Hello! Been a while since I updated. I got tilted, therefore can't play and will write smth here instead.

Poker is not going very well. I'm pretty much destroying NL10 at Unibet (at least EV wise..), winning at NL20 @888 (they cut RB to basically 0%). I don't look at my graph's anymore these days, seeing running more and more below EV is pretty tilting, but what can you do. Roll is getting smaller and smaller. Only Malta bink can save me pretty much. Poker is very evil game. I wonder if there is anyone out there who is truly enjoying the game? When winning, sure, but feeling full of joy after every day no matter if you win or lose that day?

Life wise things are good. I re-started to train / compete and am enjoying it once again.

Here is some funny shit, Daniel Colman is the man! Listen the story about the Russian at 1:00:46! Pure gold!

LOVED that podcast with Colman and he was just pretty up front and honest that he is a gambler but grinded pretty hard to get where he is. Wonder what he does next?

Yeh I love poker and losing is just part of it.....they say each person should do something dangerous each day to feel alive....I think us players do that to the max!

I don't really think that sitting in front of monitor and clicking buttons while growing butt can be considered as 'doing something dangerous'...

'Took a shot' at NL25 at Unibet yesterday, lost 1.5 BI's, back at NL10 and lost some more today and lost at 888 as well (up EV...). How the fuck can I win a flip? So tilting to lose most flips when so tight on monies, and I'm playing small ball, avoiding big variance spots although they are slightly +ev. Makes it very hard to put in quality volume.

I'll soon be broke as mf, yet I enjoy life more than I was while pointlessly grinding away days and making decent $.

BTW man serious offer if things did ever go too bad for you I would stake you any day so although not your ideal win it is at least something to rely or fall back on.

Love this place. This forum is the only reason I'm still playing Poker. If I was on 2+2 after I got robbed I'd just have quit. You should be proud of what you have created here @Jon-PokerVIP .

Keep enjoying life MG. Your attitude is exemplary.

#PrayforMG

Where is MG???

MG where are you bro?

#pray4mg

MG moves in mysterious ways people.

He is testing our faith.

Awaiting the second coming with baited breath...

I'm alive!

I don't have much to update poker wise - I'm not playing that much and also heater is yet to come. I'm moving out of my baller flat at end of May as it's not sustainable with stakes I'm rolled for and I don't wan't to spend all of my income on rent as well (I doubt it's smart to spend much more than 30% of income for flat). Also, I don't wan't to grind 24/7 just to make money as lol life is more fun, especially in summer! And what is more important - I've realized that having very small fixed spendings is a decent factor to improve overall happiness, especially when you don't have fixed income ( variance!)

Life wise - I've restored some lost connections, met a girl I don't want to just bink&done, re-started to 'train' and compete (just for fun, no ambitions). For some insight this is how it looks:



Nothing special, but in my 2 year break I used to go run just once a week or even less.
I took part in this Yesterday: it was fucking tough after floor 15 Didn't expect it. Having 0 hill trainings didn't help. 2:36 was my time, no chance to win as the winner runs 3000m track 8:17


Unibet open Malta is in 2.5 weeks, I'm going to luckbox it for sure! But I have no expectations, I'm just gonna enjoy my vacation (free beer&wine ftw!) with no regrets if I come home empty handed. Plan is to play small ball poker and value bet hard when I have it.

That's about it! I hope everyone is doing well!

#PrayForMG

Haha good to know you are alive buddy and I expect a full Malta report with tonsssss of pictures to make me jealous

You going to miss the flat at all? I recently moved out of mine and whilst looking for a new place just jumped into my cousins. Gotta say I do miss my own space a lot and find working and grinding is a lot harder when having even the smallest of distractions.

People like graphs, so I'm gonna present my busto stakes graph from 888. That's right, I lose money.



I'm also 30 BI's below EV at NL50 there.

Not to mention that I lose hand's like these every 10 min.



Ok flush is fine but this just tilts me



AA vs A3 on 884 4bet pot 0.8 SPR? I lose (that's right). KK on 55524? Villain has K5. Today I got in pre full stack at 888 just once. KKvsAA. He get quads.


If I was on the other end of variance I'd be swimming in money. People play so bad at busto stakes. Variance has one funny aspect - if you run like shit, you can continue running like shit for million hands. And ppl will say "work on your game, keep playing yada yada" but how the fuck can I fulfill my potential when I get roundkicked in balls every day? I don't spew, but I've started to take lesser variance plays that are with lower EV. And still run like shit. But what can I do, life ain't fair.

Good thing is that my landlord lady is a good person and will return my safety deposit (450 eur) although I break the contract.


I don't like making posts like these as they have 0 added value for anyone, so I just don't post as I run shit every day.

I think they have more than 0 in value for people as we have all been there buddy and some are at that point now plus venting can often be a positive.

5 days to go! I want to get a feel about how this tourney plays, so I'm starting my pre-game prep. If anyone has any advice - I'm all ears! Especially I'd appreciate advice on playing EP (it's 9 handed, I play HU to 6max) - what about opening ranges there in early stage?


Cash games are going OK this week, although today I played against a guy called "gay_dave_123" and he tilted me a bit and took 2 BI's (could have saved 52 bb's). Anyway, even mincashing UO is so far more superior than grinding NL20, so #prayforMG!

Watched some levels of footage and biggest mistakes I spotted:
1) Defending SB too wide with a cc, especially offsuit mediocre hands. There was an episode where SB folded AJo vs EP (very solid and standard fold IMO) and commentator went like 'whoaaa no way he folded.. really yadayada?';
2) Being too loose passive preflop. Again - cold calling hands that look pretty but won't do well post in multiway flops. Example like not 3betting AJo/KQo CO vs UTG+2 and so on.;
3) Betting too small - yeah you got 1010 on 1094ss, why the fuck you'd donk 1/3 psb 4way pot and then precede to 2/5 psb T... Yeah it's donkament, stacks are smaller but it doesn't change lol math (equities);
4) Too passive post flop - not x/r or even raising IP (with this I mean calling flop, turn, folding river) with hands like gut shot + backdoors, not turning oesd's in semi-bluffs against weak turn range etc;

Those are the population tendencies I spotted so far. There was just 1 whale out of 18 players I examined, a lot of tight fish regs, and few really good players (2).

I gotta figure out sizing's I'll want to use for each level for couple scenarios:
1) PFR;
2) BU steel;
3) Iso vs 1, 2 limpers IP / OOP;
4) 3bet IP / OOP;
5) Squeeze IP /OOP;

This is my homework for now.

Again, If anyone wants to offer advice, I'm all ears! Here is structure:

I'm so excited for this. I can't offer advice as I don't play tourneys much and never at this level but I definitely see the passive thing. I think it's because if you bust out you are gone so people won't take spots they would in cash game.

I think ICM is part of the reason but mostly it's just people playing to survive early on unless they can hit big cards.

My advice is to literally mix it up the most you can and just adjust to the table. Min raising to 2/5xing and 3xing 3bets will always be pretty sound advice but it will all come down to villains and effective stack sizes.

One thing I will say is exploit to the max - In my recent deep live runs I did so much weird shit like 2x'ing the pot with top pair and just betting what I knew would work. I got so much value as my table thought I was a crazy kid and just paid me off 24/7

Shut goes off in less than 14 hours! Got to Malta all right, turns out hotel is located in Paceville - I went for a walk and its one giant party.. No party tonight though. There will be high level twitch stream in UnibetPoker (something like that) channel so you can follow this Latvian dude called Janis.

#prayforMG

THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME. COME ON MG!

Please bink this tournament.