1st hand just looks like a spew, you're obviously hoping he has 2 big cards but considering he limped, hes supposed to have a small pair a lot imo.

On the 2nd hand, even though im normally playing turbo 180s and im just getting in JJ here, in an stt like this with you being 1st and 2nd in chips, I believe I'm flatting here and then proceeding from there. Honestly though, on that flop, I dont think I'm folding anyhow, but maybe thats why i suck at stts

Haha yea, i actually do follow this one. I also am trying to improve my STT game myself; I haven't actually really grinded them even though I feel im decent with ICM.

yo, both hands missplayed lol^^

1st hand fold pre after he isos u dont got odds to setmine. and flop obv terrible, we wont fold any overpairs or fds, which is the biggest part of his range.


hand 2 flat pre or 3bet smaller, u completly eliminate uir bluffing range there with such a big 3bet and u bloat the pot so much and it becomes hard to play profitable on overcard flops.

hope ur posting more hands, and i should move up to 100$ sngs :P


fresh


/edit but hand 2 as played wp otf

Sick thread bro. i'll be following to hear your success. GL at the tables. I'll be in the same spot as you are now. what site you playing on and whar's your SN?

ftp, same sn as here

+1

Thanks brotha. I dig your name ... sounds just like this raggae band called Groundation that I'm into. What stakes are you currently playing, and how are you doing there?


Yeah ... totally misplayed those hands. Bad beats are actually easier to deal with for me, because you know you did things right and it'll come back around for you. But making bad plays is something that really bothers me, so I need to do my best to shut that down and get my mind refocused as soon as possible.

I'll be putting in some time today before going out for the whole "get drunk in a costume" tradition tonight. Then I'll probably take Sunday off and come back strong Monday (Nov 1st) ready to make November better than October.

Well, today didn't go that great. I felt more focused and played alright, but it was much more B-game than A-game. Also seemed to be on the wrong side of the deck all day, so that didn't help. But days like that are part of the life. Nothing else to do but go out, make a sacrifice to the Poker Gods (a bottle of Patron aught to do the trick), and come back Monday ready to roll.

It was a interesting first month of full-time poker. I made almost twice as much as I would have at my old job and I played well the majority of the time, so that was good.

I also failed to get my volume goal in, failed to get the Iron Iron man, and dropped $900 over the last two days. So I definitely have a lot of room for improvement. But overall, I'm very happy and excited about my first month as a "pro".

End of the month graph below.

Hand one I like a fold pre and on the flop is total spew. Are these games turbo?

Pretty sure it's reg speed, seems like that's what his personality would be geared towards. Also that roi would be ridiculous in the turbos.

OPs post flop play in the early levels should be easy to straighten out. I hope the 55 hand is a rare event as the non-turbos have more post flop play.

OP,

I have the same goal. MTT sit and gos I feel are my bread and butter. I would love to make a living grinding sit and gos. I am 26 and still don't know what I really want to do for a living.

This is an inspirational thread for me and I wish you the best. I know what its like working a soul sucking boring job. I want the day to come where I no longer have to do that.

Nice first month. I will be following this and will probably be making a thread of my own in a bit. I can't start grinding now for other reasons, but in a month I will be back on track and really working.

Nice dude. STT's are chill, and if you pick up the strategy they're definitely one of the lower-variance games out there. However, the reason I play them is because they're my bread-and-butter. I've always done well at them, but I tried my hand at a lot of different games (esp NL100 and 200 cash games) and lost a lot of money before ultimately getting back to what worked for me.

So I definitely think STT's are a worthwhile venture, but I do recommend if you grind seriously, grind what you're best at. That said, if you have a perceptive poker mind, STT's aren't that hard to pick up.

The day you become free will come soon ... just keep working at it, every day. Let me know when you start your thread - look forward to it as well as seeing you ITT. Best of luck man.

MONDAY: The month couldn't have started any worse. Was still playing my B-game (and often some form of C-/D+ game), and on top of it, running into all sorts of gut-punch situations. Couldn't win a critical coinflip, the suckout monster was creeping constantly, and short-stacks were making impossible double-ups on the bubble where I inevitably busted.

Even in the last tourney I played, I finally cashed when the bubble popped and I was the solid chipleader, only to get repeatedly sucked out on 3-handed, and finished 3rd. I felt like the poker Jobe, getting heaped on by the Poker Gods. I needed a hug, no joke.

But you know what? I'm not poker's version of Jobe. This happens to everyone. This is part of the life. There's going to be a lot of days like this, and if you can't hang with it, you're not gonna be around long.

So I shut it down early and resolved to come back strong tomorrow.

-$583


TUESDAY: Dialed up the B-game today. Got it up to B+ at times even. Considering the past few days, this was an exciting revelation. Avoided doing overly-stupid things, which was also cause for minor celebration. Played solid and the cards seemed to fall straight. Hopefully it can be a jumping off point for a good run.

+$744

Awesome thread OP ignore the haters theres people out there like myself who really enjoy reading this type of thread. I would subscribe but lol I don't know how have always just added threads to my Favs.

Interesting thread, WhirlingDervish; it's refreshing to see somebody tackling things in a different way and valuing quality over volume, volume, volume. It's particularly interesting to me as I'm looking to really concentrate on STTs over the next few months and hopefully next year -- and although I do use Table Ninja and generally play 10 tables at a time, I have limited time to play so my overall volume will also be low (I'm aiming for 100 per week).

If you are eventually interested in slowly adding the odd table to your sets over time, then I can't recommend Table Ninja highly enough. I've only just started using it and am still on the free trial, but I'll definitely be buying the full version.

But as I say, it's cool to see someone concentrating on really maximising their edge over the games. I have a similar stance to you in a certain respect in that while I realise that playing turbos would make a great deal of sense if I could put in the right amount of volume, I can't currently get past the fact that I feel I have a significant edge in the regular games that would be somewhat lost in the turbos. I think that's a psychological block I'll have to get past at some point, though.

You can subscribe by clicking on the 'thread tools' drop down at the top right of the thread.

Thanks dude. Appreciate that.

Thanks. There's definitely a harmonious balance between quantity and quality that I'm looking to achieve. Not quite there yet, but I'm doing my best to work towards it.

You're not the first person to say good things about table ninja. I've read up on it and it looks pretty sweet. I don't have too much use for it right now, but
I hope to soon. Did you find it easy to customize? And how long does the trial run? Thanks!

It took me an hour or two to get everything running -- but that was less to do with Table Ninja itself and more to do with finding the right drivers for my PS3 pad and getting it working with Xpadder (it's apparently much simpler with an Xbox 360 pad with the relevant dongle). Plus I'm terrible at techy stuff, so I imagine it would be much smoother sailing for almost everybody else.

Table Ninja itself seems incredibly easy to customise; I'm only using very basic functions at the moment but I intend to delve deeper with it soon. The free trial lasts for 30 days.

Chill! Thanks for the knowledge.


WEDNESDAY:

Instead of playing poker today, I should've just doused myself in gasoline, lit myself on fire and seen how that went. I was awful. Gave tourneys away. Had no focus. No patience. No discipline.

-$783

It was the worst day of poker I've had since going full-time. A big part of my strength as a poker player is my ability to apply focus and play my A-game *almost* all the time. To care about every single tournament, to never give one away, to go into every one with the attitude that it's gonna be hell to knock me out of it.

But I haven't been playing like that the past few days. And it's not ok. If you get sucked out on, standard. If you get colddecked, it happens. But not playing well is not something I will accept from myself. And I don't feel there's a point to playing if you're not going to play good. So I have to either lock it up, or not play. That's all there is to it.


THURSDAY:

YES! Yes. For the first time in what seems like forever, I played my A-game. I played one tourney at a time (in previous days I'd been playing up to 4) and concentrated on slowing down, being patient, and just making correct decisions. I focused on chipping up; in the past couple of days I felt like I was trying to win the whole tournament on one big hand in the middle of the tournament - and usually busting myself in the process.

It was very refreshing to actually play as well as I can. It's imperative that I keep that going.

+$644

Day off today - going to the aquarium, then Ghostland Observatory, then an impromptu trip to LA in the morning. Might play in the LA Poker Classic on Sunday. Will also have the laptop in tow and get some work done.

My swingy month so far:

-$583
+$744
-$783
+$644
------------
+$22


To be even considering the way I've played is honestly pretty encouraging.

I'll probably update on Monday upon my return home.

GL @ the commerce bro. Hope you ship something =).

Thanks BAE. Looks like I'm gonna do the 6-max $225 event on Tuesday. Not 100% sure yet, but leaning toward it.

The FTOPS starts on Wednesday, so I'll definitely be in event #1 trying to ship some big-boy $.

Been a slow couple days for tourneys since I'm out of town and living it up a little. However, that hasn't stopped my roller coaster from running.

SATURDAY: -$474
SUNDAY: +$573

Ye Gods. At least I feel that I've played well for the past 3 days, which is a step in the right direction.

Best hand of the day, so far:

Full Tilt - $100+$9|150/300 NL - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

BTN: 3,344.00
SB: 3,840.00
Hero (BB): 6,316.00

SB posts SB 150.00, Hero posts BB 300.00

Pre Flop: (450.00) Hero has J T

fold, SB raises to 600.00, Hero calls 300.00

Flop: (1200.00, 2 players) 7 7 9
SB bets 1,200.00, Hero raises to 5,716.00 and is all-in, SB calls 2,040.00 and is all-in

Turn: (7680.00, 2 players) 8

River: (7680.00, 2 players) Q

SB shows 3 3 (Flush, Queen High) (PreFlop 47%, Flop 35%, Turn 0%)
Hero shows J T (Straight Flush, Queen High) (PreFlop 53%, Flop 65%, Turn 100%)
Hero wins 7,680.00

The old 6-card straight flush. Not overly-interesting, just kinda fun As the chip leader, I suppose I could have been more forceful preflop (I considered a 3-bet), but in general this is more consistent with my style of play; taking the 3:1 odds and solid suited connectors in position and reevaluating after the flop. Villain's play on every street was pretty hopeless all around, imo. He had been playing well for the most part up until that point, but this hand was certainly not his best effort.

Meh showing in the FTOPS event #1 tonight. Made it a couple hours, maybe halfway through the field, ended up busting on a coinflip.

This hand of the tourney was one of the toughest decisions I've faced in a long time. I think most people would (snap) call here. I folded. I have no idea if I was right or not.

My read on the villain was that he was solid and played his hands cautiously.



Full Tilt - 60/120 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3

Hero (UTG+1): 6,635.00
MP: 6,460.00
MP+1: 5,480.00
LP: 11,350.00
CO: 2,165.00
BTN: 3,010.00
SB: 4,385.00
BB: 6,820.00
UTG: 3,695.00

SB posts SB 60.00, BB posts BB 120.00

Pre Flop: (180.00) Hero has T 9

fold, Hero raises to 340.00, fold, MP+1 raises to 560.00, fold, fold, fold, fold, BB calls 440.00, Hero calls 220.00

Flop: (1740.00, 3 players) 3 9 T
BB checks, Hero bets 640.00, fold, BB calls 640.00

Turn: (3020.00, 2 players) 5
BB checks, Hero bets 1,360.00, BB calls 1,360.00

River: (5740.00, 2 players) Q
BB bets 4,260.00 and is all-in, fold

BB wins 5,740.00


My thinking was this:

Preflop, I put him on AK or AQs, J-J or Q-Q when he called a raise and a (small) 3 bet. As we went through the flop and turn, I felt that he had an overpair that he was playing cautiously bc he was afraid I might have a better hand. I mean, I specifically felt he had QQ, and when the Q came on the river and he shoved, I just felt he had it. He wouldn't play JJ this way (c/c'ing until an overcard came, then shoving). It would be a way wacky bluff with AK, but that's just not what I felt. I wasn't sure what hand he had, but I just felt that I was beat, so I dumped it.

I know that my preflop raise from EP was optional at best (it's not a play I often make, but this time I did). And I could have bet more on the turn, but I felt that with the range I thought he had, his chances of sucking out were so slim that my only real objective was to make small, callable bets that would get him pot-stuck on the river, to make that river shove less than pot-sized.

Ok, so here's the thing. One of my poker epiphanies came when I got tired of paying people off even though I knew I was beat. I mean, I'd JUST KNOW that they had me somehow, even if it were in some impossible way. I'd call just to prove to myself that I was right. And I was almost always right, and I spent a lot of chips proving it to myself.

And then one day I decided ... I'm just going to listen to myself. Every time I get that feeling, I'm just going to listen to it. And my results shot through the roof.

The thing is, I think that "feeling" is more than a feeling. Humans consciously use something like 8% of our brains or whatever. Well I believe that somewhere in that other 92%, we already KNOW the answer. The human brain is infinitely complex, and it already has deciphered all the little clues, all the betting patterns, the timing, the history, the energy. Our brain has got the whole thing figured out. So you've got the answer in there somewhere. You just have to tap into it, and then have the faith and discipline to act on it, even when you don't want to. Even when you just HAVE to see it. To say no, I'm just going to listen to myself. And that's how I felt in this hand. Unfortunately, I'll never know if it was right this time or not.

As always, thoughts are appreciated.


Aside from the FTOPS event, I was +$428 at STT's so that softened the blow. Still running even for the month so far, but that's ok ... So much of winning at poker is just staying even through the tough times and then going on a heater. Hopefully that comes soon

Next FTOPS: On Sunday, both Event #11, the $120+9 NL KO and #13, the $300+22 NL.

Wild ... just played a STT where the bubble went for 108 hands (the whole rest of the tourney took just 91 hands).

I finished 3rd, busting with A-10 vs A-7, but I'd gotten lucky before that, so I can't complain.

Back to the tables!

So I haven't updated in a couple days because ... well ... poker has sucked. It's just been a rough month. Lots of ups and downs, no making any headway, inconsistent play and what seems like poor luck.

I know logically that a professional shouldn't get discouraged about a couple breakeven weeks. In fact, (as I'm sure I've mentioned before) I think that part of being a good player is an ability to stay around even when things are bad, because when you get hot, it's all profit. But in practice, it eats me up and has been getting in my head a little bit, which is not really normal. I think it's probably because now that poker is my job, I put more pressure on myself. So maybe it's a good thing to go through this now, so that I can learn from it and overcome it, because it's gonna be a part of life if I want to be a real professional.

So much of being a great poker player has nothing to do with the cards. It has to do with the ability to focus, the ability to stay on an even emotional keel, good bankroll management, etc. Playing good poker is just part of the equation. I feel like those things have always been strengths of mine, and I need to get back to them.

Here's my half-month graph. My volume and play both suck. I hope to make this look real good by the end of the month.




Taking the day off tomorrow to usher in the new snowboarding season at Mountain High Back on Wed.

Hey dude, following this thread since it's pretty interesting.

Not to hate, but your half-month b/e stretch looks like the daily volume of any "real" reg... I mean you probably know that already but you won't live off 100 SNG per month, even with a 10% ROI (which is fairly good at these levels tbh) since that would net "only" 1K$. Not to discourage you or anything but I think you've seriously run very well by now and you haven't encountered the bad side of variance. Break-even stretches of several hundred games happen, and they happen more and more as the edges get smaller and smaller. Given your volume you could face a breakeven stretch of half a year, which would seriously crush your mind imo.

You should really try to put some real volume in it because 60 games over half a month weeks isn't even 10h/week of play @3tabling... and obviously try to deal with variance better because if breaking even over 60 games is mindcrushing you will have a really hard time playing professionnaly over a long period because that's really, really, really standard.

Hope you succeed and don't take it as a hate, just trying to help!

Chris

Chris -

No man, you're totally right. I appreciate it. I've gotta make some real changes, both mentally and operationally, to get this done right.

I'd have more to say but it's so early I'm like a newborn kitten right now. All squinty and helpless ... not so nimbly bimbly.