Things didn't improve much after i posted earlier, freeroll i got around 20th although i sucked out about 4 times to even get that far, then i lost 3 15.75s in a row to a player who i felt i had a very large edge over and having felt unlucky at losing 2 of the 3 matches i played him again in a standard structure when i saw him pop up quickly beat him and then as always seems to be the case when you win a little back got refused a rematch. i won and lost a 10.50 as well so was down probably 65-70 at that point. Decided to sit at a 20nl HU table for a little while and ended up +£32 when i left the table, had some incredibly soft opponents which basically covered my losses from the 15.75 games, was quite fun as well, suppose poker always is when your winning.
lol i dont usually play nl10 or any cash regularly really only when i fancy something different, and the freeroll was because it was the community one. Although i do play small in relation to my roll, to be honest i'm not used to having such a big roll as i constantly withdrew once i got to a certain amount from september to january and since i started this diary it has gone up quicker than i anticipated. I watched you when you were playing my friend duonross earlier didn't expect to see so much agression, i don't normally play hu cash but i might be sitting at the 20nl tables every so often so feel free to join me.
Quick message as its valentines day so no poker for me, i have been thinking about what i can do to get me motivated to get some proper grinding in, at the moment with my roll i'm at a bit of a lull where i come on between uni work and stuff and just donk around doing whatever takes my fancy. I might try and get 1000 games in at 5.25 turbos over next couple of months and post updates every 100 games or something see what kind of roi i can achieve, i feel most comfortable at 5.25s and having considered withdrawing to pay rent and other things i know regardless of a big withdrawals i would still be rolled for the 5s. If anyone has any suggestions of anything interesting i could try my hand at feel free to post, i'm unsure at the moment, but i think i need something to get me focused and motivated to grind a bit more, will continue to consider over next few days and go from there.
Right having had a little think i've decided to get 1000games in at 5.25 hopefully wont take too long maybe month and a half. The diary will be focused specifically on that for the moment so i will post after every 50-100 games and give a short summary. I will probably still play the odd mtt and a bit of cash but will keep that seperate from the 5.25 record, so from today in the diary i will only noting down my games played and profit, i have scope so can add some graphs in and stuff. At the start of the diary i had lofty ambitions of a 10% roi but this time i will not be setting any targets.
I only have to go to uni today for an hour to do some programming so hoping to get a few hours in throughout course of the day/evening. I will update this evening just for an initial first update but from then i will post every 50-100 games, i hope this will provide some more interesting reading and hopefully i can prove to myself that i can actually complete a challenge without sulking/getting bored and doing something else when things go a little wrong.
How you have the motivation to grind 5.25 games with a 1k roll is beyond me. I wish I could do it. I dont think theres much value in them games anyway - rake, varience etc. Just go and play the main and big tournaments evernight. If your good theres no way you'll go on a 1k downswing the games are so easy. Or just play cash. Your obviously quite good but I dont think your utilizing time very well - you could make more profit on better games.
How you have the motivation to grind 5.25 games with a 1k roll is beyond me. I wish I could do it. I dont think theres much value in them games anyway - rake, varience etc. Just go and play the main and big tournaments evernight. If your good theres no way you'll go on a 1k downswing the games are so easy. Or just play cash. Your obviously quite good but I dont think your utilizing time very well - you could make more profit on better games. Posted by RyanC7
I disagree with this as i feel every player is different. Just because he is good at heads up which he is does not mean he would be the same type of player at a different discipline. As for the bankroll i think he is quite sensible as i do something similar as you will see from my diary which i am starting today. I feel by grinding at that level with his roll he isn't playing with scared money and is able to relax and play his game knowing if he was to have a downswing it wouldn't hurt him financially, where as if he was playing another discipline he could make more errors and not feel confident in his game, so i guess its each to there own really.
Hey Ryan i understand where your coming from, i said something similar to sighcall when he mentioned my roll- basically i am not used to having such a roll having always been one to withdraw alot. I only really started to grind alot and make some decent profit since like october so i still feel a bit of a novice in terms of experience and knowledge of the game. At the moment i want to continue to build my roll in a game i'm comfortable in and can enjoy as a hobby without any pressure/worries about a large downswing, as i haver alot of uni work which takes priority. I mentioned i will still continue to play the odd bit of cash and mtt when i fancy a change but only on the odd occasion as i know my game needs some work in 6max. I would love to buy in to the big tournaments, but i find it difficult even with my roll to justify buying into them when i think of how that money could be spent on like a couple of weeks shopping or something, which i'm well aware should be completly seperate from my roll but as a student who lived on a pretty tight budget for my first two years its pretty hard to seperate myself from reality with regards to playing higher up, i hope to eventually move up but i have plenty of time on my side luckily lol.
To be fair, I think what you're doing is fine. Ok so you got 200BIs but you could easily go on a 20BI downswing no problem, and ok that won't put a huge dent in your roll but that's exactly what you want. You want to be able to take a downswing on the chin and say 'ok I'll play through it' and not be too badly affected mentally because a downswing will come no matter how good you are.
Sure losing £105 (20BIs) is gonna suck at any stage but it sucks ALOT more when you're roll is £500. Plus I don't think you've ever put serious volume in @ £5s have you? Personally I don't think the standard is any different from 3s but that doesn't mean you will mentally react the same to lose 5 in a row @ £5s the same as you would losing 5 in a row @ £3s.
Tbh it sounds like you're mentally on top of things (although it's alot easier when things are going well) so the above might not be an issue but imo caution and winning less than possible is better than losing more than necessary.
Playing 1000 games aint gonna take you that long so it's not like you're massively stunting your growth. If you get 500 games in and feel comfortable then you can always play 1 x £5 and 1x £10 assuming that you usually play 2 tables.
Hey Ryan i understand where your coming from, i said something similar to sighcall when he mentioned my roll- basically i am not used to having such a roll having always been one to withdraw alot. I only really started to grind alot and make some decent profit since like october so i still feel a bit of a novice in terms of experience and knowledge of the game. At the moment i want to continue to build my roll in a game i'm comfortable in and can enjoy as a hobby without any pressure/worries about a large downswing, as i haver alot of uni work which takes priority. I mentioned i will still continue to play the odd bit of cash and mtt when i fancy a change but only on the odd occasion as i know my game needs some work in 6max. I would love to buy in to the big tournaments, but i find it difficult even with my roll to justify buying into them when i think of how that money could be spent on like a couple of weeks shopping or something, which i'm well aware should be completly seperate from my roll but as a student who lived on a pretty tight budget for my first two years its pretty hard to seperate myself from reality with regards to playing higher up, i hope to eventually move up but i have plenty of time on my side luckily lol. Posted by benc
Fair enough. Im also a uni student. I guess time is never a problem for you with these Hu games then. Finding a balance at uni is difficult I think - balancing the money and the work. I keep the money completely seperate and try to look at my roll as a savings account. I take some out here and there but try to leave as much in sky as possible. I think 6 max is the easiest form of poker. It is just 9 handed but the first 3 players in ep have folded. Your level of aggression from Hu games would probably enable you to develop a good solid game. + there is soooo much value in the main's your missing out on lol
Just looked at your scope nice graph! teach me how to play mtts and i will happily play the mains all the time lol i will be trying to sat into the bigger tournaments so maybe we will meet at the tables at some point in the future.
To be fair, I think what you're doing is fine. Ok so you got 200BIs but you could easily go on a 20BI downswing no problem, and ok that won't put a huge dent in your roll but that's exactly what you want. You want to be able to take a downswing on the chin and say 'ok I'll play through it' and not be too badly affected mentally because a downswing will come no matter how good you are. Sure losing £105 (20BIs) is gonna suck at any stage but it sucks ALOT more when you're roll is £500. Plus I don't think you've ever put serious volume in @ £5s have you? Personally I don't think the standard is any different from 3s but that doesn't mean you will mentally react the same to lose 5 in a row @ £5s the same as you would losing 5 in a row @ £3s. Tbh it sounds like you're mentally on top of things (although it's alot easier when things are going well) so the above might not be an issue but imo caution and winning less than possible is better than losing more than necessary. Playing 1000 games aint gonna take you that long so it's not like you're massively stunting your growth. If you get 500 games in and feel comfortable then you can always play 1 x £5 and 1x £10 assuming that you usually play 2 tables. Posted by Lambert180
I have put some decent volume in at 5s between october and december but since the diary started ive just switched between stakes and structure which i dont want to be doing. The bit in red is one of the main reasons i chose 5s instead of 10s, even though technically i think i'm good enough to play the 10s i still find it difficult mentally still to lose a load in a row, i want to eventually overcome that, but at the moment i want to be playing comfortable and without pressure as with uni work being stressfull coming on and losing £100 in a standard session just not what i need from my hobby lol. Btw i am just about to send you a pm.
Well as has become standard in this diary here i'm here to show myself up as a complete hypocrite, one day i'm saying that i want to get through 1000 games at £5.25 turbos stating how i can't mentally handle the swings higher up, then a couple of days later i'm flying through some £21 hypers where the variance is crazy and i could easily lose £100 in an hour. Now on this occasion i wasn't tilted or steaming, i'm not even quite sure how or why i ended up playing them but i think it has something to do with wanting to feel a bit of a buzz. I didn't have any bad losses or big wins i just scoped myself for £21 games all of which were yesterday and i made 2bi so that could of gone alot worse, i managed to rematch a guy a few times who didn't seem to have much of an idea and would stack off post flop with any high card or pair so that was fun, the standard was suprisingly shocking apart from one very good player who i know does very well, was nice to beat him but he managed to get me back later on. Overall for the weekend i think i ended around breakeven somehow even though i was also in profit in the 5s, i lost some money on sattelites, and hu/normal cash which must have evened out the profit from HU games. Anyway i have no idea what games i will be playing for the moment i guess whatever takes my fancy when i log in. I like to post honestly and i don't feel like the diary is really going anywhere at the moment now i have given up yet another challenge, so i think i'll probably leave it for the moment maybe hunt it down and update if anything exciting happens or i have a big swing either way in my bankroll. Good luck at the tables all who have continued to read my ramblings.
Well as has become standard in this diary here i'm here to show myself up as a complete hypocrite, one day i'm saying that i want to get through 1000 games at £5.25 turbos stating how i can't mentally handle the swings higher up, then a couple of days later i'm flying through some £21 hypers where the variance is crazy and i could easily lose £100 in an hour. Now on this occasion i wasn't tilted or steaming, i'm not even quite sure how or why i ended up playing them but i think it has something to do with wanting to feel a bit of a buzz. I didn't have any bad losses or big wins i just scoped myself for £21 games all of which were yesterday and i made 2bi so that could of gone alot worse, i managed to rematch a guy a few times who didn't seem to have much of an idea and would stack off post flop with any high card or pair so that was fun, the standard was suprisingly shocking apart from one very good player who i know does very well, was nice to beat him but he managed to get me back later on. Overall for the weekend i think i ended around breakeven somehow even though i was also in profit in the 5s, i lost some money on sattelites, and hu/normal cash which must have evened out the profit from HU games. Anyway i have no idea what games i will be playing for the moment i guess whatever takes my fancy when i log in. I like to post honestly and i don't feel like the diary is really going anywhere at the moment now i have given up yet another challenge, so i think i'll probably leave it for the moment maybe hunt it down and update if anything exciting happens or i have a big swing either way in my bankroll. Good luck at the tables all who have continued to read my ramblings. Posted by benc
or in 10 minutes*
What are your plans then? I think it sometimes feels like it's going no-where if you aint aiming for anything.
Do you still enjoy playing HU SnGs or is it only fun when you're winning?
I don't really have any plans at the moment, i still enjoy playing HU sngs alot more than any other type of game especially when i'm up against someone who will test me a little bit. I will be carrying on playing HU just as i have been, it's just there is not much to write about that is worth a read and i can't seem to stick to one structure or stake, i swore i wudn't touch hypers again and within a week and a few days i'm playing them so obviously discipline is a massive problem. I considered withdrawing down to a small sum and building up again but i know i would regret it and i definetly would not deposit it back once i saw it in my bank account. I might start withdrawing a set amount a week say like £30 then i at least have a target to set myself to make sure my bankroll is maintained and i get to actually to see some reward from all the grinding i do apart from just seeing numbers go up on my balance.
Hellllo, thought i would give a quick update of yesterday as have just been moaning lately and it doesn't make for good reading but i'd liek to keep updating this as i think i'll enjoy reading back in the future. i had been donking around in aload of hypers at the 21level which was fun but i think i would go broke very soon if i did that on a constant basis lol decided to buy in for the £33bh and the mini, was going really well in the main managed to get two bounties earlish and had a very nice stack and was in the top 15 but then i made a big mistake. A guy who seemed pretty clueless minraised utg when blinds were 50-100, next guy to act makes it 500 he had been fairly active i saw QQ on the button and without a moments hesistation just shipped it in as soon as i did that i regretted it ("why would that guy 3bet the donk in such an ugly position must be an absolute monster"), donk utg folded the guy who 3bet tanked the timer right down so i started to feel a little better thinking maybe i might be ok and it will be 10s,JS,AK but then he made the call and it was KK arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh, but when i looked in the chatbox i saw he had typed AA so i was well aware it wasn't a slowroll just a good player who is well aware that a 4bet shove is AA so often. Anyway so that was that as we both had big stacks, i maybe could of just put in a 4bet raise to fold but even then i don't think i'm ever actually folding when he shoves. The two bounties paid for some of the buy in though, the mini i can't actually remember what i went out on but it was probably something terrible post going out of the main. So for now i have withdrawn down to £1000 so i can treat myself to something not quite sure yet i have a few buddhas so i might get a hench one to add to the collection and see if i can get to a west ham game soon, i used to be a season ticket holder and really miss going over most saturdays.
apologies for the long post if you got bored and skipped to the end to summarize.. for the moment bankroll is at the 1k mark and i will be playing the turbos mainly with the odd hyper mixed in and some mtts and cash when i feel on my game.
Don't think you should ever be 4bet/folding QQ tbh. Also if the donk is UTG, he could easily 3bet him just cos he's in position against him and thinks he can take it off him, especially if he's an active player. I wouldn't say for definite without seeing stacks etc but tbh that £33 BH is such a crapshoot in terms of how quickly the stacks get stupidly shallow that you'd need a seriously good reason to lay down QQ pre.
Yeah it was the first time i had played for £33 so i wasn't sure of the standard, i mean apart from the obvious guy UTG playing terribly everyone else seemed pretty standard, maybe i'm just overcomplicating it afterwards if i go out to a cooler and having unrealistic expectations of playing absolutely perfectly, i mean i could of just nitted up and folded Qs if i had given myself longer to think before shipping and kept grinding away but that isn't my style and i guess i'll never win a tournament if i avoid marginalish situations.
1) This is england is a great film had to study it in media at A level and really enjoyed it, tv spin off not so good but still a decent watch.
2) I dont actually read that much apart from psychology journals every so often and whatever book related work im assigned, i read one flew over the cuckoos nest when i did english lit at A level and i enjoyed that so i guess i would say that is my favourite book.
3) West Ham are my team have been since i was old enough to be taken to upton park by my dad, had a season ticket for years untill i was like 18, have been to three playoff finals and the famous 2006 cup final which was amazing, still bitter about gerrards goal in the last few minutes costing us but was still a magical game to be at.
How about you? havn't seen much related to football in what i have read in your diary..
Comments
Hand History #621884745 (16:46 13/02/2013) not looking for advice as i check to always call, just wondering what people think villain shows up with..
total for the day: £-26.92
Current Bankroll: £1182.99 C4P: £27.11
I only have to go to uni today for an hour to do some programming so hoping to get a few hours in throughout course of the day/evening. I will update this evening just for an initial first update but from then i will post every 50-100 games, i hope this will provide some more interesting reading and hopefully i can prove to myself that i can actually complete a challenge without sulking/getting bored and doing something else when things go a little wrong.
Sure losing £105 (20BIs) is gonna suck at any stage but it sucks ALOT more when you're roll is £500. Plus I don't think you've ever put serious volume in @ £5s have you? Personally I don't think the standard is any different from 3s but that doesn't mean you will mentally react the same to lose 5 in a row @ £5s the same as you would losing 5 in a row @ £3s.
Tbh it sounds like you're mentally on top of things (although it's alot easier when things are going well) so the above might not be an issue but imo caution and winning less than possible is better than losing more than necessary.
Playing 1000 games aint gonna take you that long so it's not like you're massively stunting your growth. If you get 500 games in and feel comfortable then you can always play 1 x £5 and 1x £10 assuming that you usually play 2 tables.
The bit in red is one of the main reasons i chose 5s instead of 10s, even though technically i think i'm good enough to play the 10s i still find it difficult mentally still to lose a load in a row, i want to eventually overcome that, but at the moment i want to be playing comfortable and without pressure as with uni work being stressfull coming on and losing £100 in a standard session just not what i need from my hobby lol. Btw i am just about to send you a pm.
What are your plans then? I think it sometimes feels like it's going no-where if you aint aiming for anything.
Do you still enjoy playing HU SnGs or is it only fun when you're winning?
apologies for the long post if you got bored and skipped to the end to summarize.. for the moment bankroll is at the 1k mark and i will be playing the turbos mainly with the odd hyper mixed in and some mtts and cash when i feel on my game.
To make things a bit less poker related...
1. Favourite Film? (I know it's tough)
2. Favourite Book?
3. What footy team do you support?
1) This is england is a great film had to study it in media at A level and really enjoyed it, tv spin off not so good but still a decent watch.
2) I dont actually read that much apart from psychology journals every so often and whatever book related work im assigned, i read one flew over the cuckoos nest when i did english lit at A level and i enjoyed that so i guess i would say that is my favourite book.
3) West Ham are my team have been since i was old enough to be taken to upton park by my dad, had a season ticket for years untill i was like 18, have been to three playoff finals and the famous 2006 cup final which was amazing, still bitter about gerrards goal in the last few minutes costing us but was still a magical game to be at.
How about you? havn't seen much related to football in what i have read in your diary..