Bit of a grind

So I have felt a bit down about result lately and took some time off to think about my mindset over the weekend.

I looked at my tilt issues and decided that the majority of plays I am making are ok, but I am probably missing out on 5 to 10 good spots each game which is far too high.

So today I tried to play a few more games to see how things went. The graph below includes 3 games played on Party Poker as they kindly sent my $10 to use for free (cashout not possible until a set amount of points are reached) and I must say on initial view their SNGs are a bit softer than on Poker Stars.

I managed a few wins which was pleasing as HU I have been failing to make the final few hands count. Overall count  was 3 wins, 4 2nds and 5 3rds with a total ITM% of 44.4%.

So even thought the haul wasn't massive the results looked ok, I certainly felt a lot better and even the odd suckout or bit of bad luck wasn't tilting me.

Home game tonight, lets see what happens.

Sngs, coaching and variance

I have not posted for a while, but have been busy playing and working on my game.

I am getting some coaching for Sngs over the next month or 2 and playing a lot of them. All on pokerstars and in the $1.50 to $7 range.

So far the variance has been tough working at -15 Buy Ins at the moment which is a pain, seems as if most 50/50 or 60/40 situations are going against me but it will all change soon enough.

Tilt is a major concern, but I have really been thinking about it recently and found that beats are affecting my play less and less, long may that continue :)

Winning

I made what could have turned out to be a poor decision yesterday. I thought about how I was losing and winning at the $1.50 level and felt that a lot of my play was good, but I was being either called in spots where 'thinking' players would have to fold to a shove or just being played back at with lesser holdings which were getting lucky.

Looking at yesterdays results I am happy with how things went after I made the move from $1.50 to $3.50 games. The $1.50s were leaving me beaten in 6th place by poor players calling shoves in position with poor holdings, QQ beaten by K3s etc, but also the type of agressive end game I employ was being scuppered by lose calling on the bubble, for example I shove in the CO seat with A6o and get called by KJs or similar leaving my in acoin flip situation - better players would see this as a coin flip and fold, instead I was losing some of the coin flips and meaning that the wins n losses were racking up together but the strategy was not able to work.

The fifty50 $3.50 tourneys I busted out of were standard spots fairly early on QQ v KK, AKo v JJ etc where winning a flip there would have set me up well for the end game.

The strategy I employ is a lot more suited to thinking players, it is certainly not fool proof and involves being SUPER tight in the early stages. The pokerprolabs ranks indicate a players ability through a card and star ranking system, this can be used as a guide to players ability, someone designated an Ace or King will be fairly good whereas someone who is a 2, 3 or even up to Jack designation will be poor, making marginal choices and thinking top pair average kicker is good on a coordinated board against heavy action...

the $1.50 level of fifty50 games is littered with poor players, 1 game I played last night had the following (in finish order): 5, 10, K (me), NA, A, 6, 8, 10, 5, J. So in effect there were 2 good players, myself a king and the Ace designated player.

Contrast that to a $3.50 game where we get the following: 10, A, K, K, K, 10, 6, 10, 9, 7. This is an excellent result in reality as the bubble becomes playable, the poorer players have been taken out early leaving time to try build a stack to increase the end payout.

We will see how it goes, but $10 profit yesterday says things are looking up.

Pokerstars decided it wasn't to be

Ever feel like the game has decided you are NOT winning, no matter how well you play?

Me too, today I have played 2 reg $1 sngs and 2 $1.50 fifty50s, and what a pile of crap the deck gave me, at 1 stage I was 2/8 or 1/7 in all the games and ended up with 1 cash...

Examples:

55 shoved into QQ

QTo (short stacked after beat) shoved into AA

ATs (short stacked after K6 v JJ on K79 board ended with river J) shoved into 99 (for quad 9s)

QTs shoved into KK (BvB)

KQo flops Nut Straight v Trip Ts 1 diamond...runner runner diamond to SS me ffs, what next AAA v KKKK?

Jees can't catch a break

Discovered Fifty50s

I have been watching some more videos and happened upon some at PSO (PokerStars Poker School Online) including a video showing the Fifty50 SNGs...

I thought these were just the old double up jobs, but as it happens Pokerstars have changed the format so that the top 5 still get paid, but you make more profit dependant on your finishing stack size. Being super aggressive late on especially on the bubble, increases your stack and payout massively.

These tourneys start off fairly tight and then as people get busted and the blinds rise more action happens. I have only played some $1.50 buy in SNGs so far, but having looked at the videos I suspect the competition is weak up to the $10 levels... I will report back when I get there :)

Having averaged £1.26 profit/game so far with each game lasting about 30 to 40 minutes I may have finally found a game that I enjoy and that fits in with my schedule.