[Closed] The dancing machine's SnG blog

I seem to be pretty successful in finding rocket lately.... in opponents' hands..

Originally posted by tpoke
I seem to be pretty successful in finding rocket lately.... in opponents' hands..

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I laughed like hell...

I laughed like hell...

..glad you did! .. I certainly had my share of laughter just before posting

..so I went to play some 2.25 turbos.. not a good idea really.. it reminded me of how badly I wanted to move up in stakes previously. I'd probably have a better chance in winning a local lottery... alright, I'm over-exaggerating there but you get the point..

After the micro-stakes try was over, I took a bit of a risk and took another shot back at the 6s and 5s. Wanted to open up 2 of each only, but the competition seemed so soft I ended up opening one more for each, making it six tables altogether. I usually 8-table and also happened to try 12 tables and didn't seem to mind. Anyway, wanted to properly focus on the gameplay this time and this is how it went:

5.5 normal #1: two whales at the table.. played them on few occasions:
- freeplayed A3o on A 7 Q rainbow seemed like a good spot, but it was so early in the game I didn't wanna risk the tournament and gave up on it after he made an over-pot-size bet.
- JJ - should have raised preflop, but there were so many limpers I decided to limp as well.. flop 5 8 8.. the whales held T8 and 58.. lucky me I didn't take a shot at this post flop (but should have done pre)
- AKo preflop raise, three way on flop and no hit - gave up on it

with my last 735 (12.3bb) chips I was happy to finally welcome ladies in my pocket.. decided to go a little slower with them and raised only preflop with one limper before.. got a flat call from a TAG two seats to my left and another from a limping fish. I wouldn't mind the fish, but the flat call from the TAG felt way too suspicious. The flop came 8 3 9 two colors.. but I had a strong feeling that the TAG is holding rockets.. anyway, with 495 chips left I ignored the feeling hoping he'd have a hand like AK, but he showed me the rockets and it was game over.

6.5 turbo #1:
was going normally up to a point where blinds were 80/160
I'm sitting in BB holding A8o with 8.5bb, SB shoves his 11.7bb into me. He's a reg and I know he's pushing wide. I'm gonna blame it on intuition ..but I felt I have him beaten.. call, he shows A6o. Cool, he's not gonna beat me this time, I'm gonna take it... J 4 J ... 9 ... 6 !!! ...oh come on, not again!
Ok, I shouldn't have called that one, again a marginal spot I put myself in.. the intuition got it all wrong!

6.5 turbo #2:
was doing fine.. until.... A7s in CU with 7.2bb remaining chips (120/240)... push. BU calls with 66, rest fold.
Board: 8 7 K ....yes! ..gotcha!! ♠_biggrin: .... 8 .. ♠_cool: ... 6..

On the 3 remaining tables it was getting close to bubble. Eventually I got ITM in all three of them.

5.5 normal #2:
two fish at the table 3-handed.. The stacks right after bubble were something like 2k for me, then 4k and 8k. Waited patiently, busted the second stack with 99 over his unimproved QJs. Then went heads up.. the game was quite lose with low relatively blinds, so when I held AA I raised like any other hand, we see a flop, but he folds after my c-bet. Two hands later, I find rockets again (the quote in the post above was written before this happened ♠_biggrin:), but he folds to me... ah.. whatever...
Finally outplayed him postflop in this hand:

6.5 turbo #3:
Nothing special to mention here.. ran pretty solid, lost only one had in the whole tournament, and that was QTo steal when 3-handed. BB re-stole and I folded.
Won everything else I got involved in.. which is a bit strange, on a second thought ♠_cool:

5.5 normal #3:
Was running great at this as well. Could have probably be the most strategic poker game I played, ever.. And I enjoyed it the most I can remember! ♠_love:
If only the result was a little bit different, but still, after all I've been through the last few days I enjoyed one simple tournament game, which I find fascinating.

I was entering three handed phase as the chip leader. Had several interesting spots, at one moment I was the shorty at the table, but I managed to get on top again, and then this came:

...got used to this over the past couple of days! ♦
The game lasted 4 more hands for me when I shipped the remaining stack with A6o and got called by AQo. Finished 3rd.

Altogether, 50% ITM, 62.5%ROI.. could have been even better... but still, it was only 6 games.
Still.. I don't think it makes any sense at this point to go play with the micro- macro-gamblers.
With my current BR of something above $311 this is quite close to the limit in terms of BRM. I realize that fully.
I'll be going on mixing the 6s and 5s, playing 4-6 tables at most at the same time and focus closely on the gameplay.

What can be better than finding JJ or QQ on bubble....?

April 2011 - not many good memories for this one being the worst month for me so far along with the Black Friday and its consequences. But it also had some positives:
- finally bought a decent monitor (24" 1920x1200px) which made playing a lot better experience
- started this blog, which helped me focus on my game more (even though the results were going the opposite direction)
- and the bad run at tables made me review my game with better attitude

The start of the month went actually quite good, but later on I started getting very cold on the tables and bumped into more better hands than I'd like seeing.
I played both on FullTilt and PokerStars with primary focus on FT.

The graphs below are filtered for 9/9-10 man SnGs.

FullTilt:

$2.25t 106 / -35.8% / -$85.50 / 28BI below EV
$2.25n 19 / 13.7% / $5.85
$3.30 6 / 21.2% / $4.20 / steps
$5.50 128 / -3.5% / -$24.50 / 12BI below EV
$6.50 327 / -5.0% / -$105.98 / 8BI above EV
FR 30 / - / $1.10 / 9man FTP satellites
MTT 34 / -28.3% / -$11.38
------------------------------------------------
650 / -6.8% / -$216.21

Games played: 650 (34 MTTs)
Avg Buyin: $4.88
Time played: 74.9 hrs
Rake: $262.65
Winnings: -$204.83 (stt) -$11.38 (mtt) -$36.85 (cg) + $70 (rb) + $47.45 (net bonus) = -$135.61

PokerStars:

$1.08 - $1.75 90 / -5.8% / -$7.16 / 8.5BI below EV
$3.30 - $3.40 63 / -10.5% / -$22.40 / 7BI below EV
MTT FR 5 / - / $4.27
------------------------------------------------
158 / -7.5% / -$25.29

Games played: 158 (5 MTTs)
Avg Buyin: $2.14
Time played: 26.6 hrs
Rake: $39.68
Winnings: -$29.56 (stt) + $4.27 (mtt) + €10 (bonus) = -$11.30

Altogether that makes it almost $150 negative, which isn't that bad after all, but still, I'd rather see it going the other way around. The biggest positive of the month is that the downswing really made me look at my game and thanks to that I became a better player than I would be had I not had the downer. Now I could use is a bit of a heater to help me from psychological point of view.

Review of goals for April:

• 800 games - 769 9man + 39 mtts = 808
• bronze iron man - had a good run for it, but decided not to push it too hard and rather focus on my game instead
• make gold status on PS - made it with current 936.1pts - will be lowering volume though, so I'll probably lose it soon
• study study study! - re-read SnG articles , watch as many videos , post more hands - still a lot room to grow into, especially in terms of posting/reviewing hands in the forums
• enjoy playing on the new toy - was a pleasure
• mix-in some 10+1/11+1 - only if BR allows - no way, on the contrary, had to step down in stakes

May 2011, here I come!
Good luck at the tables everyone..

Goals for May:

• 500 games - will be lowering the volume but would still like to get some
• keep the gold status on PS - will be tough with the lower volume, especially if I need to keep playing micro-stakes.
• make use of gold status - read gold articles, watch videos useful for low stakes
• continue reviewing game sessions
• post unclear hands in the forums
• review others hands in the forums
• clear as much of the added bonus on FT (so far $40/$200) then focus on clearing first deposit bonus on PS (so far €10/€50)

No focus on IronMan this month. I feel when I push myself the wrong way into playing as much as possible I tend to lose it and deviate from my A game too much! Need to first learn to focus on the game first, volume later.

Had my first poker dream tonight! ♦
..totally absurd.. I was playing some kind of a tournament, something over 30 players only, and I wasn't actually even playing.. somehow, everyone was folding to me when I was in blinds, so I wasn't losing any.. I just watched the table sitting out the whole tourney and finished second for $7000 ♠_biggrin: ..had a good feeling the rest of the night ...and woke up 7 grand lighter

,,back to reality.. having a nice start into May, very small sample so far, 30 games over 2 days, don't want to push it too hard (even though I could do a little harder).
The 30 games is a mix of
- 9 games of $2.25turbo - still getting tough luck on these, only one ITM and another 5BI below EV, dropping these from my repertoire.
- 13 games of $2.25normal - 69.2% ITM / 90.8% ROI!
- 6 games of $5.5normal - 50% ITM / 36.4% ROI
- 2 games of $6.5turbo - placed 2nd, and 6th

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I still have a feeling of running a little colder, but maybe that's just standard.
What pissed me most was getting QQ beaten by 66 hitting set on a flop within three minutes after my KK got cracked by some Ax middle on another table.
But that happens.. I'd just appreciate some time with standard situations between them..

Also played a $100 national facebook freeroll.. 63 entrants, placed 3rd for $12 ♠_grin: ...final hand was TT < AKo
...had KK three times during the course of the tourney - not cracked a single time, yipeee

My BR is at $350 currently. I'll be dropping the unlucky turbos at micro limits, mixing some normal $2.25s with $5.5s and $6.5s.

Ahh.. what do you think of mixing normal and turbo games in one session? I don't seem to mind it.. or at least realizing it, but what's your opinion/experience?

hey dude, just read your blog and got to say keep at it. I am have also recently started my SNG career on FTP and am currently grinding the $2.25s.

GL on the tables fella.

thanks dude!

..so I haven't posted in a while.. actually wanted to report on two occasions already, but just on those two occasions I had some hard pills to swallow on the tables, and instead of whining here I thought I better keep my mouth shout until I get past that.

The month is going good.. dropped a bit on volume, which resulted in losing the gold ps status yesterday. But I'll climb back with the new system, so I don't worry about that.
The start of the month was reaaaaally great, had something like $2 per tourney and some $10/hr over 100 games. Didn't even feel as though running too hot or something, but probably did. Anyway.. then the "fishy Sunday" came and my roll went down.
Seems funny to me.. up until recently, my main positive days were Sundays while the working days were slightly negative. And not too long ago, it suddenly switched.. so yeah, a new conspiracy theory was born in my head... well, not so new after all probably

Still, my goal for the month was to clear as much as I could from the added bonus on FT and then move to PS to clear my First deposit bonus there.
Cleared 40% off of the $200 + 2 x $20 rush tickets. Oh God do I suck at cash games! Got some $5 off of the tickets on rush but went busto pretty quickly. Find it so boring when there's no ending to it. I better stick to sngs
After the bonus was cleared I played some more on FT, wanted to get some academy points to order "The Poker Mindset" from the store, but the games felt so unreal at times (Sunday again). Felt as though half of the showdowns went in favor of the less probable player (not only my hands).

So I got enough of it and cashed out all of my roll from FT ♦ ...combined my FTPA points with FTP and ordered the book. And now I'm clearing the FDB at Stars. Still need to actually make some deposit, but I find getting an extra 465€ the thing to do right now.

Currently 6-tabling $4.13KO (3+.75+.38) normal speed 9man sngs to see if I like the KO structure better and to get used to the PS software a bit more before I move to $5.50 or $6.75KO.

Got a nice welcome package from stars.. 12BI downswing.. 50% 4th..

alright.. took a week off off the tables to have my mindset reset..
didn't even want to play today at first, but went for two small sessions:

first session: 6 KO normal speed - one won, all other lost
(two busted with KK and AA)

important decision to drop the KOs has been made here - not profitable for me, at least not on the low stakes

second session: 6 regular 9man sngs - 2x1st + 1x2nd + 1x3rd
..and 6th and 7th (AT vs Q6; A9 vs AK)

doubt I will make gold ps status this month - only around 50SP short, but don't expect to be able to play much in the next few days. But that's ok, it's not the end of the world... hopefully