[Closed] Bckdrflush' SnG Story

Playing loose when 1st in the pot (around and after the bubble) is the best solution imo. The most important thing is to use your FE as much as possible, and bully people. I myself play very loose at this stage. Theres so many easy chips to be picked up there.

If you come in the IRC chat onetime (im there pretty much all day), I have no problem with you watching a session. I often do this with other people, through team viewer (so you can see my cards).

Yes alot of the session video's and coachings are loosing sessions. This session http://www.pokerstrategy.com/video/34 is one of my favourites! I think he ends up +$112ish. On the bubble his play (and thoughts) are great. Althought if you play standard speed, the HU wont help you much in this video, as the blinds rarely become so big.

I myself am getting some private HU coaching in the coming weeks, as I would like to shift some 2nd places over to 1st.

GL
Stiev

I've got a paltry 53 tournaments..but I'm only playing 2 at a time. Not used to 3 tables yet, but it's not so bad to have 2 SnG's and one multi or satellite occasionaly..

I haven't played any satellites yet but the WCOOP stages looked interesting - then again you could end up in an endless loop of stages and waste a lot of time (been there) I'm better off in a shootout or MTT for now.

My last session was down, then down, and up again back to 2 buy in's down - which I think is pretty fair considering how many bad beats and bad pushes I had.

On the plus side I'm improving my finish results significantly - out of last 8 cashes I'm winning first place much more at 4/3/1. Accordingly, my ITM has gone down to about 36% - but again I think I've been unluckier and less skilled than I could have been. I didn't lose faith when I lost 7 in a row, my longest losing streak yet (not so bad) and came back to win a few.

I had cashed only once third place in 11, and some really horrendous beats, runner runner a few of them, and admittedly some bad pushes or maybe -$EV calls to reraises. I came back to win 3 out of the next 5, which restored a lot of confidence in my game and of course my mood.

My pre and post flop play is improving but also the opponents are considerably worse especially post-flop than in cash games or MTT's in many cases - hence the suckouts?

If I'm not completely card dead in a tourney for the first few rounds I'm playing a few more hands than normal, and usually doubling up off of someone - or even tripling up sometimes.

If I am card dead, I seem to do ok with around 1k chips with 5 or 6 players left - I steal according to ICM, and when heads up, if appropriate use the SAGE system.

Coaching tomorrow also try to catch up with the IRC - thanks for the invite.

Music: none?
Food: home made sushi - messy but good
Sex: recently - also messy but good
Health: riding bike, eating good, but smoking too much.
Poker/Life balance: decent
Bankroll: $590

Attended Nick's coaching today.. asked a lot of questions about stealing with air, playing for first place, and some interesting hands. Nick played a winning session, and I got some ideas to play SH turbo tourneys.

I've tried only 3 SH SnG's, but so far I like it a lot better. The play is much looser and I can take advantage of being in more hands and outplaying opponents post flop. My preflop game is much much better thanks to coachings and some discussions..pushing 28s doesn't scare me nearly as much in a crucial situation.

Pokerstars has a good way to track my progress - using the SnG leader boards.

Each 20 game block gives a good idea of how I'm doing - so far 2 blocks for this week, one at 210 the latest at 240 points (even with a 1 in 11 cash string!) My goal is to hit the 100 by the end of the week, and I still have a chance at the leader board.

On to the third block. I'm now +ROI, and ITM is up to 37.5%. I'm going to stick with SH SnG's for the next block and see how I do.

Best of all, my finish placings have improved significantly. My last two days are ROI >50% and ITM 46%. Finish positions are 4/2/1 - 1st/2nd/3rd Still sample size is very small - I expect swings around 10BI's at about 10% chance, so tight BRM still until I'm ready to move up with comfort - or have to move down.

Some decent hands, especially heads up where I think I was dominant most games lately. Only lost heads up to worse hands so not so bad.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$6.00+$0.60
2 players

Stacks:
BTN Hero (3495)
BB Yep_jusblufn (5505)

Blinds: 100/200

Pre-flop: (300, 2 players) Hero is BTN T♣ 8♣
Hero calls 100, Yep_jusblufn checks

Flop: J♣ 8♦ 8♠ (400, 2 players)
Yep_jusblufn checks, Hero bets 400, Yep_jusblufn raises to 1200, Hero calls 800

Turn: Q♣ (2800, 2 players)
Yep_jusblufn bets 1400, Hero goes all-in 2095, Yep_jusblufn calls 695

River: 5♦ (6990, 2 players)

Final Pot: 6990
Yep_jusblufn shows: 9♦ J♦
Hero shows: T♣ 8♣

Hero wins 6990 ( won +3495 )
Yep_jusblufn lost -3495

and this one was fun too. Villain had a 100% ATS, and I wasn't about to fold preflop.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$6.00+$0.60
4 players

Stacks:
CO Mrneko (1950)
BTN roberto35 (3335)
SB Hero (1510)
BB Yep_jusblufn (2205)

Blinds: 50/100

Pre-flop: (150, 4 players) Hero is SB K♥ A♦
1 fold, roberto35 raises to 300, Hero goes all-in 1510, 1 fold, roberto35 calls 1210

Flop: 6♠ K♣ J♣ (3120, 2 players)

Turn: 4♣ (3120, 2 players)

River: 9♦ (3120, 2 players)

Final Pot: 3120
roberto35 shows: J♦ Q♠
Hero shows: K♥ A♦

Hero wins 3120 ( won +1610 )
roberto35 lost -1510

and one more.. should have cashed this tourney but I made a mistake pushing instead of just raising KJ into TT from UTG with more than 14BB...bad move. Next hand shows you the kind of raise calls I'm enjoying SH.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$6.00+$0.50
3 players

Stacks:
BTN Hero (1490)
SB pythonjm (3220)
BB bizon26 (4290)

Blinds: 50/100

Pre-flop: (150, 3 players) Hero is BTN Q♥ Q♠
Hero raises to 300, 1 fold, bizon26 goes all-in 4290, Hero goes all-in 1190

Flop: 6♦ 6♥ 8♣ (5830, 2 players)

Turn: 7♦ (5830, 2 players)

River: J♥ (5830, 2 players)

Final Pot: 3030
bizon26 shows: T♣ A♠
Hero shows: Q♥ Q♠

bizon26 wins 2800 ( lost -1490 )
Hero wins 3030 ( won +1540 )

Played almost 100 SnG's now, and about 30 of them are 6man.

I like 6 man a lot, it's very loose which makes it a bit easier but more unpredictable. Post flop play seems to be terrible. Contibets are rarely raised and people call down my good hands with 2/3 pot bets all the way to the river (sometimes they have KK with an A or trips on the board)

I should think of all the mistakes I make, or used to make, and apply them to my opponents. I'm using stats minimally - 6man is easier to get to know your opponents. I'm also looking at my stats to see my image. Depending on my cards I've been tight or loose early on, and play according to my table image to win even more pots - e.g. an all in bet with the nuts can get paid off sometimes.

On 6man, people are very loose with pushes, but very tight with calling - when I do get called, I'm usually ahead, and only the suckout seems to end my tourneys. My problem of pushing too tight or too loose was more a leak in the way I played ICM from position. I've read more on ICM, and still haven't done SNG wizard yet, but I watched the video on it, which is really useful.

My results have improved, I'm in the plus now (about 2BI only) which is much better than minus 10BI I was before during a small down period.

I probably won't make the leader board for high or low orbit this week - but I'm consistently pulling in 200+ point blocks of 20 tourneys. With 6man, my ITM is consistent, but now I'm playing only for 1st and 2nd, and I have the same number of each.

My heads up has been much better, and I've only been sucked out on badly on all ins, or once outkicked with a pair to cripple me. I've also been the recipient of some great suckouts heads up when beaten.. say KQ>A10

6man SnG is good practice for late stages of the 9man SnGs. I registered for a 9man by mistake and played down til I was fourth place on the low chip stack, and came back to win it. I felt like the 6man experience had given me an edge - but more I think it's the experience of playing almost 80 in a row, and 35 in one session.

At the end of the session I noticed the 2x VIP freeplay and entered - it was my last chance and I'd been up a long time, but it was free, and top 99 places get a higher VIP status, which helps with more FPPs, which means more bonus!

I played in a field of 3700 lower than the 12k I've heard some maxxed out at. It was the last day to play, and early in the day, maybe had something to do with it. I also noticed mostly europeans playing, not sure if this had anytihng to do with how loose the tourney was.

I did play 63rd, after some painful folds UTG (QQ and AK) to survive the bubble. This morning I got a notice from pokerstars saying I had achieved gold status?? Then another message saying that they only meant to put me to silver and that I had been inadvertantly promoted to gold and it had been fixed. I got an email saying the same thing.

I check my status now and it says Goldstar member - I've achieved silver for september, and to maintain gold I need xxxx points.

As a gold member I would get a 100% FPP/VPP bonus, which would really be great help acheiving the bonus. It's too good to be true, but I'm not going to complain if it's not changed back to silver. Even silver is a good result for one week of play.. maybe I can reach platinum - who knows? I have lots of time to play and a decent bankroll.

My ROI for SnG's is above zero, not very much, but I'm really happy about not losing a lot of money

I hope to play my last block of tourneys this weekend, and possibly another 2 or three blocks depending on how i feel. Most of my sesssions seem to start out with a few mistakes and then I get much more solid in my play. I hope to improve this by concentrating more early on in a session, and getting a good start next time.

Update: My VIP status has been fixed (aww) I'm now Silverstar status, but it's good until Sept. 30th, which is 2 months. I think I can get gold for next month, I have to work out how much I need to play to do this, 2500VPP sounds a lot at my BRM, and I don't need to do anything this month even to maintain silver status.

Oh, and now I've been demoted to bronze on pokerstrategy. I did TAF but it hasn't come through yet, I'm not going to be able to attend silver coachings that I need, or gold.. I'm on a bonus quest with stars, where I'd be gold here by now.

Is there anyway to link my pokerstars 2x deposit to this site? Failing that I guess I could move 10BI or so to pokerkings and play SnG's there while I'm on pokerstars. It wouldn't be BRM on pokerkings though.

Does playing one bankroll on two sites keep within BRM if on one you have 90BI on the other 10BI? Probably, I'll break down and try depositing $50 into pokerkings which is linked as well as party poker, which I really didn't like the feel of. I will play <10BI for $5 SnG's, and hope I don't have to move money from pokerstars if I go broke there. I'll try to play enough there to reach gold here, the videos coachings and forums are that helpful.

Same, down to silver and soon bronze. I think you can re-track your account if you had opened it after september 2007, which i didn't (december 2006 i think)

hey Cannell, how do you get this team viewer on IRC, id like to watch as im on a bit of a downswing at the moment and its getting frustrating lol
also who gives the private coachings and how much do they charge you for these coachings?

Switched to 6max for the time being. It's got a much lower variance for me, and the opponents are usually fishier.

since there's less of them to get reads on, I have even more advantage. My postflop play has been more risky, but more rewarding - floated a low pair with a gutshot for example, to hit the gutshot on the river and stack my opppnent.

Before my latest session - I guess about 30 SnG's, I decided to start at a lower buy-in of 3$ to get the bugs out. I thought I was having bad starts to my sessions and figured if it was true, then i might as well lose less.

Turned out to be a good choice, I dominated the 3$ 6max, and came back on to the 6$, lost the first one, and then cashed in last 6 of 7 winning 4 of them. My heads up was controlled domination. I did get sucked out of course, but 4 out of the last five is a good sign. I felt strong and was able to steal, and to fold to reraises when i was beaten. I made lots of really strong calls to steals from shortstacks, taking coin flips and stacking many of them, since I was usually ahead.

This has been my best session yet - even sharkscope has my 'stars ID (cyclotronic) as "hot"

For 69 tourneys - 6max: ROI = 22.2% ITM = %43.5 16/14/10 1st/2nd/3rd

For FPP tourneys, I'm 2 for 6 now. Winning another T$11 and parlaying those winnings into more. 210 FPP tourneys are the best deal going if you're an SnG player. So far I've converted 1240FPP into 22$ of bankroll power - a decent rakeback?

I was going to keep playing for a while, it's hard to stop when your hot, but I need to review, sleep and enjoy my upswing while it's there

The key for me was switching to 6max - and watching coachings. I'm hoping to trade someone some cash on pokerkings from my pokerstars, as I'm linked there too. I'll keep trying at the IRC channel.

Here's hoping Sunday night is as good as the last 3 days!

Originally posted by colinsaces
hey Cannell, how do you get this team viewer on IRC, id like to watch as im on a bit of a downswing at the moment and its getting frustrating lol
also who gives the private coachings and how much do they charge you for these coachings?

You dont use them together. I only said to come on IRC to arrange a good time to do a session. If you come on the IRC i'm sure we can sort a time out, if you'd want to do it.

All ps coaches do pivate coachings I think. Not sure on the prices, but I think they range from 50-300 dollars an hour. What I will say is, they will be able to help your game more than I will. So if you can afford it, they are a must imo.

I've not yet got around to having a session with bckdrflush, as I've been doing alot of sessions with other people. So it might be awile.

Starting to see a trend in almost 200 SnG's played.

ROI for august is over 33%, but that includes some 210FPP tourneys (3 wins out of 7 tries)

6max turbo SnG's are my main game now. The early stages are easy enough, and usually get some chances to double. If not, I'm playing more according to ICM in the mid-late stages especially with short stacks.

ICM is helping me with bad beats too - now I'm the one sucking out A4 to KK once in a while ;-) It took me a few games to adjust, thinking I was pushing a bit too much, and forgetting about my image, and the poorer play of some opponents making ICM inappropriate in some situations. I'll try to make some notes when they happen.

ICM adds a lot to my game, and I've been called some pretty rude names already! (a german called me an SOB, and the worst player ever)

I acheived my goal of installing and using the SnG wizard to review tourneys. At the beginning I had trouble with the quiz and had a lot of X's on my games - in the last 40 games this has improved drastically. Pushing 910s heads up into a short stack? No problems for SnG wizard. The main thing is putting opponents on calling ranges. Using their VPIP gives an estimate, but it does change as the table becomes short.

Players that were very loose early on seem to tighten up their calling range
Tight players early on loosen up their range - especially if they are watching me - of course I'm watching them too! Still playing two tables until I'm confident enough for three - but I'm still wary of losing reads and flow of the game, which I think is very important when you are pushing so much.

Since moving to 6max turbo, my ROI has improved significantly. My BR is up about 20% since deposit a couple of weeks ago, and the trend looks good.

My goals:

1) complete my first 100 block in one week above 1200 points (it's been a busy week not enough poker, so today and tomorrow intensely)
2) continue SnG wizard reviews after each session
3) maintain august results >20% ROI, >40%ITM
4) read more articles on ICM
5) post some more hands
6) try to get some money on pokerkings where I am tracked, and bug my TAF's.
7) visit the IRC channel and do some one on one coachings
8) play in a big MTT (>500) and make final table - maybe HORSE this time.

I guess playing 100 tourneys in a week isn't as easy as I thought. I played 60 in the last two sessions (40 tonight) trying to finish the block of 100 - for the battle of the planets leaderboard.

Today started off losing (as usual) but quickly came back cashing a few in a row and winning more than finishing 2nd.

I didn't eat anything all day I think, except a banana, and some coffee and smokes. Gonna reward myself and eat some fresh hamachi belly I bought earlier at the market.

Final results for the 100 block are enough to make last week's leader board around 75th - which ain't bad at all, still calculating this week's standings....

Getting a bit of flack for my play, but I just tell em to go look at my stats on sharkscope - and then I don't hear much I still lose on some daring steals according to ICM but sometimes it really pays off too.

I've found that being the suckee is much more rewarding than being the sucker, which seems the norm at most cash games and tourneys for good players who only play good hands. That used to be me. Now I'm the guy that pushes the short stack with 63o, and he calls with AKo and loses. (same happens to me on occasion - I've suffered crazy suckouts, but also got some very nice runner runners)

ICM is a different kind of game, but so far the results don't lie. I have 50 tourneys to review now in Sng wizard! I know I made some bad moves - I had to play 5 tables at once in the last hour to ensure that I would make the 100!

ICM calculations (more estimations) are useful also with 3 players left and most of your chips in a pot. It turns out that pushing into a larger stack with a draw or semibluff - or depending on the board a pure bluff is profitable even with a short stack on the table in 3rd place.

My graph for all tourneys is even nicer than just the 6max SnG's - including the FPP's (4 for 8 so far) I've accumulated a full 1/3 of my original buy in in profit. My ROI for 6max turbo Sng's is 17.97% even higher including the winnings for FPP's and other tourneys lately - the FPP winnings are parlayed into more Sng tourney winnings on average. I think my FPP rate is about 3-4c/FPP

I'm thinking about moving up a level after another 100 tourneys if I'm consistent, which is my goal now. After review and posting some more hands, I'll try to get my silver/gold status here. My TAF has almost finished reading all the material, and I've been giving him some lessons - which helps my game as well. I'm well +ev when he's watching, and I'm explaining my moves. I'll try to make a video if possible.

55th place on the leaderboard! I made many mistakes during the block and had a small downswing, but still acheived my goal. Feel I could have done better, which is good for my prospects of top 40 next time (only one more win and I'd have had it I think - just one of those mistakes cost me $20!) The last 10 games were madness playing up to 5 tables to try and complete the block (won't try that again soon - but it was still +$ :))

Thinking I have the bankroll for the 12$ games (75BI), the rake is smaller and I've got decent stats at the 6$ games which don't seem much different. Before I do, I'm going to scope out the 24$ games and see how the best players at 12$ should be. I've watched some high entry games, $300+
so far the guy I 've seen making the most money regularly plays about $225, has 50000 games played and 306k!! in profit at an ROI of only 7% Moving up a level is almost a no brainer, even with the lower ROI. He has a livejournal page I'm going to check out. jhub3000.livejournal.com I think

Year of 2008:
981.69 hrs played
Profit From Playing SNGs: $246,823.15
MTTs,cash games,HU SNGs,live: -$3,622.07
Rakeback/Bonuses: $91,839.35
Total Profit From Playing: $338,662.50
Hourly Rate: $344.98 (excluding staking)
Staking: $70,033.07
Total Yearly Profit: $408,695.57

SnG wizard is confirming some of the moves I thought might have been a bit loose, such as pushing 63o the other day.

and how it played out.

PokerStars Game #19497103430: Tournament #101192372, $6.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level VI (100/200) - 2008/08/09 - 22:52:38 (ET)

hero: posts small blind 100
PR1367: posts big blind 200
HOLE CARDS
Dealt to hero [3♦ 6♣]
badaboom78: folds
hero: raises 1600 to 1800 and is all-in
PR1367: calls 1600
FLOP [3♥ 9♣ 8♥]
TURN [J♥]
RIVER [6♠]
SHOW DOWN
hero: shows [3♦ 6♣] (two pair, Sixes and Threes)
PR1367: shows [K♠ A♠] (high card Ace)
hero collected 3600 from pot

I tightened up folding several hands after that, until it was ripe to steal with KJ s, ICM said only ATs+, but I thought I had regained some image. I only raised 3x with about 11-12 BB on a tight table. My big stack opponent might call with a worse hand - especially after seeing that last one. He did call and the pot was too big to do nothing - I immediately raised all in OOP and he folded quickly.

Later on I had an extended HU with him, back and forth - checking SnG wizard, I played it (and most HU well) - I also used ICM postflop when I could - justifying a huge river bet when I was almost sure my bottom pair was good on a scary board. Finally won the tourney. Still reviewing today, and watching regulars play..

Wow very nice development recently. I really like the attitude with which you are going at your game and constantly improving (with ICM etc).

Good to see its paying off! One thing is for sure - with a constant learning attitude like you are exhibiting - you are always winning - even during a downswing - since your game and understanding is constantly improving

Keep up the good work!

Best regards,
SoyCD

Was up late last night trying to produce a video. The first one didn't work, and was too bad because I came back from about 1/3 stack to win. I did lose two others that session.

The next try worked, and finally I got my video uploaded (for 60 days at camtasia's site)

Comments, suggestions welcome - sorry about the low volume, swearing etc

I'll try to calculate the ICM odds for my push on the last hand in the last game. SNG wizard agrees with most of my moves, but says I made one bad push with Axs (it was close) and didn't steal enough from the BB (though to be honest I was thinking about my image and also may have missed a few plays due to action on the other game.

Oh, and the 65 push was a good one after all.

http://www.screencast.com/t/asjEYo8ta

Had an interesting couple of days taking bad beats, losing with big hands, or just bubbling out by pushing into big pairs

I lost 8 in a row at one point and could only laugh at some of the ways I was taken out - wish I had a time lapse video to show it!

Game 1:

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$6.00+$0.50
6 players

Stacks:
UTG (2345)
UTG+1 (1775)
CO (1785)
BTN (595)
SB (1090)
Hero (1410)

Blinds: 25/50

Pre-flop: (75, 6 players) Hero is BB 6♠ 9♠
2 folds, CO calls 50, 2 folds, Hero checks

Flop: 9♦ 3♠ 3♦ (125, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: 6♣ (125, 2 players)
Hero bets 100, CO calls 100

River: 6♥ (325, 2 players)
Hero bets 100, CO raises to 350, Hero goes all-in 1260, CO calls 910

Final Pot: 2845
Hero shows: 6♠ 9♠
CO shows: 3♣ 3♥

CO wins 2845 ( won +1435 )
Hero lost -1410

Ok - that was fair, I mean I would have checked quads on the flop too and value raise the river - but I put him only on A3 or A9 or another pocket at the river value raise. I get greedy and pay for it. Next time I'm just calling?

Game 2:

I play a superb game dodging all kinds of crazy situations on a fishy game. Finally I get to the bubble - I'm small stack and push K5 from the BB according to ICM. In hindsight I could have waited for a better spot even though the BB was tight and I had 13.5BB only.

Game 3:

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$6.00+$0.50
5 players

Stacks:
UTG (1565)
CO (1205)
BTN (2170)
SB (2860)
Hero (1200)

Blinds: 50/100

Pre-flop: (150, 5 players) Hero is BB 2♦ 7♦
UTG calls 100, CO calls 100, 1 fold, SB calls 50, Hero checks

Flop: 5♦ Q♦ 5♥ (400, 4 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG checks, CO checks

Turn: 8♦ (400, 4 players)
SB bets 100, Hero raises to 600, UTG calls 600, 1 fold, SB goes all-in 2760, Hero goes all-in 500, UTG goes all-in 865

River: J♣ (5725, 3 players)
CO says "lol"

Final Pot: 4430
UTG shows: 6♠ 5♣
SB shows: Q♠ 5♠
Hero shows: 2♦ 7♦

SB wins 5725 ( won +2865 )
UTG lost -1565
CO lost -100
Hero lost -1200

I like my chances all in against two players here - I thought maybe I could beat at least one opponent - I'm still trying to figure this one out! Again, villain checks the nuts on the flop. Ok, bad luck maybe - I'm still confident I have a good game.

Game 4:

A free play. For sure it's just a check - I'm over 14BB

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$6.00+$0.50
4 players
Converted at weaktight.com

Stacks:
CO (1755)
BTN (3030)
SB (2550)
Hero (1665)

Blinds: 50/100

Pre-flop: (150, 4 players) Hero is BB 8♥ 6♥
2 folds, SB calls 50, Hero checks

Flop: K♣ 6♣ 6♠ (200, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero checks

I figure it's my turn to trap, I'm sure he'll bet.

Turn: T♦ (200, 2 players)
SB bets 100, Hero raises to 300, SB raises to 500, Hero goes all-in 1565, SB calls 1065

His raise looks scary but I had already decided to go broke on the flop, and was happy to get all my chips in here.

River: 4♣ (3330, 2 players)

Final Pot: 3330
Hero shows: 8♥ 6♥
SB shows: 4♦ 6♦

SB wins 3330 ( won +1665 )
Hero lost -1665

My all in was good - a bit dangerous if he had a better kicker, but the K and T help a bit with split possibilities if he also has a 6. Of course the 2 outer is nice for him.

Game 5:

Typical game, I finally get some luck with freeplay 89 and hit 2 pair on the flop - go all in, and beat J9 with a boat. Three hands later I pick up JJ on the BB at the bubble.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$6.00+$0.50
3 players

Stacks:
BTN (2240)
SB (4925)
Hero (1835)

Blinds: 100/200

Pre-flop: (300, 3 players) Hero is BB J♦ J♥
1 fold, SB raises to 400, Hero goes all-in 1835, SB calls 1435

Flop: 9♥ K♥ J♠ (3670, 2 players)

Turn: 2♥ (3670, 2 players)

River: T♦ (3670, 2 players)

Final Pot: 3670
Hero shows: J♦ J♥
SB shows: Q♣ K♣

SB wins 3670 ( won +1835 )
Hero lost -1835

Game 6:

I'm determined to keep playing my game, I get a bit looser in early stages completing more SB's and calling more Ax and Axs hands in position. Still staying with the same ICM strategy and I'm doing well post flop in most hands - folding when I'm beaten, and taking chips with contibets when I don't hit - calling for odds and implied odds etc. All is ok with my game - it's just those damn cards!

Fish bust out early, and there's an extended bubble play. The big stack is selfish (as usual) and refuses to cooperate to bust out the small stack, who of course just runs over the big stack and I'm left as small stack after calling some marginal hands thinking he'd come along... not a chance.. I'm thinking of pasting a link to 'collusion on the bubble' article for these people - though I'm probably also benefiting from it when I'm the short stack as well.

After watching the small stack eat away half of this guys chips with 2 and 3 barrels on the turn - I tilt and try the same, but he actually hits a hand too good to fold, and I have to back down. Next hand I push A3 from SB and BB insta calls with Q9h - hits trips and I'm out. That one hurt - I didn't need to try to bluff off the guy that was being such an ass - sign of tilting.

Game 7:

very tight game - with only 8BB I call AT to a push from 22 and lose (I had big stack too) then I push with a marginal hand and get called by a real one . My Q2 SB steal gets called by the BB with A6o who up to that point had been very tight, but must have reads on my range by now, and makes a good call.

Game 8:

Blinded away to ICM land..no hands. Finally get a free play with 69s and flush draw on the turn. there's an A on the board, but I didn't notice he just called me with AQo, and my flush doesn't hit.

Game 9:

I kill it finally, I have no hands until late, when I get AA and beat KQ all in. Then I get AK next hand and double up. Later heads up - back and forth - I win the last 6 hands in a row to take it.

I'm now 2 wins and one second place in the last 6 games (50% ITM and +$$)

An 8 game slide is about the worst I've had so far, and clearly I made some mistakes. Misusing bluffs, and pushing a bit early. Otherwise I'm still very confident in my game, and will be running these through SnG wizard to see where I can improve more. I'm fairly happy with my bubble play, but it doesn't really do you much good when the big stack won't help you eliminate the shorty - or just rolls over to him!

My last losing session didn't discourage me. I checked every tournament in SnG wizard and drilled myself with the ICM trainer.

I also decided to move up a level to $16 single table (9max) games, after playing some 6$ games and doing really well immediately. I think my extensive bubble experience in 6max helped me to get further in my 9max games.

The biggest difference is that there are more players left when the blinds reach 75/50 (sometimes even 7 or 8) and unless I've built a stack early on I have to play push/fold into several players.

SnG wizard shows me that I'm too tight in the SB, and should be pushing any two in many more situations than I do. I'm trying to improve that, and so far it's successful.

Cannell gave me a good review on one of my 16$ SnG's in a video - helping me improve on bet sizing, and some not so obvious push situations for me. My post flop play is solid - and you can see by the pretty pictures how well I'm doing so far this month Thanks Cannell555 you scouser very helpful - I'm hoping to send you another if you have the time.

Here are my cumulative stats for the various games I've been playing this month. Starting with 6$ 6max, then 6$ 9max, and now 16$ 9max. In 210 FPP Tourneys I'm currently 5 cashes for 12 tries.

I'm getting comfortable at $16 9max, even with the bad beats, I'm still sucking out more than my share, and I've had more success against regulars and good players - calling some obvious steals or restealing with a better hand for example.

I've posted some more hands, and my goal now is to continue to practice and analyze ICM, post hands, attend more coachings - play for a while at 16$ and build enough roll to try the 27$ games - hopefully within 2weeks.

BR = $915 (starting from $600)
FPP acquired for 40% bonus = 985/4800

Thanks again everyone for your encouragement and support.

No Limit Holdem Tournament
$15+$1
5 players

Stacks:
UTG (2940)
CO (1575)
BTN (5295)
SB (2000)
Hero (1690)

Blinds: 300/600 Ante 50

Pre-flop: (1150, 5 players) Hero is BB K♦ 4♦
2 folds, BTN raises to 1800, 1 fold, Hero goes all-in 1040

Flop: 9♣ 5♦ A♦ (3990, 2 players)

Turn: 6♠ (3990, 2 players)

River: 3♦ (3990, 2 players)

Final Pot: 3830
BTN shows: Q♣ 9♠
Hero shows: K♦ 4♦

BTN wins 160 ( lost -1640 )
Hero wins 3830 ( won +2190 )

Still playing 16$ games, now have 70 or so to go by. A bit better on the bubble, cashed 5 of last 6, and 7 of last 10, but noticed not enough wins and too many 3rd places, which means I'm playing too tight. I plan to use ICM trainer to help me a bit more at final 3 stage.

ROI: 17%
BR: $996/$600
Points: 1200/4800
Status: Silverstar

Goals now include:
- play enough tourneys to get to gold star
- move up to 27$ BI games (at 50BI)
- study ICM and practice with trainer
- review and post hands
- attend coachings
- regain some status on pokerstrategy.com
- finish Terrorblade's coaching song.