So I get up bright and early this morning to begin my sit+go madness. I played a 4 180mans yesterday morning, and won one of them. So decent start. So yea up early to start the 180man grind., planning to do two sessions of around 6x180mans at a time. Then as I log on I see this in the lobby;
"There will be a server restart at 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT). Registration for Sit & Go Tournaments will be reduced leading up to the restart, and will eventually cease."
I have come to the conclusion that I cannot play cash games effectively with a 20-25 BI bankroll. I let -3 BI sessions get to me, when they really shouldn't. Its only 3 BI. When I was playing NL10, 3 BI was really nothing. It would not effect me. Then at NL25 it effected me a little, but not too bad. Now at NL50, it effects me. I start to tighten up after loosing some standard beats, and stop playing at my best. Even if I go take a break and come back, I cannot get rid of it from my mind. I tell myself, to not think about the money, but I guess loosing $150 in space of 30 minutes with a $1200 bankroll effects me.
So I could move back down to NL25 and grind up a more comfortable bankroll for NL50. But I do not like this option. Why? Because my NL25 winrate has not been amazing. The truth of the matter is, i make a ton more money from tournaments than I do in cash games. In fact if I didn't play cash games, I would probably have a lot more of a bankroll. In fact in the last 40k hands, I have lost a total of $700 playing NL25/NL50. Yea thats right. $700. Yet I am a constant winner in large field sit+gos.
And I have come to the conclusion as to why. You see it does not effect me if my Aces get cracked by KQ in a $4 donkament. It doesn't effect me in a $12 donkament either. it has no effect. I see it as standard and I continue to play my 'A' game. It really is down to my bankroll. Some people can play with 20 BI bankrolls. But I have discovered that it simply will not work for me. I cannot always play my A game with the amount of bankroll.
So my new goals. I have decided that the month of July I am going to playing a lot of sit+gos and donkaments, to build a larger bankroll to go and attack NL50 again. Depending on this success I may not even go back to cash games, as if I have a sustainable edge at sit+gos, why stop? my only concerns of playing the 180man sit+gos, are that the non turbo ones take up a lot of time. Average of 4 hours for FT, is a long time. And it is pretty mentally draining as you cannot really take any breaks if you are multi tabling these, as the breaks overlap (yea stars plz get FTP breaks asap). So I think I will take a look at the turbos as well, as a lot of people play pretty poor in these.
I remember Boku amazing us all by making $10k in 15 days from $100. It reminded me that there is profit in sit+gos. I feel this is the right way to build a bankroll for me.
I am thinking of around 4k bankroll for NL50. What are your thoughts on this? if it goes well I might even grind roll for NL100!
Just busted out in 12th of the Daily 30k. But I am not annoyed at all. Just sad that I didn't make the FT. It was my monthly goal to make a FT for June, and I came pretty dam close. Had a pretty roller coaster tourney, and cant be ashamed with 12th really. Got it in with about 15bbs with AQo vs 77 and I missed.
Pretty happy to go really deep, and to know that I can actually play MTTs. My bankroll for tournaments is looking pretty sweet. Cash games not so sweet.. :/ I have mainly been playing $4 180man sit+gos.
I think I should continue grinding sit+gos to increase bankroll and work on cash game. I have been switching gears on cash tables very recently after watching some vids and had pretty much good success in last few days. I was playing like 15/13 nittyness, and I have found by revving it up to around 28/26, to be alot more profitable, really working on taking down lots of smaller pots rather than a few big pots. Because so many people get pissed off and stack you with complete junk. Its also a hella lot more fun
Anyway, I really am determined to make a final table. Not giving up!
God its so tilting when you fold PF low-mid pocket pairs to big raisers and u woulda flopped sets/boats, or when you fold AQs preflop to a min raise,3bet and shove all in, and then see nut flush on flop, or when you fold J9 on the button because you know the big blind never checks, he alwaaaays calls or raises, and see the flop go 9 J 9. FUCK it can be so fucking tilting sometimes.
And then when you get your hands in good and you loose every fucking flop known to man. Or when you cbet your top pair, and the lagtard catchs his one in a billion gutshot on the river. Or when you call a min raise with pocket 8s, and the guy check/shoves and you call on the 7 4 4 flop, and you see has QQ. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.
Or when you are getting low in chips and you can only shove or fold, and the guy to your left who has been calling floating every fucking pot calls you yet again when you shove with JJ and he has QQ. FUCK FUCK FUCK.
Yeah mini heat-wave here in the UK. Its fecking roasting for this time of year. Not meant to last much longer though. Hard to play poker in this weather. Enjoying the BBQs
I envy people who live in hot countries. Sunshine really does make you feel good. +EV. Of course I am sure here in Ireland, the heat we are getting is nothing compared to other countries.
Last month, sucked for cash games, but was win for sit+gos/MTTs. Still need to make a FT, and really need to learn how to play in later stages of tournament. Two weak spots are;
- close to the money with a really big chipstack, or
- ITM with medium stack.
I need to work on these. I tend to spew money off with bigstack. I really need to find some reading material on how to adjust your play depending on your stack and relation to money/FT and to stacks at table. How to play pocket pairs in mid position etc. When blinds/antes are so big, when is good and bad to 3bet etc. If I can work on these weaknesses I really think I can make a final table. Also need to work on keeping mentally strong when you get into the 5th hour of a tourney. Experience can only really teach me this. Just gotta stay focused.
Been having quite good success with 180man sit+gos. They are soooo soft, and good practice for MTTs. I am cashing in them at about rate of 1 in 4, and the ROI is good when u make FT, which I am doing quite often.
So for June, I need to
a) improve MTT late game play by sourcing good reading material/videos
b) schedule my sessions more efficently (ie no lazing around reading the ROFL thread for hour before session )
c) go back to basics with cash games. 4tables max, 6handed.
d) dont think about money/buy ins at cash games ( I feel this is effecting some of my decisions)
e) learn to let go of pots when you KNOW you are beaten (when i know my hand is beating nothing but a bluff)
Anyone got any advice on MTT play, any good links/articles/books ? I ordered the Poker Mindset, which is more about psychology, which I am keen to get. It should be here soon.
Thats all, nothing baller or amazing. Yes my blog is boring
I am not working for a few weeks, and these few weeks I am going to be dedicating myself to improving my game.
Backstory:
Before moving house at end of March, I had been playing alot of Poker, and had dominated NL10 and was cruising at NL25 aswell. Then once I moved house I could not play any online poker for 6 weeks, due to complete failure of Sky (satellite tv/internet/phone package), I had no internet access. Meanwhile my job was really depressing me, as some of the things I had to do were just morally not right.
I worked as a Kitchen designer for a local kitchen business. They were not doing so well, and I think with recession the cashflow problems were effecting them bad. Normally I would design and sell the kitchen, then other people in the company would take over, order in right things, manufacture it and organise fitting etc. Before it is fitted, 95% of they payment would be required. I had to phone people tell them that their kitchen was going out the following week, and needed them to pay, knowing full well that there kitchen would not be going out, infact it wasn't even ordered, becaquse they money was going to be used to pay for someone elses kitchen that had been delayed heavily. Reality is it probably would be another 3 months at least. And then when the supposed fitting date came, they would be raging, and I was told to tell them all sorts of bullshit lies, continually. Basically they were committing fraud. I had to continually lie to customers, under direction of my bosses, who would never have the balls to face customers. One day the boss fled out the fire escape and I had to lie saying he wasn't there. You couldn't make this shit up. I handed in my resignation letter few weeks ago and applied for loads of jobs.
So I dont think my head has been all there this past while, and when I got my internet access I started to play some poker, and tilted pretty hard. I had been grinding Cash games consistently before, and was disciplined. But now I started playing some MTTs, reaching the money, but not making the FT, (78th/4500 was highest). I thought hey, I can FT this nps. Then I ran into some shitty beats and I started tilting, signing up to MTTs all the time, when my head wasnt fully focused. So as a result my bankroll was cut in half from $700 down to $350 in a matter of days. Even the cash games I was tiliting. I was doing some stupid things, like im on the BB with AK, and UTG shoves $20 and i snap call. he shows AJo and hits his jack and bleh. But reality is at these limits I should not be calling my whole stack with AK in a cash game. End of day pocket 2's is beating me here.
Thankfully I realised I was on tilt, and stopped, and took some time away from Poker before I lost even more.
Present:
I got a new job, but dont start untill June and I finished my other job on Saturday. So now I have alot of free time. Really going to dedicate myself to improve and get myself back to where I was before. This tilt has certainly taught me again that mental state is so so important. I mean I knew it was before, but now I respect it even more. I had not tilted liked this since when I had started year or 2 ago. I thought I was past this, and thought I could control my emotions. As I said, what goes on in your personal/working life certainly effects what happens at the Poker table.
So some goals and rules for these next few weeks;
- Focus on keeping a calm and mental state
- Crush NL10 and get back to NL25
- Remember the basics
- Only allowed to play a maximum of 2 MTTs per week
- Review sessions, discover where I have lost the edge
- Get up early in the morning and no lazy sleeping in!
- Going to do alot of physical workouts aswell, running, skipping, weights etc in the mornings.
So I hope to be back to where I was 8 weeks ago, and pull myself out of this rut.
As Mr.Motivator used to say, P.M.A - Positive Mental Attitude Gotta keep that
Listening to Asher Roth's recent album, and I gotta say, I am impressed. Pretty under-rated. It has got some real nice tunes on there. After busting out of a live tourney near the bubble a couple weeks ago, I heard a tune of the album on a late night radio show as I drove home. Not had internet access for 6 weeks, and I am now online today, I have been able to get myself a copy of the album.
I know there are some Kid Cudi fans on these forums, and well, check Asher Roth's album out (thread title).
Fuck yeah, came 2nd in the weekly tourney I been going to lately. Feels good. But also disappointed that I could not win it (66 vs KK was the busting hand).
Not had the internets at home for almost 2 weeks. Prob gonna be another 3-4 weeks untill I do get it up and running at my new house. Makes me realise a) how much of an internet addict I am, b) how much we rely on the internet now in this day and age, and c) fuck I miss online poker lol
Just quick run about finishing 2nd. Last 2 weeks I had been, I busted out in 11th, and I have to say, when I headed down there on Monday, I said to myself that I was not going to make the same mistakes I made last time. Kept my focus, and headed into the Final table in about joint chip lead. It was my first final table at a live event before. Sick buzz. I felt I was playing good, I layed down some good hands, and def played my good hands to the full.
My goal is now to win this tourney. My goal before was always to make a the final table, and winning would always be great. So now I feel like I got alot more confidence, and becoming more comfortable with live play. Also alot of the regulars down there are bad. I mean, really, bad. lol I feel I am starting to learn more about the regs and starting to feel an edge. I mean when alot of players are talking about me at the table, it cant be a bad thing!
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