[Closed] The Journey is complete. The fun times had. 897's Retired SNG blog.

Welcome back 897, good to see you again.

Good luck with your blog/challenge, will follow with interest.

Best regards,

Bart

Good to see you back... as always I am gonna be following with interest... gl

Thanks Folks, Glad to have a following again. One of the best things about having a blog is the feedback
people provide you with, and advice. Both go a long way and show me things I had never thought of before.

I tried out my .25c starting BR plan last night.

Seems it is going to take some tweaking as these .01c SNGs take 15 minutes or even more just to fill up.

They are the craziest thing I have ever played before. You start with 500 chips at 25/50 blinds with an anti.
Everyone and their uncle is shoving and calling limp calling shoves its a hilarious sight every time.
The field cuts in half in like seriously 5 minutes.

You must have at least 7000+ chips by the 20 min mark to survive the bubble which takes 25-30 mins to pop.
So far I have played only a few, and I came very close to the bubble the last game, which would have given me
back 10x my buy in.

Problem is though that it takes 15 mins to fill up, and 5 mins on average to bust out because your dinner by
the third orbit or so if you dont double up. This amounts to some boring poker time as its mostly spent waiting
for the next game to fill up.

I have decided to add Play Money SNGs to my list of games. For some stupid reason, you can only play 3 of them
at a time on Stars now, which will make it harder to make enough chips to sell for real cash, but I will have fun
either way.

I started this last night, and allready have 3x the play money I did before starting out so I think I will just go
this route untill I can afford the .10c SNGS or the .25c.

IF I hit 1 mil play money first I'll have $10.

I think this blog will be a slow start as there will not be much progress for some time because I am sure this
is going to take a long while to accomplish but I even found myself a little frustrated yesterday when I
finally made a double up in the .1c SNG to be dealt KK and lose to a pretty sick str8. I mean it was 1c.....
So I am seriously not ready to go depositing my BR yet, untill I am sure I have lost this detachment and I
can just play the game and apply my thought process to what hands to play and how and not on how
the last hand I just played went up shits creek on me for the 10th time.

I am writing now because I think I am done for the day. I may play some more tonight, but who knows..

So far I have made over 6k in playmoney chips, which isnt much but it is because I can only play 3
at a time for some reason, and they are 300+10 or 300+20 buy ins and there are NO turbos.
Talk about a challenge ♠_biggrin:

Soon I will be able to buy in for the higher amounts and then it will be more like real SNGS and
less like an all in fest leading to me and 2 other players left in the SNG with the blinds at 10/20
or 15/30. That can make for some boring poker as well as waiting for the 990 man to fill up.

Speaking of the 990 man, the SICKEST thing happened this morning..... Not only did I cash in
one and then go on to sit at the final table, I took the fucker down and placed 1st for a total
of $2 something. Thats more than a %200 return on my buy in haha.

It is tempting to buy into some quarter games and such or even risk a $1.10 DON but for
now I am just going to keep buying into the 990 man and playing the play money games.

I am considering switching to the .10c 360 players but I am playing by ear for now.
If they fill up much faster than I may just see what comes of them.

The greatest thing of all is no rush and no pressure. I had to make some pretty
risky shoves in the 990 man right before the bubble. I could have just folded,
and I would have been GUARANTEED .10c because there were 47 people left
and the bubble was 40. I shoved. I am not going for 40th place... I want 1st.

I really have to be honest with myself, and admit that if it was a higher buy in
tournament, and there were 47 people left and I could squeak by only to blind
out RIGHT after the bubble or possibly right on it, I just may have laid it down.

anyways I Was called by no less than 3 people who all contributed to my stack so kindly.

That should be it for tonight.... I wont be posting again unless something really sick
happens like taking down another first place.

For a laugh I am going to post it in the 1 mil in one year forum.

Thanks for reading.

Originally posted by 8979687
For a laugh I am going to post it in the 1 mil in one year forum.

NICE!!!

Quick Update for anyone reading as of yet....

I have cashed in a few more of the 990 man SNGs, no more firsts though, and the play money mission
is seriously going no where fast. It would be nice if you could play more then 3 non turbo tables at a
time. Anyhow I traded my miniscule balance on 2 others sites and in turn was given the same amount
on Stars. So my BR has increased by just under $6.

This will allow me to play the .10c and .25c SNGs and forget about wasting time with the play money alltogether.

I think I will keep the .1c games going on though because they are a real test of patience and at the
same time they can be soo much fun. If you can forget about the value of the tournament and take
it seriously it can be very enjoyable even when you bust out if your getting deep and make a right move.

When you bust out of a bunch and it takes 15 mins just for one to fill up and your sitting on 3 play money tables
for over an hour a table and the progress is hindered by silly limits it gets boring as I keep posting.

So now with $8 I will be joining the .25c 45 man non turbos.
They will take A while to finish, but they will also be fun.
18 and 45 man SNGS were always my favorite ones to play.

There is also no silly limit of 3 of them. I can grind 4 at once and add in the .1c and even some .10c all at once.
I am considering trying out table ninja as it looks like I could 8 table or so with this awsome looking software.

Thats it for now back to the fun.

I almost posted the graph because it is very funny to see. It does not count the .1c buy ins as losses, so it just goes straight up.

I will not be posting any numbers untill there is a large sample size. I am not dwelling on how long this takes or results.
It just looked very funny this giant line going up from 0 to $2.20. There was only like 8 SNGS on the graph so it was big.

Well it looks like the days of penny tournaments are over allready.

I ended up taking down 2nd place in the first .25c 45 man I played and man did it take a long time..
more than 2 hours. That gave me a BR that was brave enough to taste the $1.20 9 man SNGs. I
opened up 4 of them and took down 2 first places. I now have the BR to continue with these $1.20s.
This will give me a chance to really get back in the swing of things, and maybe this time I can hit the
battle of the planets leaderboard. I made it so many times only to be knocked off by the following
Saturday. But thats all shit that either will or wont happen but matters not.

What matters is that I am finally back into enjoying these games, and tilt free. (For the time being)
I have 11 buy ins for the $1.20s. I have never had a 10 buy in swing at this level in my life even when
I was BRAND NEW to real money SNGS. And if shit does hit the fan well, I can always go back down to
the .10c games or so.

So for now, my goal is simple.

Do not lose patience and do not deposit my BR back into a poker room. Stick with this plan, and learn the
patience and discipline needed for the nasty downswings ahead. As I start playing more and more
poker I will incorprate the ICM trainer into my daily routine. I have allready started up with the articles
and the videos at the bronze level again.

The best thing is... this break REALLY helped.. I find myself EAGER to get back in the game.. even though
it is just pennies and now dollars I am playing for.. I found myself wanting to watch the next video and
play the next set of .01c and .10c and the .25c to the point of excitement that I have found poker again.

I think this is going to work out and I will be posting more substantial goals once I am certain that
I am ready to handle the mental aspect of the floor dissapearing from underneath you and the
walls of the pit it reveals being covered in oil or butter with no hope in hell of clinging on to save
your BR from certain death....

Ok so your BR management saves your BR. and the swings are never as bad as they feel...
so once I can beat that theres no limit for me.. well maybe Fixed Limit..

anyways Untill next post.. Thanks for reading.

I think I have found a Gold mine.

I have $10 sitting on my FT account. Whats more is I have like 1750 FTPs left over which gives me plenty of chances
to enter into the 50 FTP sat SNGS, which pay out 50 points and like $1. This means on top of the $1.20s on stars,
I will now be playing the 50 FTP games, AND I think I will play some Matrix SNGs because they seem soft as all hell.

So all in all I have gone from waiting 15 mins for .01c 190 man SNGs to fill up to failing at trying to
get a decent grind on with play money, to playing $1 SNGs on 2 sites. I am thinking of trading the $10
from Full Tilt to Poker Stars and using that total to keep playing the $1.20s I wont be moving up limits
or anything, and I will use the points to play on FT and see what kind of balance I can come up with from
$0 on Full Tilt and whatever the total will come to on stars.

Prolly less than $20 total on stars.

This blog will start to get better soon, as I plan on posting hands and how I played em and other things
once I get into some higher volume of playing. Right now I am happy to just open 4 $1.20 non turbo 9 mans
on Stars and play them out. And I will now be adding the Tilt games and I will have the roll to play many
more games at once soon enough if things keep going they way they have been.

MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!

I have had a few sessions where My cards have been crushed when ahead and even having some
very very very horrible plays against me pay Villain of when they river their miracle.. but I have
been able to stay ok with it. Like I am watching the race once getting it all in, and counting their
outs and understanding they have a shot at winning the hand.. and when they do It's just
a matter of moving on.

Even when I am getting called when I am shoving, and its by better hands, I don't despair.
Infact I expect just as much of a chance of sucking out and so far HAHA each time I have
sucked out in this manner I have gone on to take 1st place because my stack allowed me
to abuse the shit out of everyone, and when they see me shoving what I did to double up,
They are afraid to go against me and when they show resistance it is obvious they have the
hand they have been waiting for to teach me a lesson. But by then it is too late and I have
the odds to call them with soo many hands, and they cant even dent me if they win the hand.

I will be getting into posting some very interesting hands and spots as they come up so look for
it starting possibly as soon as this week.

Thanks for reading.

Quick update...

real life has kicked me in the ass and I have had no time for poker or even
reading these poker forums for almost 2 weeks now. I hope to be in the groove
again soon.

I did get to try out the Full Tilt 50 ftp Sats. Super easy to beat but they awarded me
in more FTPs not $T. I have to email support when I have time because everywhere I
read about it it says you get paid in $T.

So only thing has changed is I have a healthy boost to my FTPS on Full Tilt.

Ok well as of Monday I truly started grinding again.

So I guess yesterday.

Feels like alot longer because I have been playing for quite a few hours yesterday and today.

My .25c is now standing at over $45.

I know I added in a few bucks from other accounts but it was less than enough to affect my limit of play,
and it was after taking down the 1 cent 990 and playing the $1s after taking down the .25c so
really and truly I have gone ffrom .25c to more than comfortably playing the $1.20 turbos on Full Tilt.

My BR is split on two sites now, ~$15 on Stars, and like $30 on Full Tilt.

I hate playing on Full Tilt because the Table Ninja is not as good, and because I like Stars Better.

So I am really pushing to hit $50 on Full Tilt playing the $1.20 Turbo 9 man SNGs and then
I can withdraw and put it on Stars and then grind out the $1 18 man SNGs.

Now for the good news for anyone else who has had to take a break form this game,
It truly is fun again.. and I mean FUN!!!. I have found a few methods that work wonders
for no tilting. #1 is Multi table, and just keep em comming. Now this advice is for miocro limits
and lower limits where you do not need reads as bad.

I find that playing 6 tables, stacked 3 on each side of the screen nice and big, and opening SNGs
with a time limit like say I keep opening for 1.5 hours then I finish em off at that point... well
I am soo busy with keeping up to the tables, that I do not even see the results of some of my plays.

I am very rusty because I used to be able to 6 table in my sleep but that was also tiled.... I am
not using the auto action buttons, just waiting for the table to pop up, eying the blinds, and the stacks,
my cards and DECIDE!!! The rest is up to reviewing my game later on and ensuring my plays were
correct. I did catch a few suckouts against me but for some insane reason I was laughing...

Big difference before the break.. I was even down to $6 today, on the FT site.. and I just kept playing on
and when I checked out my games later, I was getting sucked out on by VERY bad plays which prolly
would have had me pretty annoyed if I was paying attention to them.

This is not a permanent solution... this is just to make sure I can get back intot he swing of the game,
and not pay attention to my reults and keep playing well over longer periods of time.

I had tried 8 tabling but I was making mistakes, mostly due to Full Tilt sucking in the
fact its opening the fucking lobbys and resizing the main lobby to block half my screen and then
costing me time and table ninja going to a new window to click the ready now button instead of the
choice table... shit like that was starting to get me annoyed and making me lose focus so I decided
to just 6 table untill I have ZERO problems then back to 8.

Hopefully I can hit the $50 before long and get back onto stars where the Table Ninja ROCKS....

Thats it for now thanks for reading.. I will post a graph because I am sure now that there is NO
possible way for me to go broke. It may take forever to beat the rake at the $1.20s and withdraw at
$50 but I am enjoying staying focused and not cheating by just depositing.

Ill update when things have changed most likely after withdrawing the $50 to put on Stars.

At ~Game 60, I was trying to figure out how it went below $0. It is because after winning the few $1s on
Pokerstars I tried a few on Full Tilt. So I guess losing my first 3 or so put me that way.

Great blog here mate, truly inspiring

Although i'm playing NL FR games this has still helped me a lot in terms of psychology. I hope you do brilliantly and continue to enjoy the game. Check out my micro limits blog if you wish (In my sig)

Keep up the good work man, GL.

nice blog! good luck at the tables

Thanks guys, ~60 SNGs done so far today, at like $43 on the Full Tilt Account...

Gunna make another push right now and see if I can hit the $50 mark tonight to withdraw and put it on Stars....

Hey 897...

Nice progress... mental side looks a lot stronger... keep it up...

Thanks alot Nick!!

You are totally right, The mental side is finally much better. I am able to not look at what happens when I
make my decisions, and when I am playing soo many games, My edge over the field at the $1s
just speaks for itself. I lost ALOT of flips today had big hands crushed by worse but I did not
get mad at all... Only when the stupid lobbies etc etc were making me shove all my chips
third hand in a SNG instead of on the bubble where I should have been and having
someone call me with AA. I lost a few buy ins for that and still came out way ahead today.

I have never played so many SNGs in a day before. I was always having to stop because of
getting mad, or just being too tired to carry on, but when you are playing just 4 tiled games at once,
and your mostly waiting for them all to finish before starting more, and you are playing the $6.50s and
your concerned with when you will hit the $10's and it feels like forever because some bubbles
just do not fucking burst and then boom your shortie and out in like 2 or 3 games in a row...

well now I just pump the games out and keep making my decisions and when the you just
got fucked over and finished in 4th or 6th or whatever place pops up, I just click open new one
and carry on... and sometimes today I was sure I must have been on a mega downer but when
I checked my BR at the end of each session it was up or even......

I can not say for sure I am ready for a cliff dive like I took the last time around.. compared to what
Nick has gone through and others it may not seem so bad but it was months work gone in days
for me and hopefully now that I have started over with a quarter and no rush to move up,
when I do get back up to the higher limits I can keep this mentality through the worst of the swings which
I am SURE are gonna hit me.

I will post the graph again tonight but only because I hit my goal!!

after my last session tonight the Full Tilt BR stands at $60 which was withdrawn and put into stars.
Thats a total of $75 dollars to start grinding out the $1 18 man SNGs tommorow.

not bad for starting at .25 cents I must say.....

and like I said a new record for games played in a day.. 78 SNGs.

I will post another graph when I hit some other kind of mile stone.

Thats it for now, thanks for reading.

.

8979687 = a dangerous proposition.

8979687 w/ tilt control = unstoppable.

Very good and Inspiring blog for sure, I will definitly read this! When I get sucked out I actually laugh.. It's like .. "haha, wow.. I didnt think THAT was gonna happend.. hohoho" It probably looks really, really freaky.

Do you mind if I ask you about your nickname btw? Is there a meaning behind the numbers?

that's pretty amazing how you did that o.O

i started with winning $22 in a freeroll and i still "tilt" when donkey's keep hitting their straight or flush on the river.. or call me down with lowest pair. Hope it works for you though xD. i don't really tilt anymore and if i notice im getting frustrated i just stop playing.

GL at the tables though.. it's now 2 months later and sadly im only at $27

Thanks for all the comments guys.....

My name is just a random # I plugged in when I made the account.

Today was a pretty big test for me...

I started firing up the $1 18 mans on Stars. I may be done for today so I am writing now I do not
know if I will have time for more tonight. I hope I do. Well anyhow what a shit day for cards so far.
But it honestly doesnt affect me like it did before. I got in 50 SNGs so far today, and I have been
seeing some pretty bad suckouts against me over and over and I am running well below the EV line.

I was however calm as ever. It was a new feeling. It is WAY more enjoyable using Table Ninja
and Poker Stars than Full Tilt. Fuck I emailed Full Tilt support LAST SUNDAY NIGHT with a question
and they still have not got back to me. Stars gets back within minutes.

I had as many as 8 tables going smoothly with the auto opener, and the bets pre set at 3BB +1 per limper
and 2.5 at higher blinds. 1 key folds one checks one shoves arrows raise and voila just look think decide.

8 tables did get a little bit hectic as I started making it to 3 and 4 handed on like 5 tables at once...
I ended up making a few mistakes so I switched back to 6 tables for now untill I can do it in my sleep
again.

With 6 tables I can even get reads on people and the feel of the tables so to speak.

Anyhow feeling great and not caring like I used to about suckouts just happy I am making the
right plays and stunned by some of the horrible calls at ALL stages of the SNGs. Again
this time I was sure I must have taken a beating but I went up to $30 profit then down to like $10
loss then back to $20 profit. It is wierd not tracking it as I play because I always used to
monitor how much money I had etc etc... so here I was sure that I was getting fucked
over and losing money when in turn I actually finished the day up but I managed to
press on with no negative emotions, just enjoyment of the volume and the confidence
to be in charge of a table again.

I will truly know how well I am with tilt when I hit a cliff dive like last time but I think
I will be ok.

I hope so.