£1050 to £2050 challenge/// Diary of a HUSNG Hyper grinder// Current Balance: £1230.2

Hotwheals

In Response to Re: HUSNG diary an insight into turbo/hyper grinding:

Nice work hotwheals, i recognize the name think we may have met in the past probably when i used to play the standard 5s every so often. Sounds like you have made some very decent profit over that 430 game period, like over £200 right? I have been playing alot of hypers lately but the variance is slowly driving me crazy, i wish there was a specific hyper exclusion button so i could just get on with only playing turbos, i plan to stick to turbos just need to really stop myself steaming onto hypers... Do you 1 table the standard 5s then? and do you play the same guys very often?  also do you only play the standard 5s or any other structure?
Posted by benc

Yes its over £200 now about £240 something like that. I only 1 table as playing more really hurts my game as i lose focus. I only play the standard 5s as my opinion and this is just my opinion dosnt mean its right but i feel the turbos and hypers are a bit crazy where as the standard games maybe slower but i feel i learn a lot more about my game. Its quite a mix of players to be honest normally ranging from average to poor. I also play more in the middle of the night as the standard is normally really poor where as in the afternoons you can get a bit of resistance.

benc

Yeah the turbos and hypers are crazy you are right, i used to only play the standard structure and felt way out of my depth when i played the odd turbo i just thought they were unbeatable and for aggrodonks who cant actually play poker, probably why i ended up playing them permenantly lol it just takes alot of volume to see your skill edge pay off in your results. Good luck in maintaining your form  let me know how you have got on when you get to a 1000.

benc

I went on megatilt earlier- long story short in hypers i got it in a number of times absolutely dominating and i think about 7-8 times the river decided it was not too be, soooo as all great degens do i decided it would be a good idea to go and sit at a 6max 20nl table with 200bbs and teach the poker world a lesson in cash (even though i'm awful at cash, even more awful with 200b and i secretly knew i would get owned).

So very early on it comes round to my big blind and i hold the monster that is 97o, folds round to sb he raises to 60p, i instantly decide i'm not gonna get pushed around so hit back with a raise to about £1.80 he calls. flop all spades nothing for me so when he leads out i think "right i'm a great player, im definetly not on tilt lets raise it up with my 79o" he instacalls, then leads out small on the turn to a non spade overcard to the board. "ok thats definetly a card he wont like, plus i'm not losing this hand better raise it up again, plus i could shove the river as thats always a great move in cash and people never call" he instacalls, leads out the river small, "SHOVE SHOVE SHOVE SHOVE SHOVE, he will never call i thought, thankfully one part of my brain said, in the words of admiral akbar"it's a trap!" and i folded having steamed off about £14, ahh well may as well load up and win it back... thankfully the poker gods decided to shine down on me, probably as a reward for finding the fold button for around half an hour prior to this hand.. p.s. i had already told myself if he had the 2 i was throwing my laptop out the window.

ACEGOONER	Small blind		£0.10	£0.10	£41.00
benc	Big blind		£0.20	£0.30	£40.74
	Your hole cards	K K
x	Raise		£0.60	£0.90	£98.97
darkmind	Fold
spartacu05	Fold
kshatriya	Fold
ACEGOONER	Call		£0.50	£1.40	£40.50
benc	Raise		£2.60	£4.00	£38.14
x	Call		£2.20	£6.20	£96.77
ACEGOONER	Call		£2.20	£8.40	£38.30
Flop
		2 2 4
ACEGOONER	Check
benc	Bet		£5.80	£14.20	£32.34
x	Call		£5.80	£20.00	£90.97
ACEGOONER	Fold
Turn
		2
benc	Bet		£10.00	£30.00	£22.34
x	Call		£10.00	£40.00	£80.97
River
		10
benc	All-in		£22.34	£62.34	£0.00
x	Call		£22.34	£84.68	£58.63
benc	Show	K K
x	Show	9 9
benc	Win	Full House, 2s and Kings	£82.88		£82.88

Hotwheals

In Response to Re: HUSNG diary an insight into turbo/hyper grinding:

Yeah the turbos and hypers are crazy you are right, i used to only play the standard structure and felt way out of my depth when i played the odd turbo i just thought they were unbeatable and for aggrodonks who cant actually play poker, probably why i ended up playing them permenantly lol it just takes alot of volume to see your skill edge pay off in your results. Good luck in maintaining your form  let me know how you have got on when you get to a 1000.
Posted by benc

Yes will keep you informed mate once i get to 500 i will show u a breakdown of how it went by each 100 and u will see its not been all plain sailing. I guess your uni work on psychology is helping out in poker decisions. Im finding that the same as i have a diploma in maths and a degree in Sports Management, which i feel helps me in the the thought process of decisions.

Hotwheals

As promised then my breakdown after 500 games

65/35  = +£125

61/39 = +£85

54/46 = +£15

54/46 = +£15

58/42 = +£55

so to summerise i am 292/208 at and average of 58.4 %, and considering u need to be 53% or above to be in profit i feel im doing ok, however i have 500 games to go and if i keep this level up do you feel i should stay at this level for another 1000 games or move up to the £10.50 level. Any guidence from anyone would help a lot. Thanks.

benc

Nice work hotwheals, really good profit for 500 games. I wudn't like to say whether you should stay at that level or not as 1) i havnt played you recently so dont have a personal opinion on your game and 2) i think it's the kind of decision you should make yourself, only you will know if you feel comfortable and confident enough to move up, maybe play the odd £10 game see how you feel then after getting through another 500 make the decision based on how you felt in them games, looks as though your crushing the 5s though so i'm guessing you could hold your own at the 10s, no rush though especially as your winrate is good for the 5s can just continue to build your roll.

Back to the diary, sorry for the lack of updates, last sunday night i decided to exclude myself for 4 days, ended late last night. I was playing way to much, becoming too obsessed with seeing my roll grow and grow and forgetting that it is a hobby i should be enjoying and it got to the point i felt like i was just playing for the sake of it and forgetting the value of money, also got to the point where i was just giving away money on insane tilt, think i had a -80-90 day overall despite winning that cash pot above, just got into the mindset that the world was against me when i lost a few hands in a row. So i feel refreshed now having gone cold turkey for a few days and am going to try only play when i really feel im enjoying and not play just for the sake of it. Planning on going benicassim festival in the summer with some friends so want to make enough to cover that between now and july so that can be my motivation not to chuck money away. At the moment my bankroll is £949.49 and i have £13.50 in c4p. I will update at the end of the day probably play HU at points throughout the day, then maybe some cash and tourny this evening.

benc

Anyone fancy a £5.50 6man normal structure sng, noone is signing up to play search me and join if you fancy it.

benc

Finished for the day would normally hang around on a friday night and hope to run good against some of the drunkards but i'm tired so probably wudn't be playing my A game. Today went really well, for some reason whenever i have a break i always come back and seem to do well, not sure if it is a psychological thing maybe related to being refreshed mentally, hard to believe it's just coincidence but i guess poker is a strange game. so i played a mixture of turbos and mix in a couple of standard structure 5.25s earlier on in the day then had a break for a while came back played the sit n go i said about above with a couple of friends and some randoms, managed to take that down, would only play them when some friends are on and i can chat as find them a little boring these days. Then later on i played the mini bh busted very early taking a stupid gamble, and then played some more HU and eventually ended up playing a few standard structure 10.50s which was good went on a 5 in a row streak before losing the last one before i stopped for the evening which is always nice. Also sat at a 10-20 mastercash 6max table for half hour and made £12, again was only doing that as a mate was on and i enjoy being able to have some chat and play for a bit. Forgot to mention earliers update was after i had played a few games, my bankroll was around 927 when my exclusion ended and is now above 1k so i'm really happy. Going to try and play a few more 10.50 standard HU as i enjoy the low variance factor and when im playing patiently can easily grind down the average player in them, i think the biggest positive was being able to avoid the hypers and supersonics today really dont want to be touching them anymore.

so overall including the 3 games from 2am i ended the day up +£93.61 - and i think i regained my little silver star on scope although only scraping in but still nice to have it there always a nice confidence booster.

Current Bankroll: £1021,40              C4P: £15.17

benc

Graph for the day

benc

Right so my thinking in this hand is alot of people like to flat the flop with trips in this spot so if i raise i make my hand look more like a pair of 5s+ not sure if i was overthinking the situation, but if any cash players care to share an opinion... , should i be leading out on the flop or is the checkraise ok, am i better of check flatting the flop, did i squeeze enough value out of the hand or not enough, what is my bet sizing like, bigger on the turn so i can get a bigger bet on the river?

benc	Small blind		£0.10	£0.10	£43.92
haidyboy	Big blind		£0.20	£0.30	£64.42
	Your hole cards	J 7
x	Raise		£0.60	£0.90	£132.00
toffee8305	Fold
duonross	Call		£0.60	£1.50	£31.74
benc	Call		£0.50	£2.00	£43.42
x	Fold
Flop
		2 7 7
benc	Check
x	Bet		£1.00	£3.00	£131.00
duonross	Fold
benc	Raise		£2.50	£5.50	£40.92
x	Call		£1.50	£7.00	£129.50
Turn
		10
benc	Bet		£3.80	£10.80	£37.12
x	Call		£3.80	£14.60	£125.70
River
		9
benc	Bet		£7.75	£22.35	£29.37
x	Call		£7.75	£30.10	£117.95
benc	Show	J 7
x	Muck	7 4
benc	Win	Three 7s	£28.59		£57.96

benc

Well as always i ended up doing completly the opposite of what i said i would, am absolutely knackered. After sitting around i cudnt resist playing one more 10.50 standard structure game, when i won i decided i would keep playing untill i lost one. Ended up winning 6 in a row for a nice extra £57 profit for the evening, had sat at a table wanting to prolong my streak but noone signed up in like 10 minutes so decided to leave it at that, probably best could of ended up being a long evening/morning.

Bankroll: £1078.40    C4P:£15.47

unknown_username

Goin really well atm m8.Keep it goin
Paul

benc

Thanks Paul, going to treat myself  to some cash this afternoon, two tabling 20nl 6max mastercash for a bit so anyone looking for some easy money head over lol hopefully it wont be disastrous.

benc

A general summary for the day, the mastercash session didnt last long made a tiny profit on both tables but got bored very quickly. Played hubhshuffle took one head against a good player after winning a flip, then typically the next player i come up against who potted every single flop stacks of with middle pair against top pair and turns trips lol played my brother a couple of times in 55p HU we both won one each then i played the small stakes £2.30 bh as he was playing it and after an early double up got impatient ended up stacking off with 103o pre was already preparing apologies in chatbox if i donked. Heads up i was down a decent amount at one point maybe like 40 but went on a good run when i decided 4 tabling HU turbos would be a bit of fun for a little while. I'm well aware that playing more than 1-2 tables is sacrificing alot of my edge against competent players, but the av player at that level can be beaten by pure abc and instincts so i'm not too worried about playing alot of tables at once and i like to test myself sometimes jsut to see if i can do it. I have been debating a withdrawal but have decided i will just leave it be and play the odd standard structure games at 15 and 21 when i feel i'm playing well, just so i can test myself against better players and see if i can hold my own, plus whats the point of having built a roll if i'm not going to play some bigger games every so often. Most importantly at no point today did i feel like i wasn't enjoying myself. Total for the day was +£5.54.

Current Bankroll: £1083,94              C4P: £17.83

Moonlit81

Hi Benc,
Been following this diary with great interest as im thinking of trying my hand at HU Turbo's myself. Just got a few questions I would like to ask and hopefully you or anyone else can point me in the right direction.

1,  Looking to start at the £1.10 Turbo's, what kind of BRM should I be looking at for this level? would 50 BI be enough?

2, What is the standard of play like at the low limits and do the games fill up quite quickly?

3, What would be a good ROI at theese leves?

4, Is there any videos or websites you can recommend for study? Read somewhere that you have loads of PDF's would you be willing to share any of this info.

Sorry for the long list!! any advice or pointers would be gratefully recieved.

Moon

benc

Hi moon,

1) Yes 50bi is a good starting point i would think as it is very easy to lose 5-10bi quickly without doing much wrong, when i didn't know alot about brm i was playing with 10bi and withdrawing whenever i made 3bi and i realise now that i would of gone bust so many times if i carried on that way.

2) I'm not entirely sure what the standard of play is like lower down, earlier in the diary i played some £1 games and flew through them, then in the £2 games i got stuck but that was a very small sample and i was lacking in confidence at that time, but i would say at the £1 level having a solid default hand range pre, being aware of the importance of position and knowing how wide you should be shoving pre in the latter stages with higher blinds will serve you well.

3) I asked this at the beggining of the diary and Lambert said 6-8% would be very good, however if you are just starting out and needing to learn i wudn't worry too much atm just having a positive roi will be great whilst you get some experience of playing.

4) I do have some pdfs i would happily share, i think i would of have to send them to your email address in a zip folder ( if you pm me we can sort that out) - also im always more than willing to discuss some more in-depth ways of approaching the game at the lower stakes via pm.

Hope that helps.

Moonlit81

In Response to Re: HUSNG diary an insight into turbo/hyper grinding:

Hi moon, 1) Yes 50bi is a good starting point i would think as it is very easy to lose 5-10bi quickly without doing much wrong, when i didn't know alot about brm i was playing with 10bi and withdrawing whenever i made 3bi and i realise now that i would of gone bust so many times if i carried on that way. 2) I'm not entirely sure what the standard of play is like lower down, earlier in the diary i played some £1 games and flew through them, then in the £2 games i got stuck but that was a very small sample and i was lacking in confidence at that time, but i would say at the £1 level having a solid default hand range pre, being aware of the importance of position and knowing how wide you should be shoving pre in the latter stages with higher blinds will serve you well. 3) I asked this at the beggining of the diary and Lambert said 6-8% would be very good, however if you are just starting out and needing to learn i wudn't worry too much atm just having a positive roi will be great whilst you get some experience of playing. 4) I do have some pdfs i would happily share, i think i would of have to send them to your email address in a zip folder ( if you pm me we can sort that out) - also im always more than willing to discuss some more in-depth ways of approaching the game at the lower stakes via pm. Hope that helps.
Posted by benc

Cheers mate much obliged for the response. Have sent you a PM

benc

Quick update, played the 5k freeroll and got on tv which was a novelty for me as i dont get to watch the show much. soon busted that when i lost a couple of flips though, then i busted the mini primo with a flush against a full house. Played the £11 bounty hunter had a good stack and won a few bounties but ended up going out with top pair and a flush draw on the turn to a slowplayed AA, still made £9 so not all bad, just felt i was on for a good run in that. Also played mastercash for an hour and made pennies was trying to play alot of hands and get some action going but didnt really have many pots of note to talk about. Hu was an ok day won a 15.75 earlier in a standard game stupidly signed up without realising it was pot limit(didnt even realise there were pot limit hu tables) so that was a strange experience which i didnt particularly enjoy but still i won it and it wasn't difficult at all to adjust.

total for the day: +£30.47

Current Bankroll: £1114.41              C4P: £19.40

benc

I wasn't planning on updating untill the end of the week as obviously there is not much to talk about when im just playing the odd few hu games a day, however i played the mini tonight and final tabled albeit only for 1 hand lol, shoved 8s into a utg open and they called with q10o won my fair share of flips so cant complain. I won £78.55, and i think it shows how far i have come in a few months as before i would of been so happy and pumped with adrenalin for the evening at final tabling and cashing for plus +£50 but i was kind of dissapointed in all honesty, i have changed my mindset in playing tournys over the last few months, i really do gear myself up to go for the win so anything other than that is always going to be a little dissapointing. Still in the few mtts i've played during this diary ive had some nice runs and some decent money to boost my bankroll, i think i have final tabled 4-5 out of quite a small sample so i'm glad i seem to be doing things right in mtts. I realised earlier it has been a month now of this diary, it feels like much longer have gone from being ultra confident about my game, to questioning whether i'm even good enough to beat the game and back again with everything in between. I hope these insights in such a short space of time highlight the importance of long term thinking in poker and understanding that to do well your going to encounter just as many lows as you will highs.

So with some small winnings from a few heads up games and the cash in the mini my total for since i last updated is +£95.50

Current Bankroll: £1209.91              C4P: £25.42

benc

Back to reality just lost £16.80 sitting a 10nl hu table, not quite sure how kept reloading to max getting rivered, reloading to max getting rivered was still quite fun though, was tempted to climb up and play higher hu cash but that would be stupid so thought id come write on here rather than steam off some more money lol decided to just chill out for bit and play the freeroll later and maybe something fun whilst im watching the manu game. Also lost a 15.75 earlier after grinding a good reg who used to own me down to like 300 but cudnt win my 60/40s to finish him off,  got some good notes though and it's a boost in confidence to know i can mix it up with him these days.

So even though i have barely played, total for today so far: -£33.85

I will update with bankroll and c4p at end of the evening

benc

Hand History #621884745 (16:46 13/02/2013)  not looking for advice as i check to always call, just wondering what people think villain shows up with..

Player	Action	Cards	Amount	Pot	Balance
x	Small blind		£0.05	£0.05	£6.61
benc	Big blind		£0.10	£0.15	£10.86
	Your hole cards	5 K
x	Raise		£0.15	£0.30	£6.46
benc	Call		£0.10	£0.40	£10.76
Flop
		7 K 5
benc	Check
x	Bet		£0.20	£0.60	£6.26
benc	Raise		£0.50	£1.10	£10.26
x	Call		£0.30	£1.40	£5.96
Turn
		2
benc	Bet		£1.00	£2.40	£9.26
x	Call		£1.00	£3.40	£4.96
River
		6
benc	Check
x	Bet		£3.40	£6.80	£1.56

benc

Things didn't improve much after i posted earlier, freeroll i got around 20th although i sucked out about 4 times to even get that far, then i lost 3 15.75s in a row to a player who i felt i had a very large edge over and having felt unlucky at losing 2 of the 3 matches i played him again in a standard structure when i saw him pop up quickly beat him and then as always seems to be the case when you win a little back got refused a rematch. i won and lost a 10.50 as well so was down probably 65-70 at that point. Decided to sit at a 20nl HU table for a little while and ended up +£32 when i left the table, had some incredibly soft opponents which basically covered my losses from the 15.75 games, was quite fun as well, suppose poker always is when your winning.

total for the day: £-26.92

Current Bankroll: £1182.99              C4P: £27.11

sighcall

wow you have a msssive roll to say you play NL10 and freerolls lol!

mabye see u around at the heads up tables?

benc

lol i dont usually play nl10 or any cash regularly really only when i fancy something different, and the freeroll was because it was the community one. Although i do play small in relation to my roll, to be honest i'm not used to having such a big roll as i constantly withdrew once i got to a certain amount from september to january and since i started this diary it has gone up quicker than i anticipated. I watched you when you were playing my friend duonross earlier didn't expect to see so much agression, i don't normally play hu cash but i might be sitting at the 20nl tables every so often so feel free to join me.

benc

Quick message as its valentines day so no poker for me, i have been thinking about what i can do to get me motivated to get some proper grinding in, at the moment with my roll i'm at a bit of a lull where i come on between uni work and stuff and just donk around doing whatever takes my fancy. I might try and get 1000 games in at 5.25 turbos over next couple of months and post updates every 100 games or something see what kind of roi i can achieve, i feel most comfortable at 5.25s and having considered withdrawing to pay rent and other things i know regardless of a big withdrawals i would still be rolled for the 5s. If anyone has any suggestions of anything interesting i could try my hand at feel free to post, i'm unsure at the moment, but i think i need something to get me focused and motivated to grind a bit more, will continue to consider over next few days and go from there.

benc

Right having had a little think i've decided to get 1000games in at 5.25 hopefully wont take too long maybe month and a half. The diary will be focused specifically on that for the moment so i will post after every 50-100 games and give a short summary. I will probably still play the odd mtt and a bit of cash but will keep that seperate from the 5.25 record, so from today in the diary i will only noting down my games played and profit, i have scope so can add some graphs in and stuff. At the start of the diary i had lofty ambitions of a 10% roi but this time i will not be setting any targets.

I only have to go to uni today for an hour to do some programming so hoping to get a few hours in throughout course of the day/evening. I will update this evening just for an initial first update but from then i will post every 50-100 games, i hope this will provide some more interesting reading and hopefully i can prove to myself that i can actually complete a challenge without sulking/getting bored and doing something else when things go a little wrong.

RyanC7

How you have the motivation to grind 5.25 games with a 1k roll is beyond me. I wish I could do it. I dont think theres much value in them games anyway - rake, varience etc. Just go and play the main and big tournaments evernight. If your good theres no way you'll go on a 1k downswing the games are so easy. Or just play cash. Your obviously quite good but I dont think your utilizing time very well - you could make more profit on better games.

Hotwheals

In Response to Re: HUSNG diary -1000 games at 5.25 turbos.:

How you have the motivation to grind 5.25 games with a 1k roll is beyond me. I wish I could do it. I dont think theres much value in them games anyway - rake, varience etc. Just go and play the main and big tournaments evernight. If your good theres no way you'll go on a 1k downswing the games are so easy. Or just play cash. Your obviously quite good but I dont think your utilizing time very well - you could make more profit on better games.
Posted by RyanC7

I disagree with this as i feel every player is different. Just because he is good at heads up which he is does not mean he would be the same type of player at a different discipline. As for the bankroll i think he is quite sensible as i do something similar as you will see from my diary which i am starting today. I feel by grinding at that level with his roll he isn't playing with scared money and is able to relax and play his game knowing if he was to have a downswing it wouldn't hurt him financially, where as if he was playing another discipline he could make more errors and not feel confident in his game, so i guess its each to there own really.

benc

Hey Ryan i understand where your coming from, i said something similar to sighcall when he mentioned my roll- basically i am not used to having such a roll having always been one to withdraw alot. I only really started to grind alot and make some decent profit since like october so i still feel a bit of a novice in terms of experience and knowledge of the game.  At the moment i want to continue to build my roll in a game i'm comfortable in and can enjoy  as a hobby without any pressure/worries about a large downswing, as i haver alot of uni work which takes priority. I mentioned i will still continue to play the odd bit of cash and mtt when i fancy a change but only on the odd occasion as i know my game needs some work in 6max. I would love to buy in to the big tournaments, but i find it difficult even with my roll to justify buying into them when i think of how that money could be spent on like a couple of weeks shopping or something, which i'm well aware should be completly seperate from my roll but as a student who lived on a pretty tight budget for my first two years its pretty hard to seperate myself from reality with regards to playing higher up, i hope to eventually move up but i have plenty of time on my side luckily lol.

Lambert180

To be fair, I think what you're doing is fine. Ok so you got 200BIs but you could easily go on a 20BI downswing no problem, and ok that won't put a huge dent in your roll but that's exactly what you want. You want to be able to take a downswing on the chin and say 'ok I'll play through it' and not be too badly affected mentally because a downswing will come no matter how good you are.

Sure losing £105 (20BIs) is gonna suck at any stage but it sucks ALOT more when you're roll is £500. Plus I don't think you've ever put serious volume in @ £5s have you? Personally I don't think the standard is any different from 3s but that doesn't mean you will mentally react the same to lose 5 in a row @ £5s the same as you would losing 5 in a row @ £3s.

Tbh it sounds like you're mentally on top of things (although it's alot easier when things are going well) so the above might not be an issue but imo caution and winning less than possible is better than losing more than necessary.

Playing 1000 games aint gonna take you that long so it's not like you're massively stunting your growth. If you get 500 games in and feel comfortable then you can always play 1 x £5 and 1x £10 assuming that you usually play 2 tables.