Crushing MTT's and SNG's (180man+)

Originally posted by TinoLaan
Congrats on the nice cash!

thanks both. I see you had an even nicer cash recently. ♠_biggrin: also congrats on the cool job too.

Adam, hope you keep playing, even these $2.50's are still very soft and if you can manage the insane swings, profitable in the long run. Even my MTT's have climbed to 120% ROI with only two major cashes..I should play a lot more of them too!

Last two days have been horrible luck but still great winnings - I'm feeling I'm going to be booking that spur of the moment plane ticket one day soon when everything comes together.

I just noticed I've passed 5000 games since I started grinding tourneys again and it's interesting to look at the stats over 275k hands.

Starting out with 45mans was good for building a BR and learning MTT's, with slightly smaller swings, but I'm now sure that the larger the field, the larger the potential ROI.

Going through 150BI+ downswings is a real test. Especially if it happens over a prolonged time. Breakeven swings of 1000 games are to be expected mixing MTT's and MTT SNG's - maybe worse with just MTT's.

I'd like to switch to mainly MTT's, but I'll need more BR to get more volume at different stakes. I don't like mixing 6 max and 9max - it throws me off for some reason. I don't think I can get the volume, so will keep mixing 180's and some satellites.

The downside of med-large field MTT's is the up to 10 hours of play, and sometimes for a small payout an a big disappointment on a suckout or cooler. The upside is that after a lot of games, you end up with a stellar ROI, just by cashing large in one or two over 300 games.

I know I can improve my game a lot more - my goals for August will be to crush MTT's, play as many as possible up to $8 stakes. No hypers, no 6-max, or HU or PLO tourneys unless for fun.

I'm really enjoying rebuys, they are insane and sometimes expensive but I've done well enough - getting good stacks and getting in position to go deep often.

Overall in MTT's since I started playing tourneys for a living - I'm making 20.6% ITM, and 120.5% ROI.

Overall in all games I'm running at 21.7% ROI and 19.4%ITM - almost a decent sample size.

Snce moving to 180's and adding more MTT's, around game 2500, my results have taken off. The best part is that I've survived some brutal horrible luck (my top 15% hands are far below EV) and trust that a good luck streak is on it's way.

here's all hands played with all in EV.

patience I guess.

Good fortune.

I've started mixing in the $3.50 rebuys and really like them - but not my luck.

I was busted out with suckouts in the first dozen or so today, some coolers added. Really horrible luck - except I know I'm making correct plays and in the end I won another $8 180man, coming from short stack again.

Overall profit for the day about $250 so not bad at all. Seems like one of these days I'm going to hit every flip and go on a real heater.

Still playing in one tourney, 45/87 in the big $2.20, but just got moved from a juicy table

Monthly update coming soon. Good fortune.

eidt, double up AK over 77 - now 24th/73

lost QQ<88 then JJ<A8 out.. ffs!

Update for calendar month of July.

It's only been about 2/3 a month in reality with only 17 days played out 31 played.

I also maintained fairly low volume, playing longer MTT's, and less 180's - due to low volume at my playing hours. About 52 tourney's/day.

After going on a disastrous 175BI downswing I took several days off to regain my composure. I started back at $2.50's and mixed in the $8.00's 180's but found I was only winning the low buy-ins.

When I came back to play, after 500 tourneys of misery, I continued my bad luck, but somehow managed to grind out of the hole and back into profits. In terms of buy-ins, I've even impressed myself - much that I'd prefer the winnings.

Still, I managed a lot this month, I overcame terrible fortune, moved up a limit - a big jump too from $2.50 to $8.00.. and now feel ok playing the $3.50 rebuys as well.

The last week I was back to mostly normal stakes, and kept playing MTT's. A good week to finish it off, that might have been something else. I guess we're saving it for August?

here's the month in summary in winnings and in buyins according to HEM. I think it's not quite correct for some reason - maybe missing buyins, rebuys or addons? With rakeback it's probably about the same.

In 180's I was 6.9% ROI in $8 games (amazing considering the huge downswing I took in them) and 27.6% ROI in $2.50's (not terrible at all)

In MTT's, I fared more than ok. Up $400 with a 115% ROI in only 95 games.

Overall, I ran 16.1% ROI for the month.. Not a great month, but not a failure by any means.

August is going to be a hard-working, luck-boxing dream month of poker - I can visualize that.

Will post some hands soon. Many of them are painful to go over - especially today's debacle. Can't believe I actually ended up in profits!

Good fortune for August. Thanks for reading.

Nice comeback hope you continue crushing.
Please check My pm

Thank you very much totte, especially for being my first staker. i was glad to send you some profits, even though it's not nearly as much as I'd hoped. I got your PM, and don't worry, I think I am rolled now to not need to give away more profits

We'd be laughing if I could have won one more flip yesterday - I finished 16th out of 4000 runners in a $4.00 12k gtd and won only $49 instead of possible $2.5k vs a terrible field.

A loose player opened 3x UTG. I had 5BB in the SB with 99, and with only a 1/3 pot bet for the flop if I flat, I shoved and he turned over KTo (even looser than I thought) Of course K hits the turn, so I'm wondering if maybe stop and go might have still worked. I should have tried, nothing to lose.

It's been 3 solid months of pro poker, and though I'm not rolling in dough, I'm more than surviving.

I've achieved some goals, and others are close. This next 3 months my goals include:

♦ playing steady $8-$10 MTTSNG tourneys and phasing out $2.50's.
♦ playing increasing percentage of MTT's
♦ up the aggression, widen my shoving ranges, take more advantage of ICM pressure
♦ improve player recognition/adaptation
♦ win at least one MTT outright, final table more often
♦ shoot for $15 180's and higher buy in tourneys
♦ add 10k PLO hands/month

I'm happy with my level of study, except not posting a lot of hands. If I hit a downswing, I'll go for some more help there. I might take on some coaching depending how the month goes.

Mentally I've been improving my mindfullness at the tables. I must work on letting the game come to me instead of trying to force it - saving a lot of energy, and keeps you in that Zen alertness mode. Procrastination has decreased, and I'm working on that more.

I'm still hesitant, and a bit nervous of my ability to continue at $8 stakes, partly because of the scare of the 175BI downswing - but I'll warm up with some $2.50's and then get into it. I'll put a stop loss of 100BI, which is a fairly decent shot for $8

Physically, I need more exercise, sunlight and better hours. I've started working on that. My nutrition is very good, if unscheduled and random. One motivation for playing is to eat healthier (and more expensive) food - and treat myself with sushi.

As my own boss for the past 3 months, I'll give myself a B- performance review for the quarter.

I took too much time off, maintained low volume, procrastinated a lot, and even tilted off several BI. On the plus side, I recovered mentally from a brutal downswing and have gained a ranking of 99.97% on OPR (bronze) and 99.42% overall, by far my highest ever.

Knowing how I love graphs, here's the graph of the quarter. There are a few errors in the DB due to rebuys/addons not being read properly, but it's not much.

overall tourney results:

overall in bb/hands with all in EV,

and positional stats:

oh, and I wrote to stars support and they finally let me change my avatar! thanks to whoever suggested that.

Here's to a great next 3 months. Surely the donks have won enough money now to start paying me off!

Good fortune.

Not a great day yesterday got horribly knocked out from two tourneys, pretty deep with much the best hand - coolered everywhere else. Still ended up in profits, but not much.

I played a bunch of $4.50 regular speed 180's, and while they are very easy, the good players in the field are predictably tight.

I had no luck converting a 30% ITM to any final tables in 20 games so far. They seem to take forever compared to the turbos, I think I'll do better playing more tables of $2.50's.

Good news is I am ITM very often - bad news is, I need my good hands to hold much more often, and to suckout on more coolers.

I am making more and more correct plays, probably why I'm seeing more bad beats. Profits will come.

My ranking is still improving. On OPR I've now got all the stars, 99.98% in the last 120 days.

I think I can break 100, it's a challenge.

I made a modest cashout to pay some bills, and left enough to be rolled for $8 games - 200BI..

Knowing you can make a living at $2.50 games saps some motivation for playing higher. my risk/reward proposition ATM is leaning towards steady rewards.

If only there were $5 turbo 180's at stars. that would be ideal for me right now. I could also cut down on tables at $8, like I should.

Anyway, going to grind $2.50's and MTT's today. Time for good fortune.

I think I can break 100, it's a challenge.

Good luck with this man!

Just dish out some coolers and you should be able to do it

In all seriousness though, if you can run somewhat bad and still make such a nice profit, that's just awesome. Keep it up, and I hope you can get top 100 there!

Hi mate, read a lot of your Blog, but new here and read lottttttttttttssssss. I rail a ton, is your User name open? Do you have search on or off?

I am looking at doing a lot more SNG's really for the reasons your last post states so will keep an active interest in your further progress.

Gl

Steve

Thanks guys,

My username is found in my staking application thread, and I've put search back on recently.

I don't mind being railed at all (a compliment!) but I should warn you about my horrendous chat tilting - probably good for a laugh.

Today started off great, and then went just brutal.. had two flopped sets busted, one with all in on the turn, and sunday fish has two pair and rivers his boat...things continued to get worse from there, and I almost tilted, but instead I just folded everything for a while.

I think the tilt started when my computer overheated and shut off when at two final tables.. by the time I got back, I salvaged some mincash, but seeing my KK get opem folded with 4 left in a crucial spot on one table was hard to take. (KK overall 68% today)

I then proceeded to go on a 80BI downswing... seriously, I'm thinking stars support are laughing their asses off making a winning player have fits.. only one way to fix this. I stopped registering and won the very final tournament to end up the day in small profit!!

Total volume 132 tourneys, and 8% ROI.

I've really improved a lot at HU. Playing a lot more flops, not so scared any more when I was playing push/fold only.

Favorite hand of the day.

Poker Stars, $2.28 Buy-in (4,000/8,000 blinds, 800 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 2 Players

Opponent seems a very decent, straightforward player, if a little bit hesitant. He offered me a deal at the beginning of HU, but we never agreed on an amount, so I came back and crushed him This was the deciding hand.

SB: 144,872 (18.1 bb)
Hero (BB): 125,128 (15.6 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K Q
SB raises to 32,000, Hero calls 24,000

Flop: (65,600) T 4 K (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets 16,000, Hero raises to 92,328 and is all-in, SB calls 76,328

Turn: (250,256) Q (2 players, 1 is all-in)
River: (250,256) 6 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results:

Thanks again for reading, your support helps a lot. Poker can be a lonely working life.

Unbelievable two days of crap getting pwned by absolute morons.. guy calls me off with 6To for 2/3 his stack, gets two pair vs. JJ etc...

today was rigged, definitely. where I should have won easily $3-400 every single crucial flipi when I was way ahead lost. It is maddening, and seems contrived.

80 games today

4 times busted out with AA (all with >80% equity, and one on the flop too)
9 times busted out with AK three times running into AA
3 times with QQ (vs AK twice)

ran fucking great, and owned the tables, until push fold stage, where I got beaten everywhere. To look at these two graphs tells the awful sordid tale of 'random' card generators.

running great, right.. have huge stacks on so many tables.. final tables everything..completely owning - and then comes the chip winnings.. WTF???

if that isn't clear evidence of a skewed RNG, I don't know what is. Is stars capping winnings instead of segregating players? I'm starting to become convinced something is going on besides fairness. Fucking game. How the fuck is this possible for months.. years?

That sucks. That's why i stopped playing, even though i'm not as skilled as you I felt I was playing a good game building nice stacks but then everything would go against me when i was ahead especially with push/fold. I never really felt like the cards were gererated that randomly and often you'll have three tables with almost identical cards dealt. But i suppose it must be fair, randomness just doesn't appear in a way that seems fair to us?

Although, I'm certain even if they are regulated, they could find ways to maximise their profits e.g giving losing players the odd win to keep them playing etc. Who knows. All we can do is learn and play and hope it's fair

Originally posted by adamrothwell
That sucks. That's why i stopped playing, even though i'm not as skilled as you I felt I was playing a good game building nice stacks but then everything would go against me when i was ahead especially with push/fold. I never really felt like the cards were gererated that randomly and often you'll have three tables with almost identical cards dealt. But i suppose it must be fair, randomness just doesn't appear in a way that seems fair to us?

Although, I'm certain even if they are regulated, they could find ways to maximise their profits e.g giving losing players the odd win to keep them playing etc. Who knows. All we can do is learn and play and hope it's fair

there have been collusion rings caught before on stars., they say 70% they find, and the rest by users. I'm not sure how to check for collusion on these tourneys, I don't watch enough of the action.

I figure if you have 50 runners working together in a 180 man, you can really move around some chips amongst yourselves.

Anyway, I'm still winning, just losing all the big hands where I'm way ahead. This must change eventually.. I can't believe they are capping winnings of winning players. I'm more inclined to believe that the universe is rigged.

Hi, I just read a bit in your blog now, and I liked it and wish you good luck.

I especially like two points you made a few posts back:

1) "improve player recognition/adaptation"

2) "Mentally I've been improving my mindfullness at the tables. I must work on letting the game come to me instead of trying to force it - saving a lot of energy, and keeps you in that Zen alertness mode."

I will add those points to my own schedule.

Good luck again!

Same thing again today.

Unbelievable how many ways there are to get screwed over. I'm pretty confident there's something wrong.

Again, like yesterday, but worse under EV in BB, and worse under EV in chips. Only at final tables was I card dead, or sucked out on. Once or twice I found some luck, but still ended up down 12BI for the day.. Just miserable. WTF really some of the hands and plays make me want to smash things. I can't play much better. I've never played better. Never seen such crap.

all in preflop

AA<ATo
77<66
QQ<99
99<78o
AA<66
77<43s
88<43s!!!!!!
AA<KQs
AKs<K8o???
AKs<A7o
AQs<A9o
AKs<ATo
AJ<KJ
AK<A8o all in first hand.
KJ<K8
AQ<A6
etc.. etc.. etc.. for days and days, months even.

lost way too many hands to complete morons. And then had to get run over in late games being completely card dead. Just a fucking scam.

Pokerstars is rigged. There I said it. Without a doubt.

Last 40k hands, I'm 1200bb above EV. great right? In chips, I am up 200000 in EV, but actually lost 600000. That's 800,000 chips stolen, and when in the history of ever have I run 800000 chips above EV? ANYONE?

Today I won a small amount of money, but was still cursed. I can't believe the shit that happens on this site. and they say yeah fair deal, all random, not rigged. but then these are the same people caught laundering money, and are banned in USA.

There's nothing more infuriating than being set up to lose.

I rank 99.98%, make a cashout, and the next 700 tourneys I can't win shit?

I feel you...

Originally posted by gavinonymous
Pokerstars is rigged. There I said it. Without a doubt.

Last 40k hands, I'm 1200bb above EV. great right? In chips, I am up 200000 in EV, but actually lost 600000. That's 800,000 chips stolen, and when in the history of ever have I run 800000 chips above EV? ANYONE?

Today I won a small amount of money, but was still cursed. I can't believe the shit that happens on this site. and they say yeah fair deal, all random, not rigged. but then these are the same people caught laundering money, and are banned in USA.

There's nothing more infuriating than being set up to lose.

I rank 99.98%, make a cashout, and the next 700 tourneys I can't win shit?

You have serious mental issues, start worrying about that more instead of worrying about the integrety of the client.

plx dont cry yet

Originally posted by variancekiller

You have serious mental issues, start worrying about that more instead of worrying about the integrety of the client.

You're right. I'm ok with a 100BI downswing, two even...this was the third one recently.

I have tilt issues for sure. I know it's not the integrity of the client - much that it seems lately, though I'm not so sure there isn't collusion going on. Some really strange stuff happening on the tables lately.

Good thing it isn't affecting my game too much. I haven't broken anything, or let it carry over into RL. I'm still studying and trying to find spots and mistakes. My mechanical game has never been better IMO. My mental state is fragile. almost 800 tourneys this month and back break even.

As for dealing with it, I agree it's important. I think my biggest problem is reacting to getting beaten when I make a correct decision (e.g. a resteal or a good call) or make a great play, only to be beaten by complete morons that win despite their poor play. I find I care too much about individual flips and get caught up, and affects other games. I should be able to find some humour in it maybe.. really all you can do is laugh sometimes how ridiculous it is.

I took a day off, saw some friends and played a lot of music.. hours and hours. I cleaned up my place, did dishes, cooked good food etc. Took care of myself.

Played another 60 games today and went a bit better.. Almost FT'd a $5 knockout, but got knocked out shoving JQs, when A2o calls off 90% of his stack in the SB.. still getting the beats and suckouts, but starting to give some back. I misclicked called a J6o in one game and flopped 66 which was nice. I did lose two heads ups but I came to FT in last place so was pretty happy with my play there.

I'm going to cut down play a bit until it is going smooth. If the rest of the month is normal-ish like today, I will be pretty happy. I put too much pressure on myself to succeed, and my paranoia sometimes gets the best of me.

Thanks for concern all.