Building Bankroll for HS MTTs

Nice that you start blogging here too. Definitely gonna follow your updates.

GL!

It's always nice to make profit from Sunday grind. Won 3 tournaments today (930$, 354$ and 171€) and was 4th in 50€ tournament which gave me more than average tournament win.

I Wasn't really happy about the volume today. I started 2 hours later than I should and some of the tournaments I play every day were cancelled because it's sunday.

Count: 53
Profit +1083,44$

Honestly, tell me how stupid you think my play was. Hand was from 6$ speed rebuy FT, BB was very tricky midstakes reg.

My Thoughts:

Monday is probably the best or the second best day for MTT grind. It seems that the most of the best regs are taking a break after sunday and FTs are full of fish. I won 3 tournaments (788$, 395$, 214$) and was amazed how there was probably 2 x decent regs in each FT.

My HU opponent in the biggest one (22$ freezeout 2,7k gtd) was 3betting every single hand, calling all 4bets and playing postflop very randomly. In the end, I staked him by 4betting KK and going AI to some random flop with him holding a flushdraw with T3s. This type of fish is never gets in Sunday FTs, ever wonder why?

PartyPoker software update somewhat fucked up my set. I didn't really have a back-up plan, because these things happen too rarely. So I basically had to register everything at party before 9pm and I stopped registering hour earlier than I normally would at other sites. I still managed to get the volume I wanted for the day and I'm somewhat back on track to my 4k MTTs volume goal. Profit goal seems to be no problem if I run this good.

Count: 85
Profit +512,48$

Nice to see a real MTT blog here, because there's not that many of them!

[x] Following

Why did you switch from cash games to mtts?

Fissssssssh

GL though..

Yesterday same problem with party. Started session around 5pm finnish time and registered 7 tournaments which were all cancelled. Gladly they paid almost all my buy-ins back so no harm done.

I'm amazed how well 3barrel bluffs work at late stages of the tournament. No one seems to be very well balanced, every reg has tendency to raise anything decent at flop or turn. If they have a weak made hand, draw or float they will call once or twice and most of the time just fold the river, because often there's not enough reads to depend on.

In cash games I would be owned if I would make these 3barrels as often as I do in MTTs, but I don't know what to tell you. It just works basically every single time, specially in 3bet pot to Axx or Kxx boards. 2 examples I posted aren't actually even the most optimal spots for bluff. Your stack is often the determining factor.

Spot #2:

You really shouldn't bluff unless you are sure that your image is tight and your opponent is capable of folding his bluffcathers and weak enough to fold his bluffcathers. You are putting your tournament life in the line and your opponent is not.

Spot #1:

I wish I would remember is this from 6max FT or FT bubble. If it's from FT bubble I like it very much even tho, we want to be often the bigger stack when making this plays. In FT this would marginal play and I don't think our opponent is that likely to fold Ax here 3-handed. You really should pay attention in which spots MTT regs make their big bluffs and not make those bluffs. Bottom line you should bluff when others don't, that means FT, FT bubble, Late states just before ITM or Pay-jump. You shouldn't bluff that often when there's nothing to loose and people expect you to bluff (ITM with no pay-jump or very small pay-jumps far away from FT). People expect you to bluff 3-handed and HU even tho there's most to loose and most edge to gain. Often I think you shouldn't make 3barrel bluffs at all in HU, your opponent is more likely to spew his stack to you than give credit. You should try very loose valuebets and 3barrel. I often might 3barrel with middlepair + top kicker and villain check/calls me with worse pair or even with ace high if I'm lucky. Ironically enough, you often should make 3barrel bluffs against fishes (unless fish is a total retard) because fishes are more likely to play more hands, call flop looser, but fold to your turn & riverbets more often.

#1

#2

Count: 69
Profit +502,06$

Originally posted by sngplayer90
Why did you switch from cash games to mtts?

Fair question. I tried cash games for 3 years and never got higher than being NL200 reg and taking shots to NL400. Even tho I am a lot better player than I was at the time, I really don't think that my edge has got any greater in last few years because everyone else has improved too. To be successful in cash games today it's not enough that you're a very good player, you also need to be a good grinder. I always had problem with spewing in cash games when playing long hours. If you are a cash game player and you play 2 - 3 hours a day, try playing for 6 - 8 hours for a week or two and you see what I mean. If you can do that you will probably make more money from cash games than MTTs, but if not it's more likely that MTT suits you better because games a lot more softer and it's easier to grind. I actually would say the same about Sit & Gos even tho I think it's probably easier to make 10k or 100k profit from SNGs compared to cash games. Imo Sit & Gos are really the toughest ones to play professionally, because you can't sit & out for a 5 minutes at any point and you don't have sheduled breaks. That's the reason I really think that lot of SNG regs would be more successful if they would just focus on MTTs.

I don't mean this to be a guideline to every single forum member, because some of us obviously can't/don't want to play 6 - 8 hours a day and if you're a beginner you should start from SNG or cash games if you really want to be good. By this I meant players like me who are pros or have a determined goal to be pros at somepoint.

you did great job on finnish community,best of luck to your mtt project.->Add Thread to Favorites

No that we get our Finnish corner open, you can also continue blogging in Finnish too.

Hi Aleksi!

You said you switched to MTTs because you felt like not improving in cash games. Someone like you, who's playing for living and as a pro, doesn't it however always come down to making money? So do feel like you can reach better profit/hour in tournaments than in cash games?

Not hard to believe, that in tournaments skill level of players over all for sure is a lot weaker than it is in nl50+ cash games. But isn't it also a lot harder to take advantage over your opponents in tournaments, because it's pretty much always the effective stacks that kind of determines your correct game strategy in certain situations against certain players? And of course because it's tournaments, luck factor is a lot higher. To win a tournament, you must run good in more than one spot during tournament.

And playing such a high volume as you have planned, it takes so many hours/day to reach that. So if being a bit lazy grinder in cash games, how comes you being more hard working in tournaments? Is it just the fact that tournaments are always progressing and playing adjusting not only because of you opponents, but also because of blinds getting bigger all the time? Simply meaning tournaments just are that much more interesting than cash games.

Looking your first post in this blog seems like your av.stake is ~15d, and you say you play small field tournaments. Guessing you dont play at stars that much then? Or what is small field for you? 1000-, 500-, or 200- players?

You have been grinding tournaments now for pretty long time, how has it felt? Do still like it more than times at cash tables? How has your daily rhythm built out? Starting every evening after six and playing through the night till the morning and then sleep till the afternoon? Or is it possible to get somewhat humane day rhythm when trying to get a living out of it and trying to do sensible game selection? Feel like being MTT pro you must be more isolated from outside world than a cash game player?

Lots of questions, and it's all right if you don't want to answer them all I'm just very intrested myself about being a MTT pro at now days. I have always felt the passion to go for it, but every time when started after few weeks I've just give up, feeling it's just way too much work and taking so much time out off your normal outside tables life.

Wish you all the best and luck to the tables! This blog going to my favorites and I will be following. Keep on grinding!

Count: 68
Profit +233,65$

No wins yesterday, but I was 3th in 6$+R at Party and won 646$ (1,7k for the win).

Someone like you, who's playing for living and as a pro, doesn't it however always come down to making money? So do feel like you can reach better profit/hour in tournaments than in cash games?

Yes and yes.

But isn't it also a lot harder to take advantage over your opponents in tournaments, because it's pretty much always the effective stacks that kind of determines your correct game strategy in certain situations against certain players? And of course because it's tournaments, luck factor is a lot higher.

I think this is somewhat true, but there's actually really simple skillset of moves you need to learn to crush MTTs and won lot of money. At the end of the day it all comes to gameselection. You can be the best player in the world, but if you don't gameselect or you gameselect poorly, you are not going to win as much you should. There is lot of MTT regs that are poor gameselectors and probably they all just think they run bad.

Good gameselection reduces variance. You shouldn't focus how much is for the win, you should focus how much you make on average by registering to tournament.

So if being a bit lazy grinder in cash games, how comes you being more hard working in tournaments?

I've just changed my working habits complitely, set clear goals and go for whats mine. Nothing more, nothing less.

Looking your first post in this blog seems like your av.stake is ~15d, and you say you play small field tournaments. Guessing you dont play at stars that much then? Or what is small field for you? 1000-, 500-, or 200- players?

Pokerstars is the first place you should avoid unless you're a high stakes reg. Big & Hot tournaments are very good if you have big bankroll, if not I would recommend just avoiding pokerstars. Most of the tournaments I play have less than 200 players.

How has your daily rhythm built out? Starting every evening after six and playing through the night till the morning and then sleep till the afternoon? Or is it possible to get somewhat humane day rhythm when trying to get a living out of it and trying to do sensible game selection? Feel like being MTT pro you must be more isolated from outside world than a cash game player?

I think you just have to manage your time better. You don't have to be grinding every night from 6pm to 6am, but you obviously want to reach your volume goal every month. Watch less TV, spend less time in facebook and sleep 6 - 8 hours a night instead of 10 - 12 hours like some pokerplayers do and you notice it doesn't effect your social life that much. For me this kind of grinding is just temporary, obviously I have to make some sacrifices because I want to reach my goals in very short period of time.

What sites do you recommend for ABI of $3-$10 for the avg. field of 200-300?

888 seems good but party doesn't seem to have many for lower buy-ins...

Count: 157
Profit: +138,88$

3 wins since last update, but as you can see winning MTTs doesn't always mean that you make huge profit. I also was 6th in 11r partypoker two days ago. It's somewhat frustrating when have changes to win 4-figs, but you don't. Well at least it's been full 7 days without a losing session.

I've started to add some flatting when playing shortstaked. This type of approach seems to give huge edge against lot of random players and weak regs. Hopefully I have some interesting hands to post next time.

Originally posted by MikaIV
What sites do you recommend for ABI of $3-$10 for the avg. field of 200-300?

888 seems good but party doesn't seem to have many for lower buy-ins...

Party & Ongame all rebuys up 6$, all freezeouts up to 11$. Not sure about 888 because I've never played there. RAY is also good for finnish low stakes grinder, there's lot of small buy-in MTTs with small fields and something like 6 regs in total.

Count: 158
Profit: -895,31$

It's been hard last two days. Had some changes to win big, but just couldn't make it after all. Yesterday was basic sunday -0,8k. I probably should just skip higher than 22d freezes and 11d rebuys.

Unfortunately I don't have time to post & analyse any hands to today, but will promise to do that in the next post.

Could you ever find fold here? 13bb effective agaist tight reg 11r in party.

This is somewhat interesting even tho it's from early stages. I think we should almost always raise here instead of call. When playing small stakes it's ok to just call here because you play against opponents who bluff here too often. If you're playing in pokerstars or just higher buy-in tournament, regs are often betting here wide for value but not bluffing that much. We can easily rep a Jack, 66, 77 by raising and I believe that most of the time we get respect from good reg. River raise bluffs happen very rearly in MTTs.

This is from the 22d bigger deeprun. I had a little bit floaty image, but I had not anything close to this at point. I think in this spot often either a reg makes a mistake and doesn't fold or he makes a right play and folds. This really is just about is he in his A-game or not.

When I started play MTTs I was little bit unsure to make bluffs against MTT regs, because I wasn't really sure in which spots they're capable of folding and what they're capable of folding. I think often it's really not that much what you're repping. Here in his point of view I'm probably repping a set or 97s which is pretty thin range. Still you're going to get AA here to fold from time to time because it's really just a bluffcather.

It just seems that there's a million spots in MTTs were you can basically rape your opponent complitely by making a play which he has to give credit. By giving credit I mean folding very close to 100% of his range.

Count: 62
Profit: +2404,64$

Had little bit shorter session yesterday. I was broke in 2 of my main sites after sunday and waiting for withdrawal from 2 others so I had mix in some pokerstars large field MTTs. I was 2nd in pokerstars 2,20+R 2x turbo (2545$), 1st in ongame 54d turbo (701$) and 2nd in ongame 11r (463$).

It sometimes feels that it might be +EV to pass some of the tournaments and play more focused better game. Even tho I think I'm a good gameselector, I often struggle with things like "register or not". More than too often I've had something like 20 tables running and I still had this feeling that I have to register to this 11$ freezeout for extra 5$. Sometimes I've even had 2 - 4 tournaments registered in next 30minutes which has caused a disaster in my computer screen (2 screens fit for 24-tabling). Yesterday I played less tables and I think I played better and more focused, I didn't blindout even once and I ended up making a good profit.

I didn't make a blogpost just for brag (even tho it is enough for a reason). I also wanted to post few hands in which I did some flatting shortstaked.

I think the first one is really basic spot to make this play. We could shove here, but because were not sure about our FE or how many worse hands is he calling us with(some hand like A5s would be better example). We can flat here and our basic strategy would be check/jam most of the flops.

It's close to FT-bubble (12 left or something) and we could shove here profitable any two cards (opponents BU raise 100% so far). Obviously this close to FT, we don't want to take that many marginal plays because there's too much to loose and shorter stacks still on board. You should always consider are you the shortest stack or not. If you are shortest stack you can take more risks specially at FT with shoves & calls, but if you are not you should operate with much tighter ranges.

Our plan is basically the same. We are not going to c/jam flops like J:h 8:d 9:h, but were going to c/jam most of the flops.

Even tho you might think I do this for balansing reasons, it's really not about balansing. I might do balansing agaist 4 - 5 regs I play against every day, but most of the time there just isn't enough reasons to do that. I just think that it's optimal here to call instead of shove because of the ICM effect. We can't really shove that wide and SB is a tight lowstakes reg who is not going to shove that wide, BU who is in CL knows that and is capable of minraise/folding a lot here. So this time we slowplay our KK and hope he hits some piece of the flop and make our standard c/jam which we could make with a wide range of hands.

I don't think that this is good spot for this play most of the time. We are in FT with 8bbs and we are not the shortest stack. This time I had some reads to depend on. Raiser is a fish and he's raising very wide, still I'm expect him to fold unless he hits a pair. So our plan is to donkshove our air and any 8 outs+ draw, were not going to shove boards like 552r or 742r, but were going to shove any Qxx, Kxx, Axx, 87x and so on. If the board is Jxx, Txx were going to c/jam to get more value from fish.

Have you done EV-calculations on those flat-check/raise spots? How do you know they are more profitable than just resteal or fold?

Originally posted by MikaIV
Have you done EV-calculations on those flat-check/raise spots? How do you know they are more profitable than just resteal or fold?

Against some players it's not more profitable or you have change your gameplan. It really depends who are you against with.

I did EV-calculation for A6o assuming flop is K72 and villain raising BU 40% (having all Kxo, Kxs in his opening range) cbet/fold 100% of his air and cbet/call 100% with middlepair or better + 8 outs draws. I got pretty much the same EV for this play vs shove, I think shove was 10k chips more profitable. I think it's really hard to actually make EV calculations to spots like this because there's million scenarios and million different opponents and EVs are always very marginal when playing this shortstaked.

I've just came to conclusion that this type of play works well when the ranges go wider and you are better of evaluting your equity to different flops than your opponent is. I probably have to check some exact numbers from my HEM after 6 months or so, but for now I just have to assume that things I do are the right ones.

Count: 239
Profit: -1627,38$

Typical DS. Can't win a coinflip and when you run deep and get to FT you seem to successfully use every change to spew out and finish 7th - 10th places. It's has been 3 days, but it's felt like a week or two.

It really doesn't seem to effect about handling downswings if you play high volume or not. Even tho you play more games and longer sessions your hours, days and weeks seem to be longer than it would be if you play less. I've played 2 weeks now without taking a day off, it has felt more like a month. Obviously I have to take some break soon to avoid burnout, but there hasn't been really that many signs for that yet.

Count: 133
Profit: +1075,95$

It's time to wrap up the month. Because it's sunday and I have things to do, I'm going to do this fast.

November 2013:

Count: 1922 (sharkscope is missing 400 games)
Profit: +6051,52$

Even tho I'm happy with the results, I still think there's lot of room for improvement. I'm missing 78 from my monthly goal and I'm really not that happy about 3,14$ avg profit. I really should be able to at least double it without moving up limits.

You should use about 30 minutes from each day to self-motivation. Motivational videos are one approach, but you can also just see your list of written goals and visualize yourself achieving your goals. This is really effective and easy way to get yourself motivated when you feel lazy or you don't feel like playing. Even tho this is pretty obvious I don't think that many people do it.