Enjoying the blog as I said at the time. Keep your head up and play on.
Speak soon
Cheers @spiderme , you likewise. Would've preferred it if you guys had let me win some pots, but was a good table. ---
Current Bankroll: £27.84
Not played much over the past few days, although I did play a few tables 2p/4p cash for a couple of hours last night. Started in typical fashion by me losing a buy-in almost straight away - AK v A 10 on an ace high flop was great until the villain turned their 10. We were able to recover, though, and ended up more or less breaking even for the session.
I did play the rewards freeroll on both days since my previous update, however was only able to add £1 to the coffers.
The plan is to play more cash over the next few days to get me to the 100 point mark for the week, so that I can get the £2.30 token. Whether my remaining bankroll will last that long is another matter, but hopefully I can start playing better and having some profitable sessions again
Looking on the bright side, I think this is the first time in the challenge where my bankroll has been up from the previous update. A profit of 39p has been made since my Tuesday evening update - if I continue at that rate I may be back to my £50 starting point by about August...
Looking on the bright side, I think this is the first time in the challenge where my bankroll has been up from the previous update. A profit of 39p has been made since my Tuesday evening update - if I continue at that rate I may be back to my £50 starting point by about August...
A mini resurgence from the horror show of the previous two weeks.
Aside from winning my customary £1 on the rewards freeroll on Friday, I've only played cash since the last update and pretty much all of that was on Saturday evening. Ended up with a couple of buy-ins worth of profit across the tables I played. Unlike in previous weeks, for the most part I was getting my chips in ahead and staying ahead. I got lucky by being dealt AA and KK numerous times throughout the session, and was able to make the most of them. Pocket kings did foil me on one hand, however, where the opponent rage-jammed half a buy-in with A4 after losing a big pot the previous hand, and they ended up turning an ace. I also cocked up an AK hand, where after flopping 2 pair my poor bet sizing allowed the opponent to stay in and river a broadway straight, costing me half a buy-in in the process. Can't win them all, but it was nice to have a session where I ran well and played well overall, which hasn't happened much recently.
I was unable to make it to 100 points for last week, so I do not have a £2.30 token to utilise this week. Therefore, the full £5 cost of tonight's Triple Takedowns will come out of the bankroll. Unless I can do well in them, which given recent form is unlikely, the bankroll may well have taken another hit by Wednesday's update.
I need to have a think about what I want to do with this bankroll challenge going forward - although I'm improving my discipline and it's somewhat enjoyable, I do miss not being able to play some of the tournaments that I normally would (e.g. Orfy Deepstack, £5.50 Mega Stack) and I'm certainly playing less volume than previously. We'll continue with the challenge for now, but it may eventually turn into a weekly diary of me playing micro stakes without a restricted bankroll. Not sure whether it will be as interesting as a bankroll challenge, but hopefully it will be a worthwhile read regardless.
Good luck with however you decide to go with this, The main problem is having the bankroll to ride the variance. Most challengers probably don’t fail it’s the commitment to reporting and updating that’s the first thing to go, daily reporting therefore ends up being a millstone around the neck whilst it seemed like a good idea at the start. If you are to continue your really need to make the effort for the weekly token, the 28p games are ideal fort this especially when you get down to the last 20 points or so points required. Why not try a few 55p standard DYM there is much more play in these.
Good luck with however you decide to go with this, The main problem is having the bankroll to ride the variance. Most challengers probably don’t fail it’s the commitment to reporting and updating that’s the first thing to go, daily reporting therefore ends up being a millstone around the neck whilst it seemed like a good idea at the start. If you are to continue your really need to make the effort for the weekly token, the 28p games are ideal fort this especially when you get down to the last 20 points or so points required. Why not try a few 55p standard DYM there is much more play in these.
The problem with the 28p Turbo DYMs is that because they are so fast-paced, I don't feel as if I have much edge on the opponents and I don't see them as profitable, albeit I've probably only played around 50 so far. Maybe I'm just not very good at them, but they just seem to be a bit of a lottery. If I was to play 50 a week and only win, say, 22 of them, it may help me get the weekly £2.30 token but including rake I may well lose £2.30 trying to make it to 100 points anyway. I agree RE the 55p standard DYMs - have only played a few so far during the challenge but they definitely suit me better. And if I play a lot of them, they should be profitable over time. In general though, I've found that I prefer playing cash games to DYMs.
To be fair, there were three days last week where I didn't play at all. If I had played a session of cash on those days, I probably would've made it to 100 points.
Pretty much back to where we started. It's not where I wanted to be at this point, but given where we were at this stage last week it feels like a small success.
Monday only consisted of the freeroll and triple takedowns, but we managed to run at least fairly deep in all of them.
Rewards Freeroll: 23/1079 (+£10.00) - never had a huge amount of chips in this but every time I was all-in whilst ahead I won, the best of which was a triple-up by getting pocket queens in against two lots of pocket jacks pre-flop - for once, a stress-free flop, turn and river! Eventually the blinds became too steep and I ran out of chips, but a much-welcomed £10 boost to the bankroll nonetheless.
Takedown 1: 33/132 (-2.00) - my stack ended up yo-yoing for most of the tournament. I got a fortunate double up with QQ v KK on a Q 7 7 flop - normally I would be happy to get QQ in pre-flop but this particular opponent made a relatively big pre-flop raise so opted to proceed with caution, especially given my notes on them for how they play premium pocket pairs. Soon after, I called an all-in with my set of 6s against K J on a K 6 5 J board - sadly another jack arrived on the river and I was back to my starting stack. We then got an overpair to the flop all in against a pair and a flush draw and held for a double up, before losing another decent-sized pot after I jammed on the low-stacked big blind with AJ. After chipping up to an average stack, I then decided to get too clever by 3-betting JK suited pre flop against a calling station and got myself into trouble post-flop. This left me with 10 big blinds, which soon evaporated after I jammed A3 suited from the button into AK in the small blind. A quite eventful tourney but no profit.
Takedown 2: 9/114 (+£1.39) - doubled up early on after flopping my second set of Qs of the night on a Q J 9 flop. I called a maniacal all-in by A9, and despite the turn bringing a flush draw for the opponent, we held. After that, I chipped up slightly before going more or less card-dead for an hour. I made it to the bubble, with roughly 10 big blinds and still couldn't find a hand to shove with. The bubble eventually burst 20 minutes later, and afterwards I lingered around with my short stack waiting for hand worthy of shoving. Eventually I got KQ all in vs pocket 5s which - I flopped my queen but by the river the board was flooded with diamonds. My opponent had a diamond, I did not and that was me out in 9th.
Takedown 3: 9/85 (+2.69 [£1.88 for two head prizes]). Got an early double up and bounty with AA v QQ. Nothing much happened for a while after until I got another bounty from a small stack after I jammed A 8 into their big blind. I then went chasing further bounties to no avail. Made it past the bubble whilst short-stacked but couldn't get a double up and exited for my second 9th place of the evening.
I was so engaged with the tourneys that I forgot to make notes on key hands and hands that I wanted to review later on, so spent all of my Tuesday lunch hour going through my hand history from the previous night. Certainly some spots where I could've played better, but overall we played relatively well and secured a profit for the evening, as well as having good fun like always with the takedown tourneys. I also later found out that I have apparently come third in this week's Takedown competition, which will give me a £5 tourney token for next week. Might get a chance to play the £5.50 mega stack on a Friday or Saturday!
Only played the freeroll (which I failed to cash) on Tuesday due working late and being distracted by the football. However, the plan is to play a lot of 2/4 cash for the rest of the week, along with a few £0.55 DYMs and perhaps even a few micro tourneys in there as well. Hopefully we can keep the bankroll going in the right direction.
For the first time in the challenge, we're in profit. Still don't think I'm playing brilliantly for the most part, but I seem to be running a bit better at the tables now and the enjoyment of playing poker is beginning to return. Aside from the usual 6:30pm freeroll, I've pretty much just played cash for the past few days and we've managed to boost the bankroll somewhat since the previous update.
The Wednesday evening session started well with me winning a three-way pre-flop all in with AA > KK > 22 (don't ask me why pocket 2s were involved...) for a £9.50 pot. After that, I played quite sloppily for most of the session, including one hand with pocket 9s (which I will post separately) where I got extremely lucky. Ended up losing two flips with AK (against pocket 2s and pocket 7s respectively) against £2 or lower stacks, but still finished a couple of buy-ins up for the session.
The Thursday session was pretty uneventful. I won an AA v QQ all-in and won a good pot with pocket kings after flopping a set and turning a boat, but otherwise spent most of the session playing small pots and being 3-bet a lot by a few particular opponents.
The highlight of Thursday was a good innings in the Rewards freeroll, with me finishing 20/998 and adding another £10 to the bankroll. At one stage, I thought I was going to win but lost two key hands. The first of which AK v J 10 after I had jammed the button, and then with 20 left I was put-all by the button and I decided to go with my pocket 3s, which lost in a flip - perhaps I could've waited for a better spot, as even though I only had 8 BBs it was an average stack at that point. Never really like being all in with small pocket pairs. To be fair, I had ran pretty well up to that point, so couldn't complain.
One thing I have learnt from my recent sessions is how much I hate playing AK - always seems to get me into trouble post-flop and I never have any faith that it will hold when flipping against an opponent. I guess that's just variance, but it's resulted in me playing it more tentatively at times, especially when it's not suited. Just seems to be the source of a lot of lost hands at the moment. Something for me to analyse and work on.
Debating whether to play cash or tournaments tonight (or both). The cash tables usually provide greater opportunities at the weekend, so that may well get the nod.
This was the aforementioned pocket 9s hand. Complete mess really. Opponent is a good reg and had 3-bet me a few times frequently so decided to take an aggro approach, albeit pocket 9s probably wasn't the hand to do it with. Fortunately the turn saved me, although I should've checked it for deception instead of jamming and making the villain fold as a result. Arguably played it badly on all streets, but at least I know where I made my mistakes. Need to stop randomly mashing buttons at times!
Despite playing quite a lot of cash poker since the last update, we've only been able to increase the bankroll slightly, although at least it is still going in the right direction.
Played 3 sessions of cash poker - Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. Didn't play amazingly but didn't hit too many hands either. Particularly on Saturday, there were a few people who were throwing £4 buy-ins around like confetti, so was a little frustrating that we weren't able to add to the bankroll more significantly than we did.
The more exciting hands took place on the Saturday session - I ended up getting pocket AA all in on the flop whilst ahead in two separate hands against QK and A5 respectively and managed to lose them both. Contrastingly, I managed to flop quads on two occasions and managed to get paid for both, once of which saw me flop quad 5s and then make a 5x pot jam on the river on a 5 5 K K A board in the hope of getting a K to call off their whole stack, which indeed worked. Certainly something I wouldn't do at higher stakes, but at lower stakes is likely to work. I also managed to spew £3 with AQ of hearts by unsuccessfully trying to bluff a good 2/4 reg off their hand. After this, and also being distracted by the hysterics on the Waller/PKRPar Twitch stream, I gave up for the night.
Not to be deterred by the previous day's failed bluff, I tried again with AQ on the Sunday... and once again failed. This time I was hero-called by A9 on a 6 6 8 10 9 board after overbetting the river, again by a good reg who 3-bet me pre-flop. Possibly need to review these hands in more detail, as I seem to regularly throw away a few buy-ins with poorly-timed bluffs. With no success on the cash tables, I played 28p DYMs to get my weekly points to 100 (unusually, I won more of them than I lost!) and then didn't really play any poker for the rest of the day.
A new week and some good opportunities to increase the bankroll. I have my weekly £2.30 token and two £5 tokens from the Takedowns to use. It's also the start of the Golden Ticket Giveaway promo today - whilst there are no real prospects of getting any silver or gold tickets, I will still aim to play as much as I can and get myself a few bronze tickets, as £20 will be a nice boost to the bankroll. Along with the daily freerolls, Monday takedowns, 2/4 cash, and a few other sporadic tourneys, hopefully we can further increase the bankroll.
Not sure which tournaments will be best to use the £5 tokens on - I could potentially play the 8:25pm mega stack on Friday and Saturday. I'm not a huge fan the structures of the £5.50 minis so I will likely avoid them. Anyone have any suggestions?
A productive couple of days has seen the bankroll surpass £100 for the first time in the challenge, and we have now doubled what we started with. Have only played the takedowns, freerolls and some 2/4 cash so far this week but we've made the most of them.
Takedown 1: 63/134 (-£2) - never really got above 7000 chips in this tourney. Won a few decent-sized pots early on but nothing too exciting. I was then moved to a new table where one player was going all in every hand, clearly had his mind elsewhere. Unfortunately, he had a big stack and had eliminated a bunch of people previously, so it made things rather challenging. The best hands I got during this phase of the tournament were low pocket pairs, which I didn't fancy rolling the dice with against someone going all-in every hand. Eventually, the maniac busted, and I was moved to a new table with 20 BBs left. After not getting any good hands for a few cycles, I eventually got pocket 10s and the chips went it. Sadly I was up against QQ and AA, and I subsequently departed.
Takedown 2: 2/96 (+15.50) - won a big pot early on after flopping a set of jacks and continued to chip up nicely, until losing a flip in the big blind with pocket 10s vs KQ after the small blind jammed. I recovered and made my way to the latter stages, where I got a big double up after flopping a broadway straight and getting full value from the villain's 2 pair. Made the final table with me 5/6 and then managed to double up AA v KK which made me chip leader, and the run-good continued when I won a flip 55 v AQ after flopping my set. With 3 left and me chip leading, things were going too well... and the Sky Poker Gods agreed - I got QQ in against JJ and the villain turned their jack. After managing to recover some of the damage soon after, a big hand kicked off with the other two opponents, and I was heads up. We both had a healthy number of big blinds so it allowed for a decent heads-up contest with plenty of pots. Ultimately, it ended with me getting AJ in against pocket 7s and failing to hit. Was nice to make it to heads-up, even if it's just a micro tourney. Still can't buy a win at the moment, though.
Takedown 3: 22/85 (+£0.50 [£2.50 for 4 head prizes]) - won a big pot and bounty early on after the person before me jammed with K8 for 400 chips, I re-jammed with A7 suited for 2300 chips and was also called by JQ who had initially min-opened from early position. JQ have me covered, but flopping a full-house assuaged things and gave me a good stack. After a few levels of inactivity and leaking of chips, I decided to jam pocket 7s for 20 or so big blinds after a number of people limped in (all of which I had covered), however one of the limpers had AQ and managed to win the hand. This left me with 430 chips, which was less than 3 BBs. 10 minutes later, I was still in and had managed to spin the stack up to 20 BBs again. At this point with confidence high, I picked up quite a few good hands in succession and had a bit of a bash-up, taking a further 3 bounties in the process. Eventually, the Asho express was derailed after I got JJ in vs QQ from the big-stack who had just joined the table, and that was me out in 22nd place.
A score of 24 for the competition is unlikely to be enough for a token this week, but we'll see.
Along with a pair of £2 cashes on the rewards freerolls and a strong Tuesday evening session of 2/4 cash, we managed to add a good chunk to the bankroll since the last update. Planning to up my volume for the rest of the week and try and play a few more tournaments as well. I also still have my 3 tokens to use from the previous update, which hopefully can be put to good use.
A fairly quick (by my standards) update today, as it's a busy working day for me. The bankroll is still ticking along nicely, albeit nothing much to get excited about results-wise.
A couple of blanks in the micro deep stacks - ended up all-in with AA pre-flop vs a lower pocket pair in separate hands in both tournaments, and managed to lose them both with the opponents both hitting sets. One of them eliminated me from the tournament and the other one left me with a low-stack, which I soon lost by shoving a flush-draw that never came in.
Fortunately, my weekly £2.30 token yielded a better result in the 8pm BH:
8pm £2.20 BH - 11/274 (+£10.21 [cash + 7 head prizes]) - with 15 people left I was 2/15, but from that point every bounty spot I tried to take involved me being against a higher pocket pair or a dominating hand. Eventually, my stack dwindled away and I finished 11th place. Felt like an opportunity missed but was still a good run. Was a rather frustrating evening of poker, although at least it wasn't a losing one.
Played cash on Thursday for a couple of hours but was only able to add a couple of quid to the bankroll. There were also cashes in the Wednesday and Thursday freerolls for £2 and £1 respectively.
Tonight I'm planning to play several micro tourneys. Both of my £5 tokens will be used, likely on the 6:30pm BH and 8:25pm mega stack. I'll also play a few of the deep stacks (possibly even the Orfy) and £2.20 BHs. Worst case scenario, I don't cash anything and I have a similar bankroll to what I had on Wednesday's update. I did set myself a rule at the start of the challenge to limit myself to 3 tables at a time, however there have been times over the past few weeks where 3 hasn't seemed enough to keep me engaged. So we may well play up to 6 tonight and see how it goes - if I start having losing sessions then I may restrict myself to 3 tables again.
Only a slight increase in the bankroll from the previous update, but nonetheless it is still heading in the right direction. Was a bit of a mixed bag poker-wise this weekend, both in terms of results and the way I played.
Played solely tournaments on Friday, with the following results:
6:05pm £2.20 BH - 36/116 (£-1.07) (£1.13 for 1 head prize) 6:30pm Rewards Freeroll - 951/1012 (+£0) 6:30pm £5.50 BH - 152/308 (-£0.50) - Token used 7:15pm £2.20 DS - 21/185 (+1.94) 7:15pm £3.30 Orfy - 51/51 (-£3.30) 8pm £2.20 BH - 66/351 (-£1.25) (£0.75 for 1 head prize) 8:25pm Mega Stack - 10/166 (+£10.29) - Token Used
Never really got anything going in the bounty hunters. Only managed to claim 2 head prizes across the 3 games that I played, whilst failing to cash any of them. The Orfy Deepstack was enjoyable for the 12 minutes that I lasted; the hand that I posted previously all but wiping out my stack and resulting in me being the first person out. Amusingly, in the handful of times that I've played the Orfy, this actually wasn't my quickest departure from it. Maybe I would be better opting for late-reg next week! I played well in the early and mid stages of the 7:15pm deep stack and was one of the chip leaders going into the latter stages. I then had to fold a few big hands to poor runouts and then continued to leak chips by playing badly, and in the end only just scraped a min-cash. The best result came in the mega stack when using my other £5.50 token, however it also brought the biggest disappointment of the night. With 10 left, I was second in chips and in a strong position. However, I then managed to run into a bit of a cooler vs the big stack - after flopping a full house, the villain then turned a better full house and I managed to stack off to him. It was a bit of a gut-wrencher to bust there - it was probably the best I've played in a long long time to get to that point, I was playing solid, aggressive poker and was chipping up well, so for it all to be undone in one hand was a kick in the teeth. But that's poker for you. It did bring a £10 profit from the token, but it felt as if it could and should have been more.
After a very good cash session on late Saturday afternoon where I managed to be up several buy-ins, I then gave it all back on the Saturday evening and Sunday evening sessions. I did have some rancid beats during those two sessions, but it did also coincide with be trying to play 5 tables at once. 3 tables never seems enough to keep me occupied, but may be better for the bankroll challenge in the short-term.
I did manage a win this weekend, by sun-running PKRPar's Twitch Stream home game for £45 or so. Was only a 15 runner tournament but at least proves I'm not completely useless when it comes to poker.
Contrary to my Wednesday update, we did manage to sneak a £5 token from last week's takedowns, so that will likely be used on Friday's mega stack again. No £20 win in the Golden Ticket promotion this week, although I didn't put in enough volume last week so this was to be expected. I do have some time off work this week though, so can hopefully play a bit more than I would normally. With the likely return of the micro tourney league as well, I want to put some more volume into tourneys in the coming weeks, although confidence isn't that high at the moment.
Comments
Good to spend some time on the tables on Monday.
Enjoying the blog as I said at the time. Keep your head up and play on.
Speak soon
---
Current Bankroll: £27.84
Not played much over the past few days, although I did play a few tables 2p/4p cash for a couple of hours last night. Started in typical fashion by me losing a buy-in almost straight away - AK v A 10 on an ace high flop was great until the villain turned their 10. We were able to recover, though, and ended up more or less breaking even for the session.
I did play the rewards freeroll on both days since my previous update, however was only able to add £1 to the coffers.
The plan is to play more cash over the next few days to get me to the 100 point mark for the week, so that I can get the £2.30 token. Whether my remaining bankroll will last that long is another matter, but hopefully I can start playing better and having some profitable sessions again
Looking on the bright side, I think this is the first time in the challenge where my bankroll has been up from the previous update. A profit of 39p has been made since my Tuesday evening update - if I continue at that rate I may be back to my £50 starting point by about August...
Good luck at the tables!
Current Bankroll: £27.84
Looking on the bright side, I think this is the first time in the challenge where my bankroll has been up from the previous update. A profit of 39p has been made since my Tuesday evening update - if I continue at that rate I may be back to my £50 starting point by about August...
Good luck at the tables!
Onwards and upwards, good luck
We might be out of lockdown by August
A mini resurgence from the horror show of the previous two weeks.
Aside from winning my customary £1 on the rewards freeroll on Friday, I've only played cash since the last update and pretty much all of that was on Saturday evening. Ended up with a couple of buy-ins worth of profit across the tables I played.
Unlike in previous weeks, for the most part I was getting my chips in ahead and staying ahead. I got lucky by being dealt AA and KK numerous times throughout the session, and was able to make the most of them. Pocket kings did foil me on one hand, however, where the opponent rage-jammed half a buy-in with A4 after losing a big pot the previous hand, and they ended up turning an ace. I also cocked up an AK hand, where after flopping 2 pair my poor bet sizing allowed the opponent to stay in and river a broadway straight, costing me half a buy-in in the process. Can't win them all, but it was nice to have a session where I ran well and played well overall, which hasn't happened much recently.
I was unable to make it to 100 points for last week, so I do not have a £2.30 token to utilise this week. Therefore, the full £5 cost of tonight's Triple Takedowns will come out of the bankroll. Unless I can do well in them, which given recent form is unlikely, the bankroll may well have taken another hit by Wednesday's update.
I need to have a think about what I want to do with this bankroll challenge going forward - although I'm improving my discipline and it's somewhat enjoyable, I do miss not being able to play some of the tournaments that I normally would (e.g. Orfy Deepstack, £5.50 Mega Stack) and I'm certainly playing less volume than previously. We'll continue with the challenge for now, but it may eventually turn into a weekly diary of me playing micro stakes without a restricted bankroll. Not sure whether it will be as interesting as a bankroll challenge, but hopefully it will be a worthwhile read regardless.
Most challengers probably don’t fail it’s the commitment to reporting and updating that’s the first thing to go, daily reporting therefore ends up being a millstone around the neck whilst it seemed like a good idea at the start.
If you are to continue your really need to make the effort for the weekly token, the 28p games are ideal fort this especially when you get down to the last 20 points or so points required. Why not try a few 55p standard DYM there is much more play in these.
The problem with the 28p Turbo DYMs is that because they are so fast-paced, I don't feel as if I have much edge on the opponents and I don't see them as profitable, albeit I've probably only played around 50 so far. Maybe I'm just not very good at them, but they just seem to be a bit of a lottery. If I was to play 50 a week and only win, say, 22 of them, it may help me get the weekly £2.30 token but including rake I may well lose £2.30 trying to make it to 100 points anyway.
I agree RE the 55p standard DYMs - have only played a few so far during the challenge but they definitely suit me better. And if I play a lot of them, they should be profitable over time. In general though, I've found that I prefer playing cash games to DYMs.
To be fair, there were three days last week where I didn't play at all. If I had played a session of cash on those days, I probably would've made it to 100 points.
Pretty much back to where we started. It's not where I wanted to be at this point, but given where we were at this stage last week it feels like a small success.
Monday only consisted of the freeroll and triple takedowns, but we managed to run at least fairly deep in all of them.
Rewards Freeroll: 23/1079 (+£10.00) - never had a huge amount of chips in this but every time I was all-in whilst ahead I won, the best of which was a triple-up by getting pocket queens in against two lots of pocket jacks pre-flop - for once, a stress-free flop, turn and river! Eventually the blinds became too steep and I ran out of chips, but a much-welcomed £10 boost to the bankroll nonetheless.
Takedown 1: 33/132 (-2.00) - my stack ended up yo-yoing for most of the tournament. I got a fortunate double up with QQ v KK on a Q 7 7 flop - normally I would be happy to get QQ in pre-flop but this particular opponent made a relatively big pre-flop raise so opted to proceed with caution, especially given my notes on them for how they play premium pocket pairs. Soon after, I called an all-in with my set of 6s against K J on a K 6 5 J board - sadly another jack arrived on the river and I was back to my starting stack.
We then got an overpair to the flop all in against a pair and a flush draw and held for a double up, before losing another decent-sized pot after I jammed on the low-stacked big blind with AJ. After chipping up to an average stack, I then decided to get too clever by 3-betting JK suited pre flop against a calling station and got myself into trouble post-flop. This left me with 10 big blinds, which soon evaporated after I jammed A3 suited from the button into AK in the small blind. A quite eventful tourney but no profit.
Takedown 2: 9/114 (+£1.39) - doubled up early on after flopping my second set of Qs of the night on a Q J 9 flop. I called a maniacal all-in by A9, and despite the turn bringing a flush draw for the opponent, we held. After that, I chipped up slightly before going more or less card-dead for an hour. I made it to the bubble, with roughly 10 big blinds and still couldn't find a hand to shove with. The bubble eventually burst 20 minutes later, and afterwards I lingered around with my short stack waiting for hand worthy of shoving. Eventually I got KQ all in vs pocket 5s which - I flopped my queen but by the river the board was flooded with diamonds. My opponent had a diamond, I did not and that was me out in 9th.
Takedown 3: 9/85 (+2.69 [£1.88 for two head prizes]). Got an early double up and bounty with AA v QQ. Nothing much happened for a while after until I got another bounty from a small stack after I jammed A 8 into their big blind. I then went chasing further bounties to no avail. Made it past the bubble whilst short-stacked but couldn't get a double up and exited for my second 9th place of the evening.
I was so engaged with the tourneys that I forgot to make notes on key hands and hands that I wanted to review later on, so spent all of my Tuesday lunch hour going through my hand history from the previous night. Certainly some spots where I could've played better, but overall we played relatively well and secured a profit for the evening, as well as having good fun like always with the takedown tourneys. I also later found out that I have apparently come third in this week's Takedown competition, which will give me a £5 tourney token for next week. Might get a chance to play the £5.50 mega stack on a Friday or Saturday!
Only played the freeroll (which I failed to cash) on Tuesday due working late and being distracted by the football. However, the plan is to play a lot of 2/4 cash for the rest of the week, along with a few £0.55 DYMs and perhaps even a few micro tourneys in there as well. Hopefully we can keep the bankroll going in the right direction.
Current Bankroll: £49.54
So you've played poker for over 2 weeks & it's cost you exactly £0.46?
I'd say that was great value.
Best of luck with your challenge.
For the first time in the challenge, we're in profit. Still don't think I'm playing brilliantly for the most part, but I seem to be running a bit better at the tables now and the enjoyment of playing poker is beginning to return. Aside from the usual 6:30pm freeroll, I've pretty much just played cash for the past few days and we've managed to boost the bankroll somewhat since the previous update.
The Wednesday evening session started well with me winning a three-way pre-flop all in with AA > KK > 22 (don't ask me why pocket 2s were involved...) for a £9.50 pot. After that, I played quite sloppily for most of the session, including one hand with pocket 9s (which I will post separately) where I got extremely lucky. Ended up losing two flips with AK (against pocket 2s and pocket 7s respectively) against £2 or lower stacks, but still finished a couple of buy-ins up for the session.
The Thursday session was pretty uneventful. I won an AA v QQ all-in and won a good pot with pocket kings after flopping a set and turning a boat, but otherwise spent most of the session playing small pots and being 3-bet a lot by a few particular opponents.
The highlight of Thursday was a good innings in the Rewards freeroll, with me finishing 20/998 and adding another £10 to the bankroll. At one stage, I thought I was going to win but lost two key hands. The first of which AK v J 10 after I had jammed the button, and then with 20 left I was put-all by the button and I decided to go with my pocket 3s, which lost in a flip - perhaps I could've waited for a better spot, as even though I only had 8 BBs it was an average stack at that point. Never really like being all in with small pocket pairs. To be fair, I had ran pretty well up to that point, so couldn't complain.
One thing I have learnt from my recent sessions is how much I hate playing AK - always seems to get me into trouble post-flop and I never have any faith that it will hold when flipping against an opponent. I guess that's just variance, but it's resulted in me playing it more tentatively at times, especially when it's not suited. Just seems to be the source of a lot of lost hands at the moment. Something for me to analyse and work on.
Debating whether to play cash or tournaments tonight (or both). The cash tables usually provide greater opportunities at the weekend, so that may well get the nod.
Despite playing quite a lot of cash poker since the last update, we've only been able to increase the bankroll slightly, although at least it is still going in the right direction.
Played 3 sessions of cash poker - Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. Didn't play amazingly but didn't hit too many hands either. Particularly on Saturday, there were a few people who were throwing £4 buy-ins around like confetti, so was a little frustrating that we weren't able to add to the bankroll more significantly than we did.
The more exciting hands took place on the Saturday session - I ended up getting pocket AA all in on the flop whilst ahead in two separate hands against QK and A5 respectively and managed to lose them both. Contrastingly, I managed to flop quads on two occasions and managed to get paid for both, once of which saw me flop quad 5s and then make a 5x pot jam on the river on a 5 5 K K A board in the hope of getting a K to call off their whole stack, which indeed worked. Certainly something I wouldn't do at higher stakes, but at lower stakes is likely to work. I also managed to spew £3 with AQ of hearts by unsuccessfully trying to bluff a good 2/4 reg off their hand. After this, and also being distracted by the hysterics on the Waller/PKRPar Twitch stream, I gave up for the night.
Not to be deterred by the previous day's failed bluff, I tried again with AQ on the Sunday... and once again failed. This time I was hero-called by A9 on a 6 6 8 10 9 board after overbetting the river, again by a good reg who 3-bet me pre-flop. Possibly need to review these hands in more detail, as I seem to regularly throw away a few buy-ins with poorly-timed bluffs.
With no success on the cash tables, I played 28p DYMs to get my weekly points to 100 (unusually, I won more of them than I lost!) and then didn't really play any poker for the rest of the day.
A new week and some good opportunities to increase the bankroll. I have my weekly £2.30 token and two £5 tokens from the Takedowns to use. It's also the start of the Golden Ticket Giveaway promo today - whilst there are no real prospects of getting any silver or gold tickets, I will still aim to play as much as I can and get myself a few bronze tickets, as £20 will be a nice boost to the bankroll. Along with the daily freerolls, Monday takedowns, 2/4 cash, and a few other sporadic tourneys, hopefully we can further increase the bankroll.
Not sure which tournaments will be best to use the £5 tokens on - I could potentially play the 8:25pm mega stack on Friday and Saturday. I'm not a huge fan the structures of the £5.50 minis so I will likely avoid them. Anyone have any suggestions?
A productive couple of days has seen the bankroll surpass £100 for the first time in the challenge, and we have now doubled what we started with. Have only played the takedowns, freerolls and some 2/4 cash so far this week but we've made the most of them.
Takedown 1: 63/134 (-£2) - never really got above 7000 chips in this tourney. Won a few decent-sized pots early on but nothing too exciting. I was then moved to a new table where one player was going all in every hand, clearly had his mind elsewhere. Unfortunately, he had a big stack and had eliminated a bunch of people previously, so it made things rather challenging. The best hands I got during this phase of the tournament were low pocket pairs, which I didn't fancy rolling the dice with against someone going all-in every hand. Eventually, the maniac busted, and I was moved to a new table with 20 BBs left. After not getting any good hands for a few cycles, I eventually got pocket 10s and the chips went it. Sadly I was up against QQ and AA, and I subsequently departed.
Takedown 2: 2/96 (+15.50) - won a big pot early on after flopping a set of jacks and continued to chip up nicely, until losing a flip in the big blind with pocket 10s vs KQ after the small blind jammed. I recovered and made my way to the latter stages, where I got a big double up after flopping a broadway straight and getting full value from the villain's 2 pair. Made the final table with me 5/6 and then managed to double up AA v KK which made me chip leader, and the run-good continued when I won a flip 55 v AQ after flopping my set. With 3 left and me chip leading, things were going too well... and the Sky Poker Gods agreed - I got QQ in against JJ and the villain turned their jack. After managing to recover some of the damage soon after, a big hand kicked off with the other two opponents, and I was heads up. We both had a healthy number of big blinds so it allowed for a decent heads-up contest with plenty of pots. Ultimately, it ended with me getting AJ in against pocket 7s and failing to hit. Was nice to make it to heads-up, even if it's just a micro tourney. Still can't buy a win at the moment, though.
Takedown 3: 22/85 (+£0.50 [£2.50 for 4 head prizes]) - won a big pot and bounty early on after the person before me jammed with K8 for 400 chips, I re-jammed with A7 suited for 2300 chips and was also called by JQ who had initially min-opened from early position. JQ have me covered, but flopping a full-house assuaged things and gave me a good stack. After a few levels of inactivity and leaking of chips, I decided to jam pocket 7s for 20 or so big blinds after a number of people limped in (all of which I had covered), however one of the limpers had AQ and managed to win the hand. This left me with 430 chips, which was less than 3 BBs. 10 minutes later, I was still in and had managed to spin the stack up to 20 BBs again. At this point with confidence high, I picked up quite a few good hands in succession and had a bit of a bash-up, taking a further 3 bounties in the process. Eventually, the Asho express was derailed after I got JJ in vs QQ from the big-stack who had just joined the table, and that was me out in 22nd place.
A score of 24 for the competition is unlikely to be enough for a token this week, but we'll see.
Along with a pair of £2 cashes on the rewards freerolls and a strong Tuesday evening session of 2/4 cash, we managed to add a good chunk to the bankroll since the last update. Planning to up my volume for the rest of the week and try and play a few more tournaments as well. I also still have my 3 tokens to use from the previous update, which hopefully can be put to good use.
A fairly quick (by my standards) update today, as it's a busy working day for me. The bankroll is still ticking along nicely, albeit nothing much to get excited about results-wise.
Played 3 micro tournaments on Wednesday.
7:15pm £2.20 DS - 87/144 (-£2.20)
7:40pm £1.00 DS - 77/105 (-£1.10)
A couple of blanks in the micro deep stacks - ended up all-in with AA pre-flop vs a lower pocket pair in separate hands in both tournaments, and managed to lose them both with the opponents both hitting sets. One of them eliminated me from the tournament and the other one left me with a low-stack, which I soon lost by shoving a flush-draw that never came in.
Fortunately, my weekly £2.30 token yielded a better result in the 8pm BH:
8pm £2.20 BH - 11/274 (+£10.21 [cash + 7 head prizes]) - with 15 people left I was 2/15, but from that point every bounty spot I tried to take involved me being against a higher pocket pair or a dominating hand. Eventually, my stack dwindled away and I finished 11th place. Felt like an opportunity missed but was still a good run.
Was a rather frustrating evening of poker, although at least it wasn't a losing one.
Played cash on Thursday for a couple of hours but was only able to add a couple of quid to the bankroll. There were also cashes in the Wednesday and Thursday freerolls for £2 and £1 respectively.
Tonight I'm planning to play several micro tourneys. Both of my £5 tokens will be used, likely on the 6:30pm BH and 8:25pm mega stack. I'll also play a few of the deep stacks (possibly even the Orfy) and £2.20 BHs. Worst case scenario, I don't cash anything and I have a similar bankroll to what I had on Wednesday's update.
I did set myself a rule at the start of the challenge to limit myself to 3 tables at a time, however there have been times over the past few weeks where 3 hasn't seemed enough to keep me engaged. So we may well play up to 6 tonight and see how it goes - if I start having losing sessions then I may restrict myself to 3 tables again.
Have a good weekend all!
"Current Bankroll: £113.37"
oioi, going along lovely now, keep it up.
@Boxster - You won't be seeing me tonight, unless you caught me in the 12 mins before I busted!
Not sure I did a lot wrong here, maybe fold the river, I don't know. There's always next week!
Only a slight increase in the bankroll from the previous update, but nonetheless it is still heading in the right direction. Was a bit of a mixed bag poker-wise this weekend, both in terms of results and the way I played.
Played solely tournaments on Friday, with the following results:
6:05pm £2.20 BH - 36/116 (£-1.07) (£1.13 for 1 head prize)
6:30pm Rewards Freeroll - 951/1012 (+£0)
6:30pm £5.50 BH - 152/308 (-£0.50) - Token used
7:15pm £2.20 DS - 21/185 (+1.94)
7:15pm £3.30 Orfy - 51/51 (-£3.30)
8pm £2.20 BH - 66/351 (-£1.25) (£0.75 for 1 head prize)
8:25pm Mega Stack - 10/166 (+£10.29) - Token Used
Never really got anything going in the bounty hunters. Only managed to claim 2 head prizes across the 3 games that I played, whilst failing to cash any of them.
The Orfy Deepstack was enjoyable for the 12 minutes that I lasted; the hand that I posted previously all but wiping out my stack and resulting in me being the first person out. Amusingly, in the handful of times that I've played the Orfy, this actually wasn't my quickest departure from it. Maybe I would be better opting for late-reg next week!
I played well in the early and mid stages of the 7:15pm deep stack and was one of the chip leaders going into the latter stages. I then had to fold a few big hands to poor runouts and then continued to leak chips by playing badly, and in the end only just scraped a min-cash.
The best result came in the mega stack when using my other £5.50 token, however it also brought the biggest disappointment of the night. With 10 left, I was second in chips and in a strong position. However, I then managed to run into a bit of a cooler vs the big stack - after flopping a full house, the villain then turned a better full house and I managed to stack off to him. It was a bit of a gut-wrencher to bust there - it was probably the best I've played in a long long time to get to that point, I was playing solid, aggressive poker and was chipping up well, so for it all to be undone in one hand was a kick in the teeth. But that's poker for you. It did bring a £10 profit from the token, but it felt as if it could and should have been more.
After a very good cash session on late Saturday afternoon where I managed to be up several buy-ins, I then gave it all back on the Saturday evening and Sunday evening sessions. I did have some rancid beats during those two sessions, but it did also coincide with be trying to play 5 tables at once. 3 tables never seems enough to keep me occupied, but may be better for the bankroll challenge in the short-term.
I did manage a win this weekend, by sun-running PKRPar's Twitch Stream home game for £45 or so. Was only a 15 runner tournament but at least proves I'm not completely useless when it comes to poker.
Contrary to my Wednesday update, we did manage to sneak a £5 token from last week's takedowns, so that will likely be used on Friday's mega stack again. No £20 win in the Golden Ticket promotion this week, although I didn't put in enough volume last week so this was to be expected. I do have some time off work this week though, so can hopefully play a bit more than I would normally. With the likely return of the micro tourney league as well, I want to put some more volume into tourneys in the coming weeks, although confidence isn't that high at the moment.
Have a good week all!