So, June is now gone, and after all this time I think I can finally lay claim to a set of monthly results which approach a certain level of professionalism. I disciplined myself enough, and managed my time well enough, that I played for just over 120 hours in the month. I stuck to just one game all month, the 2/180s, rather than making capricious changes of format after small downswings like I have done in the past, and I hope this is testament to my new dedication to doing this properly, testament to my growing understanding of the long term and the nature of variance in poker, and testament to my growing ability to be objective about how my game is going, without getting too high on a day where I run good or too low on a day where I run bad.
I made just over $1,200 profit from the games, with about $65 worth of FPP value and I also cleared another $50 Stellar, for a total profit of about $1,340 on the month. However, I didn't manage to maintain my Gold status, although I did expect that, so my FPP earnings will take a small hit this month as I drop down to Silver, but it's not that big a deal really. I won't make Gold this month either, so that will have to be a goal for August.
So, the reason it's taken a while to post up for last month's results is because I have been sitting on a beach in Italy. It was a pretty good holiday, the only minor complaint being a total absence of fresh fruit juice. Now it's back to reality, and on with the business of grinding for this month.
Given the time which has already passed, and other plans for the month, I'm probably only going to have about 12 days play this month, so if I can average just over 120 games per day of play that should be around 1,500 tournaments, and should give me another $1,100 or so profit if I can maintain my current ROI.
Here's how it all looks so far for 2/180s
Played--------1804
ITM-------------257
FTs----------------122
Wins--------------16
Profit---- $1,305.56
ROI-------------33%
Target for July
1) 1,500 games
2) ? profit
3) Maybe mix in some scheduled MTTs if they start near the beginning of my sessions.
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Why did I waste all that time in DoNs?
Now I've found these 180 mans I can't believe I wasted all that time with actually playing those cursed DoNs. I still think they're fascinating to think about strategically, probably because I can get absolutely obsessed with detail and accuracy, and of course in DoNs there is usually a play which is demonstrably mathematically "correct", whereas in most other formats there are usually a number of different lines which could all be correct. That's a facet of deeper stacked poker which makes it simultaneously as interesting as DoNs, and yet less beautiful, less perfect: it can't actually be solved, only interpreted.
Anyway, I did play the DoNs, and I can't change the past, so there's no point regretting it. All I can do is to look forward and apply myself to this new challenge I've found in the 180 mans.
So, another day done, and starting to get the rewards. Made it through the $1k profit barrier in these today with my last game to finish; it was a 2nd worth $72, which took me to a cumulative profit of $1,020, not including FPP value. It only works out to a less than stellar $12.25 per hour at the moment. But I think that after nearly 1,200 games this month I'm starting to get the hang of these, starting to push better in the late mid-game and through the second last table to accumulate chips, and hopefully that will start to translate into making deep runs at FTs more often. I shipped another two today, with 2 more 2nds, and a 3rd, comprising a pretty good return for 119 games. Today's total profit came to about $240, which leaves me looking like this...
Played---------1194
ITM--------------168
FTs----------------82
Wins--------------13
Profit---- $1,020.36
ROI-------------38%
I also need to set myself some new challenges, so here goes.
1) Probably going to be harder than I thought a couple of weeks back, but retaining Gold this month would be nice. But it will be a hard slog to do this; it's about 150 games per day for the rest of the month, which is about 9 hours every day. If I miss out then so be it, I won't beat myself up about it.
2) Get on the 2/180 leaderboard. After just 3 weeks I already have about 1/3 of the total profit for 2010 of the player in 20th spot. Given that I'll miss about 12 days for my holiday to Italy, plus about another 12 days going all the cricket this summer, a few days in Denmark, plus the fact that they should probably win more money too, maybe I'll aim to overhaul them by end of August. I may review this goal by the end of the month.
3) Start cashing out money on a regular basis.
4) Get a big enough sample size of 2/180s to consider getting staked for the 12/180s. It's a real shame that the 7.70/180s hardly ever go off, they would have been a great stepping stone.
Anyway, I did play the DoNs, and I can't change the past, so there's no point regretting it. All I can do is to look forward and apply myself to this new challenge I've found in the 180 mans.
So, another day done, and starting to get the rewards. Made it through the $1k profit barrier in these today with my last game to finish; it was a 2nd worth $72, which took me to a cumulative profit of $1,020, not including FPP value. It only works out to a less than stellar $12.25 per hour at the moment. But I think that after nearly 1,200 games this month I'm starting to get the hang of these, starting to push better in the late mid-game and through the second last table to accumulate chips, and hopefully that will start to translate into making deep runs at FTs more often. I shipped another two today, with 2 more 2nds, and a 3rd, comprising a pretty good return for 119 games. Today's total profit came to about $240, which leaves me looking like this...
Played---------1194
ITM--------------168
FTs----------------82
Wins--------------13
Profit---- $1,020.36
ROI-------------38%
I also need to set myself some new challenges, so here goes.
1) Probably going to be harder than I thought a couple of weeks back, but retaining Gold this month would be nice. But it will be a hard slog to do this; it's about 150 games per day for the rest of the month, which is about 9 hours every day. If I miss out then so be it, I won't beat myself up about it.
2) Get on the 2/180 leaderboard. After just 3 weeks I already have about 1/3 of the total profit for 2010 of the player in 20th spot. Given that I'll miss about 12 days for my holiday to Italy, plus about another 12 days going all the cricket this summer, a few days in Denmark, plus the fact that they should probably win more money too, maybe I'll aim to overhaul them by end of August. I may review this goal by the end of the month.
3) Start cashing out money on a regular basis.
4) Get a big enough sample size of 2/180s to consider getting staked for the 12/180s. It's a real shame that the 7.70/180s hardly ever go off, they would have been a great stepping stone.
Thursday, 17 June 2010
The shipping forecast is good!
Just a quick brag post about today's effort. Played 58 games in 4 hours, shipped two, and also a 2nd and a 3rd amongst my other cashes, overall profit for the day about $242. Decided to quit on what for me is a huge winning day.
Played--------1075
ITM-------------151
FTs---------------73
Wins--------------11
Profit------ $781.40
ROI-------------33%
Played--------1075
ITM-------------151
FTs---------------73
Wins--------------11
Profit------ $781.40
ROI-------------33%
Monday, 14 June 2010
Putting in the hours
So, after Tuesday's effort I've really started to put in some decent grinding sessions, 6 hours Thursday, 9¾ hours Friday and a monster 12 hours today, with mixed results.
Thursday was really a bit of a downer, I just couldn't seem to get anything going at all. In 93 tourneys I only managed 8 cashes, and my best result was nothing better than a single, solitary 3rd. I think it was starting to affect my play a little, so that's why I just cut the session short and gave up on the day, finishing the day quite a bit down, with a loss of a little over $86.
Friday was marginally better for results, but far too many of my FTs I couldn't get anything going, and the day ended up being at least as frustrating as Thursday. I only got up a decent run at one of the final tables, and I pretty much steam-rollered everyone to ship it, but other than that, I only managed to ladder my way up to a 3rd in one other tourney as the monster chip leader took on and eliminated all comers. Pretty much all the rest were me getting through to the last 9 with basically no stack and never once finding a decent hand, nor getting a bit of luck with a showdown, so I had 11 mincashes and another 10 finishes from 4th to 9th. So, a grand total of 23 cashes in 151 games, and I scraped a profit of about $23 for the day.
Saturday was our first World Cup match, against the Yanks, and we made a complete pig's ear of that, playing abysmal football in a 1-1 draw. Thankfully the USA were even more mediocre than we were, otherwise we'd have lost. Still, went to Tim and Tina's and had a great BBQ and watched the game, so that was good fun.
And then today's session. Started around 2.45pm and finished around 2.45 am, I managed to get in 206 games, with 34 cashes.But hugely disappointing again, this time a massive 21 of those 34 were mincashes. But of the 13 where I made the final table, I went on to 5th or better in 11 of them, so that was nice, but I really wish I'd made a few more FTs today, it could have been a big score. So, one win, two 2nds, two 3rds, two 4ths and four 5ths was where most of today's prize money came from, though I was totally robbed in both the games where I finished runner-up, continually outplaying both opponents only for them to hit the most improbable cards to survive, before finally losing one too many in each game. But if I can do whatever I need to make sure I get this deep more often then I'm sure the results will take another leap forward and I'll get my fair share of wins. I'm sure there must be some huge basic error I'm making which is stopping me from going deeper more often. Overall profit for the day was $138.
Story so far...
Played---------1017
ITM--------------141
FTs---------------67
Wins---------------9
Profit------ $538.92
ROI-------------24%
I need about another 1900 VPP this month to maintain Gold, which is around another 1700 games, and I have about 17 days to do it, minus the days where I have other plans. Should be manageable.
Thursday was really a bit of a downer, I just couldn't seem to get anything going at all. In 93 tourneys I only managed 8 cashes, and my best result was nothing better than a single, solitary 3rd. I think it was starting to affect my play a little, so that's why I just cut the session short and gave up on the day, finishing the day quite a bit down, with a loss of a little over $86.
Friday was marginally better for results, but far too many of my FTs I couldn't get anything going, and the day ended up being at least as frustrating as Thursday. I only got up a decent run at one of the final tables, and I pretty much steam-rollered everyone to ship it, but other than that, I only managed to ladder my way up to a 3rd in one other tourney as the monster chip leader took on and eliminated all comers. Pretty much all the rest were me getting through to the last 9 with basically no stack and never once finding a decent hand, nor getting a bit of luck with a showdown, so I had 11 mincashes and another 10 finishes from 4th to 9th. So, a grand total of 23 cashes in 151 games, and I scraped a profit of about $23 for the day.
Saturday was our first World Cup match, against the Yanks, and we made a complete pig's ear of that, playing abysmal football in a 1-1 draw. Thankfully the USA were even more mediocre than we were, otherwise we'd have lost. Still, went to Tim and Tina's and had a great BBQ and watched the game, so that was good fun.
And then today's session. Started around 2.45pm and finished around 2.45 am, I managed to get in 206 games, with 34 cashes.But hugely disappointing again, this time a massive 21 of those 34 were mincashes. But of the 13 where I made the final table, I went on to 5th or better in 11 of them, so that was nice, but I really wish I'd made a few more FTs today, it could have been a big score. So, one win, two 2nds, two 3rds, two 4ths and four 5ths was where most of today's prize money came from, though I was totally robbed in both the games where I finished runner-up, continually outplaying both opponents only for them to hit the most improbable cards to survive, before finally losing one too many in each game. But if I can do whatever I need to make sure I get this deep more often then I'm sure the results will take another leap forward and I'll get my fair share of wins. I'm sure there must be some huge basic error I'm making which is stopping me from going deeper more often. Overall profit for the day was $138.
Story so far...
Played---------1017
ITM--------------141
FTs---------------67
Wins---------------9
Profit------ $538.92
ROI-------------24%
I need about another 1900 VPP this month to maintain Gold, which is around another 1700 games, and I have about 17 days to do it, minus the days where I have other plans. Should be manageable.
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
A proper day's work
Today, for the first time, I finally sat down and put in a full block of 8 hours of play. I've alluded to it before often enough, but particularly when I was playing DoNs I'd never really actually done it, or truly wanted to. But here in MTTs there is no game selection to worry about, I just load up and play what's in front of me. I realise now how much stress and added difficulty there was in DoNs, simply in trying to avoid the block registrations of other good players when half a dozen of them would all end up in the same game. It was stress that I didn't really need.
I nearly got to my "whole day" goal a couple of times in the last week, with a combined total of 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday, but otherwise the only times I had put in big hours on a single day was when I was at the deadline of a deposit bonus and trying to clear it before it expired. I now want to start doing this on a daily basis, as if it were any other normal job.
Today I played in 131 games, managing 17 cashes, 10 of which were FTs, one of which I converted into a win, and another I finished 2nd when my AA were cracked after getting it in all in preflop. But over all I finished the day up $113, saved by the last two games to finish, which were a 3rd and a 4th.
Which means that the story so far is as follows...
Played----------567
ITM---------------76
FTs---------------38
Wins---------------7
Profit------ $462.96
ROI-------------37%
So far this month I have 613 VPP, meaning I basically need to average 100 games per day between now and the end of the month to maintain my Gold status. That's going to be a tough challenge, but I'm going to try and do it. I also only need another 1100 VPP for my next $50 of Stellar reward.
I nearly got to my "whole day" goal a couple of times in the last week, with a combined total of 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday, but otherwise the only times I had put in big hours on a single day was when I was at the deadline of a deposit bonus and trying to clear it before it expired. I now want to start doing this on a daily basis, as if it were any other normal job.
Today I played in 131 games, managing 17 cashes, 10 of which were FTs, one of which I converted into a win, and another I finished 2nd when my AA were cracked after getting it in all in preflop. But over all I finished the day up $113, saved by the last two games to finish, which were a 3rd and a 4th.
Which means that the story so far is as follows...
Played----------567
ITM---------------76
FTs---------------38
Wins---------------7
Profit------ $462.96
ROI-------------37%
So far this month I have 613 VPP, meaning I basically need to average 100 games per day between now and the end of the month to maintain my Gold status. That's going to be a tough challenge, but I'm going to try and do it. I also only need another 1100 VPP for my next $50 of Stellar reward.
Monday, 7 June 2010
Rungood Sunday
Just gonna be a quick brag about running half decent today, 77 games for $148 profit, and a daily ROI of 87%, bringing up my overall ROI to 36%. Nice spread of results, with a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 9 mincashes. Again a little disappointed that I couldn't make a few deeper runs though, something I have to work on. Could quite happily play these for 8 hours per day; there's a lot less stress points in them because the money comes in bigger chunks but less often than when grinding DoNs, where every table is a sweat. A lot of MTTs you lose the stack early or through the mid game, and it's no big deal because you expect to bust out a load of them long before the bubble.
Once again though, I failed to come back for a second set... Either don't stop, or get back on the tables after a food break
Played----------436
ITM---------------59
FTs---------------28
Wins---------------6
Profit------ $349.40
ROI-------------36%
Once again though, I failed to come back for a second set... Either don't stop, or get back on the tables after a food break
Played----------436
ITM---------------59
FTs---------------28
Wins---------------6
Profit------ $349.40
ROI-------------36%
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Variance, MTT style
Well, I'm over 300 games into my 2/180 experiment, and early indications are a little inconclusive. I have a whole bunch of second last table finishes, but they don't even win double the buy-in. I've got 5 wins under my belt, but otherwise I'm not getting really deep into FTs often enough at the moment, only a couple of 3rds and three 4ths, and a whole bunch of 5th thru 9th. My ROI is only a rather disappointing 25%. I'm still feeling positive though, because I seem to remember that a fair number of those early departures were due to horrible suckouts when I had a big chip lead.
I take it as an encouraging sign that I'm getting lots of chips on a regular basis and hope that in the long term it will start to pay off — none of my wins have been sneaking up from behind, in all five cases I've been a big stack from a long way out. I hope that this will balance out as my sample size increases, and I can start to score a few more in the top four positions, but if I continue to fail to make deep runs in FTs then my ROI will struggle to improve and I'll need to do some serious leakbusting earlier than I expected. I don't know whether I'm being too aggro in pursuit of 1st, and maybe should blend in a hint of "laddering". Right now I'm just trying to get a big enough sample to be worth looking at, though obviously I'm trying to win money while I do that.
Today was pretty decent for results, but a little lighter on volume than I intended, two sessions totalling less than 7 hours. I did manage a 1st in each block, and a total profit for the day of just under $150, hauling back the losses of yesterday and the day before, both of them days where I failed to register a win.
I think I'm only just starting to get a feel for just how swongy MTTs are gonna be, and also get an understanding of how just a half dozen coinflips going the other way would make a huge difference to my results so far. And as I try this new format I am re-discovering exactly what is meant by meaningful sample size. I realise I'd forgotten a few weeks ago, before I even started the $10 DoNs and I had become fixated on results over tiny samples. Sometimes I find myself a little on edge when three or four tournaments which are starting to look promising all go up in flames in quick succession, and I'm really starting to appreciate the synch breaks at xx:55 to take a minute or two for some fresh air to calm down and breathe. Fortunately there's always another one going off in a few minutes, so I can quickly replace those I bust, and I have to remember this fact at all time. If I played live I would probably have the worst poker face ever, because live MTTs aren't so easily reloaded!
I think I have to start thinking a level lower in some spots against the donks you come across in these, like raising over tiny donk-bets when I whiff the flop. Far too often villain has top pair, and isn't laying it down; it's caused me grief on a few occasions now. Obvious flushes is another one. So often when they bet they have it and I'm paying off far too regularly, so that's another bad habit to try and drop.
Anyway, looking forward to another fun Sunday on the grind tomorrow, hopefully profits will skyrocket! Aiming for 120 tournaments, or alternatively, to run deep and cash high in so many that I only play a few. Let's see what tomorrow's update brings..........
I take it as an encouraging sign that I'm getting lots of chips on a regular basis and hope that in the long term it will start to pay off — none of my wins have been sneaking up from behind, in all five cases I've been a big stack from a long way out. I hope that this will balance out as my sample size increases, and I can start to score a few more in the top four positions, but if I continue to fail to make deep runs in FTs then my ROI will struggle to improve and I'll need to do some serious leakbusting earlier than I expected. I don't know whether I'm being too aggro in pursuit of 1st, and maybe should blend in a hint of "laddering". Right now I'm just trying to get a big enough sample to be worth looking at, though obviously I'm trying to win money while I do that.
Today was pretty decent for results, but a little lighter on volume than I intended, two sessions totalling less than 7 hours. I did manage a 1st in each block, and a total profit for the day of just under $150, hauling back the losses of yesterday and the day before, both of them days where I failed to register a win.
I think I'm only just starting to get a feel for just how swongy MTTs are gonna be, and also get an understanding of how just a half dozen coinflips going the other way would make a huge difference to my results so far. And as I try this new format I am re-discovering exactly what is meant by meaningful sample size. I realise I'd forgotten a few weeks ago, before I even started the $10 DoNs and I had become fixated on results over tiny samples. Sometimes I find myself a little on edge when three or four tournaments which are starting to look promising all go up in flames in quick succession, and I'm really starting to appreciate the synch breaks at xx:55 to take a minute or two for some fresh air to calm down and breathe. Fortunately there's always another one going off in a few minutes, so I can quickly replace those I bust, and I have to remember this fact at all time. If I played live I would probably have the worst poker face ever, because live MTTs aren't so easily reloaded!
I think I have to start thinking a level lower in some spots against the donks you come across in these, like raising over tiny donk-bets when I whiff the flop. Far too often villain has top pair, and isn't laying it down; it's caused me grief on a few occasions now. Obvious flushes is another one. So often when they bet they have it and I'm paying off far too regularly, so that's another bad habit to try and drop.
Anyway, looking forward to another fun Sunday on the grind tomorrow, hopefully profits will skyrocket! Aiming for 120 tournaments, or alternatively, to run deep and cash high in so many that I only play a few. Let's see what tomorrow's update brings..........
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