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Only a matter of time before you get to 1k again
Day 85
Closing Balance £100.06
Up £5.30 today
I was too busy to play poker this afternoon, so there’s nothing to add to my earlier update. Five wins from seven HU STTs in a short lunchtime session pushed me a lovely six pence over the three-figure mark.
My form in HU STTs so far continues to be a big surprise. They account for about 90% of the profit at this stage. According to the Sharkscope database I’ve won 180 and lost 108 from 288 games, giving an ROI of around 25%. Not bad for an MTT guy. I’m sure the HU success rate would tail off significantly if I moved up stakes and started to face stronger opponents. I still expect most of the remaining £900 to come from MTTs.
Todays results;
7754248HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker28/03/2013 13:40NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97754218HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker28/03/2013 13:35NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97754175HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker28/03/2013 13:32NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17754126HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker28/03/2013 13:12NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97753991HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker28/03/2013 12:45NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97754006HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker28/03/2013 12:26NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97753948HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker28/03/2013 12:13NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.1
I'd very happily take a second place to you at the moment Craig, it would be my best finish for quite a while!
Closing Balance £87.88
Down £12.18 today
A day best forgotten!
Probably because it’s a bank holiday there was a higher than usual proportion of unskilled players at the micro-stakes tables, mainly those of the bingo/maniac variety. In Bounty Hunters I couldn’t get anything going despite the soft fields. I’m happy I was playing well, it’s just that the cards just weren’t falling my way. I ran particularly badly in all-in situations, failing to hold several times when my stack went in as a big favourite.
HU STTs didn’t go well either, a series of coolers and all-ins lost when well ahead leading to worse results than usual.
March is over as far as this diary is concerned. I’m out all weekend so there’ll be no more poker for me until Monday. At the start of the month I had £52.21 in my account, I end it £35.67 higher. That’s a healthy increase of 68.3%. Volume was low (I only earned 224 Poker Points), because of holidays and stuff I only actually played on 17 of the 31 days. If I can at least repeat the same rate of growth in April I’ll be very happy.
Todays results;
7760281HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 16:55NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97760170HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 16:44NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17759808HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 16:25NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97760152HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 16:23NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17760060HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 16:18NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17760113HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 16:10NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97760019HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 16:08NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17759547HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 14:19NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97756915HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 14:15NL Hold'em £2 + £0.37/26-£1.367759559HNLT,HU0.05GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 14:14NL Hold'em £1 + £0.052/2-£1.057759553HNLT,HU0.05GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 14:12NL Hold'em £1 + £0.052/2-£1.057759121HNLT,HU0.05GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 12:47NL Hold'em £1 + £0.051/2£0.957756338HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 12:45NL Hold'em £2 + £0.315/43-£2.37756149HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 12:15NL Hold'em £2 + £0.323/31-£2.37758959HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 12:10NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17756337HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker29/03/2013 10:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.339/122-£2.17
Sometimes it’s just not your day. I saw loads like these, Bounty Hunter;
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalanceK Small blind 100.00 100.00 6077.50 carrotttop Big blind 200.00 300.00 18677.50 Your hole cards Q Q GaryQQQ Raise 400.00 700.00 3260.00 K Raise 1100.00 1800.00 4977.50 carrotttop Fold GaryQQQ All-in 3260.00 5060.00 0.00 K Call 2460.00 7520.00 2517.50 K Show J J GaryQQQ Show Q Q Flop A 4 8 Turn 2 River J K Win Three Jacks 7520.00 10037.50
HU STT;
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalanceGaryQQQ Small blind 15.00 15.00 1179.00 f Big blind 30.00 45.00 1776.00 Your hole cards 10 10 GaryQQQ Raise 45.00 90.00 1134.00 f Raise 60.00 150.00 1716.00 GaryQQQ Raise 180.00 330.00 954.00 f All-in 1716.00 2046.00 0.00 GaryQQQ All-in 954.00 3000.00 0.00 f Unmatched bet 612.00 2388.00 612.00 GaryQQQ Show 10 10 f Show 10 J Flop 9 6 8 Turn 4 River K f Win Flush to the Jack 2388.00 3000.00
For instance, some people say 20 BIs is fine for cash, but that means if you happen to lose a BI in your first session, straight from the get go, you're then playing with 19 BIs and if things don't pick up quickly, taking bigger and bigger risks.
If you're happy playing £3.30 MTTs now, if you played 1 and didnt cash and went to £97, would you stop, or would you give yourself say 3 goes til you were on £90 before going back to £2s?
EDIT: Wow, sorry, talk about bad timing!! I was writing this obviously as you were writing your update. Question still applies though really but to any level your BR reaches. If you are happy playing X BI when you get to X amount, how much do you allow before you step down if it doesn't go well?
Being prepared to step down is very important in my opinion. I'm being very strict on myself, enforcing my rule to the letter to protect me from a sharp downswing.
(Didn’t play)
Day 89
Closing Balance £113.79
Up £25.91 today
Yay, a good day in the office! A win and a second place from three MTTs made for a good profit and put me on a new highest balance. This is my biggest winning day so far and gives my balance a boost of just a shade under 30%.
My session started with a pleasing second place in a £2.30 Bounty Hunter, though I’ll never know how I didn’t win the thing. Most of the tournament went like a dream; I was chipleader all the way, with 6 left I had 66% of the chips, going into heads-up I had 90%. However the winner (who to be fair is a decent player) somehow turned it around at the end thanks to a very unlikely series of binks when all-in and well behind.
Fortunately there were no HU hiccups in the afternoon £2.20 Deepstack. A huge early stages pot sent me on my way. I opened in mid-position with A3s, two flat callers saw the flop with me, I flopped the nut-flush draw and two back-door straight draws on a low board. To my bewilderment both villains jammed their stacks in for over 10x pot. I’d have reluctantly folded to one shove, though I estimated my hand had sufficient equity that I had to make the call with two all-ins before me (4.3K chips to win 12.8K). They both held over-pairs to the flop and none of my flush outs, good news for me. I missed the flush but binked a lovely ace on the river to scoop the pot. From there I was chip-leader most of the way. I feel I played well and got plenty of cards to work with. My image was just right; I got paid several times when value betting the best hand post flop. This time I managed to prevail HU over an opponent who was very laggy preflop. A crucial AA>55 aipf hold when he had me covered more-or-less sealed the win.
In another £2.30 Bounty Hunter I drew a blank. In HU STTs I roughly broke even. I’m hoping to earn enough Poker Points to qualify for a C4P payment in April. I need an average of 17 points per day to get there, I’ll probably add a few hyper HU matches to my schedule at some point to ensure I get over the line.
Today’s results;
7771784HNL 0.2GBPSkyPoker01/04/2013 14:20NL Hold'em £2 + £0.21/16£13.87773675HNLHU0.05GBPSkyPoker01/04/2013 13:45NL Hold'em £1 + £0.051/2£0.957771593HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker01/04/2013 13:45NL Hold'em £2 + £0.315/27-£1.557773680HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker01/04/2013 13:23NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97773466HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker01/04/2013 13:10NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97773523HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker01/04/2013 12:31NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97773423HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker01/04/2013 12:19NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17773431HNLHU0.05GBPSkyPoker01/04/2013 12:16NL Hold'em £1 + £0.052/2-£1.057773448HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker01/04/2013 12:13NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17770294HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker01/04/2013 09:30NL Hold'em £2 + £0.32/26£12.26
Surely nothing can go wrong now? I flop pretty well in the first hand of HU play in this £2.30 Bounty Hunter;
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalancex Small blind 300.00 300.00 4465.00 GaryQQQ Big blind 600.00 900.00 46635.00 Your hole cards Q 10 x All-in 4465.00 5365.00 0.00 GaryQQQ Call 4165.00 9530.00 42470.00 x Show J 8 GaryQQQ Show Q 10 Flop 10 10 6
Yes, it can actually. My opponent ran like Usain Bolt from here on to come back and win.
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalancex Small blind 300.00 300.00 4465.00 GaryQQQ Big blind 600.00 900.00 46635.00 Your hole cards Q 10 x All-in 4465.00 5365.00 0.00 GaryQQQ Call 4165.00 9530.00 42470.00 x Show J 8 GaryQQQ Show Q 10 Flop 10 10 6 Turn 4 River 7 x Win Flush to the Jack 9530.00 9530.00
Closing Balance £111.69
Down £2.10 today
I entered three micro Bounty Hunters today with just a min-cash in a £2.30 to show for it.
It was great to resume battle in the two morning £3.30s as they’re among my favourite tournament on the site. Apart from a head-prize I left them empty handed this time, though in the 9-45am I had a near-miss. An unfortunate 88<A2 aipf beat took me out two spots from the money. The chipleader called my open-shove and binked a straight. While it’s disappointing to go out like that it's a call I’m begging for. Anyhow, that particular cloud had a silver lining; a few minutes before my exit I had the pleasure of taking out the guy who got uber-lucky to beat me HU in a £2.30 yesterday.
In HU STTs I had a total mare for a while, running just about as badly as is possible. To my relief I pulled it back somewhat towards the end to reduce losses with three wins in a row at £2.10.
April Poker Points 36
Today’s results;
7778143HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 17:17NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97778473HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 17:08NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97778491HNLT,HU0.05GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 17:02NL Hold'em £0.5 + £0.052/2-£0.557778440HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 16:57NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97778361HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 16:49NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17778393HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 16:42NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17778266HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 16:39NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17778072HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 15:09NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97778034HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 15:00NL Hold'em £2 + £0.12/2-£2.17778043HNLT,HU0.05GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 14:53NL Hold'em £1 + £0.052/2-£1.057778001HNLT,HU0.05GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 14:49NL Hold'em £1 + £0.052/2-£1.057777618HNLHU0.1GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 12:22NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97775572HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 12:15NL Hold'em £2 + £0.33/16£3.537775712HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 10:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.336/63-£3.37775423HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker02/04/2013 09:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.311/66-£0.78
Fun hand from a £2.30 Bounty Hunter today. The turn card from hell is followed by the river card from heaven. I go for maximum value knowing I get my opponents stack if he’s holding an ace.
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalancemoonland09 Small blind 75.00 75.00 3952.50 R Big blind 150.00 225.00 2027.50 Your hole cards K J winnerwin Fold VK41 Fold GaryQQQ Raise 345.00 570.00 2575.00 moonland09 Fold RCall 195.00 765.00 1832.50 Flop K J 10 R Check GaryQQQ Bet 545.00 1310.00 2030.00 R Call 545.00 1855.00 1287.50 Turn Q R Check GaryQQQ Check River J RBet 150.00 2005.00 1137.50 GaryQQQ All-in 2030.00 4035.00 0.00 RAll-in 1137.50 5172.50 0.00 GaryQQQ Unmatched bet 742.50 4430.00 742.50 R Show 8 A GaryQQQ Show K J GaryQQQ Win Full House, Jacks and Kings 4430.00 5172.50
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/9774/graphday90.jpg
Agreed - They are my favourite tourneys but unfortunately can only play at the weekends unless i get the odd day off at work. Did manage to FT 1 on saturday and 1 on sunday though (brag post lol)
Edit; Just remembered I can't enter the £3.30s this Sunday, I need to drive to the New Forest to collect one of my daughters from a holiday.
Be good
Paul
Closing Balance £120.77
Up £9.08 today
The two morning £3.30 Bounty Hunters were great fun today with a good mix of decent players and loose cannons in the fields. After a flying start in the 9-45 a harsh AA<99 aipf beat took the wind out of my sails for a while. At one point I was down to only 11BB though I fought back to an above average stack with the sharp end looming only to then exit in a standard flip, my AKdd failing to improve against pocket QQ aipf for a huge pot worth the chiplead.
Pocket AA behaved itself much better when aipf in the 10-45; it held over both AJ and QQ to give me a treble-up and two head-prizes in only the third hand of the game. It was the best of possible starts, though I never really got to make the most of my huge stack. After an hour spent picking up little and missing flops I was back in the middle of the pack.
As the bubble approached I was one of the shorties. I maintained fold equity and made it into the money courtesy of some well-timed (and uncalled) shoves. A blind v blind K2s>QJs aipf race doubled me up and took me to the final table, though I was still short and looking to double again at the first opportunity. It wasn’t to be, after a few orbits of to-and-fro I open jammed KQo on the button with 10BB and ran into AQs on the SB to finish sixth, a cooler given stack sizes. I’m very pleased to have made a final table so soon after my return to the £3.30s, I’ll be entering them again whenever my work hours (and bankroll) allow.
Apart from that I played just one HU STT which I won.
April Poker Points 43
Today’s results;
7782315HNLT,HU0.1GBPSkyPoker03/04/2013 15:42NL Hold'em £2 + £0.11/2£1.97779600HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker03/04/2013 10:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.36/69£8.227779286HNLB0.3GBPSkyPoker03/04/2013 09:45NL Hold'em £3 + £0.322/74-£1.04
The Poker Gods giveth, and Poker Gods taketh away. Mixed fortunes for pocket AA in the Bounty Hunters this morning;
Nooooo!!!!!
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalanceSUPERSNEDD Small blind 30.00 30.00 3595.00 scarfi02 Big blind 60.00 90.00 3845.00 Your hole cards A A F1N63RS Fold GaryQQQ Raise 120.00 210.00 4937.50 macrae06 Fold t All-in 2070.00 2280.00 0.00 SUPERSNEDD Fold scarfi02 Fold GaryQQQ Call 1950.00 4230.00 2987.50 GaryQQQ Show A A t Show 9 9 Flop 7 9 5 Turn 3 River J t Win Three 9s 4230.00 4230.00
Yessssss!!!!!
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalanceALLMELS22 Small blind 10.00 10.00 1970.00 r Big blind 20.00 30.00 1960.00 Your hole cards A A F1N63RS Raise 60.00 90.00 1940.00 s Call 60.00 150.00 1850.00 fireman54 Call 60.00 210.00 2050.00 GaryQQQ Raise 450.00 660.00 1570.00 ALLMELS22 Fold r All-in 1960.00 2620.00 0.00 F1N63RS Fold s All-in 1850.00 4470.00 0.00 fireman54 Fold GaryQQQ Call 1530.00 6000.00 40.00 r Show Q Q s Show J A GaryQQQ Show A A Flop 5 9 2 Turn 6 River 4 GaryQQQ Win Pair of Aces 6000.00 6040.00
Closing Balance £176.36
Up £55.59 today
My only game today was the £3.30 Bounty Hunter at 10-45AM. There were 90 entrants and it went pretty well for me. I’m typing-up this diary entry after spending an hour reviewing the hand history.
At my starting table there were some crazy bingo maniacs. After dropping quickly to 1400 chips in early skirmishes I spun it up to 6900 in the space of just two level 2 hands. A full treble-up with pocket AA (one of my callers got his 65BB stack in aipf with J3s) was immediately followed by another aipf win when my pocket JJ won a race to bust AQ with plenty of folded overlay also in the pot.
At a more sensible second table I negotiated my way to the bubble without needing to play any more all-in pots, solid TAG poker was enough to get me there while sitting comfortably at slightly above average. My second head-prize came when I took out the bubble boy. I min-raised ATs from UTG knowing I’d snap-call his 5BB shove if it came. It did and I won my second flip of the tournament to outdraw his pocket 99.
As usual with stacks growing shallow the action intensified quickly once we were in the money. My third head came four hands later when I busted a short-stack when his AK didn't improve against my 88. At this point I’d won three flips from three, perhaps a sign it was going to be my day.
Things went downhill for a while. Then on the final table bubble a bluff back-fired, when my opponent check/shoved into my bottom pair on the river I had to fold nearly 40% of my stack away. That left me 7/7 with 9.5BB and my chances looked very slim.
When we broke to final table I was ready to double or bust ASAP, however just by folding a few times I laddered three spots; first I mucked my T5o on the BB facing two all-ins and watched a player bust in a race. Two hands later a massive three-way aipf pot knocked another two out, the chipleader’s AJ flopped a boat to crack pocket KK and pocket 44. At that point I considered myself very lucky just to have made the final three, the chipleader looked invincible.
When three-handed play began I had only 8K chips against 21K and 149K, blinds were 800/1600. However from there it went like a dream. In the first hand I got a lucky double thanks to a suck-out. My K5o was an easy shove from the button (there was no SB due to the eliminations in the hand before). I somehow managed to bink a five from heaven on the river to double off the chipleader’s KQo. After winning four of the next five pots with preflop aggression I busted the third place finisher. When he pushed 6BB from the SB I considered my A2o to be ahead of his shove range (which should have been any two cards, or very close to it), I was correct and his 97o didn’t improve.
Going into HU stacks were my 27K against 153K. The battle would last 28 hands. After chipping up with more preflop aggression my image earned me a big double in the fifth hand; my pocket QQ getting paid by 97 on a Q75r flop. After some back-and-forth I doubled again and took a 4/1 lead when I 3-bet shoved AK over a 3x open. If called I expected to be racing against a big pair, but my read was wrong this time, my opponent decided to try and finish it with QJo and didn’t hit.
Just when it was looking very good for me the initiative swung the other way again. First my opponent's open-shove when down to 10BB made my call easy with A9o, his pocket KK held up. Two hands later he was back in front when he defended his BB with 74o and flopped quads to crack my AK.
The hand that more or less sealed my victory is posted below. Flopping top two pairs against top pair was exactly what I needed with such an aggressive dynamic. I folded the next hand preflop, not wanting to give away an unnecessary double-up with my 24o. Then my pocket 22 was a snap- call on the big blind. I won my fifth and final flip of the tournament against T5o to claim an unlikely victory.
I’m thrilled by this win. It boosts my bankroll by a massive 45% and marks a huge step in my challenge. I feel I played good tournament poker for the most part and used my stack very well, though I have to acknowledge the poker gods were very kind to me too. It’s not very often you win 5/5 flips and also get there when all-in with only 27% equity. As far as I can remember no suck-outs went the other way. In the future when variance is favouring others I’ll come back and re-read this post to remind myself that these things work both ways.
After giving it some thought I’ve decided to revise my bankroll rule with immediate effect. From now on I’ll only enter MTTs when I hold 40 buy-ins in my account. The new requirement will be 50 buy-ins for STTs. This is the same rule that worked so well for me last year during the £51 to £1,051 challenge, I feel it offers much better protection against downswings than a 30-buy-in policy. Hence I won’t be stepping up to £5.75 Bounty Hunters until I see an account balance of £230+.
April Poker Points 46
Today’s result;
GaryQQQ 180000 1 £38.48 + £20.41 Head Prizes 6
Reminder to self; next time you see an opponent win a tournament from a seemingly hopeless position after a miracle river please remember that you've done it too.
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalance* Big blind 1600.00 1600.00 148933.00 Your hole cards K 5 * Fold GaryQQQ All-in 8297.00 9897.00 0.00 * Call 6697.00 16594.00 142236.00 * Show K Q GaryQQQ Show K 5 Flop 6 K 10 Turn 8 River 5 GaryQQQ Win Two Pairs, Kings and 5s 16594.00 16594.00
This is how I ran today. My flopped two pairs win the tournament deciding pot;
PlayerActionCardsAmountPotBalanceGaryQQQ Small blind 1000.00 1000.00 85664.00 * Big blind 2000.00 3000.00 91336.00 Your hole cards Q 7 GaryQQQ Raise 3000.00 6000.00 82664.00 * Call 2000.00 8000.00 89336.00 Flop Q 7 2 * Bet 4000.00 12000.00 85336.00 GaryQQQ Raise 14000.00 26000.00 68664.00 * All-in 85336.00 111336.00 0.00 GaryQQQ All-in 68664.00 180000.00 0.00 * Unmatched bet 6672.00 173328.00 6672.00 GaryQQQ Show Q 7 * Show Q 6 Turn 6 River 2 GaryQQQ Win Two Pairs, Queens and 7s 173328.00 173328.00