Firstly thanks for all the support. I really appreciate it.
Sadly my procedure today was cancelled, seems my obs were a little off so I've to go back in 6 weeks or so, they'll ring me with a date.
Poker wise, from early on in July I had planned the end of the month withdrawl, I hadn't said because I wanted to balance building a roll and withdrawing a little. When I thought about it for a while I withdrew £257 plus change from sky to leave exactly £1000 in the roll, and i took £80 from the euros site, the euros site is much harder to judge because my poker account shows in euros and when you go to withdraw it shows in Pounds so I attempts to withdraw to leave exactly €200 and i got it within 21 cents so reasonable job there. I didn't touch stars as we're down there, but given field sizes, and stars generally being abit more reggy and hud use etc I'd be looking to judge results there over a 12 month period rather than a 1 month period, as i expect most months to be losing there and the 1 month when we get a couple of results to more that offset that. I'd honestly be a big advocate of a flatter payout structure over there. Our 3 deep runs have barely dented the entry fees of the 33 or so mtts we've played over there.
This really gives me alot of perspective however. I'm counting June as July tbh as was about 1 week and a day that I played in June so I think it's impossible to count it on its own but over a 5 or so week period, we started with £237 in one poker account. Since then we withdrew £150 to branch it over 3 accounts, we've withdraw just under £340 to go into life roll, wasted £30 on Harry Kane to do something useful, and our roll has grown to £1000, €200, and $70. Thats enough to also hopefully offset any downswings that will come our way.
And the reason I'm saying this, is I think its seriously easy especially after a few days where things haven't gone to plan, that I'm the issue. I can look at my final table game and say We've had 42 final tables on sky, I think (harder to track atm) a further 7 on eurosite, and 1 on stars, and I've only translated 6 of those to wins, I can easily look at it and say I'm the issue and I've ran good to get to those points. While I can obviously say yes we've had some run good, and I remember the last comp we won I stated in this very diary I ran hotter than lava, which is extremely important to acknowledge, I can also look at 4/5 heads up points where on another day thats a further £300-400 over the month we take if we hold in the right spots. I can also look at many mtts and say I got the best result on offer in that one, while looking at others when I've made a move at the wrong time and say I can learn from that. I can also acknowledge that making that move with that specific hand wasn't awful however with good notes I'd be able to range the opponent better and thus pick better spots. This can sound negative but trust me this is me typing positive with a very big smile on my face.
This isn't the first time I've successfully built a poker roll, however its the first time I've done it when life roll is also very healthy and I'm in no stress in regards to how to mange irl finances. The money withdrawn will go to paying off some stuff that needs paying off, but in truth I was just enjoying an interest free payment plan on those and wasn't rushing to pay them off anyways, rather just slowly and consistently building my life roll. Longer term I have ambitions to start my own business so since I had that ambition and seen that its achieveable, I've spent very little on myself and really been building and saving a good rainy day fund/investment to do that.
During this month I've also made several health improvements that playing Poker and thus being at home rather than out at the pub/restraunt has really helped drive home. I may actually need to go get some new trousers with the benefits I've had from that.
I'll leave this self reflection here for now, small potential for an evening session tonight but will see Mum still coming to make the dinner she had planned for post op so depends on when she leaves and I wont be rushing her out obviously.
Firstly a quick apology for no update, I haven't forgot about you all. Truth me told obs were off on Thursday, and I now see why. I'd had some earache on Wednesday but bareable, that got worse through Thursday and I started to feel run down. Ontop of that I couldn't sleeo through pain even with painkillers, turns out its a pretty nasty infection thats spread to ear. Loads of anti-biotics and stronger painkillers but still had around 6 hours sleep since Wednesday. Adding in having the kids, I felt that was a recipe for no poker. Ontop of that my keyboard also packed in so had to get a new one, although thats a far less pressing consern and just got a newer model for the one I had previous. Really like the Razer keyboard and mice.
I did however start making a spreadsheet to track my results, right now its fairly basic and tracks profit and loss for each day and accounts for rakeback and Euro sites currency conversion losses and gains (i didnt know that was a thing till I logged on today and my br there was 1% less than it was when i last logged on). Longer term I'll be able to track ROI by stake, hourly rate, session lengths and volume through it but again when tired and unwell theres a limit to how much formatting and messing about with layouts so its easy to use I can do.
Managed an hours nap after the kids left today so small (in terms of volume) evening session. Across all 3 sites.
I'll start with stars, and I've decided to start flicking in the Sunday Storm into my Sunday sessions, in truth without the main and mini I was finding I was ending sessions far earlier on a Sunday than other days. I don't expect to obviously make massive amounts from this, but its a kind of replacement for the main on a Sunday. Today we got a top 600 finish for $15+$15 in heads giving us a good ROI and for the first time I think since i transfered money over a profitable day on Stars.
Eurosite was a mix, the 2 usual majors, 1 head kind of in each. We took 1 head in the €10 and really had a swingy mtt, before busting, the €5 we split a head before busting with a cooler and taking a second bite, second bite was a +ev decision by on this occassion nothing really went right. We also played the €10 6 max major but despite a good start the wheels came off and we actually had a fairly early bust. And we playd the €5 series event they had on, we got a futher 1 head in that. All these heads of course don't cover the losses but they do mitigate them.
Sky we played the 5.30 and didn't last long, the 6.30 where we got a min cash with 3 heads for double our stake, unfortunetely didn't hold in important pots just after bubble burst, these things happen. I did take @DOHHHHHHH 's head however which gives me bragging rights in our group chat for a couple of days. The 7@7 we got 1 head but never really got going. And that was it for today. Was a couple of mtts missed due to too many tables but when I was down to just the storm there was only 3 mtts across all 3 sites that i fancied but in truth I knew I wasn't feeling great and I do feel I played okay but was away from my A game. So opted to rest and finish the storm on phone.
Mixed post this one, will cover some thoughts and results.
Firstly we'll starting with eurosite, usual suspects with the 2 5.05 majors. 1 head came in the €10 where it looked like same old when we lost with flopped top set, before another lad lost a big pot left with 3bb and shoved we reshoved which was an overshove but with AK and a bounty in play I don't mid the iso and I don't mind getting called, we got 2 callers from TT and 44 and won the flip to get a treble up plus a bounty. Before another TP+FD against lower pair+better FD all in on turn situation left us cripped. The €5 took the €10's usual spot by us just running generally grim.
Small session on sky seen us play the 5.30, 6.30, 7 @ 7, rebuy and 7.30. No luck in 7@7 and rebuy as we lost key spots early. The 6.30 seen us directly OOP to a rec who I'll be honest just runs me around in circles. Don't think I've ever value owned myself against someone as much as I do against this villian. Mixed with them being on a mini heater we were in for a bad time. The 5.30 seen us min cash in 6th with 4 heads for a okay return, and the 7.30 seen 1 better for 5th with 2 heads but both coming later on so worth a little more for another small return.
As a result we're now showing a small profit on Sky and Stars for the month while losses on eurosite eclipse these profits meaning we're still marginally in the red. Of course however I do acknowledge that this is a TINY sample size.
My biggest consern and its a major one is given a few weeks of deep runs but not converting those deep runs into proper results, and this was vividly noticable after the 5.30 inparticular I'm completely berate of confidence atm. I know this is normal for mtt grinders, and I am looking at my excel sheet which is claiming after just 5 £5.50 bhs this month (not including the rebuy) I've got an ROI of 169% which would suggest I'm still way above EV. Obviously this is balanced out by the negative ROI in both rebuy and 7@7's I've played. But I'm trying to look at that as a positive rather than a negative. In truth I ended up 1 tabling the 7.30 on phone, partly to reduce temptation of loading more, but mostly because I wanted to review things as I go, am I folding too much, am i calling too much, playing too many hands etc. That proved to be extremely tough to judge as honestly I had probably one of the least interesting hours of poker. Honestly I could have had a nap and played more hands. And that wasn't through choice. We were treading water at around 1.5k for alot of the 7.30 before finally getting a few raises through with marginals at 50/100, which got us upto I think 2.3k before we got our first double, our second came quickly after then a few more small pots before our third double took us to chip leader. No heads mind, but the grind and patience had paid off. We eventually took a couple of heads, and a couple of hits going into the money 2/10. This was similar to the 5.30 where we where 2/8. The 5.30 is much more obvious what went wrong, we were on the wrong end of 2 coolers 4 handed against the shortest stack in the mtt (respective at the time) but they were still 15bb each time. And i dont mean bounty hunter coolers where your calling wider, TT into QQ then AQ into KK before QQ v A9 v TT on final table and not holding. The 7.30 leaves me scratching my head a little more. We were cruising, 1/9, 2/8, then suddenly 3/6 then lose a flip 4/6 then 5/5 and suddenly the cards dried up with a table that clearly wanted to see flops, or just shove all in for 40bb effective. Each to their own. But this left me in a pickle when I'm going 4/5/6 orbits of 93, 72, 73 etc. Bliding away, the marginals I'm opening I'm getting snap jammed over cbets when we've flopped sideways. In truth I was taking a paper areoplane to a gun fight. But this has been the same two stories for nearly every final table for 3 weeks, and theres a point where I have to look at myself and say is it something I'm doing. Maybe it is, maybe its a wierd bad patch. Who knows. I'll figure it out though.
In truth I need to see out one of these deep runs just to get momentum back, not so much for the money but just to feel like last month wasn't a fluke.
Poker wise I also need to work some things out, tomorrow, friday and sat will be low volume days again, Next week I've no kids bar youngest on the sat so much higher volume anticipated, but then kids are back to school and with only being able to 1 table on my phone I do wonder what volume I can put in during that time, some morning mtts are viable, maybe some cash on eurosite. And evening grinds as we've been doing. This is all stuff I have to figure out.
First up the bad news. Not been much volume I had planned to hammer it yesterday but this infection was only stemming to get worse and ended up back in hosp for a few hours. Few new meds and seem to be slowly on the mend but for now will be playing when feeling able and being very cautious to not over do it.
Onto todays Poker. Between the meds and a tonne of painkillers I felt fairly able for most of the day, I did wind down session early resulting in 3 hours of 1 tabling at the end but I'd rather do that than over extend myself and feel worse.
Played is the 1.30, 1.45, 2pm, 2.30, 3.30, 5.30, 6.30 and 7@7. Eurosite had 2 usual majors and a random €10 during the day.
In truth the biggest positive out of today is I can't remember many hands, good or bad which is usually a positive. I also feel like a small nation in Paris as we've taken home 1 gold, 2 silvers and a bronze. More on that in a minute.
We'll start with Eurosite, the random daytime one I think we got a head, but no luck on a run, the €10 major was same old, grind away don't get the spots. The €5 major however has been a very nice bedfellow to us and I'm proud to announce we've got a new personal best. Sadly we've only improved 1 place to 2nd. Bit of a mega frustrating mtt deep in it, the lad who finished third sucked out on us several times, with a €30 bounty on his head anyone of those would have been a 20% increase to our finishing score, heads up was uber frustrating as probably the most insane hu I've ever had, literally won a total of 0 hands. But that is what it is.
Onto Sky which started well with a third place finish in the 1.45 turbo. And we followed that up by winning the 2.30. Yes I know we actually won a heads up. Its been a while and I'm pretty sure I'm going to wake up from this dream in a medication induced state any time now. But that felt pretty good. We also final tabled the 5.30 losing heads up against regular in here @mumsie , Great heads up it was and again very different to how I'm used to on sky so was an absolute pleasure to test myself there regardless of result.
I said in the last update I was feeling very berate of confidence in truth today I woke up and had a hunger to play, It's probably the best I've played for a while (granted volume this month has been tiny), very few mistakes, moves got through, won hands in spots where I needed to, but to also convert all 4 of my final tables today to 1st, 2nd 2nd and 3rd shows big improvement on recent deep runs too. The heads ups will come in time, but for now, lets focus on the positives.
Eurosite is now showing profit for the first time this month aswell, and bankrolls back increasing. Hoping I can continue some of this form tomorrow. Pending I'm well enough.
I didn't update yesterday as just a bad mental day. I hadn't tweeked onto it and had tried a session but very quickly was apparent I was not in the correct headspace. We but all 4 entered tournaments within 70 mins of the session starting. In truth after that I went for a nap, then watched the football, which was extremely tilting with a middling performance for us before a complete nonsense red card. At that point I just chose not to update here while in a negative headspace.
In truth I'm writing this because while yesterday wasn't about the poker it did allow me to spot some leaks. I was in 4 mtts in level 1/2/3 etc and playing like I was deep in an ante mtt. Overly aggro. And this is me looking back, this isn't the first time I've done this. Looking back theres been 2/3 times after deep runs on stars or eurosite that the next day I've been in the gear that I've played at the tail end of that mtt.
While of course its not bad to be aggressive, and its important I remember to slow down after games like this, theres a big difference between a 5-6bb 3b with 4.6bb in the middle in a spot where icm is a thing to a 9-12bb 3b with 3.5bb in the middle against a player who doesn't have much of an open folding range early in an mtt. Now I'm saying this more for myself, I have been working to add more 3b's and 4b's to my range, and this will also be a factor, but its also something I need to make sure I'm doing correctly rather than we can pile on pressure onto this player here. In level one of the mtt they just have their JTs and want to see the flop, so our 3b has to be for the right reasons.
Overall I played extremely poor yesterday, my mindset would have been part of that, I know theres 2 spots where I didn''t find a trivial fold, but theres also the above aswell.
I'll update balances at end of play today, I'm feeling a fair bit better, plan is to start with the 12.30 on phone, hunt for mistakes then start with same starting session as past few days at 1.30.
Simply put this has been a testing and long day. ups and downs. highs and lows.
Starting with the 12.30. We came second in this with I think a tenner in heads. I'll cut to chase with this tho, I'm extremely proud of this heads up performance. I can say I've not played amazing recently and part of that will have been some bad rng effecting my HU confidence but despite losing this one this is a big confidence booster. Losing again to bad RNG we had QQ v KK early in the HU, amazingly reviewing this hand, I think had I been one tabling and not in a 3b pot on my other table and thinking and breaking down the line, I can actually fold QQ here v this villian hu. However, i was in a massive pot on the other table, and I had a premium and while im focusing on range in another hand its easy to go QQ heads up is a simple get in. That was the one mistake all heads up. And if thats the one mistake then I can live with that. After that hand we were down to 12k and quicly whittled down to a low point of 6.6k (5bb from memory) against our villians 94k i think. Was around 100k chips in play, maybe slightly less so was there or there abouts. From there, without once being all in and called, we ground back up. This was by far the longest heads up I've ever played on sky and by the 3.30 we'd chipped away enough we took the chip lead. It was wavy they'd win a few, I'd win a few, but i minimised the value i offered out, maximised the value I got in return in what was a very small ball poker strategy. Making big laydowns when I needed to. Another wave of theirs and we found ourselves 1.5bb behind them going into the final hand, they limp we raise with AQdd and they call, A56 flop and they check jam, was the first time they'd made a play like this and in truth i felt when they were going large on boards it was ttypically tilt against me building back so I called and saw 34, turn 7 leaves us dead. 2 all ins entire heads up and we lost both, in truth i was very tilted after this hu, I was massively proud of my performance but I felt like I couldn't have down a single bit more to win it. I had the 2.30 left going after no success in the 1.30, 1.45 or 2pm or eurosite €10 and thats where the major hand had came from.
We got our money back in heads and despite being in good shape heading towards final table we lost a couple of pots, hobbled onto final table but couldn't spin up. Despite the tilt I was extremely happy with how I was playing and more importantly I was happy I wasn't letting that tilt effect my game. I hadn't registered the 3.30 because I was aware with the 2.30 and the hu taking alot of my focus I was struggling so opted to miss the 4.30 take a breather make food and return for evening session.
Usual evening session 2 eurosite majors, 5.30, 6.30, 7@7, 7.30 and main and mini shot. 2 eurosites saw us take a head and have a potential at a run in the €10 but we lost 2 or 3 too many flips for heads and eventually found ourselves a wounded animal. A few fake spin ups offered hope as we'd get half doubles here and there, before eventually losing another flip to bust. The €5 was going well and grindy but blinds go up abit faster in that one, and eventually we lost a major pot BvB JJ v AQ which was very oddly played especially for BvB 18bb effective, that left us with 0.5bb and in sb next hand. No spin up to be hand.
Sky saw the 5.30 get 3 heads and stone bubble after losing 2 flips in an orbit (AJ v 55 and AJ v 33) v the same opponent, we'd been in great shape with 8 left in this but thingsd just went against us. 3 heads in the 7@7 meaning both these comps paid for themselves. A semi deep run in both main and 7.30 but no heads in either sealed a losing day despite 2 final tables. Mini exit is only other thing worth noting, simple bad beat yawn but craziness saw us all in pre in a 5b pot with JJ v QJ for 50bb. We were covered by about 3bb. sigh.
Another slog today as we played purely an evening session, appointmet on a thursday runs for 4 more weeks. Ontop of that I'm starting to get alot of side effects from all the meds I'm currently on, so playing was abit more forced than normal.
Usual two eurosite majors, 1 head in thr €5 once more, and a run in the €10 once again but also coming unstuck about 15 from the money against a fairly loose call to our 14bb jam, no heads there tho, we'd actually started steady there before winning a couple of big pots when at risk to get to 60bb but then I dont think we won another hand. Going card dead at the wrong time and slowly whittling down to our exit.
Sky was abit more interesting, altho grim on the most part. 5.30, 6.30, 7@7 and the rebuy all showed a return of 1 head. We were winning the small pots but losing the major ones, and that was a serious problem. At that point being ill and grumpy I decided no more. I still had the 7.30 and switched that to phone while doing other stuff to tbh not think about poker. Mostly eating Ice Cream.
The 7.30 returned a head quickly after this switch then we got jammed on for 3x pot when we turned a set, and held against the flush draw. From there we were stable and hovered around 5-8k for a while before calling a shorty shove and being overcalled with ATs Axx flop and villian jams over our small bet with 88 we hold to take both the heads and move to 15k where we'd kind of just get stuck all the way until 8 left. At that point a few 3b jams got through, and we trickled up a little bit. But still no major pots coming our way before final table. We arrived there with 20k (20bb) and bb first hand, well we couldn't see our cards against a min open and call, turns out we had 66 and would probably have 3b jammed, thats compounded when the flop comes 6KQr. Im just going to pretend the min opener that then won with cbet had KK to make myself feel better. 2 hands later tho theres an open jam infront of us that covers us and this time we can see those beautiful Aces staring at us and we call and hold against AK. Eventually we ladder to 3rd and find ourselves 3/3 but with a playable 30bb. We ground to chip lead through our aggression and picking spots, no major hands before as chip leader i put pressure on second in chips at the wrong time, I have an open ended straight draw to the nuts and ask him to play for his tournament, unfortunetely for me he had top of his range with an overpair than also blocked 2 of our outs. With 3bb left, we check bb next hand and flop a flush draw shove into the 2 limpers and for second hand in a row brick the draw. third will have to do.
That means we finish down on the day but +£2 on sky. In truth I'm finding this month very taxing, I know at times im playing well, but others I know I'm well below capacity. The issue is poker is also offering me routine which has been amazing for my mental health, So theres positives to the negatives. Today was a day where I was so far below 100%, i know we made alot of mistakes and missed some very easy folds. 1 tabling at the end was fine. But any more than that was too much. After today volume im unsure on, kids are back at school, pool season starts again in 2 weeks, tomorrow I have plans and with kids routine I think it'll probably be eurosite cash during day, and usual evening grind. I'm also going to adjust how I shot take, I just feel im not getting volume in those shots to give a proper reflection and days like yest where im profitable across the board but down on day because I've taken a shot I find are denting confidence, all well and good of course when those shots go correct. And thats something I need to work on, but instead I'm considering shot take days rather than 1/2 on the side, so instead of playing the £5.50 daily schedule I'll have a day or two every so often where i play the £11 schedule and maybe main shot on those days. This is maybe something I need advice from others tho, I've never been great at shot taking.
When you have a winning day, why not treat yourself to some shots with the "casino money" so to speak @The_Don90 on a chosen day. Alternatively play your bread and butter all week, make the easy cash when it is available and shot take on either a Friday or Sunday when the gtds are always bigger generally speaking, the fields are larger and the rewards are much greater. You will also prob find it much softer as well as the recreational is out on force Fri-Sun.
I think you can be quite loose with shot taking on Sky tbh, small fields and reasonably soft. I'd be playing Mains with a 1k roll, plus you can always keep the abi down by playing plenty of fiver comps on the side. If bankroll drops then just drop the higher buy ins until you're back above 1k.
Firstly thank you for above replies. I will consider those options for now I think I'll stick to a plan of dropping to the 5's again getting some confidence back and get the roll moving. Then go for the above advice.
In truth I'm typing this late because I can't sleep again, even loaded up some stars, I'll update results tomorrow but its stars so I'm not expecting much. Just tick off the power thingy ticket. My plans for today go cancelled so Poker it was.
Today was a testing day once more, we played the 1.30 and lasted about two orbits before busting with AA, and that really set the tone for most of the day. Busting most tournaments without so much of a sniff. I'll be honest we weren't close to A game and I'll go onto that shortly, but I took us till the rebuy bounty hunter to so much as take a head. With the 1.30, 3.30, 4.30, 5.30, 6.30 and 7@7 all falling before that. We got past add on period but in truth I've been working on some things in my game, and well when you try to add things we make mistakes and today we made a mistake in doing that, 3b jamming far too wide. I've said loads I struggle to learn through charts and this is a mistake I've made by trying to improve by reading charts. For what its worth, the chart said I got it wrong too. We learn from this. However that brought some momentum. The 7.30 promised much with 4 heads leading to the final table. We took our second bronze medal in this comp in as many days. Much tougher final 3 today, infact a pretty strong final table for any £5 comp, and final 3 we were 2-1 dog, we took our spot and it didn't work out.
Eurosite was better than sky today, I missed my regular duo, instead opting for a regular €5 that was well positioned for us to be needing an extra table, and the €5 6 max turbo major. The turbo we got an early head before busting in a crazy hand. Monster pot, 2 heads avaliable to us as we cold 6b jam (we 3b and it was then 4b shove and 5b reshove before coming back to us) AA and get called by the only guy on the table that covers us with Q6s. We ended up coming 3rd in the hand behind the shorties K9s and villians Q6s as they both hit their respective flushes. Holding there would have gave us a serious shot at going seriously deep. Plus of course the 2 extra heads. The standard one we got a few heads (cant mind exact amount) and got to final table, with 8 left we were even a decent chip leader, but then finished 7th. That secures a small winning day on eurosite a small losing day overall.
In truth a little disappointed to find myself in loss with that finish but the damage was done early on and we recovered to the best of our ability. I really wasn't feeling well again today, these meds are knocking me for 6. And that is drastically reducing my playing ability, but also my patience and im more reactive to beats than I have been of late. I know its going to get harder to maintain sessions going forward and I've put far too much pressure on myself this week to play and do well, and thats really harmed alot of why I was enjoying being back. I need to avoid that pressure. just focus on enjoying it, and the results will come was what was working, and thats what i need to get back to. Thats when I play my best.
The only other thing I'll ask. Maybe this is a me thing, but when I'm playing i find myself shuffling coins I have on my desk. I find this rather theraputic. I guess its maybe an old live habit and having them there just allowing me to do it, but arm position on desk isnt great, and elbows really starting to bruise. Anyone else have this issue, and maybe recommend some elbow padding?
Comments
Sadly my procedure today was cancelled, seems my obs were a little off so I've to go back in 6 weeks or so, they'll ring me with a date.
Poker wise, from early on in July I had planned the end of the month withdrawl, I hadn't said because I wanted to balance building a roll and withdrawing a little. When I thought about it for a while I withdrew £257 plus change from sky to leave exactly £1000 in the roll, and i took £80 from the euros site, the euros site is much harder to judge because my poker account shows in euros and when you go to withdraw it shows in Pounds so I attempts to withdraw to leave exactly €200 and i got it within 21 cents so reasonable job there. I didn't touch stars as we're down there, but given field sizes, and stars generally being abit more reggy and hud use etc I'd be looking to judge results there over a 12 month period rather than a 1 month period, as i expect most months to be losing there and the 1 month when we get a couple of results to more that offset that. I'd honestly be a big advocate of a flatter payout structure over there. Our 3 deep runs have barely dented the entry fees of the 33 or so mtts we've played over there.
This really gives me alot of perspective however. I'm counting June as July tbh as was about 1 week and a day that I played in June so I think it's impossible to count it on its own but over a 5 or so week period, we started with £237 in one poker account. Since then we withdrew £150 to branch it over 3 accounts, we've withdraw just under £340 to go into life roll, wasted £30 on Harry Kane to do something useful, and our roll has grown to £1000, €200, and $70. Thats enough to also hopefully offset any downswings that will come our way.
And the reason I'm saying this, is I think its seriously easy especially after a few days where things haven't gone to plan, that I'm the issue. I can look at my final table game and say We've had 42 final tables on sky, I think (harder to track atm) a further 7 on eurosite, and 1 on stars, and I've only translated 6 of those to wins, I can easily look at it and say I'm the issue and I've ran good to get to those points. While I can obviously say yes we've had some run good, and I remember the last comp we won I stated in this very diary I ran hotter than lava, which is extremely important to acknowledge, I can also look at 4/5 heads up points where on another day thats a further £300-400 over the month we take if we hold in the right spots. I can also look at many mtts and say I got the best result on offer in that one, while looking at others when I've made a move at the wrong time and say I can learn from that. I can also acknowledge that making that move with that specific hand wasn't awful however with good notes I'd be able to range the opponent better and thus pick better spots. This can sound negative but trust me this is me typing positive with a very big smile on my face.
This isn't the first time I've successfully built a poker roll, however its the first time I've done it when life roll is also very healthy and I'm in no stress in regards to how to mange irl finances. The money withdrawn will go to paying off some stuff that needs paying off, but in truth I was just enjoying an interest free payment plan on those and wasn't rushing to pay them off anyways, rather just slowly and consistently building my life roll. Longer term I have ambitions to start my own business so since I had that ambition and seen that its achieveable, I've spent very little on myself and really been building and saving a good rainy day fund/investment to do that.
During this month I've also made several health improvements that playing Poker and thus being at home rather than out at the pub/restraunt has really helped drive home. I may actually need to go get some new trousers with the benefits I've had from that.
I'll leave this self reflection here for now, small potential for an evening session tonight but will see Mum still coming to make the dinner she had planned for post op so depends on when she leaves and I wont be rushing her out obviously.
Starting balances
Sky: £1000
Euro €200
Stars $70
I did however start making a spreadsheet to track my results, right now its fairly basic and tracks profit and loss for each day and accounts for rakeback and Euro sites currency conversion losses and gains (i didnt know that was a thing till I logged on today and my br there was 1% less than it was when i last logged on). Longer term I'll be able to track ROI by stake, hourly rate, session lengths and volume through it but again when tired and unwell theres a limit to how much formatting and messing about with layouts so its easy to use I can do.
Managed an hours nap after the kids left today so small (in terms of volume) evening session. Across all 3 sites.
I'll start with stars, and I've decided to start flicking in the Sunday Storm into my Sunday sessions, in truth without the main and mini I was finding I was ending sessions far earlier on a Sunday than other days. I don't expect to obviously make massive amounts from this, but its a kind of replacement for the main on a Sunday. Today we got a top 600 finish for $15+$15 in heads giving us a good ROI and for the first time I think since i transfered money over a profitable day on Stars.
Eurosite was a mix, the 2 usual majors, 1 head kind of in each. We took 1 head in the €10 and really had a swingy mtt, before busting, the €5 we split a head before busting with a cooler and taking a second bite, second bite was a +ev decision by on this occassion nothing really went right. We also played the €10 6 max major but despite a good start the wheels came off and we actually had a fairly early bust. And we playd the €5 series event they had on, we got a futher 1 head in that. All these heads of course don't cover the losses but they do mitigate them.
Sky we played the 5.30 and didn't last long, the 6.30 where we got a min cash with 3 heads for double our stake, unfortunetely didn't hold in important pots just after bubble burst, these things happen. I did take @DOHHHHHHH 's head however which gives me bragging rights in our group chat for a couple of days. The 7@7 we got 1 head but never really got going. And that was it for today. Was a couple of mtts missed due to too many tables but when I was down to just the storm there was only 3 mtts across all 3 sites that i fancied but in truth I knew I wasn't feeling great and I do feel I played okay but was away from my A game. So opted to rest and finish the storm on phone.
Closing Balances
Sky: £995
Eurosite: €169
Stars: $90
Good stuff Don. Hope you soon feel better bud. Playing when unwell is not wise, so if you are not right, take a break for a day or two.
Firstly we'll starting with eurosite, usual suspects with the 2 5.05 majors. 1 head came in the €10 where it looked like same old when we lost with flopped top set, before another lad lost a big pot left with 3bb and shoved we reshoved which was an overshove but with AK and a bounty in play I don't mid the iso and I don't mind getting called, we got 2 callers from TT and 44 and won the flip to get a treble up plus a bounty. Before another TP+FD against lower pair+better FD all in on turn situation left us cripped. The €5 took the €10's usual spot by us just running generally grim.
Small session on sky seen us play the 5.30, 6.30, 7 @ 7, rebuy and 7.30. No luck in 7@7 and rebuy as we lost key spots early. The 6.30 seen us directly OOP to a rec who I'll be honest just runs me around in circles. Don't think I've ever value owned myself against someone as much as I do against this villian. Mixed with them being on a mini heater we were in for a bad time. The 5.30 seen us min cash in 6th with 4 heads for a okay return, and the 7.30 seen 1 better for 5th with 2 heads but both coming later on so worth a little more for another small return.
As a result we're now showing a small profit on Sky and Stars for the month while losses on eurosite eclipse these profits meaning we're still marginally in the red. Of course however I do acknowledge that this is a TINY sample size.
My biggest consern and its a major one is given a few weeks of deep runs but not converting those deep runs into proper results, and this was vividly noticable after the 5.30 inparticular I'm completely berate of confidence atm. I know this is normal for mtt grinders, and I am looking at my excel sheet which is claiming after just 5 £5.50 bhs this month (not including the rebuy) I've got an ROI of 169% which would suggest I'm still way above EV. Obviously this is balanced out by the negative ROI in both rebuy and 7@7's I've played. But I'm trying to look at that as a positive rather than a negative. In truth I ended up 1 tabling the 7.30 on phone, partly to reduce temptation of loading more, but mostly because I wanted to review things as I go, am I folding too much, am i calling too much, playing too many hands etc. That proved to be extremely tough to judge as honestly I had probably one of the least interesting hours of poker. Honestly I could have had a nap and played more hands. And that wasn't through choice. We were treading water at around 1.5k for alot of the 7.30 before finally getting a few raises through with marginals at 50/100, which got us upto I think 2.3k before we got our first double, our second came quickly after then a few more small pots before our third double took us to chip leader. No heads mind, but the grind and patience had paid off. We eventually took a couple of heads, and a couple of hits going into the money 2/10. This was similar to the 5.30 where we where 2/8. The 5.30 is much more obvious what went wrong, we were on the wrong end of 2 coolers 4 handed against the shortest stack in the mtt (respective at the time) but they were still 15bb each time. And i dont mean bounty hunter coolers where your calling wider, TT into QQ then AQ into KK before QQ v A9 v TT on final table and not holding. The 7.30 leaves me scratching my head a little more. We were cruising, 1/9, 2/8, then suddenly 3/6 then lose a flip 4/6 then 5/5 and suddenly the cards dried up with a table that clearly wanted to see flops, or just shove all in for 40bb effective. Each to their own. But this left me in a pickle when I'm going 4/5/6 orbits of 93, 72, 73 etc. Bliding away, the marginals I'm opening I'm getting snap jammed over cbets when we've flopped sideways. In truth I was taking a paper areoplane to a gun fight. But this has been the same two stories for nearly every final table for 3 weeks, and theres a point where I have to look at myself and say is it something I'm doing. Maybe it is, maybe its a wierd bad patch. Who knows. I'll figure it out though.
In truth I need to see out one of these deep runs just to get momentum back, not so much for the money but just to feel like last month wasn't a fluke.
Poker wise I also need to work some things out, tomorrow, friday and sat will be low volume days again, Next week I've no kids bar youngest on the sat so much higher volume anticipated, but then kids are back to school and with only being able to 1 table on my phone I do wonder what volume I can put in during that time, some morning mtts are viable, maybe some cash on eurosite. And evening grinds as we've been doing. This is all stuff I have to figure out.
Closing balances
Sky: £1009
Eurosite: €154
Onto todays Poker. Between the meds and a tonne of painkillers I felt fairly able for most of the day, I did wind down session early resulting in 3 hours of 1 tabling at the end but I'd rather do that than over extend myself and feel worse.
Played is the 1.30, 1.45, 2pm, 2.30, 3.30, 5.30, 6.30 and 7@7. Eurosite had 2 usual majors and a random €10 during the day.
In truth the biggest positive out of today is I can't remember many hands, good or bad which is usually a positive. I also feel like a small nation in Paris as we've taken home 1 gold, 2 silvers and a bronze. More on that in a minute.
We'll start with Eurosite, the random daytime one I think we got a head, but no luck on a run, the €10 major was same old, grind away don't get the spots. The €5 major however has been a very nice bedfellow to us and I'm proud to announce we've got a new personal best. Sadly we've only improved 1 place to 2nd. Bit of a mega frustrating mtt deep in it, the lad who finished third sucked out on us several times, with a €30 bounty on his head anyone of those would have been a 20% increase to our finishing score, heads up was uber frustrating as probably the most insane hu I've ever had, literally won a total of 0 hands. But that is what it is.
Onto Sky which started well with a third place finish in the 1.45 turbo. And we followed that up by winning the 2.30. Yes I know we actually won a heads up. Its been a while and I'm pretty sure I'm going to wake up from this dream in a medication induced state any time now. But that felt pretty good. We also final tabled the 5.30 losing heads up against regular in here @mumsie , Great heads up it was and again very different to how I'm used to on sky so was an absolute pleasure to test myself there regardless of result.
I said in the last update I was feeling very berate of confidence in truth today I woke up and had a hunger to play, It's probably the best I've played for a while (granted volume this month has been tiny), very few mistakes, moves got through, won hands in spots where I needed to, but to also convert all 4 of my final tables today to 1st, 2nd 2nd and 3rd shows big improvement on recent deep runs too. The heads ups will come in time, but for now, lets focus on the positives.
Eurosite is now showing profit for the first time this month aswell, and bankrolls back increasing. Hoping I can continue some of this form tomorrow. Pending I'm well enough.
Closing Balances.
Sky £1108
Eurosite €243
You write so much better these days Don, you've obviously worked at it. Well done mate.
I didn't update yesterday as just a bad mental day. I hadn't tweeked onto it and had tried a session but very quickly was apparent I was not in the correct headspace. We but all 4 entered tournaments within 70 mins of the session starting. In truth after that I went for a nap, then watched the football, which was extremely tilting with a middling performance for us before a complete nonsense red card. At that point I just chose not to update here while in a negative headspace.
In truth I'm writing this because while yesterday wasn't about the poker it did allow me to spot some leaks. I was in 4 mtts in level 1/2/3 etc and playing like I was deep in an ante mtt. Overly aggro. And this is me looking back, this isn't the first time I've done this. Looking back theres been 2/3 times after deep runs on stars or eurosite that the next day I've been in the gear that I've played at the tail end of that mtt.
While of course its not bad to be aggressive, and its important I remember to slow down after games like this, theres a big difference between a 5-6bb 3b with 4.6bb in the middle in a spot where icm is a thing to a 9-12bb 3b with 3.5bb in the middle against a player who doesn't have much of an open folding range early in an mtt. Now I'm saying this more for myself, I have been working to add more 3b's and 4b's to my range, and this will also be a factor, but its also something I need to make sure I'm doing correctly rather than we can pile on pressure onto this player here. In level one of the mtt they just have their JTs and want to see the flop, so our 3b has to be for the right reasons.
Overall I played extremely poor yesterday, my mindset would have been part of that, I know theres 2 spots where I didn''t find a trivial fold, but theres also the above aswell.
I'll update balances at end of play today, I'm feeling a fair bit better, plan is to start with the 12.30 on phone, hunt for mistakes then start with same starting session as past few days at 1.30.
Starting with the 12.30. We came second in this with I think a tenner in heads. I'll cut to chase with this tho, I'm extremely proud of this heads up performance. I can say I've not played amazing recently and part of that will have been some bad rng effecting my HU confidence but despite losing this one this is a big confidence booster. Losing again to bad RNG we had QQ v KK early in the HU, amazingly reviewing this hand, I think had I been one tabling and not in a 3b pot on my other table and thinking and breaking down the line, I can actually fold QQ here v this villian hu. However, i was in a massive pot on the other table, and I had a premium and while im focusing on range in another hand its easy to go QQ heads up is a simple get in. That was the one mistake all heads up. And if thats the one mistake then I can live with that. After that hand we were down to 12k and quicly whittled down to a low point of 6.6k (5bb from memory) against our villians 94k i think. Was around 100k chips in play, maybe slightly less so was there or there abouts. From there, without once being all in and called, we ground back up. This was by far the longest heads up I've ever played on sky and by the 3.30 we'd chipped away enough we took the chip lead. It was wavy they'd win a few, I'd win a few, but i minimised the value i offered out, maximised the value I got in return in what was a very small ball poker strategy. Making big laydowns when I needed to. Another wave of theirs and we found ourselves 1.5bb behind them going into the final hand, they limp we raise with AQdd and they call, A56 flop and they check jam, was the first time they'd made a play like this and in truth i felt when they were going large on boards it was ttypically tilt against me building back so I called and saw 34, turn 7 leaves us dead. 2 all ins entire heads up and we lost both, in truth i was very tilted after this hu, I was massively proud of my performance but I felt like I couldn't have down a single bit more to win it. I had the 2.30 left going after no success in the 1.30, 1.45 or 2pm or eurosite €10 and thats where the major hand had came from.
We got our money back in heads and despite being in good shape heading towards final table we lost a couple of pots, hobbled onto final table but couldn't spin up. Despite the tilt I was extremely happy with how I was playing and more importantly I was happy I wasn't letting that tilt effect my game. I hadn't registered the 3.30 because I was aware with the 2.30 and the hu taking alot of my focus I was struggling so opted to miss the 4.30 take a breather make food and return for evening session.
Usual evening session 2 eurosite majors, 5.30, 6.30, 7@7, 7.30 and main and mini shot. 2 eurosites saw us take a head and have a potential at a run in the €10 but we lost 2 or 3 too many flips for heads and eventually found ourselves a wounded animal. A few fake spin ups offered hope as we'd get half doubles here and there, before eventually losing another flip to bust. The €5 was going well and grindy but blinds go up abit faster in that one, and eventually we lost a major pot BvB JJ v AQ which was very oddly played especially for BvB 18bb effective, that left us with 0.5bb and in sb next hand. No spin up to be hand.
Sky saw the 5.30 get 3 heads and stone bubble after losing 2 flips in an orbit (AJ v 55 and AJ v 33) v the same opponent, we'd been in great shape with 8 left in this but thingsd just went against us. 3 heads in the 7@7 meaning both these comps paid for themselves. A semi deep run in both main and 7.30 but no heads in either sealed a losing day despite 2 final tables. Mini exit is only other thing worth noting, simple bad beat yawn but craziness saw us all in pre in a 5b pot with JJ v QJ for 50bb. We were covered by about 3bb. sigh.
Closing balances.
Sky: £1076
Eurosite: €211
Usual two eurosite majors, 1 head in thr €5 once more, and a run in the €10 once again but also coming unstuck about 15 from the money against a fairly loose call to our 14bb jam, no heads there tho, we'd actually started steady there before winning a couple of big pots when at risk to get to 60bb but then I dont think we won another hand. Going card dead at the wrong time and slowly whittling down to our exit.
Sky was abit more interesting, altho grim on the most part. 5.30, 6.30, 7@7 and the rebuy all showed a return of 1 head. We were winning the small pots but losing the major ones, and that was a serious problem. At that point being ill and grumpy I decided no more. I still had the 7.30 and switched that to phone while doing other stuff to tbh not think about poker. Mostly eating Ice Cream.
The 7.30 returned a head quickly after this switch then we got jammed on for 3x pot when we turned a set, and held against the flush draw. From there we were stable and hovered around 5-8k for a while before calling a shorty shove and being overcalled with ATs Axx flop and villian jams over our small bet with 88 we hold to take both the heads and move to 15k where we'd kind of just get stuck all the way until 8 left. At that point a few 3b jams got through, and we trickled up a little bit. But still no major pots coming our way before final table. We arrived there with 20k (20bb) and bb first hand, well we couldn't see our cards against a min open and call, turns out we had 66 and would probably have 3b jammed, thats compounded when the flop comes 6KQr. Im just going to pretend the min opener that then won with cbet had KK to make myself feel better. 2 hands later tho theres an open jam infront of us that covers us and this time we can see those beautiful Aces staring at us and we call and hold against AK. Eventually we ladder to 3rd and find ourselves 3/3 but with a playable 30bb. We ground to chip lead through our aggression and picking spots, no major hands before as chip leader i put pressure on second in chips at the wrong time, I have an open ended straight draw to the nuts and ask him to play for his tournament, unfortunetely for me he had top of his range with an overpair than also blocked 2 of our outs. With 3bb left, we check bb next hand and flop a flush draw shove into the 2 limpers and for second hand in a row brick the draw. third will have to do.
That means we finish down on the day but +£2 on sky. In truth I'm finding this month very taxing, I know at times im playing well, but others I know I'm well below capacity. The issue is poker is also offering me routine which has been amazing for my mental health, So theres positives to the negatives. Today was a day where I was so far below 100%, i know we made alot of mistakes and missed some very easy folds. 1 tabling at the end was fine. But any more than that was too much. After today volume im unsure on, kids are back at school, pool season starts again in 2 weeks, tomorrow I have plans and with kids routine I think it'll probably be eurosite cash during day, and usual evening grind. I'm also going to adjust how I shot take, I just feel im not getting volume in those shots to give a proper reflection and days like yest where im profitable across the board but down on day because I've taken a shot I find are denting confidence, all well and good of course when those shots go correct. And thats something I need to work on, but instead I'm considering shot take days rather than 1/2 on the side, so instead of playing the £5.50 daily schedule I'll have a day or two every so often where i play the £11 schedule and maybe main shot on those days. This is maybe something I need advice from others tho, I've never been great at shot taking.
Closing Balances
Sky £1078
Eurosite €198
Im a B/R nit and wouldn't play £11s with your roll.
I prefer to take shots at the main via the £1.80 all-in sats that start around 19:35. Im not sure of the maths but they feel like better value to me.
In truth I'm typing this late because I can't sleep again, even loaded up some stars, I'll update results tomorrow but its stars so I'm not expecting much. Just tick off the power thingy ticket. My plans for today go cancelled so Poker it was.
Today was a testing day once more, we played the 1.30 and lasted about two orbits before busting with AA, and that really set the tone for most of the day. Busting most tournaments without so much of a sniff. I'll be honest we weren't close to A game and I'll go onto that shortly, but I took us till the rebuy bounty hunter to so much as take a head. With the 1.30, 3.30, 4.30, 5.30, 6.30 and 7@7 all falling before that. We got past add on period but in truth I've been working on some things in my game, and well when you try to add things we make mistakes and today we made a mistake in doing that, 3b jamming far too wide. I've said loads I struggle to learn through charts and this is a mistake I've made by trying to improve by reading charts. For what its worth, the chart said I got it wrong too. We learn from this. However that brought some momentum. The 7.30 promised much with 4 heads leading to the final table. We took our second bronze medal in this comp in as many days. Much tougher final 3 today, infact a pretty strong final table for any £5 comp, and final 3 we were 2-1 dog, we took our spot and it didn't work out.
Eurosite was better than sky today, I missed my regular duo, instead opting for a regular €5 that was well positioned for us to be needing an extra table, and the €5 6 max turbo major. The turbo we got an early head before busting in a crazy hand. Monster pot, 2 heads avaliable to us as we cold 6b jam (we 3b and it was then 4b shove and 5b reshove before coming back to us) AA and get called by the only guy on the table that covers us with Q6s. We ended up coming 3rd in the hand behind the shorties K9s and villians Q6s as they both hit their respective flushes. Holding there would have gave us a serious shot at going seriously deep. Plus of course the 2 extra heads. The standard one we got a few heads (cant mind exact amount) and got to final table, with 8 left we were even a decent chip leader, but then finished 7th. That secures a small winning day on eurosite a small losing day overall.
In truth a little disappointed to find myself in loss with that finish but the damage was done early on and we recovered to the best of our ability. I really wasn't feeling well again today, these meds are knocking me for 6. And that is drastically reducing my playing ability, but also my patience and im more reactive to beats than I have been of late. I know its going to get harder to maintain sessions going forward and I've put far too much pressure on myself this week to play and do well, and thats really harmed alot of why I was enjoying being back. I need to avoid that pressure. just focus on enjoying it, and the results will come was what was working, and thats what i need to get back to. Thats when I play my best.
The only other thing I'll ask. Maybe this is a me thing, but when I'm playing i find myself shuffling coins I have on my desk. I find this rather theraputic. I guess its maybe an old live habit and having them there just allowing me to do it, but arm position on desk isnt great, and elbows really starting to bruise. Anyone else have this issue, and maybe recommend some elbow padding?
Closing Balances.
Sky: £1058
Euro: €208