Craving The Win

Wednesday night I had another nice result but it was a 4th place finish, I'm not here for the money alone, I hate losing, always have and always will. Yes I made some good money but I'm here for the victory, there's no better feeling than that first place finish in tournaments, every other place your left feeling disappointing and the moneys a consolation prize, I want to be the champ not the chump.

Now I'm fairly sure I've been a little too tight in some spots recently but when your playing in a tournament with pay jumps that are 50+ buyins based on your current roll its hard not to. I have played this way mainly due to ICM considerations which I'm no expert on but I at least think about, unlike each and everyone of the guys that made this FT which I guess is top be expected in a $5 buyin 1700 runner field.






This was as we made the FT, the 2 big stacks are supposed to be able to apply pressure on me and the Swede, me and the swede can pound on the 3 middling stacks when given the opportunity and the dynamics in general should get really really interesting. It's just not the case in these buyins though there's so much punting that goes on. Anyways, as it happened I made a very very snug fold with AKo with 5 players remaining, me, the Swede, toby1805, elapapia and The.DPR. I had shark scoped these guys, the only reasonable winner was toby who had a 22% ROI over 10k games on 888, the Swede seemed somewhat solid, the other 2 were recreational.

I went into the FT thinking I want 4th minimum here but ideally top 3, once we get there open up and go for the win, then this spot came up.

toby180 (~30-35bb) who was UTG opens 2.2bb, the Swede (11bb) folds, elpapaia (14bb) folds The.DPR in the SB (40-45bb) 3bs to 5.8bb and I'm in the big blind with 18bb and AKo. The thing here is The.DPR for sure knows nothing about ICM here or the pressure he should be applying in this spot and the way he had been playing lead me to believe he almost certainly has Js+ AK here. A reasonable FT with some good thinking players I have SB 3b range crushed here and very easily flick it in, I just did not feel the need to either take a flip or get it in crushed when I for sure have an edge, have 2 players covered and have plenty to work with on a mainly passive FT with 18BB. I made the fold, so did UTG and we will never know but honestly I'm ok with it given what I've said above.

That's it now though, as I said I'm ok with it but I do feel disappointing I didn't take this down and I do understand you have to win some flips at FTs to get the win. I've got a nice little roll going, have a buffer in case I need money for this or that so that's enough, I won't be totally discounting ICM but I will be taking spots in tournys with $2k or less for first place, I'm going for the win, I'm going to try crush some souls at FT's, put the nits in tough spots etc

Five handed play was pretty frustrating, the 2 big stacks just were not doing they're jobs and pounding on the 2 shortest stacks and when elapapia did get it in with KJo I might add, he sucked out on the river vs toby. Not long after that the same player jammed his 13bb I have AQo on the BTN with 18bb and make a pretty easy call knowing this guy is getting it in lighter than he should be. He has 6s we flop the Q he runner runners the straight and were down to 3bb. If I win that I have 30bb and very good shot at the win but it wasnt to be Luckily the very next hand the same player gets in his 26bb with 8s and loses against tobys AK and we get the ladder and position we were looking for at the start of the FT. There ya go though, that hand itself confirms everything I've said above about how these guys were playing and why I felt the need to only take spots where I was for sure in good shape.

I busted not long after for $975, a decent nights work when all is said and done

Health / Lifestyle

I've basically been a beer monster recently, we've had a pretty darn good start to the summer that has lead to one too many sessions with family and friends. So yeh I'm getting fatter not fitter but I have bought a Vape ciggy thingy to get me off the cigs when I'm not drinking which so far this week has worked a treat. Now I've just gotta get this beer belly back out on the roads, it's going to happen next week, If it doesn't I'm retiring this blog, if I have not posted a 3 mile run on here by Wednesday I will never make another post

Food wise I eat pretty well other than the odd cake or chocolate bar that are supposed to be for the kids so I'm not going on about that. I do want to get on the smoothie grind in a morning though so that will be my next fad for sure.

Grinding tonight, York Races for a horse racing day out with friends tomorrow then back at it Sunday to crush some hopes and dreams!

Laters

Very nice result Ste! Goliath funds coming along nicely

I get what you mean about feeling gutted by doing well but not getting the win. I've had some very nice 4 figure scores live, but if it isn't that 1st place I still go home gutted. Like the money is huge for me but I always see it as an opportunity lost, especially when I know I could have got the W, and the trophy if there is one! Twice I've been one card away from a trophy and it does suck!

Cheers Ash, yeh were all competitors aren't we, 2nd place just does not feel right but guess what I managed to do just that again, next blog post will explain

Tried to make a post today but the site is bugging and wont let me for some reason. It has been an interesting week and I have been for a run, I'll update once its sorted.

Looking forward to this update with baited breath!

Haha its nothing too major just a few small FTs

Quick update, I intended on posting latest results etc today but I don't have time + I'm really wanting to work on my HU game which will obviously make me more money than my blog posts in the long run I'm not losing interest in the blog I'm just struggling to find the (blame the World Cup) and when I do I need to work on my game.

It has been a good month, I'll be posting some results / near misses and monthly total profits on or around the 1st, then making sure I post at least once a week.

Apologies to those of you that have been following.

Where’s the update on the poor fella you got booted from the Pokertube whatsapp group?!!!!

Confidence is key

I started this month with a $1.4k bink which is obviously a great way to get things going but it was a 2nd place finish and as this month progressed there were plenty more of those to come. As I've already said this was getting to me because I knew I was throwing away money by being less than average at HU poker. I think I got into 5/6 more HU situations where I ended up finishing 2nd before I really kicked my arse into gear and got something done. This is just a couple of those results, there were others on smaller FTs and some other 4th to 9ths on smaller FTs where I basically just ran terrible.







My confidence was low each time I got to HU, I knew I didn't know the correct ranges for pre flop play or even have a solid base to go off. I started to look for ways to improve in this department, I posted in the RYE discord group and was directed towards some PIO solver work but I really didn't think that was the way to go. Then I spoke to @AshVIP who helped me out with some charts from his SPIN n Go grinding days which helped a little but then I had a good hour long chat with a guy from our Whatsapp group who crushes Sky Poker, for roughly £60-70k last year I believe. He put me onto a couple of Nash Equilibrium charts for HU sub 20bb shove / call ranges and linked me to an Upswing article on 3b strat for HU play which I had actually read before. However, not knowing what the fuck I was doing Sub 25bb meant it was going to be pretty hard constructing 3b ranges for 25bb plus which I had been finding out at the tables because I was doing some real guessing game type shit in these matches.

Anyways, things started to make sense once I had a look at this content and guess what, we found a bink. It was a small one but it was a win, I was reasonable happy but it was a pretty short HU match and the stacks were pretty short too so not much time for getting to grips with new ranges.




Then the last sesh of the month I managed to get HU in a tourny I've been getting consistently deep in on party, the 8pm $5.50 Turbo. I started the match with a deficit again, 23bb to villains 45bb I believe it was, I pulled up the Nash charts and Equilab and began the grind and what a differnce it made just knowing what I can and cant shove / call in certain spots. I totally controlled the matcch and before long had a lead with villain selecting the 'make a deal' option which is obviously a confidence booster considering there was only $390 up top

I had the guy allin and was ahead by quite a large margin twice but he got there, I remained focused ground him down again and finally got there myself with QTo vs his A8s for his last 12bb, it felt good, really fucking good!




So confidence is key and now confidence is high and I'm ready to crush the hell out of this next month before I do that though I'l update you on profit for June 2018:

Starting BR - $1.3k
Finishing BR - $3291

Total profit - $1991

Withdrawn for bills / life expenses - $1156 a lot I might add but its the Summer and of course the World Cup

So that leaves me with $835 which as I said in a previous post I will be keeping 40% for BR growth and the other 60% to pay myself a wage.

The full month of June including the $1.4k bink at the start looks something like this, the Betfair $ is actually Euros and recent form looks grim because I punted £60 on the final day of the month getting greedy:




I am proud of those results given that this is not high volume for grinding MTTs but it's important now to not get complacent, I must stay motivated and continue working on my game, HU especially.

The free RYE and Lex Veldhuis content has been awesome this month, I've worked through one or two videos and made some good notes and I've got Holdem Resource calculator again to play around with shove fold spots which will no doubt help a shit tonne.

Another thing that has really boosted my confidence this month has been realizing that I can and will in fact crush one of the smaller sites this year. Obviously Party Poker has been my main bread winner this year but Betfair is just insanely soft and has some real nice smaller field tournies that I'm Final Tabling almost every night. After my earlier posted 2nd place finish on Bf for 210 euros I had shark scoped the guy I lost to HU, his graph looked like this:




I had quite few hands on him by now and an idea of his level of play which was definitely no better than mine, once I looked into the schedule he was playing it just confirmed to me that I should be putting in most of my volume on Bf with Party and 888 on the side so that's exactly what I have been doing and will continue to do so this month.

Lifestyle

I did get out for a run last week and it felt good but for the most part I've been a booze hound watching lots of footy / been out on the piss for all the England games.

I'l be getting back on the 'lose the gut' grind once we bust out of the Tournament, hopefully not until at least the 15th July

I'm a passionate England fan and always believe were going to do something special despite our grim history, this time feels different though *cue the chuckles from none Englishmen* our side of the draw has really opened up and we have a genuine chance of reaching the World Cup Final!

Columbia are not to be overlooked though, 1 game at a time, Tuesday could bring plenty of misery into my life I'm all to aware of that but if we get past them I will be starting to get very very excited.

GL ENGLAND!

I'll be putting a small sesh in tonight then back on the grind on Wednesday for a few days, gl to the rest of you grinders out there.

Wins on wins on wins! Congrats

Ty man

Edit from last post:

Wage paid - $501

Br Growth - +$334

July starting BR - $1634

Hopefully this means I'l have to draw less out mid month this time round and depending on results I should see the Br grow by a bigger margin.

Always good being able to withdraw a healthy amount and add to bankroll as well! Not too much to grumble amount, and now got Goliath just a few short weeks away! #WillBeEpic

Genuinely can’t fucking wait to get wrecked with you guys and win thousands.

I will win......one MILLION cent.

*Holds pinky up to mouth in evil fashion*

Lazy blogger

Just a quick update, this month started pretty shit on the felt and to be honest it was all about England in the World Cup which as you know didn't end well

Over that now though, really motivated, put together a nice solid schedule that includes Thursdays and Saturdays off from now on no matter what which gives me time to both review hands and my game as well as spending plenty of quality time with my family.

I've been running deep in the $11 PKO on party, the last 3 days finishing 53rd, 34th and 16th, profitable but frustrating being that this is a 1k player pool each night so not converting into a FT having had 3 opportunities feels like failure In reality though I'm knocking on the door of another nice score!

I did in fact have 2 ok smaller scores 2 days ago which both boosted my confidence again and got my month back on track....






That's 2 binks in one night, smaller fields yes and maybe nothing too major in the grand scheme of things but considering the HU dilemma I'd been having it sure did feel good to take both of those down.

On the whole I feel like I'm playing reasonably well, I'm still making some spazzy calls and jams where I know I'm beat because of the line or player type but I'm doing a lot right. I worked through 2 of Lex's coaching videos with BenCb on youtube and took shit loads of notes, I really cant believe how much I picked up from less than 3 hours of content in those so yeh I highly recommend checking those out if you haven't already.

Lifestyle

The only thing bugging me right now is the fact that I haven't got back into any form of regular exercise, I binged on the World cup both with food and booze so it really is time now to kick my arse into gear.

Running is my default as you probably know by now but I'm really keen on getting into yoga, I've sat in the same chair for over 10 years now for hour upon hour playing this game and it just can not be good for my body long term so I've got to start looking after myself. There is a yoga class on a Tuesday afternoon nearby which I'm going to force myself to check out, once I do that I feel like the head space meditation app and usage I mentioned previously will fall into place. Those 2 things combined I feel will do me the world of good in terms of energy and focus required for longer sessions then I can still get out for a run a couple of times a week.

The Ecig I bought has been working a treat, I smoke when I drink now and that's it so I guess the next step would be to not smoke when I'm drinking then ease myself off the Ecig, one step at a time though eh

I'm a few hundred dollars up in July at the moment, hoping for a good solid end to the month because I'm going to Coventry to the Goliath with some guys from here and a whatsapp group at the beginning of August. I may play the main event, undecided as yet, if not plenty of cash games and boozing will be on the agenda I'd imagine.

Will update again if I bink something nice before the end of the month.

Laters