Thanks all. Have definitely been running well overall recently, but have certainly improved my game and my decision-making, both at the table and with choice of games. Still got areas to improve on, in particular my mental game, but very happy with the progress. Certainly didn't expect things to go as well as they have been so far. Will enjoy it while it lasts.
@aynaricol - It's all good. The hand played itself and I'd much rather lose a hand like that than be up against a junky holding that shouldn't be in the pot and watch it get there - there were a few of those last night! A huge well done on winning the tourney, you've had some great results of late.
Things don't go well forever, and inevitably we've had a not-so-good week at the tables. Nothing drastic, though, and the overall bankroll is still in good shape.
After the final table on Monday, we've not been able to get much else going. I haven't played well this week - I've made some wild plays at the tables and have thrown chips around like confetti at times. Have felt a bit tired and burnt out this week, so probably shouldn't have played at all in hindsight.
Despite stating previously that I wouldn't play the 7 at 7 going forward, I couldn't help myself and have since had another 2 attempts which both resulted in me busting early. Certainly going to keep away from that particular tournament for a while now, as it is resulting in too much outlay for my liking.
I won't have time to play much poker over the next week, and as I didn't win an SPT seat it means a much-needed break from mashing buttons. Might do a little study in any spare time that I get - I want to start playing more satellites in the near future so will probably be worth spending some time looking into strategy for those type of games, especially as I've played very few of them previously.
Good luck to all those playing in the SPT Online this weekend, particularly those who won free seats and don't usually play the higher buy-in tourneys. Will hopefully be back at the tables in a week or so.
After a week away with the family, it was back to the tables last night. Turned out to be quite a frustrating session. Over the past few sessions there's been a common theme - I seem to run extremely well in one of the tourneys I play but never seem to be able to get anything going in the rest of them. This proved to be the case as I took down the 6:05pm BH and seemed to constantly be picking up good hands. At the heads up stage, the opponent ended up being all in 3 times with me being well ahead for 2 of those and I couldn't hold, so I thought I was destined to be second. Thankfully, I managed to claw it back and limp over the winning line. Wasn't a particularly big payday for finishing first but it ensured a profitable session and keeps the run of tourney wins going.
The rest of the session didn't go well. Managed to blank most of the £5.50s I played and took only one or two bounties. I did run fairly deep in the £500 mega stack, but that was curtailed when the villain's 64 off beat my AQ in a pre-flop all-in, so we could only min-cash that in the end. After winning the Orfy deepstack two weeks ago, it was back to normal last night with me busting within the first hour, although the majority of chips were thrown away due me being a bit reckless. Probably won't be due another Orfy win until at least 2024!
Likely to play another session tonight and then I may move back to playing more cash games from Monday. Will be interesting to see how many points I can accumulate next week as part of the June promotion - I don't really play higher than 5/10 so the chances of me gaining anything significant from the promo will be slim, but we'll see how high we can get the points total next week.
Bankroll is back over £700 again, until this evening when it will likely dip back below again. For the most part, am happy with my game and it's nice to have found a way to win tourneys. Still making a few daft plays at times, but overall my game has improved a lot over the past 6 months.
Was meant to update this during my lunch break yesterday, but opted for sitting out in the sun instead. So quite a lot to report on since the last update.
Saturday's tournament session was largely uneventful. Was mainly a couple of small cashes and a few bounties. The best result we could manage was 7th in the 8:25pm mega stack, but I never had a stack big enough to challenge for the win. It actually would've been a profitable session if I hadn't played the 7 at 7, which I'm currently trying to distance myself from. Instead it was a £5 loss for the evening.
Monday's session did not go well. We ran poorly in most of the tournaments we played, and an inability to win flips at key times resulted in no deep runs in anything. I also did not play well at all in this particular session and played far looser than I usually do. Not sure why, perhaps a bit of tournament burnout. We managed to run fairly well in the takedowns but the best we could manage was a min cash in TD1, and a pair of 15th place finishes weren't enough to win a token this week. I did plan to play the Marksman Main Event Semi final at 6pm as an alternative to the 7 at 7. I decided that late regging was the best way to about it, however it appeared everyone else had the same idea and the satellite ended up being cancelled due to a shortage of runners. I therefore played the 7 at 7 instead, and unsurprisingly another £7.70 disappeared from my bankroll. I think I've finally convinced myself that this particular tournament isn't a great choice for my challenge - cannot seem to master anything turbo-related. Despite a smattering of bounties across other tournaments, it was a £25 loss for the session.
Last night, I decided that I would take a break from tourneys and retreated back to the cash tables. I was hoping to win back what I lost from the previous two tournament sessions, but it turned out much better than expected. I sat at a 5/10 deep cash table for £20, and then 4 hours later I stood up from the table with a stack of £107. It was a crazy session and we won a £50 pot early on with AA, after 2 villains decided to go all in pre-flop with A 6 off and 4 5 suited respectively - I expected to find a way to lose the hand, but a flop of J Q Q rainbow was perfect and eased any worries. After that point, we just ran extremely well and hit a lot of big hands. Despite my run-good, it was probably the best I have played in a cash session for a long time and got maximum value from the hands I played. A couple of buy-ins gained at other 5/10 tables meant a profit of around £120 for the evening. I'm still, at best, a mediocre cash game player and there are many regs at 5/10 who are much better than me, but my game has improved significantly since I first started at this level. Playing at 5/10 has also made me realise the importance of selecting your tables well.
Currently have 271 points for the week so am hoping to accumulate enough to get some cash back at the end of the week. Therefore means that cash games will likely take precedence over tournaments, at least for this week. I will still play my usual tourney session on Friday but I have burnt myself out playing so many of them recently and my play has suffered as a result, so moving back to cash for a bit is probably wise. The challenge is to ensure that I don't end up giving back the money I won last night.
Have managed to play quite a lot over the past few days - predominantly cash but we did stick to tournaments yesterday evening.
Wednesday's cash session was an eventful one, albeit not as eventful as Tuesday. We still came out of in with 3 buy-ins worth a profit though, which is decent enough. Thursday's session was much more of a slog and think we finished it just £2 up in the end. Isn't always easy to get a session going on 5/10 cash - sometimes I go to play and the tables are full of regulars, which makes it harder to have profitable sessions. Thursday was one of those occasions, but wasn't in the mood to play tournaments so we persevered. Nonetheless, the transition from 2/4 to 5/10 seems to be working (for now)
As mentioned above, Friday saw us focus solely on tournaments. Unlike the previous couple of sessions, we ran pretty well for the most part and ended up with some decent results. We managed to make 3 final tables last night, but failed to turn any of them in to wins. These final tables came in the £300 5:30pm BH, £200 6:05pm BH and £100 9:15pm Deepstack, but we finished 4th, 5th and 3rd respectively. We also managed to bubble the final table of the 5:15pm £100 rebuy and finished 10th in the £200 deep stack at 7:15, so there were plenty of near misses. There we a couple of unfortunate beats elsewhere. We departed from the 8:25 mega stack early after running KK into AA, and we lost a huge all-in in the 9pm freezeout which saw us lose KK to AK, with the ace arriving on the river and eliminating us. Not a good evening for the dreaded pocket kings, unfortunately. Obviously those sort of hands play themselves, but never nice when you're on the wrong end of them. We ran well elsewhere, though, so can't complain. We even managed a tenner in the rewards freeroll, which hasn't happened for a while. The Orfy Deepstack, as per normal, did not go well and saw us eliminated in 20th. Managed to get AQ all-in vs KK. I managed to flop my ace, but the other two cards on the flop were both kings, and that saw us eliminated by quads. Overall, a much more enjoyable tournament session than the previous couple and was nice to have a bit of run-good in several of the games I played. Also played quite well, although mistakes crept in towards the end. £35 profit or so for the evening.
Planning to play again tonight whilst having the Euros on in the background. Not sure whether it will be cash or tournaments tonight, will depend on how the cash tables are looking this afternoon and evening. I have now exceeded the 500 point mark for the week, which will result in a small cash bonus on Monday. Unlikely to make it to 1000 points, but any extra money for the bankroll is always welcomed.
Thanks @Tikay10 - hopefully I can make it to the 1k mark. Didn't have any financial targets in mind when I started this challenge, but would be nice to make that milestone. Still a bit to go yet, though. ---
Current Bankroll: £890.45
Didn't end up playing much poker over the weekend, mainly due to being distracted by goings on at the Euros. I did play a couple of £5.50 tourneys on Saturday, but only came away from them with a single head prize. I also played a couple of short cash sessions on Saturday and Sunday and managed to record a small profit.
Played the usual selection of tournaments last night. Bit of a mixed bag of results, but we did finish the session in profit. Best result of the session came in the 6:30pm £1000 BH, where we managed to finish 5th. Got quite lucky early on by hitting a runner runner straight to stay alive after I had gone all in, and then won a big flip with 10s v AQ. We played quite poorly towards in the latter stages, though, and was lucky to make the final table in the end. We also cashed the 5:30pm BH but lost a key flip after the bubble and had to settle for a min cash, and we also ran deep in the 8pm BH despite making it past the bubble with only 4 BBs, eventually finishing 14th. Aside from that, no other good results last night, although we did cash the rewards freeroll for £4. The Takedown tourneys just aren't going well at the moment and I failed to get a decent score again last night. Been a while since I won a token on those so might need to rethink my strategy with these tournaments. We ended the session £30. I did have a bash at getting past the £900 mark last night by playing a late-night Sit n Go on Duesenberg's Twitch stream, however we were only able to finish 3rd and went away empty-handed. Probably not the wisest £5.50 I've spent during this challenge, especially given my track record at SNG's, but we had a good laugh.
As we edge closer to the £1k mark, it is probably worth having a think about what I want to do if I make it past this milestone. I'm not getting complacent and things can turn around quickly, but hopefully we can get there soon. I do want to continue doing some sort of diary on the forum - a few of you that I've spoken to at the tables say you enjoy reading it, so would be nice to continue. I can always just carry on as I am, but it may well get somewhat boring and repetitive. If anyone has any ideas then please let me know.
Hoping to play poker most evenings this week, just not sure whether to play cash or tournaments (or both). There are a few new tournaments in the MML schedule that I want to try. Should be another week of decent volume, all being well.
Decided to do a rare Thursday update, as it has been an eventful few days at the tables. The bankroll has gone past the £900 mark for now, hopefully it doesn't dip back below.
Only played a few MTTs on Tuesday night and we failed to get any cashes. We did, at one point, look like we were going to run deep in the Gold Rush Mini, before an unfortunate spot saw us lose AK to JK. Didn't get any bounties for my efforts either.
Played most of the MML schedule before 8pm on Wednesday evening and we had a reasonable session with a few deep runs. We managed final tables in the 5:15pm £100 rebuy that we max late-regged and the 6:05pm £200 BH. I didn't run particularly well at either final table and pretty much lost every flip and dominating hand that we called all ins to. On both tables, all the chips shifted towards one player so it quickly became a contest to see which of the short-stacks could outlast each other. Finished 3rd and 2nd respectively but got a decent return from both of the tournaments. There was an additional deep run in the 6:30pm 1k BH which saw me pick up 4 head prizes and a min cash. We would've been one of the chip leaders had we not lost KK to Q 10, but instead was forced to heroically cling on for a min cash with a pitiful number of big blinds. I also gave the 7 at 7 BH another chance to see if I could do better than I usually do. However, like with the many previous attempts, we came away empty handed again, although I was somewhat unlucky on this occasion. I got a near double-up early on but then it went pear-shaped - I had a great chance for 2 bounties when I had QQ vs QJ v 77, but somehow managed to lose to both of my opponents holdings. We then departed soon after. Certainly not one of my favoured MTTs at the moment. Still came home for close to £40 worth of profit for the evening.
A little earlier, I played the major seat freeroll and came agonizingly close to winning a seat. Unfortunately, the cards on the final table did not go my way and I ended up bubbling in 4th place. I shoved A7 from the small blind into the big blind's A8, and despite flopping an up-and-down straight draw, we couldn't get that final slice of luck to get us over the line. There were a couple of spots I folded that I wish I had shoved in hindsight, but it wasn't to be on this occasion. I should definitely play the daily major seat freeroll more than I currently do.
Might play a bit of cash later this evening depending on how the tables are looking, and then it's back to tournaments over the weekend, as we try and edge our way to the £1000 mark in our challenge. Hoping to play my usual Friday evening schedule whilst watching England demolish Scotland in the Euros... at least that's the plan!
Didn't end up playing a cash session on Thursday evening, as the tables weren't too enticing. There was also some doubt as to whether I would play my usual Friday session, with a diminished tournament schedule on offer and the big match being on. We decided to play in the end and it turned out to be a wise choice, partly because the England v Scotland game was a dreary spectacle but also because we had a very good session.
There were several noteworthy results from the evening, although no wins on this occasion. The best score came in the 8:25pm Mega Stack, which is one of my favourite tournaments in the schedule. Ran very well throughout and got dealt a lot of premium pocket pairs which allowed me to build up a good stack. I made it to heads up but couldn't quite secure the win. The opponent, who I had never played against before, had a decent chip lead and was constantly raising big. In the end, I got all-in with a strong draw that failed to hit. With a bit more patience perhaps I could've won it, but £98 for second place was a great result for me and probably the best I've played in a tournament for a while. We made the final table of the 5:30pm BH, but after losing a big pot when flopping two-pair on a draw-heavy board, we had to settle for 3rd for close to £40 including bounties. We also bubbled final tables in the 6:05pm BH and 7:15pm Deep Stack whilst securing a few quid for our troubles, and there was also a min-cash in the 6:30pm BH for the second consecutive session, although we failed to take any bounties along the way and resulted in a loss of 2p for this particular tournament. Lastly, we continued our run of doing consistently terrible in the Orfy Deepstack, by being one of the first to be eliminated once again. Managed to get close to 40 BBs all in with AA v JJ, but a jack on the flop resulted in an early bath. At least it was the only bad beat of the evening.
Thanks to 2nd in the mega stack last night and along with a few other decent scores, we have now made it past the £1k mark for the challenge. Really pleased to have made it to this milestone - when I started this challenge I had very few expectations and just wanted it to be a way of contributing to the forum whilst making a few quid and improving my discipline. I certainly didn't expect it to have gone anywhere near as well as it has done up to now, especially in a relatively short space of time. Shows how well I have ran over the past few months but also how much my game has improved over time. The challenge will continue for the time being and we'll see if we can progress any further. We may well be able to add in a few £11+ games going forward if things continue to go well and start to test myself against the good regs on the site.
Hoping to play another tourney session tonight - we currently sit 2nd in the MML standings for this week, so would be nice to end the week with a token. Not sure whether I will play on Sunday or not as yet, might have an evening away from the tables.
although we failed to take any bounties along the way and resulted in a loss of 2p for this particular tournament.
Although rather trivial, that is one of my small pet hates about poker. When you cash in a tournament, but do not profit.
It's similar to when you are in a bounty tournament and double up (usually early on) but the Villain had 30 chips more than you so you don't win the Bounty, then someone else basically steals it the next hand after all your hard work
Tournaments continue to be successful at the moment and two further profitable sessions have been recorded since the last update.
Saturday saw us make the final table of the 5:30pm BH, which I seem to have a decent record in. We had the chip lead for much of the final table but we didn't play well heads up and had to settle for second. Took a fair few head prizes in that and came away from the tournament with close to £60 worth of profit. We were also in a good position to make the final table of the 8:25pm mega stack again, but with 10 left we had a few bad runouts and the wheels quickly fell off. We exited in 9th place.
Sunday started terribly, with me blanking all of the MML games that I entered by spewing chips left right and centre. The Mini Major was the last tourney I entered for the evening and the first £11er of the challenge. It turned out to be the most action-packed game I've ever played on Sky. We had to make a few nitty folds early on before we got a very fortunate double up when my AK suited beat the villain's AK suited. From that point, we chipped up nicely and stayed towards the top of the leaderboard. All the action came after the bubble had gone - we made some terrible bluffs that blew holes in our stack, we made a successful hero call with Ace high to stay in and double-up and we hit sets for big pots when all in pre against higher pocket pairs. We made the final table with 20 BBs and with a bit of aggression and good run of the cards, we made it to heads-up. My opponent was very aggressive, and despite hitting quads 4s in one hand to claw back a chip deficit, we ended up being steamrollered and deservedly beaten. Definitely played some very good poker in this tournament but also made a few almighty clangers and had to rely on a lot of luck to fight my way back in contention - pretty much my poker game in a nutshell at the moment. We scooped close to £300 for 2nd place, which is a personal best for me and surpasses the £200 or so that I got for cashing one of the UKOPS £110 events last Autumn which I got free entry to. This was the fourth 2nd place of the week - certainly think I need to do a bit of work on my heads-up game because I have not played well in at least two of those battles. Certainly a good sign that I'm making it to the final 2 of tournaments on a regular basis though.
Planning to play tonight but then am unlikely to be able to play any more sessions until Thursday due to other commitments. Had my first Covid jab earlier today and my arm is already starting to ache, so playing poker probably isn't the brightest idea tonight, but we'll give it a go. Going to stick to the MML schedule and might throw in another £11 game or two if I feel like it.
Not much change since the last update. It has been a fairly low-volume week on the whole - since I had the vaccine earlier in the week I've felt a bit fatigued and lackluster, and I've only played a couple of times since my usual Monday session. When I have loaded up some tables, I haven't played very well and have pootled my way through tourneys rather than trying to build up a decent stack, which resulted in mainly min-cashes and exiting at the mid-way stage.
We had a decent enough Monday session, with the best results being 4th in the 5:30pm BH and 6th in the 6:05pm BH, along with a couple of small cashes elsewhere. Ended up with around £30 in profit.
We played a small session on Thursday but blanked everything, and then we went again last night with the intention of playing some of the later stuff, but again felt too weary so didn't register anything after half 8. Didn't run or play particularly great and made some rather speculative calls at times. We cashed the 5:30pm BH again but departed soon after the bubble had gone, and we limped home for a min-cash in the 8:25pm Mega Stack, for which I have good record of cashing. Lastly, we managed a rare single-figure finish in the Orfy Deepstack, however 8th wasn't enough for a cash and we went away empty-handed. Always good fun playing the Orfy and nice to have a laugh with some of the other regs who play.
I probably shouldn't have played on previous days given how I felt, and it has resulted in me playing poorly, being a bit cranky and just aimlessly clicking buttons. It is, therefore, a surprise that we're up £4 for the week. Feeling a lot more "with it" today so will play another session tonight all-being well, and plan to play some of the later-evening games and £11ers. Could end up being a relatively expensive session, but hopefully not.
The latest week of the challenge has been quite an underwhelming one and we failed to build upon the 2nd place finish in the Mini Major from the previous week. My run-good seems to have come to a grinding halt over the past week and I've also played very poorly at times as well. We incurred a £20 loss for the week, but given how I played it probably deserved to be a lot more.
Played a lot of tournaments on Saturday evening. Managed to blank all of the £5.50+ that we entered, including an £11 BH that I played - I managed to hold my own in that but was only restricted to small pots. As the blinds went up, I took a bounty spot with pocket 5s but ended up being against a higher pocket pair which held, and then QQ failed to hold against A3. So the first £11 BH of the challenge didn't end up being a good one. We did, however, take down the 6:05pm BH. Despite having a good chip lead at the final table we did our best to throw it away, but fortunately recovered to take first place. It ended a run of lost heads-up battles in tournaments and was nice to take the win. However, it wasn't enough to keep us in profit for the session. and we recorded a small loss for the day.
The intention was to play a lot of tournaments on Sunday too. However we bust a couple of bounty hunters very early on, and after I lost to 6 3 suited when getting 20 BBs all in pre-flop, an evening of watching the football with a beer seemed more enticing and the session was curtailed early.
Last night we only played the Takedowns and a couple of MML games. At 9pm, I was still in all three takedown tourneys with decent enough stacks, and then by 9:30pm I was out of all three. After we lost a big all-in with pocket queens in takedown 1, my focus was lost and the chips were thrown away in the other two takedowns after I made a couple of bad all-ins - probably indicative of the way I've played over the past week. We also came away from the two MML games that we played empty handed.
Think the main problem over the past few weeks is that I've tried to play too many tournaments and have played them in a rather half-hearted manner as a result. Therefore, I'm planning to go back to playing 2 tournaments sessions a week for now and see how that goes. Will play my usual Friday tournament session and will probably play a few games on Sunday given that I have a £11 mini major token to use. I'm also hoping to return to the 5/10 cash tables this week, as they were going well before I switched my attention to tournaments. Unlikely to play tonight due to the football.
Not the best week, but hopefully just a small blip. Onwards and upwards!
It seems that it's a lot harder to update a bankroll challenge when things aren't going to plan at the tables. The last week or so has been quite a struggle, with very few decent results. The best score of the past week came last night in the £0.55 Nightly Micro which we took down for an eye-watering £16.66, so that probably gives you an idea of how poorly things have gone since the last update.
For the most part I haven't played as badly as I did in the previous week, but still not quite playing my A game and there have been a few mad moments where I have thrown chips away. The main issue is that the cards are not going in my favour at the moment and we've had some horrible beats at times. That's poker sometimes, but frustration was starting to creep in towards the end of last week when we were repeatedly getting our chips in ahead and finding ways to lose hands against a variety of "interesting" holdings. I was a lot more relaxed and jovial during yesterday's session and just embraced the bad side of variance that I'm currently going through. It was nice to win the nightly micro, even though there is little monetary gain from it.
Also over the past week, we've had a few rare deep runs in the 7 at 7 and managed a 5th place in the 9pm £200 Freezeout on Friday, but otherwise it has been slim pickings. We were unable to turn our Sunday mini free entry into any winnings - we doubled up very early after our flush beat a weaker flush, but then we managed to get QQ in against two lots of AA, and then failed to recover from that. I arguably should've folded the pocket queens given the action, but it's always tough to fold premium pairs. A few min-cashes and a decent haul of bounties have limited the damage to the bankroll, but all momentum we had previously has been lost for now.
I had hoped to play more cash tables since the last update, however with the double points promotion continuing for a second month the 5/10 tables haven't looked particularly enticing, so I have stayed away from those for now. Planning to play most days this week, aside from tomorrow (and possibly Sunday) with England being on. I also want to get back to playing a few PLO8 games this week - I did briefly have a go at it previously but it predictably did not end well. Would be nice if we can find a way to master that particular variant of poker. Hopefully we can have a better week at the tables, but we are certainly out of form at the moment.
Been a slightly better week at the tables so far, with the bankroll increasing by just over £50 since the last update. Still not running particularly great, but good enough to get a few decent results on the board.
Ended up playing relatively small sessions on Tuesday and Thursday. The better results came on the Tuesday session, with 4th in the 9pm Freezeout and 10th in the 6:30pm 1k BH. We unfortunately lost pocket 10s to pocket 9s AIP in the BH, otherwise we would've been in contention for the win. Thursday was a less successful session with no good results. Ended up breaking even across both days.
Last night's session was probably the most enjoyable one I've had for a while. Not necessarily because it was a profitable one, but because the tables were good (and relatively tough at times), we ran a bit better, and I was quite relaxed and was able to enjoy the evening's poker. Things took a while to get going, but we ended up with some deep runs. Best result of the session was 2nd in the 5:30pm BH. Think I recall me being stone last after the bubble had gone, but ended up being chip leader on the final table. We made it to HU, evenly stacked against my opponent. Their strategy appeared to be fold or shove their 40 BBs all in. We therefore had to be patient, and eventually we got shoved in whilst holding pocket 9s. I happily called and was even happier to see that I was up against K 5 off. I was then unhappy to see a king arrive on the flop and we had to settle for 2nd. No regrets with the way I played HU - waited for my chance, got the chips in well ahead but couldn't hold. The other FT of the session came in the £200 deep stack, which I usually run awfully in and rarely cash. We made it to the last 4 before shoving my 10BB stack from the button into pocket aces, and that was us out. We ran deep in the 8:25pm mega stack, before a few crucial lost flips saw us finish 12th, whilst there was also a min-cash in the 10;15pm £750 BH. Lastly, there was a deep run in the £11 9:30pm BH, but we fell just short of the money and only took one head prize. Don't think I'm ready to play too many £11 games as yet, so will probably limit it to a maximum of one per session for now and see how it goes. Overall, a much better session where I played a lot better than I have done in previous ones.
The best bit of poker this week has been the PLO8. I wasn't sure whether I would enjoy this variant of poker or be able to work out how to play it properly, but it seems to be going reasonably well for me as a beginner and I'm really liking the games. We achieved a 3rd place finish in the 5:30pm PLO8 BH on Tuesday, which I was quite pleased with given that I had only played a few Hi-Lo games previously. The best part of that tournament was when with 5 remaining, I had half a big blind left after a failed bounty attempt against the then short-stack. I folded the following hand and watched in amusement as the two 20 BBs stacks managed to bust and ladder me up to 3rd. Only meant an extra few quid but it was a few quid more than I should've won. As expected, I departed the hand after. We also finished 8th on Thursday in the same tournament, this time we were extremely unlucky after getting a pair of aces and low card all-in against a single ace for a huge pot, but managed to lose the high hand with no qualifying low hand. Overall, I'm happy that I chose to give PLO8 a go and am likely to play the 5:30pm game in most of my sessions going forward. Hopefully things continue to go well and my enjoyment for this particular variant of poker will last. May well have been beginner's luck so far, but if it continues to go well then playing more PLO8 games might be the way forward.
Planning to go into battle again tonight, as we hunt down a maiden 1st place finish in the forum MML league. Sunday will be a non-poker day for obvious reasons - certainly the best chance the England football team have had to win something for a long time. Hopefully they can bring it home.
Comments
@aynaricol - It's all good. The hand played itself and I'd much rather lose a hand like that than be up against a junky holding that shouldn't be in the pot and watch it get there - there were a few of those last night! A huge well done on winning the tourney, you've had some great results of late.
Things don't go well forever, and inevitably we've had a not-so-good week at the tables. Nothing drastic, though, and the overall bankroll is still in good shape.
After the final table on Monday, we've not been able to get much else going. I haven't played well this week - I've made some wild plays at the tables and have thrown chips around like confetti at times. Have felt a bit tired and burnt out this week, so probably shouldn't have played at all in hindsight.
Despite stating previously that I wouldn't play the 7 at 7 going forward, I couldn't help myself and have since had another 2 attempts which both resulted in me busting early. Certainly going to keep away from that particular tournament for a while now, as it is resulting in too much outlay for my liking.
I won't have time to play much poker over the next week, and as I didn't win an SPT seat it means a much-needed break from mashing buttons. Might do a little study in any spare time that I get - I want to start playing more satellites in the near future so will probably be worth spending some time looking into strategy for those type of games, especially as I've played very few of them previously.
Good luck to all those playing in the SPT Online this weekend, particularly those who won free seats and don't usually play the higher buy-in tourneys. Will hopefully be back at the tables in a week or so.
After a week away with the family, it was back to the tables last night. Turned out to be quite a frustrating session. Over the past few sessions there's been a common theme - I seem to run extremely well in one of the tourneys I play but never seem to be able to get anything going in the rest of them. This proved to be the case as I took down the 6:05pm BH and seemed to constantly be picking up good hands. At the heads up stage, the opponent ended up being all in 3 times with me being well ahead for 2 of those and I couldn't hold, so I thought I was destined to be second. Thankfully, I managed to claw it back and limp over the winning line. Wasn't a particularly big payday for finishing first but it ensured a profitable session and keeps the run of tourney wins going.
The rest of the session didn't go well. Managed to blank most of the £5.50s I played and took only one or two bounties. I did run fairly deep in the £500 mega stack, but that was curtailed when the villain's 64 off beat my AQ in a pre-flop all-in, so we could only min-cash that in the end.
After winning the Orfy deepstack two weeks ago, it was back to normal last night with me busting within the first hour, although the majority of chips were thrown away due me being a bit reckless. Probably won't be due another Orfy win until at least 2024!
Likely to play another session tonight and then I may move back to playing more cash games from Monday. Will be interesting to see how many points I can accumulate next week as part of the June promotion - I don't really play higher than 5/10 so the chances of me gaining anything significant from the promo will be slim, but we'll see how high we can get the points total next week.
Bankroll is back over £700 again, until this evening when it will likely dip back below again. For the most part, am happy with my game and it's nice to have found a way to win tourneys. Still making a few daft plays at times, but overall my game has improved a lot over the past 6 months.
Last time I checked this thread you were £200+.
I look today to see £700+ .
Keep up the entertainment.
Was meant to update this during my lunch break yesterday, but opted for sitting out in the sun instead. So quite a lot to report on since the last update.
Saturday's tournament session was largely uneventful. Was mainly a couple of small cashes and a few bounties. The best result we could manage was 7th in the 8:25pm mega stack, but I never had a stack big enough to challenge for the win. It actually would've been a profitable session if I hadn't played the 7 at 7, which I'm currently trying to distance myself from. Instead it was a £5 loss for the evening.
Monday's session did not go well. We ran poorly in most of the tournaments we played, and an inability to win flips at key times resulted in no deep runs in anything. I also did not play well at all in this particular session and played far looser than I usually do. Not sure why, perhaps a bit of tournament burnout. We managed to run fairly well in the takedowns but the best we could manage was a min cash in TD1, and a pair of 15th place finishes weren't enough to win a token this week.
I did plan to play the Marksman Main Event Semi final at 6pm as an alternative to the 7 at 7. I decided that late regging was the best way to about it, however it appeared everyone else had the same idea and the satellite ended up being cancelled due to a shortage of runners. I therefore played the 7 at 7 instead, and unsurprisingly another £7.70 disappeared from my bankroll. I think I've finally convinced myself that this particular tournament isn't a great choice for my challenge - cannot seem to master anything turbo-related.
Despite a smattering of bounties across other tournaments, it was a £25 loss for the session.
Last night, I decided that I would take a break from tourneys and retreated back to the cash tables. I was hoping to win back what I lost from the previous two tournament sessions, but it turned out much better than expected. I sat at a 5/10 deep cash table for £20, and then 4 hours later I stood up from the table with a stack of £107. It was a crazy session and we won a £50 pot early on with AA, after 2 villains decided to go all in pre-flop with A 6 off and 4 5 suited respectively - I expected to find a way to lose the hand, but a flop of J Q Q rainbow was perfect and eased any worries. After that point, we just ran extremely well and hit a lot of big hands. Despite my run-good, it was probably the best I have played in a cash session for a long time and got maximum value from the hands I played. A couple of buy-ins gained at other 5/10 tables meant a profit of around £120 for the evening. I'm still, at best, a mediocre cash game player and there are many regs at 5/10 who are much better than me, but my game has improved significantly since I first started at this level. Playing at 5/10 has also made me realise the importance of selecting your tables well.
Currently have 271 points for the week so am hoping to accumulate enough to get some cash back at the end of the week. Therefore means that cash games will likely take precedence over tournaments, at least for this week. I will still play my usual tourney session on Friday but I have burnt myself out playing so many of them recently and my play has suffered as a result, so moving back to cash for a bit is probably wise. The challenge is to ensure that I don't end up giving back the money I won last night.
Have managed to play quite a lot over the past few days - predominantly cash but we did stick to tournaments yesterday evening.
Wednesday's cash session was an eventful one, albeit not as eventful as Tuesday. We still came out of in with 3 buy-ins worth a profit though, which is decent enough. Thursday's session was much more of a slog and think we finished it just £2 up in the end. Isn't always easy to get a session going on 5/10 cash - sometimes I go to play and the tables are full of regulars, which makes it harder to have profitable sessions. Thursday was one of those occasions, but wasn't in the mood to play tournaments so we persevered. Nonetheless, the transition from 2/4 to 5/10 seems to be working (for now)
As mentioned above, Friday saw us focus solely on tournaments. Unlike the previous couple of sessions, we ran pretty well for the most part and ended up with some decent results. We managed to make 3 final tables last night, but failed to turn any of them in to wins. These final tables came in the £300 5:30pm BH, £200 6:05pm BH and £100 9:15pm Deepstack, but we finished 4th, 5th and 3rd respectively. We also managed to bubble the final table of the 5:15pm £100 rebuy and finished 10th in the £200 deep stack at 7:15, so there were plenty of near misses.
There we a couple of unfortunate beats elsewhere. We departed from the 8:25 mega stack early after running KK into AA, and we lost a huge all-in in the 9pm freezeout which saw us lose KK to AK, with the ace arriving on the river and eliminating us. Not a good evening for the dreaded pocket kings, unfortunately. Obviously those sort of hands play themselves, but never nice when you're on the wrong end of them. We ran well elsewhere, though, so can't complain. We even managed a tenner in the rewards freeroll, which hasn't happened for a while.
The Orfy Deepstack, as per normal, did not go well and saw us eliminated in 20th. Managed to get AQ all-in vs KK. I managed to flop my ace, but the other two cards on the flop were both kings, and that saw us eliminated by quads.
Overall, a much more enjoyable tournament session than the previous couple and was nice to have a bit of run-good in several of the games I played. Also played quite well, although mistakes crept in towards the end. £35 profit or so for the evening.
Planning to play again tonight whilst having the Euros on in the background. Not sure whether it will be cash or tournaments tonight, will depend on how the cash tables are looking this afternoon and evening. I have now exceeded the 500 point mark for the week, which will result in a small cash bonus on Monday. Unlikely to make it to 1000 points, but any extra money for the bankroll is always welcomed.
Have a good weekend all.
Starting Bankroll: £50.00
Current Bankroll: £863.02
Fabulous stuff @Asho28, & the £1,000 mark is surely not far away.
---
Current Bankroll: £890.45
Didn't end up playing much poker over the weekend, mainly due to being distracted by goings on at the Euros. I did play a couple of £5.50 tourneys on Saturday, but only came away from them with a single head prize. I also played a couple of short cash sessions on Saturday and Sunday and managed to record a small profit.
Played the usual selection of tournaments last night. Bit of a mixed bag of results, but we did finish the session in profit. Best result of the session came in the 6:30pm £1000 BH, where we managed to finish 5th. Got quite lucky early on by hitting a runner runner straight to stay alive after I had gone all in, and then won a big flip with 10s v AQ. We played quite poorly towards in the latter stages, though, and was lucky to make the final table in the end. We also cashed the 5:30pm BH but lost a key flip after the bubble and had to settle for a min cash, and we also ran deep in the 8pm BH despite making it past the bubble with only 4 BBs, eventually finishing 14th.
Aside from that, no other good results last night, although we did cash the rewards freeroll for £4. The Takedown tourneys just aren't going well at the moment and I failed to get a decent score again last night. Been a while since I won a token on those so might need to rethink my strategy with these tournaments. We ended the session £30.
I did have a bash at getting past the £900 mark last night by playing a late-night Sit n Go on Duesenberg's Twitch stream, however we were only able to finish 3rd and went away empty-handed. Probably not the wisest £5.50 I've spent during this challenge, especially given my track record at SNG's, but we had a good laugh.
As we edge closer to the £1k mark, it is probably worth having a think about what I want to do if I make it past this milestone. I'm not getting complacent and things can turn around quickly, but hopefully we can get there soon. I do want to continue doing some sort of diary on the forum - a few of you that I've spoken to at the tables say you enjoy reading it, so would be nice to continue. I can always just carry on as I am, but it may well get somewhat boring and repetitive. If anyone has any ideas then please let me know.
Hoping to play poker most evenings this week, just not sure whether to play cash or tournaments (or both). There are a few new tournaments in the MML schedule that I want to try. Should be another week of decent volume, all being well.
Decided to do a rare Thursday update, as it has been an eventful few days at the tables. The bankroll has gone past the £900 mark for now, hopefully it doesn't dip back below.
Only played a few MTTs on Tuesday night and we failed to get any cashes. We did, at one point, look like we were going to run deep in the Gold Rush Mini, before an unfortunate spot saw us lose AK to JK. Didn't get any bounties for my efforts either.
Played most of the MML schedule before 8pm on Wednesday evening and we had a reasonable session with a few deep runs. We managed final tables in the 5:15pm £100 rebuy that we max late-regged and the 6:05pm £200 BH. I didn't run particularly well at either final table and pretty much lost every flip and dominating hand that we called all ins to. On both tables, all the chips shifted towards one player so it quickly became a contest to see which of the short-stacks could outlast each other. Finished 3rd and 2nd respectively but got a decent return from both of the tournaments.
There was an additional deep run in the 6:30pm 1k BH which saw me pick up 4 head prizes and a min cash. We would've been one of the chip leaders had we not lost KK to Q 10, but instead was forced to heroically cling on for a min cash with a pitiful number of big blinds.
I also gave the 7 at 7 BH another chance to see if I could do better than I usually do. However, like with the many previous attempts, we came away empty handed again, although I was somewhat unlucky on this occasion. I got a near double-up early on but then it went pear-shaped - I had a great chance for 2 bounties when I had QQ vs QJ v 77, but somehow managed to lose to both of my opponents holdings. We then departed soon after. Certainly not one of my favoured MTTs at the moment. Still came home for close to £40 worth of profit for the evening.
A little earlier, I played the major seat freeroll and came agonizingly close to winning a seat. Unfortunately, the cards on the final table did not go my way and I ended up bubbling in 4th place. I shoved A7 from the small blind into the big blind's A8, and despite flopping an up-and-down straight draw, we couldn't get that final slice of luck to get us over the line. There were a couple of spots I folded that I wish I had shoved in hindsight, but it wasn't to be on this occasion. I should definitely play the daily major seat freeroll more than I currently do.
Might play a bit of cash later this evening depending on how the tables are looking, and then it's back to tournaments over the weekend, as we try and edge our way to the £1000 mark in our challenge. Hoping to play my usual Friday evening schedule whilst watching England demolish Scotland in the Euros... at least that's the plan!
Didn't end up playing a cash session on Thursday evening, as the tables weren't too enticing. There was also some doubt as to whether I would play my usual Friday session, with a diminished tournament schedule on offer and the big match being on. We decided to play in the end and it turned out to be a wise choice, partly because the England v Scotland game was a dreary spectacle but also because we had a very good session.
There were several noteworthy results from the evening, although no wins on this occasion. The best score came in the 8:25pm Mega Stack, which is one of my favourite tournaments in the schedule. Ran very well throughout and got dealt a lot of premium pocket pairs which allowed me to build up a good stack. I made it to heads up but couldn't quite secure the win. The opponent, who I had never played against before, had a decent chip lead and was constantly raising big. In the end, I got all-in with a strong draw that failed to hit. With a bit more patience perhaps I could've won it, but £98 for second place was a great result for me and probably the best I've played in a tournament for a while.
We made the final table of the 5:30pm BH, but after losing a big pot when flopping two-pair on a draw-heavy board, we had to settle for 3rd for close to £40 including bounties. We also bubbled final tables in the 6:05pm BH and 7:15pm Deep Stack whilst securing a few quid for our troubles, and there was also a min-cash in the 6:30pm BH for the second consecutive session, although we failed to take any bounties along the way and resulted in a loss of 2p for this particular tournament.
Lastly, we continued our run of doing consistently terrible in the Orfy Deepstack, by being one of the first to be eliminated once again. Managed to get close to 40 BBs all in with AA v JJ, but a jack on the flop resulted in an early bath. At least it was the only bad beat of the evening.
Thanks to 2nd in the mega stack last night and along with a few other decent scores, we have now made it past the £1k mark for the challenge. Really pleased to have made it to this milestone - when I started this challenge I had very few expectations and just wanted it to be a way of contributing to the forum whilst making a few quid and improving my discipline. I certainly didn't expect it to have gone anywhere near as well as it has done up to now, especially in a relatively short space of time. Shows how well I have ran over the past few months but also how much my game has improved over time. The challenge will continue for the time being and we'll see if we can progress any further. We may well be able to add in a few £11+ games going forward if things continue to go well and start to test myself against the good regs on the site.
Hoping to play another tourney session tonight - we currently sit 2nd in the MML standings for this week, so would be nice to end the week with a token. Not sure whether I will play on Sunday or not as yet, might have an evening away from the tables.
Enjoy your weekends.
It's similar to when you are in a bounty tournament and double up (usually early on) but the Villain had 30 chips more than you so you don't win the Bounty, then someone else basically steals it the next hand after all your hard work
Good luck at the tables
Tournaments continue to be successful at the moment and two further profitable sessions have been recorded since the last update.
Saturday saw us make the final table of the 5:30pm BH, which I seem to have a decent record in. We had the chip lead for much of the final table but we didn't play well heads up and had to settle for second. Took a fair few head prizes in that and came away from the tournament with close to £60 worth of profit.
We were also in a good position to make the final table of the 8:25pm mega stack again, but with 10 left we had a few bad runouts and the wheels quickly fell off. We exited in 9th place.
Sunday started terribly, with me blanking all of the MML games that I entered by spewing chips left right and centre. The Mini Major was the last tourney I entered for the evening and the first £11er of the challenge. It turned out to be the most action-packed game I've ever played on Sky. We had to make a few nitty folds early on before we got a very fortunate double up when my AK suited beat the villain's AK suited. From that point, we chipped up nicely and stayed towards the top of the leaderboard. All the action came after the bubble had gone - we made some terrible bluffs that blew holes in our stack, we made a successful hero call with Ace high to stay in and double-up and we hit sets for big pots when all in pre against higher pocket pairs. We made the final table with 20 BBs and with a bit of aggression and good run of the cards, we made it to heads-up. My opponent was very aggressive, and despite hitting quads 4s in one hand to claw back a chip deficit, we ended up being steamrollered and deservedly beaten. Definitely played some very good poker in this tournament but also made a few almighty clangers and had to rely on a lot of luck to fight my way back in contention - pretty much my poker game in a nutshell at the moment.
We scooped close to £300 for 2nd place, which is a personal best for me and surpasses the £200 or so that I got for cashing one of the UKOPS £110 events last Autumn which I got free entry to.
This was the fourth 2nd place of the week - certainly think I need to do a bit of work on my heads-up game because I have not played well in at least two of those battles. Certainly a good sign that I'm making it to the final 2 of tournaments on a regular basis though.
Planning to play tonight but then am unlikely to be able to play any more sessions until Thursday due to other commitments. Had my first Covid jab earlier today and my arm is already starting to ache, so playing poker probably isn't the brightest idea tonight, but we'll give it a go. Going to stick to the MML schedule and might throw in another £11 game or two if I feel like it.
Current Bankroll: £1,371.78
Awesome.
Keep up the good work.
Not much change since the last update. It has been a fairly low-volume week on the whole - since I had the vaccine earlier in the week I've felt a bit fatigued and lackluster, and I've only played a couple of times since my usual Monday session. When I have loaded up some tables, I haven't played very well and have pootled my way through tourneys rather than trying to build up a decent stack, which resulted in mainly min-cashes and exiting at the mid-way stage.
We had a decent enough Monday session, with the best results being 4th in the 5:30pm BH and 6th in the 6:05pm BH, along with a couple of small cashes elsewhere. Ended up with around £30 in profit.
We played a small session on Thursday but blanked everything, and then we went again last night with the intention of playing some of the later stuff, but again felt too weary so didn't register anything after half 8. Didn't run or play particularly great and made some rather speculative calls at times. We cashed the 5:30pm BH again but departed soon after the bubble had gone, and we limped home for a min-cash in the 8:25pm Mega Stack, for which I have good record of cashing. Lastly, we managed a rare single-figure finish in the Orfy Deepstack, however 8th wasn't enough for a cash and we went away empty-handed. Always good fun playing the Orfy and nice to have a laugh with some of the other regs who play.
I probably shouldn't have played on previous days given how I felt, and it has resulted in me playing poorly, being a bit cranky and just aimlessly clicking buttons. It is, therefore, a surprise that we're up £4 for the week. Feeling a lot more "with it" today so will play another session tonight all-being well, and plan to play some of the later-evening games and £11ers. Could end up being a relatively expensive session, but hopefully not.
The latest week of the challenge has been quite an underwhelming one and we failed to build upon the 2nd place finish in the Mini Major from the previous week. My run-good seems to have come to a grinding halt over the past week and I've also played very poorly at times as well. We incurred a £20 loss for the week, but given how I played it probably deserved to be a lot more.
Played a lot of tournaments on Saturday evening. Managed to blank all of the £5.50+ that we entered, including an £11 BH that I played - I managed to hold my own in that but was only restricted to small pots. As the blinds went up, I took a bounty spot with pocket 5s but ended up being against a higher pocket pair which held, and then QQ failed to hold against A3. So the first £11 BH of the challenge didn't end up being a good one.
We did, however, take down the 6:05pm BH. Despite having a good chip lead at the final table we did our best to throw it away, but fortunately recovered to take first place. It ended a run of lost heads-up battles in tournaments and was nice to take the win. However, it wasn't enough to keep us in profit for the session. and we recorded a small loss for the day.
The intention was to play a lot of tournaments on Sunday too. However we bust a couple of bounty hunters very early on, and after I lost to 6 3 suited when getting 20 BBs all in pre-flop, an evening of watching the football with a beer seemed more enticing and the session was curtailed early.
Last night we only played the Takedowns and a couple of MML games. At 9pm, I was still in all three takedown tourneys with decent enough stacks, and then by 9:30pm I was out of all three. After we lost a big all-in with pocket queens in takedown 1, my focus was lost and the chips were thrown away in the other two takedowns after I made a couple of bad all-ins - probably indicative of the way I've played over the past week. We also came away from the two MML games that we played empty handed.
Think the main problem over the past few weeks is that I've tried to play too many tournaments and have played them in a rather half-hearted manner as a result. Therefore, I'm planning to go back to playing 2 tournaments sessions a week for now and see how that goes. Will play my usual Friday tournament session and will probably play a few games on Sunday given that I have a £11 mini major token to use. I'm also hoping to return to the 5/10 cash tables this week, as they were going well before I switched my attention to tournaments. Unlikely to play tonight due to the football.
Not the best week, but hopefully just a small blip. Onwards and upwards!
It seems that it's a lot harder to update a bankroll challenge when things aren't going to plan at the tables. The last week or so has been quite a struggle, with very few decent results. The best score of the past week came last night in the £0.55 Nightly Micro which we took down for an eye-watering £16.66, so that probably gives you an idea of how poorly things have gone since the last update.
For the most part I haven't played as badly as I did in the previous week, but still not quite playing my A game and there have been a few mad moments where I have thrown chips away. The main issue is that the cards are not going in my favour at the moment and we've had some horrible beats at times. That's poker sometimes, but frustration was starting to creep in towards the end of last week when we were repeatedly getting our chips in ahead and finding ways to lose hands against a variety of "interesting" holdings. I was a lot more relaxed and jovial during yesterday's session and just embraced the bad side of variance that I'm currently going through. It was nice to win the nightly micro, even though there is little monetary gain from it.
Also over the past week, we've had a few rare deep runs in the 7 at 7 and managed a 5th place in the 9pm £200 Freezeout on Friday, but otherwise it has been slim pickings. We were unable to turn our Sunday mini free entry into any winnings - we doubled up very early after our flush beat a weaker flush, but then we managed to get QQ in against two lots of AA, and then failed to recover from that. I arguably should've folded the pocket queens given the action, but it's always tough to fold premium pairs. A few min-cashes and a decent haul of bounties have limited the damage to the bankroll, but all momentum we had previously has been lost for now.
I had hoped to play more cash tables since the last update, however with the double points promotion continuing for a second month the 5/10 tables haven't looked particularly enticing, so I have stayed away from those for now. Planning to play most days this week, aside from tomorrow (and possibly Sunday) with England being on. I also want to get back to playing a few PLO8 games this week - I did briefly have a go at it previously but it predictably did not end well. Would be nice if we can find a way to master that particular variant of poker.
Hopefully we can have a better week at the tables, but we are certainly out of form at the moment.
Been a slightly better week at the tables so far, with the bankroll increasing by just over £50 since the last update. Still not running particularly great, but good enough to get a few decent results on the board.
Ended up playing relatively small sessions on Tuesday and Thursday. The better results came on the Tuesday session, with 4th in the 9pm Freezeout and 10th in the 6:30pm 1k BH. We unfortunately lost pocket 10s to pocket 9s AIP in the BH, otherwise we would've been in contention for the win. Thursday was a less successful session with no good results. Ended up breaking even across both days.
Last night's session was probably the most enjoyable one I've had for a while. Not necessarily because it was a profitable one, but because the tables were good (and relatively tough at times), we ran a bit better, and I was quite relaxed and was able to enjoy the evening's poker.
Things took a while to get going, but we ended up with some deep runs. Best result of the session was 2nd in the 5:30pm BH. Think I recall me being stone last after the bubble had gone, but ended up being chip leader on the final table. We made it to HU, evenly stacked against my opponent. Their strategy appeared to be fold or shove their 40 BBs all in. We therefore had to be patient, and eventually we got shoved in whilst holding pocket 9s. I happily called and was even happier to see that I was up against K 5 off. I was then unhappy to see a king arrive on the flop and we had to settle for 2nd. No regrets with the way I played HU - waited for my chance, got the chips in well ahead but couldn't hold.
The other FT of the session came in the £200 deep stack, which I usually run awfully in and rarely cash. We made it to the last 4 before shoving my 10BB stack from the button into pocket aces, and that was us out. We ran deep in the 8:25pm mega stack, before a few crucial lost flips saw us finish 12th, whilst there was also a min-cash in the 10;15pm £750 BH. Lastly, there was a deep run in the £11 9:30pm BH, but we fell just short of the money and only took one head prize. Don't think I'm ready to play too many £11 games as yet, so will probably limit it to a maximum of one per session for now and see how it goes. Overall, a much better session where I played a lot better than I have done in previous ones.
The best bit of poker this week has been the PLO8. I wasn't sure whether I would enjoy this variant of poker or be able to work out how to play it properly, but it seems to be going reasonably well for me as a beginner and I'm really liking the games. We achieved a 3rd place finish in the 5:30pm PLO8 BH on Tuesday, which I was quite pleased with given that I had only played a few Hi-Lo games previously. The best part of that tournament was when with 5 remaining, I had half a big blind left after a failed bounty attempt against the then short-stack. I folded the following hand and watched in amusement as the two 20 BBs stacks managed to bust and ladder me up to 3rd. Only meant an extra few quid but it was a few quid more than I should've won. As expected, I departed the hand after.
We also finished 8th on Thursday in the same tournament, this time we were extremely unlucky after getting a pair of aces and low card all-in against a single ace for a huge pot, but managed to lose the high hand with no qualifying low hand.
Overall, I'm happy that I chose to give PLO8 a go and am likely to play the 5:30pm game in most of my sessions going forward. Hopefully things continue to go well and my enjoyment for this particular variant of poker will last. May well have been beginner's luck so far, but if it continues to go well then playing more PLO8 games might be the way forward.
Planning to go into battle again tonight, as we hunt down a maiden 1st place finish in the forum MML league. Sunday will be a non-poker day for obvious reasons - certainly the best chance the England football team have had to win something for a long time. Hopefully they can bring it home.
Enjoy your weekend.
@Asho28
Delighted to see you are playing PLO8, it's such a lovely game. Wait until you discover Big O (5 card PLO8), oh boy, best game ever.