Name: (AUS) – Variance, Mental Game (Tilt) & Victory: My Poker Journey
1st post: Introduction
Well every Blog should start with a hey right? So hey you the reader how you doin? (yes this is a
Thursday Session
So here we are another day and a morning one of that, more chance of a losing day due to the amount of buy ins but a bigger chance to have a nice score or two!
Let’s find out how we went.
Pre- Game
Started with some hand reviews of the deep run the other night we had tagged on iggy. Went through all hands before a quick coffee and into the grind at 7:30am
The Session
Coin Poker was rubbish today- didn’t cash any mtts and called it early - was losing when we had flips losing when we were ahead by miles etc. As such not much to write about.
ACR- Well over the last few days we have been hit hard on ACR. I need to stop looking at my shark scope on ACR as I keep seeing my Avg ROI at -2% because of the low volume and it affects me mentally.
Shark scope won’t be useful for my stats until 1000 games +. Also PT4 tracks most of what I veiw anyway apart from AVG ROI (it is handy to see if your beating the games enough on avg).
I will say actual just ROI % is king and for us on ACR its still quite positive but steadily decreasing.
In terms of the session well early on we got wrecked and look like we were going to be in the hole big time. We lost the big flips and when we had our opps crushed.
PT4 says we won at -39bb today and should of run at -15bb so quite a bad variance day. Allot of early rego bust situations.
But we found a run in the 16.50 6k gtd with 1.6k for 1st. unfortunately we finished 13th for $60 getting JJ into QQ for 14bb pre.....
We also had a run in the 6.60 3k PKO finishing in the top 30 and we did have a big stack in the 8.8 pko hyper before getting in a flip for 50% of the chips in play vs the CL and we didn’t get there.
On another day with some variance and with a bit better play from myself at a deep stack depth we could have had a really good day on ACR.
This means our very profitable start to the month on ACR is turning into a break even month. With some big events ahead though it could swing really well or bad and I can’t wait to find out.
Iggy- Good old IGGY oh I love you! - the games are soft, the fields don’t know icm enough and as long as you avoid the very marginal spots at the low stakes you have a big chance to be profitable. Today was another day where IGGY saved the day and provided us another winning day.
Today was the deep run in the $15.50 6k low roller. We were down to one table, and we grind the daylights out of this one. After getting into the money till the FT we never had over 20bb
we had 6-15bb from 30 left. On the FT we ran pretty hot. Got AQs in against AK and we won. With 5 left jammed bvb with K8o vs a tight opp with less than us he had AT we made a boat.
At 3 handed though this luck ran out. We never had the Chip lead and never really got into 2nd apart from at the start of 3 handed. So to turn $15 into 500+ USD is great!
I do think there is a problem emerging though.
Lots of deep runs but we can't seem to find that last little push to win mtts. As such something to monitor but if more and more 4th-2nds creep in we really need to evaluate if we are good enough to play on a consistent basis. Why?? Because the best win MTTs! you dont hear about that professional reg that never wins tourneys?
Conclusion
Maybe we are being a little harsh in the last line above, but we have had chances to win and have an outstanding month, we haven't done that yet!
Im grateful for the 1st 8 days of this month and its nice to see the move down to a $15abi across all the sites we play on is paying off with more deep runs etc.
Almost tempted even though there is a series on ACR and Coinpoker starting this month in just sticking to the ABI because how well we are doing.
Like I dont play MTTs over 26 usually when having a $15abi. I should increase this during series months.
After a few really bad months though is it bad I kinda wanna stick to what we are doing and grind out a winning month for confidence? Who knows.
Ill probably get fomo and still fire the $33-$55 mtts I would during a series. I am rolled for it! Its just I want to be profitable mental thing.
There is always the chance it turns in the higher buy ins for us and we have a few runs too!
Anyhow enough chit chat - have a great day guys! Few days off for me with the GFs Bday and yeah! Ill see you probably on monday or tuesday where it will be championship online poker time on ACR & CoinPoker.
Ill also leave you with these two photos of my iggy stats! - Our stats were great last month yet had a -roi %! This just shows the importance of sticking to your ABI and grinding! Nice up swing!
Monday- Championship Monday
One of the biggest days of the year, the 1st sunday session for the CoinPoker Coin Masters and the OSSXL on ACR.
a 4am start time for us today and a long grind! Lets see how I went today.
Pre-Game
3am Wake up call, Straight into a cold walk outside in the winter morning, Felt great to be up at that time and walking around! Awesome to feel like a true grinder for an online series finally
Warm shower afterwards to relax and make sure I was ready to focus on the grind ahead.
prepared the station and then its time to hit the grind.
The Session
IGGY- Decided to only fire a 200k $150 seat satty- busted 2nd hand QQ vs A4 oh well was for 5bb - so all good and not much to note.
CoinPoker- A day of break even - During a series you take these. I came 19th in the $25 PKO event 4 for $60. Had a stack then went card dead around the bubble.
In the End 3bet jam 66 vs a late open in the sb for 16bb eff, BB CL wakes up wtih KK and GG
I Min cashed the $5 6max sunday for a 2x and then we had a big spot in the $50 6max event 5. Unfortantley the bubble took its toll and we became quite short.
From there we managed 1 double and ladder but with 16 left, 3bet jam vs a late ep open on the btn with KQ and the raiser had A9 and we dont win the flip- Cashed for $111. (was 1,6k up top).
Bricked a few others and yeah!
ACR- Oh ACR how its turned in a horrid way here. We had some big spots in a lot of mtts today and nothing went our way. A day where I think its best the let the stats do the talking.
So as you can see we ran very horrid but played super great all day. With a slice of luck we could of had some major runs.
Our biggest spots was a 16.50 OSSXL Series event - Got AK in vs A7 for 110bb pot on 7k4 A - River 7 with 95%
Our other big spot was the $11 Broski A - We had the below hand 20 off the money for 10x ss and 40bb in a turbo with 2k up top... (THE GUY WAS JAMMING ANY 2 BASICALLY and lost 3x all in before this).
We grinding from 4am to 3:30pm give or take so happy with the effort put in just really wish it went different on one of our biggest buy in days of the year online. (unless we move up in stake of course)
We didn't use the $109 ticket ill wait for an event I like for that.
25 buy in down swing with a $20 abi today on ACR.
Conclusion
A Day of Promise but like so many days during an online or live series a day of not much to write about.
On a different day we could of had a big winning day but that isnt going to always happen.
If I continue to show up and play this well, we can be profitable this series - who knows maybe it could be a great winning month!
I will say as much as i am trying to be positive the fact that on ACR so many big money spots went begging I can't help but be a bit annoyed and tilted at the fact we really should have been up quite a bit today.
Can't help but look at my shark scope even though there is bugger all volume and see the big downturn it really hurts. I don't want that fish tag on shark scope as I am better than that.
Anyhow doesn't matter.
Onto the next session- likely a normal Tuesday night session for me followed by a couple of days off before a Friday morning championship session when i WFH next.
GLGL to all of you fighting it out in your respected series.
Well lads logged into gg because ill play a few series events on the site on friday
decided to basically MLR the $21 speedracer while i tidy my desk and well.......
DAY SAVER!!!! insane ROI 52mins of play! Bang!
well done mate. make sure u put a big bet on the maggies this week. $500 bet will give ya $750 ATM.
Update Tuesday & Wed
So a quick update from the last two days. We had a small session on tuesday (normal nightly grind) and WFH on Wed with a big session that was from 6am-3:30pm
Pre-game
For the night session it was home, walk around outside for 15mins and shower.
For Yesterday session I kinda just fell into playing so I did some warm up routine stuff in the 1st two breaks of the day. (quick walk in the back yard, and a super quick shower).
Warm Down??
Yes I finally started doing a warm down, I enjoyed walking outside so much after each session so far i have gone for a 15min walk followed by a warm shower.
I do plan to blog after the session, but on tuesday it was late and wed I had the GF over by the time I finished doing the above warm down.
I really think both a warm up and a warm down is super important especially during a series.
Tuesday Recap
On tuesday our normal nightly grind took place. On ACR we got wrecked and we are back into a -ROI after having quite a good positive ROI. We had another day of Great Adjusted BB/100 but ran under ev. On GG we bricked most mtts with only a few min cashes. On coinpoker its been a **** show of late nothing going our way, re jamming into the top of everyons range.
How on IGGY I cashed 3 out of 4 mtts. Ran super deep into the 5.50 low roller before running flush into flush with 12 left.
Ended up down around $200 for the day.
Wed Recap
Well what a wild day! Always remember your biggest mtt can be your last like the GG speedracer was on monday!
On Coinpoker I played 2 mtts busted both quick, I missed the last CSOP MTT of the day due to sleeping in so decided to not fire on coin poker for the day.
I didnt play anything on iggy with the series on GG and ACR.
On GG I had 2x spots, in the $15 Big bounties where I won 2 bounties but lost a flip 15 off the money with 55 vs A7. We lost a big pot 99 vs A4 for a bounty an orbit earlier for a top 200 stack.
in the $5 Festival Turbo we had a great stack and got into the money in 60/421 - we looked like flying (avg was 14bb we had 25bb) then KK vs AQ for piles, guy found an A....
We ended up just over a min cash...
ON ACR OH LADS>>> - In both Broski A and B we found the Chip lead before the end of late rego!!!! Everything went right and we were flying. All that -bb per 100 ev we were losing was all coming back to us today. In the Broski B however the heat stopped got AQ in vs A7 bvb and the guy found a 7 to KO us in 78th.
In broski A though the below happened!!
So close to a series title. Came 5th for piles of ROI. Puts the account well back into the positive land on ACR and tbh outside of one spot which i punted on (unfortunately on the final table hand below) we played our A game for hours.
So important to post your mistakes. This is not a call risk premium and ICM spot is too high, I talked myself into a call because he is a bit of a whale and a mirco stakes grinder who is probably jamming way to wide here. Still make a bad GTO call, was correct lost but a great learning lesson in just focusing in these big MTTs in being overly tighter with ICM.
Conclusion
So far a winning series month thanks to some scores on Monday and yesterday. Hopefully it continues as I plan to play a full session tomorrow and Saturday.
Ill also be firing a WFH day session shortly after this.
One thing I will say is own your breaks guys! It really helps! each break ive been walking in the back yard looking at the sun and talking to myself what I was grateful for in regards to the session and spots I am in. Great way to keep you locked in and fight tooth and nail for every spot you have!
See you after another session!
Thursday
A truly awful day, I kinda just want to rage write so no real process here just gonna get thoughts on paper so I can re focus to study later today and grind championship thursday tomorrow
We had a Ft on Iggy a 9th for $50 in the $15 PKO- Grateful for the 9th because i was short af from 30 people left or so...
Outside of that that was all for Iggy and I didnt play on CoinPoker today again..
ACR- Started okay top 100 in the broski again, FT the 4.40 3k and came 6th but this was the start of the mental downfall today....
Came in 3/9 played an awful final table and was very demotivated and harsh on my play. Lots of Neg self talk etc should of ended the session..
Instead we played an extra 3,.5hrs and just wasted money because I am a ****ing moron.
I bubbled the Stud Hi/LO event coming 15th top 13 ITM, got it in with a flush vs a high draw and a guy found running flush for a higher flush (Kh vs Jh....)
This sent me over the edge. I rage entered a few 33 and didn't play well at all, probably costing myself 100 on ACR and about 150 on GG
Rage quit my last couple of MTTs and now feel really awful about myself and my confidence. I was sky high coming into today, and now I feel like Im the worst player in the world with the worst mental game in the world.
At least we are not broke.... gg
put ur money where ur mouth is and put the roll on the crows to beat the magpies. big payday or broke.
put ur money where ur mouth is and put the roll on the crows to beat the magpies. big payday or broke.
Glad I didn’t listen to this advice 😂😂😂 was a decent game though
Yesterday session was an awful one both mentally and in session
I played great for hours and found myself with 6/8 in the $25 plo series event on Coin poker- got it in pretty good vs the cl and lost …..
Then made a mistake in the $50 6max series event 15 left utg opens of 16bb I have AJ mp and re jam HRC and gto wizard both lean to AQo+ being a re jam and I know this but made a mistake in game. Came 15th as I ran into KK only for $124
Should have had two spots for over a 1k usd to score……
This caused me to not recover and tilt of my session due to my mistakes and wasted a couple of good spots on gg
Was a losing day day and down to only 2.3k profit this month…..
I have a live series starting tomorrow which I’ll be firing! So wish us luck for that!
Rough day today,
Put 3 bullets into the opening $330. 1st bullet ran a good bluff vs a good reg who made a correct and great call with 3rd pair.
2nd bullet annoyed a bit at my line and chosing a spot vs a reg, Punted off the 2nd bullet.
3rd bullet went great. Looked unstopable at one stage. Had 380k at 2/4k with one hand till the break. avg stack was 121k 38 left top 12 paid....
Hand that cripples us goes as followed
Hero SB AhAd
UTG reg bit wild, opens at 2/4k to 8.5k btn fish, calls, Hero raise to 18.5k both players call.
Js 47d, hero leads for 31k, UTG re raises to 75k, BTN fold, Hero call.
Turn 5s, Hero x, utg now bets 90k, After thinking it over for a bit and with some scare cards on the river, we jam for value.
Villian tanks, says i think you have 99 and calls, he has KJs of Clubs............
River J..................
Hold we have 700k at 3/6k with 37 left avg stack about 130k, instead we have 10bb and we bust.
I will say mentally this screwed us, we when full tirade on people. Instagram stories were woeful and entilted and I really need to work on getting better at our response to the result not focusing on the result.
We came home had a shower some warm soup, we debfried with my fantastic partner and decided to fling a $25 hyper on coin poker while watching the EPL early kick off.
58mins late reward for calming down and playing your best poker,
Also helps when 2x people launch 20bb vs your open with AA and your hold....
So in short, a losing day, a day where we mentally weren't good enough but a day where we did play very well on the 3rd bullet and got into the zone and was crushing, A Live result is coming.
Grateful for the hyper run at the end of the day as well.
I will say on the drive home I wanted to retire from this game, but that's not the answer is to get better with the response and not dwell on the outcome.
A Live result is coming.
Looking forward to seeing the future live poker results.
We need to see more of these victories.
Monday Live Session and Tuesday Morning MTT online session
So recapping both the monday live session after an awful run sunday night and the following Tuesday morning session.
Monday Live Session
Pre game was surrounded by work activities, pre-game walk slight study motivational videos felt ready to grind and attack this $750 HR.
The Session, well it started great inside the 1st 3 levels went from 50k ss to 95k ss and was flying then in 1 hand we played a 250bb pot and no good.
Last hand before the break, have 64s (CLUBS) on the btn
CO raises to 2.2x very passive and fishy player, We flat, SB not a player ive played a lot with but has squeezed alot squeezes again to 10bb, In my head i was folding and we got break,
passive player calls, now we are on the btn with a nut cracking hand, this now becomes a call over 100bb deep.
Flop Ac 5c 8d,, gut shot and flush draw for the HERO. (you can see where this is going).
SB plays 60% bet quite big, passive player in CO folds,
Hero makes a the 1st mistake here, should of put in the jam instead we flat...............
turn- 2h, well double gut shot and a flush draw.
Villian now leads big again, mistake from hero again is not to jam, we somehow flat with 6 high and the draw.............. was worried by the size i was walking into AA..
anyhow 6 river..... - spr is less than one, Opp jams....
Obvs we have a 6 we should fold right,,,, i go to start giving my hand a funeral, and noitce a quick change in my opps behaviour,
I then start looking into tells and saying im gonna tank for 3mins and see what reads i get.
He starts changing colour, he starts his feet tapping, his heart rate starting going through the rooof the longer I tank (neck pulse)....
This all points to a bluff, what are the bluffs?
KQs (clubs or dimonds) QTs QJs KTs, - then there is bluffs i dont beat, a random TT or JJ, I kid you not after this tank i was certain, my god he is weak, can my hand beat a bluff, a few...
And right before calling i say this line "i beat some bluffs just sucks when you have TT or JJ and turn it into a bluff and I cant beat that"....
Call he has TT, outrageous read wrong outcome and well if we played re raise flop jam turn or jam flop we get a fold but oh well. Was happy that I trusted the live read was right but wrong haha
So I flicked the $100 6max Self dealt, great game and saw some wild stuff, went from a 40k ss to 136k at peak crushing this table and having fun, got moved sigh and found a table of old guys taking it seriosuly,,, boring.....
Luckly I got moved to a table of a few regs having fun flicking the $100 self dealt and one of the TDs from another series. Was a great fun table however this hand happens......
AsQc BB HERO
UTG limp, TD very tight female player, squeeze to 5bb from BTN............ our hand of 50bb is to strong to fold, we flat and limper flats.
Flop KJ6 two clubs 1x dimonds, X X female player bets 5bb again, I call and utg calls,
Turn Td - jackpot the nuts, - x UTG bets 10k, td tight female player jams 35bb we have 40ish BB and obvs snap......... UTG player sigh calls off
UTG A6s Dimonds (flush draw and a pair), TD female player (AcKc for top pair gut shot and a flush draw) and Hero AQ with the nut straight!
River 7 offff clubs.............- huge pot right before end of late rego no good. To top it off with less than 10bb- we jam AK in AK and KK........ no good there haha....
We rebuy run 99 vs AT no good, MLR and Jam K4s of 8bb and SB wakes up AJ and we are no good..... 3 bullets in 10mins fun!
So live well no good we are really running below ev and maybe should of played the above hand (High roller) alot better. **** small ball live exploits put them in spots! would of worked.
Online Tuesday Session
Pre game was woeful we wont go there.
In coin poker had 2x stacks in the $25 PKO and the $10 sprint. $25 PKO we bricked a flush draw, then defended a 3bet with KQs of clubs, Q43 1 club, turn 7clubs get it in vs KK and GG
in the $10 im 9 off the money 3/38 - we have AQ we raise of 33bb, btn flats and bb then jams 22bb, has he hasnt chosen a 3bet size and ripped he doesnt have AK AA KK QQ, so we call
he has QJs turn J............... we bust shortly after...
ON GG we brick everything, had a big spot in the $3 monster stack PKO, got QQ in for 40bb vs AK AK and JJ for piles, Flop A in the window.....
ACR well it started off poor busted the $16.50 and $33 i was in, I was down to 1 table in event 156m $22 20k PKO and well....................
Decided to come 2nd, lost the heads up battle vs a very good reg according to SS. never had the chip lead on the FT, was 5/5 4/4 before finding a big double when i got to 2/4 through the chip lead, called of his any two jam (yes he had that many chips) with AK and held.....
Heads up was out classed in the end got it in with a flip on the flop and lost. I am really happy with this score. Awesome ROI and helps pay for all these live series bullets.
$34 AUD into 2.6k AUD we take it and run.
Conclusion
Not great with live, but online we found our 2nd OSSXL series final table and we did pretty well to find a 2nd!
Hopefully it turns live i have the $575 main event which I won a $100 flip into so in for cheap!
Lets see how this goes! Its gonna turn I can feel it.
Rest of the SPT series Update
Well not a great end to the series as we will discuss below, we will discuss both the mental side of the game and the results of the series.
I’ll also discuss how close i stuck to my pre series plan (we didn’t) and why it’s important for us to discuss that moving forward.
Series result since our last update
So overall not so great, at one point it looked like we could turn it around but couldn’t do it in the end.
After the High roller update we had another day of the $575 storm day 1 which we won a ticket in above.
We busted that in 3 levels, never got above start stack (seem to suck over 100bb deep at the early stage of a MTT).
Why do we suck? - we want to make a great start but i get ancy, I play to many hands try to out play our opponents and inflate pots with hands with potential but not enough nuttiness.
Long story short I don’t respect the live early game enough, your eV comes from playing live from the early levels and stacking fish, but we have some fundamental leaks deep in MTTs.
So next up was the $100 Freeze out I made the FT and came 4th for $695. Was nice to end the day with a positive note after the storm, would have been nice to come 1st for the 2k roughly up top but was 8/9 on the ft. and saw 2x double KO by the 2x big stacks. In the end i doubled back to 10bb 4/4 before finding A9s in the SB and jam 10bb and the big stack in the BB woke up QQ and gg.
Since that run the rest of the series was woeful we only found 1 more cash, min cash in the $75 crazy pineapple which I had a stack lost 2x flips on the bubble, scrapped into the money
Found a double, got it in with A2Q on AA2 discarded by Q, opp had AKx and found a k.............. (2.1k for 1st in a soft field).
We played the 1.5k SHR, we lost TT vs KJo for 10bb (+ a cold call and fold vs my BB jam for 22bb)- found a double before last hand of late rego, had 44 in the bb sb jams 10bb we snap he has A7o he turns a 7 to leave us with 8bb post rego.
Few hands post rego we jam 8bb with TT get called by the btn and bb who had A8s and A6s........ A8s makes a straight on 679 4 T........... So 1,5k down the drain, win that double SS and a dream with 19 left. Still feel okay of regging this with 20bb....
The Storm i refired in on day 2, late pos open we have 20bb and 3bet jam 99btn and sb wakes up KK bullet 1 on day 2 gone, I rebuy get to basically double a SS before losing a nice pot with AK vs JT and KQ, KQ8 flop Q turn A river, we fold river after cbet flop and x x x turn. We bust when we 3bet jam vs an old lady open with KJs and she tank calls of AJs for 10bb.....
So in the end few too many rebuys in the series and the SHR no good, we lost a lot of big spots where we were ahead for piles of chips.
TBH THOUGH I ALSO HAD SOME MENTAL STRUGGLES AND ILL DISCUSS THIS BELOW
The Mental Side
SO going into this series I was happy I had a plan I was ready to grind and to go play my best. I immediately start awful Sunday with being way to splashy for live in the early stages of the Sunday opener and took 2x bullets to get going, this would be a common theme, taking multi bullets for me to lock in and go okay now I have to play my best to achieve this series.
I don’t know if this is a lack of respect for live players or the fact I think I’m too good for my own shoes, but I played awful in a number of mtts in a number of tournaments.
Mentally this caused me to spiral, why can’t I play my best, how can I not crush these fields yet I’m having such a good time online etc.
Throw in the bad beats that I copped throughout the week, AA vs KJ as mentioned above, the TT in the SHR, and then no good bluff got through even though it was theoretically correct really set me off. Why did it set me off??
The game isn’t played in theory it’s played live in person by people and I was mad I wasn’t able to adapt.
You can’t bluff people who play pub tournaments for fun and see they have top pair no blockers and don’t understand range and nut advantage
I don’t have to bluff every spot in every position you find yourself in with an inferior hand.
You don’t have to re-jam correctly to be balanced in live, **** balance just over flat hit nutted hands and extract value.
Basically I wasn't able to adapt. I did all this study and was ready to crush but I didn't mentally adjust and exploit, in short I was the fish this series.
On top of that pre game plans out the window, no real post-game done on most nights and I took every bad loss to heart, there was bad self-talk, suicidal self-talk (very bad trait of mine) and complained to anyone that would listen about how bad 2025 was. So 3 steps forward 2 steps back in the mental game again............
At the end of the day, I should be lucky I'm not broke, I get to play poker and I want to play poker. Be grateful for the day not ungrateful for all the runs we are think we are owed.
Lots work to be done but we will achieve a better mental game one day.
So did I stick to the Plan
No I didn’t, I fired too many re=entries into to many tournaments, I didn’t have the discipline to call time on days earlier and go home. I fired the SHR and I said I wasn’t (glad I did soft field and all) but wasn’t the plan. Why is the Plan important? Bankroll management, if I want to take this game seriously even though I have a day Job I really need to look at sticking to the plan and staying with the BR guidelines I set. Plan for re-entries, if I have to wait around 2hrs to MLR then wait around go do something else..... I don’t have the discipline to do this.
I think I was so mentally gone because I didn’t stick the plan, I want success too quickly and too much. Let it go, stick to the process, put in a lot of work into the game and crush.
So in conclusion, a horrid series, and it’s basically put us down for the month. I have 1x session left before a month off from playing to relax before a big lex live grind.
This series was self-inflected and why my downswing for 20k can’t be clawed back in this mind set. Lots of work to do but I do believe I can do it.
I will leave you with this; if we held AA vs KJ at the start of the series would we be having this convo? Probably not because we would of likely final tabled/ship that mtt, how much 1x river can change a series or a year. With that said nothing stops that happening to me later in the year in a big event and turning this year around.
Nice update. Pat yourself on the back for trying. That's always the first step. Getting out there and giving it a go. Most people don't have the guts to get out and try and invest in themselves. Don't get too down on yourself, mistakes happen nobody is perfect. The main thing is opening yourself up to the opportunity that will inevitably come your way the more times you keep trying. A big score is coming your way.
Nice update. Pat yourself on the back for trying. That's always the first step. Getting out there and giving it a go. Most people don't have the guts to get out and try and invest in themselves. Don't get too down on yourself, mistakes happen nobody is perfect. The main thing is opening yourself up to the opportunity that will inevitably come your way the more times you keep tr
hey thanks mate, means a lot, strange to say I think a good score is coming at some point just hard to see so many spots go by the wayside. Variance is cruel but it is also what keeps people playing. Hope you enjoy the blog!
For those wondering where the updates are I have two which ill post below in another post. I have championship Sunday (my last online session before Lex Live 4) and Adelaide Champs is on a stacked social so I have an update from the Mini Main Event I played last night as always this will be raw.
I also want to post a plan for myself and this blog moving forward
Session update
As mentioned above 2x quick updates from my last two sessions. Championship sunday (monday morning) and Stacked Social Mini Main Day 1
Champo Sunday
A day of main events on coinpoker and a big series grind on ACR lets see how we did.
In short ACR was okay, finally fired that $109 ticket, we didnt cash. We had less than 1/4 a starting stack in under an orbit.... Found a way to get to triple SS and then lost two big flips right on end of rego to bust. Got 99 in vs AK for 20bb btn vs sb and we didnt hold, Then open AQ next orbit in the CO and BB jams 88 we dont win that flip and we bust.
We went on another deep run in the $33 PKO and came 95th out of a large field for $134. So an okay day on ACR
CoinPoker, Main event Sunday, we are in the $5 the $50 and tried as we might to satty into the $500, Satty for the $500 no good, won a $5 satty into the $50 and the $5 we put in 3 bullets and didnt make it past late rego.
the $50 main event though turned into a run for the ages.
27 left, pay jump accuried 6k+ for 1st and a main event title- all in vs a fellow Aus reg and.......
2bb and a dream a soul curshing river, however our story didnt end, we won a 3 way all in with K5s going runner runner, found another double AJ vs A8 and we found ourselves 3/14
Unfortunately with 12 left I lost QJ vs AT for 5bb flip, then vs the same open raise called off KQ for 10bb he had AJ and again no dice, put me from 3/14 to 8/9
Did very well to ladder to 7th and a main event final table. Unable yet again to close it out! but a nice score before lex live. A confidence booster maybe?
Stacked Mini Main
Since that monday I have come down with a nasty head cold, I also didnt really want to fire the stacked series so close to Lex live with time off, however its my fav venue and I feel bad not firing after putting in some much time into SPT. So with the head cold I said F it ill go fire day 1b as its the only day with work and other commitments I can fire.
Was a mistake, I felt good for about 20mins before the body basically blocked up and I was hot sweaty and couldnt even really focus. In the end played awful and really dented my confidence...... Again another live mtt where I fail to win a hand lose 10k of a SS and bust not long afterwards..... this is becoming a consisten theme of late. Rego a live mtt, lose the 1st few hands get annoyed wonder how we will lose all my chips and proceed to lose it all. MY bust out hand is woeful....
KTo MP 40bb raise 2.5x good rego CO calls and BB calls,
Flop 234 two clubs 1 spade I i have Ts, X cbet small CO calls, bb folds
Turn Kh, I now bet 75% pot to set up a river jam, Reg jams on me...... No one ever jams turn here with a bluff or its very rare.
In the end as much as I wanted to fold, said this is the best turn in the deck can I really fold a K, Ill get exploited if I fold top pair on this turn............. Really bad thought process (AGAIN)
Called it off- he has 65s we dead.
So a really bad night, the GF thinks its just down to being sick, Myself I think its another MTT a common trend, cant find the A game, cant win a hand when deep stacked in a MTT and cant deal with losing and the variance of MTT poker....
As for the rest of the series they have a 5 game mixed event on which is a 1k, ill fire because I love my Mixed, and ill throw in a 1.2k SA camps main bullet before calling it a day before lex live.
Hopefully pride and fomo doesn't become a thing and I fire more than this as I want as many bullets as needed for Lex Live 4.
Again feel okay have a decent session then have a 0/10 session. No consistency atm which was annoys me most. I used to be constant now I feel I am just a bad reg.
Decided to get some live coaching before I leave for Lex Live 4, where hopefully this turns around.
Future Goal?
I mentioned above a future goal/ a plan for this blog moving forward. I think the goal for myself is to have this blog document a progression of a mental game and performance as a whole.
I think we have lacked a clear goal with a way to achieve how to get there. So with that said the below is the outline of a draft of what I would like to achieve and roughly how I think the best way is to achieve this.
Goal/Aim to complete
Increase my BR to 300k in 10 years of playing Semi pro on top of working my full-time job. (BR is roughly 50k)
10 years is 521 weeks 521/300k = $575 per week. (x4 roughly 2.5k a month).
Why this as a goal? - That will bring me to the age of 40 give or take a few months, If I can really highlight consistent growth in my game over this 10 year period (growth in mental game, strategy, game selection and good old fashion results) then at that time I can look into trialing going full time as a player and look to have some time off work to pursue a career in poker.
Do I think its achievable?
I do over ten years and with some changes that are needed to be made to my current strategy and have a reward that I'll do when I achieve this goal.
One of my fav quotes is " people overestimate what they can do in 1 year but underestimate what they can do in 10 years."
How to achieve?
Very simply make more money playing poker, however there is many ways to do this in the modern age of the game. Long gone are the days where online was soft as anything and there were genuine dead money players in live MTT fields.
I have always maintained, and I probably will continue to do so, I am a MTT reg. I have done most (90%) of my study on MTTs. I enjoy MTTs I like the strategic battle and the changes in game flow depending on stack depth MTT stage etc.
However, if we are looking to achieve a BR goal and entertain the idea of becoming a full-time player then we need to change our thinking. I need to re-evaluate what I play and when I play.
While working full time its not feasible to play majority of sessions as MTT sessions. This limits the volume I can get in and the $HR I can make.
As such the change to achieve the above is to move to a split of 80% cash and 20% MTTs as a ratio (give or take- this isnt a perfect ratio).
Ill still find time to grind the occasional Sunday sessions and the appropriate live series but we have to move away from the 4-6hr Tuesday night MTT grinds were the fields are small and I play 10-15 MTTs total.
By moving to cash, I can achieve a few different things that I currently lack. In short these are below
- Time to play sessions that will have a good $hr expected value and ROI- after work sessions for 2-3hrs is plenty for solid volume.
- Ability to grind in-between a busy work and life schedule outside of poker
- limit variance that is quite high in MTTs and less high in cash (can still go on downswings in cash however not at the rate and for as long as in MTTs).
By making this move we are breaking down the barrier with my current process. (Time to grind a full session of MTTs and variance which is the biggest leak of my mental game).
Once we have a larger BR we can plan for more MTTs series live and look to really try and improve the MTT game at this time.
We also need to break the barrier of fear of going broke, I often get afraid of playing games I am rolled for after going broke 2x before playing poker. So 50 buy in method which is quite standard for online BRs and shot take the level above when I get to 40+ buy ins for that level and give myself a 3 buy in shot. Also note that it would be silly to move straight to 500nl as well being a cash game fish- so starting low and slow and working up from 25 or 50nl to 100nl to 200nl seems the best approach moving forward.
What are the next steps
So we cant just go from MTTs to cash like its a flick of the switch and the same game. We need to be prepared to grind online/live cash. So our next steps is to increase studying cash game related content and move away from the very heavy focus of MTT study. Our MTT game will suffer a bit however our fundamentals is good enough to get by in most short stack scenarios so its not bad time to make the change. (ill be making this change post Lex Live 4)
After increasing study its to work out what games to play and what we can beat. I have a good deal with X-Poker for rake back and I have other options online that Im sure I can beat. (ignition cash for example). However It could be that we need to focus on playing live cash a bit more to increase the win rate.
We still can look to plan for live MTTs series and online MTTs series that do arise. We can also look to take shots on the Sunday (Monday morning) MTT grind.
Goals and rewards
No Goals in today's blog but goals should be related to study-based, volume based (number of sessions or hours played) and short to mid term Monetary goals. Also time off goals to recover are great to factor in as well.
I look to start including some Short and Midterm goals in the blogs after APL Millions (SEPT).
Rewards wise- upon completing this 300k BR I want to celebrate by playing the WSOP main event and a few WSOP mix game MTTs! So 2035 (maybe before with some luck) I can achieve this goal and reward myself with a WSOP trip.
Hope this helps explain some thought process and where I would like to move my game going forward. Ill still be playing MTTs but I think in our current environment and mental game state cash will be the preferred method of play. Let me know your thoughts! Lets go study hard, crush slowly and over the long term and lets hope to get to 300k in 10 years!
playing live cash
I can't imagine live cash in a legal poker setting is beatable long term in Australia. Maybe only 5/10 which doesn't play often. Not 2/5 and 2/3 is unbeatable due to the rake for most of the time.
If you can play deep which they allow at 2/3 to buy-in for $500 then it might be worth playing towards the end of the night. And you gotta play nitty to beat rake still if its even beatable. 2/5 you want everyone to be buying in for $500 and I still don't think its beatable for much more than min wage or it might be -ev and your drawing dead.
PLO is not beatable due to rake at low stakes.
Unregulated games may be beatable. dunno what their rakes are.
But seriously mate someone is going busto every 50-60 hands or so due to rake. hundreds of dollars per hour coming off the tables for rake.
Rake has also increased to $25 and players were talking its unbeatable at $15. Players can be terrible though.
I can't imagine live cash in a legal poker setting is beatable long term in Australia. Maybe only 5/10 which doesn't play often. Not 2/5 and 2/3 is unbeatable due to the rake for most of the time.If you can play deep which they allow at 2/3 to buy-in for $500 then it might be worth playing towards the end of the night. And you gotta play nitty to beat rake still if its even bea
Yeah I tend to agree- be playing mainly online in my little dungeon- will say may play more plo then nlh as I have more experience in this field when it comes to cash - but will still learn both
going full time as a player and look to have some time off work to pursue a career in poker.
Poker is not career mate. It's not a honest living. Sure making money from it for entertainment and builidng a roll to play poker is fine. To pay your bills from poker is not recommended.
Keep ya job and play poker part time. Starting a legit business from your work monies you get and building that up so you can play more poker when you want would be a good idea if your able to earn enough from current job. Some people ain't mearnt to be the boss though.
