I am currently playing in the $25,000 Sunday Mystery Bounty 22 ($22 bi). It has been running for 46 minutes and late registration is available for another 2 hours 34 minutes.

I have 120 bb (starting stack is 83.3 bb at current levels) and am in position 117 of 479, I have 19% more than the average stack.

This was hard to accomplish, I had to carefully read other opponents' hands. Through careful observation, this is a good table. I have to be very protective of my stack and very patient.

There is now 6 minute break, I make a coffee. Using all of my powers of observation, I was able to get paid off holding kk (which I reraised preflop) by someone holding q rags who hit a q on an aq7 flop - any ace is definitely in their range and they went all-in. However, they were a short stack and by keenly observing them I was able to deduce they did not have the ace but still were willing to go in based on catching some other part of the flop. Since this had been reraised preflop any ace was definitely in their range so this took all of my powers of observation and deduction.

I am now in position 88 of 528 with 122.7 bb, nearly double the starting chip size (66.7 bb at current levels). About 50% more chips than the average chip size.

I have to continue to be very protective of my stack and not take any unnecessary risks.

I am currently playing in the $25,000 Sunday Mystery Bounty 22 ($22 bi). It has been running for 1 hour 56 minutes and late registration is available for another 1 hour 24 minutes.

It is on break now so I'm jotting down this quick update.

I missed a lot of draws and had to fight to preserve my chips since I couldn't bluff (they call anything) and had to wait until I have it. Now I am in position 216 of 602 with 45 bb's, 80% more than starting stack, and slightly above the average stack size.

I haven't really gotten any great cards and as mentioned missed my draws and couldn't do much about it. However I picked up a pot where I could and continue to fight while observing all the other player's tendencies.

I have utmost patience and am careful to hold onto my stack. Which is why I am still on my first bullet for this tournament, and have 80% more than the starting stack. It is a marathon, not a sprint. I make notes about who goes all in when three bet and what they have in those cases. When I finally get a premium hand it will be valuable to know who I can induce an all-in from especially if they are a short stack.

At my table I currently have half of the players covered, most of the others have slightly more. Only one has significantly more chips than me.

I am currently playing in the $25,000 Sunday Mystery Bounty 22 ($22 bi). It has been running for 2 hours 57 minutes and late registration is available for another 23 minutes.

I am on my second bullet, I busted out holding AKs on a flop with two of my suit. I thought I had good odds to call but didn't make it. (I called an AI by a two pair.) I'll ask about that hand as I am interested in whether I played it right.

I am currently playing in the $25,000 Sunday Mystery Bounty 22 ($22 bi). It has been running for 3 hours 20 minutes and late registration just ended. I currently have 11.9 bb (about 60% more than starting stack), and have 3 of the people at my table covered.

As late registration is over now, this is when the "real" tournament begins. Currently I'm in position 267 of 349 with 180 places paid, but notably there will soon be a bounty on each and every elimination from here on out. That means that when I finally pick up a premium hand, people with marginally good hands are likely to call, since if they eliminate me they get instant cash, whereas we are very far from the money.

That means I really need to be careful now and just hold out until I have a hand that is likely to win an all-in showdown.

I haven't been getting many premium hands but if I do get any I expect to get paid off or go bust.

I am currently playing in the $25,000 Sunday Mystery Bounty 22 ($22 bi). It has been running for 3 hours 27 minutes.

I have just 9.8 bb (30% more than starting stack, well below average stack) and am in position 276 of 309. I am proud of being among these 309 people since there were a total of 1021 registrations plus 411 rebuys, so this is already good. Even if I get eliminated it was not bad.

Just waiting for a premium hand to go out on.

I am currently playing in the $25,000 Sunday Mystery Bounty 22 ($22 bi). It has been running for 3 hours 32 minutes.

I have 10.6 bb's and 17k chips (starting stack is 10k chips), average stacks are 49.9k chips so I am very far from average.

However, in this context it is highly motivating for people to try to eliminate me, as there is a mystery bounty on. The minimum bounty is a little more than half of the buy-in and we are still very far from the money but players are dropping fast. During this mystery bounty period eliminations happen very quickly.

The top amount paid is $2500 for a bounty, and there are 2 paid in the amount of $750 and it is random who gets which bounty. So it is super motivating for people to try to eliminate any player, as they might instantly get $2500 absolutely instantly - there are only 271 players now and each and every one of them has a mystery bounty on their head.

So it is super exciting for other players and that means realistically I can get a lot of calls from less premium hands than the ones I'm waiting for.

Now the only question is whether I'll get any AA or KK before I'm blinded out. At 9.4 BB I think I'm doing okay.

As mentioned players are dropping fast - now ther eare just 86 players to the money, so I might cash just by holding out for my premium hand. If I do pick up my premium hand though I might still get eliminated.

It's exciting to see what will happen. This is a very exciting format for me. I do have one player at my table covered, the one directly to my left, so it is possible I might make an elimination myself.

I am currently playing in the $25,000 Sunday Mystery Bounty 22 ($22 bi). It has been running for 3 hours 41 minutes. Late registration is over and it is the bounty period.

It is possible to sort by bounty won, and so it is possible to see that unfortunately the $2500 bounty has already been given out randomly, so it is no longer in the mix. However, nobody has won either of the two $750 bounties so each elimination has at least a "2 in remaining players" chance of instantly awarding $750 even if though we are far from the bubble.

I have just 6.6 bb now (player to my left has 4.2) and I am holding out for a premium hand. As there are 237 players left the fact that 2 of the $750 prizes haven't been awarded means at least a 2 in 237 of instantly getting $750 on top of the other bounties. THe minimum bounty is about half of the buyin.

It should be possible to calculate exactly how many bounties are outstanding based on the players list but the software doesn't automatically do that. This type of mystery bounty should be highly motivating to people as it is a chance for an instant reward.

Now there are just 49 players to the money out of 229.

Now there are just 38 players to the money, out of 218. I have 6.2 big blinds.

I believe that just by waiting I can wait out 218 eliminations as players drop extremely quickly while bounty is on (likely because many of them go all in hoping to win a bounty from a short stack, so they eliminate each other as they do so). With just 38 players to the money I might coast into the money while waiting for my premium hand.

However, if I do pick up a premum hand I will play it by going all-in, and may get eliminated on the bubble as a result. I have the player to my right covered now, they only have 6 bb and I have 6.2.

Now it is on a 6-minute break. I have only just 4.3 bb's, however we are just 21 players to the money from 201 and in these situations as mentioned they eliminate each other quickly. The mincash is not motivating enough for me to give up the chance to play a premium hand (I wouldn't fold premium hands now), so either I will be dealt no premium hands and just wait out the eliminations, mincashing, or I will be dealt a premium hand. If I am dealt a premium hand due to how short my stack is I am likely to get callers who are interested in picking up a bounty with any two cards. (i.e. even if they think I have AA they still are motivated by a 30% chance to pick up my bounty since it costs just 3 bb, similar to a tiny raise.) Right now I am actually nearly dead last (200th out of 201) but 21 players to the money across 23 tables (the number of tables in play now, I counted) is not too hard to wait out. I expect to cash or to bust out while playing a premium hand if I'm dealt one.

There was a tough spot, I got 22 from the cut-off, with 3.3 bb. I think usually I should shove here but we are just 19 players from the money and if I fold I am all but guaranteed to cash. 33 is not a premium hand, but my shove would have callers with any two cards due to the bounty on my (and anyone's) head. So it is a difficult spot, I could have likely tripled up my short stack from 3.2 to 10 bb, at some risk of elimination. Instead I am still holding out for a super premium hand, while waiting for eliminations. only 13 players to go to the money now. (out of 193).

I am down to 3 bb (9 players to the money out of 189), I'll make it to the money but don't have any hope of a deeper run, oh well. The person to the left of me was another short stack like me, got KK and went all in as I would have done, and this way got back up to 10 bb. Another person at the table also has 10 bb now. I just haven't had any premium hands, dry run of cards. So I just need to wait for ... 8 eliminations from 188 now Not too hard to wait that out.

I am down to 1.7 bb's and am about to be the small blind, but only need 2 eliminations across 21 tables (182 players) so a mincash is inevitable. (It means just 1 elimination out of every 10 tables.)

Stone bubble 1 player to the money and I am not even in last place with my 1.1 BB (position is 177 out of 181.)

(Still playing but barely.) I made it to the money (mincash). A proud achievement and with 0.8 bb left I think I will go out now. This means I'll have finished in 178th place or so out of 1021 players plus 411 rebuys. Not bad!

I managed to claw my way up from 0.7 to 6.7 bb's by luckily winning a couple of flips. Usually 0.7 bb is death, 6.7 bb is... nearly playable. I nearly have a short stack at my table covered. interesting times... But I still expect to go out soon.

The dynamics happened exactly as predicted. Everyone calls my all in with any two cards to get my bounty. It's a shame I didn't get playable cards earlier...

Now I am in 128th of 130 players, there aren't any big pay jumps for a long time and I don't have anyone at my table covered so can't win any bounties myself. However, due to the bounty on my own head, I will keep having to fold and wait for a premium hand, then am bound to get callers on it. The dynamics here is that the bounty on my head (which means instant cash for eliminating me) together with my short stack, turns everyone into a calling station.

I could try this with AJs now but I think I'll wait for a real premium hand. AJs had good equity but I can do better so I folded it and am waiting for something better. I'm at 5.2 bb and just waiting for a premium hand. 125th of 128 players now.

I just counted, it's been 79 hands since I've had a premium hand (which was AKs, what I busted my first bullet on). This is an unusually bad run of cards given the strategy I'm playing with. The chances of going so long without a premium hand (AA, KK, QQ, AKs) are pretty low. I would say I haven't been having a good run of cards given the strategy I've decided to play. Now I'm down to 3.1 bb and still don't have cards that fit my strategy. AJs would have been okay I'm just hoping for something better. We are down to 110 players now but there really aren't any appreciable pay jumps for a long time. I just hope to get some actually premium hands soon.

I'm still at 5.8 bb just waiting for a premium hand.

Do you see any premium hands here?

https://imgur.com/a/JNGrszt

Yeah - AKs. That was literally 90 hands ago. Not an AA or KKs or AK or QQ or even AKo in sight since then. Not even an AQs (Or even an AQo for that matter, which isn't even that premium.) Or a JJ.

The reason I needed to adopt this strategy was due to the bounty on my head and my very small stack. It is instant cash for anyone and anyone can easily get it. It is an unusually bad run of cards. I'm shocked I still have 4.3 bb. (I went all in when I had to with a really tiny stack.)

My position is 88th out of 89 lol. Not bad for a starting field of 1021 players + 411 rebuys! And still, I'm in the money, so can't complain.

You folded AJ suited with 5.2 BB and no pay jumps soon?

I have been eliminated, placing 77th out of 1024 and winning 1.76x the buyin.

During the last break I had enough time to show you how many non-premium hands I had to wait through, just look at this sea of non-premium hands (for our purposes here a premium hand is AA, KK, QQ, AKo or AKs, maybe AQs and maybe JJ.)

Just look at this sea of non-premuim hands as far as the eye can see:

https://imgur.com/a/NRygZVb

(I did play some of them succh as the TT).

That is 90 hands in a row. Luckily just as I was finishing that count I picked up AKo, which is definitely a premium hand and under the circumstances I called an early position's raise. I was pretty happy when the flop looked like this:

https://imgur.com/a/fYG9Ftu

Ah, that's more like it. AKo hits a K on the flop versus literally any two cards. (I would win the main pot not the side pot shown).

Sadly it didn't hold up and of course this is the outcome: https://imgur.com/a/ejWoHT5

But I mentioned that would happen. Still, the dry run of cards was so long that even if I had won with AKo versus T8o and 53s) I wouldn't have had that many bb's. For the record my AKo had 41.58% equity versus the 35s and T8o preflop, whcih increased to 74% on the flop, and 78% on the turn. Of course the river lets 35 complete their straight.

Still this is pretty much exactly as envisioned except that waiting 90 hands for a premium hand is a bit on the long side. On average I'd expect to pick up a premium hand like the one I was looking for between every 30-50 hands.

Cashing 77th in this tournament out of 1021 players wasn't bad at all but for the strategy I was adopting, I didn't get particularly lucky.

In this case this buyin had a 76% ROI. I'm definitely looking for stakers so I can continue to cash and produce value.

Cash outcome: https://imgur.com/a/FlSHTXl

Yes, because the situation (bounty on me) made everyone a calling station, I knew I could just wait for a premium hand. I was extremely disciplined: in the situation I was playing, premium hand means only AA, KK, AKs, QQ. Besides this sometimes AKo and sometimes JJ. No other hands are a premium hand, not even AQs which is close to a premium hand. AJs is not a premium hand by this definition.

You can see I eventually went out on this hand: https://imgur.com/a/ejWoHT5

The exact hand is:



However this was due to a string of 90 non-premium hands in a row. It is very rare that there is a string of non-premium hands as long as this one. (I did play some of them, the ones in blue such as TT are ones where I won the pot.)

You can just look at them: https://imgur.com/a/NRygZVb

(Notice the blue pots I won - although they weren't premium hands, I won pots with QJs, KJs, TJo, AJo, TT as well as a T6o, an AJo, a 99.)

I know TT is usually close to a premium hand and I do consider it pretty premium normally, but you have to realize that in that situation, if they see a face card (a J, a Q a K an A) then they are in the pot to win my bounty, so I can basically only win if no face cards come up on the board because they hit their range so hard.

Consistently cashing in tournaments requires an extreme level of discipline and luck and it takes special discipline to cash against extremely spewy players without getting eliminated unduly.

AJs was hard to lay down preflop though, I'll grant you. it has very good equity against their range and I could have shoved to either steal the blinds or get some showdown equity versus their range. But it is not a premium hand, and in this situation I required a premium hand, even if it meant waiting 90 hands.

Even so you see I was eliminated with good equity in the hand. And I placed in the money, I am proud of coming 77th out of 1021 players, in the money, and despite missing many draws (but without getting eliminated) and having a long string of non-premium cards. Actually, I didn't get a single AA or QQ in the whole tournament, and only a single KK which I had to navigate an ace on the flop to cash in on. I missed several draws as well.

If you liked seeing my performance getting decent equity on the first bullet and basically mincashing with 76% ROI on the second, with a decent chance to cash higher, then you're in the right thread

My plug:

As a winning poker player, I would be happy to offer someone the chance to stake me in a game of poker. If they were willing to stake me, I would be happy to use my skills and experience to try and win some money for both of us. I believe that with my track record, I would be a good investment for anyone looking to try their hand staking. I would be happy to discuss the details with the person and come to an agreement that works for both of us.

If you do some research on tournament play, you will be shocked at what the solvers say you should be shoving with.

Thank you for the tip, msufan. Can you give me a link to some resources for what you're talking about? Do these solvers assume perfect play (like GTO) or can they be set to respond to the actual tendencies of maniac players who are calling very wide? Because I don't think the players are playing very well at all - as a simple example, they have huge bet sizing tells instead of a consistent bet size for their range, thereby frequently giving away the strength of their hand when it is very strong.

A point about my dry run in this tournament: I am not 100% sure I did the calculation correctly but it seems that the chances that I would go 90 hands without AA, KK, QQ, AKs, AKo, AQs or JJ are just 4.79%. If my calculations are correct that means I experienced an unusually bad run of cards for the specific strategy I picked.

You can see my calculations here:
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...07/?highlight=

I wrote my own code to list all the combinations so I may have made a mistake. I understand usually we don't count combinations twice so usually it would be half of the numbers listed, but my poker client does list them in a specific order so I thought it would be easiest and least error-prone to test all combinations. This is software I wrote myself so I might have made a mistake.

I see extremely exploitable play and although I would say I got pretty unlucky on this particular run, missing most of my draws and having an extremely long dry spell of cards, I did generate a return of 76% on my buy-in.

According to what I've learned from Daniel Negreanu's MasterClass, it is the same game regardless of stakes - you play the players not the stakes. If so then on this particular run I could have generated 76% return on $109, meaning $82.84 profit of which per my offer I would have returned +85% which is $70.41 besides the buyin fee itself.

Bear in mind that this is without eliminating a single person in the bounty period and that I didn't make a particularly deep run. Most of the money is higher in the tournament, which is why I am looking for staking as I will need to make a few runs to get there.

Since this is my staking thread, I would be happy to train and read more about tournament strategy, besides the classwork I'm already doing, so as to prepare to be staked for a $109 buyin tournament next week, with equally soft players. My exploitative strategy depends on their own tendencies rather than GTO play. As they are playing quite badly, they're leaving a lot of money on the table. I would love to help get some of that to someone who might like to stake me.

100% troll lol. very good one