Running A + Playing B -

I feel like I'm running pretty good, getting deep in a lot of tournies but I just am not playing my A game often enough and I know it simply boils down to focus / taking the time to make decisions instead of clicking buttons!

Here's a little of the run good off the felt:




I reply to these questions on Twitter occasionally but they're usually for $11-$33 tickets, rarely $109s. Here I luck sacked my self 1 of the 2 $109 SCOOP tickets available so I cant be moaning about never winning these comps anymore I'l be playing one of the $109 bounty builders, likely one that @fergrberger is playing on the SCOOP package hes sold half of in the Market Place on here, GL us!

On the felt its been going ok, last night I had a $109 ticket on Part so naturally played the bounty builder, picked up 3 bounties for $75 then lost a huuuuuge pot in terms of sitiuation and potential bounties going forward. With 101 players left and 56 getting paid $165 I open Js UTG get 3b on the BTN I rip my 27 bigs into pkt 8s, see a safe A high flop and villain gets there on the river so yeh that one hurt a little!





I am doing a spread sheet this week or early next so I can keep track and update you guys regularly but basically on Sky I'm breaking even this week having ran deep twice, Betfair I'm losing a little even though I binked a 50 eruo ticket yesterday that I didn't manage to convert (defo not running so hot on there) and lastly Microgaming (Grovesnor) is gong pretty well.

Theyre currently running a week long series of tournies and I'm getting involved in most of the £5 buyins, I cashed in the first event for £22 then on the side Ive made 2 FTs in small field tounries:

This one was last night, I finished 2nd, it pissed me off!

HU the guy was god awful, granted I had to try make a come back from something like 15bb to his 90bb but I did just that and managed to take the lead. he was doing so much spazzy shit preflop I opted to limp almost every hand and just value town him post flop which I did for the most part other than some limp jams.

Having got in front he had 27 bigs left I had the BTN with A8ss and limped, he 4x that limp which he'd done a few times and had even been 8xing etc I mean it cant be awful to rip it here but when we know we have such a big edge we need to remove the pre flop variance. Anyways instead of taking my time, sticking to my strategy of flatting I clicked the all in button and he snapped with AQ which left me short again and ultimately I busted with TP vs his better TP all in on the turn. Sucks to no take that one down it really does, despite it being small ball I'm here to win!




I made another similar FT the night before and made another mistake there too, opening 66 UTG as a big stack (35bb) 5 handed BTN jams 12bb. I do not need to take this spot and as it happen likely shouldn't when taking ICM into consideration. Its better for me to maintain my stack here and continue to raise / take down pots vs the 10-20bb stacks, I had exactly these thoughts in my head in game, for some reason i called it off. I busted 4th when in reality I should have at least got HU.

LACK OF DISCIPLINE = TILT!

Other than that I'm playing reasonably solid to run deep and have shots at these FTs in the first place. I'm just not making the exploitable / exploitative folds that I know I should be at these stakes when most of the player pool plays so god dam face up!

I have to put this down to my life off the felt, I have to be more disciplined in everything I do then naturally this will cross over into my decision making at the tables.

Exercise / Health

I hadn't had a cig this week until last night when I buckled after the sesh, it wasn't even all that bad, I don't get annoyed by bad beats really it just infuriates me when I don't bring the A game and it costs me money. So yeh I had a 2 ciggies last night, instantly feeling guilty about that, today I'm going for a run to punish myself!

I'm eating reasonably well but can do better, doing a shop today, plan on getting in lots of salmon, chicken, fruit and veg, BRAIN FOOD!

Saturday, my body will be taking a hammering on the alcohol front, I'm a keen boxing fan so will be going to a pals house hopefully for a BBQ, weather permitting, to watch Haye v Bellew 2 then back on the felt on Sunday with a nice hangover to boot!

Here's another gem I'll leave you with, maybe a little more cash game related but still good for the mind:

Having a cigarette was punishment enough.

Enjoy Saturday!

Some sick results recently mate! Not really commented much in this thread as we talk a lot about the same points in the group chat but keep it up!

Keep making these final tables and the big W's will follow. Your approach to the game is great and it's good to see you back into it and focused

Other than this I bubbled another PLO FT and just have this one hand to ask @Prostaker about:

This was FT bubble and there was a guy with less than 5bb on the other table. First question though, in general, even 6 handed here facing a BTN open having 20bigs am I supposed to be 3b going with this type of hand strength? I really do not know what ranges to get in 5-30bigs in tournies, I'm assuming it's likely very tough to say?

In this particular spot with ICM considerations whats the play pre flop? What line should we take post flop? Given the action, as played were always going with it?

As it happened we had 44% vs flopped nuts but we can be in horrible shape here quite often when villain shows up with nut flush draw to go with his straight or 2p +?



Hey man! Glad to get these questions I have no knowledge about JK. Not a tourny player but i would say this is a jam pre. Our stack should be good for 3betting here getting lots of folds preflop since the other two are so close too. And the hand is a good one too. We have 57% vs 55% opening range that to go with the FE I think its a must 3bet. Vs 15% calling range you are still 46%. And the fact that flatting SB is not a very good thing to do in PLO inviting the BB to call with REALLY good odds.

In CG 100bb i would 3bet like 75% of my VPIP vs BTN open and its the same concept here i believe.

Glad to hear if some PLO MTT player has something else to ad or slash my post but thats my 2 cents.

Ty for input @Prostaker I would defo say I'm not 3bing enough from SB in general but because of varying stack sizes in tournaments its tougher to implement and that's on me not knowing correct ranges even at 100bb.

Going to check out some content, hopefully free on you tube to see f I can get my short stack game in to place.

Broken Bones & Broken Dreams.....

Honestly, on the poker front I've not got too much to report due to run bad on and off the felt. I'll fill you in on both either way:

Friday night stared awfully, busting tournies for fun, on Betfair especially, I've ran god awful since I deposited so hoping to put something together on there over the next week or so. The night ended with me taking a 2nd place in another of the small buy in small field tournies on Microgaming.....




On this occasion I think I played pretty well HU barring one minor mistake. After coming back from a deficit I managed to get my last ~15 bigs in with A4dd running into 66 and not getting there. It would be nice to win one of these, I've had 3/4 FTs now having only played 4/5 nights so I think they're going to be a nice little earner if I can start converting more regularly.

I also managed to satty into the $33 Monster Series main event on Sunday and binked a £110 ticket into the GCOOP main event on Grovesnor so things were looking full of promise for the Sunday grind. Until this happened.......






That's my 6 year old daughters arm I was at said friends BBQ Saturday and get a phone call at 7pm saying this had happened, one of the worst phone calls of my life!

Saturday night and much of Sunday were spent at the infirmary, after a 2 hour operation where a nail had to be inserted for 3-6 months, we were sent home, unfortunately with little information as to what had actually taken place in the theater room, potential scaring or long term affects. We were told due to it being bank holiday Sunday it was unlikely that a doctor would have time to come see us. Hopefully everything will be cleared up at the follow up appointment next week!




What I have taken from this experience is seeing how adaptable children really are first hand, this pic you can see my daughter using her feet to hold the paper and take off the lids of her color's so she can do some drawing. This is without being prompted or having complained once, I feel like we as adults can learn a lot in terms of attitude after seeing things like this. She's been a proper little trooper, I can only be proud of how shes handled this more than unfortunate situation!

Back to the poker, I arrived home Sunday evening and did in fact managed to play the tournaments I had satellited into but just never got anything going. To be brutally honest I think I was way too tired to play and probably made a few mistakes along the way to busting everything bar 2 events before the money.

The closest I came was in this Powerfest PLO event but even here I fear I kind of punted off not knowing how to play my 10-15BB stack without getting any premiums.




Last week as a whole I figure I lost about 10% of the Bank Roll, mainly on Betfair ( Spreadsheet Pending ). I took Monday & Tuesday off this week to make up for the lost weekend and make the most of the decent weather here in the UK with my family. Now it's back on the grind, likely for the next 6 days straight, Powerfest, UCOOP then OPL next week, time to GET THAT MONEY!

Fatness

The belly has well and truly got me, I'm a tall slim guy, the pot belly is not a good look on such a frame!

The exercise bike has been my friend of late but I fear it's not capable of getting me in the shape I require so my new best friend as of tomorrow will be this guy.....




I'm not clued up on hill running I've just ran up a few before now, including this one but never more than once at a time. Here, I suppose I'l do a little research but the goal is going to be to run down to the beginning of this bad boy then get back up it, walk back down then run back up again, rinse and repeat for the next few weeks. Hopefully gaining quite a decent cardio and strength workout along the way while kicking this gut back into oblivion, GL me!

I'll be back on Monday hopefully with tales of deep runs and a decent score or two, until then......

Where's my monday read at

Wibble Wobble

I have not been looking forward to or been motivated to make this post, until I saw the above post that made me realize there are people following along on this ''journey'' and taking some what of an interest in how its going.

I haven't wanted to post because I wanted this blog to be positive and good feeling for the most part. Well that's just not going to be sustainable / possible, poker brings ups and downs and I'm currently having a bit of a wobble.

I'ts nothing major I might add, a bad week that's lead to negative mindset and attitude so I'm just going to ramble about that today, clear my mind and get back on the road to success

The beginning / middle of last week wasn't all that bad, I had some deep runs on Microgaming finishing 2nd again in another low buy in low field tourny for ~ 70 euro (again facing a 15bb to ~90bb HU battle) Then in the UCOP I had a 17th in an 11 euro buyin for 50 euros then a 10th in a 5 euro buyin which was kind of the start of the downfall and how things would continue to progress that week. This was a frustrating one, with 10 players left in a 6 max tourny and ~750 euros uptop I was sat middle of the pack with what I believe to be an edge when it comes to push fold strat. The players below me were all 5-15bb and the guys around me were all very similar then I gets Qs on the BTN min click it and get 3b by the Big blind big stack get it in, lose to AK and have a little cry

To be honest I shrugged this off, it was as I said frustrating but with many more good value tournies to come it was a case of ''close call, unlucky, lets keep it up'' but I just continued on a disgusting run for the next 5 days, Thursday through Monday. I will say that those 5 days are the worst I've ran at the tables since I played cash games a couple of years ago and it has been tough to take. My mindset had got progressively worse, I hadn't been out for a run, had been eating pretty shit but was still kind of positive at the beginning of each sesh until I got a few hours in.

Well boo hoo, poor me, I've been through this quite a few times now and usually it spirals out of control I end up hating poker and wanting to get into full time work which is just fecking stupid.

Not happening this time, its literally 1 bad week, the rolls taken a decent hit but were still here alive and kicking so lets just power on through, lower the stakes for a few days, rebuild the confidence and trust the process.

ENJOY THE GAME!

As I was sat grinding on Monday night I believe it was that thought hit me ''Enjoy the Game'' as it has many times before but I'm sure most of you will understand the reality that this is a game we play gets lost on us some where along the road of multiple days, weeks or months grinding.

This prompted me to really think about my actual game, as in what type of player am I, what style do I most enjoy playing?

Well the honest answer here was I didn't know without giving it some proper thought, I had to decide with what I know about poker, what do I enjoy doing at the tables the most, what brings me confidence, makes me feel comfortable about how I'm approaching the game.

I made a few pointers about what I enjoy doing:

* I enjoy being aggressive
* I enjoy knowing what villains range looks like and what my perceived range looks like
* I enjoy getting max value
* I enjoy running good bluffs (bad bluffs too as long as they work:))
* I enjoy exploiting weak passive opponents
* I enjoy battling with Lag Tards and coming out on top

Basically I enjoy adjusting to my surroundings and making the best of the information I have, this obviously means remaining focused for long periods, thinking abut the game properly and playing well consistently - easier said than done!

I also made some pointers on what I do not enjoy:

* Playing too passive
* Reverting to type of Tag ABC bot style play
* Bet folding in spots I know I shouldn't be
* Blinding down when short for the sake of survival
* Talking myself into calls that I instinctively knew were folds
* Ignoring reads for the sake of ''GTO'' push fold spots
* Not being able to compartmentalize information to make a rational decision

I would say the above is my C+ game and worse, if I'm brutally honest this type of game comes up way too often and has definitely crept in the last few days.

The key thing here is knowing what I enjoy doing when playing and realizing when I'm not doing that as quickly as possible.

I had an idea of how this blog post was going to look having given it a decent amount of though last night while at work. I knew that If I got this shit from my mind written down I could refer to it at a later date but most importantly it was far more likely that I would in fact realize when I wasn't enjoying playing and could make adjustments!

I made a few notes on things I need to do for the sake of my mind set too which are as follows:

* Realize the opportunity I have
* Realize how ' good'' life is
* Realize I'm making money playing a game
* On the other hand forget about the financial aspect of the game, losses etc
* Keep working on changing habits for the better (running, eating well, quitting smoking)
* Stop worrying
* Accept run bad will happen
* Take confidence from past results
* Understand my experience is likely vast compared to the rest of the player pool at these stakes

* UNDERSTAND THAT GOOD ATTITUDE IS KEY TO PROGRESS AND SUCCESS

So there it is, the life, times and ramblings of a small stakes grinder continuing to try and make it happen, make of it what you will, if your enjoying it let me know, if your reading it and want to ask anything let me know because the interaction however small is what keeps me motivated to want to keep posting!

Back at it tonight for 3 days, Saturday off then Sunday grind, back Monday hopefully with some good news.

Awesome post! I think the key thing to remember is these blogs, is that MANY more people read them, then post in them! I do wish more people would comment, even if it's just a little "Good luck" or a hello!

If you're reading and lurking, please let us know! It really does help the blog authors and keep them motivated.

You can see from the view count that people are reading and from our side the "unique" view counts as well.

I recognised a lot in myself in your post, I know I need to stop the bad beat whining in the group chats LOL I haven't updated my blog in a little while because I need to make a decision on what I actually want to play and just concentrate on that one thing. I'm playing lots of different things and it isn't good in terms of studying or focusing on one thing so that's what I need to sort out.

Looking forward to the next one!

Cheers @AshVIP glad you can take a little something from what I waffle on about to try and improve yourself and or others, much appreciated.

I do try for the most part to keep this interesting and have it read in a way that people can relate to it.

Just had a great read through this and said I would say Hi @Curl-1-out . I think I am after coming across you a few times on the Party tables, And from what I have seen you are a Solid decent player, So keep up the work and it will all fall into place. And @AshVIP you are right if a few more people interacted it would be great for, not just the motivation of playing but the motivation to keep blogging and sharing your journey on a regular basis.

I've always been a lurker myself This thread is to good to just lurk in for me at least. And since i know you i had my by bet on that last week hasnt been going super great. Like you know thats when you need to really keep pushing and working the hardest, whatever it might be, ont he felt, the mindgames, or goals a side from poker. Keep it up crusher its only 1 week of "bad run"

Howsit going Steevo? Played anything in SCOOP thats worth telling about? Looks like the Swedes will crush the Brits and Lena900 is once again top dog on P5

Tjena Tjena, I just messaged you on skype about this. I ditched SCOOP for the smaller series' on MG and Ipoker, blog update coming tomorrow. About to do some SCOOP railing right now, Sweden can win the lot for all I care, we must have a World Cup bet now that your actual home Nation are involved though, give me a little edge for once

Stress Head

This is a stressful game its all about how you handle it and if I'm honest I've not handled the tough times well over the years

This last month I've put myself under pressure by not sticking to strict bankroll management and letting my ''ego'' get the better of me when it comes to game selection / the way I play in micro buyin games.

I really should be trying to stick to a 200 buyin rule on the roll I have, then when I manage to bink something decent and move up I'll be even more conservative than that (300 BI+) based on past experience. This is such a crucial element of the game that I've been neglecting to some extent and as I said its put me under pressure and therefore made this mini downswing almost unbearable.

I did have a result on Sunday that got me out of it but the 2 days I have played this week have been quite depressing because I've been ignorant and my attitude has been piss poor.

Basically, I believe fundamentally I'm good enough to be beating $11 - $55 buyins consistently with the correct roll and approach to the game on and off the felt. However, I'm not, because I fucked up when I had a $5k roll last year not knowing how to manage my finances and I'm an idiot that has told myself too many times that I'm too good to play $2 - $5 buyins but I'm not crushing them right now am I.....

The money I have made recently has mainly been from higher buyin events that I've satellited into and ran deep / picked up bounties in. These games excite and challenge me mentally which is of course important when it comes to motivating yourself to bring your A game as well as working on your game off the felt. The key here is finding the right balance between bank roll, buyin and challenging yourself, easier said than done and given that I'm only rolled to play up to $5 buyins its time to swallow some pride, grind it out, prove to myself again that I can crush these games then take the next step in moving up.

Honestly, I play way too tight pre flop and way too punty post flop in these micro stake games, I don't give them the attention they need. I've not been giving players the respect they deserve and I've definitely not been bringing my A game. So it's time to saddle up, get my micros take head on, play high volume low stakes and shit loads of satellites, GL ME!

Results

This was Sunday in the $215 PKO main event, the less I say about this the better. With about 600 players of 3k that regd remaining I had roughly 60-70BBS and everyone covered at my table meaning I likely had a top 100 stack and a lot of equity in this tournament format. The bounties were now all reaching $200 + and I had been playing pretty well until I fucked up of course. I'm not talking about it because it still hurts, it left me with less than 30BB meaning I scraped into the money then had my 10BB Ks cracked by JQs SIGH!




I also had a couple of small FTs on Microgaming and Betfair.....




.......Finishing 3rd on MG which got me out of a little hole on there and 6th on Betfair unfortunately AK>AJ .

So all in all Sunday was a decent day, I'm down a couple hundred since the start of the month but as of now I'm feeling pretty bloody good again, have a good sense of direction and am going to crush this last few days of the month. There's a KO series on Party 3rd-10th June or something so I'm looking forward to that too, PKOs are defo my favourite format.

LIFE

Lastly, I try listen to / watch free Raise Your Edge content when I'm not grinding which is always covered by BenCb who is ofcourse and absolute beast of the game. He has quite a bit of content on mental approach to the game and in a lot of videos mentions an APP called HEAD SPACE which is designed to get you into and guide you through meditation. This is something I've always been interested in, have bought a book about and tried once upon a time but really did not know how to approach it properly so naturally it got booted to one side.

I've downloaded this APP now, its looks very good, something the whole family can use and in today's climate, with social media, an anxiety / depression epidemic I believe it will be a very very useful tool. I'll keep you updated once I get properly into it.

FINALLY!




No more whining, I've got what I needed to pay some bills / life expenses and really kick on with a semi decent BR. The score came on the first night of the PKO series on Party, I had a $22 ticket for the 50k gtd and hopped in the $7.50 20k gtd along side it. Both went very well, one more so than the other quite clearly but we did pick up a 50th and about another $120 in the $22 buyin. I would rather have FT'd that event truth be told, $5.5k up top plus bounties was a little tastier than the $1.7k in this $7.5 but beggers can't be choosers eh






With 12 players left I was chippie with 55 mill and coasting then all of a sudden I lost a flip for 20 mill and a couple smaller pots, before I knew it I was scrapping to make the FT, thankfully I won a big flip with Qs vs AK on the exact bubble. It was a nice FT actually, quick bust outs from shorties, big stack got bigger, I cracked a shorties Aces with 7s for 15bb and a bounty so no complaints.

The HU battle was exactly that, mainly because of the uphill struggle having 20bbs vs villains 140bbs so it was looking pretty grim but I battled hard, got lucky with KJ v Js for a double then took command. I do not consider my self to be close to good enough at HU which is sad really considering all the monies up top but villain was pretty poor. I ground him down to 15-20bb twice with allin chances for the win and another $1.1k when you add bounties, A5s > A6s then KTs > 55 having flopped the flush draw too, SIGH!

I am going to review and work on this full HU match because it did last about 1 to 1.5 hours and there were spots that I didn't know how to approach. I felt I had pretty big post flop edge for the most part so was trying to avoid high variance pre flop allin spots, adjusting my limp call, limp jam, raise call raise fold ranges based on stack size (poorly most likely).The final hand I believe I had ~ 20bb, limped the BTN with K8ss, villain made it 3.5x I flat, flop comes T87ss, not my suit and villain open jams which looked very bluffy based on how he'd been playing, I went with it, he had 56, we did not hold!

It kind of left a sour taste despite the nice score, maybe I could have continued to grind him down and avoid those 2 PF allins, he was that bad post, I don't know, this is what I need to discuss with some better players.

Bank Roll

I've got roughly $1.3k to work with across Party, Betfair and 888 at the moment, the plan is to make sure bills and life expenses are covered each month then profit after that will be split into 40% BR growth and 60% paying myself a wage to take the kids on holiday etc

I'll be sticking to $5 buyins for now with the odd $11 PKO in this series on Party then playing lots and lots of satties across all 3 sites, because they're mega soft and I've made quite a bit of this years profit from sattying into and cashing in higher buyin events.

I've got the boost I needed so its time to get it done now, put in the work on the game and make this summer and the rest of the year a good one. Rolling Stones at Old Trafford tomorrow with some pals then back at it with a stinking hangover Wednesday for 3 days, I may play Sunday weather dependant.

Really tired for now, didn't get finished until 5.30am, the rest of my ramblings will come at a later date.

Aurevoir.

Nice score sir!

Hope the good stuff continues!

Sweet Stevo! Your are a real crusher in this format! Yeah seems like you have been coming second a lot of time from what i can read in this DB. But not much to do when you get to HU at that big of a disadvantage. Maybe its that you need more aggression when its 3-6 handed so you can have a big stack getting to HU, or its just variance

CG and keep up the good work!

Cheers man, appreciate it.

TYTY

I think its a combo of variance and nitting up due to playing a little scared money / trying to ladder. Also I feel like I have a reasonable idea of how much tighter I need to be with regards to ICM, the problem is that guys are so punty at these low stakes so its tough to apply pressure with that in mind. The best strat is likely to somewhat ignore ICM and get more aggro 3-6 handed like your saying and save the nitting up for the bigger FTs.