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And GL to you too!
I have thankfully learned the lesson about cash games and drunkenness...
MTT's and a few drinks are another matter, they usually go well
Sorry to hear of your losses at the cash tables Mark, we have all been there. With the br restraints of this challenge, especially if used to mixing it up with higher buy ins, its understandable to get bored solely grinding and want to take a shot.
Today is my first visit to the forum since my last post, my colleague has had to take unexpected leave so am covering for the foreseeable. Therefore did not know of recent events and have been carrying on with the challenge.
I'm on £238.85, wasn't going to post results initially after reading of recent events but decided to anyway as a kind of goad in case you decide to right off the cash loss and continue : )
Although get the feeling you want to take some shots at bigger gtd mtt's and having br restraints makes that difficult, gl with whatever route you decide on.
Although we did get the 9-seater PLO8 cash table running once for a forum game, I'm pretty sure that every single person ended up down for the night given how much rake we all had to pay on split pots.
It's fun for a change, and at £4 a pop is affordable when seen in that guise, but I can't see how it could ever be beatable unless your edge over the field was just insane.
Would be ace if one day Sky could tweak the software to only rake scooped pots and try to be industry leader in drawing traffic to the cash PLO8 tables.
GL with whatever the post-BR challenge is.
@Shakinaces I couldn't agree more regarding the rake. Would be an amazing step by Sky if they could tweak to only take rake on scooped pots. Could be quite a nice niche market to get involved in and may draw a lot more OH8 players to the site and the DYM's etc.
I have been caught in no man's land the last few days.
As mentioned I cashed out a chunk and put aside a reasonable amount for Vegas. When I started playing poker again recently I wasn't working with a big roll (deposited £25 initially) as I have been a poor student for the last few years
I also wasn't worried about working up from a small amount as I have done this so many times over the years and from very small deposits was around $9k up in my first month back over several sites. I have found it difficult getting momentum though over the last few days from the same small deposits. A mixture of boredom grinding back up from small amounts, run bad and some play bad thrown in (mainly due to the boredom).
As a result I am stuck in no mans land wondering whether to keep at it with the small deposits and be patient or have a few days off or deposit a larger amount. Either way I want to get playing some of the bigger games on here quite soon so I will mull it over and figure it out.
One big pot today could really have got some momentum going on another site. I had 4597 with 2 hearts in a HU OH8 cash game. Flop is 792 with 2 hearts, we get it all in on the flop for around $400+ (a lot of preflop craziness going on so the pot was already inflated) and he shows A3j8 rainbow for a pretty dry low draw with a gutterball. The gutterball 10 lands on the turn and river is a brick. Happy enough with how the $$ went in, opponent is mostly just drawing for a split barring a non heart 10 but the result wasn't ideal.
Anyways, thanks for reading my ramblings and hope you are all running well at the tables!
Had a couple of days not playing much as I was running pretty bad and I felt it was starting to affect my game a little.
Got in late tonight but caught the tail end of the Friday night DYM's and felt like I had cleared my head and was back to playing closer to my usual game. Cashed in 4/6 but my 2 loses were in the £16.50's so had a loss of around £2 but was actually happy as I felt I was playing better again.
The DYM's died off for the night and I wanted to keep playing (been there before)... This time I didn't go and play stupid stuff and take risks outside of what I should be and just regged for 2 x £11 £1k GTD BH's. Again I feel playing less for a couple of days helped and I was playing pretty solid. Had my stack decimated early in one of them and got down to around 850 chips but worked this back up, took 4 bountys and made a slight profit.
The other BH I steadily chipped up throughout. We got down to 7 players and the FT bubble and things got interesting. My table was 3 handed with even stacks but the other table had the big chip leader and a shorty with 1.5 BB's. Well about 8 all ins later on that table and the shorty was the table chip leader and we were still on the bubble. Eventually I jammed pocket 10's on my table, was called by AJ and I won the flip and bust the bubble. Took another head on the FT and was then sitting 1/4 with a decent chiplead...
Every other player has around 10 - 15 BB's and I have around 25+. I shove pocket 77's 4 handed and run into AKo and lose the flip and become one of the 10-12 BB stacks. Not to fear I get A2o in the SB and it folds around to me and I jam but the BB is sitting with pocket aces... GG me!
Still around £100 profit and feel I have my focus back and am playing better again after a pretty rough run bad spell that was starting to affect my game and confidence.
Confidence restored a bit, weekend cleared and hoping to play a load of MTT's over the next couple of days here and elsewhere and see what I can do.
Thanks for reading and hope you all have a great weekend whether you are playing poker or doing fun stuff in that strange place with no poker tables or monitors called 'outside'.
Loving the diary Marky, keep it coming please.
Thought you ran terribly last night, but don't worry, it'll turn soon enough.
You are tearing the DYM's up at the moment which is great to see as I have seen you take more than your share of beats but manage to keep your dicipline and patience. Perfect time for you to be playing so consistent and well just before you set out for Vegas.
When I run bad I tend to unintentionally make adjustments in a subconscious effort to try and correct my results which just ends up with my game slightly skewed and I need to have a bit of a reset.
Over the course of the night I think I ran only very marginally below average but managed a £100 profit which almost feels better than running golden and making double the amount.
I will actually post my 2 bust out hands from the £11 BH and see if anyone thinks I could/should have done anything different although I feel the hands probably played themselves.
Played 7 or 8 DYM OH8 games and felt I ran slightly below average and played about average. Was £4 down over the course which is no big deal and too short a number of games to draw any conclusions from.
Then played the £5 'Half Time Tourney' and managed to cash for £50. I am not going to analyise the play from this as the structure is so quick a lot of luck is needed (there is some skill element) but with 1 minute blinds things are going to get messy
Then played the £33 main BH (which I had a free ticket for), the £5.50 mini and the Mayhem freeroll. The BH's were very disappointing. I had an absolutely brilliant table in the £33 with people carelessly throwing chips all over the place but I couldn't find any spots to take advantage. None of my small pairs made sets, most of my Ax hands missed and I eventually call one Hyper player, I am on the BTN with 56cc and the flop is 4c7cQh so I have an open ended straight flush draw. The hyper player bets big on the flop and I call (I still have 100+ BB's so no need to reraise as I am confident if I hit I will get him all in and if I miss I have no hand) he wasn't doing much in the way of folding which also led me to flat call. Turn is a 6s which gives me a pair and still the open ended straight flush draw. He bets big again and I flat again only to see a complete brick on the river. He checks (I would bet but he is not folding anything he has remotely connected with so I check) he shows QTo and takes it. I am sure I saved chips by not making a move on this river.
I wait patiently and eventually pick up JJ and the same guy from before bets big preflop, I shove 25 BB's with JJ and he calls/shows QQ and holds.
The Mayhem went a bit better and I cashed for £10.
All in all a slightly frustrating day in the games I would be looking to do well in but a £50 profit overall due to freerolls and 1 minute blind structure tourneys lol.
One thing I have noticed is that as players get used to 'my style' in the DYM's they are looking me up quite light. I would expect this and have been in similar scenarios before but I will have to make adjustments
Hope you are all having an enjoyable and profitable weekend and thanks for reading!
Off to donk about in some OH8 MTT's elsewhere
WHAT?
That's outrageous, & disrespectful.
Tell me who is doing this, & I'll have a word.
You have definitely altered your range versus me (although I would say you have altered your range very accurately). I have noticed a couple of players have just decided that I just never have anything and I would bet if I was dealt 4 Christmas cards as my hole cards lol
Again this is fine as long as I acknowledge this and make adjustments myself. It would be very one dimensional of me to just stick with the exact same style in such situations. Again not a complaint, I am actually looking forward to putting a lot of volume in on the DYM's and seeing how well I can adjust and the proof will be in the pudding.
Hope you managed to stretch your run to 12 winning sessions last night, you have been very dialed in lately and playing wonderfully! Your game looks to be in tip top condition just before you head to Vegas.
I ran my KK into a certain jammy dodger's JJ with 15 left for a top 4 stack in one of them and lost or it would have looked a bit better. To be fair the hand played itself and I have been lucky to win a couple of OH8 MTT's HU versus the player so no complaints from me!
I have been quite lucky and haven't seen anything too bad. Just the odd tantrum etc, certainly nothing as bad as what you mentioned! That is pretty awful and if someone done that to me my self restraint would be tested to the max...
I was playing an OH8 MTT last year and the dealer was telling us his crazy stories from over the years. He actually said someone sat at his table (a woman) was shot at, her boyfriend came in and they must have had some major bust up and he shot at her. Not sure what the outcome was, I didn't catch all of the story (I think some pretty lady came around offering free drinks so I was distracted lol).
Have just been 'treading water' as they say for the last week or 2 and not really up or down much.
I think I am suffering since cashing out a chunk to tie up some Vegas funds! I had the stomach for slowly and steadily building from small amounts for years when playing full time. There were times when there were little bankroll restrictions and I could play almost anything I wanted but a big chunk of the years playing full time were also a bit of a cycle of - win some money, cash a lot out for bills, work back up and rinse and repeat. This got dull quickly though which was why I went back into full time education to get something solid behind me so I didn't have to constantly decimate my bankroll to pay for everyday life. Having had a break for a while I found it easy to do this again when I started playing again but I am struggling at the moment.
Still a little unsure what to do going forward to be honest, stuck in a little rut at the moment. Don't really want to deposit money I have set aside for the Vegas trip but am finding it hard to play my best and work back up while working with a small amount. #firstworldproblems and all that eh lol, I know many people have real issues to worry about and overall I am very fortunate! It doesn't solve the motivation issue though...
I think this has all resulted in me trying too hard, my motivation tailing off and my play decending to distinctly average at best, coupled with some run bad at key spots deep in MTT's this isn't the best recipe.
It is stuff that I will figure out and in general I am very upbeat! Looking forward to the Vegas trip and looking forward to Sky announcing which live events they will be featuring next and giving them a bash. Also looking forward to following Tikay and Neil's adventures in Vegas and watching the WSOP updates.
Hopefully the next update will be more upbeat and hope you are all running well at the tables!
Thanks for reading,
Marky
Rather than sweat to make cash playing poker for everything that will need to be paid in the coming months (especially after setting aside most of my bankroll for the Vegas trip) I have decided to keep my hand in with other financial endeavours and play part time. Probably 5 evenings a week and this ties in with the schedule of games on Sky anyway.
I am relieved having decided this as it takes the pressure off, is probably the smartest choice, will allow me to let any funds in my account grow so I can play higher buy ins when the BR allows and will also probably help my game be more natural due to the pressures being off. Not to mention I will be more physically active which is always a health positive.
If things go amazingly well and I am sitting in a few weeks with a few big wins then I may re-evaluate.
Anyways, thanks for reading my ramblings and hope you are all running well!
Planning to post a few hands this evening and hopefully get some OH8 strategy discussion going.
AA hands in PLO8 can be troublesome and while plenty players win big pots with them; they are often a common hand people lose large pots with. I don't see this changing but maybe some discussion on different scenarios could be worthwhile.
I will post 3 scenarios where we have the same AA hand on the button and describe the action below each hand.
I will not give my opinion on them currently, if a few others reply with their thoughts then I will post my thoughts and hopefully we all get a few points to consider.
(just to clear any confusion as someone thought hands 1 & 2 were the same... Only our starting stack is different between hands 1 & 2)
Hand 1:
Player
Stack Size
BTN (us with AcAh9s9d)
18,000
SB
22,000
BB
24,000
UTG
15,000
UTG+1
13,000
UTG+2
16,000
Blinds 500-1000 – MTT – 150 entrants – 18 paid – 25 left – Average stack size = 18,000
UTG miniraises to 2,000, UTG+1 pots to 7,500, UTG+2 shoves all in for 16,000 and it is on us to act on the BTN...
What would you do?
Hand 2:
Player
Stack Size
BTN (us with AcAh9s9d)
6,500
SB
22,000
BB
24,000
UTG
15,000
UTG+1
13,000
UTG+2
16,000
Blinds 500-1000 – MTT – 150 entrants – 18 paid – 25 left – Average stack size = 18,000
UTG miniraises to 2,000, UTG+1 pots to 7,500, UTG+2 shoves for 16,000, it is on us to act on the BTN...What would you do?
Hand 3:
Player Stack Size BTN (us with AcAh9s9d) 2200 SB 1800 BB 2000 UTG 2050 UTG+1 1950 UTG+2 2000 Blinds 100-200 - Double Your Money – 6 handed – 6 left – 3 get paid – average stack size = 2,000
UTG miniraises to 400, UTG+1 pots it to 1,500, utg+2 shoves for 2,000, it is on us to act on the BTN...
What would you do?