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