Another invite to a WBCOOP event. Good luck to all bloggers taking part but over the years I've competed I'm way overdue, this one's mine!
Thanks PokerStars!!!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Friday, October 1, 2010
Beginning of the end of online poker?
NEWSFLASH! I fail on after 2 days from my last post of putting this blog offline! I thought, whilst I won’t be playing, maybe I can still share important news with readers in order to keep active, after all it wont take that long.
I read this last night and found it quite interesting. To me this seems like the biggest impact on the US market since the introduction of the UIEGA and one can only wonder where online poker goes from here?
Here is the article:
PokerStars bans players from Washington State.
Washington State FAQs
Lets hope this isn't a sign of more to come and a permanent move.
I read this last night and found it quite interesting. To me this seems like the biggest impact on the US market since the introduction of the UIEGA and one can only wonder where online poker goes from here?
Here is the article:
PokerStars bans players from Washington State.
Washington State FAQs
Lets hope this isn't a sign of more to come and a permanent move.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Blog offline until early December.
Not a goodbye, just a pre-emptive message so I don’t get “update comments” after I miss posting for a few weeks. I have a rather important but very time fulfilling “real job” coming up for the next 2 months and by the looks of the workload I’ll be playing barley any poker at all. Perhaps this 2 month break will rejuvenate me? But this is defiantly a +EV life move for me so I’ll see you all in December.
Good luck to everyone at the tables.
Custo
Good luck to everyone at the tables.
Custo
Sunday, September 12, 2010
30 and 0
Here I go again.
Pulled all the previous money out and spent it. I thought how can I start the bankroll? I decided to play the 6max 280FPP games and see how much T$ I can accumulate.
So here it is the before and after shots of a once again, but hopefully final restart of the bankroll.
I feel I ran like crap in these games but I'm no expert in super-turbos, yet.
Wish me luck.
PS. I have a little over 3.5K Full Tilt points so if you are aware of I good way I can use them their I’d appreciate hearing from you as I rarely play there but wouldn’t mind getting back into Full Tilt. I’m obviously looking for something similar to the Stars games I just played.
Pulled all the previous money out and spent it. I thought how can I start the bankroll? I decided to play the 6max 280FPP games and see how much T$ I can accumulate.
So here it is the before and after shots of a once again, but hopefully final restart of the bankroll.
I feel I ran like crap in these games but I'm no expert in super-turbos, yet.
Wish me luck.
PS. I have a little over 3.5K Full Tilt points so if you are aware of I good way I can use them their I’d appreciate hearing from you as I rarely play there but wouldn’t mind getting back into Full Tilt. I’m obviously looking for something similar to the Stars games I just played.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Goodbye twenties.
I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed but back in 2008 I added a gadget to this blog called “time left until goal” which has a countdown until midnight tonight. Tomorrow, September 8th, I celebrate my 30th birthday and I had a disillusioned dream of being financially free from playing poker. With 1 hour to go I’m sad to say that this won’t be the case. So is this the end? Of course not, it’s just another chapter.
This will be a long post so I’ll be breaking it up into categories. As per usual this is a personal post so don’t expect and professional writing in it, I’m just gonna pout it out like I always do here.
Achievements over the past 2 years.
Well I never had that big score, but I feel I’ve had some damn nice success. In hindsight my best time was when I was a reg in the $16 9player SnG’s. I was beating these games for a little over 7% after 1,000 games. Now I know what any reg will say here (lol, sample size) but nevertheless considering this was done 4tabling I feel it was pretty damn impressive.
I’ve never really had any solid success at cash but cash games is really something I never studied or applied myself to like I didn’t SnGs. A cash game for me was more trying to double my buy-in then GTFO.
As far as MTTs are concerned, as mentioned I can’t brag about anything to big as I really never played anything over an $11 game. My best run was coming 159th out of 18,875 players which was in event #1 at the MiniFTOPS XVI. I’ve one win at the smallest tournament ion PokerStars, yes the 10c 360 player, had a few final tables at games from $2.20-$5.50 but nothing massive. GG Custo!
My faults and downfalls.
If I had to be brutally honest with myself, and I’m sure my friends will agree with this and possibly add more, I’d say I change my strategy WAY TO MUCH. I’ve had tendencies to try to re-invent the wheel the second something goes wrong or I start losing. “Oh, I’ve just lost 10 buy-ins at SnGs so I better go to cash”. “Opps I just lost money at cash so I’ll try double or nothing’s” “Wow double or nothings are poisoned with Chinese bots so I’ll go play super turbos” over and over and over again. I just can’t seem to stick to one format and learn to dominate it, which I am capable of if I just apply myself.
No more shot taking.
This isn’t as much as a permanent problem more just a recent problem. For the past maybe 3-4 months I’ve literally done almost everything a poker player can do. I have:
40tabled $1 DoNs
30tabled $5 DoNs
16tabled $10 DoNs
Single tabled $20 DoNs
16 tables 1c/2c NLHE
Single tabled $2/$4
Played all forms of Mtts from freerolls up to $100s
You name it I’ve done it and all this was done with a BR varying between $50 & $500. I’ve had multiple times where I’ve had my entire BR on a single table. Smart moves yeah?
The dumbest thing I ever did.
Well at least this isn’t poker related but it tells a good story.
When I was playing exclusively at Titan Poker I feel into the trap of being addicted to blackjack! (Yes, that bloody little icon on the bottom corner of the poker table just looked too sexy not to click). I can’t remember if I admitted this publicly but at one stage I was up over $1500 just from $5 & $10 per hand. I thought I was indestructible, until the obvious variance showed its ugly arse. I lost a few hundred in the span of 15 minutes and was furious so I did what any degenerate gambler would do; I tried to get it back in one hand. The table limit was $500 and that is what I placed. I remember the feeling like it just happened a minute ago. I get $500 and hit deal. BANG! KK against dealers 6! I was ecstatic, here I am about to double down and double up! I split as fast as I could move my mouse to see my dreams almost come true, dealt a 10 10. Holy Jesus, I have $1000 on the table with 2 20s against dealers 6. From there, my heart stopped, it happened in slow motion the dealer peeled his 2nd card for the 5, I knew I was fucked! We’ve all seen bad beats coming in poker and I knew it was about to happen to me. I stood up and literally screamed at the top of my lungs NOOOOOOOOOO right as the fucking K feel. $1,000 gone, in a single hand. There I was one of the nittiest players with an over protected bankroll management system to throw 25% of it on a single hand of blackjack. GG Custo?
Much more confidence in the game.
Because the majority of my playing has been at the micro’s and low’s I’ve always had this strange fear on more expensive games. The only good thing I can take about playing games like $2/$4 or $100 mtts is there is still a massive level of retardation at those levels. Obviously less than the micros I play but I really expected the overall game-play to be totally different, when aside from a few key-factors, there really is still an amazing amount of retarded plays there. I remember telling my coach when I was under Team Moshman I wasn’t beating the $5s for a big enough ROI so I should move to the $10s because they will “respect my raises more”. I also remember him politely trying to get the message to me that this thought process is totally wrong. I really think he had to bite his tongue out of fear of bursting out and telling me to STFU and not think like that. Thanks Rob, I now understand. With an adequate bankroll I’ll play any stakes, I actually feel that good about poker.
Personal.
Poker aside, I actually have a bloody amazing life. I’ve been blessed with the girl of my dreams who is my wife of coming on 9 years and 4 perfect children. I have an amazing bunch of friends that would give up there left nut (or nipple for the gals) just to make sure I am happy. I live in a great house and overall have a very prosperous future ahead of me. Life in general I am probably one of the luckiest SOBs you’ll ever meet. I always try my upmost to do the right and honourable thing and hold myself with a high level of integrity. Conquering poker is really the only last thing I want.
Tournament Staking.
I have an idea of how many loyal readers I have and new visitors I get so I’ll put this out now. I know the majority of fellow poker players reading this have BRs of 4 and 5 figures and in 2 cases I’m aware of, 6 figures. To all you guys I’d like to propose this. If you ever want a horse in a small mtt, let me be that horse. Weekends may come and I feel like playing a 1000+player tournament, you buy me in. I lose, you lose. I cash then buy-in back plus 50/50 net profits. I’ll even say the first 3 cashes I have I’ll pay 60/40 net. I’m doing and asking this because I know to a lot of you putting me into a $2.20 tournament wouldn’t even show as a dint in your cashier page but could make so much difference for me if I ran well. I’m also doing this to further gain respect and trust from players I respect. No pressure but I am available and hope to make something good out of it. I’ve already spoken with a couple colleagues and they feel it’s a good idea, because the games they stake me in are less than half the rake they pay in a mtt. If you wish to discuss this further please ether comment on this post or email nick@custo.com.au
Where to from here?
Am I suddenly going to change dramatically over night just because my body clock ticks over another year? Or course not.
Will the poker gods give me some insta run good now? Highly unlikely.
Am I suddenly going to bink a massive MTT and boost the BR so I can play levels I want to? Don’t think so.
The reality is I’m just going to have to suck it up and re-build like I’ve done before. I’ll be taking a little time of from the tables, I’ve already cashed out from PokerStars and I’m just going to chill for a week or so. I’ve basically played every day for 4 years now so I think I small break will do me well. I will periodically be adding to the BR with any surplus income I may stumble upon, but I’m going back to the good old basics of 100 buy-ins for a game.
I’ve abandoned the dream that poker will inevitability set me free in x amount of time but because I have such a passion for the game, I’m just going back to have fun, play my best and enjoy life.
Overall I’m still going to be the same Aussie Battler, just a little but older and hopefully, a little bit wiser.
Happy birthday ME!
Thanks for reading, all you guys & gals rock and are my reason I continue to blog.
Peace
Custo.
This will be a long post so I’ll be breaking it up into categories. As per usual this is a personal post so don’t expect and professional writing in it, I’m just gonna pout it out like I always do here.
Achievements over the past 2 years.
Well I never had that big score, but I feel I’ve had some damn nice success. In hindsight my best time was when I was a reg in the $16 9player SnG’s. I was beating these games for a little over 7% after 1,000 games. Now I know what any reg will say here (lol, sample size) but nevertheless considering this was done 4tabling I feel it was pretty damn impressive.
I’ve never really had any solid success at cash but cash games is really something I never studied or applied myself to like I didn’t SnGs. A cash game for me was more trying to double my buy-in then GTFO.
As far as MTTs are concerned, as mentioned I can’t brag about anything to big as I really never played anything over an $11 game. My best run was coming 159th out of 18,875 players which was in event #1 at the MiniFTOPS XVI. I’ve one win at the smallest tournament ion PokerStars, yes the 10c 360 player, had a few final tables at games from $2.20-$5.50 but nothing massive. GG Custo!
My faults and downfalls.
If I had to be brutally honest with myself, and I’m sure my friends will agree with this and possibly add more, I’d say I change my strategy WAY TO MUCH. I’ve had tendencies to try to re-invent the wheel the second something goes wrong or I start losing. “Oh, I’ve just lost 10 buy-ins at SnGs so I better go to cash”. “Opps I just lost money at cash so I’ll try double or nothing’s” “Wow double or nothings are poisoned with Chinese bots so I’ll go play super turbos” over and over and over again. I just can’t seem to stick to one format and learn to dominate it, which I am capable of if I just apply myself.
No more shot taking.
This isn’t as much as a permanent problem more just a recent problem. For the past maybe 3-4 months I’ve literally done almost everything a poker player can do. I have:
40tabled $1 DoNs
30tabled $5 DoNs
16tabled $10 DoNs
Single tabled $20 DoNs
16 tables 1c/2c NLHE
Single tabled $2/$4
Played all forms of Mtts from freerolls up to $100s
You name it I’ve done it and all this was done with a BR varying between $50 & $500. I’ve had multiple times where I’ve had my entire BR on a single table. Smart moves yeah?
The dumbest thing I ever did.
Well at least this isn’t poker related but it tells a good story.
When I was playing exclusively at Titan Poker I feel into the trap of being addicted to blackjack! (Yes, that bloody little icon on the bottom corner of the poker table just looked too sexy not to click). I can’t remember if I admitted this publicly but at one stage I was up over $1500 just from $5 & $10 per hand. I thought I was indestructible, until the obvious variance showed its ugly arse. I lost a few hundred in the span of 15 minutes and was furious so I did what any degenerate gambler would do; I tried to get it back in one hand. The table limit was $500 and that is what I placed. I remember the feeling like it just happened a minute ago. I get $500 and hit deal. BANG! KK against dealers 6! I was ecstatic, here I am about to double down and double up! I split as fast as I could move my mouse to see my dreams almost come true, dealt a 10 10. Holy Jesus, I have $1000 on the table with 2 20s against dealers 6. From there, my heart stopped, it happened in slow motion the dealer peeled his 2nd card for the 5, I knew I was fucked! We’ve all seen bad beats coming in poker and I knew it was about to happen to me. I stood up and literally screamed at the top of my lungs NOOOOOOOOOO right as the fucking K feel. $1,000 gone, in a single hand. There I was one of the nittiest players with an over protected bankroll management system to throw 25% of it on a single hand of blackjack. GG Custo?
Much more confidence in the game.
Because the majority of my playing has been at the micro’s and low’s I’ve always had this strange fear on more expensive games. The only good thing I can take about playing games like $2/$4 or $100 mtts is there is still a massive level of retardation at those levels. Obviously less than the micros I play but I really expected the overall game-play to be totally different, when aside from a few key-factors, there really is still an amazing amount of retarded plays there. I remember telling my coach when I was under Team Moshman I wasn’t beating the $5s for a big enough ROI so I should move to the $10s because they will “respect my raises more”. I also remember him politely trying to get the message to me that this thought process is totally wrong. I really think he had to bite his tongue out of fear of bursting out and telling me to STFU and not think like that. Thanks Rob, I now understand. With an adequate bankroll I’ll play any stakes, I actually feel that good about poker.
Personal.
Poker aside, I actually have a bloody amazing life. I’ve been blessed with the girl of my dreams who is my wife of coming on 9 years and 4 perfect children. I have an amazing bunch of friends that would give up there left nut (or nipple for the gals) just to make sure I am happy. I live in a great house and overall have a very prosperous future ahead of me. Life in general I am probably one of the luckiest SOBs you’ll ever meet. I always try my upmost to do the right and honourable thing and hold myself with a high level of integrity. Conquering poker is really the only last thing I want.
Tournament Staking.
I have an idea of how many loyal readers I have and new visitors I get so I’ll put this out now. I know the majority of fellow poker players reading this have BRs of 4 and 5 figures and in 2 cases I’m aware of, 6 figures. To all you guys I’d like to propose this. If you ever want a horse in a small mtt, let me be that horse. Weekends may come and I feel like playing a 1000+player tournament, you buy me in. I lose, you lose. I cash then buy-in back plus 50/50 net profits. I’ll even say the first 3 cashes I have I’ll pay 60/40 net. I’m doing and asking this because I know to a lot of you putting me into a $2.20 tournament wouldn’t even show as a dint in your cashier page but could make so much difference for me if I ran well. I’m also doing this to further gain respect and trust from players I respect. No pressure but I am available and hope to make something good out of it. I’ve already spoken with a couple colleagues and they feel it’s a good idea, because the games they stake me in are less than half the rake they pay in a mtt. If you wish to discuss this further please ether comment on this post or email nick@custo.com.au
Where to from here?
Am I suddenly going to change dramatically over night just because my body clock ticks over another year? Or course not.
Will the poker gods give me some insta run good now? Highly unlikely.
Am I suddenly going to bink a massive MTT and boost the BR so I can play levels I want to? Don’t think so.
The reality is I’m just going to have to suck it up and re-build like I’ve done before. I’ll be taking a little time of from the tables, I’ve already cashed out from PokerStars and I’m just going to chill for a week or so. I’ve basically played every day for 4 years now so I think I small break will do me well. I will periodically be adding to the BR with any surplus income I may stumble upon, but I’m going back to the good old basics of 100 buy-ins for a game.
I’ve abandoned the dream that poker will inevitability set me free in x amount of time but because I have such a passion for the game, I’m just going back to have fun, play my best and enjoy life.
Overall I’m still going to be the same Aussie Battler, just a little but older and hopefully, a little bit wiser.
Happy birthday ME!
Thanks for reading, all you guys & gals rock and are my reason I continue to blog.
Peace
Custo.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Quick bankroll update
Have been feeling good about my game recently but not playing with any form of BRM the past few weeks. Is this what happens when one abandons a complete disregard of money? Possibly, but I won't keep it up because I'm literally shitting myself every hand I play.
With $500 I can begin to build again a lot easier than with $100, the only burning question I still have to answer is what am I going to play?
I have a personal post I'll be making in the next couple days where I'll go a little deeper into what I think is the right move for me.
But for the time being I'm pretty happy about going from $100-$500 in a relatively short time frame.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Daleroxxu’s player interviews; GET ON IT!
Just a quick post to plug a player I have huge respect for Daleroxxu.
Dale has been kind enough to interview some of the best online poker players in the world and made these available for anyone to listen to.
In my opinion these are the best interviews I’ve heard because they are real, no bullshit to any of them. Dale asks the most down to earth and relevant questions any aspiring online player would want to hear.
Dales interviews to date are:
Jhub3000
Jonathan Little
MI Turtle
Spacegravy
TheLipoFund
Wazz.
I won’t offer the links here, go and check out his blog and you’ll be find links to all of them on the right hand side under “Daleroxxu Interviews”.
Dale has been in the online circuit for some time and his achievments include a winning the main event of the 2006 WBCOOP and he has been crushing SnGs for years now. He is currently ranked 19th for all Double or Nothing SnGs with buy-ins ranging from $36-$100 but I’m sure if he played more he’d easily be higher than that.
If you’ve not heard them get over there and download, they are an awesome listen.
Thanks for sharing Dale.
Custo
Dale has been kind enough to interview some of the best online poker players in the world and made these available for anyone to listen to.
In my opinion these are the best interviews I’ve heard because they are real, no bullshit to any of them. Dale asks the most down to earth and relevant questions any aspiring online player would want to hear.
Dales interviews to date are:
Jhub3000
Jonathan Little
MI Turtle
Spacegravy
TheLipoFund
Wazz.
I won’t offer the links here, go and check out his blog and you’ll be find links to all of them on the right hand side under “Daleroxxu Interviews”.
Dale has been in the online circuit for some time and his achievments include a winning the main event of the 2006 WBCOOP and he has been crushing SnGs for years now. He is currently ranked 19th for all Double or Nothing SnGs with buy-ins ranging from $36-$100 but I’m sure if he played more he’d easily be higher than that.
If you’ve not heard them get over there and download, they are an awesome listen.
Thanks for sharing Dale.
Custo
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Thanks again Anonymous!
Well yet again I have failed to update regularly enough and been reminded to do so. I’d love to know who you are Mr or Mrs Anonymous, but thank you again for reminding me and please note my update is up less than 24 hours of your comment.
Unfortunately I haven’t got a lot to report on at least not for another month or so.
I’ve double up the BR since I last posted so yay for me! I’ve done this via micro stakes cash & HU SnGs, really enjoying the HU SnGs but not so much the cash, I really think I’ve engrained tournament forms of poker on myself. I don’t know what it is I just cant seem to get down with cash and the only success I had was short-stacking which is hardly a long term prospect I wish to pursue.
Been flat out with work (non poker realted) and a few poker related projects which I’ll be sharing shortly, hopefully be the end of next month. But since my last post which was a little over 2 weeks ago I’ve probably played less than 5 hours.
I know this is a sucky update so bear with me. Will have some good and longer news to report early-mid September. Really just making this post so you all know I’m still here
Cheers
Custo
Unfortunately I haven’t got a lot to report on at least not for another month or so.
I’ve double up the BR since I last posted so yay for me! I’ve done this via micro stakes cash & HU SnGs, really enjoying the HU SnGs but not so much the cash, I really think I’ve engrained tournament forms of poker on myself. I don’t know what it is I just cant seem to get down with cash and the only success I had was short-stacking which is hardly a long term prospect I wish to pursue.
Been flat out with work (non poker realted) and a few poker related projects which I’ll be sharing shortly, hopefully be the end of next month. But since my last post which was a little over 2 weeks ago I’ve probably played less than 5 hours.
I know this is a sucky update so bear with me. Will have some good and longer news to report early-mid September. Really just making this post so you all know I’m still here
Cheers
Custo
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Bookmark this post (Aug 10 2010)
I have me a plan. Going into details of it shortly but really wanted to use this post as a bookmark.
Here's the updated BR.
Don't ask how it came about.
Pretty baller huh!
I'm quite down on myself for the lack of updates but with this (plan) being put into effect within the next 5 minutes after I hit publish post, I will be updating more regularly like I used to.
I have a tonne to talk about, but not tonight. Just use this post as a bookmark for a turning point.
Custo
Here's the updated BR.
Don't ask how it came about.
Pretty baller huh!
I'm quite down on myself for the lack of updates but with this (plan) being put into effect within the next 5 minutes after I hit publish post, I will be updating more regularly like I used to.
I have a tonne to talk about, but not tonight. Just use this post as a bookmark for a turning point.
Custo
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Starting over.
I’m going to grind the 210FPP 20 player satellites to earn as much T$ as I can then sell it off to start a bankroll.
I haven’t got much to say at the moment.
But will do in the next couple of days.
I’ve made many decisions and uncovered many truths about my game and I look forward to sharing them with you shortly.
But for now, bookmark this post, it may be worth looking back on in times to come because aside from the FPPs, this time I start with nothing except my will to win.
Custo
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
No poker depression posts today, let's just lol together.
Since the past 2 posts have been rather depressing, well at least that's what I'm finding after re-reading them, I thought I'd share a video with you that made my laugh. Not the funniest thing on youtube, but certainly worth the watch if you've not seen it.
I have some poker news, but we'll talk about that tommorow. For now enjoy the vid.
I have to give the youtube link, for some reason when I use the embed code on the blog I only get about half the screen in. (Any computer techy people reading this care to tell my why?)
Spoiler @Dr.G, you sent me this.
Cheers
Custo
High Five Etiquette
I have some poker news, but we'll talk about that tommorow. For now enjoy the vid.
I have to give the youtube link, for some reason when I use the embed code on the blog I only get about half the screen in. (Any computer techy people reading this care to tell my why?)
Spoiler @Dr.G, you sent me this.
Cheers
Custo
High Five Etiquette
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Break starts now! I’ve hit rock bottom!
You suggested it, so I’m doing it. I’m taking my first break from poker in I don’t know how long it’s been, 2 years, 3 years, I really don’t know?
Since the last post I felt like such a degenerate player it’s absurd and I’ve lost all respect for myself, it really sucks. This is so hard to admit and I hope I grow from it but I am at the lowest of lows right now. Poker actually hurts, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, I can not think of I positive reason why I should open a game after posting this.
Feels like everything I touch goes wrong. I won’t even talk about bad beats because frankly I’m sick of saying them, and people are sick of hearing them. Unless I flop a straight flush and lose to a runner runner royal I’ll just shut up. Really now one gives a fuck anymore about your nut flush losing to that river 1 outer.
3 days after the last post I 16 tabled 5NL, got up about 3 buy-ins in 15 minutes, then lost I hand which was set over set, and from that moment in the next 10 minutes dropped 13 buy-ins. From there I went straight to 200NL and shortstacked until I went broke. That 1 hand of set over set threw me over the bridge. That’s my state of mind, I’ll lose 1 good hand to a genuine unavoidable cooler, then blow 100% of my roll.
I have just over 8,500 VPPs on Stars and just over $100 in an online gateway account.
I have an idea of what I’m going to do, but I need to walk away from playing at the moment.
Poker is just a massive drop-kick to the guts for me right now. If I could turn around time I would never have drawn my entire roll 18 months ago when I built to over 4K from $1. It would have been better for me to get a credit card or loan than pull my bankroll. It is so hard on my ego to go back to playing for pennies. But with bankroll management and $100 I will have no choice.
What also hurts and makes it so hard for me to play an A game is seeing friends at levels miles beyond me, reading other blogs about people playing/making hundreds or thousands per day while I’m playing the lowest games around. Envy really is one of the 7 deadly sins! I will clarify immediately by saying I am happy for every single friend/blogger I have that plays big games and makes good, very good money, so if you are reading this, which I know some of you are please excuse me, you know me well enough that I wish you all the good fortune in the world. I just wish I had a little.
The only other thing I will say is this is not the end and it is not an admission of quitting. I just need to immerse myself back into work, which starts shortly, leave poker alone, collect my thoughts, and come back motivated and happy.
If you have one of those brainwave ideas I’m all ears, I don’t know when I’ll post again, but I won’t leave it as long as I did last time.
Thank you to all people that commented on the last post and thank you again for reading.
I will be back…….
But for now, I’m off.
Peace
Custo
Since the last post I felt like such a degenerate player it’s absurd and I’ve lost all respect for myself, it really sucks. This is so hard to admit and I hope I grow from it but I am at the lowest of lows right now. Poker actually hurts, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, I can not think of I positive reason why I should open a game after posting this.
Feels like everything I touch goes wrong. I won’t even talk about bad beats because frankly I’m sick of saying them, and people are sick of hearing them. Unless I flop a straight flush and lose to a runner runner royal I’ll just shut up. Really now one gives a fuck anymore about your nut flush losing to that river 1 outer.
3 days after the last post I 16 tabled 5NL, got up about 3 buy-ins in 15 minutes, then lost I hand which was set over set, and from that moment in the next 10 minutes dropped 13 buy-ins. From there I went straight to 200NL and shortstacked until I went broke. That 1 hand of set over set threw me over the bridge. That’s my state of mind, I’ll lose 1 good hand to a genuine unavoidable cooler, then blow 100% of my roll.
I have just over 8,500 VPPs on Stars and just over $100 in an online gateway account.
I have an idea of what I’m going to do, but I need to walk away from playing at the moment.
Poker is just a massive drop-kick to the guts for me right now. If I could turn around time I would never have drawn my entire roll 18 months ago when I built to over 4K from $1. It would have been better for me to get a credit card or loan than pull my bankroll. It is so hard on my ego to go back to playing for pennies. But with bankroll management and $100 I will have no choice.
What also hurts and makes it so hard for me to play an A game is seeing friends at levels miles beyond me, reading other blogs about people playing/making hundreds or thousands per day while I’m playing the lowest games around. Envy really is one of the 7 deadly sins! I will clarify immediately by saying I am happy for every single friend/blogger I have that plays big games and makes good, very good money, so if you are reading this, which I know some of you are please excuse me, you know me well enough that I wish you all the good fortune in the world. I just wish I had a little.
The only other thing I will say is this is not the end and it is not an admission of quitting. I just need to immerse myself back into work, which starts shortly, leave poker alone, collect my thoughts, and come back motivated and happy.
If you have one of those brainwave ideas I’m all ears, I don’t know when I’ll post again, but I won’t leave it as long as I did last time.
Thank you to all people that commented on the last post and thank you again for reading.
I will be back…….
But for now, I’m off.
Peace
Custo
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Last night I played 400NL with a BR of $150!
What? 3/8ths of 1 buy-in isn’t enough to take a shot you say?
The title may give you an idea where I’m at right now.
Fuck it! Might as well be honest.
Everything has been going downhill from the moment I decided to grind Double or Nothing SnGs. This was inspired by a professional Double or Nothing grinder I respected and thought I hadn’t paid enough attention to this format of game type. I also thought it would be the easiest and quickest way to re-build a bankroll to around 5K where I can play a little more freely.
Below is the graph of games played this year. Don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it.
First few games played some $20s HU, smart move right.
From about games 50 – 1000 I was 16 tabling $5 DoNs. No help or coaching just using common sense.
Approx. game #1000 was an mtt score courtesy of time with BuffySlayer.
From games 1000 – 2500 joined Team Moshman. Hindsight, biggest mistake I’ve made this year. Not to say anything bad about them, nor say anything bad about getting coaching in general but I was on track and doing fine. I basically tried to re-invent the wheel. All I ended up doing was abandoning everything I was doing and went on an emotional downswing the whole time.
From about games 2500-2600, against my coaches advice and truthfully common sense I stopped playing the $5s & started playing the $10s. Playing the way I used to before I started coaching. Of course I had success doing that.
From about games 2600-3800, played a mix of $5s $ $10s under Team Moshman. Anywhere from 10-30tables per session.
From game 3800-5000, 30-40 tabled the $1s, yes the $1s. Why $1s? Well I’ve been drawing on the bankroll a few times this year, around 8 I think since January. $500 out here and $250 out there. For what its worth, prior to starting the $1s I had terminated the agreement with Team Moshman. I didn’t think they would see benefit in me playing 100s of these games per day, even at +10% ROI.
So why did I stop the $1s, aside from the obvious I mean. About 10 weeks ago I got a random email from PokerStars.
The email, which I have received in the past, was informing me that I’ve been a victim of collusion and they have refunded my buy-in for the tournament that this took place in. Thanks PokerStars.
What not only made me sick to my stomach and also confused the absolute fuck out of me is that this took place in a $1 Double or Nothing tournament! Really? Are you fucking serious? There are people in the world that need to conspire to beat other people out of ONE FUCKING DOLLAR. What the fuck is going on? I totally understand cheaters at high levels, screwing people over for tens of thousands of dollars, that makes sense, nothing I’d ever dream of doing but at least it makes sense. But seriously, there are people out there that are cheating in $1 games. It was after that email I was simply left scratching my head wondering what is happening in the world of online poker.
To add salt to the wound, these games, honestly, they’re not poker,
FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD
Shove 5 big blinds at 100/200 blind vs blind and hope opponent isn’t holding a 20% calling range.
It was only a year ago or so where I was playing the 9player $16s quite successfully, playing 4 tables and actually making good decisions.
I’ll admit it, DoNs poisoned my brain and have made me somewhat forget how to play poker. It is possibly one of my biggest mistakes I’ve ever made.
All this leads to my next point, what have I been doing the past 10 weeks. Well, this is my most degenerate story to date as far as a poker career is concerned. There is pretty much nothing I haven’t been doing. I have lost all sense of direction as far as what I am trying to do.
Primarily I’ve been short-stacking 25nl, and funnily enough, really successfully. For those of you that follow this blog you know I rarely play cash games. Below is the graph of recent results taken from PTR.
So I’m making some money yeah, but I’m really not enjoying it. Over the past 10 weeks I’ve been:
24 tabling 2nl
4 tabling 5nl
Single tabling 10nl – 200nl (and of course 400nl last night)
Single tabling plo 2 – plo 100
Playing any form of mtt low buyin of course.
But basically I have been playing anything and anytime and on any site.
I feel I’ve lost all sense of direction, no routine, no purpose, nothing.
So this begs the question, where to from here?
From here, I’m reviewing my blog, I’m going back to read over when I was not only successful but happy, because short-stacking 25nl and mass tabling DoNs is no fucking poker life for me, I’ll quit before I do that.
I apologise if this post has been full of rambles, but I suppose the content matches the current mood.
I am proud that through all this I still can say I’ve not gone broke nor done something ridiculously stupid, actually, playing 400nl last night was pretty dumb so I’ll re-phrase with I haven’t done anything really ridiculously stupid : )
Oh and for what is worth, I lost around $80 in 15 minutes, then shortstacked 200nl for 30 minutes and got like $45 back.
Comment people, talk to me.
Lastly from this point forward, anonymous comments without a name left will be deleted. If you don’t have a Google account and wish to comment then either
A ) get a Google account or
B ) leave your name when you comment.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to bringing some more uplifting posts shortly
Custo
The title may give you an idea where I’m at right now.
Fuck it! Might as well be honest.
Everything has been going downhill from the moment I decided to grind Double or Nothing SnGs. This was inspired by a professional Double or Nothing grinder I respected and thought I hadn’t paid enough attention to this format of game type. I also thought it would be the easiest and quickest way to re-build a bankroll to around 5K where I can play a little more freely.
Below is the graph of games played this year. Don’t worry, I’ll walk you through it.
First few games played some $20s HU, smart move right.
From about games 50 – 1000 I was 16 tabling $5 DoNs. No help or coaching just using common sense.
Approx. game #1000 was an mtt score courtesy of time with BuffySlayer.
From games 1000 – 2500 joined Team Moshman. Hindsight, biggest mistake I’ve made this year. Not to say anything bad about them, nor say anything bad about getting coaching in general but I was on track and doing fine. I basically tried to re-invent the wheel. All I ended up doing was abandoning everything I was doing and went on an emotional downswing the whole time.
From about games 2500-2600, against my coaches advice and truthfully common sense I stopped playing the $5s & started playing the $10s. Playing the way I used to before I started coaching. Of course I had success doing that.
From about games 2600-3800, played a mix of $5s $ $10s under Team Moshman. Anywhere from 10-30tables per session.
From game 3800-5000, 30-40 tabled the $1s, yes the $1s. Why $1s? Well I’ve been drawing on the bankroll a few times this year, around 8 I think since January. $500 out here and $250 out there. For what its worth, prior to starting the $1s I had terminated the agreement with Team Moshman. I didn’t think they would see benefit in me playing 100s of these games per day, even at +10% ROI.
So why did I stop the $1s, aside from the obvious I mean. About 10 weeks ago I got a random email from PokerStars.
The email, which I have received in the past, was informing me that I’ve been a victim of collusion and they have refunded my buy-in for the tournament that this took place in. Thanks PokerStars.
What not only made me sick to my stomach and also confused the absolute fuck out of me is that this took place in a $1 Double or Nothing tournament! Really? Are you fucking serious? There are people in the world that need to conspire to beat other people out of ONE FUCKING DOLLAR. What the fuck is going on? I totally understand cheaters at high levels, screwing people over for tens of thousands of dollars, that makes sense, nothing I’d ever dream of doing but at least it makes sense. But seriously, there are people out there that are cheating in $1 games. It was after that email I was simply left scratching my head wondering what is happening in the world of online poker.
To add salt to the wound, these games, honestly, they’re not poker,
FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD FOLD
Shove 5 big blinds at 100/200 blind vs blind and hope opponent isn’t holding a 20% calling range.
It was only a year ago or so where I was playing the 9player $16s quite successfully, playing 4 tables and actually making good decisions.
I’ll admit it, DoNs poisoned my brain and have made me somewhat forget how to play poker. It is possibly one of my biggest mistakes I’ve ever made.
All this leads to my next point, what have I been doing the past 10 weeks. Well, this is my most degenerate story to date as far as a poker career is concerned. There is pretty much nothing I haven’t been doing. I have lost all sense of direction as far as what I am trying to do.
Primarily I’ve been short-stacking 25nl, and funnily enough, really successfully. For those of you that follow this blog you know I rarely play cash games. Below is the graph of recent results taken from PTR.
So I’m making some money yeah, but I’m really not enjoying it. Over the past 10 weeks I’ve been:
24 tabling 2nl
4 tabling 5nl
Single tabling 10nl – 200nl (and of course 400nl last night)
Single tabling plo 2 – plo 100
Playing any form of mtt low buyin of course.
But basically I have been playing anything and anytime and on any site.
I feel I’ve lost all sense of direction, no routine, no purpose, nothing.
So this begs the question, where to from here?
From here, I’m reviewing my blog, I’m going back to read over when I was not only successful but happy, because short-stacking 25nl and mass tabling DoNs is no fucking poker life for me, I’ll quit before I do that.
I apologise if this post has been full of rambles, but I suppose the content matches the current mood.
I am proud that through all this I still can say I’ve not gone broke nor done something ridiculously stupid, actually, playing 400nl last night was pretty dumb so I’ll re-phrase with I haven’t done anything really ridiculously stupid : )
Oh and for what is worth, I lost around $80 in 15 minutes, then shortstacked 200nl for 30 minutes and got like $45 back.
Comment people, talk to me.
Lastly from this point forward, anonymous comments without a name left will be deleted. If you don’t have a Google account and wish to comment then either
A ) get a Google account or
B ) leave your name when you comment.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to bringing some more uplifting posts shortly
Custo
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Updating in 48 hours!
Well it’s been a good 6 weeks or so since my last update and in that time I’ve now been asked on PokerStars tables, Email, AIM, Skype, Mobile and in person about when I’m updating (Mr. Popular or what) lol.
Anyways, to my readers, friends and fellow players I do apologise for the lack of content recently.
I’m only posting this now because I actually have a ****load to say. Some good and some bad but by posting this now I am committing to updating within the next 2 days
Oh and it will be quite long to so be prepared for quite a read.
I will share one thing with you now…….actually stuff it! You can wait another 48 hours. :)
Anyways, to my readers, friends and fellow players I do apologise for the lack of content recently.
I’m only posting this now because I actually have a ****load to say. Some good and some bad but by posting this now I am committing to updating within the next 2 days
Oh and it will be quite long to so be prepared for quite a read.
I will share one thing with you now…….actually stuff it! You can wait another 48 hours. :)
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Good luck me!
Well, the low main event of the SCOOP starts in a little over 8 hours so I’m off to bed now.
I’ve decided given all the advice given to treat this game like any other and just play it. Forget the buy-in! If I bust, I lose nothing. If I min-cash, I’m up a couple hundred, if I win, I turn my life around for the better.
Wish me luck because I reckon I’ll need it.
I’ve been saving my “1 time” the past week and I hope that pays off.
If I can just run good in this event, oh please, let me run good!
I’ve decided given all the advice given to treat this game like any other and just play it. Forget the buy-in! If I bust, I lose nothing. If I min-cash, I’m up a couple hundred, if I win, I turn my life around for the better.
Wish me luck because I reckon I’ll need it.
I’ve been saving my “1 time” the past week and I hope that pays off.
If I can just run good in this event, oh please, let me run good!
Saturday, May 8, 2010
The reason I’ll always stay at PokerStars.
Recently PokerStars held a competition for all bloggers to write specific articles for them and in return all bloggers that did this got a $22 ticket into a SCOOP event and the best 50 bloggers got a $109 ticket.
My first article was this one
Consecutive 180 player tournaments, both ITM!
I worked quite hard on this and followed all the required guidelines that were set out.
Through an unfortunate problem with communications there was an error between me and PokerStars and the article was never noticed.
A few days before the SCOOP started I sent a follow up email asking what the next step was and it was discovered that my original notification of the email sent was overlooked.
Through no-ones intentional fault PokerStars immediately rectified the problem by issuing me the $22 ticket for completing the article and a $109 ticket for writing one of the better posts.
I was quite upset when I found out that my original article was never seen but due to the overwhelmingly superb reputation PokerStars have they fixed everything with 24 hours of the issue being raised.
It is reasons like this that I have been and will continue to be a loyal player/customer with them.
I’ve had similar problems like this in the past with other networks and it ALWAYS has fallen of deaf ears.
I sincerely thank PokerStars for fixing this so fast and with that I am finally taking my shot at a big game.
As I’ve been issued a ticket and not tournament dollars I have no choice to play a game so I’ve entered into the low game of the SCOOP main event.
Finally after so many years of grinding micro stakes tournaments’ I am able to play a huge game and ‘take that shot’ I’ve been waiting for.
I’ll be spending every day leading to this event playing micro stakes mtts just to practice my play. The only problem I’m finding is playing for example a 50c mtt with 2000 people I get into spots where I ask myself “Would these people plat like this if it was a $100 game?” and I keep answering no. However I haven’t played a game so big for several years now so I really don’t know. Maybe there is a heap of donks that play and make moves as bad as they would in micro games?
I can already assume that a large portion of the field will be satellite qualifiers but I also assume there will be some serious solid grinders that are leaps and bounds ahead of me.
I am undecided on my approach towards the game at this stage. It’s either super-conservative trying to make the money then climb levels, or do I just take this opportunity to go for it all, which is statistically very difficult. With my current bankroll after a few withdrawals the buy-in alone represents over 20% of my money so even just cashing in this instance would help tremendously. On the flip side of that I can’t see myself having an opportunity to play in a $1 million prize pool again too soon. So you can see how I am quite torn on which approach to take.
One thing I swear, should I run good in this game I’ll never whinge about bad beats and suck outs again lol. Hell I’ll take 4 years of crap just to run well in this game.
Interested in your feedback and welcome to any advice if you are experienced in these types of games.
To the poker gods if you are reading this all I have to say is……. ONE TIME!
(Promise I’ll never say it again :) )
Thanks for reading and again thank you to PokerStars for giving me this opportunity to play and finally have the chance to take down something big.
Custo.
My first article was this one
Consecutive 180 player tournaments, both ITM!
I worked quite hard on this and followed all the required guidelines that were set out.
Through an unfortunate problem with communications there was an error between me and PokerStars and the article was never noticed.
A few days before the SCOOP started I sent a follow up email asking what the next step was and it was discovered that my original notification of the email sent was overlooked.
Through no-ones intentional fault PokerStars immediately rectified the problem by issuing me the $22 ticket for completing the article and a $109 ticket for writing one of the better posts.
I was quite upset when I found out that my original article was never seen but due to the overwhelmingly superb reputation PokerStars have they fixed everything with 24 hours of the issue being raised.
It is reasons like this that I have been and will continue to be a loyal player/customer with them.
I’ve had similar problems like this in the past with other networks and it ALWAYS has fallen of deaf ears.
I sincerely thank PokerStars for fixing this so fast and with that I am finally taking my shot at a big game.
As I’ve been issued a ticket and not tournament dollars I have no choice to play a game so I’ve entered into the low game of the SCOOP main event.
Finally after so many years of grinding micro stakes tournaments’ I am able to play a huge game and ‘take that shot’ I’ve been waiting for.
I’ll be spending every day leading to this event playing micro stakes mtts just to practice my play. The only problem I’m finding is playing for example a 50c mtt with 2000 people I get into spots where I ask myself “Would these people plat like this if it was a $100 game?” and I keep answering no. However I haven’t played a game so big for several years now so I really don’t know. Maybe there is a heap of donks that play and make moves as bad as they would in micro games?
I can already assume that a large portion of the field will be satellite qualifiers but I also assume there will be some serious solid grinders that are leaps and bounds ahead of me.
I am undecided on my approach towards the game at this stage. It’s either super-conservative trying to make the money then climb levels, or do I just take this opportunity to go for it all, which is statistically very difficult. With my current bankroll after a few withdrawals the buy-in alone represents over 20% of my money so even just cashing in this instance would help tremendously. On the flip side of that I can’t see myself having an opportunity to play in a $1 million prize pool again too soon. So you can see how I am quite torn on which approach to take.
One thing I swear, should I run good in this game I’ll never whinge about bad beats and suck outs again lol. Hell I’ll take 4 years of crap just to run well in this game.
Interested in your feedback and welcome to any advice if you are experienced in these types of games.
To the poker gods if you are reading this all I have to say is……. ONE TIME!
(Promise I’ll never say it again :) )
Thanks for reading and again thank you to PokerStars for giving me this opportunity to play and finally have the chance to take down something big.
Custo.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Results for SCOOP Event 8 low.
Should be happy, but I’m not. Another min-cash and the standard bullshit hand occurred.
This happened about 15 minutes after the money bubble burst.
Don’t blame the opponent at all for the move just so disappointed to get it in as a 80%+ favourite and lose this far into the game. Had I have held up I would have been in the top 100 of over 2500 players left.
That hand aside, I felt I played great and am proud to have made it so far. Just wish KK held for me because it would have been a damn big run and maybe given me the opportunity to finally play some decent stakes whilst still using bankroll management.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
PUMA HARD CHORUS UNITED KINGDOM
Happy Valentines love. Bit late but this is pure gold.
Well done boys
Well done boys
Monday, April 26, 2010
I must be rusty at STT SnGs or the gods just aren’t smiling down at me today.
Not to sure why but I decided to 4table some STT SnGs today.
Been a while since I played them as I’ve been playing thousands of DoNs recently. That updated report will come soon but for now I just want to whinge.
So bask in the glory of what it’s like to be f***ed over in 4 consecutive games.
Obvious top set no good
Naturally run into aces against a person who’s 100/60 after 5
Another donk who’s min-raised every pot wakes up with an over pair BVB
3 outer me, yeah sure, why not?
I’ve suddenly remembered why I 16 table and pay no attention to this constant shit.
Sorry I haven’t posted in a while.
Will come back with GOOD NEWS soon about the Team Moshman progress and DoN grinding.
Been a while since I played them as I’ve been playing thousands of DoNs recently. That updated report will come soon but for now I just want to whinge.
So bask in the glory of what it’s like to be f***ed over in 4 consecutive games.
Obvious top set no good
Naturally run into aces against a person who’s 100/60 after 5
Another donk who’s min-raised every pot wakes up with an over pair BVB
3 outer me, yeah sure, why not?
I’ve suddenly remembered why I 16 table and pay no attention to this constant shit.
Sorry I haven’t posted in a while.
Will come back with GOOD NEWS soon about the Team Moshman progress and DoN grinding.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Why can’t the better hand just hold up?
I suppose I was only like 57% favourite but why let the flop hit me and then take it away.
Meh, least it’s a nice ROI for the morning.
Maybe this post is just a small brag for the morning :p
Interpret however you wish, but I’m happy & sad at the same time.
Meh, least it’s a nice ROI for the morning.
Maybe this post is just a small brag for the morning :p
Interpret however you wish, but I’m happy & sad at the same time.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
I’m officially banned from all cash games at PokerStars.
After 3 weeks of just taking an absolute battering at the $5 Double or Nothing games and spiralling into an uncontrollable depression about it I did what any degenerate dumb gambler would do and started playing cash games, smart move Custo.
I won’t bore you with the details but I went from +$200 in cash in less than a week to I think a negative figure, I’m not sure, I don’t want to look at it but it probably is. I ran hotter than ever when I started then once it went to my head I started believing I can stack off 80bb deep with bottom pair against anyone cause I am better and they are just making a move…..then they call me with queens full.
I’ve not blatantly spewed of so much money like this for a while and it just sucks. So what’s the solution? No more cash games.
I saw PokerStars have an option for a “self-ban” from certain game types so I have banned myself from logging into any form of cash game there is. To be honest, it feels great. I’ve only spewed of cash coming of the back of a bad run in tourneys. If I didn’t run bad I would never have played cash. By doing this I have no option but to focus only on what I want to get better at.
Now granted the self ban can be lifted after 24 hours by emailing support but honestly if I go on uber monkey tilt its not like I’m going to email Stars, sit at the computer for 24 hours and then spew more money. So it stops me from jumping ship immediately and losing so much more.
Anyways here’s my proof, although I’m not really posting this for proof, more as my own bookmark so I can remember in years to come when I’m one of the worlds best tournament players and remember that it all happened because I finally said “no more” to cash games and started to pay attention to 1 form of poker.
So too all you cash sharks out there, you can no longer have my money :)
To all your tournament grinders, I’m coming!
I won’t bore you with the details but I went from +$200 in cash in less than a week to I think a negative figure, I’m not sure, I don’t want to look at it but it probably is. I ran hotter than ever when I started then once it went to my head I started believing I can stack off 80bb deep with bottom pair against anyone cause I am better and they are just making a move…..then they call me with queens full.
I’ve not blatantly spewed of so much money like this for a while and it just sucks. So what’s the solution? No more cash games.
I saw PokerStars have an option for a “self-ban” from certain game types so I have banned myself from logging into any form of cash game there is. To be honest, it feels great. I’ve only spewed of cash coming of the back of a bad run in tourneys. If I didn’t run bad I would never have played cash. By doing this I have no option but to focus only on what I want to get better at.
Now granted the self ban can be lifted after 24 hours by emailing support but honestly if I go on uber monkey tilt its not like I’m going to email Stars, sit at the computer for 24 hours and then spew more money. So it stops me from jumping ship immediately and losing so much more.
Anyways here’s my proof, although I’m not really posting this for proof, more as my own bookmark so I can remember in years to come when I’m one of the worlds best tournament players and remember that it all happened because I finally said “no more” to cash games and started to pay attention to 1 form of poker.
So too all you cash sharks out there, you can no longer have my money :)
To all your tournament grinders, I’m coming!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
End of 2nd week coaching with Team Moshman.
12 months ago if you told me I would play over 800 DoNs in 2 weeks for no profits I would have told you to %^&* off
However, as I've repeatedly said, this is a long term process.
As far as week by week is concerned I had a much better week than I did last week. I am still at an overall loss though, even though I am 20BIs below EV.
As far as volume is concerned I’ve tried & tested multiple things since starting. I’ve gone from:
16 tabling single sets
20 tabling single sets
16 tabling 50 games continuous
20 tabling 50 games continuous
16 tabling 2 hours straight
16 tabling 3 hours straight
10 tabling single sets
I’ve found for me, that my best results are coming from 10 tabling single sets. Playing mass tables continuously is a lot harder than it sounds. Not only do you have multiple games that are bubble played with blinds @ 300/600, at the same time you have multiple games where the first hand is being dealt. So the attention to detail is so paramount. 1 wrong click can stuff everything up.
What makes it even harder is once 2 or so hours have passed and I haven’t lifted my butt from my computer chair physical pain beings. My back starts to ache, my eyes get strained and holding a mouse with 1 hand and having my index finger over the “y” key (for folding) makes my hands feel like they are about to become moulded into an un-natural shape.
So for the time being I will continue to 10table which is simply stacked 5 tables top left, 5 tables bottom right. It’s also interesting that even though there are 10 games going, my critical thinking time has increased exponentially allowing me to make those more solid decisions as opposed to just clicking away. So for me to hit my target I’ll have to play 40 sets per week, not too difficult.
I wont lie, but I’m still struggling folding, what I consider monsters, at the start of the game, but it’s becoming more obvious why it is correct to fold hands like AKs & QQ at the start.
So I’m at 830 games in so far and still at a monetary loss, I did have a brief moment where I was in the black
I’m feeling super comfortable with the number of games going and decision making process.
This is proving to be one of the hardest grinds I’ve ever done, only because I’m at a financial loss. But I do feel within the next month we’ll all see something substantial.
But without further adieu, here is the graph from the start.
However, as I've repeatedly said, this is a long term process.
As far as week by week is concerned I had a much better week than I did last week. I am still at an overall loss though, even though I am 20BIs below EV.
As far as volume is concerned I’ve tried & tested multiple things since starting. I’ve gone from:
16 tabling single sets
20 tabling single sets
16 tabling 50 games continuous
20 tabling 50 games continuous
16 tabling 2 hours straight
16 tabling 3 hours straight
10 tabling single sets
I’ve found for me, that my best results are coming from 10 tabling single sets. Playing mass tables continuously is a lot harder than it sounds. Not only do you have multiple games that are bubble played with blinds @ 300/600, at the same time you have multiple games where the first hand is being dealt. So the attention to detail is so paramount. 1 wrong click can stuff everything up.
What makes it even harder is once 2 or so hours have passed and I haven’t lifted my butt from my computer chair physical pain beings. My back starts to ache, my eyes get strained and holding a mouse with 1 hand and having my index finger over the “y” key (for folding) makes my hands feel like they are about to become moulded into an un-natural shape.
So for the time being I will continue to 10table which is simply stacked 5 tables top left, 5 tables bottom right. It’s also interesting that even though there are 10 games going, my critical thinking time has increased exponentially allowing me to make those more solid decisions as opposed to just clicking away. So for me to hit my target I’ll have to play 40 sets per week, not too difficult.
I wont lie, but I’m still struggling folding, what I consider monsters, at the start of the game, but it’s becoming more obvious why it is correct to fold hands like AKs & QQ at the start.
So I’m at 830 games in so far and still at a monetary loss, I did have a brief moment where I was in the black
I’m feeling super comfortable with the number of games going and decision making process.
This is proving to be one of the hardest grinds I’ve ever done, only because I’m at a financial loss. But I do feel within the next month we’ll all see something substantial.
But without further adieu, here is the graph from the start.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Disconnected whilst 20tabling! FML
It’s probably the 3rd time I’ve been disconnected in my life so I really can’t complain to much, plus the circumstances in which it happened is unfortunately totally my fault .
I play 2 stacks of 10 tables, 1 stack top left and 1 stack bottom right. I keep my mouse in a position where it’s always over both tables so when I table pops up I can quickly hit fold on the keyboard (I’m basically folding 90%+ of my hands now)
There is a stupid link on the top left of all PokerStars tables for the turbo takedown. If you click the link it opens up a webpage. The problem is running HEM, Table Ninja, PokerStars lobby and 20 tables is stretching my computer to its limits.
I basically moved the mouse accidently and mis-clicked, clicking on the webpage link and Firefox tried to open but the commuter crapped itself. So everything completely froze and I was forced to have to reboot, which for me takes around 5 minutes, maybe a few more.
By the time I came back online my remaining tables were down to around 2-3 BBs everywhere, plus I’d lost a couple. What obviously makes matters worse was the fact this happened mid/late game. If it was early game I would have probably just missed levels 10/20 & 15/30 where I’m basically folding everything so it wouldn’t have mattered as much, but of course it had to happen at the later stages. $%^&
Anyways, that’s really upset me so I’m taking a break tonight.
Here’s the graph so far.
I play 2 stacks of 10 tables, 1 stack top left and 1 stack bottom right. I keep my mouse in a position where it’s always over both tables so when I table pops up I can quickly hit fold on the keyboard (I’m basically folding 90%+ of my hands now)
There is a stupid link on the top left of all PokerStars tables for the turbo takedown. If you click the link it opens up a webpage. The problem is running HEM, Table Ninja, PokerStars lobby and 20 tables is stretching my computer to its limits.
I basically moved the mouse accidently and mis-clicked, clicking on the webpage link and Firefox tried to open but the commuter crapped itself. So everything completely froze and I was forced to have to reboot, which for me takes around 5 minutes, maybe a few more.
By the time I came back online my remaining tables were down to around 2-3 BBs everywhere, plus I’d lost a couple. What obviously makes matters worse was the fact this happened mid/late game. If it was early game I would have probably just missed levels 10/20 & 15/30 where I’m basically folding everything so it wouldn’t have mattered as much, but of course it had to happen at the later stages. $%^&
Anyways, that’s really upset me so I’m taking a break tonight.
Here’s the graph so far.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
End of first week’s coaching with Team Moshman.
It just struck me that I’ve only been posting updates in CardsChat and not here. Whoops, will post in both places moving forwards.
If you wish to follow the progress there please click link below.
I’ve joined team Moshman. This will be my progress thread
Please note that registration to cardschat is reuqired so if you are not a member quickly sign up to follow and put "custo80" in the referal section.
Anyways, had an absolutely abysmal week, the worst start I could have imagined. This only happened due to me completely misinterpreting good advice and implementing it the wrong way.
My first weeks graph is below and hopefully as you can tell by the last 100 games or so, I’m starting to figure it out correctly again.
Sorry for the lack of updates and stay tuned.
If you wish to follow the progress there please click link below.
I’ve joined team Moshman. This will be my progress thread
Please note that registration to cardschat is reuqired so if you are not a member quickly sign up to follow and put "custo80" in the referal section.
Anyways, had an absolutely abysmal week, the worst start I could have imagined. This only happened due to me completely misinterpreting good advice and implementing it the wrong way.
My first weeks graph is below and hopefully as you can tell by the last 100 games or so, I’m starting to figure it out correctly again.
Sorry for the lack of updates and stay tuned.
Monday, March 15, 2010
I’ve joined team Moshman. Coaching starting shortly.
As of today, I am officially receiving coaching from team Moshman. If you haven’t heard of Collin Moshman, well I don’t know what you’re doing following poker blogs.
I contacted the management team via their website http://collinmoshman.com/ and applied for a coaching deal. Within 24 hours I was contacted and an offer put on the table. The original deal was that I play 400 $5 double or nothing tournaments per week and pay 50% of net profits for a period of 6 months.
Without much time I quickly asked to re-negotiate these terms as 6 months of half my profits is far too long for me. So I suggested I’ll play 6,000 games which I aim to have finished n 2 months and still pay 50% of my net profits. Without hesitation they accepted this and I signed the contract last night.
As I am writing this I have played just over 1,300 games this year for a net result of 6.8% ROI which is .5% under EV. I strongly feel that 6.8% ROI is quite bad for the $5 level. Clearly I must expect to have a slightly lower than average ROI as I 16table these games in sets of 50 at a time. I’m sure if I was 4tabling them I’d have a higher result due to being able to concentrate more and make perhaps better decisions as opposed to just going through the motions. But, on a personal note, I only have one objective at the moment and that is to rebuild my bankroll as fast as humanly possible.
I’m sincerely hoping after some coaching and critiquing of my game I can be at 10%+ ROI playing in exactly the same manner. From there start to move back up the levels.
What I found most attractive was their policy of “No win, No Fee”. I have had a coaching session before at the rates of $65/hr from a private coach and whilst it was good there is only so much one can learn from a one hour session. I need something on-going. I’m hoping this will be easy for the team to help me develop as I can at least say I am a “marginal winning” player.
In this thread I will share what I am learning and post my results of the 6,000 games I play for the duration of the agreement. If all goes well, I look forward to hopefully becoming an integral part of their team.
Collin Moshman’s reputation is self explanatory and in my eyes, legendary. So it’s very safe for me to assume that anyone within that circle can achieve successful results.
Feel free to ask questions and I hope you enjoy as much as I will the journey that is about to start.
Custo
I contacted the management team via their website http://collinmoshman.com/ and applied for a coaching deal. Within 24 hours I was contacted and an offer put on the table. The original deal was that I play 400 $5 double or nothing tournaments per week and pay 50% of net profits for a period of 6 months.
Without much time I quickly asked to re-negotiate these terms as 6 months of half my profits is far too long for me. So I suggested I’ll play 6,000 games which I aim to have finished n 2 months and still pay 50% of my net profits. Without hesitation they accepted this and I signed the contract last night.
As I am writing this I have played just over 1,300 games this year for a net result of 6.8% ROI which is .5% under EV. I strongly feel that 6.8% ROI is quite bad for the $5 level. Clearly I must expect to have a slightly lower than average ROI as I 16table these games in sets of 50 at a time. I’m sure if I was 4tabling them I’d have a higher result due to being able to concentrate more and make perhaps better decisions as opposed to just going through the motions. But, on a personal note, I only have one objective at the moment and that is to rebuild my bankroll as fast as humanly possible.
I’m sincerely hoping after some coaching and critiquing of my game I can be at 10%+ ROI playing in exactly the same manner. From there start to move back up the levels.
What I found most attractive was their policy of “No win, No Fee”. I have had a coaching session before at the rates of $65/hr from a private coach and whilst it was good there is only so much one can learn from a one hour session. I need something on-going. I’m hoping this will be easy for the team to help me develop as I can at least say I am a “marginal winning” player.
In this thread I will share what I am learning and post my results of the 6,000 games I play for the duration of the agreement. If all goes well, I look forward to hopefully becoming an integral part of their team.
Collin Moshman’s reputation is self explanatory and in my eyes, legendary. So it’s very safe for me to assume that anyone within that circle can achieve successful results.
Feel free to ask questions and I hope you enjoy as much as I will the journey that is about to start.
Custo
Friday, March 12, 2010
Result for MiniFTOPS Event #1
So close.
So bloody close.
I came 159th out of a field of 18,875 players. Aside from the Sunday 1/4 million at PokerStars, this is the biggest field I’ve ever played in.
I got very fortunate in the early stages min raising with pocket 5s and the flop came 885. Here is the hand.
So this really set me up well given me over 130 big blinds to work with.
I thoroughly enjoyed the structure that Full Tilt offer in this game. 5000 starting chips with the blinds starting at 10/20. I’ve not played a great deal of deep stacked poker but was very comfortable with it.
I ended up playing for around 7 hours and cashed for a little over $200. I never actually intended to play this event but my good old friends Icemonkey offered to stake me with the conditions of if I bust out I pay nothing and if I cash I pay back the buy-in plus 55% of net profits. So I was happy to make some money for myself and my friend.
The event was full of Full Tilt Pros and at one stage I was on the table with Lee Watkinson.
Funnily enough Lee raised my blinds 3 times on the table and since he’s a pro, he had to have something. Right?
It does hurt to miss out on $55,000+ that was awarded for first place but once again I am proud of my accomplishment of running so deep.
I am going to look closer at the rest of the MiniFTOPS events and decide on what else to play. I'll also start playing to satellites at Stars and try and get into some SCOOP events.
Lastly I would like to say thanks to everyone at CardsChat that was on the rail for me for several hours last night. It meant a lot and really appreciate everyone’s support. Hopefully I can bring you better results shortly.
Here is the rail thread:
Rail for Custo
That's it for now.
Custo
So bloody close.
I came 159th out of a field of 18,875 players. Aside from the Sunday 1/4 million at PokerStars, this is the biggest field I’ve ever played in.
I got very fortunate in the early stages min raising with pocket 5s and the flop came 885. Here is the hand.
So this really set me up well given me over 130 big blinds to work with.
I thoroughly enjoyed the structure that Full Tilt offer in this game. 5000 starting chips with the blinds starting at 10/20. I’ve not played a great deal of deep stacked poker but was very comfortable with it.
I ended up playing for around 7 hours and cashed for a little over $200. I never actually intended to play this event but my good old friends Icemonkey offered to stake me with the conditions of if I bust out I pay nothing and if I cash I pay back the buy-in plus 55% of net profits. So I was happy to make some money for myself and my friend.
The event was full of Full Tilt Pros and at one stage I was on the table with Lee Watkinson.
Funnily enough Lee raised my blinds 3 times on the table and since he’s a pro, he had to have something. Right?
It does hurt to miss out on $55,000+ that was awarded for first place but once again I am proud of my accomplishment of running so deep.
I am going to look closer at the rest of the MiniFTOPS events and decide on what else to play. I'll also start playing to satellites at Stars and try and get into some SCOOP events.
Lastly I would like to say thanks to everyone at CardsChat that was on the rail for me for several hours last night. It meant a lot and really appreciate everyone’s support. Hopefully I can bring you better results shortly.
Here is the rail thread:
Rail for Custo
That's it for now.
Custo
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Brag: Consecutive 180 player tournaments, both ITM!
Well things are gradually picking up for me. I’ve been trying to stay as consistent as possible with respect to the types of games I play and it is working out better than expected.
I have always noticed that the best online players were generally logged in at the same times and playing exactly the same games and number of tables. So recently I have been 16tabling the $5 DoNs for 2-3 hours at night time and playing some 180s and mtts in the mornings.
I am hoping to extend my playing time at night to 4-5 hours just to get through more volume. I have noticed something that really shocked me. Just out of curiosity I visited SharkScope to view the top 20 players in Double or Nothing games with cost from $2-$5 and to my surprise a lot of the players have either slightly higher, the same and in some cases a lower ability score as me. The stand out difference is they all have around 10,000+ games played and I’m at around 5,500 at the moment. I’m seriously wondering now that I am increasing my volume and not diverting from the type of game I play if I will make the top 20 in the category. I would consider that a major brag. Whilst the game isn’t exactly rocket science I think to be considered in the top 20 of any type of game is something to be proud of. I wonder how many people that is out of. Must be thousands.
Anyways, let’s get back to the title subject.
First off, I am becoming even prouder of my poker playing ability. I’m feeling more comfortable, making better decisions, and yielding better results.
I attribute this to 2 main things at this stage.
1: My purchase of TableNinja.
2: That one session I had with Jamie.
Now with TableNinja I no longer think of playing a set of games of being able to lose x and need to win y in order to have a good session. I’m paying less attention to my all-in hands with is allowing me to make better decisions with whatever I am faced with at the time. Previously, if I was playing 16 games and I was all in pre flop with KK, I’d quickly drag the table up so I can always see it and watch the play. If I was called by QQ and saw the Q flop I’d instantly become upset and aggravated which in turn affects my play until I’ve gotten over it. If I was knocked out of a game I’d begin to say to myself “Well, I’m playing 16, just lost 1, have 15 left, so need at least 9 out of 15 to show a profit for this session”. Thinking like that is a recipe for disaster. The logical side of me knows this but the emotional side outweighs logic more often than not.
Now I’m of the opinion, “I’m going in with the best hand and whatever happens, happens. Let it be and focus on the next hand which is waiting for me". The other benefit is when a DoN gets down to 6 handed and on the bubble, when the game is over it simply closes without me knowing if I’ve won it or not, so I really have no idea what is happening whilst I play. All I have to do is focus on playing A+ poker and the rest takes care of itself.
Ok, now I’ll get on to the title subject.
(Have I been rambling too much again?)
Consecutive 180 player tournaments, both ITM!
Pretty cool stuff.
I actually played 4 games this morning. 1 which was the $2.75 mtt with over 7,000 people and 3 $4.40 180s alongside that.
I missed the cash in the $2.75 and 1 of my $4.40s. To be truthful I wasn’t paying as much attention to them as I should have because I was to focused on what was happening in the other games.
1 game I was in the top 20 of chips for the whole game and the other I had won a coin flip to put me in top 10 with around 50 players left.
In fact the game that I was in the top 20 for I was actually 1 out of 179 after 2 minutes when my QQ held up against AK all in pre flop. Always helps, thank you PokerStars.
I’ve had multiple ITMs while playing 9 player SnGs more times than I can count, but I’ve never done it at the same time in a 180 player SnG.
See for yourself.
Can you tell by now that I like pictures? Pretty cool huh!
Yet alas, this was about as good as it got. I finished 13th in the one I was short stacked in on the right and 7th on the left after I called an all in with QQ vs AJ and watched that lovely A drop on the flop, once again, thank you PokerStars.
Once again, I'm left with mixed emotions. I am upset with no win but from a personal growth perspective my game is finally approaching a new higher level.
This is justified not only by today’s results but also the following previous posts I've made last month and this month here:
February 18th 2010 won a 18 player SnG after being down to less than 1 blind.
February 22nd 2010 came 2nd in a $2.20 180 player SnG.
February 22nd 2010 came 6th in another $2.20 180 player SnG.
March 3rd 2010 had the highest cash ever in a $3.30 2000+ player mtt.
So my begging question is, am I simply on a heater? My answer is unequivocally NO. I am becoming a better player and so I should be for all the time, studying and training I've had over the years.
I’m still quite some way from the top but it feels damn good to know within myself I am getting better, admittedly probably slower than most people but its getting there.
For anyone that is of the belief that luck really is a factor and determines out outcomes in this game I can now really laugh in your face because for all I’ve gone through and where I am going now playing poker is clearly a game of skill.
And I'm getting better as each day goes on.
Custo.
I have always noticed that the best online players were generally logged in at the same times and playing exactly the same games and number of tables. So recently I have been 16tabling the $5 DoNs for 2-3 hours at night time and playing some 180s and mtts in the mornings.
I am hoping to extend my playing time at night to 4-5 hours just to get through more volume. I have noticed something that really shocked me. Just out of curiosity I visited SharkScope to view the top 20 players in Double or Nothing games with cost from $2-$5 and to my surprise a lot of the players have either slightly higher, the same and in some cases a lower ability score as me. The stand out difference is they all have around 10,000+ games played and I’m at around 5,500 at the moment. I’m seriously wondering now that I am increasing my volume and not diverting from the type of game I play if I will make the top 20 in the category. I would consider that a major brag. Whilst the game isn’t exactly rocket science I think to be considered in the top 20 of any type of game is something to be proud of. I wonder how many people that is out of. Must be thousands.
Anyways, let’s get back to the title subject.
First off, I am becoming even prouder of my poker playing ability. I’m feeling more comfortable, making better decisions, and yielding better results.
I attribute this to 2 main things at this stage.
1: My purchase of TableNinja.
2: That one session I had with Jamie.
Now with TableNinja I no longer think of playing a set of games of being able to lose x and need to win y in order to have a good session. I’m paying less attention to my all-in hands with is allowing me to make better decisions with whatever I am faced with at the time. Previously, if I was playing 16 games and I was all in pre flop with KK, I’d quickly drag the table up so I can always see it and watch the play. If I was called by QQ and saw the Q flop I’d instantly become upset and aggravated which in turn affects my play until I’ve gotten over it. If I was knocked out of a game I’d begin to say to myself “Well, I’m playing 16, just lost 1, have 15 left, so need at least 9 out of 15 to show a profit for this session”. Thinking like that is a recipe for disaster. The logical side of me knows this but the emotional side outweighs logic more often than not.
Now I’m of the opinion, “I’m going in with the best hand and whatever happens, happens. Let it be and focus on the next hand which is waiting for me". The other benefit is when a DoN gets down to 6 handed and on the bubble, when the game is over it simply closes without me knowing if I’ve won it or not, so I really have no idea what is happening whilst I play. All I have to do is focus on playing A+ poker and the rest takes care of itself.
Ok, now I’ll get on to the title subject.
(Have I been rambling too much again?)
Consecutive 180 player tournaments, both ITM!
Pretty cool stuff.
I actually played 4 games this morning. 1 which was the $2.75 mtt with over 7,000 people and 3 $4.40 180s alongside that.
I missed the cash in the $2.75 and 1 of my $4.40s. To be truthful I wasn’t paying as much attention to them as I should have because I was to focused on what was happening in the other games.
1 game I was in the top 20 of chips for the whole game and the other I had won a coin flip to put me in top 10 with around 50 players left.
In fact the game that I was in the top 20 for I was actually 1 out of 179 after 2 minutes when my QQ held up against AK all in pre flop. Always helps, thank you PokerStars.
I’ve had multiple ITMs while playing 9 player SnGs more times than I can count, but I’ve never done it at the same time in a 180 player SnG.
See for yourself.
Can you tell by now that I like pictures? Pretty cool huh!
Yet alas, this was about as good as it got. I finished 13th in the one I was short stacked in on the right and 7th on the left after I called an all in with QQ vs AJ and watched that lovely A drop on the flop, once again, thank you PokerStars.
Once again, I'm left with mixed emotions. I am upset with no win but from a personal growth perspective my game is finally approaching a new higher level.
This is justified not only by today’s results but also the following previous posts I've made last month and this month here:
February 18th 2010 won a 18 player SnG after being down to less than 1 blind.
February 22nd 2010 came 2nd in a $2.20 180 player SnG.
February 22nd 2010 came 6th in another $2.20 180 player SnG.
March 3rd 2010 had the highest cash ever in a $3.30 2000+ player mtt.
So my begging question is, am I simply on a heater? My answer is unequivocally NO. I am becoming a better player and so I should be for all the time, studying and training I've had over the years.
I’m still quite some way from the top but it feels damn good to know within myself I am getting better, admittedly probably slower than most people but its getting there.
For anyone that is of the belief that luck really is a factor and determines out outcomes in this game I can now really laugh in your face because for all I’ve gone through and where I am going now playing poker is clearly a game of skill.
And I'm getting better as each day goes on.
Custo.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Correlation isn't necessarily causation?
To quote a comment left on my recent post I wanted to explore this statement and get other opinions.
Here is the quote:
“Just remember, correlation isn't necessarily causation.
There might not be a relationship between your finish and any change in your play style - you only have a few data points so far. Also there might not be a relationship between a change in your play style and that win.
...or there might be?
This also applies if you have some big losses with no wins for a while. It doesn't necessarily mean that there is anything wrong with your play - just keep at it.
Think long term.”
So the question is can I account this recent success as a result of my paradigm shift or is it just a massive coincidence that I happened to have the best finish of my life 2 days after the sweat session?
Well I think I’ll put this to a personal test.
The Test.
I intend to play 100 mtts with buy-ins ranging from $2.20 - $11 with field sizes of 500+ and 15 minute blind levels. I will not put any form of timeline on it as my intention is not to rush this and I’m not an mtt grinder. I will only play these at PokerStars and only play when I feel like it.
I am hoping with this new style of play to have an ITM rate of 10%+ and at least 1 final table. I will not revert back to my old approach of shutting down if I get close to the money and I’m average on chips and I will continue to play for the final table then the win.
I do have to consider the fact that I may have 0 ITM finishes and have accepted that fact, although I’ll be very surprised if that was to happen.
Once 100 mtts have been completed I will have all results made available and we will see just of this new approach have improved my game long term.
I am very interested in everyone’s feedback and will regularly update on results as I get through the games.
Custo
Here is the quote:
“Just remember, correlation isn't necessarily causation.
There might not be a relationship between your finish and any change in your play style - you only have a few data points so far. Also there might not be a relationship between a change in your play style and that win.
...or there might be?
This also applies if you have some big losses with no wins for a while. It doesn't necessarily mean that there is anything wrong with your play - just keep at it.
Think long term.”
So the question is can I account this recent success as a result of my paradigm shift or is it just a massive coincidence that I happened to have the best finish of my life 2 days after the sweat session?
Well I think I’ll put this to a personal test.
The Test.
I intend to play 100 mtts with buy-ins ranging from $2.20 - $11 with field sizes of 500+ and 15 minute blind levels. I will not put any form of timeline on it as my intention is not to rush this and I’m not an mtt grinder. I will only play these at PokerStars and only play when I feel like it.
I am hoping with this new style of play to have an ITM rate of 10%+ and at least 1 final table. I will not revert back to my old approach of shutting down if I get close to the money and I’m average on chips and I will continue to play for the final table then the win.
I do have to consider the fact that I may have 0 ITM finishes and have accepted that fact, although I’ll be very surprised if that was to happen.
Once 100 mtts have been completed I will have all results made available and we will see just of this new approach have improved my game long term.
I am very interested in everyone’s feedback and will regularly update on results as I get through the games.
Custo
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Sweat session with Buffslayer and 2 days later I have my career high mtt cash!
Warning: Longest post I’ve ever done so you might want to make a cuppa before you start to read. :)
I have so many mixed emotions about this post I am actually struggling t articulate what I wish to say.
A few weeks ago a fellow poker player by the name of Buffyslayer1 was kind enough to start a thread on 2+2 offering 5 player that are struggling with there mtt games some assistance. After contacting Buffyslayer he was generous enough to say yes to me and offer some of his time and expertise.
We arranged a time for me to watch him play some mtts and I feel it has completely changed my entire approach as to how I play these games.
I watched him play 4 mtts, for memory they were:
$3.30 > 2000 players
$5.50 2 rebuys & 1 add-on > 1000 players
$11 rebuy > 2000 players
$55 > 1000 players
We were speaking about all sorts of strategies and tactics used to get through these large fields and making it to the final table.
One of the biggest leaks in my mtt game is the “In The Money Bubble”. Something I’ve had fear of for far too long.
My general mentality with any form of mtt is simple. If we are around 100 spots from the money bubble and I feel I have enough chips to make it but not enough to take shots and try to build my stack, I simply end up blinding out and min cashing. The reason I always do that is I keep thinking “I’ve already played for 2-3 hours and I want to get something back". The problem I also faced is by the time I make the money I’m generally down to less than 5 big blinds and have no real chance or growing my stack back up to run deep.
So the main thing I’ve completely changed about my game is not even considering the money bubble, in fact as Jamie said (Jamie = Buffyslayer1) “There is no such thing!” There is only a final table bubble.
This session happened on a Saturday morning my time. The next day I opened 8 Mtts, 5 of PokerStars and 3 on Titan poker and had the following results.
Titan Poker
$5+$1 titan double. Lost AIPF KK<1010, villain flopped a 10
$5+$1 titan double. Simply lost.
$5.50 > 600 players. Busted 7 spots from the money which I didn’t know at the time AIPF QQ < 77 as villain flopped a 7. In this particular game I had around 30 big blinds and was more than healthy to cruise into the money but because I didn’t pay attention to how many spots were left I took my shot with a clearly stronger hand an got unlucky. Obviously if my hand held up I would have been in fantastic shape to run very deep in the game.
PokerStars
$11 Sunday 1/4 million. I overplayed KJ on K42 board and ran into KQ within the first 30 minutes. Mistake on my behalf.
$2.20 >5000 players. Busted 22 spots from the money after it checking to me in BB and I had J3 on AJ3 board. Obviously villain in SB had A3 and we both got it in on the flop.
$2.75 > 7000 players. Simply lost
$11 > 4000 players. Simply lost
$8.80 218th out of 3230 players. ITM started at around 320 but I didn’t know that at the time. Unfortunately blinded down to 5bbs and took a stand with A2 then snap called by AK from BB.
So the above results I played 8 with only 1 cash but I wasn’t playing to cash, I was playing for the final table. Had I have taken my normal approach I would have cashed in both the Titan $5.50 game and the Stars $2.20 game but my focus was growing to get to the end, not cruising into the cash.
Historically I have a rather large ITM rate and very low Final Table rate. I now suspect and have pretty much confirmed with this new style of play my ITM rate will drop substantially but I will run much deeper when I do make it.
I have told you about all the above results in build up to this……
Are you ready?
Are you excited?
My Career high cash and best mtt game I’ve ever played.
This happened the very next day.
Sunday, March 1st 20:00 AEST.
Buyin $3.30 with 2045 players.
Result.
8 hours & 5 mins to turn $3.30 into $539.88
My biggest cash prior to this was $287.11 when I came 4th out of 1044 in a $5.50 mtt.
So as you can see it has been some time since I had a final table experience, yet I can tell you a million times about making it into the money.
To be truthful, I am absolutely kicking myself for not changing this attitude earlier. I was always conscious of it but it was Jamie’s complete disregard for min-cashing that made it so apparent to me.
I played this game to get to the final table and nothing else. This is clearly proved by the picture below showing the first hand of the final table.
You see I was dominant chip leader. Having such a large stack in comparison to the blinds and opponents I remember getting a little to cocky and confident and took some perhaps unnecessary shots.
I remember within the first 5 minutes, “mrbibo788” had managed to double up to 500K and we both got it all in pre flop with my 77 vs. his KK. He raised, then 1 3bet, he 4bet so I, feeling like I’m indestructible, 5bet shoved only to see I’m dominated and dwindled down from 2million to 1.5million changing my entire outlook on the final table strategy. With that stack I simple intended to bully in the right spots.
I ended up playing a little tighter as people started to drop off.
I was actually amazed as to how long this game went for. By the time we reached the final table it was 3:00am and I was a combination of absolutely knackered and get so much adrenalin pumping through me.
When I finally busted 3rd I was lost for words. I was so happy about my accomplishment yet so disappointed I didn’t win. I suppose I will have to get used to this feeling as it will happen many more times.
Jamie, if you’ve read this far, which I suspect you have, I can not thank you enough for your time and words of wisdom. Whilst all we did is watch you play I learned so much about psychology and mathematics in mtts and can’t feel any better.
There is no way any of this would have happened if I hadn’t of spent all that time with you.
To everyone reading this, thank you for staying for such a long post but generally the more excited I get about something the more I tend to say.
With this cash coupled with my results from 5NL and $5 double or nothing I have got my bankroll back up over 1.2K from the $500 re-deposit so things are starting to look up again.
I will continue to play mtts from $2.20 - $11 and I really look forward to cracking that $1000+ win from a mtt. There will be many bad beats and bust outs coming up, but with this new approach there should be some more final tables and hopefully that win is right around the corner.
Thanks for reading.
Custo.
I have so many mixed emotions about this post I am actually struggling t articulate what I wish to say.
A few weeks ago a fellow poker player by the name of Buffyslayer1 was kind enough to start a thread on 2+2 offering 5 player that are struggling with there mtt games some assistance. After contacting Buffyslayer he was generous enough to say yes to me and offer some of his time and expertise.
We arranged a time for me to watch him play some mtts and I feel it has completely changed my entire approach as to how I play these games.
I watched him play 4 mtts, for memory they were:
$3.30 > 2000 players
$5.50 2 rebuys & 1 add-on > 1000 players
$11 rebuy > 2000 players
$55 > 1000 players
We were speaking about all sorts of strategies and tactics used to get through these large fields and making it to the final table.
One of the biggest leaks in my mtt game is the “In The Money Bubble”. Something I’ve had fear of for far too long.
My general mentality with any form of mtt is simple. If we are around 100 spots from the money bubble and I feel I have enough chips to make it but not enough to take shots and try to build my stack, I simply end up blinding out and min cashing. The reason I always do that is I keep thinking “I’ve already played for 2-3 hours and I want to get something back". The problem I also faced is by the time I make the money I’m generally down to less than 5 big blinds and have no real chance or growing my stack back up to run deep.
So the main thing I’ve completely changed about my game is not even considering the money bubble, in fact as Jamie said (Jamie = Buffyslayer1) “There is no such thing!” There is only a final table bubble.
This session happened on a Saturday morning my time. The next day I opened 8 Mtts, 5 of PokerStars and 3 on Titan poker and had the following results.
Titan Poker
$5+$1 titan double. Lost AIPF KK<1010, villain flopped a 10
$5+$1 titan double. Simply lost.
$5.50 > 600 players. Busted 7 spots from the money which I didn’t know at the time AIPF QQ < 77 as villain flopped a 7. In this particular game I had around 30 big blinds and was more than healthy to cruise into the money but because I didn’t pay attention to how many spots were left I took my shot with a clearly stronger hand an got unlucky. Obviously if my hand held up I would have been in fantastic shape to run very deep in the game.
PokerStars
$11 Sunday 1/4 million. I overplayed KJ on K42 board and ran into KQ within the first 30 minutes. Mistake on my behalf.
$2.20 >5000 players. Busted 22 spots from the money after it checking to me in BB and I had J3 on AJ3 board. Obviously villain in SB had A3 and we both got it in on the flop.
$2.75 > 7000 players. Simply lost
$11 > 4000 players. Simply lost
$8.80 218th out of 3230 players. ITM started at around 320 but I didn’t know that at the time. Unfortunately blinded down to 5bbs and took a stand with A2 then snap called by AK from BB.
So the above results I played 8 with only 1 cash but I wasn’t playing to cash, I was playing for the final table. Had I have taken my normal approach I would have cashed in both the Titan $5.50 game and the Stars $2.20 game but my focus was growing to get to the end, not cruising into the cash.
Historically I have a rather large ITM rate and very low Final Table rate. I now suspect and have pretty much confirmed with this new style of play my ITM rate will drop substantially but I will run much deeper when I do make it.
I have told you about all the above results in build up to this……
Are you ready?
Are you excited?
My Career high cash and best mtt game I’ve ever played.
This happened the very next day.
Sunday, March 1st 20:00 AEST.
Buyin $3.30 with 2045 players.
Result.
8 hours & 5 mins to turn $3.30 into $539.88
My biggest cash prior to this was $287.11 when I came 4th out of 1044 in a $5.50 mtt.
So as you can see it has been some time since I had a final table experience, yet I can tell you a million times about making it into the money.
To be truthful, I am absolutely kicking myself for not changing this attitude earlier. I was always conscious of it but it was Jamie’s complete disregard for min-cashing that made it so apparent to me.
I played this game to get to the final table and nothing else. This is clearly proved by the picture below showing the first hand of the final table.
You see I was dominant chip leader. Having such a large stack in comparison to the blinds and opponents I remember getting a little to cocky and confident and took some perhaps unnecessary shots.
I remember within the first 5 minutes, “mrbibo788” had managed to double up to 500K and we both got it all in pre flop with my 77 vs. his KK. He raised, then 1 3bet, he 4bet so I, feeling like I’m indestructible, 5bet shoved only to see I’m dominated and dwindled down from 2million to 1.5million changing my entire outlook on the final table strategy. With that stack I simple intended to bully in the right spots.
I ended up playing a little tighter as people started to drop off.
I was actually amazed as to how long this game went for. By the time we reached the final table it was 3:00am and I was a combination of absolutely knackered and get so much adrenalin pumping through me.
When I finally busted 3rd I was lost for words. I was so happy about my accomplishment yet so disappointed I didn’t win. I suppose I will have to get used to this feeling as it will happen many more times.
Jamie, if you’ve read this far, which I suspect you have, I can not thank you enough for your time and words of wisdom. Whilst all we did is watch you play I learned so much about psychology and mathematics in mtts and can’t feel any better.
There is no way any of this would have happened if I hadn’t of spent all that time with you.
To everyone reading this, thank you for staying for such a long post but generally the more excited I get about something the more I tend to say.
With this cash coupled with my results from 5NL and $5 double or nothing I have got my bankroll back up over 1.2K from the $500 re-deposit so things are starting to look up again.
I will continue to play mtts from $2.20 - $11 and I really look forward to cracking that $1000+ win from a mtt. There will be many bad beats and bust outs coming up, but with this new approach there should be some more final tables and hopefully that win is right around the corner.
Thanks for reading.
Custo.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Back to back final tables! Bragworthy?
Following my last post made only a few hours ago I just accomplished this.
Still no win but I'm pretty impressed with myself at the moment.
Still no win but I'm pretty impressed with myself at the moment.
Got deep in a 180 player MTT today….
Here is the result
Here is the reason for the result.
Aaaaarrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhh!
One time can I have the better hand hold up please! Had to happen heads up didn't it.
:(
Here is the reason for the result.
Aaaaarrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhh!
One time can I have the better hand hold up please! Had to happen heads up didn't it.
:(
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Came back from 170 chips to win a SnG.
Doomed now right?
Let’s see the next hand
Ugly but I’ll take it. Still no reason to get excited.
Lets see the hand after that.
What can I say aside from, thanks?
Next hand, still all in a row.
OMFG are you kidding me?
I then proceeded to fold the next 6 hands until this happened.
Once again, the best hands wins. (cough *bullshit* cough)
Then I burst the bubble.
Whoops, sorry bro.
Let get to heads up by winning with a monster.
Pure skill this game.
And lastly
Well, at least I finally won with the best hand.
If I ever complain about poker be rigged against me I'll be coming back to this post.
Good game for me.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
PokerStars $40 Micro Million. $1,000,000 guaranteed tournament
In line with the PokerStars 40 billion hands celebration they are hosting the above tournament tomorrow. There is already over 9,000 entrants and still 13 hours to register. I can only assume that this game will be played very similar to the PokerStars ¼ Million tournament which is on every Sunday, well Monday morning for me, and an absolute crazy game to get through even just to cash.
I’m on the fence at the moment as to whether I’ll play some micro satellites and try to get in and take my 1 in 30,000 chance at skyrocketing my bankroll. Still think my chances are as good as being on a milestone cash table to be honest.
Speaking of the milestone cash tables I have now played 7,376 hands at 5NL and I am up $86.28. Not too bad and it’s helping me rebuild the bankroll.
Also played another set of Double or Nothings yesterday and guess what? 9 out of 16 wins again. At least it’s a profit.
Will report back tomorrow after I’ve decided what to do. In the mean time I’m going back to 5NL to try and be part of a micro jackpot.
For more information on the $40 micro million select the link below.
$40 micro million
I’m on the fence at the moment as to whether I’ll play some micro satellites and try to get in and take my 1 in 30,000 chance at skyrocketing my bankroll. Still think my chances are as good as being on a milestone cash table to be honest.
Speaking of the milestone cash tables I have now played 7,376 hands at 5NL and I am up $86.28. Not too bad and it’s helping me rebuild the bankroll.
Also played another set of Double or Nothings yesterday and guess what? 9 out of 16 wins again. At least it’s a profit.
Will report back tomorrow after I’ve decided what to do. In the mean time I’m going back to 5NL to try and be part of a micro jackpot.
For more information on the $40 micro million select the link below.
$40 micro million
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Won 10 buy-ins in under 3000 hands yesterday.
Let’s not get too excited now folks, it was only at 5NL. Nevertheless I feel this is still damn impressive.
I had noticed the PokerStars 40 billion hands celebration coming up and thought to myself “why not get involved”. After all if I 16table while PokerStars has 30,000 tables going then my odds are about as good as my aces holding up on the bubble of a tournament against some donkey's J4o. So with odds of around 1875:1 I thought I’ll grind for a few hours and see what happens. Well every other donkey in the world must have thought the same and they were playing their hands like it was the stone cold nuts every time. People were calling my full house to the river with top pair low kicker and even ace high.
It was actually a rush I’ve not experienced in a while and really miss it. The official numbers were 2993 hands and $53.24 profit in 192 minutes.
Here’s the graph, just because it looks so sexy.
Aside from this run, suffice it to say I was not one of the players that was able to partake in the milestone hands. It has however made me think about continuing to play this way whilst the marathon is on. I may even open up to 24 tables or more just to increase my edge.
I didn’t try anything fancy and forgot how amazing it is that so many people can spew of their money with such garbage hands. I even had a couple of situations where people would shove all in pre flop with any 2 cards, only to get called by my aces or kings.
Writing this PokerStars is approaching its 39,666,785,101st hand so there is still a little way to go. If I maintain that success I’ll give myself a rest from Double or Nothings and play cash until the milestone is over. If I destroy it the whole time, I may even jump ship?
Let’s wait and see.
I had noticed the PokerStars 40 billion hands celebration coming up and thought to myself “why not get involved”. After all if I 16table while PokerStars has 30,000 tables going then my odds are about as good as my aces holding up on the bubble of a tournament against some donkey's J4o. So with odds of around 1875:1 I thought I’ll grind for a few hours and see what happens. Well every other donkey in the world must have thought the same and they were playing their hands like it was the stone cold nuts every time. People were calling my full house to the river with top pair low kicker and even ace high.
It was actually a rush I’ve not experienced in a while and really miss it. The official numbers were 2993 hands and $53.24 profit in 192 minutes.
Here’s the graph, just because it looks so sexy.
Aside from this run, suffice it to say I was not one of the players that was able to partake in the milestone hands. It has however made me think about continuing to play this way whilst the marathon is on. I may even open up to 24 tables or more just to increase my edge.
I didn’t try anything fancy and forgot how amazing it is that so many people can spew of their money with such garbage hands. I even had a couple of situations where people would shove all in pre flop with any 2 cards, only to get called by my aces or kings.
Writing this PokerStars is approaching its 39,666,785,101st hand so there is still a little way to go. If I maintain that success I’ll give myself a rest from Double or Nothings and play cash until the milestone is over. If I destroy it the whole time, I may even jump ship?
Let’s wait and see.
Friday, February 12, 2010
9 out of 16 every freaking time!
For the past 2 weeks I’ve been 16 tabling double or nothing SnGs and over 80% of all my sessions have resulted in 9 wins and 7 losses meaning that I am showing the minimum profit per session.
Is this normal? Is this what is to be expected when playing so many tables?
So far my best has been 13 which I’ve done a few times and my worst has been 6.
I’m finding playing so many is helping my play a little tighter and not getting into those speculative situations. It’s also helping me avoid tilting off after standard bad beats occurring.
I remember when I used to 4 table the $16 9 player SnGs and over 60% of my results were 2 losses with 1 2nd & 1 3rd also meaning the minimum profit ever.
I’m a little lost on where I am going wrong. I don’t think dropping back on the number of tables would help much as the same thing tends to happen whether I 4table or 16table.
Where am I going wrong? I’m shoving at the correct number of big blinds left ranges yet constantly achieving the minimum.
What can I do? Or like I said, is this to be expected when mass tabling?
Comments and suggestions welcomed.
Is this normal? Is this what is to be expected when playing so many tables?
So far my best has been 13 which I’ve done a few times and my worst has been 6.
I’m finding playing so many is helping my play a little tighter and not getting into those speculative situations. It’s also helping me avoid tilting off after standard bad beats occurring.
I remember when I used to 4 table the $16 9 player SnGs and over 60% of my results were 2 losses with 1 2nd & 1 3rd also meaning the minimum profit ever.
I’m a little lost on where I am going wrong. I don’t think dropping back on the number of tables would help much as the same thing tends to happen whether I 4table or 16table.
Where am I going wrong? I’m shoving at the correct number of big blinds left ranges yet constantly achieving the minimum.
What can I do? Or like I said, is this to be expected when mass tabling?
Comments and suggestions welcomed.
Friday, February 5, 2010
I won MI-Turtle’s MTT today!
To start, I wish to make something clear for anyone that is new to my blog. I have been and still am a micro grinder for longer than I’d like to admit. I worked my way up, took it out and have started again. Whilst today’s win give me no financial restitution it is one of the most important wins ever for what may come in the near future.
These games are being hosted by a MTT grinder that is and has been destroying all forms of MTTs. His name is Nick Rainey aka MI_turtle. His blog is below.
www.rainmanpoker.net
The post where he announced these games is below.
MI_turtles hosted tournaments
I outlasted 807 players to take this win down and my god what a victory it was.
This wasn’t about money, because the game wasn’t for money, it was about the effort. I tried as hard as I could and was determined to run well no matter what. I think I’ve accomplished that.
How it all went down?
Early game.
Much like yesterday when I played my first one there were people sitting out everywhere. On my first table of 9 there were 6 people not playing. This made for super aggressive play for me and the other 2 active players. I was fortunate enough to eliminate them both and build my stack early from 1500 to 5000 by the time it was the 2nd round of blinds (15/30).
Once I’d eliminated the 2 active players it was like a dream, me and 8 players all sitting out. Why can’t this happen in a large buyin game for me? Nevertheless, I just clicked raise every hand and proceeded to grow my stack from 5000 upto around 25000.
As one player would drop off I’d see a knew one come on with a stack anywhere from 1000 – 5000, but with me sitting there with over 25,000 and blinds at 50/100 I just played super aggressive and eliminated anyone that got close to me.
Middle game.
With around 300 people remaining I was changed to a different table where the game began. By this time I had around 40,000 and was 10th in chips. This surprised me a little because I thought having been so lucky to win every pot for so long I’d have a monstrous lead on the remaining field, but there were people ahead of me. When I changed to my new table there were only 2 people sitting out, I did however have the chip lead on the table and proceeded to bully the right people.
Throughout the game I was able to keep myself in the top 9 of all chip stacks. This was important to me because my middle and late game is my biggest downfall with MTTs. For some reason I historically get scared and play super tight, complain that I can’t get a hand, and wait until I get to a certain number of big blinds then just shove only to be eliminated. This always happens whenever I make it to the last 10% of a field remaining. I’m trying to understand how to overcome that. I just feel that I should play tight because after playing well for 3-4 hours I’d be devastated with a loss. I’d rather go out within the first 30 minutes knowing I haven’t invested as much time. I have a decent ITM rate but I’ve made barely any final tables in my life.
I think what may have helped was that I played almost every pot. I limped in with any 2 cards to see a flop. A strategy I never implement in a normal game and I only did so due to my chip lead. Perhaps this works well in freerolls but how would it work in a real money game? For those of you that that understand these numbers by the time I got to the final table I was playing 58/10. I’ve never had stats like that in my life.
Late game.
A picture says a thousand words.
5th in chips going in and had 50 big blinds. I start playing a little tighter again but still tried to see as many flops as I could. After all it had worked the whole way so why stop now?
I managed to grow my stack upto 400,000 and then with 7 people left this hand occurred.
Once this happened I wasn’t going to lose!
I played basically psycho aggressively bullying every hand with anything.
The hand that wrapped everything up is below.
And with that hand.
The whole experience has been quite surreal to be honest. Is that what winning a MTT takes? Pure unadulterated aggression and absolutely NO fear of going broke at any stage? If it is, then I seriously bow down and take my hat off to successful MTT grinders because they must have some of the worst and constant bad beats known to man and yet they just get up and do it over and over again.
So what’s next?
Well I played it yesterday with no success and had the perfect outcome today. So shall I quit? NO WAY. I will be unable to play tomorrow as it is my son’s 4th birthday but will be back to play Sunday and every other day. My hope is to play every one there is in order to prove myself that I am serious and hoping to get some coaching from this. So Nick, if you are reading this keep me on the radar because after years of breaking even I am desperate to get to the next level. If it takes 100, 500 or 1000+ tournaments per month in order to achieve success I don’t care, I am by far the hungriest and most aspiring unknown player there is in online poker and ready to prove it, I just need some guidance.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for bearing with a long post, but today really was monumental for me.
On a side note I am hoping to receive some very exciting news from one of my most favourite and respected poker players that I also expect will show me the error of my ways, something I’ve been nagging for a very long time. I'm feared that I will be told I've been playing like an absolute donk, but if they need to tell me that in order to break me down and re build me back up then fire away becasue your the one pimping and I've been getting pimped.
So financially, nothings happening but in terms of growth and development, I really believe the next few months may see be boom and with that, skies the limit!
Good night all
Custo
These games are being hosted by a MTT grinder that is and has been destroying all forms of MTTs. His name is Nick Rainey aka MI_turtle. His blog is below.
www.rainmanpoker.net
The post where he announced these games is below.
MI_turtles hosted tournaments
I outlasted 807 players to take this win down and my god what a victory it was.
This wasn’t about money, because the game wasn’t for money, it was about the effort. I tried as hard as I could and was determined to run well no matter what. I think I’ve accomplished that.
How it all went down?
Early game.
Much like yesterday when I played my first one there were people sitting out everywhere. On my first table of 9 there were 6 people not playing. This made for super aggressive play for me and the other 2 active players. I was fortunate enough to eliminate them both and build my stack early from 1500 to 5000 by the time it was the 2nd round of blinds (15/30).
Once I’d eliminated the 2 active players it was like a dream, me and 8 players all sitting out. Why can’t this happen in a large buyin game for me? Nevertheless, I just clicked raise every hand and proceeded to grow my stack from 5000 upto around 25000.
As one player would drop off I’d see a knew one come on with a stack anywhere from 1000 – 5000, but with me sitting there with over 25,000 and blinds at 50/100 I just played super aggressive and eliminated anyone that got close to me.
Middle game.
With around 300 people remaining I was changed to a different table where the game began. By this time I had around 40,000 and was 10th in chips. This surprised me a little because I thought having been so lucky to win every pot for so long I’d have a monstrous lead on the remaining field, but there were people ahead of me. When I changed to my new table there were only 2 people sitting out, I did however have the chip lead on the table and proceeded to bully the right people.
Throughout the game I was able to keep myself in the top 9 of all chip stacks. This was important to me because my middle and late game is my biggest downfall with MTTs. For some reason I historically get scared and play super tight, complain that I can’t get a hand, and wait until I get to a certain number of big blinds then just shove only to be eliminated. This always happens whenever I make it to the last 10% of a field remaining. I’m trying to understand how to overcome that. I just feel that I should play tight because after playing well for 3-4 hours I’d be devastated with a loss. I’d rather go out within the first 30 minutes knowing I haven’t invested as much time. I have a decent ITM rate but I’ve made barely any final tables in my life.
I think what may have helped was that I played almost every pot. I limped in with any 2 cards to see a flop. A strategy I never implement in a normal game and I only did so due to my chip lead. Perhaps this works well in freerolls but how would it work in a real money game? For those of you that that understand these numbers by the time I got to the final table I was playing 58/10. I’ve never had stats like that in my life.
Late game.
A picture says a thousand words.
5th in chips going in and had 50 big blinds. I start playing a little tighter again but still tried to see as many flops as I could. After all it had worked the whole way so why stop now?
I managed to grow my stack upto 400,000 and then with 7 people left this hand occurred.
Once this happened I wasn’t going to lose!
I played basically psycho aggressively bullying every hand with anything.
The hand that wrapped everything up is below.
And with that hand.
The whole experience has been quite surreal to be honest. Is that what winning a MTT takes? Pure unadulterated aggression and absolutely NO fear of going broke at any stage? If it is, then I seriously bow down and take my hat off to successful MTT grinders because they must have some of the worst and constant bad beats known to man and yet they just get up and do it over and over again.
So what’s next?
Well I played it yesterday with no success and had the perfect outcome today. So shall I quit? NO WAY. I will be unable to play tomorrow as it is my son’s 4th birthday but will be back to play Sunday and every other day. My hope is to play every one there is in order to prove myself that I am serious and hoping to get some coaching from this. So Nick, if you are reading this keep me on the radar because after years of breaking even I am desperate to get to the next level. If it takes 100, 500 or 1000+ tournaments per month in order to achieve success I don’t care, I am by far the hungriest and most aspiring unknown player there is in online poker and ready to prove it, I just need some guidance.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for bearing with a long post, but today really was monumental for me.
On a side note I am hoping to receive some very exciting news from one of my most favourite and respected poker players that I also expect will show me the error of my ways, something I’ve been nagging for a very long time. I'm feared that I will be told I've been playing like an absolute donk, but if they need to tell me that in order to break me down and re build me back up then fire away becasue your the one pimping and I've been getting pimped.
So financially, nothings happening but in terms of growth and development, I really believe the next few months may see be boom and with that, skies the limit!
Good night all
Custo
Crushed the conspiracy case of the cash out curse.
This is a post dedicated to all the online poker conspiracy theorists out there. IE: ME!
The other day I needed to cash out a small amount and was hesitant due the “cash out curse”
Attempting to convince myself that no such curse exists I came up with a plan.
Step 1: Cash out
Step 2: Play immediately after cashing out and either
a) Show a net profit
b) Go bust.
It took 36 tournaments but I did it, I showed a profit after a dismal start. I think the difference between my net results and EV speaks for itself.
So to all you conspiracy theorists I now laugh in your face for I beat this mysterious curse and made a massive $1.90 profit, not bad for spending over $180 on buy-ins.
Subsequently since playing after 2/2/10 when these stats were taken here are my stats from 3/2/10 onwards.
Cash out curse exists? I think not!
The other day I needed to cash out a small amount and was hesitant due the “cash out curse”
Attempting to convince myself that no such curse exists I came up with a plan.
Step 1: Cash out
Step 2: Play immediately after cashing out and either
a) Show a net profit
b) Go bust.
It took 36 tournaments but I did it, I showed a profit after a dismal start. I think the difference between my net results and EV speaks for itself.
So to all you conspiracy theorists I now laugh in your face for I beat this mysterious curse and made a massive $1.90 profit, not bad for spending over $180 on buy-ins.
Subsequently since playing after 2/2/10 when these stats were taken here are my stats from 3/2/10 onwards.
Cash out curse exists? I think not!
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