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The ramblings of a young man (gazza127 diary)
I know there is many a diary on Sky Poker... many a good read. I've pondered over doing one myself for a while now, but I feel now is the time to start one for a variety of reasons. I'll elaborate in a minute, but first a bit of background:
I'm 22 and have been playing poker casually for a few years now with mates on the weekend. After being challenged by one of my Uni mates that he was the superior poker player having played on Sky and won a bit; being the competitive guy I am, I decided to join up to try and prove him wrong.
I joined Sky in July 2012 (about 10 months ago now) having won the odd £20 against my mates and decided I'd deposit £50 quid and see where it got me.
I started playing the £2.50 MTTs - particularly the 20:05 BH tournament (this was my favourite and I'd recommend it to all those with a small BR) - I managed to double my BR.
Now, not knowing how to manage a BR at the time (I probably still don't), I entered an £11 BH. To my surprise I went and won it, and started to believe that I might actually be OK at this poker malarky.
At the time I had a job which involved a lot of travelling and staying in B&B's by myself (it was a very lonely existence), poker became a nightly thing as I was starting to watch videos and work out how to make some decent money.
Fast forward to November (I think), my bankroll was hovering near the 1k mark and I'd started entering the main and mini most nights. One Thursday night in particular springs to mind however, when laddering up the main I realised I was on for the Jackpot (10k at the time). Long story short, I came 2nd in the main and 1st in the mini - devastated isn't the word; you'd have to invent a whole new word for what I felt the next few days - that 10k was everything to me as it would have allowed me to travel the world - something I've always wanted to do.
Anyway, forgetting that, many players cant say they have come that close - so theres that i guess!
This year has been a mixed bag so far. I started well, winning the Monday night main early in January, but then hit a minor downswing, and then a major downswing as I went chasing my money. I had left 700 quid in my account after withdrawing a chunk of it to pay for a holiday amongst other things, and lost the lot. A serious bad spell in my short poker career. Looking back, I was playing awfully, only getting more and more anxious over lost money - I was not enjoying poker, and I decided to quit while I was ahead.
My job has been pretty irritating recently...they can't afford to pay me so i'm not working at all at the minute. Looking for jobs only takes so much time during the day and I suddenly found myself playing poker again, but this time for fun. I've managed to grind my way back up to where I was in January and now I can say I'm thoroughly enjoying my poker! (It's amazing the highs and lows you can experience playing this game)
So why am I starting this diary I hear you ask?
Well this is five-fold
1) I need an outlet. I have a habit of tilting when I get sucked out (not a trait im proud of) and I need people to tell me how much of an idiot I am when it's actually me who played the hand bad and not my opponent - so the occassional HH will make an appearance.
2) I have too much spare time. Job hunt is not going well, and my current work (yes I still have ties with them) still can't work out if they can afford me or not. Someone offer me a job.... please!
3) Being out of work, I can't afford to have a similar sized downswing as last time. Putting all i'm doing in a diary will (hopefully) slow me down regarding entering tournaments outside my BR and chasing cash back. Hopefully this will still prove useful even if noone reads this (I hope people do!)
4) I've set myself a little target. I've withdrawn some of my BR for obvious reasons leaving £300 in my account. Target is to grind this into 2.5k by the end of 2013 - tough as I only play MTTs. I have serious doubts about doing it, but I suppose it'd be pointless to set an easy target!
5) I'd love to get to know you lovely people on the forum and get involved a bit more.
Anyway, thats all for now.
BR - £300
Lets get started...
I'm 22 and have been playing poker casually for a few years now with mates on the weekend. After being challenged by one of my Uni mates that he was the superior poker player having played on Sky and won a bit; being the competitive guy I am, I decided to join up to try and prove him wrong.
I joined Sky in July 2012 (about 10 months ago now) having won the odd £20 against my mates and decided I'd deposit £50 quid and see where it got me.
I started playing the £2.50 MTTs - particularly the 20:05 BH tournament (this was my favourite and I'd recommend it to all those with a small BR) - I managed to double my BR.
Now, not knowing how to manage a BR at the time (I probably still don't), I entered an £11 BH. To my surprise I went and won it, and started to believe that I might actually be OK at this poker malarky.
At the time I had a job which involved a lot of travelling and staying in B&B's by myself (it was a very lonely existence), poker became a nightly thing as I was starting to watch videos and work out how to make some decent money.
Fast forward to November (I think), my bankroll was hovering near the 1k mark and I'd started entering the main and mini most nights. One Thursday night in particular springs to mind however, when laddering up the main I realised I was on for the Jackpot (10k at the time). Long story short, I came 2nd in the main and 1st in the mini - devastated isn't the word; you'd have to invent a whole new word for what I felt the next few days - that 10k was everything to me as it would have allowed me to travel the world - something I've always wanted to do.
Anyway, forgetting that, many players cant say they have come that close - so theres that i guess!
This year has been a mixed bag so far. I started well, winning the Monday night main early in January, but then hit a minor downswing, and then a major downswing as I went chasing my money. I had left 700 quid in my account after withdrawing a chunk of it to pay for a holiday amongst other things, and lost the lot. A serious bad spell in my short poker career. Looking back, I was playing awfully, only getting more and more anxious over lost money - I was not enjoying poker, and I decided to quit while I was ahead.
My job has been pretty irritating recently...they can't afford to pay me so i'm not working at all at the minute. Looking for jobs only takes so much time during the day and I suddenly found myself playing poker again, but this time for fun. I've managed to grind my way back up to where I was in January and now I can say I'm thoroughly enjoying my poker! (It's amazing the highs and lows you can experience playing this game)
So why am I starting this diary I hear you ask?
Well this is five-fold
1) I need an outlet. I have a habit of tilting when I get sucked out (not a trait im proud of) and I need people to tell me how much of an idiot I am when it's actually me who played the hand bad and not my opponent - so the occassional HH will make an appearance.
2) I have too much spare time. Job hunt is not going well, and my current work (yes I still have ties with them) still can't work out if they can afford me or not. Someone offer me a job.... please!
3) Being out of work, I can't afford to have a similar sized downswing as last time. Putting all i'm doing in a diary will (hopefully) slow me down regarding entering tournaments outside my BR and chasing cash back. Hopefully this will still prove useful even if noone reads this (I hope people do!)
4) I've set myself a little target. I've withdrawn some of my BR for obvious reasons leaving £300 in my account. Target is to grind this into 2.5k by the end of 2013 - tough as I only play MTTs. I have serious doubts about doing it, but I suppose it'd be pointless to set an easy target!
5) I'd love to get to know you lovely people on the forum and get involved a bit more.
Anyway, thats all for now.
BR - £300
Lets get started...
Comments
Look forward to reading it.
Best of luck with this Gazza,
another diary...love 'em.
play within your b/roll & you'll do just fine,i'm sure
gl mate
dev
It's bound to be better than that thread where some old bloke rambles away
Played a variety of tournaments during the day today... no luck as of yet.
Made a stupid bluff in the 4pm BH with 12 left which left me a bit crippled.
Exit hand was this... I think its obviously a shove or fold situation although I might be priced in to peel?.... don't really think you can fold PP when you are the short stack. Better to risk the DU so you can try and go on and win it right? RIGHT?!
BR - £275.01
Best of luck to you, I'll be following with interest.
Ever get to the stage where you think youre never going to win a race no matter the cards though?
I've entered about 10 tournaments tonight.... bubbled two of them and gone out late in most of the others due to flips. I cant figure out if im overvalueing PPs late on when people have smaller stacks or if my play is sub-standard.
Typical example was in the 7pm, when I jam utg with pocket 9s with 14bb one before the bubble. I get called by KJ and low and behold he hits his king on the river. I think i'm playing ok, and I think these are the right moves, maybe just at the wrong time?
I entered KOTH, finishing 3rd. Exit hand is another flip... I cant do anything other than shove can I? Pretty gutted as I was hoping to do some heads up and get a good KOTH run going... can't win them all I guess (or any at the moment)
BR - £298.39
Dam internet...
Went deep in the 12:30. A few away for the cash and this happens.
BR - £272.40
I think its a mixture between running bad and playing bad. Let's just say I haven't won a flip in goodness knows how long but I think at least a few of them I was pushing at the wrong time anyway.
I entered the £22 BH 3pm like a total idiot after a bad beat in another tournament (I have a tendancy to do this) and totally bombed out of it. Stupid stupid man.
Bottom line, these past two days havent been great....
BR - £211.15
sigh
What I think I've got to remember however, is that although some of my exit hands have been errors, the majority have been flips in situations I don't think I could have gotten away from. You have to win your flips at the crucial time to have any chance of cashing in an MTT. People may wonder why Id take a flip with 12BB on the bubble... well it's simple. Would I rather get my money back and an extra quid or so for folding my way into the cash or win the whole tournament? It's a simple decision with the prizes being so top heavy. I'd prefer to win 1 out of 10 tournaments than cash in 5 out of 10... plus I like winning - so theres that.
Its one of the difficulties playing an MTT. My mates think that MTTs, cash, DYMs, Heads up are all the same game because they are all branded as Hold'em Poker. In cash you can happily play tight for 20 minutes and when youre up a little bit, you can walk - brilliant. DYMs, you can play really tight, blind down to 6BB and shove a PP at a crucial time to cash. MTTs, however, you have to be accumulating chips from start to finish for roughly 3 hours. It's dawning on me why I go through some of these big swings - I play for 2 hours, get within a few of the bubble and bomb out. A tournament last night was exactly like that. After 2 hours I was on 12K (average 9k). 2 hands later after QQ and AK I was out... it's the nature of an MTT. You have to be so consistent - no room for error at all over a large time period and you must must MUST win your flips.
So the BR has taken a massive hit. Im not entirely sure what to do at the moment. I'm going to go watch TV and ponder about it. I'm not really rolled for the £11 games, although I definitely do better in them... I dunno!
All I know is that this could potentially be the shortest diary to grace the forum...
You're just unlucky to have taken a kicking from variance at the exact time you decided to launch a diary. I know it's easy with hindsight, but you could have protected yourself from such a collosal downswing by incorporating some sort of bankroll strategy from the start, then having the discipline to stick to it. Nearly all the diarys that crash 'n burn do so because the author fails to exercise prudent BRM.
BTW, this has already lasted longer than several previous diaries that folded rather quickly!
Good luck!
What BR management would you suggest at this point Gary?
Many experts would say my 2.5% rule is far too aggresive and suggest that 1%, or even 0.5% is preferable. I know I can be looser for two reasons; 1. I specialise in Bounty Hunters, by their nature variance is lower in BHs than freezeouts because half the prizepool (the head-prizes) gets distrubuted widely through the field, so it's essentially a much less top-heavy prize structure. 2. I feel I have a significant edge in the games I play.
There aren't many £1 and £50p MTTs going on skypoker!
Hey Gaz, sounds like you had a brilliant run when you first started.
There is a £1 deep stack at 7-8 and and some £2 1s aswell. They are quite soft.
With the BHers the monies terrible unless you final table. The monday community night would be good 2, 3 games for a fiver. And if you win that you are getting a seat into a higher tournie.
Good luck!
Oh well I hear you say, youre still nailing the mini arent you? Well yes I was.... until this hand:
And to add insult to injury, the hand that knocked me out:
4 hours of poker tonight. No rebuys, but two add ons later, I finish 42nd in main (19 from cash) and 25th in mini (4 from cash).
This again means the BR has taken a hit. I had to add-on as I had a good chance of winning both. Im thinking I might have to reload....
Nightmare.
I genuinely have forgotten what it's like to win a flip. Seriously. What does it feel like? I just cant seem to hit/others are hitting everything.
Hour and a half into a BH...
4 before cash in 4pm....
The cards are just against me at the minute...
I doubt I'll change my style of play. Maybe i'll be a bit more conservative around the bubble (although I find it's always much more rewarding to put pressure on people at this time). Who knows...
Heres hoping to a change of fortune in the next few days... need it for pride more than anything else.
(* *)
^
dev
43/561 in mini - profit of about a tenner.
26/414 in main - profit of about £15.
4.5 hours... its a bit frustrating.
Went out of mini 44 v 77. I had 12bb on the BB. A guy min raised and I shoved. Reckon 77 is a bit of a loose call when he's got 18BB and he doesnt need to commit, but oh well.
Went out in main, guy min raised utg. Im sitting on button with AKsuited with 12BB (again) and shove. Guy in BB had QQ and I didnt hit (again).
Im clearly playing OK poker to run deep and cash in both. Just annoying that in the space of 5 mins I went from looking in OK shape to grind into some heavy cash (possibly even jackpot) to being out of both tournaments with little more than £25 to show for it.
A day in the life of an MTT player....
So yeah, I must admit I got a tad bit lucky this evening (makes a bit of a change to have a bit of run good).
Although heads up of the 12:00 £400 gtd this happens:
Oh well. Today has been significantly better than the past 2 days.
00:00 £400 gtd - 2/50
00:30 £400 BH - 3/64
BR update - £184.94
Looks like I might not have to reload.... yet.