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Quitting my run at the SnG promo. Yeah no heart, pathetically early to throwing the towel etc etc. Please feel free to point and laugh. But here's the reason.
So I got a run on JMac this morning being up first, and as I'm grinding I'm thinking about the week ahead. Now I can grind, look way back in my diary and you'll see 50 odd hour sessions for fun. Then I'm thinking about what I am not gonna be able to do this week. Hardly have a smoke, barely eat, miss my shows - those were all fine, not even missed any of those things and I can take that. Gonna have to skip Hospital Radio (twice) and football training/second last match of the season. Sigh, well I guess sacrifices have to be made, don't like it though.
And then we got to the heart strings. Have the Hound cooped up for a week without getting a long walk a day. Hardly say a word to the GF. At this point I was wavering but thinking I still might have a crack at it. Then the moment came. Tell my 83 year old neighbour I can't set up their first ever WiFi and Tablet like a promised. We're due for that hot date tomorrow for a few hours/
I just thought to myself 'WTF are you doing?'
So feel free to tell me I have no heart etc etc, I enjoy life too much to grind above all. I'm much more of an idiot for saying I was going for it in the first place.
Best of luck to all the winners, I'll probably just bink the satellite anyway
Good luck with the SATS.
#LEGEND
Thank you very much for the kind words.
The key really is just hard work, focus and volume. Confidence is an issue I struggle with (not just in poker) and there is no way I have found to fake it. All you can really do in poker situations is 'let it go.' Try to find a detachment between you and the odds, don't expect to win or expect to lose. Just take a breath and draw away from it all.
The harsh fact of this game is you can run poorly for a long time. Control what you can control. Sigh away tilt, improve your own game. And always, just have fun with it.
I don't stand if I think 'today is not my day.' I do stand if I think a bad day is effecting my mentally, or at least I take an hour or so of a break, watch a show or some Youtube vids or maybe just go for a walk with the Hound.
Biorythms? The only bell that rings is a really basic computer sorta game I had on my first computer so many years ago now. The computer was the classic Acorn Electron. Biorythms was a game where you would enter some personal details like date of birth etc and the program would take all of this information and create a spinning spiro-graph like pattern on a loop on the screen in pretty colours. Forgotten about that program and while I have a feeling that's not what you are talking about, thank you for reminding me of the pretty colours.
Crashed and burned a bit lately. in the VLV sat I went out 12th. Didn't play too badly, not amazing. Bust out in a spot where I was a good favourite to win, just couldn't get it going.
Taken a cash downswing. Was briefly over £10k for the month and then everything seemed to fall out of my mind.
I haven't really got anything other than that to update you guys on. Feeling pretty low on confidence at the moment, in desperate need to regroup and go again. Looking for that spark of inspiration.
March 2015
Points so Far: 33198
Total Profit/loss so far: +£6720.86
DYMs: - £520.40
Cash: + £8602.90
MTT: - £855.64
HU SnG: - £524
Total VLV spend to date: £1870.20 - (£1107 in cash returns) = £763.20 (and now no closer to VLV than when I started).
Sunday was frankly abysmal. Just didn't play well in most MTTs across all sites, was very disappointing. The only one I played half decent in was the Roller, went from that a little short of the money top two v an over pair on the flop. Pretty standard hand, pretty standard run out to pair the bad cards (for me at least). Came up just short yet again for the £1k VLV seat, that's starting to get to me.
Tonight with renewed vigour I once again took the first steps (again) towards VLV. Managed to sat into both the Saturday 3.2k semi and the Sunday 10k semi. So a couple more tickets to take to the coconut shy. Got to the final two tables of the main but I am just not playing these stages of the MTT well at the moment. Going spot dead yes but playing the few I get badly. Getting to a point where I am considering doing 'an Annette' and just putting a post it over my cards and just play position and feel. Might not be the worst idea for me in the world to be completely serious. It takes all level one thinking out of the game and we can just play on levels two and three. For those that don't know, I have a few theories on poker. One is that it's a spinning triangle. In a snap shot, level one is bottom left, and it's just a player looking at the strength of their hand. Level two is bottom right, it's a player thinking about what are the sorts of hands and ranges his opponents have. And Level three is on top, and it's thinking about what kinds of hands does my opponent think that I have. Problem is the triangle only spins one way. Two is a better technical player than one, Three is better than two but three doesn't work against one, one's actually ahead of three because three is going a level too far considering factors that simply do not matter to one.
Ok, maybe I am rambling. Next time will try to use rock, papers, scissors instead.
I can't deny it's been a good cash month and in that at least I have played ok while running exceptionally, beyond over expectation well. the DYM and HU SnG losses on the month are a little meh, pushed too many tables at the DYMs and the HU SnG is just a real weakness of mine, especially any with some sort of speed. I might want to try and sort that game out at some point but for now I don't want to mess around too much under the bonnet in cash I confuse the parts that are actually working. The MTT losses, meh, not happy with how I played this month at them but I've had a couple of good MTT months so far and UKOPS is around the corner, fingers crossed I can find my game for a few of those events.
Not gonna play any cash tomorrow until the bells of April hit, I quite fancy having a £10k at cash poker month, been over a year since I had one and it's always nice to put it in the books.
Happy grinding all.
March 2015
Points so Far: 34496
Total Profit/loss so far: +£7899.90
DYMs: - £502.40
Cash: + £10,209.22
MTT: - £1282.92
HU SnG: - £524
Total VLV spend to date: £2231.20 - (£1347 in cash returns) = £884.20
Amazing cash returns there, Tommy.
I have a question for you.
There is an interesting debate aboit the Blinds structure in the VLV Finals, here
As you can see, some very good players have opposing views. What is your view?
Please especially note that the structure has been advertised "as is" since day one, & to change it now would cause some grumbling. Leaving it "as is" will cause some grumbling, too.
First, the emboldened part, it wouldn't be online poker without that catch 22
I did see that thread, I avoided it at the time for two key reasons. Firstly from a selfish perspective I went out something like 11th or 12th, I was a bit sore from exiting and the manner of the exit. I felt the person who knocked me out played a hand, in my opinion, completely abominably. they end up with a package, I have to start again. Hated myself a little for not being able to shrug that one off in my usual fashion which I have done countless times before with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. I wanted the win too much and I didn't like how that obsession changed me. I obviously didn't say a word in chat and before I let myself down any further or in public I shut myself off entirely from poker and the site that evening. Ha, that paragraph got a bit more further into reveal personal feelings than I intended, it goes that way sometimes in a diary.
The second key reason I avoided it is so many posts on structures are self advocating. We live in an adversarial democracy. We settle legal disputes by paying for our champions to fight our corner. Politics is pick a team in a Punch and Judy contest. As such so many posts on threads similar to that are 'I want it the way I like it, the way which would be best for me.' You can't fault such posts, it's the environment everyone has grown up in over the past few centuries.
Down to brass tacks, my thoughts on the issue. I will try to give an opinion of what would be the fairest structure for the whole rather than the one which would suit be, I hope there will not be any bias. To be fair to all in a satellite with no antes (personal note, I literally don't care if there are antes or are not antes in a MTT, it's all about adjusting to if they are or are not there) I think if needs to be faster early and slower later. Someone asked me about this on Lambo's Twitch chatroom and I said in a pithy manner 'make it a 10k starting but start the blinds at 50/100.' tbh I don't think I was too far off the mark, I might even go more extreme, forget about the change to the starting and just start at 50/100 from a 5k starting, so everyone starts on 50bb. I can't find the later structure now but I would slow down the blind increases massively to account on starting shallow.
Satellites are completely different from a normal MTT. There is no reason to play a hand unless there is something worth winning. The early levels in that structure are for the most part, from people with even a rudimentary understanding of satellite poker, are who can wait for QQ+ or flop sets best. And that's completely the optimal way to play a sat that deep with no antes. Obviously there will always be a few who just want to play hands but for the most part everyone folds. And everyone folds until we get to a 20bbish stack, and nearly everyone is still in. Now because no one has played a hand for 90 minutes or so, everyone is bunched around 20bb apart from a select few who were the beneficiaries of a cooler/maniac play in the early going. This is when it becomes a crapshoot because now it's who flips best and suddenly you have to go from hibernation to full throttle because the blind increases are effectively (compared to the average amount of BBs in a stack) much bigger than in the early levels, just when stacks are shallower.
In short, give people something to fight for early, a bigger percentage of their stack in the middle in the form of the blinds. Make people play. This benefits both the better aggressive tournament players and the recreational players because the more times you have to put those chips in the middle, the more variance will play a part so if it's a rec's hot night and they play well (which many do), they are on the plane to Vegas. The only people this hurts are the much more conservative No Limit Texas Fold'em Regs, some of which will no doubt rubbish my opinion. Which is cool. But I think less so called 'play' early but more 'play' later is the most level playing field and fairest way to run a no ante satty.
Never played them mate, while I am a satellite callgirl I am not an overlay chaser. Seem like great fun though
Seriously though, enjoying the diary, very good read. So are you now officially a 'poker pro' or still 'between jobs' / 'on a break' type thing?
I guess the money you made this month is slightly better than a teachers wage and tax free!
All the best
Greg.
So I decided to have a little fun and play in the cash challenge thing with Neil Channing. I only did the one table as doing both would be unfair to others equally keen to TV Tart. Despite a relapse over the last few weeks I haven't really gone out of my way to do so for a good long while, but I fancied a bit of fun with the Ambo.
I ended up down £20 but it was a good ol laugh. I'm posting the hand I decided to pull out early at the bottom.
Donked in and out of a few MTTs, no returns. Many grumbly sighs on that front.
So to close out the final figures for March:
March 2015
Points: 34703
Total Profit/loss: +£7742.42
DYMs: - £502.40
Cash: + £10,183.74
MTT: - £1414.92
HU SnG: - £524
Total VLV spend to date: £2231.20 - (£1347 in cash returns) = £884.20
Ok to the hand. So in this challenge they have one bullet of £100. I turned my hand into a bluff, it's very early in the session and I don't think myself and Neil have played many hands together in the past. I can give my thinking on it later but rest assured, I am turning my pair into a bluff. Wasn't sure if I went behind on the turn or the river but I felt it was one of them. So I'm trying to get a King, a Queen or even KQ to fold here. Even if I have misread I think a bare 6 doesn't like its spot, and to be truthful neither does medium flushes under the one bullet/TV show condition.
Thoughts, as always, most welcome.
Yeah, weirdly I think I have offended someone one Skype by playing again in March at cash, gonna leave the details of that (they were not on the cash table at all) but it is basically 'Gambler decides to not quit as long as he said' headline. Not really surprising. I little bit flummoxed by this person but they've had a really hard day so I am hoping it's all transference.
Anyway, yeah as I said above I just wanted to have some fun, I usually multi table a lot more than I played. And it was a great laugh.
I'm 'between things' in truth. I will probably be between things for a while, although the things I am between may change.
gl gl Greg
All the best.
Greg.
Not saying I played the hand great btw, just what I was thinking. And everyone should give me advice, I'm just a button clicker after all.
It's always interesting to read the thoughts on hands from the likes of TommyD... one day some of it might even start to sink in and help me improve
Great posts as always and good luck with month 2 of the hunt for Vegas packages!
On the hand, great points. I have gone back and forth a few times on if I like that bluff. Here's the thing with the river action. I should never be bluffing over that pot bet, offering those odds to call and as we both know this, so as such I think I should be bluffing sometimes and can't have a zero bluff range against a player who will soon pick up on this. In my experience an exact pot bet on the river means different things from different people. I put Neil in the category of 'have a strong but not super nutted hand,' if he had the nut flush or houses/quads I think the bet is still chunky but it'll either be an overbet for me to level myself or around the 16/17 mark to give me room to not only value jam but to bluff over the top. So I thought at the time it was KQ, AA all the way up to medium flushes. So I am check/jamming in a spot where I shouldn't really ever be bluffing against a strong but rarely nutted range. Gotta be the goods right?
Or maybe I was just button clicking and as ever, I like to put people in tough spots for my own darkly sick enjoyment. And yes I have just levelled myself into liking the bluff again, that'll change back to hating it the next time I think about it.
But I totally concede in a vacuum probably the best decision on the end is to fold.