Ok before i even get down to this, the scope graph that will show includes yesterday. I also know its missing some information but i want to get this updated before bed.
So today i woke up slightly late and started on sats around 1pm. I also went into several bhs.
The day was mixed, I made the £22 bh on the first attempt. I won't lie i ran quiet well in that. I also made the Early Semi for the main on third attempt.
However that was it and i visited my mate. That gave me a couple of hours too cool off after a very frustrating semi as really i couldn't do anything right tbh. Got the nuts, everyone folds. Bluffing same sizing, everyone calls. In a few spots i got 3b alot, eventually i called one slightly lighter than I would normally, i was ahead, he got there. Sigh.
As a result i decided to sell some action for the £22 bh. I have a friend who often buys into me for certain events. He had already msg'd offering and I'd asked for time to think. He respected that, and took up on the offer when I went back.
I also played the mini, some more bhs and freezeouts with £200 gtes. I think i got ul in all the £5 games. Standard spots went against me.
The mini i got coolered twice, recovered twice, the 3rd cooler however was for my tournament. Literally nothing i could have done different, delighted with how i played.
The bh however was very different. People seemed to be happy to go nuts v me, I took several big pots early and by 30 mins in i had 4 heads and was chip leader. I slowed abit and a table move to 3 similar sized stacks made life very awkward. Much like a few diary posts earlier it was a standard boost up the stacks, and get stuck. After 30 mins i had 12k chips. Just to explain this point, i cashed and peaked at 14k.
I got into one very sick hand, it would be sick in most spots, purely because of how the hand plays out. Its made even sicker by the fact it was on the stone bubble. Literally its sooo close in normal circumstances. Given that its on the bubble and he had me covered his bluff range increases. But its the bubble so it might make it closer to a fold.
I opted for the fold. I sighed and hated it. However that left me with 10bigs going over the bubble. In the end i 3b jammed A5 got snapped by J9s xxJ9x board ended me. Nothing i can really do, and tbh i read the situation for exactly what it was. I don't shove there in a normal mtt, but because its a bh and the nature of the villians style he will call with literaly 23+. That means shoving is profitable there.
As you can see my cash there isn't there. That also means im not sure if other events have to be added. So i think theres defo £50 to be added but might be some to take off too. Its been a rough few days, but take away the all in sats I've played, its only a tiny loss.
So i delayed putting this post up as it was a frustrating end to a frustrating day and wanted to make sure my head was clear before posting. I'll forget some things but its better than ranting.
Anyways I was going to take a day away. But basically by 6 I'd discussied some poker with JJ and wanted to play. So i played. It was a late start but that means nothing.
So i played 3 £1 all in sats for the £22 deepstack UKOPs thing. Lost all 3. I also had played a couple of normal sats but the standard was much stronger than normal. Probably the most insane table I've ever seen at £5 was played yesterday. Literally there was one guy i wasn't sure on and even he seemed at a reasonable standard. Ontop of that, I decided to make every mistake under the sun on that table. Nice timing brain.
I did however make it through a sat for th £22 deepie £750 gtd one. I mentioend being interested in these sats a while ago to someone and they said it was pretty reg filled so gave it a miss. I spoke with another well known reg yesterday and he said i should be able to compete in that startard. So i completed the sat and was late reg'd into the event, which means no choice of taking the money. Anyways I was tabled with Bearlythere and TommyD both are mtt players who i have huge respect for. I know a reasonable amount about both players games, and neither makes many mistakes. Anyways in the end that didn't matter, i played one hand with tommy. It might have been a 3b pre but I think i made a good fold on the turn, it was a great barrel card for him but i think on this occassion he had it. The rest of the struggle was AT on a T high flop, ended up having to fold river. Then i got a pretty grim exit hand. UTG opens, i 3b from about 34BB with AKs. He peels, flop AT4. He check raises, i call down to keep his bluffs in, knowing all the money will end up in anyways, anyways he had flopped a set of 4s. Kind of annoying.
Everything else was similar. I was running normal in everything except the only domination senario's. Feels like i lost every single 70/30 or 30/70 in some cases. My first "deep" run was in a bh. Anyways i picked up 2 heads, i can't remember how, but to bust i lost a 70/30 to damage me. Was about 19 left with 13 cashing, anyways then i had TJdd. Flop lands ATx with 2 diamonds. Guy just overjams, we obviously have to call, and he flips over AT for one of the worst holdings for our hand. We don't get there and was crippled. I can't remember the exit hand after that but assume it was total standard.
So there was one mtt left. I played some HU on the side, 3 games, losing 2 winning 1. 1 of which i played terrible, the other 2 i played ok but in the first of those 2 i think i lost every single all in. All where standard in a vaccum.
So the last mtt reaches 7 left. 6 cashed, i was 2nd in chips. My table is the 3 handed table, the shortest stack is pretty passive but very stationy, and is 3rd in chips. What a lovely dynamic that was. Because of being OOP to the passive player i found it hard to apply pressure which would be good in this situation, and being honest the guy who was chip leader was a very capable player. He was the one controlling things as a result, altho having position on the other guy probably made his life easier.
The other table finally had an all in and call and someone bust. Before that however my stack had been battered by KQ v KK on Q high flop. The passive opponent played it weird and i lost the minimum. Although i still got into a very strange pot with the chip leader. A8x8J board i have 89 obviously get it in, he snaps and flicks over T8. Turns out thats a split but pretty sick timing if that river is lower.
On the final table things continued to go against me. In the space of 7 hands of which i played 3, i managed to fail in 2 ladders, and 2 50% stack increases. All 3 of which where 50% decreases to my stack, or my exit. The first was AT v A9. The second AK v KJ and the third was A8 v K5. Very very annoying. Also in the same timeframe i was blocked of another ladder when the 2 big stacks got it in pre with KK and AJ. Aj was the shorter of the 2 got there.
Well the title says it all. I've worked out without the £22 bh cash the other night im -48 buy ins in a week from £5 games. Thatsa pretty sick record. Expessially when I was just about to start adding in £11 games.
Its a grim time. Today i managed to hover a little but the grimness continued. AA 5 times, i won twice. KK twice flopped a house one, but both times took it down on the flop. QQ twice, lost both times. Every 70.30 going against me, every 60.40 going against me. To be fair i dont think i flipped.
Anyways I did manage to sat into the £22 bh again. However due to being heavily down again, and at this rate ill be busto by Saturday, i decided to just take the cash. I had one more sat left with around 10 left. I said if i cash (£13 for 5th and 4 seats to the £22 bh) i would continue. With 7 left i ran Tens into Aces.
So i bid you all a good night, and Sky i never want to see a ukops again.
So today i started. I took advice from a friend and played a £2 rebuy sat for the UKIPT with the plan on taking the tourny dollars for the next stage. I put £40 in, and won just 1 hand that seen a flop. After the rebuy period, i managed to steal some pots. Which gave me a chance. Then someone decided that with 2 places to go, that Q9 was a snap call. I flop top set and was behind. Yeah wp sir.
That summed up my day really. Nothing went right. Flip after flip went against me, hand after hand went against me, I literally had to be 100% when the money went in to just win a hand, at least thats how it felt. Its one of those times when i wish i had an EV table on sky, so i could convince myself i was playing bad, but really i just felt like i was doing very few things wrong. Thats not to say i wasn't because there was one or two calls i made latter in the day which where pure frustration.
Just to show the stars EV graph, now i know its pointless, but i think it backs up the point of my GII range, just look at the differances in lines.
I rekon a Sky one would be similar. Only over a larger sample. I did however manage a final table on sky. Honestly im not sure how, i peaked at 10k in a bh, In the end i lost a flip and came 5th. I was happy with that but it doesnt even cover 33% of the days buy ins on sky.
I decided I'd had enough and took a break. Tbh I feel like I'm playing well, but at the start of this downswing i had a £373 roll (SKY) now i have £173. Thats a huge dent to a roll which tbh wasn't that strong. The money was starting to effect my mindset. I know alls i need to do to get back on track is see out just one mtt, but really while im running like the way i am, i see no end in sight.
I decided to rail a friend. He was playing what was one of my favorite tournaments in poker. A $1 hyper turbo rebuy. It has a huge prizepool, sick levels, and in general is just a sick mtt. Anyways i played that managed to get through the rebuy period for $5. After that found 2 or 3 nice spots and i managed to cash. Literally as i go over the bubble i get QQ in v AK and AJ. JxxxA runout sees me bust, the pot would have made me the at the time chip leader.
I'm probably wrong but in honesty i dont think i won a flip today. That isn't a great mindset in some spots to have and despite some profit there i had to call it a day. Because mentally i think i havent won a flip in my last x amount (today was quite a few) i would probably find myself getting 8's in pre in a spot where im racing at best, purely on the basis of I have to win a flip soon.
I decided to invest in Football Manager and re-do a career i enjoyed in FM12. I wont go on about that too much, but I'm hoping it will help distract me and I can come back stronger, because right now i feel like I've taken several steps backwards. I've never been the most mentally strong player. Infact I'm probably one of the worse, but I've developed in that department, and I really don't want to take a huge backwards step.
All the best, and I will play when I'm feeling fresher.
I won't post the stars graph as it was 2 mtts, and those 2 mtts where both rebuys, as a result scope takes the information based on averages and they will be in accurate. Its about -$50
GL w/ the FM. will see you back playing poker again after Christmas?
Serious point tho, I think you could do with having another game you can go to when MTTs aren't going well.
A bad run at mtts can eat up your bankroll very quickly. You've lost over half of yours in under a week.
I wouldn't advise going back to cash again, it requires a lot of time to grind up profit @ lower stakes and you'll have to beat the high rake.
Get yourself on the HU sngs! Use them to help fund your mtts so these downswings aren't as severe.
£5 turbos are a great place to start. Having played them this month, I'm 100% sure you are capable of beating them and I'm pretty certain I can help u crush them!
I've named this update after JJ's favorite line to annoy me when I'm annoyed/tilted, or whatever the circumstance maybe.
The more i play, the more beats/coolers i see. Everytime it seems I'm on the wrong end. That defo can't be the case, but I certainly feel like im on the wrong end of the important ones. By that i mean the ones that are worth our tournament or a decent percentage of our stack.
I played the other day but didn't update. it was a small session. This session isn't much better. 5 mtts, total time lasted, 1 hour.
One i technically did freeroll, and i won't complain, the exit is very annoying but thats poker. That was the 30k rebuy thing. I spent a today of $5, and first hand i shove after the addon i get called and lose. I have 1/4 of a bb. I recover to a stack which would be in decent shape for cashing before my AK is cracked by AQ. Sigh.
Another, very early i get AJ in a 3b pot. I fold pre if the 3b was actually sized properly. Flop lands AJT booyah. In it goes v kings. Q on the river. Sigh. left crippled before running TT into QQ BvB for 15bb.
The next one was strange i increased my stack early with a bizzare pot. Anyways, i then lost a strange pot when someone decided to call me 2 streets with 6 high and got there on the river with a 6. I had my Ace high and was barreling off. I then doubled with TT v AQ, before running QQ into AA BvB for around 45bb.
The other 2 i never got going in. One was a hyper i took 2 standard spots that went against me, literally standard as standard goes. The other was a standard 6 max turbo where i never got above starting stack. The exit was strange guy decided to check raise 2nd pair and stacked off to a jam. Annoyiny i read him for that kind of hand, and decided he couldn't call. I was wrong.
I really feel like im playing ok, not perfect but ok, good enough to be beating €5 mtts. However I just cant seem to cash anymore.
I have considered the hu option but hu bores me, i dont know why it just does. However given how bad i am at cash, and dyms, i might be left with no other option.
I have considered the hu option but hu bores me, i dont know why it just does. However given how bad i am at cash, and dyms, i might be left with no other option. Posted by The_Don90
You have a mindset before you even give it a try, which is wrong.
Yes you've played bits and bobs of HU before but never over a sustained period. Also you weren't as good then as you are now. You didn't have as much of a roll as you have now. You were even more of a mental game fish back then than you are now.
Just give it a go.
And by a go, I mean 100 games at least, not 3 games, lose 3 flips, and decide you can't win.
When will it end? When you find a grind game to cushion these losses
Hi Jdsallstar, yeah I would agree. I need to gain some momentum and that will soon die off though. I think a huge factor in poker is momentum. On top of that when you have none its easy to not take a spot because of the fear of being called. I think I have improved the tilt over the years but I worry a big blow up is around the corner.
So I started playing HU. Think I played reasonably well but began to tilt then my mother arrived for a cuppa so thought it was best to stop.
It was a stange one, a friend watched and said if I ran EV i'd have had something similar to a 40% ROI, over a small sample admittedly, but I think that gives an idea to how I ran.
The strange thing is of all the "key" hands, the one that I won, was the only one that I felt, I could have played that better. So i'll post that up. Given that I was playing speeds and stacks where 1500, this was the only pot I won over 1k. The rest where all bad beats, in good and losing standard stuff. sigh.
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
x
Small blind
15.00
15.00
1530.00
The_Don90
Big blind
30.00
45.00
1425.00
Your hole cards
4
A
x
Raise
135.00
180.00
1395.00
The_Don90
Call
120.00
300.00
1305.00
Flop
K
9
A
The_Don90
Check
x
Bet
300.00
600.00
1095.00
The_Don90
Call
300.00
900.00
1005.00
Turn
3
The_Don90
Check
x
Check
River
K
The_Don90
Check
x
Bet
900.00
1800.00
195.00
The_Don90
Call
900.00
2700.00
105.00
x
Show
8
9
The_Don90
Show
4
A
The_Don90
Win
Two Pairs, Aces and Kings
2700.00
2805.00
I think JJ has something to this though, Admittedly I was only playing £2 games, but I felt I could crush them. Its a shame I would struggle to multi table them though tbh as one tabling, even hu bores the monkey out of me.
Don't really see how you could have played the above hand any better... other than folding pre Post flop is perfect imo. But even if villain is a maniac, calling 5x raises OOP with raggy aces is gonna give you a real brain ache.
If he is 5x raising as standard we need to defend with at least 1-(135÷(135+45) = 25% of hands or he'll show an instant profit on his raise.
A4s we defo want play., esp against a maniac. We need a read to do otherwise.
I like flatting rag aces this deep as our opponent wont always give us credit on A high flops as we 3 bet most aces: it undereps our holding and gives our range strength on single raised A high flops. also when 3betting rag aces and leading on an A high flop we're likely only getting action when we have little equity.
If we were shallower and the villain was 5xing lots we can profitably jam a suited ace too.
I 'don't do maths' really outside of the absolute basics, but if folding too often to a 5x is a mathematical leak it's only a small one, and one we can afford given our edge in the game. We're prob losing a fraction of a big blind everytime we make a slightly -ev fold? idk.
I like to play risk averse early v these types of players, especially out of position & in a speed which has more play.
If the guys 5xing its going to be really easy to re-exploit him and force him to make bigger mistakes sooner or later so we don't mind folding here even if it is exploitable.
Dnt think we need to take marginally +ev/high variance spots when we have a significant skill edge.
Don what stakes HU and structure are you playing? i've played aload of 5.25 turbos since thursday nearly 300 games and the standard is very soft. The majority of players have no idea how to play HU specially end game strategy, give it a real go as doooh says over a good sample of games, now the turbo structures are back to how they were its very easy to play solid early on and capitalize on mistakes in the early levels and if not just rely on the fact you know the end game strategy better, you will soon get used to adapting to the different player types and find hu enjoyable. Good luck.
* just read back and saw you were playing speeds at £2 level, good idea if your just getting used to it at the moment, but you will find the standard does not differ much at 5's barring one or two players.
If he is 5x raising as standard we need to defend with at least 1-(135÷(135+45) = 25% of hands or he'll show an instant profit on his raise. A4s we defo want play., esp against a maniac. We need a read to do otherwise. I like flatting rag aces this deep as our opponent wont always give us credit on A high flops as we 3 bet most aces: it undereps our holding and gives our range strength on single raised A high flops. also when 3betting rag aces and leading on an A high flop we're likely only getting action when we have little equity. If we were shallower and the villain was 5xing lots we can profitably jam a suited ace too. I also like your play post. Cheers, TEDDY Posted by TeddyBloat
I agree Teddy @ higher stakes v competent opponents who can hand read (or even attempt to hand read) but I think you're way over-thinking this @ micro stakes.
I take the opposite view, I like to flat hands that flop well against our opponents range.
Think Ax plays pretty poorly.
If we're peeling A4 for example on Axx if we both make top pair we're struggling, and also struggle to get more than 1 bet when we make top pair and they don't. especially out of position.
Stuff like TJ/TQ/TK/KQ/KJ/KT we can peel, have a much better chance of making top pair, and also have a decent chance that our opponent flops an inferior top pair also and therefore we get more value post flop when we both have hands.
I'm really not a fan of weak aces OOP, I think it's v difficult to show a profit playing them in the early stages without significantly increasing the risk of damaging our stack un-necessarily.
Always at micros, and even through the 5s/10s/20s, our opponents are much more interested in their own hand and the board, than our range.
Yeah do agree on reflection. Played a ton of these 5x players, but mainly in hypers and turbos where stacks are shallower and its harder to pass up 'spots'. just feel that when people choose absurd preflop raise sizes we need to exploit that. If the villain is 5xing alot I agree its not that big a problem as we get to fold more, but I wouldnt let him get away with it too much.
Also, giving up a fraction of a bb in ev aint a big problem against an outlier, I agree.
A4s is a bit marginal given the deeper stacks and slower structure, and skill edge.
Meh, I'd prolly still defend if this was his standard sizing, but thats why im at the 2's and you and lambo lurk higher up.
In Response to Re: Every Don has its day. (Some HU Attempting) : I agree Teddy @ higher stakes v competent opponents who can hand read (or even attempt to hand read) but I think you're way over-thinking this @ micro stakes. I take the opposite view, I like to flat hands that flop well against our opponents range. Think Ax plays pretty poorly. If we're peeling A4 for example on Axx if we both make top pair we're struggling, and also struggle to get more than 1 bet when we make top pair and they don't. especially out of position. Stuff like TJ/TQ/TK/KQ/KJ/KT we can peel, have a much better chance of making top pair, and also have a decent chance that our opponent flops an inferior top pair also and therefore we get more value post flop when we both have hands. I'm really not a fan of weak aces OOP, I think it's v difficult to show a profit playing them in the early stages without significantly increasing the risk of damaging our stack un-necessarily. Always at micros, and even through the 5s/10s/20s, our opponents are much more interested in their own hand and the board, than our range. Posted by DOHHHHHHH
I guess your right. but if I could throw some thoughts at you outside of the don's hand
In fast structures im liable to jam Ax when shallower, but I do think flatting does better than folding, especially if we are against a minraise. And since we face so many minraises even at low stakes, its one of those small mistakes that we get to make over and over.
Im not very experienced playing deep, but I do come across some thinking players even low-stakes and having some aces in our flatting range is beneficial. If Ax playes poorly OOP in a single raised pot then im not sure it fares any better in a 3bet one. And I think folding Ax is way too nitty against a reasonable opponent.
People that 5x/raise abnormally large can be really annoying to play against but they can also be really easy to exploit, especially in HU. (Tends to be somewhat harder in MTT'S!) Ax plays poorly in SRP oop unless we can construct a donking range and opponent folds to c-bets somewhat often. Otherwise I would usually 3b or fold. We can 3b if they fold to a ton of 3-bets but if they don't we just exploit them instead by 3-betting wide for value.
Comments
GL w/ the FM. will see you back playing poker again after Christmas?
Serious point tho, I think you could do with having another game you can go to when MTTs aren't going well.
A bad run at mtts can eat up your bankroll very quickly. You've lost over half of yours in under a week.
I wouldn't advise going back to cash again, it requires a lot of time to grind up profit @ lower stakes and you'll have to beat the high rake.
Get yourself on the HU sngs! Use them to help fund your mtts so these downswings aren't as severe.
£5 turbos are a great place to start. Having played them this month, I'm 100% sure you are capable of beating them and I'm pretty certain I can help u crush them!
Mon the Don.
Yes you've played bits and bobs of HU before but never over a sustained period. Also you weren't as good then as you are now. You didn't have as much of a roll as you have now. You were even more of a mental game fish back then than you are now.
Just give it a go.
And by a go, I mean 100 games at least, not 3 games, lose 3 flips, and decide you can't win.
When will it end? When you find a grind game to cushion these losses
Mon the Don.
After reading it for over last while seems like your building up a lot of tilt and I suppose I just wanted to say be careful/keep an eye on it.
The HU game begins
Hi Jdsallstar, yeah I would agree. I need to gain some momentum and that will soon die off though. I think a huge factor in poker is momentum. On top of that when you have none its easy to not take a spot because of the fear of being called. I think I have improved the tilt over the years but I worry a big blow up is around the corner.
So I started playing HU. Think I played reasonably well but began to tilt then my mother arrived for a cuppa so thought it was best to stop.
It was a stange one, a friend watched and said if I ran EV i'd have had something similar to a 40% ROI, over a small sample admittedly, but I think that gives an idea to how I ran.
The strange thing is of all the "key" hands, the one that I won, was the only one that I felt, I could have played that better. So i'll post that up. Given that I was playing speeds and stacks where 1500, this was the only pot I won over 1k. The rest where all bad beats, in good and losing standard stuff. sigh.
I think JJ has something to this though, Admittedly I was only playing £2 games, but I felt I could crush them. Its a shame I would struggle to multi table them though tbh as one tabling, even hu bores the monkey out of me.
I 'don't do maths' really outside of the absolute basics, but if folding too often to a 5x is a mathematical leak it's only a small one, and one we can afford given our edge in the game. We're prob losing a fraction of a big blind everytime we make a slightly -ev fold? idk.
I like to play risk averse early v these types of players, especially out of position & in a speed which has more play.
If the guys 5xing its going to be really easy to re-exploit him and force him to make bigger mistakes sooner or later so we don't mind folding here even if it is exploitable.
Dnt think we need to take marginally +ev/high variance spots when we have a significant skill edge.
Also agree that post flop is fine.
* just read back and saw you were playing speeds at £2 level, good idea if your just getting used to it at the moment, but you will find the standard does not differ much at 5's barring one or two players.
I take the opposite view, I like to flat hands that flop well against our opponents range.
Think Ax plays pretty poorly.
If we're peeling A4 for example on Axx if we both make top pair we're struggling, and also struggle to get more than 1 bet when we make top pair and they don't. especially out of position.
Stuff like TJ/TQ/TK/KQ/KJ/KT we can peel, have a much better chance of making top pair, and also have a decent chance that our opponent flops an inferior top pair also and therefore we get more value post flop when we both have hands.
I'm really not a fan of weak aces OOP, I think it's v difficult to show a profit playing them in the early stages without significantly increasing the risk of damaging our stack un-necessarily.
Always at micros, and even through the 5s/10s/20s, our opponents are much more interested in their own hand and the board, than our range.