My mother is from Ottawa, visited many times while my grandparents were alive. My grandfather was a sign painter and used to drive us around the city showing us all the billboards he did.

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Getting psyched for the next league tourney tonight. I need a deep run to move up the standings a bit. I don't want to spend the final few tournaments fighting over the last ticket.

I've been thinking quite a bit about my approach for these last few tournaments. One thing I want to do tonight is experiment a bit with the "no playing limped pots" strategy. It's so frustrating seeing flops with great speculative hands and then having to fold when I whiff in a multiway pot. Tonight I'm going to try really punishing limpers - If I have a playable hand, I'm going to put in a good raise. No limping behind.

I've been thinking a lot about the way my buddy plays. He's dominated this league, winning 3 out of 4 seasons and finishing 2nd the other time. And he's on pace to win again this year. The annoying thing is that I don't see anything special in his game. In fact I picked up on a bet-sizing tell fairly quickly. He makes unusually large raises preflop (like 3.5-4.5x even at higher blinds) with hands like 88-JJ and AQ/AJ. Hands he doesn't want to have to play postflop with. It's such an exploitable strategy and yet somehow it works for him.

So as hard as it is for me to admit (because he has a huge ego and thinks he has nothing to learn about poker), I might have to try out some of his strategies. I can't argue with his results against these players. He hasn't had much success outside this league but whatever he does works in this league.

Therefore, here's what I want to work on tonight:

1) No limped pots - punish those limpers

2) Make larger raises when I want to prevent calls

3) Fire more 2nd bullets

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Well that was a real disappointment. I implemented my plan about as well as I could given how card dead I was all night. Best hand I had all night was 88, which I shoved twice in a row as a shortstack. The second time I shoved I ran into KK. Just an absolutely brutal stretch of cards.

The good news is the guys immediately behind me and ahead of me in the standings all busted out too, so I'll still be holding on to that 7th ticket spot going into the final 3 tourneys of the season.

So I've been experimenting lately with using cash games as a training ground for developing my aggressive mindset. Because I'm a recreational player and don't get much time to play MTTs, it's difficult for me to get the kind of volume I need to develop my skills. STTs are great for late-stage and shortstack training, but not for deeper stack and middle stage play. Although cash is a very different animal from MTT play, it has a lot of similarities. So figured maybe it would be a decent way to get some volume in and allow me to work on my 3-betting, barreling, x/raising, and other aggressive moves. I decided I mimic the MTT context by not reloading so that I'm not always playing with 100bb.

What I've found from my experiment so far is that it is quite liberating to take aggressive lines without the fear of busting out. Maybe that's why some people prefer playing cash games. Nevertheless, I think cash games could end up being a good tool for someone like me trying to get rid of his MTT mangina.

I think maybe you should try some small buy in online deepstack tourneys, this is what has helped me the most for live deepstack play

Would love to, the problem is I so rarely get the time to play MTTs online. Full time job and two kids that often need to be driven around means I might only get to play a handful of MTTs in a month.


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Wow, was that a brutal session. Had a chance to play a few online MTTs with the day off today - played a couple of $1 rebuys and a $3 snap rebuy. I ran into QQ-AA so many times I lost track, and that doesn't include the times I shove over limpers and either lost to their crappy calls (AJ<K9s) or ran into idiots limping big hands (who the **** limps AJ in early position at a full ring table???). In one of them I was so card dead I ran at 5/4/0 over the whole tournament. Just brutal.

All things considered I was happy with the way I played though. In the 6-max snap tournament I ran 22/17/8. However, my stats were oddly on the passive side postflop. I say oddly because I didn't feel like I was playing passively. Although I had a flop CB of 70%, my flop Agg% was only 43.5 and my turn Agg% was only 33.3. I'll have to go through my hand history in more detail but I do recall running into a bunch of situations during the middle stage where I would raise or 3b pre and then find myself stuck postflop when I would whiff and my CB would get called. It is possible that after that happened several times I started to pull back and became more passive postflop.

The other thing I've been working on is my blind play, defending the BB and 3-betting out of the SB more often. My stats were pretty solid out of the SB for all three tourneys today: 14/12/23 and I won almost 29 bb/100 from the SB today. But the BB was a freaking disaster: I lost more than 200 bb/100. With the small sample it could just be that I happened to run into the big hands when I was in the BB, but I'll have to go through the hands to see what went wrong.

I've also decided I'm going to put some money back on Stars to give me more playing options. I've been pretty happy with 888 but since I don't have a lot of free time to put in volume, it would be helpful to have more options at my disposal for when I do have time to play.

Wow.. now this is quite a post. Have read it like a book and it I'm amazed.. have never seen such a post/challenge.. you really have a way of expressing your feelings, thoughts and yourself.. I'm sure those who read this will sub to you and you really deserve it.

I like your love for this sport and your "never give up" attitude. I will def. follow you.

Keep it up!!

Bdw, not sure if you came across this video during your searches for mindset .. this is mostly for motivation but I strongly recommend you watch it and watch it till the end.. I think you'll love it and will help you on your journey (I watch it one a month at least )

(Hope I'm allowed to post youtube videos - https://youtu.be/GLcJHC9J7l4 )


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Thanks man, much appreciated. I've always been a very self-reflective person so I am very comfortable being open about my thoughts and feelings. But I'm also driven by a desire to share what I'm learning with others. This isn't just about my own success, like so many posts in this forum. I've found this journey to be an incredible experience and I'm happy to share some of the lessons I've learned with others.

As for an update, the cash game experiment is going pretty well. I had $7 in my 888 account so I've been two-tabling 2NL and I'm running over the tables. Without the fear of busting out I've been able to really open up my game: 3-betting, barreling, x/raising. I've run my account up to $23 over a pretty limited number of hands. It's shown me just how profitable aggression can be.

Unfortunately I had another very frustrating league tournament tonight. I couldn't seem to find any good spots to utilize much aggression and had a run of bad fortune again. Had KK cracked by Q2s early (luckily not a large pot), had a turned 2P lose to a straight, and ran AK into AA late to cripple me. I went into super-grind mode and busted when my KQs lost to 22.

The one hand that bothered me was a hand where I misinterpreted a raise size from a particular opponent. I had about 12bb at that point and an opponent in early position with 11bb made a 2.5x raise. I had pocket 10's and folded because I read his raise size as strength, thinking he was trying to get action. I figured he would just shove the part of his range I did well against (that's what I would have done). Everyone else folded and he showed 99. We chatted about it and he explained that he doesn't like shoving with 11bb because he wants to give himself an out if someone wakes up with a better hand and comes over the top. So although I folded the best hand, I did get some very valuable information on this opponent for future tournaments.

There were a couple of people right behind me in the standings still alive when I left, so hopefully when the standings get updated I won't find that I've dropped out of the last ticket spot. We only have 2 tournaments left in the season so it's going to come down to the wire. I'm going to be really disappointed if I don't win a ticket after all the progress I've made, but at least I feel like my game has taken a big step forward over the past few months.

Well things are shaping up for an intense finish to the season. Someone who was having a rough season took it down last night, and came out of nowhere to move into the race for a ticket. Luckily none of the other guys right behind me made any progress, so here is where things stand with the top 10 going into the final 2 tourneys:

1) 145
2) 117
3) 104
4) 100
5) 89
6) 87
T7) 83 (me)
T7) 83
8) 82
9) 79
10) 76

It looks like the top 4 tickets are spoken for, but the final 3 are up for grabs and there are at least 7 of us competing for those tickets. There are a couple of other guys just below this group tied with 71 points, and they can't be ruled out either. The guy sitting in 9th is one of the toughest players in the room, so he's definitely one to watch out for.

So my plan is to study like crazy to prep for these final two tournaments. I'm going to find as much time as possible to play online, and I'm going to go over the notes I've collected on players and develop a game plan for how to play against each of them. I want to put myself in the best position possible to win one of those tickets.

One other game I've just discovered since putting money back on Stars is the Beat the Clock tourneys. Aside from being lots of fun in a very short period of time, they seem like fantastic opportunities for practicing shortstack and push/fold poker. You have to be super aggressive in these right from the outset so it might be another good game to add to my training program.

I discovered a new podcast and listened to an episode this morning on the way to work that fits perfectly with the theme of my challenge thread. The podcast is called, "The Psychology Podcast," hosted by Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman. In the second episode he interviewed an NYU psychology professor by the name of Gabrielle Oettingen, who developed a strategy to help people achieve their goals by overcoming obstacles and procrastination using mental contrasting and intention implementation. She called the strategy WOOP, which stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. She even developed an app.


So I started doing some digging. I haven't had a chance to read her book yet, and there have been some criticisms of the science behind her work, but the strategy seems promising. I even tried out the app. It's really a way of simplifying the approach I took at the beginning of my challenge, and I think it's a strategy that could be helpful for a lot of people here. It seems ideally suited to specific things that people want to accomplish, like losing weight or getting better grades in school, but I can see how the general approach could work with bigger, more challenging goals. I'll describe how the strategy works and apply it to my own challenge to see how it might fit.


The first step is the Wish - deciding what you want to accomplish. The app guides you through a couple of helpful questions, like identifying a specific domain (professional, health, interpersonal), a time frame, and then asks you to think about what you want to accomplish in that time frame (you don't have to pick a time frame if you don't want to. In order to keep things specific, I might define my wish as "Finishing in the top 7 and winning a ticket in the poker league." There are only 2 tourneys left so this is a nice specific, time-limited wish to pick.

Step 2 is the Outcome. What is the best thing about fulfilling your wish? How would it make you feel to fulfill your wish? In my case the best thing would be winning the $1000 ticket, which would give me an opportunity to play a live poker tournament I wouldn't otherwise play in, and it would make me feel confident and proud of myself. The annoying thing about the app is it requires you to describe this in 6 words, which seems to be an unnecessarily frustrating and artificial limit, but you don't have to use the app to apply the strategy.

Before you move on to step 3 - let's call this step 2(b) - you have to stop and imagine the outcome. Think as fully and in as much detail as you can about what it would be like to fulfill your wish and experiencing the outcome you described. Bask in its glow.

Step 3 is the Obstacle. What stands in the way of you fulfilling your wish? What is your main inner obstacle? What is it within you that holds you back? For me the main inner obstacle has been my fear and weakness at the tables. While I've come along way since I started this thread, I still have work to do. This is also what makes this strategy a bit difficult in the context of poker, because over a short sample of hands or tournaments we only have so much control over our results, but I do know that my mangina has been a big part of my problem and is something I can control.

Then you have to imagine again - call it step 3(b). Imagine as fully as possible your obstacle. Here is where I might think back to hands I've played where I've been scared or weak. I would imagine myself feeling scared and folding, or deciding to call behind instead of 3-betting, or failing to fire a second bullet. These two (b) steps - imagining the outcome and the obstacles - is the mental contrasting.

Finally, step 4 is the Plan. The key here is to put it in the frame of an "if-then" plan, which is the intention implementation I mentioned above. Think about what you can do to overcome your obstacle - either an action you can take or a thought you can think - and then pair it with your obstacle in an "if-then" plan. In my case I could probably come up with a few examples, considering the different scenarios that could arise. I suppose it depends on how specific I want to be (or should be - I haven't read the book yet). One could be something general: "If I feel scared, I will take the aggressive line." Or it could be something specific like, "If I feel afraid to fire a second bullet, I will fire a second bullet." Or "If I'm in a good 3-betting spot but feel weak or afraid, I will 3-bet." Although now that I think about it, a corrective thought might be more effective than an action since my thought process is the obstacle. The problem isn't knowing what I have to do, it's having the confidence and courage to do it. The question is how to get myself to think or feel differently in the moment. Maybe think about a particularly aggressive player in the league who does well, like my buddy S. Or think about everyone around the table teasing me about my weakness. So my if-then plan could be, "If I feel weak or afraid, I will think about what my buddy S would do." I'll have to give this some more thought.

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Getting psyched for tonight's tourney, the penultimate game for the season. There's some strategy I need to consider here. The goal is to finish top 7 and secure a ticket, so I need to be smart about my play. At this point cashing and picking up a few extra points is more of a priority over playing for the win. It also depends a bit on how the guys around me in the standings are doing. I'll have to pay attention to their stacks tonight and manage my risk accordingly. I don't need to win tonight (although that would be nice), I just need to outlast the guys I'm competing with for the last few tickets.

I was thinking more about my last post and the WOOP strategy and trying to come up with a thought I could use to counter my fear when I feel it in the moment. I came up with an analogy that might be helpful. A poker game is like a fight. You're battling with other people at the table and trying to beat them. This is especially true in a tournament, where you're literally trying to be the last person standing. And in a fight, being weak and passive will get you beaten to a pulp. There are times when you need to block, dodge, or back away, but generally speaking aggression wins. The same is true in poker - aggressive moves, like 3-bets, x/raises, and multiple barrels are your punches, kicks, and elbows. So to get myself into an aggressive mindset at the table, when I feel that pang of fear or weakness, I will visualize myself as a UFC fighter stepping into the ring getting ready to beat the crap out of my opponent. Of course I'll have to visualize a much bigger and stronger version of myself...

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Gl tonight mate


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Maybe some live updates will help keep me in the right mindset...

Turns out they likely won't have 7 full tickets, they'll get to 6 with a final "freeroll" for the 7th ticket. Starting stacks are determined by the points standings and the winner gets the 7th ticket.

On the last level of the rebuy period now. Feeling strong but haven't had anything to work with yet.

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Was just in the middle of expressing frustration at having to fold to a 3b after finally getting a raising hand and running out of time in the rebuy period when I won a nice big pot with AK. After seeing my starting 5500 stack dwindle to about 3500, I'm now up to 11k at the end of the rebuy.

Five of the guys in the thick of the race for the 6th ticket are sitting at this table.

Break time.

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Damn I'm card dead. This is gonna be a night of grinding.

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Arrrgggggg!

Ran AQ into KK and I'm out. Hardly got to play poker at all tonight. I think I raised 4 hands all night and had to fold 2 of them to 3-bets. The last one was close.

I'm in MP (6-handed) with 99 at 400/800 and about 14k chips. I make it 2500 and my buddy in the BB, with a similar stack, shoves.

Now I know he's not shoving light in that spot, so I'm likely looking at a range of maybe 88+/AJ+. So it's a really close call but in the back of my mind I'm also thinking about the points race, so I folded knowing that I still had chips to grind with. He showed AK.

Next hand I run AQ into KK and it's all over. This was one of the most frustrating run of cards I've ever had. I never had a pair higher than TT. I had AK once and won a big pot, then busted out with AQ. Had virtually no cards outside of that. Cards were so bad I couldn't even see flops.

So it all comes down to the last tourney in a few weeks, and depending on what the other guys do tonight I'm likely going to have to finish top 2 and have the others around me bust out to have any hope of that 6th ticket.

This is turning out to be a very frustrating end to the season after it looked like things were on the way up after New Years. I just have to remember that this isn't the end of the road but just part of the process.

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Well we're headed for quite a finish to the season. Here's where things stand going into the final tourney:

1) 149
2) 123
3) 116
4) 107
5) 102
T6) 94
T6) 94
7) 86 (me)
8) 85
9) 82

With a maximum of 16 points for 1st place and 3 just for playing, anyone up to 9th has a mathematical shot at taking the final 6th ticket.

I will have to finish top 3 in order to have a chance. If I finish 3rd, the two guys tied in 6th bust, and neither of the guys behind me wins, then we'll have a 3-way tie for the 6th ticket.

If I finish 2nd, I'll have 99 points. If the two guys tied for 6th both finish worse than 7th, then I'll win the 6th ticket (provided the guy behind me doesn't win).

If I take it down, I'll have 102 points. If neither of the guys tied in 6th crack the top 4, then I'd win the 6th ticket.

The poker gods work in mysterious ways. This whole challenge is about shedding my poker mangina and learning to play with confidence and aggression, and the situation is set up perfectly. I'm going into the final tournament with nothing to lose and everything to gain, but only if I play for a top 3 finish. I can't be satisfied grinding my way to a min-cash, I'm going to have to go for broke.

I have 3 weeks to prepare, although my prep time will be limited by Mother's Day festivities next weekend and my son's out-of-town baseball tournament the following weekend. So I'll have to really take advantage of time when I can find it. Here's my preparation plan:

1) Continue soaking up podcasts.

2) Study the notes I've taken on league players and develop a clear game plan for how I'll play against each of them.

3) Think back over some of the key hands from this season and how I would play them differently if they arose in the final tournament.

4) Develop a game plan for the tournament. Initial thoughts are that I should open up my game quite a bit during the rebuy period to give myself more chances to build a stack, turn up the aggression immediately after the rebuy when most players switch gears and slow down, and then be willing to take flips in marginal spots later on (like the 99 hand I passed on last night).

5) In my online training I want to focus on making things happen when the cards aren't coming my way. The league tourney structure is pretty fast and I it's not uncommon to go through 5 or 6 levels without hitting anything decent and find myself getting short. So I need a plan for how I'm going to adjust if that happens again. I need to loosen up my discipline a bit and be more willing to see flops in the middle stages when the blinds are climbing and my stack is in the 30bb range.

GL AND GG

I can vouch you've come a long way from ur mangina!

Thanks man. Still waiting for some sustained success but I've definitely seen some positive signs. One of these days I'm going to break out.

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Hi mate,

Have you managed to get that ticket or no tourney since?

Gl


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I'm sitting at the table of the final regular tourney as we speak. It's been a crazy week with hardly a thought of poker entering my mind. I was out of town last weekend for my son's baseball tournament, and then on Monday my father-in-law passed away. But tonight I felt ready for a distraction from an emotional week, even though the chances of pulling out a ticket are slim.

The turnout isn't great - only 11 guys. The situation is I have to finish top 3 and the 2 guys ahead of me have to bust or finish no better than 4th, depending on where I finish. Unfortunately one of them is off to a great start and has built himself a solid stack early.

The interesting element of strategy here is that with only 11 guys and the 2 villains at my table, I can actually try to target them in confrontations and take some risks to try to control where they finish. Since I have to finish top 3, and ideally take it down, the risk can be worth it.

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Interesting start. I lost 2/3 of my stack when my TPTK on the turn got outdrawn on the river, but then I triples through on the next hand when I got the rest of my chips in on the flop with TPWK and hit a runner-runner straight. It was a low risk, high reward situation during the rebuy period.

We just ended the rebuy period and I'm sitting at about 8700, above the starting stack of 5500. Unfortunately the 2 targets both have solid stacks, one with about 12k and the other with about 20k. So I definitely have my work cut out for me. But I'm happy with how I've been playing at least.

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gl OP

your dedication is admirable

Thanks bro.

Final table break now. The deck has been ice cold so aside from stealing a few pots I haven't had much to work with. Sitting with 10.7k at 400/800. One of the targets has bled chips and is only sitting at about 18k, but the other one has built a decent stack. I'm going to have to do some magic grinding and hopefully these guys will take a hit along the way.

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