in the right direction.
I only got 29. So, you have achieved something by beating the FTT GOAT
Keep plugging away. Keep trying to enjoy playing. Keep learning. Keep smiling. Keep of my tables, lol.
Since when were you bestowed with the title of "FTT GOAT" ?
Cheers mate, certainly found a bit more enjoyment from poker by doing this diary/bankroll challenge.
Like yourself, I play mostly micro stakes (apart from UKOPS where I took a few punts on £22s and £33s) and it's certainly a lot easier to relax and enjoy yourself when you're only spending small amounts of money. A few months ago my enjoyment for the game went away, which was one of the reasons why I decided to start up this diary/bankroll challenge, as well as also trying to improve my overall discipline with my poker game. I do have aspirations to progress my game and move up the stakes in the future, but I'm nowhere near ready for that.
Hope you can regain your enjoyment for poker in the near future.
On a side not that deepy I entered before end of stream, I was still in it until just before 2am lol. Went out in 8th with 6 paid ... sigh. Was knackered!
Keep up the diary and see you at the tables. Good luck
The first few days back on the challenge haven't been too bad and have seen us increase the bankroll by close to £20. Most of that came from a couple of short sessions on 2/4 cash, where I seemed to hit everything and won a few big pots in a short space of time.
I had £25 worth of tokens from last month's takedowns, which were used last night on the 8:25pm mega stack and the 8:45pm mega stack BH, costing me only £2.50. Managed to reach the middle stages in both with decent stacks before the wheels came off. Wasn't happy with my play in the £22 mega stack towards the end, where I seemed to let the bigger stacks run all over me, but was still a decent few hours of poker. I did take one head prize in the £22 mega, which at least gave us a £5 profit for the two tournaments we played, but would've liked to have made more of the tokens.
Managed to blank all of the rewards freerolls this week, which is somewhat unusual for me. Otherwise, not much else to report. The plan is to play predominantly cash poker for the next couple of weeks, as I seem to have burnt myself out playing tournaments and it will likely start affecting my play if I don't take a break from them. In general I do prefer tournaments to cash, but I think the latter has the best chance of keeping the bankroll ticking along right now.
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.
At least @MAXALLY enjoyed it.