Snakes will smoke

I didn't play any SNGs at all recently, it was all NL4 for me. And it went quite well.

Up until now, I was cruising with a winrate of 20-25BB/100, and I was just about ready to move up to NL6, but then, something happened. Can you tell what it was, from looking at my monthly graph?

I somehow managed to donk off a third of my monthly winnings in a matter of seconds. Let's see...

Ouch. I didn't even notice the flush draw, so I thought my opponent just made a massively stupid move and got extremely lucky when I saw his cards.

The next one may have been the very next hand at this table:

Same opponent. Remember how he played his bottom pair in the last hand (as I said, I was not aware of the flush draw)? My hand should be good then, this donk will shove anything, so let's get our chips back! That's what I thought.

Then, on another table:

This one was just pure tilt. I know this opponent, and by the time we got to the flop, I would have normally known that he holds AK there. I think I even knew it when I was playing this hand, but like I said: tilt, tilt, tilt...

So there you go, that's how easy it can be to lose over three buy-ins in record time if you're not careful. Let's brush it off, and learn from it.

Maybe tonight's MTTs will go better...

I don't know what's going on, but it has been a long time since my last successful session. Hopefully, I'm not entering a new period of prolonged tilt like I used to after a series of bad results; I kind of hoped that those days are behind me...

There are no MTT cashes to report either, even though there were a couple of very promising runs. While some of them were just wasted due to some frustrating lapses of concentration leading to poor decisions, a few of them were merely the result of bad luck, so I'll try not to read too much into it.

I do have some good news, though. Since I couldn't think about anything to do with my Pokerstars bankroll, I decided to start experimenting with PLO Zoom games, and saw some very promising results. It's a very interesting game and I believe that I have learned quite a bit in my first few sessions. If I manage to get rid of some of my beginner's mistakes, this may really become a worthwhile variant for me.

I'll keep playing for a bit and try to pick up another ten buy-ins to gain some more experience and confirm that it wasn't just a fluke (it's a high-variance game after all), which would bring my Stars bankroll to over $275. If I'm successful, I'll move to PLO5, and if that works out as well, I'll consider getting the Omaha version of Pokertracker and start grinding for real.

Originally posted by Harrier88
I don't know what's going on, but it has been a long time since my last successful session. Hopefully, I'm not entering a new period of prolonged tilt like I used to after a series of bad results; I kind of hoped that those days are behind me...

Hi, Harrier88
FWIW, I just closed Pokerstars after another down day to close the month up 5 BB over 4000 hands.
Last month was the same.

I think I had a successful month, though, in that I played well, and even improved how I played in certain spots.

If you are thinking "successful == profitable" then perhaps you are tilted a bit.
Successful equals "optimally playing hands that were selected in accordance with the circumstances"
There is nothing one can do beyond that.

Best of luck in April!
VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
If you are thinking "successful == profitable" then perhaps you are tilted a bit.
Successful equals "optimally playing hands that were selected in accordance with the circumstances"
There is nothing one can do beyond that.

Yeah, that's a good point. Being too results-oriented was always one of the bigger flaws in my mental game, I believe. Unfortunately, I also tend to play my hands less than optimally when I notice that things are not going my way. That's what is worrying me.

I mostly focused on MTTs in the last few days, and this time, I can at least report another 4th place in the $100 German Special for about $11, as well as some mincashes. I didn't play at all yesterday to honor my old "no gambling on Good Friday" policy, but I did play some PLO2 after midnight. It was probably a wise decision to stay at this limit, considering that I lost pretty much all of my winnings from day one by now, but at least I seem to handle my losses a bit better in this game, possibly because I realize that I'm still learning.

I did come across a truly magnificent sight at the tables, though:

They both folded to my 1/2 pot c-bet, but still... such splendor!

Oh, and Happy Passover to anyone who celebrates it!

I had a quite frustrating MTT session tonight, with two tournaments finishing very close to the bubble. The $300 Poker World Cup finish was especially annoying, because even my team was really close to the money ranks. Getting outdrawn by AJ against my AK doesn't help either, nor does the fact that I had a really good run earlier in the tournament, being ranked 2nd for a while.

However, one costly hand in particular was just misplayed in my opinion. Here it is:

After a lot of folding I was eager for a steal in this situation, planning to fold to any kind of aggression from SB and push against BB. I still tried a 3BB raise after the limp from CO, and thought that I could get him out of the pot on the flop by representing the ace. When that didn't work, I still gave it a shot on the turn, since I didn't give him credit for a strong hand. I think checking behind, hoping to hit the flush, would have been better. And maybe overlimping even would have been an option preflop.

During some of my more promising runs, I noticed that my game in the late phases of an MTT could actually use a lot of work. Sometimes I seem too afraid to take risks, and sometimes I simply don't pay enough attention to stack sizes, which can eventually leave me with a 2BB stack without me even noticing.

Mincashing is not gonna cut in the long run, I need to work on that part of my game if I want to be successful in this format.

What a hand:

888 Poker - $0.04 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: $2.69
Hero (BB): $4.25
UTG: $4.00
MP: $14.48
CO: $0.99
BTN: $4.00

SB posts SB $0.02, Hero posts BB $0.04

Pre Flop: (pot: $0.06) Hero has K♠ A♥

fold, MP raises to $0.10, fold, fold, SB calls $0.08, Hero raises to $0.45, MP calls $0.35, SB calls $0.35

Flop: ($1.35, 3 players) J♠ A♠ A♣
SB checks, Hero bets $0.78, MP calls $0.78, SB calls $0.78

Turn: ($3.69, 3 players) 2♠
SB checks, Hero checks, MP bets $1.92, SB calls $1.46, Hero raises to $3.02, MP calls $1.10

River: ($11.19, 3 players) 7♥

SB shows K♦ J♦ (Two Pair, Aces and Jacks)

Main Pot [$8.07]: (Pre 26%, Flop 0.1%, Turn 0%)

Hero shows K♠ A♥ (Three of a Kind, Aces)

Main Pot [$8.07]: (Pre 52%, Flop 80%, Turn 87%)
Side Pot#1 [$3.12]: (Pre 74%, Flop 80%, Turn 86%)

MP shows Q♣ A♦ (Three of a Kind, Aces)

Main Pot [$8.07]: (Pre 23%, Flop 20%, Turn 13%)
Side Pot#1 [$3.12]: (Pre 26%, Flop 20%, Turn 14%)

Hero wins $7.67
Hero wins $2.97

nice indeed!
I love it when they fall in my lap.

Enjoy,
VS

All right, tomorrow is the day I will start with my full-time internship. Apart from (*gasp*) having to adopt a somewhat reasonable sleep schedule, this means that I won't get home until the evening on weekdays, which obviously means that I won't have much time for poker.

I'd still like to play at least one MTT per day. It would give me something to reflect on on my way to work, and something to look forward to on my way home. Right now, though, I'm not sure which one to pick, so I guess I'll just wait until tomorrow.

I should still have plenty of time for some cash games on the weekend. Most people seem to play cash on weekdays, and tournaments on the weekend, but whatever.

Guess what? I decided to have yet another change of plans, and re-introduce NLHE Zoom sessions and SNGs on 888 to my repertoire. I'm aware that it would be better to stick to one format and improve in it, but since I don't really have the time for any sort of studying either way, I might as well just play as the mood strikes me.

My short Zoom session today was once again quite unsuccessful. It seems hard to believe that I used to easily beat this limit about a year ago.
Unfortunately, I can't even really tell by now whether my losses are mostly due to bad play or bad luck, so I'll let you guys be the judge. You can find the three biggest losing hands below. They were probably all misplayed in one way or another, but how badly misplayed exactly?

At the risk of this being yet another short-lived experiment, I decided to introduce a loose daily schedule. Every evening on weekdays, I will play one regular speed 9-man SNG session consisting of a set of six tournaments on 888 ($1 buy-in). I might also late reg into an MTT ($750 Guaranteed Turbo, $1.50 buy-in) on some days as a bonus, if I feel like it.

I will document my progress here, including a few short comments on my game and an ICM-analysis of a key hand. I'll keep the solution (as well as my own decision) in a spoiler, in case you want to guess yourself.

So here we go:

Wednesday, Week 1

SNG session
Results: 1st, 5th, 2nd, 7th, 1st, 2nd
Profit: $6.22
My Rating: Good
Comments: A quite solid session in my opinion, with some nice comebacks. I don't remember making too many grave mistakes, and I made some profitable opponent-specific decisions in some spots. I'm a bit disappointed that I ended up losing the long heads-up battle in the last tournament, but I'm still quite happy with my play and the results.
ICM Focus:

Bonus MTT
Registered: 30 minutes into the tournament (Blinds: 100/200)
Finished: 149/569 (90 places paid)
Exit hand:

Total Profit (SNGs only): $6.22
Current Bankroll (888): $129.80

Originally posted by Harrier88
At the risk of this being yet another short-lived experiment, I decided to introduce a loose daily schedule.

Loose Aggressive, or Loose Passive?

g, d & r
VS

Originally posted by VorpalF2F
Loose Aggressive, or Loose Passive?

Probably loose passive, considering that I didn't even find time to play this evening...

Similar situation, but I managed to squeeze in a midnight session this time. (TGIF)

Friday, Week 1

SNG session
Results: 5th, 4th, 4th, 8th, 1st, 4th
Profit: -$2.18
My Rating: Pretty good
Comments: Some minor lapses of concentration here and there, but other than that, I don't think this was that bad, I believe it could just as well have been a good winning session. QQ definitely wasn't my lucky hand tonight.
ICM Focus:

Total Profit (SNGs only): $4.04
Current Bankroll (888): $127.62

So I decided to play some Zoom this weekend, and once again, got my butt kicked.
Looking at my stats yielded some startling results: I didn't have a single winning NL5 SH Zoom session this entire year. It's not like I played that often, but this was still pretty humbling.

The results aren't the only thing that's wrong, though. I could clearly tell while I was playing that I have no edge over my opponents, and I was constantly guessing what the right move could be. That's not grinding, that's gambling, and gambling is simply -EV.

Of course, telling yourself that you're bad at something is usually a self-fulfilling prophecy, but I just can't see myself improving in this format in the near future. However, I'm not really willing to drop cash games altogether either, because let's face it, if I decide to play nothing but SNGs, I'll eventually get tired of them again and enter another cycle of zigzagging between the two formats. Playing one of them on weekends and the other on weekdays seems like a fair compromise.

What I decided to do is switching to FR Zoom games. I played a little over 1k hands today, and while the results weren't great (picked up 3 BIs early on, lost them later, very slight profit), I definitely felt a lot more comfortable in this format. It even seemed like there were more fish to exploit, maybe because many serious players have been moving to SH recently.

So that's my plan for now: FR NL5 Zoom on weekends, and one set of 6 SNGs on each weekday, if I can find the time. I'm sure I'll get back to SH games at one point, but not in the near future.

Next week will be a bit shorter thanks to Labour Day, so there will only be 24 SNGs this time. Let's make the most of them.

Monday, Week 2

SNG session
Results: 5th, 4th, 9th, 4th, 6th, 8th
Profit: -$6
My Rating: Decent
Comments: What a garbage session... not entirely my fault, though. PC problems* caused me to be almost blinded out on one table, and the other exits were two suckouts, one lost flip, AKos < AKs and another less spectacular spot.
If tomorrow's session won't be more successful, I hope it will be at least more enjoyable, because this one sure wasn't.
ICM Focus: cba

Total Profit (SNGs only): -$1.96
Current Bankroll (888): $121.62

*Lesson learned: Don't convert a buttload of videos while multitabling.

I was determined to shrug off bad sessions like the last one and move on, but that Dortmund vs Munich game was just too interesting, so there was no session yesterday.

Wednesday, Week 2

SNG session
Results: 7th, 3rd, 5th, 4th, 1st, 6th
Profit: -$0.65
My Rating: Satisfactory
Comments: Some noticeable mistakes, but decent play in most other spots. Unfortunately, I needed to rely on quite a few suckouts this time, while also getting my share of bad luck in key situations to keep this from being a winning session.
ICM Focus:

Total Profit (SNGs only): -$2.61
Current Bankroll (888): $120.97

Originally posted by Harrier88
At the risk of this being yet another short-lived experiment, I decided to introduce a loose daily schedule.

Notice the lack of updates? I believe it is fair to say that this really was just a short-lived experiment (even more short-lived than I thought, actually).

That doesn't necessarily mean that I gave up on SNGs, but I don't think the daily schedule makes much sense. Besides, I'm feeling more like cash games at the moment, so I can mostly be found at the NL5 FR Zoom tables. I also enabled "run it twice" for the first time, and I'm glad I did:

I also tried some new things, yet again. Well, first of all, I played some Spin&Go's for the first time yesterday, but the less said about that, the better. Tonight, though, I also played some PL Five Card Draw SNGs (6-max Turbo), and I actually quite like them. The main problem with them is that the traffic is arse, but since I don't really have the time to grind a meaningful volume either way right now, this should be negligible.

Results were nice as well in my first four games. Two 1st places, one 2nd place, and one 6th place thanks to trips vs trips.

Let's see how this little journey turns out.

Some great results in the Five Card Draw SNGs so far. If only there was more traffic...

I managed to recreate this scene the other day (more or less):

So I made about fifty bucks in the past week playing 5CD SNGs, bringing my Pokerstars bankroll to over $300 again, but I have been mostly break-even in the past few days.

I tried some of the micro-stakes 5CD SNGs as well, but they just don't seem to be worth the time it takes to play them. The Daily/Weekly tournaments seem a bit more interesting, though, and there are plenty of satellites, so I might give them a shot instead.

Originally posted by Harrier88
I managed to recreate this scene the other day (more or less):

What happened when *you* spun the little gadget?

Nice hand, though!
VS