Nice thread Gil, could you go explain a bit more how you feel MTT players should be preparing for the grind if possible or what you feel is the right approach in terms of overall preparation eg. studying, working out, the mental aspect of the game etc?

Sup Gilly Maybe you can show me around this forum, its pretty big and scary Will, of course, be following this blog with more than some interest

Haha na 4th jam into the nuts pre twice Icm is fun

Thanks Damien,

Think it differs alot from player to player, just whatever works for you. I personally don't work out enough but I spend time I could be doing that reviewing hands and stuff, as long as time is spent productively I think it's fine.

Personally I go over recent notes so I start a session with clear ideas in my mind as to what I can work on. Always have a couple of sticky notes on my monitor for things I need to focus on so it doesn't get lost in a book or an online notepad whilst playing. I definitely think you should always note down a weakness and really aim to improve that area rather than a "keep doing what you're doing" approach, otherwise you struggle to keep up with the game and fall behind others.

Although as mentioned it is different player to player, I definitely feel like structure is pretty key otherwise things get washed away over time. I always aim to start regging with the Big $75 and it annoys me a little if for whatever reason I miss it, and finish up with the $50 10k on Party as my last reg speed MTT. This just keeps volume at a constant and means game selection isn't something I need to worry about or waste time on as I can pretty much list my 10 hour schedule off the top of my head. With reviews I have a set time, Tuesdays and Thursdays that I make sure I attend and put time aside for it.

ty honeybear <3

Splendid Bloggery. What long term aims do you have?

Thanks

To gradually move up in stakes and reach the top of the games. I'm not so focussed on long term aims, but I am focussed on making noticeable improvements month by month. If I hit the end of a month (or even fortnight) and see no change in my game, then something has gone wrong. This will no doubt lead to progression as a whole and let me see big changes every few months or so.

Had a review session yesterday that was really quite deep. Spent 20 minutes plus on individual hands that didn't necessarily get past the flop, quite incredible that spots that I thought were fairly standard can have such insight and so many reasons behind them. Definitely opened my eyes somewhat and the more I understand why I am doing certain things, the more that will help me in general gameplay.

Slacked off after the review and didn't play. Seems my gout had returned and painkillers hadn't kicked in in time for my play. However managed to get it to a copeable state in order to have my final ski in the UK today before going skiing Sunday (leaving the house at midnight so wont even get a Saturday grind in however).

Got back for Big $75 despite mad congestion on the roads, slight shame since the only two comps I have managed to cash are my final two of the day, the $26 10k Triceratops on tilt and $35 20k on 888. Still early in them, despite ITM, vamoooooooo

Is this something you see yourself doing 10 years down the line?

10 years, no. I wouldn't rule it out but imagine it's def more unlikely than likely, so many variables from my desire to grind, UK legislation, how good I run, whether I keep it sustainable, whether I get into coaching or backing, advances in poker software etc etc.

I definitely see myself still in the business in the next 3 years or so, but even that can become effected by swings, financial pressure and such.

Fiiiinally back from skiing, meaning I can get back to grinding today.

Had a really sick time out in Italy, the gf improved loads managing a red run on her first ever ski trip which is pretty impressive. Despite v little sun weather was actually pretty deece since visibility was good every day.

Slipped down to 623rd in p5 rankings, expect to slip further by Wednesday unless I find a marvelous couple of results today and tomorrow. Whilst I was away good friend thebigdog09 found an impressive couple of deep runs, think it was 4th in B109 and a win in the $22 cubed yesterday which was for $7k+, good to see him printing again

Vamooooooooos Monday!

Subbed, GL !

thanks

got back into the grind on Monday, felt really weird after having a week off, for the first 4 hours or so I was struggling to keep up with action, guess my mind had been in relax mode for too long. Played better towards the back end but bricked a load.

Yesterday felt fresher, and was in fact my first day since recording it where I didn't make any major mistakes all session (with the exception of one borderline hand late on). Looking to have 7 sessions in a row where I don't make big mistakes then moving my table count up from 9 to 10.

Sweat wise got 11th in the 75 5k on ipoker, got a bowl result in the Big $55 and 15th in the late $55 10k on Stars. Felt very happy with the day, with the exception of my mouse continuously not wanting to function correctly. Off into town to get a new one, pretty annoying all the fancy ones are wireless as I don't trust their bluetooth connection/batteries.

Really sigh day yesterday managed to find about 3 final two tables, 24th in big Wednesday on iPoker plus a couple of sizeable bubbles.

Feel like I played pretty well yesterday and in general recently, I think if I was to pick any hand from my database I could justify my thought process as I'm auto-piloting a lot less than I was doing in the past.

However motivation hasn't felt as big since I've returned, maybe just takes a few days for me to get back into routine and making 6 day grinds feel like second nature.

Had a pretty lousy month, hopefully fix that up in the next couple of days.

Story from yesterday, after dropping my gf off at the airport meaning I missed the group review session:



The Super Stack the only thing I really managed to get anything going in, had chunks alllll the way through it. Annoyed with FT play including a spot where I made a bad riv call with K10 on AsQc5s-Jh-Qs. I bet flop, bet turn then he donk jams for about 50%. Felt too high up my range at the time to fold but I don't think I ever have him beat as he just always has to have a flush.

Today had some legit sweats, fizzled out in 8th in the $55 7.5k and came 11th in the Big $75. Think I was at my best ever place mentally, didn't even sigh when I bust either one and was really happy to continue to reg, hopefully something I will see more of in the future.

Grinded a full schedule on Saturday but really struggled to get things going despite being really pleased with my play. However managed to find the day saver in the Big €75 on ipoker finding 2nd:



Had a really tilting episode with ipoker. Regged for the Super Saturday €50r, however the lobby was being a failure, not saying amount of players left. I thought it was a freezeout but in the lobby it said cost of rebuy: €0, cost of add on: €0. I proceeded to take the rebuy just before the break, it said my account would be charged €0 so took it, same with the add on, end of session came to realise my account had been charged €50 for the rebuy, €50 for the add on. On top of this I had no idea how many players were left or the payouts.

I complained to support at the time, they acknowledged there was an issue and said it would be looked into after the event. I then spoke to support yesterday, they said there were no issues at all then started looking into my connection when it had nothing to do with my connection. He repeated about 5-7 times there were no connection issues and the tournament was running perfectly fine and wouldn't be refunding players. Also played the early €50 there yesterday, lobby said 19 players remained with 9 paid, a hand occured where I called a jam with A9s and lost, went out the hand after then suddenly it said "you were eliminated in 11th position". If I'd have known the A9 spot would have been an ICM fold, so again was sort of robbed by their failures.

Aaaaaaaaaaanyway, played a bowl sunday early and only found a mincash in the Big $33 and Sunday Kickoff. had a sick evening with a bunch of friends I don't see often enough and even luckboxed some bets (although tilting katy perry didn't start her set with Firework).

Back otg today with a review tomorrow, leggo leggo leggo!

The month in review - Jaded January

Had a pretty annoying January, seemed to reach the final two tables of everything resulting in a -$4k month, a -100BI downswing over 513 games. Pleased with my volume considering I only 9 table and had a week off skiing plus festive frolics and my foot injury early January which blocked me from playing a couple of days.

Lets hope for a fun Feb!

99% of ipoker issues they will tell you it was a connection issue on your end pretty much regardless of the actually issue.

One time I had a connection issue with ipoker and only ipoker while playing a bunch of other sites with no problems, long story short, I complained about it to support because I lost my buy ins due to not being able to open their software and they told me..."Don't play other sites at the same time" lawl

Gl at the tables.

lol, when I complain they tend to say they will look into it and hope I forget, when I follow it up they just say they are continuing to look into it. Pretty awful form.

Grinded a solid schedule yesterday, Triceratops ran deeeeep into the night before finally finding 4th in it for $909. Happy with my play but was ridic tired come end of session and snap went to sleep, waking up about 11 hours later.



Did a group review, unfortunately a fair few were pretty ill and had to skip leaving about 6 of us. Picked up some stuff to improve which always feels good.

Started regging from Hot $11 time and managed to find a final table and a win in the $27 prog ko turbo, a tournament I always slate but regged since it was start of session, with bounties + prize money it was for about $5.4k total which is pretty huge.



Back otg tomorrow as standard, should have hopefully moved up about in p5 rankings following the bink

Results from Weds:



Outrageous scenes as I break my 50 mtt stretch of not cashing in the Monsoon on 888.

Had a mini review before grinding yesterday, as I did today to recap the only deep run I found last night being the 11 cubed. Some interesting spots, only issues were size based in 3/4 hands as well as a final hand which I thought was awful, but wasn't all that bad (showed a profit but there were lower variance, more profitable lines I could have took).

Miraculously got a refund from iPoker due to my affiliate Blue Blood Poker having a word and knowing people inside the company. I got the same bull**** replies from iPoker staff but managed to find a £200 goodwill refund from higher up in the hierarchy, very pleasing news.

Back on it today before taking tomorrow off, after taking 3 Sundays off in a row will finalllly come back to a funday Sunday

6th-9th Feb

Grinded on Friday finding the following results:



The 2nd place was pretty LOL, ended up building a ridic image having to make 3bet calls rly wide, finding hands and running the table over. Had a rofler trying to offer me $200 an hour coaching to fix all the leaks I had when 9 handed, ironically went on to lose to him HU, maybe I could do with it.

Took Saturday off to get the house right before my gf returning from her home country, then had a looooooong Sunday:



pure bubbled the party major which was a pain and bubbled the Big 109. Almost missed reg for the $50 40k as it's a late one, ended up 1 tabling it for 3/4 hours until 5:30am UK time. ran rly sick on the FT as well as early where I grinded 10 bigs pre money for a loooooong time, found some golden form and the $6k payday to profit.

Found two ft's this night, the $55 7.5k and the $21 Super KO, unfortunately 6th in both for a slight profit on the day.

10th-14th Feb

Had a very productive review Tuesday, I currently feel like I have something new to improve once or twice a week which is highly encouraging as it stops me worrying about my playing ability. Played a reduce session Tues due to long review:



Played well in 22 cubed but got crushed when I lost a flip for chunks. Reviewed it today with European and played pretty well throughout, with the exception of the one or two over ambitious spots I went for.

Was ready to grind Weds but my mate had a spare ticket for the Man United vs. Burnley game which was too good to refuse. Di Maria was abso incred, whilst the rest of the United squad was very disappointing, especially Falcao who looked decrepit. United won 3-1 but could have easily lost, Burnley certainly deserved a point. United's defending got so bad at points Rooney had to play at CB, communication was atrocious on all areas of the pitch.



Reviewed again Thursday, more spots to work on picked up and applied when playing Thurs and Fri:



sigh results, especially the 7th where I abso butchered a hand 4bet jamming the sb with 55 on the ft vs the bb who was a massive nit who had KK after 3betting relatively small, no shock.

Took today off (valentines day obv) other than a review with European who I hadn't spoken to much before today, rly cool guy and seemed fairly encouraged by my game considering he hasn't seen a HH of mine for a while. Looking forward to Sunday Funday!

Solid Sunday

Played pretty well yesterday, especially helped by the fact that I seemed to be carrying solid stacks through everything I played on Stars. Unfortunately it ended up as a nearly day with a deep Warm Up run, semi deep in the Mill and a ft appearance for a very brief amount of time in the $50 15k on party:



Lets go again Monday! Another review tomorrow pre session, where we get to see the captain pads at work in the $109r Sunday Rebuy which he managed to ship as standard.

Mondays grind was one of the most frustrating I've had in past 6 months, mainly because the whole stable had chunks in the 22 cubed and then I took a pretty horrific bad beat for the CL, whilst snap busting deep in a couple of other things. Sighed pretty heavily, something I've not done for a while.

Also yesterday when grinding got pretty annoyed at sun running regs in certain pots, going to have to get back on the motivational videos as I know I'm better than that to let it effect my mental state.



Ended up reviewing my Sunday Warm Up run, picked some things up but annoyed that I missed a couple of open spots pre ante. Also need to adjust my sizing based on bluffing and value betting frequency, was either going too big or too small in specific spots.

Hopefully an improved Wednesday is on the cards in re: to mindset, moved down to #676 in pocketfives rankings #showers

My mind felt much better come Wednesday grind, for some reason really felt like I was going to hit it big, which was semi-right. Made the FT of the Big $75 in really good shape, however it wasn't to be as I busted out in 7th for $1.5k. Really frustrated at my bust out hand, should have been a fold where villain made a pretty obvious sizing tell but I failed to fold AA on J96-4 just for him to have an obvious J9. Those hands are the difference between a decent year and an amazing year, took me a day or two to get over it but will no doubt learn and move on.

Thursday I had a review, again picking up a couple of things to improve and try out. Feels great that every couple of days I have new ways to improve my game, Every month I look back and think "wow I was so bad a month ago", hopefully this trend continues as it would mean I'm improving considerably on the regular. Played a smaller schedule finding a couple of min cashes, thankfully they were towards the top of my buyin range.

Friday played a full schedule but only found two cashes, morale was very high throughout which feels much better. It definitely helps when both of those are cashes are final tables however, including a win for $5.6k in the turbo prog ko where I ran really golden and didn't play too great HU vs a fish, but found the win regardless.

Cliffs:



Did my balls yesterday on my day off as I went shopping and stashed myself out, pretty rare I buy clothes but like them to be of deece quality when I do, as well as treating my gf to various items.



Ready for a looong and hopefully a successful Sunday.