Well done you must be buzzing. Brilliant achievement and delighted you realised your goal of reaching the ft of a spt.
I thought the highroller 2nd place would be my greatest ever achievement but finishing 3rd place in this has knocked that down.
My main goal was put all the online disappointments behind me and enjoy this SPT. Great day 1 made me increase my goal, now it was to get a decent spot in the cash. Making it onto the final table in live MTT was itself an over achievement. Knowing now I've made it to 3rd place in an SPT and 2nd place in a highroller, my aim now is to take down either a UKOPS or SPT.
It has been a while since my last post was made and boy have things changed. All the work I’ve did over the last few months has helped me become a person who is attempting to crush nl100 cash. It begun with some help from a CFP program which was showing data on what the overall player pool did and I went on from their to do GTO work on various board textures how they hit the ranges, what combos should be defending and what hands can be raised and X/r for value and bluff.
When the UKOPs was announced I did see myself doing better than I’ve even did in previous ones but I was not expecting it to go as well as it actually did because I would have been updating my diary daily. Some people could say I just got lucky but I myself know it was down to a great improvement in my overall game. I begun playing UKOPS day3 and it begun very nicely when I managed to get into the high roller bounty hunter via sat and went on to cash out via 3 head prizes, I wasn’t too happy with that result and believe a foolish mistake of 3bet jamming96s cost me the chance of getting past the bubble.
UKOPS day 4 saw another decent prize and again it came from a deepstack MTT another thing it had in common with my previous decent result was I managed to double my stack again early on and took that to my advantage by continuously stealing blinds and winning small pots with a decent and aggressive game IP.
UKOPs 5-7 were all super quiet with no real results but the overall feeling of playing these UKOPS MTTS again tells me it was decent play which allowed me to final table two high rollers. The thing about UKOPS 5-7 is that most MTTS were BH and I myself was struggling big style. The problem was I had been playing a balance game thinking GTO when I should just played a simple fast play value slow down bluffs against a player pool with lots of super loose players.
UKOPS day 8 I managed to get into it’s higher roller again from some sattelites. I was a big disappointed with how I begun this event, the reason for this was I managed to double up early in a disappointing way, preflop flop and turn I played fine but I was annoyed at my snap call on river, Analsis tells me the call was not super bad but I should have took much more time thinking about my villians range before I actually make my decision and I saw that help me made a really good decision in a later spot when I got X/R as TP on flop by thinking about ranges and value hands I made really calm calls all the way down to river. I did exit this event in a really sickening way but I did not care about that at all as I myself knew the hand was played well and just got unlucky.
UKOPS day 9 again nothing much to say about this, I did try the MTTS but my mental state was not in the right frame of mind at all again because I am bring in a style of play I shouldn’t have.
UKOPs day 10 My plan today was try to get into high roller via a sat and if I failed then I just play all the other events but my mental feeling during the day of how I’ve played in the UKOPS BH and UKOPS deepstack events over the course of UKOPS told me direct buy into the HR and I did. I had another brilliant start to this HR when I managed to double up my stack with a hand I decide to X/R as PFA and go on to hit turn then manage to stack off on river, My whole idea came from GTO+ where I have learned what ranges need to be getting X/R and why. Another thing which has changed about my game here is I no long do all the overfolding I use to do, in one spot I was even thinking of calling a value combo without the flush on a board texture which has 4 cards of the same suit and it’s because I was thinking about opponents range, what he will put me on and how he would have played flush hands on previous street. I did fold that spot but I was close to calling an with a timebank I probably would have because I didn’t see too many flushes.
I now X a lot OOP but it normally comes with play to X/R some times. On this board I have a number of premiums, including J9 JJ 99 22 and OP. The hands I choose to bluff are some stronger flush draws without SH value and GS or SD with atleast backdoor flush. What matters most is I want use bluffs which I'm most confidient can barrell turns and rivers
Here is a GTO grid showing what get's X/R and as you can see some KQo are in that range mainly those with a heart.
Next time a UKOPs event comes I will try to get twitch set up and stream myself playing in these UKOPS. I am gonna start playing more deepstack MTTs and will start looking into playing sunday's main event on a regular basis. Their is still a lot to learn for sure but I believe deepstack MTT poker is something I can excel at and with the lack of traffic on higher stakes cash I believe it's worth switching across from cash to MTT.
Following the peformance in UKOPs you would think I kept playing MTTs but no I took a few weeks off. The reason for that was although I won a lot in UKOPs it was looking likely my personal issues would prevent me treating my self again after winning a great prize. The good news is I've been seizure free long enough to regain my driving licence so I have set myself a goal and ambition to obtain a car and aim to start paying all the costs using my poker cash.
I had my first shot on Wednesday, I played a few MTTs on party along with the main and mini on sky but I didn't cash out in any. I didn't feel happy at the time and was thinking go back to cash but the very next day I kept playing MTTs. The difference on Thursday was that I played in a range of MTTs on PP and sky, I still came out with a loss for that day but the difference here was I cashed out in 1 PP and final tabled 1 sky poker table so shouldn't complain.
It's still a bit too early for me to say I'll be a regular MTT player but I myself know it's still early and their is a lot of MTT poker still to learn especially when my stack size is getting smaller and when it get's to final table
My run of final tables it continues. Today's final table was in a full ring MTT on PP Whilst it's good getting onto a final table I do feel a little bit disappointing with myself, I might have registered too many MTTs at a similar time, what happened was I started to get lots of tables over lapping and ended up so confused. Another issue today was I got myself into a number of difficult spots where I was playing passively against the weaker players and played lots of guessing when I faced aggression.
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
x464
Small blind
50.00
50.00
1825.00
craigcu12
Big blind
100.00
150.00
2620.00
Your hole cards
K
9
NIXY2011
Fold
gman33
Fold
Froozle
Fold
Harryup
Fold
x464
Call
50.00
200.00
1775.00
craigcu12
Raise
150.00
350.00
2470.00
x464
Call
150.00
500.00
1625.00
Flop
7
7
K
x464
Check
craigcu12
Check
Turn
9
x464
Bet
100.00
600.00
1525.00
craigcu12
Call
100.00
700.00
2370.00
River
4
x464
Bet
200.00
900.00
1325.00
craigcu12
All-in
2370.00
3270.00
0.00
x464
All-in
1325.00
4595.00
0.00
craigcu12
Unmatched bet
845.00
3750.00
845.00
x464
Show
6
7
craigcu12
Show
K
9
x464
Win
Three 7s
3750.00
3750.00
At the time of play I was thinking this hand could have been raised I say my villian do a weak river bet in previous hands as a low pair and my assumption was he'd be betting big with strength. Trouble is I was more or less guessing and as played I believe value was lost, what I should have did was cbet small on flop, X turn and bluff catch and low river bets. As played a X on flop isn't too bad but when he bets so small on turn I should just go for the raise myself, extract value from Kx 9x and flush draws then once called I evaluate river and maybe jam.
Looking back at this hand I am thinking P+draw combos should always be played in a more aggressive manner than I expect unless I have notes my villian is capable of bluffs. In theory this AI is not the best EV, I have got a hand with some SD value and should be keeping my villian's bluffs in play by going AI the only hands I should see calling are OP but the difference here is I am facing weaker players and I myself know these people are not gonna fire many bluffs on later streets, I also know they will call a shove as a draw and with so many chips already in the pot I opt to jam my P+D on flop, if my villian calls better well good for him.
This November has been a really great but weird one for me on poker. It all kicked of with the way I was performing in high roller events in UKOPS. All I had planned at the beginning of month was to have a break from cash play some UKOPS and once over I switch back, I most certainly wasn't expecting to achieve as much as I did.
I did have a break for a couple of weeks thinking it wasn't worth the time and I was thinking give up poker altogether but the decision to sort out my driving licence and purchase a car helped return some ambition and judging by my performance in the UKOPS I opted to take MTTS. My very first day of MTT play it was looking as if I would already give up and move back to cash but I hung on in their started adding some of the lower buy in MTTs to help get me more volume and have been playing ever since.
I have made it to the FT on 5 occassions this month, 4 sky poker 1 PP. I also finished in 9th place on my very first shot at a sunday main event but feel I could have finished higher had I thought more about when to get AI pre. One thing which is clear I now feel like an MTT reg for sure and will be piling in my work on plays less well known cash game such as short stack.
If I'm gonna succeed on PP or other non sky MTTs a lot of work needs to be done for sure for starters stacksizes will go down quicker what strikes me about PP is they have antes at the very first level of MTT. Multiway pots, stealing from BTN and OOP is also gonna be a bigger issue because most of those MTTs are full ring.
Prior to the start of the pandemic I thought things like 2nd place that 2014 highroller and 3rd place in at SPT nottingham were one off events unlikely to happen again but the achievements I've made from MTTs this month show they were not a 1 off and my biggest ambition now is to take down atleast one of these events and obtain the trophy or bracelet that will come with in.
It has been my best day yet for cashing out and final tabling in MTTS. I played 8 sky poker MTT in total (excluding sats) and managed to cash out in 50% 100% if you were to include those where I gained bounties. I made it onto the final tables in 2 although some might say I made it to 1 final table and just finished 6th on the other MTT when me and another player both exited on bubble.
Friday was shown to be another great day for me on MTTs. I had made in onto 2 final tables for the 2nd time in a row making it onto the final table of the 7:30 1K BH for the 2nd day in a row and better yet taking down the 9:30 1K BH with a player pool of 144.
I have tried taking some shots at MTTs today but I am just too tired so I will be taking a decent early night and become refreshed and ready for some more twitching on sunday.
My switch across to MTT poker is continuing to do well, making it to the final table in Wednesday's predator means I've made it onto the final table 3 times ( possibly 4 times) so far this week including 1 main event. The way I got to the final table of main event does make leave me part extremely amazed happy and part extremely disappointing. The extremely amazing and happy part about reaching FT comes from me sitting with a chip stack of less than 4BB on cash bubble.
I was watching the other tables very carefully and having just seen a villian go out I shoved AI here knowing I was now in the cash.
Player
Action
Cards
Amount
Pot
Balance
johnnyy
Small blind
1250.00
1250.00
17476.00
StayOrGo
Big blind
2500.00
3750.00
102095.00
Your hole cards
3
K
autex
Fold
bond19
Fold
comesee
Call
2500.00
6250.00
54966.00
craigcu12
All-in
8689.00
14939.00
0.00
johnnyy
Fold
StayOrGo
Call
6189.00
21128.00
95906.00
comesee
All-in
54966.00
76094.00
0.00
StayOrGo
Fold
comesee
Unmatched bet
48777.00
27317.00
48777.00
comesee
Show
J
J
craigcu12
Show
3
K
Flop
Q
A
5
Turn
2
River
4
craigcu12
Win
Straight to the 5
27317.00
27317.00
I was really happy to have just made it past the bubble and when it got to the final table I was really shocked to now be chip leader. This is where disappointment comes in. As chip leader I should be now looking to take down the MTT and had some high expectation in doing so but poor disapline cost me dearly and as a result I finished 5th.
The poor disapline came in this spot, when villian shoves I know he is gonna be strong, I've been sharing the tables with him for a long time and rarely did I notice him showing aggression, In a sunday major I am certainly not calling with this vs this villian but the idea of a possible bounty got me to call this purely and simple so that I could maybe win his bounty and get an easy big chip stack. It can also be said I was starting to chase the chips I had lost from an earlier spot where I had to B/CAI as my flush draw.
Comments
Well done you must be buzzing. Brilliant achievement and delighted you realised your goal of reaching the ft of a spt.
My main goal was put all the online disappointments behind me and enjoy this SPT. Great day 1 made me increase my goal, now it was to get a decent spot in the cash. Making it onto the final table in live MTT was itself an over achievement. Knowing now I've made it to 3rd place in an SPT and 2nd place in a highroller, my aim now is to take down either a UKOPS or SPT.
It begun with some help from a CFP program which was showing data on what the overall player pool did and I went on from their to do GTO work on various board textures how they hit the ranges, what combos should be defending and what hands can be raised and X/r for value and bluff.
When the UKOPs was announced I did see myself doing better than I’ve even did in previous ones but I was not expecting it to go as well as it actually did because I would have been updating my diary daily. Some people could say I just got lucky but I myself know it was down to a great improvement in my overall game.
I begun playing UKOPS day3 and it begun very nicely when I managed to get into the high roller bounty hunter via sat and went on to cash out via 3 head prizes, I wasn’t too happy with that result and believe a foolish mistake of 3bet jamming96s cost me the chance of getting past the bubble.
UKOPS day 4 saw another decent prize and again it came from a deepstack MTT another thing it had in common with my previous decent result was I managed to double my stack again early on and took that to my advantage by continuously stealing blinds and winning small pots with a decent and aggressive game IP.
UKOPs 5-7 were all super quiet with no real results but the overall feeling of playing these UKOPS MTTS again tells me it was decent play which allowed me to final table two high rollers. The thing about UKOPS 5-7 is that most MTTS were BH and I myself was struggling big style. The problem was I had been playing a balance game thinking GTO when I should just played a simple fast play value slow down bluffs against a player pool with lots of super loose players.
UKOPS day 8 I managed to get into it’s higher roller again from some sattelites. I was a big disappointed with how I begun this event, the reason for this was I managed to double up early in a disappointing way, preflop flop and turn I played fine but I was annoyed at my snap call on river, Analsis tells me the call was not super bad but I should have took much more time thinking about my villians range before I actually make my decision and I saw that help me made a really good decision in a later spot when I got X/R as TP on flop by thinking about ranges and value hands I made really calm calls all the way down to river. I did exit this event in a really sickening way but I did not care about that at all as I myself knew the hand was played well and just got unlucky.
UKOPS day 9 again nothing much to say about this, I did try the MTTS but my mental state was not in the right frame of mind at all again because I am bring in a style of play I shouldn’t have.
UKOPs day 10 My plan today was try to get into high roller via a sat and if I failed then I just play all the other events but my mental feeling during the day of how I’ve played in the UKOPS BH and UKOPS deepstack events over the course of UKOPS told me direct buy into the HR and I did. I had another brilliant start to this HR when I managed to double up my stack with a hand I decide to X/R as PFA and go on to hit turn then manage to stack off on river, My whole idea came from GTO+ where I have learned what ranges need to be getting X/R and why. Another thing which has changed about my game here is I no long do all the overfolding I use to do, in one spot I was even thinking of calling a value combo without the flush on a board texture which has 4 cards of the same suit and it’s because I was thinking about opponents range, what he will put me on and how he would have played flush hands on previous street. I did fold that spot but I was close to calling an with a timebank I probably would have because I didn’t see too many flushes.
This KQ
Here is a GTO grid showing what get's X/R and as you can see some KQo are in that range mainly those with a heart.
I am gonna start playing more deepstack MTTs and will start looking into playing sunday's main event on a regular basis. Their is still a lot to learn for sure but I believe deepstack MTT poker is something I can excel at and with the lack of traffic on higher stakes cash I believe it's worth switching across from cash to MTT.
I had my first shot on Wednesday, I played a few MTTs on party along with the main and mini on sky but I didn't cash out in any. I didn't feel happy at the time and was thinking go back to cash but the very next day I kept playing MTTs. The difference on Thursday was that I played in a range of MTTs on PP and sky, I still came out with a loss for that day but the difference here was I cashed out in 1 PP and final tabled 1 sky poker table so shouldn't complain.
It's still a bit too early for me to say I'll be a regular MTT player but I myself know it's still early and their is a lot of MTT poker still to learn especially when my stack size is getting smaller and when it get's to final table
Whilst it's good getting onto a final table I do feel a little bit disappointing with myself, I might have registered too many MTTs at a similar time, what happened was I started to get lots of tables over lapping and ended up so confused. Another issue today was I got myself into a number of difficult spots where I was playing passively against the weaker players and played lots of guessing when I faced aggression.
Trouble is I was more or less guessing and as played I believe value was lost, what I should have did was cbet small on flop, X turn and bluff catch and low river bets. As played a X on flop isn't too bad but when he bets so small on turn I should just go for the raise myself, extract value from Kx 9x and flush draws then once called I evaluate river and maybe jam.
I did have a break for a couple of weeks thinking it wasn't worth the time and I was thinking give up poker altogether but the decision to sort out my driving licence and purchase a car helped return some ambition and judging by my performance in the UKOPS I opted to take MTTS.
My very first day of MTT play it was looking as if I would already give up and move back to cash but I hung on in their started adding some of the lower buy in MTTs to help get me more volume and have been playing ever since.
I have made it to the FT on 5 occassions this month, 4 sky poker 1 PP. I also finished in 9th place on my very first shot at a sunday main event but feel I could have finished higher had I thought more about when to get AI pre. One thing which is clear I now feel like an MTT reg for sure and will be piling in my work on plays less well known cash game such as short stack.
If I'm gonna succeed on PP or other non sky MTTs a lot of work needs to be done for sure for starters stacksizes will go down quicker what strikes me about PP is they have antes at the very first level of MTT. Multiway pots, stealing from BTN and OOP is also gonna be a bigger issue because most of those MTTs are full ring.
Prior to the start of the pandemic I thought things like 2nd place that 2014 highroller and 3rd place in at SPT nottingham were one off events unlikely to happen again but the achievements I've made from MTTs this month show they were not a 1 off and my biggest ambition now is to take down atleast one of these events and obtain the trophy or bracelet that will come with in.
I played 8 sky poker MTT in total (excluding sats) and managed to cash out in 50% 100% if you were to include those where I gained bounties. I made it onto the final tables in 2 although some might say I made it to 1 final table and just finished 6th on the other MTT when me and another player both exited on bubble.
I have tried taking some shots at MTTs today but I am just too tired so I will be taking a decent early night and become refreshed and ready for some more twitching on sunday.
I was watching the other tables very carefully and having just seen a villian go out I shoved AI here knowing I was now in the cash.
The poor disapline came in this spot, when villian shoves I know he is gonna be strong, I've been sharing the tables with him for a long time and rarely did I notice him showing aggression, In a sunday major I am certainly not calling with this vs this villian but the idea of a possible bounty got me to call this purely and simple so that I could maybe win his bounty and get an easy big chip stack. It can also be said I was starting to chase the chips I had lost from an earlier spot where I had to B/CAI as my flush draw.