I promised a proper update about other stuff and well here that is. This will be more behind the scenes Don rather than poker Don, and bring you to where I am in 2024 rather than the memories of anxiety ridden, ragey 2013 Don.
Quickly though on poker, I lost about £25 yest, played a few bounty hunters, and did take heads but no bone on any runs. More than my fair share of bad luck, but with the past week I think I'd be very poorly placed to complain.
Firstly, these days I find myself as a single parent to my kids. I have equal custody of my older two, and my youngest is abit more complex. Right now thats going through the courts so I don't think I should say too much just incase anything I say has an impact, but so far that process has gone almost aswell as it could from my side, and my legal team expect it to continue to do so.
Outwith that as Tikay has mentioned I've played alot of games, My main go two have been Europa Universalis 4, which really soothes my need for strategy and thinking, while Football Manager has offered that, it can also be abit more chill press space and watch some pixles play football. Ive also done Football Manager and F1 Manager on the competitive scene. Neither are major eSports and thus little to no money in it. On top of that both are typically invite only and sometimes its not just about how good you are. In truth I achieved 17th in the FM Rankings (the only way to rank players) in 2022, and I feel had I been able to get more comps in, I could have got higher. My F1 Manager career was much shorter, but I won the only competition I entered, scoring close maximum points. Unfortunetly taking these games to those levels has largely killed my enjoyment of them. Once you learn to exploit something its hard to not do it consistently and that makes the game less challenging and thus rather boring. Since then I've spent time doing commentary on twitch for 3 seperate FM competitions and in truth thats something I've really enjoyed.
Outwith that I joined the local pool league, where as a team we won a cup a year or two prior to covid, and more recently got elected onto the league committee, where I was relected back onto it at the last AGM. My actual pool skills might be limited, but I do enjoy trying to help make it the best experience for everyone, even if that is giving up my time for free. And more recently I got asked to join the pubs darts team, I hadn't thrown a dart for about 15 years at a house party, but that has been amazing social time too. And with some luck in draws of opponents, and insane luck in my throwing I finished the season winning all 4 of the singles games I played for the team. How that happened I can only imagine some minor miracle.
Lastly I want to talk about something a little more serious. I've never hid my anxiety, what I did though is i never accepted any support for it. In 2021 after the breakdown of my last relationship I added depression onto that list. Low mood, self esteem issues, and welll everything else that comes with the condition. Choosing not to go into more detail there. I was extremely lucky that ironically through my FM gaming I met a friend who happened to be a mental health nurse and spotted signs early and gave me support, that also helped me get local support and with alot of work I have alot less bad days than I have good. I always remind myself how far I've come. But for me, I want to say to anyone reading this who maybe struggling, you are loved, speak to friends, speak to family, speak to your doctor. Please don't suffer in silence.
Quite fascinated to read that you've played Football Manager on a competitive level. I've always enjoyed playing Football Manager, but am not particular great at the tactical side of it all. Definitely fun taking on a lower league team and trying to take them to the top though.
The anxiety and mental health paragraph is definitely something I can relate to. I've always suffered with anxiety, and at times, it's held me back. Have always been fearful of the unknown and doing things that involve going outside my comfort zone. Best way to combat it, of course, is to just brave it. But it's never that easy. Mental health also took a massive dip last year as well as a result of multiple real-life things going awry - ended up building it up for too long and suffering in silence. Thankfully I've always had good people around me to speak to and assist. Still have mini lapses here and there where I lose the plot a bit, but am in a much better place this year and just try to see the positives in everything rather than the negatives. Glad things have improved for you Don, and kudos to you for opening up about it.
Today will be a low volume day, always have stuff on, on a friday night so no night time session type of thing. But so far played 2 and took a second in the 11.30 for £35 back. I kind of got a little too aggro in the 10.30 but all things work out. Maybe 1/2 more mtts on the phone but nothing drastic in terms of volume.
Yesterday was the opposite, busy during the day, and all rather stressful stuff so come 5pm I was exhausted and debated if id even play. Thought id flick open the 5.30 and see how I felt. In truth it didnt go great I cant remember all the hands, but I felt i played okay and abit of varience here and there went against but I was feeling overwhelmed so at that point I thought okay thats me for tonight. Closed off and went for a bath.
Felt alot better after the bath however, and had a think at 7.25 I came up with a schedule, just a small one.
7.30 7.35 Mini Main (shot taking)
And the 8pm £2 and 9@9 for back up if i needed tables.
I'll start with the main. Early doors we watched AA v KK and AA hold, the KK was left with 15 chips and BB next hand. We isolate and took a very easy head. Before busting set over set. In truth, bottom set in a 3b pot on a dry board with loads of action... I think we can get away with this one, but I'm not going to over analyse it and move on.
The 7.35 was a grindy thing, never got going, but never looked in awful shape till we busted either, in truth I cant remember a single hand from this comp.
The 7.30 started well, think I took 4 hands in an orbit very early and from there was just picking up odd head here, odd head there etc. Eventually we found ourselves on final table where things slowed, not the time we want it to slow and the villan we found ourselves heads up with took out all 4 other players, meaning i went into the heads up with i think about a 10-1 chip deficit although still decent stack. Alas two hands in we get a house against quads and thats all she wrote. No complaints our opponent deserved it for their final table performance.
The mini was different. Was slow and then about 60 players left we won 2/3 big quick fire pots, taking heads too. set us up nicely, but once in the money probably close to the best poker I've ever played. We found ourselves second in chips after taking a head to burst the bubble, but was OOP to the chip leader who wasnt just chip leader, but had 1/4 of chips in play with 20 or so left. Also someone with a fairly unique style, and awkward to play against. We found ourselves in a heads up pot against this villian in a limped pot from BB, we hold 9T on a board of JT5T4 when he bombs the river. Ive got about a third of my stack in at this point, and I think on another day i go broke, but on this occassion i found the fold. I just cant see this villian having worse than us here, but in truth theres also so few hands as the hand played out he should have that beat us. I doubled back to stack I had before this hand with AA v JJ before finding a pretty sick call down with KK on an ace high board with the flush draw coming in, some might say it was sticky but something just seemed wrong about our villians line and I sniffed it out. Back to 2nd in chips abit of luck opening button with K6 and finding a KKx flop against KJ only to ping the 6. Final table was interesting I folded 2/3 times in awkward ICM spots where a 4b jam would have been a very viable play. Eventually went to 4 handed and stacks were close, very grindy part of the tournament, and id grind to chip lead, fall away and repeat. The last time I was there or there abouts we shoved over a button open with KJo the button snapped with QQ. I think this was potentially only misstep i made. But even then Im actually pretty content with that shove in that spot. A few interesting hands and one villian had a run away chip lead (about 5-1 on everyone at table) and the other 3 of us on 10bb. We'd take in turns to take spots but none of us got a caller until button shoved and i snapped in SB with AQ. I was covered by about half a big so high value spot, unfortunetly for us we didnt hold against Q9.
The less said about the 9@9 the better. Overall a very profitable day, Had i not cashed any of these events Id have been down £100 since the last cash, although thats including a direct main buy in shot, instead we finished +£70 for yest and some fine margins away from drastically more. Adding on another 2nd today, which i wont break down too much but basically I need to be converting hu spots like that better, we've now taken that £237 to £833. plus the £50 i moved and the Kane money. Not salty at all about Kane lol
Ah the joys when you come off A game and run abit meh at the same time. That was the story yesterday.
In truth I wasn't playing awful, just abit spewy. Mostly one tabling on the phone and the kids had a bad day, The latter should probably have been a warning, their bad days as neurodivergent kids means they can be horrific and stress levels are of course higher.
In truth I think I played 7 mtts, but I'll try work it out.
1.30, 3.30, 5.30, 6.30, 7@7, 7.30 and mini. I think thats right. Ah that leaves 7 that also makes sense, not a bad guess. We also had a little punt on the most prolific striker in European football having a shot on target in a game where his side is massive favourites once more. Unfortunetly for me it seems Southgate sees Harry Kane as his Kalvin Phillips replacement, which means thats another tenner down the drain.
Of the early mtts We took 2 heads in one, but never really got going. Im struggling to remember hands, I do remember being in for more heads and running massively -EV in those spots, but thats poker. The 6.30 again 2 heads before busting. If I mind right this was a mad tournament, where we got a couple of heads early but both had lost chips and standard spots, think one was literally 1.5bb and we were in bb and flopped tp and iso'd, called by a draw so doubled and got the head. We got to about 5.5k before a weird had where our TPGK lost to a turned TP and BP combo, as played I actually have a really easy turn fold that I just didn't make, and was left with 2bb. We quad up with K7, nice fellow isolated us and we pinged a K to stay alive, 8bb and we've got a hope, another double after 3b shoving over an open and call got us back over starting before AA v TT got us back to 5.5kish. Abit of positive tilt I think they call it at this recovery and honestly, I was playing extremely aggroo. Got upto about 6.8k before opening 42dd UTG, 5 handed. As soon as I did it I said thats far too wide, and realized I was in a state of positive tilt, but we'll try make it work, and on a board of Jx6d5d we can't flop a whole lot better tbf. We cb and I size up as I would with the top of my range on this board, and our villian clicks back. I take a few seconds and in hindsight against a click back I should probably flat, but I take the aggressive line with our double draw and stick it in his eye. He has about 12k chips so its still half his stack and a very large shove at this stage I think. He thinks for a second before calling Jd7x. we turn a diamond, but unfortunetly those diamonds didn't stop coming. While I didn't play this well, and I fold pre, and flat flop especially with the notes we now have, I'm not overly disappointed with this.
Ill jump to mini now, and I need to be checking the structures of these, the 10k starting ones I just don't enjoy as much as the ones closer to the standard bh formats, I know blinds are different, and tbh I just get mashed in my head and make mistakes. Thats on me to adjust but for now, maybe worth avoiding those ones. In the end our bust wouldn't change, EP open we flat IP with QTss flop 2 spades, they bet but give us good price on turn and river which gives us that last spade, only to see they've opened K8ss.
The 7.30 was much better however, again (and I'm not sure why) an offset structure to every other £5 bh, with a 3k starting, and we starting wavy to say the least. We'd bust the 6.30 just before the start and I missed the start just walking away from PC for 5 mins. The 7@7 also hadn't gone well, so I think taking that time was +ev for us. Down to 2k pretty quick, but I'm comfortable there and we slowly get back up, from there its waiting on spots, and as often happens when they first one comes its like buses and 2/3 will come quickly after, and we really capitalized on that taking a couple of heads and quickly going from 3k to 21k right when it matters. There was only 52 players in this though so only final table cash. Sky will be glad it just edged over the guarentee though. We then get abit lucky when we open KK and BB comes along for the ride, 347 flop I think with a flush draw and we ship over a check raise, he has 56o but poker gods had saw id already lost with Kings 4/5 times in big pots on the day and shined a light, 5 turn 6 river. Ill take a chop and sigh relief. Another couple of heads but then everything slowed. That 21k stack was our peak as we go completely card dead with 8 remaining, 4 handed seeing 62o 93o T4o etc every hand, 3 handed against 2 villians who like to see flops, its almost a disaster. Thankfully final table bubble burst quickly but we find ourselves a decent stacked 6/6. We win a couple of small early pots, and start to set ourselves up so that if and when we double we're chip leader, and we now cover someone so we have a bounty avaliable, but again I'm fighting for spots with middling at best holdings in most cases. This is the business end the time I usually like to come alive but I keep reminding myself patience and our spot will come. The player to our left, who had a very unique style of limp calling off their tournament several times with suited connectors and getting there then bust 2 people. Nice ladders for us, and a double still puts us a comfortable 2/4. Then comes our spot, with blinds going up our 16k is now 16bb, 3 limpers onto our BB, and we have AJcc. We shove it in their eyes. Im content to just take the 3bb and move along here but also I feel we're going to be in good shape against most of their limping ranges. First limper and chip leader folds, he was my big consern for a weird call, but it was the lad after who had about 5k more than me who decided 97cc was good enough to call, a 7 on the river sealed our fate.
Still however we take that day for a day where we didn't play well and ran awful, we've broken even on the day, and only down a tenner because Kane played CDM.
Closing balance £898.
Kids away back to their mums today, so depending on tiredness I'm hoping to have a much bigger day today, bad nights sleep with the little ones, But also tempted to try some sats into the Sunday thingy, obviously £110 is not in my shot taking budget
As to the 7 @ 7, I'm sad to say it DID overlay. Just 52 entries & a £700 guarantee meant it missed by a nasty £336. Now, if our mate Harry Kane had done his job properly, both you & Sky Poker would have been better off, as the Extra Time & Pens cut into early evening poker traffic.
Good luck tonight, & I look forward to reading tomorrow's report, you write very well.
Thought I'd update todays running tonight rather than tomorrow morning. For clarification for Tikay meant the 7.30 bh yest also got 52 runners, my maths was off however and believe that meant £40 overlay.
Today in truth has been a very tough day. Alot played, alot of grimness is the best way to describe it.
First mtt was the 2.30, I was planning on the 12.30 but i needed that nap, woke up at 2.25 and loaded it up on phone while doing wake up routines, this mtt really went well. Started off okay with a couple of small gains actually ending up over starting, before one of the craziest hands I've had, still on phone at this point I've missed the previous hand which has left the SB on 60 chips. We have Jacks UTG and open 3x. This is level 2 and typcially i min open, but last time i did that we got 4 callers, and I was adjusting to that, and thank heavens i did. +1 calls and c/o min clicks it, btn flats, sb flicks his 60 in and bb who has about 5k at this point elects to fold, no idea why, but I trust my gut and iso bomb, +1 calls for all their chips and c/o calls too, they cover us by 75 chips. In the end we lost to 60 chips man AQ he got a nice little Quintuple up, but I beat the other 2. 1head, about 1.5x stack we started hand with the only thing to grumble about was the table breaking with 2 shorties. Anyways this mtt was the star of the day, we finished 7th losing a flip on FT bubble for £17 inc heads.
And thats as good as its going to get. We bust the 3.30, shoving 13bbish with 4s into Jacks, we hit a 4 but they turn a J. No complaints. The 4.30 was marred by a war with arrogant. Someone who I've seen alot at this level, and typically doesn't make the moves he does higher up. We raise fold 99 on 9TJ with 2 clubs when he bombs, only for him to make a very funky move on us on a 952r flop, by giving up his betting lead to c/r AT. when I call this c/r i know i have to call down all turn and rivers. Interesting play from him, unfortunetly for us he turns and rivers 2 aces for good measure. the 5.30 bust inside 5 mins when we open QQ and get two callers to a Q52 flop and get jammed on by a flush draw and dont hold.
Main semi we actually got through, we took our spots, held when we needed to. then folded to the bubble and again took spots when we had to and prayed for no callers. The 6.30 I think was 3 heads for money back and a run but broke not long before the cash, the 7@7 was a complete horror show where nothing went right.
The rebuy bounty was interesting, not sure im a fan of being sat oop to Arrogant and Lolololololol I very much enjoyed that table move, unfortnetly a couple if flips lost meant we were in trouble anyways and counldnt recover, standard entry and addon with heads we made £6 of that £10 back.
The main was meh, for the first time ever I found a "light" cold 4b. Guy had been opening loads, same oppo had 3b him a few times, and i elected to cold 4b AQs knowing im turing it into a bluff in doing so. Axx flop, he bombs turn and We've got a great bluff catcher, unfortunetly our villian has done this with AK. In truth I'm not qualified to analyze a cold 4b pot with TP 2nd Kicker against polorizing bets to say if I did good or awful, but probably dont need to cold 4b in the first place. We got back to 5k but then lost a standard spot to bust. Mini was interesting, we got to 9k and in good shape on our table, one lads shoving an hour in for about 20-30bb at a very high frequency so wait our spot, boom we get it with AA in the bb he shoves get in. He shows KQ, KKx flop. sigh. crippled and again no recovery as we shove 99 into QQ SB v BTN.
That left me with a big hole in the days entires and just the £500 bh left, it hasnt gone well tbh, we've spent the first hour struggling at half starting before suddenly coming alive, we double through loads of small pots, and never even seeing a turn card in this run, before stacking someone with a full double on top to take us to 5.5k with a head, we go on a mini heat where i cant remember hands but 2 more heads pays for the mtt and gets us to 2/21 and 16k. Thats where the good times stop again. shorty again on bt with 4bb, UTG with 7bb limps, btn shoves, we reshove knowing utg likely calling but KJs for 7bb and 2 head potential feels decent value. UTG does indeed snap with 33. 4bb stack has A7 so very much live and only need to beat the 3s to break even for the hand in reality. K on the flop we celebrate a clean turn and river... only ive missed theres also 2 3's on that flop to give our man quads. Oops. From there we never recovered any momentum. Eventually busting in 11th place shoving KK into AQ and failing to hold. £16 back for the troubles and a day where we've lost alot.
In truth I'm not sure I'm a fan of the adjusted Sunday schedule. Was regular mtts I was looking for such at the 7.30 and I couldnt find it, the major and mini major structure I don't feel i was a big fan of, now part of that is they aren't bounty hunters, but I also flagged the dislike for 10k starting structure yesterday, but no excuses on that, we gave it a bash and we came up short. The 7.35 was missing, I did mean to enter the 7.45 in truth but I was wary of having too many tables and effecting my focus.
Anyways closing balance for today is £857 so its not been a great day but we got to play in a comp I've never played in, we gave ourselves the best opportunties for success we could, and thats all we can do. We dust ourselves off, and Be back on it tomorrow. Expecting lower volume as got pool games tomorrow night, but always good to get some daytime tournaments in.
"woke up at 2.25 and loaded it up on phone while doing wake up routines"
Dare I ask what "wake up routines" are?
Of course you can, for me its mostly grab a coffee, have a few smokes, make sure I've got juice etc. I've got a large number of physical health problems these days so take meds (honestly in the morning its like a pharmacy), make sure I have knee brace on etc. During that time I'll wait for meds to kick in, so yest 15-20 min lay down on sofa, and usually flick tele on during this time for background noise, been watching Brad Owen on youtube recently, like his approach to poker in the videos I've seen so far.
Early update for today, mostly because I don't want to forget stuff, and leave a rather uninteresting post.
Another day where nothing has gone right in truth. I forgot mum had booked lunch out, thankfully she messaged and reminded me rather early, so the 9.30 was my only morning mtt, 1 head in that, that I cant even remember how I got. Sure it was one of those short stack ones, were we get a full double off villian 2 and bust villian 1 though. After that and this will be a common theme today it was just swingy, win a small pot, lose a medium one. Eventually we open KK and open, and get the nice chill 4 out of a possible 4 callers. We straighty flushy flop we cbet, 3 stay in, draws complete on the turn and in truth unless river is a spade we're not putting a dime more in, it wasnt a spade infact i think it got even straightier. But that brought us back to starting. We shoved loads, never got called before eventually shoving 66 over a limp and 88 snapping us off out of blinds, thats all she wrote.
After lunch I got home at 1.45, I don't usually late reg bounty hunters, and wish I'd stuck to that rule today. But we flicked in the 1.30 and started well, we got upto 3k without a showdown, couple little pots here and there, and then a table move came. We were largest stack on the previous table which was passive. This was anything but, we adjusted tightened the range and open AA in the c/o. BTN and BB call, AQx flop with 2 hearts, we also have the Ah in hand. So pretty good flop for us. turn is an offsuit T and our villian jams on us. He has KJ and we get no help, the third tournament in 24 hours busted with a set. Pain.
At this point its 2.35 so flicked in the 2.30 again against my no late regging rule. This was way more puke. Slow grind up on first table we get to about 2.6k before being moved, on second table we see a villian who clearly wants to see every flop, make moves post and generally obviously out there having fun. We iso them with 97s and get a 986 flop with 2 diamonds, they only have 1k chips and with out cb they ship, we cant fold, we block the nuts, we have straight outs, and top pair. oh hes got T7o. ouch. Couple of small pots later we're down to 770 chips. We manage to spin that up back to 2.5k but a guy rivering a 2 outer for his set takes us back to 1.5k. At that point we're once again in shove/fold territory and looking for spots. Same villian min raises button and we have AJo in the SB. Ive played with this villian alot hes got a very wide open range and i expect extremely wide calls to a 3b jam here, on this occassion he actually had jacks tho. We dont get any help either.
3 mtts entered today, and due to time thats where itll stay, 1 head to show for it.
Closing balance £851 (we had £7.95 points money back)
I still feel I'm playing well and putting myself in +ev spots, expect a bigger session tomorrow. Pool tonight hense the early update, got a last 16 match which hopefully I'll get through and then if I get past that a quarter final match tonight, I think thats one hurdle too much for my pool ability tho.
Yesterday was the day that could have been, but alas there was to be no bone for The Don on a rainy July day.
Starting with the pool on Monday, I put in one of my worst performances for years. My pool ability is far from amazing, but when I come away from A game its very obvious. And Monday was no exception, we fall to a 5-3 defeat in the last 16. I do get feeling our opponent was off A game too however so maybe we lose anyways.
Yesterday started how do we say, horrific. I got a reply from my lawyer, a reply I've been waiting for but tensions are high atm theres information that has to be passed on, and lets say it didn't go down well. Resulted in a rather stressful morning and while I'd planned to start early I know playing poker when stressed isn't going to be enjoyable, so I scurried back to bed to sleep off any negative emotions.
Waking up in time to get the 1.30 on my phone off we went. A decent start saw us get to 2.5k, in reality this was all from a BvB hand Im very proud of how i played, typically sizing my biggest issue. But here i found 2 streets of sized up to maximize our winnings against our villians second pair. However I'd made 3 opens and the nice chap to my left had 3b me on all 3 of them. On the 4th attempt once again he did it, we have AJo blockers to many of his good hands and that NO you cant have it every time mode. In hindsight, we can easily flat or 4b fold, I go for the overjam, he calls with AK and a KJx flop is no good for us.
The 2.30 was almost the opposite, really passive we have to see flops tables, which is fine. I played my game and started to adjust sizings, at one point im 7x opening and peeling 3 callers. The issue with these tables are, you need to have hands. and well I just didn't have hands. I think i had AK 4 or 5 times large open sizes brick flop pot lead into us lets us away for min, but those larger opens add up very very quickly. And we can't reload in mtts. Alas we bust this tournament not winning a single hand.
The 3.30 would be the last of my day time tables. Friend asked me to go out for dinner, but more than happy for me to have a table on phone, but that means only 1 table can be open we he arrives to pick us up. 1 head early in that, can't hand but do remember we were about 1.5k and villian was only player shorter than us. So thats a good turnover. From there it was a grind, and grind we did, never getting above 3k until 20players left, 2 quick doubles saw us have a chance, and we creeped into the money. 8k now and on bb at 200/400. 2 limps and I just jam ATo to maximise fold equity, I'll happily take a 10% increase in stack, 2 calls wait what... Things i didnt expect to happen.One villian then iso's and shows K9 but K has came out and thats all she wrote for 9th and money back.
From there night session was small, 6.30 7@7 7.30 and mini. Ill only really cover 6.30 here for time, 7@7 didnt go well, 2 pretty puke spots early left us busting, the 7.30 was no better. And mini we did get a head but a table with Barratt and StayorGo two players whos game i have huge respect for isn't your standard mini table early doors. That made it tough and spots weren't kind.
The 6.30 we got 2 heads for full stacks in level 1. First one we have 8s v A3 on 844Ax and our opponent set us in, second we opened A8s flopped top pair, added NFD on turn and rivered it against our ul opponent with T2P. I did take another head but in truth I cant remember that one before we clashed with Barelyther, another player whos game I respect massively, and I still remember his little segment back on Sky Poker TV. Spoke to him a few times too nice lad. Anyways he opens and we flat 78hh on the btn. flop of 9h Jh Xx sees us flop almost aswell as we can, we raise over his cb and he jams, we can't fold here with that equity and for the bet, he shows KK with the heart, so the Th turn doesn't end it despite our straight flush, but we dodge the one out redraw and take another head leaving us with a very strong stack. Eventually approaching the bubble we're 5/24 and the chip leader and eventual winner HomerJS limps, we raise AJo in the button and shorty in the SB ships for just over double our wager. Homer flats, and with a range I assume is pretty capped I shove to iso, with my stack he should be over folding, but hes been coy and snaps us with Jacks. We even see the case Jack for good measure. We've bust from a commanding position to not even making the money in the matter of seconds. That one was a hard pill to swollow.
Closing balance 827... and looking to regain some momentum today
Todays update I promise you will not be comfortable reading. Its simply been brutal.
We've played 10.30, 11.30, 12.30, 1.30, 2.30, 3.30, 4pm (£11 shot), 4.30, 5.30, Main Semi Sat, 6.30, 7@7, Rebuy BH, 7.30. I did have mini registered but I've since unregged that and just going to chill and watch the football. Although may jump back in and play it on phone. If I do that will be in tomorrows update.
In truth we've had 3 runs, and 0 cashes. Its been a painful day, where most tournaments we're busting early. And not taking heads either doesnt help. I knew when starting this the run I was on would come to an end, but boy has it ended hard and fast.
With this many tournaments I cant mind alot of hands, infact the 4pm one is about all I can remember. Generally I feel like we've played well, but struggling to find premiums and even worse, them not holding when we have them, I've found myself trying to force the issue maybe a little too often. The 4pm probably sums this up more than anything.
Going into the 4pm I'd had one run where we bust in 9th with a single head AA v QQ flop came Q high and thats all she wrote there, we were abit wavy early but then UTG shoves for 5bb or so, 2 callers to us in the SB and next shortest stack I elect to try iso and take a flip for a head with 4s. I've been flipping like a 1 sided coin today, but we still have to take these plus EV spots and try take it with 2 calls worth of dead money and a head on the line. I wasn't loving it when we pinged 3 callers, a 4 on the turn meant a treble up and a head. And the one flip we won all day, was the least likely. We take 2 more heads before final table, where we're second in chips to the formidable @DOHHHHHHH who I know has also had a horror day. Again anything we do here is trying to make something happen as JJ quickly makes light work of the 2 shorties, meaning that in an 18 man tournament with 4 left between us we'd taken the heads of half the tournament, and 1st and 2nd in chips. I'd joke but hard to believe from there we finished 3rd and 4th respective. I made a wild move on JJ see hand above where i figured where I was in the hand, unfortunetly we cant be calling shoves with 8 high, even when we know the oppo isn't strong. Eventually we bubbled this 3b jamming A5 into a slow played AQ, we turned a 5 but a Q on the river sealed our fate. £15 back there and the only mtt today that shows any sort of profit.
The 7@7 was next closest with 2 heads, both all in on the river, and £6.60 back, we lost a major flip in this which would have had us as chup leader, both that very same villian then stacked us with our AK losing to his K9 all in pre.
I have no jumped back into the mini, but ill update that tomorrow and account closing balance for not playing it. as such closing balance is £763. Its been a -£64 day, and -£140 since our last cash above a min cash. We arent really taking heads either which is a worrying sign.
I will be taking Saturday off anyways as taking kids away but debating taking a couple of days to rest and reset.
Edit: We bust mini inside 15 mins and i Just thought id leave the exit hand to be shown this really sums up the day
Comments
Quite fascinated to read that you've played Football Manager on a competitive level. I've always enjoyed playing Football Manager, but am not particular great at the tactical side of it all. Definitely fun taking on a lower league team and trying to take them to the top though.
The anxiety and mental health paragraph is definitely something I can relate to. I've always suffered with anxiety, and at times, it's held me back. Have always been fearful of the unknown and doing things that involve going outside my comfort zone. Best way to combat it, of course, is to just brave it. But it's never that easy.
Mental health also took a massive dip last year as well as a result of multiple real-life things going awry - ended up building it up for too long and suffering in silence. Thankfully I've always had good people around me to speak to and assist. Still have mini lapses here and there where I lose the plot a bit, but am in a much better place this year and just try to see the positives in everything rather than the negatives.
Glad things have improved for you Don, and kudos to you for opening up about it.
Wishing you the very best of luck in everything you do
Today will be a low volume day, always have stuff on, on a friday night so no night time session type of thing. But so far played 2 and took a second in the 11.30 for £35 back. I kind of got a little too aggro in the 10.30 but all things work out. Maybe 1/2 more mtts on the phone but nothing drastic in terms of volume.
Yesterday was the opposite, busy during the day, and all rather stressful stuff so come 5pm I was exhausted and debated if id even play. Thought id flick open the 5.30 and see how I felt. In truth it didnt go great I cant remember all the hands, but I felt i played okay and abit of varience here and there went against but I was feeling overwhelmed so at that point I thought okay thats me for tonight. Closed off and went for a bath.
Felt alot better after the bath however, and had a think at 7.25 I came up with a schedule, just a small one.
7.30
7.35
Mini
Main (shot taking)
And the 8pm £2 and 9@9 for back up if i needed tables.
I'll start with the main. Early doors we watched AA v KK and AA hold, the KK was left with 15 chips and BB next hand. We isolate and took a very easy head. Before busting set over set. In truth, bottom set in a 3b pot on a dry board with loads of action... I think we can get away with this one, but I'm not going to over analyse it and move on.
The 7.35 was a grindy thing, never got going, but never looked in awful shape till we busted either, in truth I cant remember a single hand from this comp.
The 7.30 started well, think I took 4 hands in an orbit very early and from there was just picking up odd head here, odd head there etc. Eventually we found ourselves on final table where things slowed, not the time we want it to slow and the villan we found ourselves heads up with took out all 4 other players, meaning i went into the heads up with i think about a 10-1 chip deficit although still decent stack. Alas two hands in we get a house against quads and thats all she wrote. No complaints our opponent deserved it for their final table performance.
The mini was different. Was slow and then about 60 players left we won 2/3 big quick fire pots, taking heads too. set us up nicely, but once in the money probably close to the best poker I've ever played. We found ourselves second in chips after taking a head to burst the bubble, but was OOP to the chip leader who wasnt just chip leader, but had 1/4 of chips in play with 20 or so left. Also someone with a fairly unique style, and awkward to play against. We found ourselves in a heads up pot against this villian in a limped pot from BB, we hold 9T on a board of JT5T4 when he bombs the river. Ive got about a third of my stack in at this point, and I think on another day i go broke, but on this occassion i found the fold. I just cant see this villian having worse than us here, but in truth theres also so few hands as the hand played out he should have that beat us. I doubled back to stack I had before this hand with AA v JJ before finding a pretty sick call down with KK on an ace high board with the flush draw coming in, some might say it was sticky but something just seemed wrong about our villians line and I sniffed it out. Back to 2nd in chips abit of luck opening button with K6 and finding a KKx flop against KJ only to ping the 6. Final table was interesting I folded 2/3 times in awkward ICM spots where a 4b jam would have been a very viable play. Eventually went to 4 handed and stacks were close, very grindy part of the tournament, and id grind to chip lead, fall away and repeat. The last time I was there or there abouts we shoved over a button open with KJo the button snapped with QQ. I think this was potentially only misstep i made. But even then Im actually pretty content with that shove in that spot. A few interesting hands and one villian had a run away chip lead (about 5-1 on everyone at table) and the other 3 of us on 10bb. We'd take in turns to take spots but none of us got a caller until button shoved and i snapped in SB with AQ. I was covered by about half a big so high value spot, unfortunetly for us we didnt hold against Q9.
The less said about the 9@9 the better. Overall a very profitable day, Had i not cashed any of these events Id have been down £100 since the last cash, although thats including a direct main buy in shot, instead we finished +£70 for yest and some fine margins away from drastically more. Adding on another 2nd today, which i wont break down too much but basically I need to be converting hu spots like that better, we've now taken that £237 to £833. plus the £50 i moved and the Kane money. Not salty at all about Kane lol
@The_Don90
"we've now taken that £237 to £833"
That's excellent, well done Don. And TWO Mini FT's inside a week. oioi
Update on today aswell for those interested.
Ive played 3 mtts. One no where (10.30) 1 second (11.30) and I've just won the 3.30.
This just isn't normal. closing balance for tonight is £909
In truth I wasn't playing awful, just abit spewy. Mostly one tabling on the phone and the kids had a bad day, The latter should probably have been a warning, their bad days as neurodivergent kids means they can be horrific and stress levels are of course higher.
In truth I think I played 7 mtts, but I'll try work it out.
1.30, 3.30, 5.30, 6.30, 7@7, 7.30 and mini. I think thats right. Ah that leaves 7 that also makes sense, not a bad guess. We also had a little punt on the most prolific striker in European football having a shot on target in a game where his side is massive favourites once more. Unfortunetly for me it seems Southgate sees Harry Kane as his Kalvin Phillips replacement, which means thats another tenner down the drain.
Of the early mtts We took 2 heads in one, but never really got going. Im struggling to remember hands, I do remember being in for more heads and running massively -EV in those spots, but thats poker. The 6.30 again 2 heads before busting. If I mind right this was a mad tournament, where we got a couple of heads early but both had lost chips and standard spots, think one was literally 1.5bb and we were in bb and flopped tp and iso'd, called by a draw so doubled and got the head. We got to about 5.5k before a weird had where our TPGK lost to a turned TP and BP combo, as played I actually have a really easy turn fold that I just didn't make, and was left with 2bb. We quad up with K7, nice fellow isolated us and we pinged a K to stay alive, 8bb and we've got a hope, another double after 3b shoving over an open and call got us back over starting before AA v TT got us back to 5.5kish. Abit of positive tilt I think they call it at this recovery and honestly, I was playing extremely aggroo. Got upto about 6.8k before opening 42dd UTG, 5 handed. As soon as I did it I said thats far too wide, and realized I was in a state of positive tilt, but we'll try make it work, and on a board of Jx6d5d we can't flop a whole lot better tbf. We cb and I size up as I would with the top of my range on this board, and our villian clicks back. I take a few seconds and in hindsight against a click back I should probably flat, but I take the aggressive line with our double draw and stick it in his eye. He has about 12k chips so its still half his stack and a very large shove at this stage I think. He thinks for a second before calling Jd7x. we turn a diamond, but unfortunetly those diamonds didn't stop coming. While I didn't play this well, and I fold pre, and flat flop especially with the notes we now have, I'm not overly disappointed with this.
Ill jump to mini now, and I need to be checking the structures of these, the 10k starting ones I just don't enjoy as much as the ones closer to the standard bh formats, I know blinds are different, and tbh I just get mashed in my head and make mistakes. Thats on me to adjust but for now, maybe worth avoiding those ones. In the end our bust wouldn't change, EP open we flat IP with QTss flop 2 spades, they bet but give us good price on turn and river which gives us that last spade, only to see they've opened K8ss.
The 7.30 was much better however, again (and I'm not sure why) an offset structure to every other £5 bh, with a 3k starting, and we starting wavy to say the least. We'd bust the 6.30 just before the start and I missed the start just walking away from PC for 5 mins. The 7@7 also hadn't gone well, so I think taking that time was +ev for us. Down to 2k pretty quick, but I'm comfortable there and we slowly get back up, from there its waiting on spots, and as often happens when they first one comes its like buses and 2/3 will come quickly after, and we really capitalized on that taking a couple of heads and quickly going from 3k to 21k right when it matters. There was only 52 players in this though so only final table cash. Sky will be glad it just edged over the guarentee though. We then get abit lucky when we open KK and BB comes along for the ride, 347 flop I think with a flush draw and we ship over a check raise, he has 56o but poker gods had saw id already lost with Kings 4/5 times in big pots on the day and shined a light, 5 turn 6 river. Ill take a chop and sigh relief. Another couple of heads but then everything slowed. That 21k stack was our peak as we go completely card dead with 8 remaining, 4 handed seeing 62o 93o T4o etc every hand, 3 handed against 2 villians who like to see flops, its almost a disaster. Thankfully final table bubble burst quickly but we find ourselves a decent stacked 6/6. We win a couple of small early pots, and start to set ourselves up so that if and when we double we're chip leader, and we now cover someone so we have a bounty avaliable, but again I'm fighting for spots with middling at best holdings in most cases. This is the business end the time I usually like to come alive but I keep reminding myself patience and our spot will come. The player to our left, who had a very unique style of limp calling off their tournament several times with suited connectors and getting there then bust 2 people. Nice ladders for us, and a double still puts us a comfortable 2/4. Then comes our spot, with blinds going up our 16k is now 16bb, 3 limpers onto our BB, and we have AJcc. We shove it in their eyes. Im content to just take the 3bb and move along here but also I feel we're going to be in good shape against most of their limping ranges. First limper and chip leader folds, he was my big consern for a weird call, but it was the lad after who had about 5k more than me who decided 97cc was good enough to call, a 7 on the river sealed our fate.
Still however we take that day for a day where we didn't play well and ran awful, we've broken even on the day, and only down a tenner because Kane played CDM.
Closing balance £898.
Kids away back to their mums today, so depending on tiredness I'm hoping to have a much bigger day today, bad nights sleep with the little ones, But also tempted to try some sats into the Sunday thingy, obviously £110 is not in my shot taking budget
@The_Don90
An enjoyable read, thanks Don.
As to the 7 @ 7, I'm sad to say it DID overlay. Just 52 entries & a £700 guarantee meant it missed by a nasty £336. Now, if our mate Harry Kane had done his job properly, both you & Sky Poker would have been better off, as the Extra Time & Pens cut into early evening poker traffic.
Good luck tonight, & I look forward to reading tomorrow's report, you write very well.
Today in truth has been a very tough day. Alot played, alot of grimness is the best way to describe it.
First mtt was the 2.30, I was planning on the 12.30 but i needed that nap, woke up at 2.25 and loaded it up on phone while doing wake up routines, this mtt really went well. Started off okay with a couple of small gains actually ending up over starting, before one of the craziest hands I've had, still on phone at this point I've missed the previous hand which has left the SB on 60 chips. We have Jacks UTG and open 3x. This is level 2 and typcially i min open, but last time i did that we got 4 callers, and I was adjusting to that, and thank heavens i did. +1 calls and c/o min clicks it, btn flats, sb flicks his 60 in and bb who has about 5k at this point elects to fold, no idea why, but I trust my gut and iso bomb, +1 calls for all their chips and c/o calls too, they cover us by 75 chips. In the end we lost to 60 chips man AQ he got a nice little Quintuple up, but I beat the other 2. 1head, about 1.5x stack we started hand with the only thing to grumble about was the table breaking with 2 shorties. Anyways this mtt was the star of the day, we finished 7th losing a flip on FT bubble for £17 inc heads.
And thats as good as its going to get. We bust the 3.30, shoving 13bbish with 4s into Jacks, we hit a 4 but they turn a J. No complaints. The 4.30 was marred by a war with arrogant. Someone who I've seen alot at this level, and typically doesn't make the moves he does higher up. We raise fold 99 on 9TJ with 2 clubs when he bombs, only for him to make a very funky move on us on a 952r flop, by giving up his betting lead to c/r AT. when I call this c/r i know i have to call down all turn and rivers. Interesting play from him, unfortunetly for us he turns and rivers 2 aces for good measure. the 5.30 bust inside 5 mins when we open QQ and get two callers to a Q52 flop and get jammed on by a flush draw and dont hold.
Main semi we actually got through, we took our spots, held when we needed to. then folded to the bubble and again took spots when we had to and prayed for no callers. The 6.30 I think was 3 heads for money back and a run but broke not long before the cash, the 7@7 was a complete horror show where nothing went right.
The rebuy bounty was interesting, not sure im a fan of being sat oop to Arrogant and Lolololololol I very much enjoyed that table move, unfortnetly a couple if flips lost meant we were in trouble anyways and counldnt recover, standard entry and addon with heads we made £6 of that £10 back.
The main was meh, for the first time ever I found a "light" cold 4b. Guy had been opening loads, same oppo had 3b him a few times, and i elected to cold 4b AQs knowing im turing it into a bluff in doing so. Axx flop, he bombs turn and We've got a great bluff catcher, unfortunetly our villian has done this with AK. In truth I'm not qualified to analyze a cold 4b pot with TP 2nd Kicker against polorizing bets to say if I did good or awful, but probably dont need to cold 4b in the first place. We got back to 5k but then lost a standard spot to bust. Mini was interesting, we got to 9k and in good shape on our table, one lads shoving an hour in for about 20-30bb at a very high frequency so wait our spot, boom we get it with AA in the bb he shoves get in. He shows KQ, KKx flop. sigh. crippled and again no recovery as we shove 99 into QQ SB v BTN.
That left me with a big hole in the days entires and just the £500 bh left, it hasnt gone well tbh, we've spent the first hour struggling at half starting before suddenly coming alive, we double through loads of small pots, and never even seeing a turn card in this run, before stacking someone with a full double on top to take us to 5.5k with a head, we go on a mini heat where i cant remember hands but 2 more heads pays for the mtt and gets us to 2/21 and 16k. Thats where the good times stop again. shorty again on bt with 4bb, UTG with 7bb limps, btn shoves, we reshove knowing utg likely calling but KJs for 7bb and 2 head potential feels decent value. UTG does indeed snap with 33. 4bb stack has A7 so very much live and only need to beat the 3s to break even for the hand in reality. K on the flop we celebrate a clean turn and river... only ive missed theres also 2 3's on that flop to give our man quads. Oops. From there we never recovered any momentum. Eventually busting in 11th place shoving KK into AQ and failing to hold. £16 back for the troubles and a day where we've lost alot.
In truth I'm not sure I'm a fan of the adjusted Sunday schedule. Was regular mtts I was looking for such at the 7.30 and I couldnt find it, the major and mini major structure I don't feel i was a big fan of, now part of that is they aren't bounty hunters, but I also flagged the dislike for 10k starting structure yesterday, but no excuses on that, we gave it a bash and we came up short. The 7.35 was missing, I did mean to enter the 7.45 in truth but I was wary of having too many tables and effecting my focus.
Anyways closing balance for today is £857 so its not been a great day but we got to play in a comp I've never played in, we gave ourselves the best opportunties for success we could, and thats all we can do. We dust ourselves off, and Be back on it tomorrow. Expecting lower volume as got pool games tomorrow night, but always good to get some daytime tournaments in.
Yes, I too think no Sunday 19:30 is an oversight.
@The_Don90
Another interesting write up, thanks Don.
"woke up at 2.25 and loaded it up on phone while doing wake up routines"
Dare I ask what "wake up routines" are?
Another day where nothing has gone right in truth. I forgot mum had booked lunch out, thankfully she messaged and reminded me rather early, so the 9.30 was my only morning mtt, 1 head in that, that I cant even remember how I got. Sure it was one of those short stack ones, were we get a full double off villian 2 and bust villian 1 though. After that and this will be a common theme today it was just swingy, win a small pot, lose a medium one. Eventually we open KK and open, and get the nice chill 4 out of a possible 4 callers. We straighty flushy flop we cbet, 3 stay in, draws complete on the turn and in truth unless river is a spade we're not putting a dime more in, it wasnt a spade infact i think it got even straightier. But that brought us back to starting. We shoved loads, never got called before eventually shoving 66 over a limp and 88 snapping us off out of blinds, thats all she wrote.
After lunch I got home at 1.45, I don't usually late reg bounty hunters, and wish I'd stuck to that rule today. But we flicked in the 1.30 and started well, we got upto 3k without a showdown, couple little pots here and there, and then a table move came. We were largest stack on the previous table which was passive. This was anything but, we adjusted tightened the range and open AA in the c/o. BTN and BB call, AQx flop with 2 hearts, we also have the Ah in hand. So pretty good flop for us. turn is an offsuit T and our villian jams on us. He has KJ and we get no help, the third tournament in 24 hours busted with a set. Pain.
At this point its 2.35 so flicked in the 2.30 again against my no late regging rule. This was way more puke. Slow grind up on first table we get to about 2.6k before being moved, on second table we see a villian who clearly wants to see every flop, make moves post and generally obviously out there having fun. We iso them with 97s and get a 986 flop with 2 diamonds, they only have 1k chips and with out cb they ship, we cant fold, we block the nuts, we have straight outs, and top pair. oh hes got T7o. ouch. Couple of small pots later we're down to 770 chips. We manage to spin that up back to 2.5k but a guy rivering a 2 outer for his set takes us back to 1.5k. At that point we're once again in shove/fold territory and looking for spots. Same villian min raises button and we have AJo in the SB. Ive played with this villian alot hes got a very wide open range and i expect extremely wide calls to a 3b jam here, on this occassion he actually had jacks tho. We dont get any help either.
3 mtts entered today, and due to time thats where itll stay, 1 head to show for it.
Closing balance £851 (we had £7.95 points money back)
I still feel I'm playing well and putting myself in +ev spots, expect a bigger session tomorrow. Pool tonight hense the early update, got a last 16 match which hopefully I'll get through and then if I get past that a quarter final match tonight, I think thats one hurdle too much for my pool ability tho.
@The_Don90
Great stuff Don, & good luck with the Pool tonight.
Starting with the pool on Monday, I put in one of my worst performances for years. My pool ability is far from amazing, but when I come away from A game its very obvious. And Monday was no exception, we fall to a 5-3 defeat in the last 16. I do get feeling our opponent was off A game too however so maybe we lose anyways.
Yesterday started how do we say, horrific. I got a reply from my lawyer, a reply I've been waiting for but tensions are high atm theres information that has to be passed on, and lets say it didn't go down well. Resulted in a rather stressful morning and while I'd planned to start early I know playing poker when stressed isn't going to be enjoyable, so I scurried back to bed to sleep off any negative emotions.
Waking up in time to get the 1.30 on my phone off we went. A decent start saw us get to 2.5k, in reality this was all from a BvB hand Im very proud of how i played, typically sizing my biggest issue. But here i found 2 streets of sized up to maximize our winnings against our villians second pair. However I'd made 3 opens and the nice chap to my left had 3b me on all 3 of them. On the 4th attempt once again he did it, we have AJo blockers to many of his good hands and that NO you cant have it every time mode. In hindsight, we can easily flat or 4b fold, I go for the overjam, he calls with AK and a KJx flop is no good for us.
The 2.30 was almost the opposite, really passive we have to see flops tables, which is fine. I played my game and started to adjust sizings, at one point im 7x opening and peeling 3 callers. The issue with these tables are, you need to have hands. and well I just didn't have hands. I think i had AK 4 or 5 times large open sizes brick flop pot lead into us lets us away for min, but those larger opens add up very very quickly. And we can't reload in mtts. Alas we bust this tournament not winning a single hand.
The 3.30 would be the last of my day time tables. Friend asked me to go out for dinner, but more than happy for me to have a table on phone, but that means only 1 table can be open we he arrives to pick us up. 1 head early in that, can't hand but do remember we were about 1.5k and villian was only player shorter than us. So thats a good turnover. From there it was a grind, and grind we did, never getting above 3k until 20players left, 2 quick doubles saw us have a chance, and we creeped into the money. 8k now and on bb at 200/400. 2 limps and I just jam ATo to maximise fold equity, I'll happily take a 10% increase in stack, 2 calls wait what... Things i didnt expect to happen.One villian then iso's and shows K9 but K has came out and thats all she wrote for 9th and money back.
From there night session was small, 6.30 7@7 7.30 and mini. Ill only really cover 6.30 here for time, 7@7 didnt go well, 2 pretty puke spots early left us busting, the 7.30 was no better. And mini we did get a head but a table with Barratt and StayorGo two players whos game i have huge respect for isn't your standard mini table early doors. That made it tough and spots weren't kind.
The 6.30 we got 2 heads for full stacks in level 1. First one we have 8s v A3 on 844Ax and our opponent set us in, second we opened A8s flopped top pair, added NFD on turn and rivered it against our ul opponent with T2P. I did take another head but in truth I cant remember that one before we clashed with Barelyther, another player whos game I respect massively, and I still remember his little segment back on Sky Poker TV. Spoke to him a few times too nice lad. Anyways he opens and we flat 78hh on the btn. flop of 9h Jh Xx sees us flop almost aswell as we can, we raise over his cb and he jams, we can't fold here with that equity and for the bet, he shows KK with the heart, so the Th turn doesn't end it despite our straight flush, but we dodge the one out redraw and take another head leaving us with a very strong stack. Eventually approaching the bubble we're 5/24 and the chip leader and eventual winner HomerJS limps, we raise AJo in the button and shorty in the SB ships for just over double our wager. Homer flats, and with a range I assume is pretty capped I shove to iso, with my stack he should be over folding, but hes been coy and snaps us with Jacks. We even see the case Jack for good measure. We've bust from a commanding position to not even making the money in the matter of seconds. That one was a hard pill to swollow.
Closing balance 827... and looking to regain some momentum today
Ha, excellent write up Don, enjoyed the ebbs & flows.
£11 BH
4 left, 3 paid.
Min cash £22!!!
Other 2 players have around the same stack size as Don.
We have talked about this hand for about an hour since, and Don insists he should have all the 4x here.
If he does then I think ive made a boo boo.
If he doesn't (which i suspect) then I think he's gone all catastrophe theory on me.
Let the people speak.
Yay, the @DOHHHHHHH is back too.
Good times. You OK JJ? Proud of your boy?
We've played 10.30, 11.30, 12.30, 1.30, 2.30, 3.30, 4pm (£11 shot), 4.30, 5.30, Main Semi Sat, 6.30, 7@7, Rebuy BH, 7.30. I did have mini registered but I've since unregged that and just going to chill and watch the football. Although may jump back in and play it on phone. If I do that will be in tomorrows update.
In truth we've had 3 runs, and 0 cashes. Its been a painful day, where most tournaments we're busting early. And not taking heads either doesnt help. I knew when starting this the run I was on would come to an end, but boy has it ended hard and fast.
With this many tournaments I cant mind alot of hands, infact the 4pm one is about all I can remember. Generally I feel like we've played well, but struggling to find premiums and even worse, them not holding when we have them, I've found myself trying to force the issue maybe a little too often. The 4pm probably sums this up more than anything.
Going into the 4pm I'd had one run where we bust in 9th with a single head AA v QQ flop came Q high and thats all she wrote there, we were abit wavy early but then UTG shoves for 5bb or so, 2 callers to us in the SB and next shortest stack I elect to try iso and take a flip for a head with 4s. I've been flipping like a 1 sided coin today, but we still have to take these plus EV spots and try take it with 2 calls worth of dead money and a head on the line. I wasn't loving it when we pinged 3 callers, a 4 on the turn meant a treble up and a head. And the one flip we won all day, was the least likely. We take 2 more heads before final table, where we're second in chips to the formidable @DOHHHHHHH who I know has also had a horror day. Again anything we do here is trying to make something happen as JJ quickly makes light work of the 2 shorties, meaning that in an 18 man tournament with 4 left between us we'd taken the heads of half the tournament, and 1st and 2nd in chips. I'd joke but hard to believe from there we finished 3rd and 4th respective. I made a wild move on JJ see hand above where i figured where I was in the hand, unfortunetly we cant be calling shoves with 8 high, even when we know the oppo isn't strong. Eventually we bubbled this 3b jamming A5 into a slow played AQ, we turned a 5 but a Q on the river sealed our fate. £15 back there and the only mtt today that shows any sort of profit.
The 7@7 was next closest with 2 heads, both all in on the river, and £6.60 back, we lost a major flip in this which would have had us as chup leader, both that very same villian then stacked us with our AK losing to his K9 all in pre.
I have no jumped back into the mini, but ill update that tomorrow and account closing balance for not playing it. as such closing balance is £763. Its been a -£64 day, and -£140 since our last cash above a min cash. We arent really taking heads either which is a worrying sign.
I will be taking Saturday off anyways as taking kids away but debating taking a couple of days to rest and reset.
Edit: We bust mini inside 15 mins and i Just thought id leave the exit hand to be shown this really sums up the day
Closing balance 758