Making a living with STT SNGs

Its been a while since I did it but yesterday I played 150 games!
It was weekend, I had only 1 coaching session, my guitar double lesson was moved. Plenty of fish at the tables, some nice reg wars also. Overall happy how I played 2nd and 3rd session and 1st half of the 1st session.
Results wise did really well and now I am in profit for March also running with or slightly bellow EV.

For the rest of the month I will just set some brief goals for grind , working on my game and coaching :

- Play minimum 1.4k games (2k total) 15s 6 max turbos
- Maintain 17 tabling all the way
- Check my 4/4 and 3/3 hand history for open shoves and calls in various stack setups (see if there is some leak there) - this should take me couple of hours with HRC and taking specific notes for leaks that may occur
- Watch some more HU videos for HU cash
- Work more on my 3-4bet dynamics vs regs in various phases (gain even more edge then I currently got) - this should take also couple of hours
- Coach 2 sessions every student a week (12 hours weekly coaching)
- When I have more free time and energy to aim to play more then 100 games that day (150-200)

Ideally I would like to maintain my 1$ per game profit post RB with mass multi tabling and play 3k games this month. I will however put more emphasis on looking into my game adding even more edge cause that edge may bring me 1% + ROI in the future which is a lot for mass multi tabling and heavy grinding without table selecting.

In April I may have another student joining me who is a crusher himself. I will not write anything about this until it happens but I hope we will get to work together and I will do my best to give him all the edge out there to crush even more!

I was considering doing 5k games in April but while it would be personal challenge, I would in turn loose hours to coach and help my students which I definitely don't want.
Right now very happy with playing 2k games a month and will increase the grind whenever I get free time or need to make money for some special occasion. On the other hand, grinding this low volume (2k a month) will keep me away from 30s for at least couple of more months. I accepted it as reality and put more emphasis and focus on helping all my students to be winners and profitable players pre RB.
Once they are all making money on limits they play, I can then step it on and play 4-5-6k games some months to make up and get to that 30k yearly volume target I set.

That's all for this update and look forward to today's sessions and grinding!

Awesome article from Barry Carter regarding shot clock but also related to multi tabling guys

Check it out http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/The-mental-game-case-for-shot-clock-tournaments_81846/

Here is the best part that I am sharing with all my students past couple of days!

The mental side of quick decision making

Despite this, I would personally make a case for shot clocks being a good idea for another reason. If you’ll permit me to spam my side projects for a moment, myself and mental game coach JaredTendler have been studying decision making in poker players for many years now.

Fact is a shot clock would favour the strongest players, because they have most poker skill trained to the level of instinct. It is the exact same thing that makes certain players able to play very well across a huge amount of tables online. It is not that they are mindlessly clicking buttons, quite the opposite, they know the situation so well they can automatically make their best decision, which Tendler confirms:

"Although sometimes call them feel players, these are really just people who have learned to trust their gut. The gut reacts very quickly in a poker hand and the players who have more experience reading their gut, and going with it, can quickly make high level decisions. This is very similar to an athletic reaction, that you’d see during a football match or a basketball game, where athletes make incredible manoeuvres to beat a defender. They immediately know what’s right and go with it ."

Couldn't agree more with all the things written. Also would like to add that doing assignments from Mental Game of Poker 1 towards the end of the last year really helped my with my BE game on 15s. In particular the most useful assignment for me was creating tilt report card, writing down things that produce tilt, reasons for it and how to deal with it. I believe my tilting is way behind me now, I definitely don't tilt nor spew as I used to and big thanks goes to MGP1.
I will be looking into getting 2nd book as I am sure that there are some awesome things in there as well!

Thanks for the intro, I'm also always interested in these topics.

Yeah shot clock will definately favor good players, but I think it's somewhat a necesity, because of people taking way to long in live tournaments to make a decision. Btw I just wrote in my blog that I saw you improved in last couple of months, and you just confirmed it in your blog

Originally posted by FFRRAANNKKIIEE
Thanks for the intro, I'm also always interested in these topics.

Anytime Frankie, me also ♦

Originally posted by vladd20
Yeah shot clock will definately favor good players, but I think it's somewhat a necesity, because of people taking way to long in live tournaments to make a decision. Btw I just wrote in my blog that I saw you improved in last couple of months, and you just confirmed it in your blog

Hehe yes and now I see your response here and minute ago I wrote in your blog what I did to improve - funny how time works
BTW some posts or pages ago you can see my graph for this year on 15s 15 tabling (December was very similar with EV).

Regarding shot clock, I think it is needed also cause I get super bored in live tournament because people take way too long to react. I would understand if they were all sociable talking chatting it up making fun and laughing but most of the times that ain't the case - they just call pre flop and take forever post flop with their decisions!

Just a quick update before going home now
Taught 2 sessions and played 1 myself with lovely lunch in between at my best friend place.

I had session with Nikolas today and we agreed to continue working together under following terms:
- He has to play minimum 1.5k games every month
- He will be mixing everything from 1.10 to 5.5 6 max turbos
- I will keep giving him sessions minimum once a week (2-3 sessions also available if he completes assignments and grinds the games required)
- We arranged on specific stop loss limit with his current BR considering he will play 5.5 and avg buy in is 3.1
- He will keep 6-7 tabling on Microgaming and looking to move up limits when his game is right to do so (I will approve this as soon as he fixes leaks we talked about)
- In June his deal ends with me and we will sit again and talk about extending it under what terms considering his life situation will also change drastically then family wise

So I am glad to see that is resolved and we can keep working together!

As far as my grinding goes, today my motivation is really low cause of super bad weather and I feel kinda sick (feeling super cold whole day) so I played 52 games today and am leaving home to relax with some tv shows and movies.

Enjoy your Monday on and off the tables!

What true competitor thinks like!

Past 2 days felt really weird at the tables. Its like my mental game and focus is not there 100% which didn't happen for a really long time. I was not playing even my B game at times which sucks really. Add to this that I am 17 tabling (loosing edge cause of it - already noticing it) + bunch of setups, reg infested games and the only thing worth mentioning in the end is the fact I cleared 100k FPP bonus (finally)
This is very 1st bonus I cleared since I started playing on my own from 1st of January. I took my brother and my best friend today at my favorite restaurant for food and drinks. Good times!

Spent 2 chunks of 20+ minutes today each working on the game in HRC. Checked some 3 and 4 bet things for various stack sizes - very useful stuff indeed.

That's all for now, enjoy rest of the week on and off the tables as I leave you with some Joe Satriani music!

hey man

do you have to clear the 1600$ after you buy it or they will credit your account direct with the 1600$ cash?

Originally posted by alxpoker91
hey man

do you have to clear the 1600$ after you buy it or they will credit your account direct with the 1600$ cash?

Hey man
Its immediately cash in your account - also available for withdrawal straight away!

Well done on clearing that nice portion
Hope everything is great as usual

Fran

Originally posted by FFRRAANNKKIIEE
Well done on clearing that nice portion
Hope everything is great as usual

Fran

Thanks Fran

Yeah all is good, I am on track with the volume (about 1k 15s 6max in this month) and coaching is going well also.
I am dedicating more time into setting these systems for workout , healthy eating and maximizing my productivity in mornings.
As far as my game goes, I have worked this month not more then 2 hours on it, checking spots for 3-4-5 bet in all phases which really helps vs aggro regs (which there is plenty of on 15s). I will be checking some 4/4 and bubble by the end of month, see whats new there

Just a quick update

Table selecting
I will be table selecting until the end of the month but still aiming to play 17 tables.
I did it yesterday 40-50 games and today I played 100 games from which 1st session zero table selecting (40 games) and 2nd session was all about table selecting (remaining 60 games).

I noticed huge difference in my win rate with table selecting (but still very small sample). I will mark yesterdays date, keep table selecting and post the graph at the end of the month with actual table selecting.

Pros:
- Better win rate (drastically better - doubled win rate expected)
- It works great with my goal to play less games then 3k+ a month (with 2k games a month still can play less then 100 hours a month)
- I can also table select 30s this way!

Cons:
- It takes me about 50% more time to play 100 games (4.2-4.4 hours instead of 3 hours without table selecting)
- Games in March are even more reg heavy then before so it takes forever to do table selecting!

Rules (I came up with) for my table selecting past 2 days:
- Enter game where there is 2 unknowns or fish + unknown
- Don't enter game when there is already 3 regs sitting in a lobby
- Never enter a game with 2 super agro regs + 1 wider then nash reg and/or 1 decent reg

Conclusion
- From 3-4% my EV roi I am sure I can have minimum 5%+ with table selecting (lets see next 2k games for the sample)
- Will gather some real sample with table selecting and we shall see whats up long term (will use it to calculate difference in hourly)

My hourly without table selecting is 30-31$ now on 15s 15-17 tabling. Look forward to what will happen in next month or so with this table selecting.

This is the graph just for 15s table selecting yesterday and today (141 games = 6.7 hours!)

Enjoy your weekend all!

Remember higher ROI (table selecting) equals lower variance, so its deff worth risking some stuffs/time for it as long its reasonable.

GL

Originally posted by ragney
Remember higher ROI (table selecting) equals lower variance, so its deff worth risking some stuffs/time for it as long its reasonable.

GL

Absolutely man. With table selecting I will avoid 100 buy in DS in future more likely.
I am more wondering how it will affect my hourly. If hourly drops drastically (like to 20$ or something) then I will definitely go back to grinding without any table selection.

Great blog of course.

I've been quietly reading it for a few months and it has been very inspirational and helpful to see someone before doing what I'm going through now

I'm about to move from the $5 on full tilt to the $7 on pokerstars. I'm expecting it to be the biggest skill jump so far (although naturally probably overestimating it ♦). With table selection, what's a reasonable expectation of regs/table on stars. On full tilt I could get volume only playing tables with a maximum of 2 good regs or 3-4 bad regs. I imagine this isn't viable on pokerstars?

Originally posted by pauln
Great blog of course.

I've been quietly reading it for a few months and it has been very inspirational and helpful to see someone before doing what I'm going through now

I'm about to move from the $5 on full tilt to the $7 on pokerstars. I'm expecting it to be the biggest skill jump so far (although naturally probably overestimating it ♦). With table selection, what's a reasonable expectation of regs/table on stars. On full tilt I could get volume only playing tables with a maximum of 2 good regs or 3-4 bad regs. I imagine this isn't viable on pokerstars?

First time caller, long time listener? ♦
Welcome and glad you enjoy and found it helpful so far.

Regarding your questions, I can give you really good answers as I currently coach 2 guys that play 7$ 6 max on stars and until month or two ago coached a guy that is now mixing 7s with 15s.
Guy that I coached in the past had 6% ROI on 7s without any table selection.
2 guys that I coach now have 9 and 10% ROI all pre RB of course on 7s 6 max turbos.
Their sample (for 2 guys I coach now) is between 500-1000 games since I moved them to Stars since beginning of March this year.

I think you should not worry at all with your switch and I do mean it. If your ICM is solid, you don't spew post flop, you have basic HU ranges down and solid bubble, you should easy without table selection make 4%+ on 7s Stars 6 max turbos.
There are regs on 7s but there are loads more on 15s and 15s have way more aggro regs who can make your life living hell ♦
You will also very frequently have 3 fishes per table on 7s while on 15s if you get 3 fishes you should buy drinks for the whole city ♦

Overall the skill jump from 5$ FT to 7$ Stars should not worry you at all. Embrace it, you will be surprised how good you will crush them - especially if you had tons of regs on FT!

BTW, how was the traffic on FT running for 5$ 6 max turbos? Could you play 12+ tables at anytime during the day? Stars has that for you, you will love it - in for a great ride that's for sure

Actually I play 9 max so probably a slightly higher reg:recreational ratio?

I figured that there should be some crossover regarding traffic. In hindsight I guess this doesn't relate as well to 6 max as I thought it might.

6 max didn't seem to run quite as much as 9 mans on full tilt but I noticed a HUGE drop off between $5 and $10 for both variants. Certain times on full tilt are unplayable. EU mornings-early afternoons. To be expected I guess.

Originally posted by pauln
Actually I play 9 max so probably a slightly higher reg:recreational ratio?

I figured that there should be some crossover regarding traffic. In hindsight I guess this doesn't relate as well to 6 max as I thought it might.

6 max didn't seem to run quite as much as 9 mans on full tilt but I noticed a HUGE drop off between $5 and $10 for both variants. Certain times on full tilt are unplayable. EU mornings-early afternoons. To be expected I guess.

Actually for 9 max I was told very recently (couple of days ago) that there is tons of bad regs on 15s and 30s are difficult to play without table selection. For 7s I am assuming its the same story as with 6 max.

It sucks to hear that FT is not doing good in traffic. I know for a fact that Microgaming is dead even for low stakes (5.5) and FT seemed like great option to switch (easier to get to Black card + softer field perhaps?) but if you can't play until 3-4pm then it doesn't really do much good does it?

Reason why I finally switched to Stars from Ongame and other networks was ability to play tons of tables, play whenever I want, higher sealing for improvement and SN with perhaps SNE chase in some future
Today I played 1st session at 10:30am ! Where else do you have traffic at 10:30am?
Love the Stars man, it will make you or brake you from poker