A Day in the Life of a Grinder

Some days are just brutal. After bonuses and rakeback, it's not that much damage, but 50 straight non-wins to finish the day really crushes the soul.

And these type of days were way worse before the invention of the EV line... At least I played 10% ROI poker today.



p.s. sorry for any skype rants

Cool project. Gl with your SNG grind.

I'm using PT3 myself, so I am wondering how the EV line works on winnings in HEM? To me it seems hard to calculate how much money you were expected to win?

Good luck man. You will get it all figured out. Life's funny like that.

gl op, hope you find what you are looking for

It basically just calculates the expected ICM ev of any all in confrontation instead of absolute actual win/lose. The nature of it's calculation has far lower variance, and in the long run the red and green lines should converge. It's not a stone clad marker of what your 'real' ROI is, but it is far closer than actual results.

So it could basically be described as the line that represents where you would be if the best hand won every time (?)

No, it's based on EV
If you have AKs vs. 22 this is (for the most part) a dead even coin flip.
Therefore, if you get all in and win, you are running above EV and if you get all in and lose you are running below EV. How much equity you actually lose or gain depends on ICM (i.e. stack sizes distribution, what stage of a SNG/MTT etc)..
This is important because there is a huge difference between how AA is a favourite over 27o than AKo over 76s, or whatever.

Also as Doggz implied it's not that accurate since it doesn't account for other factors (like situational run good; being dealt good hands, etc) but it's generally closer than actual results...

anyway gl op

Thanks for the thorough explanation. I've got a couple beers in me but seems logical enough. Looks like OP ran like absolute hell than ?

I decided I am going to play some normal MTTs this weekend. Posted a package in the marketplace to see if I can get some mid stake tournies in the mix. Here's a link if anyone wants a sweat.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/16.../#post29535046

Done With SNGs



A few things I learned:

1) SNGs don't really play much like MTTs
2) SNG variance is real
3) SNGs are boring

I may have stuck with SNGs for another week or two if I felt there was MTT applicable information for me to learn, but *shocker* I think playing MTTs are the best way to learn MTTs.

Monday Morning Update.



I sold a package this weekend and, as the graph shows, got crushed. The difference between what the graph shows and what I actually lost is $409.77.

I still haven't thought of a way to quantify exactly how I want to count money going into the college fund. Like I said it's not exactly just money won money lost, and it's not exactly just money in my poker accounts. Maybe we should just say sharkscope/opr wins minus life withdraws?

I'll think of a way to make this more coherent next week.

Good luck man should be a great thread, though obv no real progress till Jan.
Hope you run good sir

Learning to Grind again

Before Black Friday I was one of the biggest tournament grinders online. Maybe not in the sense of tables played, but certainly in number of hours. Somewhere in the last 6 months I've forgotten how to handle it.

Back in the day, I never had the ability to grind. During the boom when I played cash I rarely played a session longer than 4 hours; A twenty hour work week was a hardcore grind. I never really improved as a grinder, and I never really tried. Over time, as MTTs grew in size and number, they became a realistic grinding option. Life saving features like sync breaks and late registration made them all the more reasonable to play.

But back in 2009 I was still the kid who could barely put in a 4 hour session. That's not even the length of a single normal MTT. I knew it would take time to be able to handle a long day, and over the course of the next year, I slowly gutted out longer and longer sessions. It wasn't some miracle tipping point, but by the next summer I was able to play all day and still end the day playing strong.

Grinding is a skill.

People might not give credit to this notion or dismiss it as unimportant, but hear me out: Grinding, like any other skill, is something most people start out poor at (like playing the piano). As they practice, they slowly improve their ability to remain focused (or execute more complex key combination). Eventually, they improve to a point where short sessions are a breeze (or easy songs can be flawlessly repeated).

I'm not saying becoming a master grinder is the same as becoming a master pianist, but the progression of ability is certainly very similar. And the only way to get better to to practice.

So here I am, practicing, waiting for the moment when having this skill will once again greatly improve my profits as a player.

This thread just got bumped in MTTc and made me smile:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/61...rinder-541431/

Smok of course won WSOPE this fall and is a HS reg. A lot can happen in a year or two. Always dream big.

Manic Confidence

I couldn't sleep last night; all I wanted to do is play poker. Something 'clicked' last night when I was working with some videos and I just knew I was going to start crushing. I might not be the best in the world right now, but I'm miles ahead of the opponents I've been playing.

I wish I could give more depth to this post, but I just feel as good as I've felt since last year.

Final tabled 6 tournaments today. Yea...

Well you called that one right..
I've had similar moments. Times when I was just positive that the session would prove profitable. It was all mental. Then I would tell myself to get that focus and drive every time, but somewhere along the way, it falls off, and I break-even until it returns. Keep it up and stay in-tune with however/whatever it is that is giving you this drive. No reason you can't feel this way all of the time.

nice work Doggz! Keep it up!

Followed up today with a short evening session and shipped two. Currently on fire.

Monday Update

Another Sunday where I sold action and lost big, but I shipped the Lock Nov VIP Freeroll for $1200 which was a huge boost to the BR. The graph is no where near accurate right now because sharkscope missed that tournament.

This week I'm going to make a small step up in stakes now that I have over 2k in the account.

Things I like:

Monday Update

Took some time off this weekend to play some Skyrim and refresh a bit. Going to dive back into playing this week.

To everyone who reads: What are you interested in reading about? I have a bunch of ideas of what to write about, but I don't really want to waste my time with stuff people don't care about. So, what do you care about?

l m k

^^^Things I care about

But in all honesty GL and I'll be making a very similar post next year only with HUSNG's. So, I'll be following. Also, is it stressful trying to mix college and poker? If so, is it worth it to try to pay for college with poker while in college or to just wait till I'm out of college? GL