UKOPS was a strange time for me. When it was coming up I was very excited, keen to play and eager to see what I could do. Once it was there, I played a bit in the first two days, breaking even, then didn't really play again except for the odd event here and there. Not entirely sure why I did not want to play much...
Had basically had a week to 10 days off sky until Wednesday when I decided to fire up a few tables at 10pm. I'd been reading Jared Tendlers book and was trying to increase my motivation towards playing. It seemed to work, I busted out of the £33 to a house over house situation ( I took a bounty in the event), and was left in the two £22 events, the 10pm £1k BH and the £22 megastack.
I managed to win the £1k Bh for just over £300 and finished 6th in the megastack for just over £130, so a profit of around £370 for the night.
I played a little last night and broke covered my tourney buy-ins by winning or finishing second in a few Six max games.
Still not quite feeling it though, not entirely sure why. I started this diary just over 4 weeks ago and have made a profit of around £1900, which I certainly would have taken at the start of the month. There has been a lot of positives, most that I have kept within my bankroll, have regularly cashed and in general been pretty solid. Usually by this point I would have taken shots into the £220 or even the £550 at the end of UKOPS and tried to parlay profits into larger wins, but there was no temptation and when I did not feel like playing I did not force it, which is massively saving me money and I think is a positive mental upgrade.
Maybe some suggestions would help, possibly I need to set some targets, have a goal to work towards, something like that.
Really enjoying the group with the guys as mentioned before. Mumsie and I in particular have had a lot of debate in the last few days over certain spots and hands which I have enjoyed as it has made me think about the game, instead of autopiloting like I do a lot. Also congrats to him on a couple of great cashes yesterday that will boost his bankroll and confidence. Seems like drinking wine whilst playing works for some people!
One post from the forum over the last couple of days that grabbed my attention, was about the poker set up people have at home. Usually I just sit in the chair of on the couch, with the laptop, watching TV as I play. I do sometimes sit at the table, but i'm thinking I may need to make some changes to 'professionalise' my set up and hopefully this will improve my focus when playing. Particularly liked chicknmelt's set up, the minimalist approach, the cushions to keep comfy and the large screen, that kind of layout could be something that I would go for.
It is the weekend and my two favourite days to play on Sky are Fridays and Sundays, so may well be on the tables later. See you soon!
Cheers,
Shelley
Great work Shelly7!
The grindstation thread is a good one and pretty inspiring.
Managed a couple of second places yesterday, in the £55 quickdraw and the £11 rebuy. Overall profit for the night was just over £250, this with a weekend profit of £180 (finished third in a £22), has pushed my bankroll over £2k which I am happy with.
Still seem to keep being the bridesmaid on Skypoker though! Had numerous second and third places, just not winning those flips heads up currently. Hopefully this will change. Opposite on Pokerstars, where just by playing these homegames I have won 4/9 events, with a profit of 1400 dollars. Not sure what i'm doing differently on Sky!
Was particularly happy yesterday with the second in the quickfire. I had busted out of 4 events poorly, where I had lost my head a little after losing all-ins I when I was miles ahead.
I was only left in 2 tournaments and I was a bottom 5 stack in both at a break. Decided rather than just chucking the chips in to just be patient, watch everything at the table and try and build up. I won some flips and this helped me get top 2 in both, but was happy with the way I didn't just write off the night and put it down to bad luck or anything like that.
I like Tuesdays, as it has the Summit, so will try and get into that later. In the last 3/4 £110 events I have played, I seem to be just fading short of the money and losing flips that I would not need to have if I had a few more chips, so need to work on ways of keeping a stack in these events. Players in the £110 events remind me of the government, they don't let you have many walks no matter how much you need them.
Hopefully see some people online later, have had a few good chats in the last week on the comments with people from the forum and really enjoyed it.
Played a few tables on Tuesday as planned. Again not doing well in the £110's, but made up for it elsewhere. Came 8th in the midnight event and 3rd in the £22 1000BH, so overall finished the night just over £100 up.
Took Wednesday off as I wanted to work on a few things, read some books and try and refresh my mind. I had lost a few horrible flips, even though I was not tilted, I just wanted a day to get them out of my mind and go again. Also I had played maybe 4-5 days in a row, which I am not used to doing that much.
Played on Thursday and it after a great start with satellites, it went as badly as it could go for a while. Managed to sat into the two £33 events and the 2 £55s first time, which was an outlay of around £40 to get into £176 worth of tourneys.
The first £33 was a little savage. One opponent got there in huge pots against me 4 times, and knocked me out twice. Twice I flopped straights and he shoved with top pair and went runner-runner house. Another with 10-10- I flopped a 10 (which was top pair) and he shoved with K-10 and it went K,K. Then I flopped a set and he had top pair, he went runner, runner flush. I was no where near as annoyed as i'd usually be in that situation, actually just laughed, thought 'it's his night' and moved on.
I was not doing so well on any table, I had 4 open and was 150 in the hole after rebuys. As the break was coming up, I played a pot, where we were on the river, I was facing a bet and I could not remember who raised preflop, or what had happened at all during the hand. I realised I was probably autopiloting too much, so decided to tighten up until the break and then re-assess.
Once it got to that precious 5 minutes, I kept up my ritual of having a freezing cold shower to wake me up and just tried to think of a new strategy going forwards. Decided I was playing a little too open and was probably playing a bad version of my C-game and that's why I was just losing chips on every table regularly. Decided to tighten up hugely, only play when in position, unless I have a strong hand. Just wait for some spots and if I lose when I have a strong hand, I lose.
Busted out of the other £33 with set over set, and then the Sheriff when I had QQ to KQ and he hit a straight, and I lost out on the bounty of Bates too, so was a double whammy . Felt remarkably calm though, as I had played correctly and was just getting a little unlucky. That left me only in the £22 1k and the quickdraw, which I had only played once before and had come second two days earlier.
I finished just out of the money in the £22, but my luck had started to change in the quickdraw. A couple of questionable shoves against me happened when I was at the top of my range and I went from 20/25 to 1/20 in 10 minutes, knocking out 4 players.
I was able to keep raising and out some pressure on, knocked out 3 more players and entered the FT and the money pretty much in joint first.
The blinds were huge, 3-6k and the highest stacks had 12bb's. I definitely tightened up too much and made two questionable folds early on. There were a few short stacks, so I folded AJ suited and 77 to mid position shoves when in late position (not from the short stacks). I finally was getting too low on chips when there were 4 left, I did manage his bounty but they succumbed shortly after for 3rd and just under £400 with bounties.
I wad pretty happy obviously as currently I do seem to be making FT's, just a lot of 2/3 places, which could allude to me being a little tight and being happy to ladder? Was mainly happy with my mindset though, just shrugged off all the 'bad luck' and just played solidly. The fact I did not get stressed, add loads more tables or chase anything is actually a much bigger win for me than the prize money from yesterday.
Have been trying to be more aggressive at the tables, but it is something i'll have to work at, as it's not really in my nature. When I play live, or i'm faced with a spot, i'll often play the percentages. I used to play pool professionally and played some decent sized tournaments and money match pots (£25k plus bets, was the biggest when I was 19) and I just remember my mindset clearly in those last few frames, where I knew my opponent would be nervous and I just tightened up hugely, made them have to play amazingly just for a chance to clear and then let them make mistakes that I could punish. If I had to compare myself to a present day player, it would be a Selby or Higgins type, the kind of player who just won't let you win and is happy to play a frame for an hour if it means I get it, but can also open up when needed. Wish I was like Ronnie, but no one is! I'm going to work with Danny and the lads in our group, go over a few spots and maybe see where I can be playing back at people a little more, which will hopefully improve my game.
I think I will be on tonight, I just want to finally do something in a £110 event, so will see how that goes.
greecyun Bet 600.00 4402.50 3777.50 Shelley7 All-in 4232.50 8635.00 0.00 greecyun Call 3632.50 12267.50 145.00 greecyun Show K Q MattBates Show K K Shelley7 Show Q Q Turn
"I used to play pool professionally and played some decent sized tournaments and money match pots (£25k plus bets, was the biggest when I was 19)"
That's incred. We need to know more about your pool hustling days.
Yeah, more stories about this sort of thing would be super interesting. Amazing to think about so much on a game but then non poker people would probably say the same about poker!
greecyun Bet 600.00 4402.50 3777.50 Shelley7 All-in 4232.50 8635.00 0.00 greecyun Call 3632.50 12267.50 145.00 greecyun Show K Q MattBates Show K K Shelley7 Show Q Q Turn
10
River
3
greecyun Win Flush to the King 12267.50 12412.50
I beat you twice, with the flush and the straight. If he had got away from KQ I would have won !
"I used to play pool professionally and played some decent sized tournaments and money match pots (£25k plus bets, was the biggest when I was 19)"
That's incred. We need to know more about your pool hustling days.
Haha I will put a few down. I did have one crazy one in Miami which ended with someone pulling a gun on me. Decided to let him keep his money when he did that!
greecyun Bet 600.00 4402.50 3777.50 Shelley7 All-in 4232.50 8635.00 0.00 greecyun Call 3632.50 12267.50 145.00 greecyun Show K Q MattBates Show K K Shelley7 Show Q Q Turn
10
River
3
greecyun Win Flush to the King 12267.50 12412.50
I beat you twice, with the flush and the straight. If he had got away from KQ I would have won !
"Still seem to keep being the bridesmaid on Skypoker though! Had numerous second and third places, just not winning those flips heads up currently. Hopefully this will change."
Well done in last night's £3,000 Turbo BH. Moaned it in a treat.
As per previous comments, hopefully this week i'll type out some of my best stories from Pool.Interesting stat though, I played one frame against my mother when I was at my peak and I potted the black mid frame and lost, so not even sure i'm the best in my family.
Back to poker.
As Tikay said, managed to moan it in a treat to win the 3k turbo for just over £800 yesterday. The day followed a similar pattern of struggling early and then sorting it out. I think I might need to 'warm up' when playing in the even, as I seem to be awful in the first hour and then make better decisions.
Bubbled two satts and finished one or two places out of the money in other tournaments so no cash in this one would have left me nearly £100 down for the day (played a couple of tournaments at lunchtime).
It started off badly, I was on the same table as Danny (itsover4u) who's been working with me and a couple of players. Whilst he was chipping up, I was trending in the wrong direction and kept losing every hand to the worst player at the table, who was calling very wide and hitting when I did make a hand. Danny then did me a solid and took him out, but I was still in the bottom 5 for the tournament at this stage and we had barely had a break.
Managed to chip up, won a very fortunate flip against QQ with AK, where he hit a set and I rivered a backdoor flush, which put me into the average chips level.
From there I tightened up, played more aggressively in position and managed to get my strong hands to hold. Managed to scrape into the cash and then got a healthy double against a very aggressive player who had everyone on the table covered by a considerable margin. With the double he could not play back at me quite so much which enabled me to chip up.
Got to the final table in 3rd/4th place, with two players having a very decent lead, the middle two which I was part of and two small stacks. It quickly went down to 4 ( I took a bounty), and then one of the bigstacks took out the other to get us to three-handed. One player had 450k, with the other player and I having just under 200k. Managed to double through the big stack and then was able to stay ahead until we went heads up.
Heads up was maybe 10 hands, of which I won 8, don't think my opponent hit much, which helps me hugely. Tried a new strategy that Danny had referenced in the last few weeks. It had not worked so well against chicknmelt, but worked here. Had a 600k pot, where I bluffed all in on the river, which got through, and then managed to get the win the next hand when I had my opponents hand dominated.
Really happy to win as I had been FT'ing a fair bit, but not winning. Mumsie railed me which was great, was nice to have support and shows that our group is working and it's a great platform.
Bankroll is now £2675, though did lend a mate of mine £300 from my poker account as could not take it from the joint account (people with a Mrs will get that). Once that comes back in, i'll be near the £3k mark, though i'm tempted to top it up anyway to keep my profit level visible.
Happy with the way the bankroll challenge is going, there are certainly a few things I can improve, which I will be looking at this week. Mini UKOPS is next week, looks like the charity bet is a go which will be great and will make me want to play more.
Might try to get into the summit tonight if not too busy. Tried all weekend to get into the £110s to no avail, with two more bubbles. QQ vs AA hurt especially. Did manage to come third in another £22 event over the weekend for £250 which has helped the bankroll. Played a really bad hand to effectively bust, was playing two tables with three left and shoved A9 in the SB, thinking it was the table where my opponent had 4bbs, not the bigger event, where my opponent had 22bb's. Was snapped with AK and then came third again, which was annoying, especially when one of the players was a shortstack. ICM suicide!
Nearly two weeks since the last update, you can tell I was focused on mini UKOPS.
It has been a strange two weeks. I'm in profit, which is good, but frustrated at a few things and pleased with others.
Firstly mini UKOPS. I ended up coming 4th in both leaderboards after being around the top of both for the first 5/6 days. I feel like I threw away my chances at competing in the last 4 days, with a few questionable decisions.
The first bad decision was taking the Thursday off when I was playing really well. This was then compounded by myself annoyingly picking up the flu for the weekend (not Coronavirus, just normal flu)!
Tried to play Friday and Saturday, but ended up just throwing £300 quid away. I could not even tell what hand I had some of the time and would miss things like 4 cards to a straight or 4 colours that were the same and would make horrific plays.
I certainly wouldn't have played if not for the challenge, but felt like I had to go for it. In the aim to win the charity bet and also £240 quid or so in the sidebet, it was certainly not the right play. I think if I had taken Friday off I could have had more chance Saturday as late nights didn't really aid recovery.. Either way, both days went terribly!!
I did not prepare well for either day. I set alarms for 7:30pm both nights to that I could wake up from my nap and late reg into the first event. On Saturday though I overslept and could only play in 3/5 events. Absolute professionalism! Waking up and instantly jumping into tables in hindsight was not clever.
Felt a little better yesterday, though still not great (as i'm writing this the only thing I have eaten in 3 and a half days is one bowl of ice cream), but spent the whole day trying to focus on UKOPS. Unlike the previous two nights, I played a little poker before just jumping in. I tried to make my seating arrangement as uncomfortable as possible to stop me feeling tired, loaded up on coffee, had a freezing cold shower 4 times in 3 hours and decided to just play big pairs and some suited cards if on the button. Nothing fancy, i'd just open shove anything over 10's to stop myself having to make decisions.
This did work a bit, I managed to come 17th in the first mini UKOPS event, where my opponent hit trips on the river and I just couldn't fold top 2.
I was doing well in the other events and managed to lose with AA,AA,QQ,77 vs QQ,QQ,99,22. The 77 hand was particularly brutal as he hit quads on the river after we both flopped sets. In the £11 main I lost with AA twice to the same player, twice when he had QQ. In all honesty, this was still miles from the money, and even though winning that pot would have given me a top 5 stack, the way I was playing in general, I don't think it cost me much.
I managed to come 4th in the £33 turbo for around £300, which recouped my losses for the previous couple of days. This tournament did not take too long at all, and I was so relieved and drained when knocked out, I promptly fell asleep face down on the dining room table, on top of the laptop. I definitely do not think I had it in me to run deep in any longer event last night. My Girlfriend was upstairs and did not realise I had fallen asleep, so when I came up at 3/4am she was happy as she imagined it was because I had won a tournament. I told her I did just to save us having a discussion, and now I have to buy a takeaway tonight and get her some ice cream with my 'winnings'. I'm such an idiot.
Overall I finished just over £200 up for mini UKOPS, so it was a successful week of sorts, just not with the ending that I had hoped for. I never usually play the smaller buy-in, large field events, but I did enjoy some of them and may continue to do this. Until the weekend, I was getting ITM 50% of the time for the £5.50, £11 events, so may be worth pursuing this more.
Bankroll is a smidgen under £2900, so creeping up to that £3k mark. I'm definitely going to have a day off and then might try to get into the Summit tomorrow.
Danny and the guys in my group are going to be putting some work in over the next few weeks, so hopefully this will pay off. Going to look at a few spots where i'm weak and see what magic Danny can muster. Kinda feel like i'm plateauing and need a new perspective.
Oh, edit, nearly forgot this bit. Very happy with my mental game right now. As mentioned, I lost a few sickeners and just shrugged them off, and there was absolutely no lasting mental damage. This would usually not be the case, so from that point of view i'm very happy.
Especially after Friday and Saturday, when things had gone awfully, I just kept playing my game and didn't feel the need to chase losses. I hope this continues! I feel like (even though my updates are sporadic), this diary helps with accountability and i'ts definitely still a positive vessel for me.
---
Finally just wanted to say congrats to the winners of the mini UKOPS challenge @Allan23 , @NOSTRI , @cpfc_2010 . It was a very enjoyable 10 days and i'd certainly be keen on a similar challenge again. Possibly we could create a weekly challenge once a month or something. I saw @Tikay10 was going to talk to the cheese at Sky to see if there would be a possibility of this, which i'd certainly take part in. I think the challenge invigorated the forum and sparked new friendships which is great to be a part of.
I'm off for a nap, hopefully my next update will be Wednesday morning when I get past the first 5 levels of a £110 event for the first time .
I've only played 2-3 times since the mini UKOPS finished, I think a combination of the weather being too hot and the plethora of decent TV shows out right now have ruined my appetite to play. I had a couple of bad days, which brought the bankroll down, but last Friday had a good day where I finished 1st and 2nd in two £22 events, so made back what I had lost and some more. I recorded my screen and this is now with Danny who will give me some pointers on way's to improve. Just because I did well in these events does not mean I was necessarily playing that great.
I've not been very committed the last few weeks and need to change this, just struggling with targets and to get the motivation to play. I'm going to play tonight as Friday is a great night for poker on Sky. Need to work out a consistent route into the £110 events, as I think playing more of these will help me. They stop me autopiloting and help me focus more, but so far my record has been worse than abysmal in these. My bankroll would be over £4k if I did not try to satellite into these every week, which shows where I am in that regard.
Sorry it's not a more cheery update! There was talk of a possible league, monthly competition, similar to what we had at Mini UKOPS, and I think I might need something like this to get my competitive juices flowing again, and force me to play most nights. I'm tempted to take a few weeks off and just do some study, which might make me miss the game and want to come back with vigour, i'll have to see.
"There was talk of a possible league, monthly competition, similar to what we had at Mini UKOPS, and I think I might need something like this to get my competitive juices flowing again,"
It's not been forgotten - watch this space, as they say.
Comments
The grindstation thread is a good one and pretty inspiring.
Another decent score last night @Shelley7
Well done.
Managed a couple of second places yesterday, in the £55 quickdraw and the £11 rebuy. Overall profit for the night was just over £250, this with a weekend profit of £180 (finished third in a £22), has pushed my bankroll over £2k which I am happy with.
Still seem to keep being the bridesmaid on Skypoker though! Had numerous second and third places, just not winning those flips heads up currently. Hopefully this will change. Opposite on Pokerstars, where just by playing these homegames I have won 4/9 events, with a profit of 1400 dollars. Not sure what i'm doing differently on Sky!
Was particularly happy yesterday with the second in the quickfire. I had busted out of 4 events poorly, where I had lost my head a little after losing all-ins I when I was miles ahead.
I was only left in 2 tournaments and I was a bottom 5 stack in both at a break. Decided rather than just chucking the chips in to just be patient, watch everything at the table and try and build up. I won some flips and this helped me get top 2 in both, but was happy with the way I didn't just write off the night and put it down to bad luck or anything like that.
I like Tuesdays, as it has the Summit, so will try and get into that later. In the last 3/4 £110 events I have played, I seem to be just fading short of the money and losing flips that I would not need to have if I had a few more chips, so need to work on ways of keeping a stack in these events. Players in the £110 events remind me of the government, they don't let you have many walks no matter how much you need them.
Hopefully see some people online later, have had a few good chats in the last week on the comments with people from the forum and really enjoyed it.
Cheers,
Shelley
Played a few tables on Tuesday as planned. Again not doing well in the £110's, but made up for it elsewhere. Came 8th in the midnight event and 3rd in the £22 1000BH, so overall finished the night just over £100 up.
Took Wednesday off as I wanted to work on a few things, read some books and try and refresh my mind. I had lost a few horrible flips, even though I was not tilted, I just wanted a day to get them out of my mind and go again. Also I had played maybe 4-5 days in a row, which I am not used to doing that much.
Played on Thursday and it after a great start with satellites, it went as badly as it could go for a while. Managed to sat into the two £33 events and the 2 £55s first time, which was an outlay of around £40 to get into £176 worth of tourneys.
The first £33 was a little savage. One opponent got there in huge pots against me 4 times, and knocked me out twice. Twice I flopped straights and he shoved with top pair and went runner-runner house. Another with 10-10- I flopped a 10 (which was top pair) and he shoved with K-10 and it went K,K. Then I flopped a set and he had top pair, he went runner, runner flush. I was no where near as annoyed as i'd usually be in that situation, actually just laughed, thought 'it's his night' and moved on.
I was not doing so well on any table, I had 4 open and was 150 in the hole after rebuys. As the break was coming up, I played a pot, where we were on the river, I was facing a bet and I could not remember who raised preflop, or what had happened at all during the hand. I realised I was probably autopiloting too much, so decided to tighten up until the break and then re-assess.
Once it got to that precious 5 minutes, I kept up my ritual of having a freezing cold shower to wake me up and just tried to think of a new strategy going forwards. Decided I was playing a little too open and was probably playing a bad version of my C-game and that's why I was just losing chips on every table regularly. Decided to tighten up hugely, only play when in position, unless I have a strong hand. Just wait for some spots and if I lose when I have a strong hand, I lose.
Busted out of the other £33 with set over set, and then the Sheriff when I had QQ to KQ and he hit a straight, and I lost out on the bounty of Bates too, so was a double whammy
I finished just out of the money in the £22, but my luck had started to change in the quickdraw. A couple of questionable shoves against me happened when I was at the top of my range and I went from 20/25 to 1/20 in 10 minutes, knocking out 4 players.
I was able to keep raising and out some pressure on, knocked out 3 more players and entered the FT and the money pretty much in joint first.
The blinds were huge, 3-6k and the highest stacks had 12bb's. I definitely tightened up too much and made two questionable folds early on. There were a few short stacks, so I folded AJ suited and 77 to mid position shoves when in late position (not from the short stacks). I finally was getting too low on chips when there were 4 left, I did manage his bounty but they succumbed shortly after for 3rd and just under £400 with bounties.
I wad pretty happy obviously as currently I do seem to be making FT's, just a lot of 2/3 places, which could allude to me being a little tight and being happy to ladder? Was mainly happy with my mindset though, just shrugged off all the 'bad luck' and just played solidly. The fact I did not get stressed, add loads more tables or chase anything is actually a much bigger win for me than the prize money from yesterday.
Have been trying to be more aggressive at the tables, but it is something i'll have to work at, as it's not really in my nature. When I play live, or i'm faced with a spot, i'll often play the percentages. I used to play pool professionally and played some decent sized tournaments and money match pots (£25k plus bets, was the biggest when I was 19) and I just remember my mindset clearly in those last few frames, where I knew my opponent would be nervous and I just tightened up hugely, made them have to play amazingly just for a chance to clear and then let them make mistakes that I could punish. If I had to compare myself to a present day player, it would be a Selby or Higgins type, the kind of player who just won't let you win and is happy to play a frame for an hour if it means I get it, but can also open up when needed. Wish I was like Ronnie, but no one is! I'm going to work with Danny and the lads in our group, go over a few spots and maybe see where I can be playing back at people a little more, which will hopefully improve my game.
I think I will be on tonight, I just want to finally do something in a £110 event, so will see how that goes.
Cheers,
Shelley
@Shelley7
Whoa there, say WHAT?
"I used to play pool professionally and played some decent sized tournaments and money match pots (£25k plus bets, was the biggest when I was 19)"
That's incred. We need to know more about your pool hustling days.
This was the hand so wasn't a double whammy as you wouldn't of got my head!
THETANK Small blind 100.00 100.00 1455.00
rostod Big blind 200.00 300.00 5557.50
Your hole cards
K
K
greecyun Raise 600.00 900.00 4945.00
MattBates All-in 1167.50 2067.50 0.00
Shelley7 Call 1167.50 3235.00 4232.50
rachealaxe Fold
THETANK Fold
rostod Fold
greecyun Call 567.50 3802.50 4377.50
Flop
J
9
6
greecyun Bet 600.00 4402.50 3777.50
Shelley7 All-in 4232.50 8635.00 0.00
greecyun Call 3632.50 12267.50 145.00
greecyun Show
K
Q
MattBates Show
K
K
Shelley7 Show
Q
Q
Turn
10
River
3
greecyun Win Flush to the King 12267.50 12412.50
Hadn't realised you had hit the flush too.
@Shelley7
"Still seem to keep being the bridesmaid on Skypoker though! Had numerous second and third places, just not winning those flips heads up currently. Hopefully this will change."
Well done in last night's £3,000 Turbo BH. Moaned it in a treat.
GL in tonight's Summit if you play it.
As per previous comments, hopefully this week i'll type out some of my best stories from Pool.Interesting stat though, I played one frame against my mother when I was at my peak and I potted the black mid frame and lost, so not even sure i'm the best in my family.
Back to poker.
As Tikay said, managed to moan it in a treat to win the 3k turbo for just over £800 yesterday. The day followed a similar pattern of struggling early and then sorting it out. I think I might need to 'warm up' when playing in the even, as I seem to be awful in the first hour and then make better decisions.
Bubbled two satts and finished one or two places out of the money in other tournaments so no cash in this one would have left me nearly £100 down for the day (played a couple of tournaments at lunchtime).
It started off badly, I was on the same table as Danny (itsover4u) who's been working with me and a couple of players. Whilst he was chipping up, I was trending in the wrong direction and kept losing every hand to the worst player at the table, who was calling very wide and hitting when I did make a hand. Danny then did me a solid and took him out, but I was still in the bottom 5 for the tournament at this stage and we had barely had a break.
Managed to chip up, won a very fortunate flip against QQ with AK, where he hit a set and I rivered a backdoor flush, which put me into the average chips level.
From there I tightened up, played more aggressively in position and managed to get my strong hands to hold. Managed to scrape into the cash and then got a healthy double against a very aggressive player who had everyone on the table covered by a considerable margin. With the double he could not play back at me quite so much which enabled me to chip up.
Got to the final table in 3rd/4th place, with two players having a very decent lead, the middle two which I was part of and two small stacks. It quickly went down to 4 ( I took a bounty), and then one of the bigstacks took out the other to get us to three-handed. One player had 450k, with the other player and I having just under 200k. Managed to double through the big stack and then was able to stay ahead until we went heads up.
Heads up was maybe 10 hands, of which I won 8, don't think my opponent hit much, which helps me hugely. Tried a new strategy that Danny had referenced in the last few weeks. It had not worked so well against chicknmelt, but worked here. Had a 600k pot, where I bluffed all in on the river, which got through, and then managed to get the win the next hand when I had my opponents hand dominated.
Really happy to win as I had been FT'ing a fair bit, but not winning. Mumsie railed me which was great, was nice to have support and shows that our group is working and it's a great platform.
Bankroll is now £2675, though did lend a mate of mine £300 from my poker account as could not take it from the joint account (people with a Mrs will get that). Once that comes back in, i'll be near the £3k mark, though i'm tempted to top it up anyway to keep my profit level visible.
Happy with the way the bankroll challenge is going, there are certainly a few things I can improve, which I will be looking at this week. Mini UKOPS is next week, looks like the charity bet is a go which will be great and will make me want to play more.
Might try to get into the summit tonight if not too busy. Tried all weekend to get into the £110s to no avail, with two more bubbles. QQ vs AA hurt especially. Did manage to come third in another £22 event over the weekend for £250 which has helped the bankroll. Played a really bad hand to effectively bust, was playing two tables with three left and shoved A9 in the SB, thinking it was the table where my opponent had 4bbs, not the bigger event, where my opponent had 22bb's. Was snapped with AK and then came third again, which was annoying, especially when one of the players was a shortstack. ICM suicide!
Thanks again for reading.
Cheers,
Shelley
It has been a strange two weeks. I'm in profit, which is good, but frustrated at a few things and pleased with others.
Firstly mini UKOPS. I ended up coming 4th in both leaderboards after being around the top of both for the first 5/6 days. I feel like I threw away my chances at competing in the last 4 days, with a few questionable decisions.
The first bad decision was taking the Thursday off when I was playing really well. This was then compounded by myself annoyingly picking up the flu for the weekend (not Coronavirus, just normal flu)!
Tried to play Friday and Saturday, but ended up just throwing £300 quid away. I could not even tell what hand I had some of the time and would miss things like 4 cards to a straight or 4 colours that were the same and would make horrific plays.
I certainly wouldn't have played if not for the challenge, but felt like I had to go for it. In the aim to win the charity bet and also £240 quid or so in the sidebet, it was certainly not the right play. I think if I had taken Friday off I could have had more chance Saturday as late nights didn't really aid recovery.. Either way, both days went terribly!!
I did not prepare well for either day. I set alarms for 7:30pm both nights to that I could wake up from my nap and late reg into the first event. On Saturday though I overslept and could only play in 3/5 events. Absolute professionalism! Waking up and instantly jumping into tables in hindsight was not clever.
Felt a little better yesterday, though still not great (as i'm writing this the only thing I have eaten in 3 and a half days is one bowl of ice cream), but spent the whole day trying to focus on UKOPS. Unlike the previous two nights, I played a little poker before just jumping in. I tried to make my seating arrangement as uncomfortable as possible to stop me feeling tired, loaded up on coffee, had a freezing cold shower 4 times in 3 hours and decided to just play big pairs and some suited cards if on the button. Nothing fancy, i'd just open shove anything over 10's to stop myself having to make decisions.
This did work a bit, I managed to come 17th in the first mini UKOPS event, where my opponent hit trips on the river and I just couldn't fold top 2.
I was doing well in the other events and managed to lose with AA,AA,QQ,77 vs QQ,QQ,99,22. The 77 hand was particularly brutal as he hit quads on the river after we both flopped sets. In the £11 main I lost with AA twice to the same player, twice when he had QQ. In all honesty, this was still miles from the money, and even though winning that pot would have given me a top 5 stack, the way I was playing in general, I don't think it cost me much.
I managed to come 4th in the £33 turbo for around £300, which recouped my losses for the previous couple of days. This tournament did not take too long at all, and I was so relieved and drained when knocked out, I promptly fell asleep face down on the dining room table, on top of the laptop. I definitely do not think I had it in me to run deep in any longer event last night. My Girlfriend was upstairs and did not realise I had fallen asleep, so when I came up at 3/4am she was happy as she imagined it was because I had won a tournament. I told her I did just to save us having a discussion, and now I have to buy a takeaway tonight and get her some ice cream with my 'winnings'. I'm such an idiot.
Overall I finished just over £200 up for mini UKOPS, so it was a successful week of sorts, just not with the ending that I had hoped for. I never usually play the smaller buy-in, large field events, but I did enjoy some of them and may continue to do this. Until the weekend, I was getting ITM 50% of the time for the £5.50, £11 events, so may be worth pursuing this more.
Bankroll is a smidgen under £2900, so creeping up to that £3k mark. I'm definitely going to have a day off and then might try to get into the Summit tomorrow.
Danny and the guys in my group are going to be putting some work in over the next few weeks, so hopefully this will pay off. Going to look at a few spots where i'm weak and see what magic Danny can muster. Kinda feel like i'm plateauing and need a new perspective.
Oh, edit, nearly forgot this bit. Very happy with my mental game right now. As mentioned, I lost a few sickeners and just shrugged them off, and there was absolutely no lasting mental damage. This would usually not be the case, so from that point of view i'm very happy.
Especially after Friday and Saturday, when things had gone awfully, I just kept playing my game and didn't feel the need to chase losses. I hope this continues! I feel like (even though my updates are sporadic), this diary helps with accountability and i'ts definitely still a positive vessel for me.
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Finally just wanted to say congrats to the winners of the mini UKOPS challenge @Allan23 , @NOSTRI , @cpfc_2010 . It was a very enjoyable 10 days and i'd certainly be keen on a similar challenge again. Possibly we could create a weekly challenge once a month or something. I saw @Tikay10 was going to talk to the cheese at Sky to see if there would be a possibility of this, which i'd certainly take part in. I think the challenge invigorated the forum and sparked new friendships which is great to be a part of.
I'm off for a nap, hopefully my next update will be Wednesday morning when I get past the first 5 levels of a £110 event for the first time
I've only played 2-3 times since the mini UKOPS finished, I think a combination of the weather being too hot and the plethora of decent TV shows out right now have ruined my appetite to play. I had a couple of bad days, which brought the bankroll down, but last Friday had a good day where I finished 1st and 2nd in two £22 events, so made back what I had lost and some more. I recorded my screen and this is now with Danny who will give me some pointers on way's to improve. Just because I did well in these events does not mean I was necessarily playing that great.
I've not been very committed the last few weeks and need to change this, just struggling with targets and to get the motivation to play. I'm going to play tonight as Friday is a great night for poker on Sky. Need to work out a consistent route into the £110 events, as I think playing more of these will help me. They stop me autopiloting and help me focus more, but so far my record has been worse than abysmal in these. My bankroll would be over £4k if I did not try to satellite into these every week, which shows where I am in that regard.
Sorry it's not a more cheery update! There was talk of a possible league, monthly competition, similar to what we had at Mini UKOPS, and I think I might need something like this to get my competitive juices flowing again, and force me to play most nights. I'm tempted to take a few weeks off and just do some study, which might make me miss the game and want to come back with vigour, i'll have to see.
Cheers,
Shelley
"There was talk of a possible league, monthly competition, similar to what we had at Mini UKOPS, and I think I might need something like this to get my competitive juices flowing again,"
It's not been forgotten - watch this space, as they say.