[Closed] My FTP sit'n'go blog

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Welcome to the bloggers team and good luck!

Hello everyone,

A week has passed very quickly and I don't have much to report on. I only played 5 STTs during that week, won two of them, finished 3rd once and ended 9th twice.

I add a financial summary:

Starting bankroll: 150 $
Profit/loss:: - 39.15 $
One-off expenses (Rush): - 5.5 $
Other income (rake back, new depositors freeroll): +30.36 $
Bonus released: +30.00 $
Current bankroll: 165.71 $

I started to review some of my sessions and I think I am too soft at times, not taking the opportunities to increase my bankroll, see the example below:

Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:

Play hand

$250/$500 No-Limit Hold'em (4 handed)

Known players:
[tg]BB$1625.00:///////;CO$4520.00:///////;BU$3035.00:///////;SB (Hero)$4320.00:///////;[/tg]

Preflop: Hero is SB with K:d, 2:s.
3 folds, 2 folds, Hero folds, BB gets uncalled bet back.

Final Pot: $250.

I think that I should have pushed this hand, what do you say?

I will review some more tournaments and post some hands to hand evaluation forum soon but feel free to comment on the above mentioned one.

Vitusus

Hi, Vitusus,

By coincidence, I melted my frozen heart against Full Tilt and started playing their $1+.20 STTs today. So far I've played only six, but things look promising. On FT I am noname65. What's your nick there?

Regarding the hand you posted, at a short table a King-high hand has considerable value. I'm not very experienced, but I believe in loosening up your range considerably when you get to the last four (provided that the prize structure is, as I expect, top 3 get paid). With four left no one wants to be bubble boy and some of your opponents might be playing scared money. I would at the very least have called. I might not have raised out of position, but once the CO and BU folded, I might have raised 4X in order to steal the big blind.

Take everything I say with a grain of salt because I am so far a beginner and a losing player. I'm also trying to develop a LAG style because Full Tilt is infamous for its suckouts.

Hi Vitusus, according ti ICM yuo should be pushing any 2 cards in that spot as you have less than 10 bb and double the bb's stack.
Have you downloaded Icm trainer?You need to learn about push or fold to win s&g's.Good luck.

cheers Gordy

Hello everyone

@ belayd,
I am playing $2+0.25 STTs there under the nick RealVitusus.

@ gordy1957,
I am well aware of ICM and I thought that I should have pushed there and I am loose much more in the late phase of SNGs but I still have certain problems with pushing ATC. I have downloaded ICM trainer and simulated some 3k+ hands there, so far over 92 % correctly so I think I understand the concept but need more practice to automatize the use of it.

I hope to play some poker today so that I have something to report on

Vitusus

92% is better than me I only get 90% :(.
I dont push ATC either cos they call light at this level

Originally posted by Vitusus
@ belayd,
I am playing $2+0.25 STTs there under the nick RealVitusus.

Who knows, if I can move up, I might yet run into you.

How many STTs do you need to have played in order to have a reliable statistical sample

...3000+

Originally posted by altkiki
...3000+

I hope I will not wipe out my bankroll by that time

I had quite successful session tonight, so I hope it will continue like that. I stepped down from multitabling 5 to only 4 tables as I felt a bit uncomfortable with 5 tables and I hope this may be a result of my action.

Vitusus

Disclaimer: This post may contain traces of despair and frustration ♦

Hello every one,
Well I obviously forgot to cross my fingers.
Today I had one of the worst sessions I have ever experienced. And the last game I finished just a minute ago really pissed me. I just lost my pocket Ts to pocket 9s by straight of 4 to 8 coming on the table, aaaaaagrh

But this was not the only bad beat of today. I played total of 24 SNGs today but I have cashed only in 5 of them (4 times 2nd place and 1 3rd) leaving me in loss of 28.80 $ for today. This brought my bankroll back to 150 $

I am adding my total profit graph so far, I think you will identify today's session easily.
Total profit

I really don't know how to find the leaks inside my games, is anyone interested in analysing my today's session? I could send you hand history files for today

Vitusus

Hello everyone,
I am afraid that either I am a losing player or I just have a ton of bad luck these days.
My last week:

SNGs played: 60

Won: 1
2nd places: 13
3rd places: 10

ITM percentage: 40 %

P&L: -19.80 $
Rakeback: 1.35 $
Bonus released: 15.00 $

This is exactly the situation I experience all the time. I realized right now that I need get much better in HU because I think that 40 % ITM should be more than enough to break even at least. But I am obviously getting too many second places and third places. What do you think?

Is it more of a problem that I have low ITM percentage or wrong distribution of paid places? I know, it is still low sample but can someone more experienced draw any conclusions yet from the data available?

Thanks in advance for any comments

Vitusus

40% ITM is good and should make you a winning player,but too few first places means that you are not doing very well post bubble,now it could just be variance,but you are probably not aggressive enough.
Check on your stack sizes,if you are mostly getting ITM and HU as short stack then you are definatly playing too tight in the late stages.
1 first place is better than 2 thirds.Are you using ICM trainer to practice post bubble play? and have you got the nash push fold charts?
I think you know this already so go for the win and good luck.
cheers gordy

Hello everyone,

It's time to summarize the month of April. Last week was rather slower but I managed to find some time for poker as well, so here is the result:

SNGs played: 52

Won: 5
2nd places: 10
3rd places: 4

ITM percentage: 37 %

P&L: -3.80 $
Rakeback: 3.56 $
HU P&L: -4.60 $

As you can see, the last week was not that bad but still I lost some. As I see it, I am slowly learning to play the latest phases of SNGs, I am very patient and tight at the beginning of the tourney which brings me a lot to the later stages but though I understand the concept of ICM, I am still quite scarred to ship all my chips in with any two

But I have a feeling that I am slowly getting better, after all practice makes perfect, right ♦

As far as the whole month is concerned:

SNGs played: 162

Won: 11
2nd places: 29
3rd places: 21

ITM percentage: 38 %

P&L: -33.50 $
Rakeback and bonuses: 21.29 $

HU P&L: -4.80 $

Update on my goals:

1) I managed to release 15 $ and have three more days to release some more.
2) You have probably guessed yourself that I completely suck in fulfilling this goal.
3) The only one I managed to complete, I have seen 6 videos in April.
4) As someone already mentioned, this goal is pointless.

Goals for May:

1) To play at least 200 SNGs
2) To increase my bankroll by at least 25 $ (let's make some realistic small steps).
3) To release as much of the new bonus as possible (maximum is 50 $ which is out of question for May).
4) To watch at least 5 SNG videos.
5) To practise at least 4 000 hands on ICM trainer.
6) Optional: If time allows, analyse at least 10 tournaments and post some hand to hand evaluation forum.

I would appreciate some more suggestions as for the improvement of my game (possible additional goals, etc.)

Vitusus

Hi there!

I´m czech too, currently staying in Pilsen I recently noticed a lot of czech players at FTP, probably a result of some advertisment campain. Nice.
I play 10.50 superturbos and I climbed up stakes from the 50usd starting capital, so I can tell you that you don´t have to worry about "infamous suckouts"... if you manage to keep playing some volume, you are gonna see sick heaters too, so don´t worry If you are a beginning player, most of your "downswings" probably come from not beating the game enough, so put some time in reading and training.
As you get used to spending some time playing, you´ll see that your rewards come mostly from maintaining a solid game through a real LOT of games.
Also, get some software like SngWizard or ICM trainer to get a grasp of the push fold situations - a key thing for sngs, it will pay a milion times.

And glad to see a czech sng player - feel free to contact me on ICQ 289904002. ♠_cool:

Hi guys,

you should know this blog and last news regarding czech community, in case you didn't you should check it. (click on the link)

As said, from the beggining you should study a lot, especially improve your late phase game. Due to your low volume you should be prepared for a swings, which will last even more than 2 month from time to time, because 200 games in SnG is very low sample, where variance can be very cruel.

Btw never set up goals like:
2) To increase my bankroll by at least 25 $ (let's make some realistic small steps).

You can't affect how much you will win. You can only play your A-game, but even if you play the best possible game, you can lose money in the short term.

You have to aim for best decision at the table. Monetary goals are pointless.

You can contact me through PM if you want some detailed info.

Thanks a lot for advice guys, I very much appreciate it. I have the suggested thread among favourites for quite some time, I am looking forward for the Czech community launch.

I know that the volume is low and I expect to increase it slowly, probably by adding one or two more tables to the four I am currently playing. I wouldn't probably manage to play more than that.

We'll see how much time I will have for this as I have quite demanding work (same employer like Cornie4ever used to have, just a different department )

Good luck at the tables.

Vitusus