[Closed] The Forenzo story - 3rd time lucky

So ive started at the 2nd level. I'm only 18 tournaments in since yesterday. I find it quite annoying that on Mansion there is only 1 at a time so you can't start a few up simultaneously which is a shame. Anyhoo battled on, not having a great time of it yet! My average placing from 33 tournaments in 4.44 out of 10, so im getting down there just not tying up the money spots as i'd like. Ive come ITM 7 times so far at this level out of 18, my ITM the rate on the whole is just shy of 40% which isn't bad, but i'd love to turn those 3rd place finishes into 2nd or 1st! I think it should pick up soon, ive been having a bad time of it beat wise.

Once i find some software that'll let me get hands displayed i'll post more stuff up onto the blog, graphs and such like. At the minute i'm currently using an Excel spreadsheet that I created myself to track my progress. It's fairly neat and tidy and does the job.

I'd say there were at least another 4 or 5 where through no fault of my own I finshed outside the cash. Certainly one in which I just played terrible poker this morning. I quickly had an hour, as I have work later and chalked up 1 2nd place out of 3 tournmanets, a 5th and an 8th (that was the one i played particularly badly!)

Hoping to book in plenty more time later! So watchout for that, get my bonus cashed in, and start moving up tonight. That's the plan anyway.

Cash currently at £46.21 / $68.39

My main day of playing on friday evening, didn't end too successfully, I certainly wasn't playing my best poker and I'd also switched to playing 6 seater regular tournaments rather than 10 as they were more frequent at the limit i was playing. I won just a measly 2 out of 16 and place ITM just 5 times! My bankroll had taken a bit of a blow! Was hovering under £40 around £35 at finish.

Saturday was a day off from poker and I went early christmas shopping with the misses and enjoyed a nice evening in together. Which brings me to day 3 of the poker challenge, hoping to feel refreshed!

(Day 3 November 16 / 2008)
I've decided to alternate my games this morning, one 6 seat and one 10 seat, playing 2-4 at a time. This will be the platform for the rest of the day, ive had a successful couple of hours so far on this Sunday, and my bank balance is now a decidedly healthier £44, already recouped nearly £10 in one session, and the bonus boost must be drawing ever closer, which will hopefully take me to my highest BR peak so far!

This morning's stats are played 6 won 3, i've also had an unlucky 4th where my AK got beat and 2 6th place finishes that were slightly less unlucky more lackluster! However, i've been playing good poker today and hopefully it'll continue!

Current stats in total:

Played 57
Won 9 (15.79%)
2nd Place 7 (12.28%)
3rd Place 8 (14.04%)
ITM Totals 21 (36.48%) as some of those 3rd places happened on a 6max
Total Profit $6.60
Bonus Level 1/5
MCP's earned 396
Average finish 4th
ROI -2.95% (I'm only in +profit due to bonus boost upto now!)

Balance: £44.08 / $65.50

nice to see you try SnG's. I used to play at mansion myself when it still was on the ongame network but found it much less profitable when it moved to the ipoker network because many players on the $ 11 SnG's tigh in the beginning and callt loose at the end which I found hard to play profitable against. That's why I play at party poker at the moment. Don't know if you also have problems with this on you're limits. when you moved up to the 3rd level I would advise you to imply a tighter bankroll of 50 buy-ins because the variance can be really high here.

also keep reading the articles, watch videos, follow coachings and post hands because these things will strongly improve you're game.

Will hope to here of a nice upswing from you soon

hope so Sirilidion! I think you're right, once i move up a more heft BR is probably needed to cope with the variance. Thanks for reading and posting up a reply anyway! Hopefully the first of many.

(Day 4 November 17th / 2008)
Maybe the upswing has begun?? Let's not get carried away just yet, however, I have finished in the dosh 3 times already today, 1 win and 2 second places which i'm very happy about. I'm getting in under that bubble and making it pay. Playing a very tight game today, which will hopefully sort out my leaks, i'm really just playing the huge pairs within the first 20 minutes at the minute, it seems most people are content to bust out early and then it's much easier to pick off the small stacks as you change up a gear. Fairly obvious stuff I know, but disciplining myself to this style of play in the past has been somewhat of a challenge!

Highlight of the day was getting AA in 2 consecutive hands on the same table, got paid the 2nd time of asking. Rolling in a nice 2nd in that tournament, not really as a result of the aces though. The morning did not start well, as I lost out in 8th place with 6,6 trying to play a bit too fancy, but was rather annoyed at being called down and losing to 7,4 offsuit! He handed out the obvious abuse, but I wonder if it was me that made the bad play really! I did raise him up in position. Ah well. I've picked up since.

The ROI is moving into the positives! after 76 SNG's i'm now at a whopping 5.19% which is great news, and i'm back up to the £50 mark plus the next bonus installment is tantalizingly close! Watch this space.

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Edited
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Played a few more this afternoon in a shorter session as im off to work shortly, but done very well taking a 1st and a 2nd, and a not so hot 8th! lol
Pushing the money up though and with it the ROI which i'll list below with the rest of the stats now that ive hit 80 SNGs.

Those of you who like the stats I should also point out that my longest streak without coming ITM so far stands at 5 games, however, it is important to note that was during my little foray into 6max..which i'm no long doing! My longest losing streak is only 4 for the FR games. I do feel im playing much better though now than I was at the beginning of this adventure which is great news!

Played: 80
Won: 13 (16.25%)
2nd: 12 (15.00%)
3rd: 10 (12.50%)
ITM: 35 (38.75%)
Average finish: 4th
ROI: 8.13%
rake generated: $29.00
MCP's earned: 580
Strategy Points: 116
Bonus Level: 1/5 (still!! it's so close to the next amount) 2104.8 MCPs left for $40
Total Profit: $25.40

Overall Cash: £56.47 / $84.06

Maybe I spoke too soon! The upswing had certainly not begun, session 3 yesterday was absolutely horrible! I hit my worst losing streak since I started the blog. 7 in a row without finishing in the money, ive outlined in brief what happened during this session..

9TH - JJ lost to AA..should have known better!
6TH - Took a bit hit calling a short stack with 5,5 never recovered.
9TH - My Ace high flush lost to a full house!!
9TH - AK ran into AA
9TH - AA lost JK runner, runner flush! This was particularly evil!
8TH - Nothing particular to note here
6TH - More bad matchups! Dominated hands. Can't win at all at the minute!

i was not happy here, took some real big hits when I shoud have been winning with great hands. I did manage to salvage some sanity by finishing 2nd in my last game of the session to prove that the gods weren't totally against me! Very testing times, my bankroll was slipping!
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Session 4 of Monday 17th
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Having been out for my regular game of football for a Monday night I returned, showered and fresh and ready to put session 3 firmly behind me. The bonus was looming, so that would help pull me back up. As it was late I only managed to play 5 SNG's but I faired much better, taking a 1st and 2nd and an unfortunate 4th. The bonus also was released so things were looking far more healthy! Off to be for me!

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(Day 5 Tuesday November 18th / 2008)

Today will be broken down into around 4 sessions again as i'm off to work at 1 o clock. Got up late today, so I've only played 5 in this mini session, faired reasonably well, taking a 2nd and a 3rd, only $2 down, when I probably should have been up, the last 2 didn't really go to plan! My top 2 pair, got picked off by an impossible middle straight draw hitting! Was not impressed, a good time to stop and reflect I think. Playing reasonably good poker still, but feeling my luck is not peaking quite just yet.

Overall cash £55.56 / $83.51

Tuesday and Wednesday were days for reflection, as good as I thought I was playing, something clearly wasn't going right and I was finding it difficult to grind out the slower 10 seater tournaments and progress as quickly as i'd like. I realised my main leak was playing too many simultaneously. I can play well and finish ITM a lot when I play a max of 2/3 anymore than that and my concentration seems all over the place. However, they were taking around 40-60 mins to complete and my rate simply was not where I wanted it to be at all. So I made a decision and changed my gameplan.

Wednesday was a day of experimentation, finding out what my next move should be and I returned to FL, and started off rather well, but my annoyance at being bad beat by players hitting lucky river cards who had no business still being in the pot was just unbearable. This was not going to be a wise choice of game for me.

Then I stumbled across an article in WPT Poker Magazine (december issue) on heads up play, and I have been particularly cut throat playing this format in the past and decided to give it another go with my new found tips from the article. Thus far it is going well. It may now be my new choice of weapon for the coming weeks, plus it means I can brighten up the blog with graphs and stat shots from Elephant rather than just reams of me banging on about bad beats.

all in all from 452 hands im up $44.18 now this may well be an upswing, or the fact ive found my niche. That remains to be seen. But i'll be sure to keep you informed!!

Overall Cash £74.45 / $110.55

(Day 8 November 21st / 2008)

I thought I would post my first graph from my heads up adventures. Going well so far. And im prepared for the onslaught of people who say playing outside of BRM, maybe I am for the time being, but I do not intend for heads up to be my long game. I have also set myself a limit as to how much i'm prepared to drop down to, and if I fall below that mark, i'll start to grind it out again elsewhere. But I think my table and player selection is sufficient at the moment to sustain a reasonable challenge and I also have money in the bank should I NEED to reload. The £40 was just a nice starting point to see how far it could go on it's own.

Below is my first graph, it probably outlines a nice upswing at present and i'm totally ready for the fall. When it will enivitably come! But my attitude is positive and if I keep playing my A-Game there's no reason why this cannot grow and grow in a nice upward motion!

Overall Cash 81.54 / $120.59