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Why thank you. Not sure you can gain a lot of inspiration from a guy who has no BR management and is struggling to make profit at the minute but thanks!
23/226 in mini
55/230 in main
sigh.
Things were looking up at 11 o clock... still in both... was high up in mini and then I lost two crucial flips.
First was the main... I had about 10bb left and was on bb. Guy min raised my BB from the SB (he didnt give me a free flop all night). I finally pick up a decent hand with AJsuited and jam back at him. He calls with 66.... hits a 6 on the flop - game over.
Then was the mini.... now I had debated folding this next hand.
I was chip leader on my table, covering most people by 15-20bb. I pick up QQ on the button. Guy on the cut off raises. I reraise (standard stuff). Then the big blind with an average stack sticks the lot in. Other guy folds and i'm thinking wtf?
Does he have Aces or Kings? Couldnt put him on them as the guy to my right was a tad loose and I had been bullying blinds from people so I thought maybe he had overrepped Jacks or Tens or even AQ.
Well as it so happens he had none of them above and shoved AK - something i was quite happy to see.... until the flop came down AKAKAKAKKKAAKAKA.
So yeah... that left me with a smaller stack. Managed to sneak into the cash but only because I folded this next hand.
I know what youre thinking - 'how could you possibly fold JJ with less than 10bb?!'
Well I did what I did because:
1) the guy who shoved wasn't struggling for chips and didnt need to do this at all
2) he hadn't done it at all before
3) IM ON THE FREAKING BUBBLE. GIMME A BREAK IVE BEEN PLAYING FOR 4 HOURS!
oh well.
So another 2 deep runs in tournaments... and another day where I lose money.
Got to keep the faith.
I think this is the end... I've been losing a lot of flips and I know this is a poor excuse - queue the blablabla 'sky is rigged' post - im not saying that at all. It's just hitting me very hard at the minute. When someone shoves at anytime during the hand... even if im holding the nuts at the time im thinking theres no way im holding here. I've been outdrawn so many times recently that I just get scared of sticking my stack in. I've gone between a mix of super tight and super aggro/loose today as i've changed moods. Tight when I see a very loose player on the table shoving everything (fair enough right?) and loose when i've hit a stage of desperation or have been bullied around too much as my table image has become tight (again fair enough?).
Well this simply hasnt worked because when I do go super tight and shove back at someone with KK and get called by AQ... i'll lose. When I go loose and shove over somone with J10 and get called by 66 i'll lose. Variance is hitting me really hard at the moment and i mean REALLY hard.
I'm sure at least 50% of it is down to poor play as it always is when you hit a downswing... it's a bit of variance that makes you play different... causing you to lose more money. One of those wierd loops that will only end if i donk a mega win/take a break. It's crucial that i'm honest with myself as I'm not playing world beating poker... but i'm not playing that bad to be losing in the manor I am.
So as I say... this may be the end of this diary as I haven't a clue what to say or do. I would post a couple of HH of my exit hands but I know what I did wrong (in the ones that I did something wrong) so I think theres little point.
Just a bit gutted really.
BR - £15.15
(yes the decimal is in the right place)
Hi young Gazza,
sorry to read about last night,
really gutted for you mate,i feel your pain.
it's always brave players coming on to the forum and 'sharing their poker journey' with everyone,and even more so by posting up losing sessions for all to read,especially after what's just happened,so you should be proud of yourself for doing that.
I've been where you are now mate,as have many others i'm sure,and it's not nice and I know you are feeling pretty cr*p atm,but you will recover from this and you will become a better person/player in the future because of this.
yes you probably did lose some flips and there was some bad play mixed in there too,i would say.
but that's not where you went wrong.
you played with NO Bank Roll Management...that was your mistake,...that's all.
learn from this and it will NEVER happen to you again.
Even from that miserable looking £15.15 left...it is still possible to build a bankroll from there.
I personally would give that a go and make today a new starting place and a new challenge.
i'd play micro dym's (low variance),others would play micro h/up i'm sure (only 5% rake I think?),or nl4 cash maybe.
anyway mate,i'm sure you will come up with your own 'plan of action'
I wish you well,and good luck.
dev
vul m8 - mtt variance can be very tough - I won't bore you with the stats but it is scary how many coinflips one can lose in a row - just by luck
given your current situation then more brm does seem to be the way to go
if you don't think you're up for the full "dev" solution then maybe
1. reload to a chosen starting stack
2. stick to lower bi mtts and sats - no direct bi to any higher-priced mtt - limit the # of rebuys
3. stay away from the higher variance games ie speed BHs
4. grind away, and post some hands in the clinic where you were unsure of your play at critical times
up to you how aggressive you want to be with brm - just bear in mind the more risk you take the more chance of losing your bankroll
even if your downswing continues it will be a lot less in cash terms, and less stress on you so less mood swings
and hopefully give you time to relax into a new upswing. you can then increase your buyin level as your bankroll expands
glgl
Don't stop the diary either, it is a good read.
Im very much aware I have 0 BR management. I guess it's because I've never had a need to introduce one as my initial deposit of 20 odd quid has been rolled into X amount and all wins/loses are well within that amount. So I guess essentially i've been playing with my whole role... not just the role ive left in my account which has always given me an excuse to reload if I ever needed to...
Still, it's not ideal and maybe not the best thing to do in my current work predicament... so still in a bit of limbo at what to do.
Had a go at some heads up. Larson took a few quid off me... I made a few quid back off others. Not sure it's my game TBH. I don't play poker solely for a profit basis - I do it for pleasure as well and HU misses something of the table dynamics I enjoy in MTTs, plus i don't seem too good at it either.
So I think the plan is to reload. I'll decide on a roll at a later time as for some unkown reason I cant deposit funds. No problem with the bank as i talked to them... Sky doesn't seem to think its them either so not really sure what I can do! Hopefully whatever the problem is will sort itself out soon....
So here goes again. I'll be a lot more disciplined with the roll. No tournaments over £11 quid and i'd have to be on the end of some horrid variance to lose the lot again.
Update soon when I get some proper funds in my account.... whenever that is!
Who cares about the downswing? Who cares about the bad beats? Who cares about the flipping diary? I've just binked an SPT Nottingham seat for about 15 quid in the first Nottingham frenzy.
Mental.
Something mega to look forward to. I've never played a live tournament before and now im in a bigg'un for pittence. Look forward to meeting a load of people and hopefully running well!
On a high.
BR - Who cares
Gl m8
Enjoyed reading your diary. Its very honest and i know where you're coming from with the shoves/bad beat stuff. What you must do is look at the hand history again, analyse it from the point of position, stack size, any reads etc and if you come to the conclusion that it was the correct play then placate yourself with that. If it stops you playing certain hands 'correctly' then that's where you will regret it. tbh.
I feel you were correct to fold JJ because you gave a logical line for folding...job done.
Nice to see the SPT entry cheered you up. i play for fun too but it needn't stop you improving and taking steps to do it. I certainly don't see getting to cash for a small amount in a low buy-in deepstack a waste of time. I'm enjoying playing because i can see hands where i need to improve my play. Play cheap and find three hands that you were unsure what to do. Go over the HH afterwards and analyse it and/or put it in clinic There you've improved for £2.30...job done!!!
No, a 3 bet light on the btn into a limped pot with JTs may well not push a player off where it may in a higher buy-in where the importance of position is appreciated but I'm looking to improve for sure. Otherwise i'll pack in as a waste of MY time. Good luck.
I'm sure i could stretch to buy you a pint waller after I bink the tournament (yeah right) and yeah hhy im pretty excited about going to my first ever live tournament. Hong Kong though? Im not at all jealous....
Profman... I'm always honest and upfront about what i'm doing. Theres no point starting a diary to just post the big wins and brag to the community and hide the downswings. It's not fair to the new people on the forum painting a false picture of playing MTTs. I will always be honest in my diary as it'l allow people to give me advice based on all the facts - otherwise im kidding myself. But enough of that.
Still undecided what i'm going to do RE online. I deposited a little bit which has kept me ticking over with a few games. I may drop down stakes and deposit a smaller amount and get cracking again, but I do get quite frustrated at the smaller buy-ins. Its much like nl4 where you cant push people off hands... so if i do i'll have to adjust my game.
So yes Profman I may do that. I've never read a poker book, never done any training sites or really gone through HH to improve my game. I know the fundamentals of the game quite well though so I believe I have what it takes to rebuild a decent BR without taking it too seriously. I see other people talking about good books etc and think (quite honestly) 'why? Why would I pay money for a book which is going to tell me 80% of the stuff I have already worked out?'
That may sound uber arrogant... im not. I just believe that poker is one of those games that you learn through playing. Every table has a different table dynamic. Every situation is different. A book will do little to help in each situation. Yes it may teach you how to play generally and apply some moves. When to chase draws... when to bluff.... stack sizes blablabla but i'm a player who has been playing for almost a year now and i'm sitting on a sizeable profit.
I cant be too unhappy.
I know you didnt even mention a book so i may be going on a tangent here! I can't say that my game is perfect. It's full of holes - but i'd say as soon as i make a mistake I know it. In fact a lot of the time I find myself thinking 'I'm beat here' and then clicking the 'call' or 'raise' button to lose my stack. It's something I will have to take a look at for sure.
I just dont want to get to a stage where i'm taking poker too seriously you know? I'm never going to be a pro player. I'm never going to be able to live off poker. It's something which has enabled me to buy a few things on the side.... and i'm happy with that.
However I'm not an idiot and will be looking to improve my game for sure. I'd be silly not to take a look at my leaks in my game and take peoples advice on here. If I can make a bit more money then why not? However I'm not going to spend hours upon hours analysing HH. I know when I could have done something better. I do post a few hands on the poker clinic and on the diary but as I say... I really do believe you learn through playing, seeing the table dynamics and picking your spots.
Having said all that things have been going well (in general) since I started. I have a nice (overall) BR. I'm part of a decent community and i've got an awesome diary (ahem).
So yeah. Heres to another good year ahead starting with SPT Nottingham. Things i'll have to improve for sure is BR management (something the diary has helped with), but as soon as that's settled im sure things will be as good as ever.
Thanks for all the comments/advice. I really do appreciate it. I'll post an update soon when I get my head together about my possible new BR.
Any suggestions are welcome in the meantime.
P.S. The reason I couldn't depost before was because my bank thought there was fraud on my account! i go to Bournemouth for a weekend and suddenly they decide to block my account. Incredible. I suppose it is nice to know they do monitor things like this to protect my measely bank balance... but they could have told me...
One thing I was very pleased with was my HU play. I was 2/1 underdog going HU and really put pressure on my oppo to make poor decisions. I got the chip lead by 2/1 myself and forced him into shoving J8 pre. I had picked up A5 suited and was pleased to call and see me turn a flush.
So yeah. Up downs of poker.
Seen you fired into cash for a bit.
Maybe hard making moves when you have 50 bb's! Dunno if you are playing cash a lot or not, but at the micro levels, up to 10nl the best way is just to play TAG.
Good luck whatever you are playing, hope the MTTs soon turn around for you.
Yeah decided I'd play a little. No idea why... maybe there was no MTTs i wanted to play at the time. Made a silly move trying to rep a monster. I forget myself sometimes. Should have learnt by now that bluffing doesnt work on NL4... especially when oppo has 2 pair. Sigh.
We played 2 hands i think, i bluffed you in one of them.
The other i shoved over the top of you with a pair/ flush draw.
Heres the hand in question. I call the fourbet because its so small and the pot is big enough for me to have decent equity.
But the conversation I'll post underneath is all about the river...
M /> Hmmm.. that didnt make sense
gazza127 /> no it didnt
M /> i was talking about your betting nort chelsea
M /> why overbet the river and not get paid
gazza127 /> me?
M /> yes
gazza127 /> overbet?
gazza127 /> the pot was 7kl
gazza127 /> i had 3
gazza127 /> not even close to an overbet
M /> rubbish it was a massive overbet
gazza127 /> youre kidding right?
M /> DID u get paid or not?
gazza127 /> haha you are an idiot
M /> ? you price a bet to get paid nopt frighten off the opposition
gazza127 /> basing it on the fact that she didnt call.
M /> so please dont call me an idiot
gazza127 /> ok
M /> why woould she you went twice you previous bet
gazza127 /> cause the pot was twice as much
M /> whats the pot got to do with it
gazza127 /> please stop
gazza127 /> youre embarrassing yourself
M /> yopur bet sizing was way over proper poker but it is sky
gazza127 /> god. yep you are a poker guru
gazza127 /> thanks for enlightening me
M /> so why arent you betting another 1600 to get paid or force her to shove
M /> GG chelsea
gazza127 /> so let me get this straight... i raise smaller and she shoves? that makes sense
M /> she will call OR may shove
gazza127 /> pipe down
chelseaAA /> i hope you beat that idit magic
M /> 3200 got u **** all
gazza127 /> im the idiot? seriously/
gazza127 /> ?
M /> YES U didnt get paid the third street
M /> this isnt a who has the biggest D I K competition
gazza127 /> she wasnt calling anything clearly she missed her draw or she had QQ
M /> she called the 1600
gazza127 /> on the turn
M /> so you think overbetting will get you chips do you
gazza127 /> it wasnt an overbet idiot
M /> ONE LAST TIME.. DID YOU GET PAID
M /> IDIOT
gazza127 /> you think 1600 is ok on the turn then im going to what bet another 1600 leaving 1400 behind?
gazza127 /> seriously?
M /> any bet too big which doesnt get paid is TOO BIG
gazza127 /> she clearly didnt have a hand
M /> look up value betting you re tard
gazza127 /> shut up. ive had enough of you dh
M /> of course you have.. i make sense and you talk garbage
gazza127 /> haha such an idiot
M /> the only idiot is the one who didnt get paid
Now I know I come off as a dh. I'm not proud of what I said but I was getting a bit agitated by him tbh. This is a guy who sits at the table at criticizes everyones play. He thinks he is a poker god and I wanted to put him in his place. I shoved with AK then AJ with 10bb later on and he said im such a 'donk shovemonkey idiot' or something like that. Too bad I ran into AK with AJ. Would have liked to teach him a lesson in poker.
Now come on... lets be honest here... I'm right aren't I? It wasnt an overbet... and I cant be 'value betting' the river? If shes got a hand that she'l call 1.6k... shes got a hand that will call 3.5k. I've got to stick it in on the river especially when I hit the nuts. It keeps bluffs in too as I was probably doing it regardless of the river (maybe).
Be honest here guys... what would you do?
Thanks Serge. I would play sats if I wasnt totally awful at them... I should probably play more of them with a smaller BR. Thing is though that after about 9pm the smaller buy in tournaments and sats stop so if i want to play then i have to buy in direct. Something that I dont really mind as I seem to do a lot better at the midnight tournaments. I'll take a look at the DTD and may play on Monday. Thanks for the invite... i'll definitely look into it.
Good to see that you can build a small roll. I've done it before but it was a while back! My game has changed a lot since then. Hope to see you on the tables and run well.
No it was more the fact that I was peeved at the other guy having a go at me. I know its the correct move. Just wanted it to be more than my word vs his so if he see's this then he'll know I wasnt just dissagreeing with him to be difficult.
Its been a while. Thought i'd update you guys on where I am.
The last BR i posted was a measly 15 quid as id gone on a mega downswing. That coupled with no BR management was a recipe for disaster. Obviously since then I won a seat to SPT Nottingham with that 15 quid (so not all bad) and have been playing some other tournaments as people have seen me on the tables.
I deposited another £300 and decided to give it another go. Hopefully this time I can show a bit more BR management (I havent so far but i'll get to that).
Its been up and down already. I think ive won 3/4 small tournaments and cashed in a fair few, but also gone and spewed money around, particularly on the rebuy tournament.
I entered the £55 speed BH tonight like the idiot I am... in fact im pretty ashamed of it. I got knocked out of the rebuy having spent a fair few bob after missing my straight, flush, overcard outs all in on a flop. Board was 6s 7s 2d. I had 8s 9s. I was uber happy to get it in, but missed the lot.
Anyway, the £55 went ok. There was one pot which irritated me when my QQ set got rivered to a straight, but apart from that I played quite well. I managed to finish 2nd which made up for some loses in the past couple of days (mainly the rebuy - dont want to talk about it), however had 0 bounties - a sign of good solid play id like to think, although it may be me not getting value from my decent hands.
So yeah, BR is hovering near the £400 mark at the minute, but the reason i'm posting is to proclaim to the world that I will only treat myself to one main a week from now on with NO £22 BH and NO £55 BH. I will play 5 quid and 11 quid games with one 33 quid BH a week - most likely thursdays. Yes its not great BR management but its better than none at all!
In other news... Schwartzel (or however you spell it) let me down mega in the open. I got him at 28/1 and lumped £20 each way on him. After leading by a shot after the first hole of the last round he decided to go bogey bogey double bogey bogey. They even stopped showing all of his shots after the 7th hole! Such a dissapointment.
Job are still messing me around. I'm applying for a loooooad of other things at the minute despite my work saying they do infact want me back. They just cant guarentee i'll get paid.... they can wish.
So yeah. Thought i'd post an update.
Run well all.
I call it a great read on an oppo.
Proud of this one.
Glad you have decided to redeposit and continue with your diary though