Hi there. Starting this thread mostly to keep myself in line as I attack 2023. Some background: Played for ~ a year pre Black Friday, was a winner but not enough to really do anything outside of beer money in college. Started up again in 2016 and have played on and off since. My best year ever was 2017, when I won just over 100K playing solely on Ignition. I have my own businesses (won't be talking about those much), so will mostly only be playing at nights. I rarely study, and mostly just try to beat the games I know I can beat. Will occasionally play higher buyings, but I want to focus on this range this year enough that I can just kill it.

2023 goals
Play 225 days
150K+ profit
Pay off personal debt (~20K) through poker by the end of March

Really that's it as far as goals.


My daily schedule will look something like this (broken down by site)

Stars ($230 in buyins)
$20 5K
$100
$30 8K
$50 2K
$30 1K

Everygame Poker ($215 in buyins)

$22 +$20 + $20 1.5K
$11 +$10 + $10 800
$55 PKO
$22 + 20 + 20 1.5K
$6.6 + $6 + $6

Ignition ($255 in buyins) (Just starting playing on here again today)
$33 3K
$22 7.5K
$55 25K
$27.5 2K
$33 3K PLO8
$27.50 2K
$75 4K Thousandaire Maker (my personal favorite tournament)

Borgata (530 in buyins)
$10 PKO
$10 Sat
$10 Sat
$35 1K
$20 Sat
$55 1K
$20 Sat
$20 $500
$35 $750
$20 Sat
$20 $500
$100 8K
$20 Sat
$35 1K
$20 $750
$35 + 35 + 30

Total Buyins: $1230

That number is pretty low with reentries and tournaments that will rotate in depending on the day. My best estimate would be ~1900 in buyins. I’m also avoiding the $100 on Ignition for now, as they have a lot more runners. I will likely add them once my roll get to a 30-40K roll.

If I can manage $1900 in buyins per day for 225 days, that's $427K in buyins. If I hit that goal, I'd need a 35% ROI to hit a 150K year. On Stars, I've averaged a 30% ROI. When I tracked ignition, it was 35%. Nearly positive Borgata/Ignition are closer to 40-they've been my most profitable sites on a per game basis. I'll likely also rotate in $200-$300 games (more so on Borgata) as we get deeper into the year and/or when I win satellites.


My bankroll is roughly $20K.

Start of year roll on all sites:

Stars: $1,519.02
Everygame: $2,671.80
Borgata: $2674.64
Ignition: $0


Current:
Stars: $929
Everygame: $3171
Borgata: $3198
Ignition: 702

Withdraws: $1,400
Deposits:$3,000

Total Profit/Loss: -$466.34

I’ll likely play more to start the year, less in the middle, and more again in Q4. Hope you’ll join in and follow along for the ride!

Really good day tonight. Wasn’t able to play much on Party because of some technical issues, but every other site things went very well.


Won the 55PKO on Everygame for $560. Nothing too interesting that I remember, but was a solid take down.


Had a decent night on Ignition. Cashed a couple, including the $55 35K. Had a top 15 stack with 80 left and hero called A high in what I think was a good spot to do so, but opponent had a boat so knocked out

Ended up making the FT of the 27.50 2K at the end of the night. I entered the FT 3/9 with about 15% of the chips but only about 30BBs. Chipped up into 1 out of 6 without getting it in. Basically ran over everyone.

Then the all ins began. Won QQ>77 for over half the chips left in play. Lost T9s<AQo vs 18BB stack 4 handed, then 33<AQ for 65% of chips. Won JJ>9Ts vs 12BB stack to get to 3 handed, but then lost 99<JTo vs 20BB stack to be the shorty with 3 left. Had 10 BBs, chipped up, then shoved 55 into TT→and won! Ended up having some pretty standard short stack shenanigans but won for $525!


Also had a very good night on stars, and almost a great one.

The first FT of the night was the $30 Bounty Builder with $350 plus bounties to first. I had a very big chip lead, I think 80 BBs or so. I had a really interesting hand very early in the FT when we were 8 handed. I had chip lead at about 80BBs at this point and was in the SB with AQs. Most stacks were 15-30BBs, and there were two stacks at about 55BBs.

UTG +1 shoved 14BBs with a decent bounty. BU called with 55BBs. I shoved over the top from SB with my AQo. I felt like he was folding like 90%+ of the time here. Thought I’d occasionally come up vs AA/KK but very unlikely here. He decided to call with 77 even with all the short stacks, and he won the race. I lost another race shortly after, and was eliminated in 6th for ~$160.

Next, I won the $55 turbo for $930!

I got to the FT in I think 3/9, but everyone was short stacked. I lost A6<AK for the chiplead vs a short stack and ended up sitting 6/7 for a while. I went absurdly card dead for 3-4 orbits, but everyone kept folding my BB so I was surviving. Ended up going AJ>QQ vs another short stack for the chiplead, ATs>99 5 handed, and then cruised to the title. Was shoving probably 60% of the hands 4 handed with a short stack folding everytime and me being the only guy above 20BBs at 40. Went into HU with a 2-1 chiplead and more or less just kept pounding away.

On to the big one: The Thursday Thrill. $100 buyin, 30K guaranteed. I ran quite good (obviously) to make the FT, and had the biggest bounty when we got there. I played some solid hands, but also won ~70% of my all ins (lost AA vs KQ tho ha). Some big wins before the FT include KJo>AK 40BBs deep around the bubble BU vs SB reg, QQ>76 on Q54T board for chiplead & 20% of the chips with 10 left. Had lost Ak<Q7 BU vs BB on an AQ7 flop a couple hands before so that was a nice rebound.

Ended up knocking out 10th place with A6>KQ vs an 8BB stack to end up at the start of the FT 2/9.

In the first or second hand of the FT, I won 97s>KK vs a 5BB stack for a nice bounty, but it’d be the last one I’d win the rest of the tournament.

I chipped up very well here, with almost no push back. We got to 7 handed and I handed and I had 30% of the chips, before losing Aqo<66 for 40% of the chips. Lost A6<AQ and 99<ATo for some <12BB stacks, but was continuing to just chip up very easily.

Ended up getting into a hand 7 handed that probably cost me the tournament. Only other stack that was decent sized, and he was playing pretty agro. Basically opening 80% of hands. He opened UTG, 20BB stack called, I called BU with J8s.

Flop comes JsTs8x. He bets, I three bet, he shoves. I had him covered by about 30 BBs. If I call and lose, I’m still in third but he has 115BBs. If I win the tournament is basically over. I think he’s shoving A LOT here based on his play, and am pretty happy to get it in with two pair. He shows up with Q9o, I don’t pick up my boat, and end up in 3/7. I played pretty well the rest of the way, and he knocked out almost everyone else. I wasn’t thrilled about it, but I had to tighten up with so many short stacks.

I ended up getting HU with the maniac, but had a 5-1 chip deficit. Dude sucked, plain and simple. If we started even, I win probably 80% of the time.

As it was, I had my work cut out for me. I won the first all in QQ>T9s, won the next won A9>KTs, but ended up losing At<T7s. Ended up out for $2,735 plus 925 in bounties. Probably lost out in 4K more in bounties by losing the one big hand. Alas, it was not meant to be.

Still a good night, winning $4,650 in total!

Current bank rolls:

Stars:$5245
Everygame: $3410
Borgata: $3,132
Ignition: $862.45

Goals
Total days played: 14 of 225
Total profit YTD: $4,183.59 of $150,000

good start and good luck!

Thanks!

Happy with yesterdays results-I had been running quite poorly in higher buy in stuff lately, so was particularly happy with getting HU in the 109

Another winning day, but only just. Had some really bad runouts today on misses draws/overcards/etc. Didn’t pay on Party again, but did find success on Everygame with four cashes

4th in 11RA for $100
4th in 33PKO for $200
1st in 22RA for $675
Small cash in a 6RA

Everygame (and Party, for that matter) plays more like really deep SNGs, which works for me as a good variance reducer. The fields are generally 18-45 runners, but with the higher buyins from the rebuys and addons, it’s a nice addition to everything else I play. Basically any cash in the 22 or higher buyin tournaments is enough to cover all buyings on the day on the site, and 1K is more than enough.

Also had some success with Omaha today.

The first was 19th in the $100 PSPC on stars for $190. Was in the top ten for the vast majority of this tournament, lost a couple of all ins vs short stacks, then lost a hand where I put myself in a bad spot by double barrelling multiple draws vs a made nut straight. Play was pretty fine since we were only about 30BBs deep, but most players were playing passive enough that maybe I could have check called flop and river.

The next was 3rd in Ignitions $75 PLO for $405. I’m not sure if I want to play this tournament again, as it’s more or less a turbo. Tough to have a huge edge in a PLO turbo, but with only 41 runners the variance shouldn’t be too overwhelmingly bad.

I entered the FT with the chip lead 9 handed with ~30% of the chips. The tournament only paid 8, and there were multiple short stacks, so I was basically opening 100% of hands on the bubble. Unfortunately, I lost the first two all ins I faced, bringing me back to the pack.

There wasn’t a ton of non standard action, but did get to 4 handed and was going back and forth between 1st and 3rd in chips. I ended up losing most of my stack when UTG shoved 10BBs, and I came over the top with AKK2ssxx only for the BB to wake up with AA98ssxx. Thankfully BB beat the short stack as well, but I was effectively eliminated in 3rd for $405.

Daily Profit: $213.15

Bank Roll:
Stars: $4929
Everygame: $4177
Party: $3,132
Ignition: $625

Goals
Total days played: 15 of 225
Total profit YTD: $4,396.74 of $150,000

Interesting thread bro. Thats crazy volume good luck with the challenge!

Thanks!

I'm always been more of a volume>quality hound. I'm sure I could up my win rate to 40/45% if I played less tournaments or days, but I've always felt that I end up playing unfocused. That's led me to the conclusion that I should focus on volume. Playing 10s-100s makes it so I can still win without really having to focus on every single decision. For better or worse, it was a decision I came to half a decade ago, and I've powered through with it.

Really frustrating day. I felt like I was building a stack in everything-I think I had top 10 stacks in ~20% of tournaments around the bubble or later. But everytime I seemingly got a stack, I’d lose an all in. I think I lost more times today with QQ/KK AIPF than I won. It also felt like I shoved into KK/AA with TT-QQ about a dozen times.

Even with all of the big stacks I was able to accumulate, I only made 3 FTs. A bunch of small cashes, though, which helped make it a not awful day.

The first was the 22RA on Everygame with 750 to 1st. I entered the FT 1 of 6 with a small lead and 80BBs. Felt like I was playing the table, but the dude on my left, who was flatting 70% of my opens, kept making hands. Eventually, as 2nd in chips to him by like 3 BBs, I opened BU with KJ, he flats, BB shoves 8BBs, I reship it in, and he wakes up with AA. To cap it off, the 8 BB stack hit a set, so I ended 5th for 153.

The next two were the last two I had opened on the night, reaching the FT within minutes of each other.

The 2nd was the Hot $30 1K on stars. Went into FT 4 of 9 with 22BBs and was basically card dead. There were two stations at the table, and I didn’t have much to do. I got one or two shoves through, but ended up in 5th with 5 left and 12BBs. I shoved TT from the CO. BU calls off half his stack…with 44. Spiked a 4 on the turn and I’m out in 5th for 180.

The last was the $25 2K PKO on Ignition. This one tested my patience-of what I have little- to the max.

I ented in 1st of 9 with ~25% of chips. First two orbits I didn’t play a hand. Not sure if I’ve ever done that at a FT. Then for the next 4-6 orbits, legit none of my opens & c-bets were getting through. I think maybe one open and one cbet. Noone was folding, so I needed to tighten way the hell up.

With the rising blinds, I ended up getting to 4 handed with 20BBs and in a virtual tie with 3rd. BU opened, I shoved A8o, and held vs A4o.

Got to 3 handed in 3rd with 30BBs. I shoved 99 from the SB over a BU range, got snapped by AQs, but flopped quads. Finished him off with A2>JJ SB vs BB.

Ended up getting to HU with a small chip lead. Again, my patience was tested as my opponent wasn’t folding much, and I was getting no cards. I think I went a 20 hand stretch where I had a combined three face cards.

I went from a chiplead with 70BBs to a 2-1 deficit with 35BBs. Then I hit trips three times in 5 hands, and managed to get back into a 3-2 chip lead. I kept chipping away until he was down to 10BBs and I was at 60BBs.

He limped from the BU, I shoved KTs and he called with…Q3s. And won. Oh boy, here we go.
He open shoves the next three hands, does it a fourth time, and I call KQo. He wakes up with A7o, I lose, and I’m down to less than 20BBs.

A couple hands later I shove 44, but manage to hold vs his A5 (how does a guy shoving every hand always have it??). Exact next hand, he open shoves 30BBs, I sigh and call with AJ. I manage to hold vs his A9, and take it down for $810!

Overall, it was a bad day as we spent 12 hours losing $680. Can’t be too mad, though, with how how this week went.

Goals
Played:16/225
Profit: $3,717 of $150,000

Insanely annoying last two days. It feels like I’m getting looked up in really dumb spots, and even worse in really bad ICM spots. I’ve nut bubbled I think 4 tournaments on Everygame alone in the last three days (and another two on different sites), and considering I play about 3 MTTs a day on that site, that’s a lot.

On Monday, I made 3 FTs, but didn’t win a single all in, going 0 for 6. Impossible to win a tournament when that happens. Two of them were smaller ones, so no big deal.

The big one was the $22 7.5k 6 max on ignition with 630 runners and 2.2k to first. When we got to 7 handed, I felt pretty good. I was sitting 2/7. Ended up likely misplaying a hand vs a 20BB stack, though (I 3 bet a preflop raise I should’ve shipped BvB, he donk shoved and I had to fold), and ended up getting to the FT in 4th but had 50BBs

This was another FT where I had to play much more conservative than I liked. There was a pretty big fish calling/raising way too wide, and I ended up dropping to 6th of 6 as no short stacks would lose. With the rising blinds, I was down to about 28BBs. Raised MP with AQo, whale min raises, I shove, and of course he has AK. Out in 6th for 378.

Today, I won the early $35 1k for $400 on Party and then also won the 2nd $35 1K for $560. I made some hands four handed in the 2nd one and had a massive whale station on my right, so it was pretty easy pickings. The first guy I played HU I’m beating like 98% of the time (was folding 90% of my opens). The 2nd was much better, but I managed to get a 2-1 chip lead then get it in on a 972 board and my 97 held vs 86.

The biggest one today was the $100 8k also on Party, with 3K to first. I entered 6 of 9 with 33bbs. First hand from MP I opened A9s. 9 BB shoved. I feel like I keep getting put in these spots where I’m likely behind but the stacks are so small that I’m forced to call. It’s happened very frequently the last two days.

Anyways, I do call. He turns over AQ. Flop comes T62, but has two of my suit! Turn is the 9, so I’m even more excited!! River was a Q, though, and I ended up down to 23BBs and one of the shorter stacks.

On the very next hand, I double TT>AQ!

The next orbit or two, nothing much happens. Had to fold to a 3B or two, a cbet doesn’t go through, and I’m down to 23BBs. Noone has been eliminated.

MP opens a 25 BB stack. I have KQs on the BU and ship 23 BB in. MP calls and has…44.

This might be the thing I get annoyed the most with. Sure, 44 is flipping with KQs. But it doesn’t beat a single hand in my range. I’m not shoving A4s/33 in that spot, so why the hell would you call? He’s taking away equity from himself, he’s taking away equity from me, and everyone is basically just being handed free money except the two of us.

Anyways, I didn't hit anything and was out in 9th. Back to back days I’m the first person out at the biggest final table of my night.

I had a couple other deep runs across sites, but couldn’t finish anything. I feel like I’m building stacks everywhere-every buy in level, every site. I need to find a couple finishes here, though, as we’re closing in a wasted first month of the year.


Goals:
18/225 days
Profit: $2,584.32 of $150,000

Good luck on the journey. That's amazing you get that kind of volume in working another job - I use to grind MTTs and make similar money but it was a 2pm-10pm gig and I was drained afterwards. These small field MTTs is where the money is at - low variance and people overlook them.

Yeah, the MTTs are mostly to stash money away to either expand the business/RE holdings. I'd love to have a way to retire here in a couple of years, and hitting my money goal for poker this year would go a long way towards that. The downside is that there's certainly days I won't be able to play because I'm dealing with business issues. Usually, I'll work in the morning and then play 6PM-2AM my time or so before crashing.


Today was pretty mundane-ended down $30. Had deep runs in both $100s I played, finishing in 12th on the one on Party (66<AQ) and 15th in the Stars 25K (QQ<KK for 2nd place stack at a table playing really loose). Happy to get close to both FTs, annoyed I can't find a win in anything big to save my life this week. I also have 3 top 75 finishes in 4 days in Ignitions $50 35K that pays 6k to first; only a matter of time on that one, hopefully.

Rough night. Took a killing on ignition, barely cashing a thing and rebuying in multiple higher buyin events. Made a semi deep run in one with 1.5K to first but lost AK<AJ for the chip lead, but really nothing else happened all day on Ignition. More on that later.

Did win a couple tournaments, though. Two on Party-a $35 PKO 1K f and the $35 750, both for $415.

Took down the $55 PKO on Everygame for just under $500. Had to enter 3 times, but ran really good 3 handed (AJ>AK, TT>AA).

Overall down about $500 on the day.

On the plus side for the week, I do have an entree in $100 65K Phase 2 on Stars next Monday. It looks like nearly everybody who advances will cash. I’ve currently got a middling stack, with probably about $500 in equity. There will likely be at least 10K to first in that one with less than 100 runners left, so really excited about that.

Goals:
19/225 days played
Profit: $2,058 of $150,000

Ignition vs other sites

I’m going to be not playing the next two days.

Something that I’m struggling with (kind of) right now is how incredibly long/how many runners are in some of the ignition tournaments. I played a lot on Ignition from 2016-2019, with my biggest year of my career being basically exclusively on Ignition.

When my state started to regulate games, as well as opening the business, I stopped playing on Igntion and instead focused on Stars/Party/Everygame. Most of the games on Everyame get about 30 runners, Party doesn’t get much more outside of the bigger guarantees. Stars does get some 600+ runner events, but also have some smaller ones.

Compared to what I’ve played for the last three years, Ignition having a tournament with 1K runners and consistently having 500+ is a huge mental change. I just started playing again a couple weeks ago when I started this thread, and am routinely finding myself thinking “damn, this is still doing??”.

The bigger thing is that I’m going to have to remember how much variance/bank roll swings this will bring. I’m down 2K on Ignition, so up 4K everywhere else. But it’s a choice I made, realizing that adding 700+ dollars in buyins a day on a site I’ve beat in the past is well worth it.

I’m going to download HM3 (or equivalent) before I play again. I’d like to at least keep track of where I’m at BB/100; even if I go on a downswing, if I’m still sticking around the 8BB/100 and something at least semi similar in the 30BB stack range I’ll be excited.

I likely won’t use a Hud, as I don’t think stars/Party allow it, Ignition is anonymous, and I know all the regs on every game anyways. But it should be mentally helpful to check.

Anyways, hoping to take two productive days off and then get back to things on Sunday!

Going to keep track of a personal goal, that I think will also affect the poker goal.

Over the last couple years, I've gotten very sedentary, particularly when I play poker. I have a trip I'm taking in 48 days (first round of March MadnesS) and I want to be running a 10 minute mile by then. I use to do that as a light workout, but I've gotten more and more out of shape. Physically, I could probably do it today, but my lungs are so out of shape that I have trouble breathing after jogging for a couple miles. The goals are going to be the 10 minute mile and running/jogging for 32 of the 48 days, starting today. Currently, I'm at about .72 miles in 10 minutes. Started running semi consistently at the start of the year.

We'll see where this one take us, but really want to have an easy way to keep of the progress so will be adding it here.

Probably the worst part about tournament poker- at least for me- is that unless you win the biggest tournament you make a run in on a given day, it’s going to be a frustrating night. Ended today making a grand, but still ended up annoyed it wasn’t more.

The first set back was the start of the day. I couldn’t log into Everygame for some reason. I saw that there were people playing, so I contacted support. They just said to keep trying eventually it will work. Pretty LOL response, but whatever.

I plan my day on Sundays around Everygame’s $130 10K that starts at 2, so not a great start. It ended up taking 2 hours to log in. When I did, there there was only 25 minutes left of registration, and a stack would only be 12BBs.

Normally, I wouldn’t enter, but there was a huge overlay (over 3K) likely driven by the tech issue. I ended up getting it in on my first BB with AK, only to be up against AA and get knocked out. With this being the top of my buyin range, I decided to wait until the end of registration. I did that, and there was only 20 left with 7 getting paid.

I quickly doubled with AA vs 33. Very next hand, I shoved A2 from the SB, but lost to BBs 33 and was out.

I feel like entering with that big of an overlay is a now brainer, but variance is going to be a cruel mistress. Normally, I try to stop registering under 30 BBs, but will occasionally do 25. Even that feels low. I’m not sure what a good answer to that question is, though.

The other frustrating part about today’s schedule is that Pokerstars PA is running their PSPC event. I don’t even know what it stands for, but the problem is that every single $100 tournament they ran today was a Phase tournament to an event I already qualified for. With me not playing the 100s on Ignition, basically all of my top buyins were wiped out. Not great for a Sunday.

Anyway, on to the results.

Ignition

My first FT of the day was the $15 2k. I Entered Ft 4/9 with $490 to first. The last hand before the final table, I lost AK<AJ AIPF for 30% of chips and the chip lead. As it was, I lost, and was knocked to around 20 BBs. I was never really able to get out of that range, mostly just playing shove/fold given stack sizes. I was a bit frustrated with that, as the table was really passive and I think if I win the AK vs AJ I would’ve had enough chips to run things.

I ended up losing A8<JJ for I think 6th and $118


The next FT on ignition was the $75 PLO 3K. Only 5 paid, but there was 1.2K to first. Really weird FT, as I had the third biggest stack, but with 2 monster stacks, I mostly folded until we got to the money. There were too many short stacks to really do anything else. I ended up a little short when we got to the money, misplayed and hand to get to 10BBs, and then out in 5th for 240. Not thrilled with how I played, but not too upset, either.

The 3rd FT of the night was the PLO8 $30 buyin 3K with $700 to first. I got to the FT 2/9, but managed to station off my stack and end up taking 8th. Think the spot was OK, but probably poorly played with ICM.

The last FT I made was in the $27.50 3K with $680 to first. Only had 10BBs, but was in 5th to start. Chipped down to about 7BBs before doubling A9>K3 and got to 6 handed in 3rd with 11BBs, then doubled again with 99>KQ!

Lost the next all in when I opened UTG with KQs and BU shoved J8o for 9BBs. No idea why, but he spiked a J on the river.

Double the exact next hand when my J9 from the BU got it in on T878 vs the BU 69 and got the chip lead!
Lost 77<AK BvB two orbits later, but chipped up a bunch, then lost Q9<77 with 10BB stacks for the shorts and I was at about 15.

Down to 5BBs and lost Q7<KJ. Out in 3rd for $400.


Ended up barely making a cent on Ignition. Very frustrated to be BE on the site when I made 4 FTs. Taking 6th, 5th, 8th, and 3rd will cause that. Could’ve been much better and could’ve won a chunk back of what I had lost. It is what it is, though, and hopefully I can keep building stacks and reaching FTs.


Everygame

Only FT of relevance was the $22 RA 2k. Paid 5, with $800 to first. Started FT 2/8 with 60 bbs and the chip leader on my right. My memory of him is that he was a station. I ended up chipping nicely, but by the time we got to 3 handed, the station had knocked out most of the players and I was still in 2nd.

Stacks were 23/50/65BBs. The guy who I thought was a station was actually raising my bets quite a bit, and when he 3bet my BU open for the 2nd time in a row (and 4th overall), I 4 bet with A9s. I should have shoved or folded. I whiffed the flop. I cbet about a third of the pot, he called. Turn whiffed, I checked. He shoved river. No idea what he had, but I folded and was down tied with the other short stack at 15ish BBs. I shipped AT from the BU shortly after, and the big stack woke up with AK. I was out in 3rd for $300.


Stars

First Stars FT of the day was the $10 bounty builder 2k with $250 plus bounties to first, so likely about $600. Entered FT 2/8 25% of chips, but that quickly deteriorated. I shoved K8<Aj bvb for 9 BBs, lost. Stayed even for bit, then Squeezed 22 with 25 bbs from sb vs a LAG opener, but the short stacked BB woke up with AA and lost.

We were 4 handed by this point and I was down to 13 BBs. BU opened my BB, I shoved KJ, and lost to A4. Out in 4th for $170 total.

Also took 20th in the $55 10K, having the chip lead at least at one point in the money.

The big one for the night was the $55 25k on Stars which was the “Mini Main Event”. The tournament ended with just under 800 runners and 6K to first place.

I ran pretty well vs short stacks once we were in the money, and was also chipping up nicely. I managed to have the chip lead with 23 left, but felt like their was a lot of regs left for this big of a tournament.

My first AIPF after getting to the finally two tables was losing 99<AK, taking me down to about 40BBs. I stationed up in a bvb spot, calling 3 barrels with top pair weak kicker to get back to 55bbs 15 handed. I mostly stayed put from there until the final table.

When we got there, I was 4th of 9 with 57 bbs and little over average stack. There were 3 short stacks and 3 big stacks, though, so I again felt like I needed to play tight. I managed to get a couple of 3bets & cbets through, but was basically stagnant.

We got to 6 handed and I was in 4th with 45bbs. There were some really weird table dynamics at this point. The two guys to my direct right were for sure regs and seemed good. The two to their right were really bad. One was semi tight, but getting frustrated and sitting on 20ish BBs.

The one to his right (so two to my left) was really bad, but had managed to get the chiplead. He was opening 4.5x consistently, shoving 8x pot on the flop, etc.

Anyways, the first big hand I placed was from my BB vs the non super lag bad player. He min opened from the CO, and I called J6 from my BB. The flop came A62 flop, he cbet 1bb. I called, turn was a J-jackpot. Hes absolutely calling off any ace here, so when he bets 3BBs, I shove for the rest of his stack. He calls and shows up with AA and top set, so I’m drawing dead.

At that point, I’m down to 17BBs and the short stack. Stars decides to deal me trash for the next twenty hands, but it does work out as two guys are eliminated and I’m able to ladder up into 4th.

When we get to 4 handed, stack sizes are 90-75-65-10 BBs, with me being the shorty. Semi frustrating spot, but I know if I can double a time or two, I can absolutely make a run with two bad players still in the tournament.

I ended up finally shoving K8 from the SB into the big ole fish’s BB. He calls 86s, and wins on the K975x run out. Out in 4th for 2K.


Very difficult to get mad at a winning Sunday, but here we are. In tournaments of relevance, we had
2x 3rd
3x 4th
5th
6th
8th

That doesn’t cut it, not at all. Need to close. Need to get better.

Tomorrow we’ve got Phase 2 of PSPC 70! With 10K+ to first, and only about 100 runners left, really hoping we can pull this only.

Goals:

20/225 days played
Profit: $3,776.73 of $150,000
Run 1 of 32

One of my favorite things to tell people when they ask about poker is that, outside of 5-10 tournament a year, none of my decisions really matter as most of my profitability will be dictated by how much volume I get in.

Phase 2 of the $100 PSPC Online 70 felt like one of those tournaments, as the chances for a 5 digit score will be few and far between this early in the year. If I managed to take it down, it'd be the quickest way to start playing slightly higher buy in on ignition.

I started at 40bbs with 60k, and the first two hours went really well. I chipped up a bit without seeing a river, then got AJcc in vs 57o on 863ccc vs a20bb stack and was starting to build a stack. By the first break, I was sitting in 5th with 49 left, within spitting distance of the chip lead.

By the end of the second hour of play, I had managed to gain the chiplead with 23 left. I was sitting with 60 bbs/720k in chips, which was about 10% of the total chips.

The first major hand of the night came shortly after the first break from my BB-which is where it seems like all of my big hands have been coming in the last couple weeks. MP min opened. He had been opening pretty wide, so when the SB called, I squeezed to 8x. MP open folded quick, and I thought I’d simply take the pot down pre flop.

Unfortunately, the SB, who was playing a 40BB stack, called off. SB was running 41/38 over about 50 hands, but I didn’t have any reads on him outside that. Flop came Q72ssx. I bet half pot, SB called. The turn was the 9s. SB donk shoved 75% of the pot, and, reminiscent of the hand in the 22R on Everygame last night, I folded and never saw what he had. I was down to 27 BBs and out of the chip lead.

I managed to chip back up to 32BBs. The same opponent opened from MP, and I had TT. He was the only one that had me covered, and I decided to ship it in. TT was too strong to call with how much he was opening, too weak to 3B to 6BBs with how wide I now think he was calling, and obviously I wasn’t folding. I figured he would call worse pairs but I could also fold out hands like KJ/QJ that I was flipping against.

He called, and for the first time all tournament, my chips were in the middle. Out, or back in first with a sizable chip lead. My TT ended up losing to his AK, though, and I went from 5th to out in 20th. Extra annoying because if it was vs anyone else at the table, I would’ve been left with at least 10BBs to make a run at it.

The other stars FT table was the $50 2K turbo. I entered as a short stack in 8th, but almost everyone was in the 15-22BB range. I actually managed to get to 7 handed with the chip lead while never getting it in.

I lost my first AIPF, though, with JJ<QQ. Two hands later, my AK beat AJ vs a short stack to get the chip lead again 6 handed. I don’t think I was able to play another hand until we got to 3 handed, as I was a combination of card dead and facing opens with hands too weak to do anything with.
3 handed started with me at 18BBs and the other two at 30BBs. SB shoved on my BB, I called with AT, but it wasn’t meant to be vs his KJ on the A34KJ run out and I was out in 3rd for $500.

The only thing of relevance on Everygame or Bet MGM was taking 3rd in the 22RA 1K for $300.

I did finally win a tournament, though! First in the $15 NL08 for just under $400. Easily the smallest 1st place prize of a FT I’ve been at, but I’ll take it. Stacks were actually really nice to me, as I doubled through a guy 5 handed to get to ~40% of the chips with 3 shorts stacks. I was shoving ~65% of the time preflop, and managed to chip them down before anyone started to call me off. Really wasn’t much of a contest at that point, winning for the first time in what feels like forever.

I also got Holdem Manager 3 rolling, so I’ll start being able to track stacks as well. Overall, my goal is >8EV BB/100, and preferable closer to 10. I’ll also be closely monitoring the same stat when I have <40BBs, as that’s when the money is made. I can’t track on Party, however.

Today I went 8.70 across all sites over 2950 hands. Stars was 23.06 over half of those hands, Ignition 1.74, and Everygame -14.75 over 600 hands. None of that is really relevant over a small sample, but something to keep an eye on.

Goals:

21/225 days played
Profit: $4,115.43 of $150,000
EV BB/100: 8.70
Run 1 of 32 days

Third straight frustrating night. On Ignition alone, I 10x starting stacks on 5 separate tournaments, and 6x+ another 3 tournaments. Still only made $200 on the day, not even sure how.

Took 6th in $30 tournament for $250 was the closest I got, with 1.5k to first. Finished 19-22 in 5 different tournaments with at least $750 to first, including Ignitions 45K that paid 7.5K to first. Got it in ahead 3 of the times, flipping once, and dominated once.

Won some small stuff on Everygame/Intertops.

All in BB/100 today was 14.21 and is up to 11.72 overall.

By site:

Stars: 16.85
Every game: 10.65
Ignition: 7.53

Goals
22/225 days played
Profit: $4,331.57 of $150,000
EV BB/100: 11.72
Run 2 of 32 days

Only ended up with one decent run tonight. Did take 2nd in a small one on Everygame for $300 (after having over 70% of chips 3 handed but losing 4 straight AIPF). Some other (very) small ones as well.

Biggest run was the $50 10K KO on Stars with 1.1K + Bounties to first. The final two tables was a little nuts, as I think I had a stretch where I had 8 all in about 40 hands. I won all 4 when my tournament life was at stake, and lost all 4 when I had a chance to knock someone out. Someone, I survived enough to reach the FT, but was 7 of 9 and at 20BBs. About twenty minutes in, I got AK in vs A6 with 18BBs and doubled up…to 2nd place.

About 3 hands later, I lost a chunk of my stack with AA vs the villain in this story. He had been playing fairly reckless, and we were both on about 40BB stacks. He opened from MP, I 3B to 6, he flatted. Board came 487, I cbet, he called. Turn was one of the worst cards in the deck with the 6. c/c. River was another 6, he bet 75% pot, I called without much thought but he showed up with 98 and I was back down to about 25BBs and in 4th.

I wasn’t able to do much over the next 30 or so hands, until I shoved KJ from BU with 15 BBs. BB woke up with QQ, but I spiked a King and doubled back into 2nd!!

I again went into waiting mode, before getting A9>44 vs a 9 BB stack for my first FT KO ($40) when we were 6 handed. Big stack villain ended up knocking out two more to get us to 3 handed , where I went AT>QJ vs the last short handed stack. Unfortunately, my only two FT KOs were the two smallest bounties, so I never built up much, but I was lucky enough to get to HU.

HU started with me down 35 bb vs 73. I chipped up a bit to a 45ish to 70ish difference. He was playing pretty agro, calling me down to far and betting too wide. I was more or less waiting for a made hand where I knew I could punish him.

I opened from the BU with K4. He called, and then donked a 532ssx flop. I decided to call. Turn was a K, he bet again. I had a little over a PSB left, and elected to shove. I figured he was called fairly wide here, including basically any pair and any draw. Unfortunately, he managed to wake up with 64 and I was out in 2nd.

Overall, made ~ $200 on my first day playing in February. Fourth straight winning day overall, but just feels like I keep missing the big chunk days.

I also had a rough day with EV BB/100, going -7.8 over 3500 hands. One thing I want to keep an eye on is that I’m barely positve on Ignition in 4K hands, and it’s the only site I’m down money on. I’m not sure what sample size is needed, but it’s something I’m going to watch.



Goals:

23/225 days played
Profit $4,561 of $150,000
EV BB/100 4.86
Run 3/32

Yesterday (Sunday) was a mess. About half way through the day, I started to feel like absolute crap. There's been ~3 days in the last decade where when I start a session and don't finish, and yesterday was one. I unregged everything, and good thing I did-about 2 hours later, I had two tables up, but was puking every 30 minutes or so. Definitely never finished a tournament like that before, but here we are. On to the results:

Sunday

I struggled overall. I had 3 deepish runs on Everygame (Sundays are the only big fields on the site), but finished 3rd or 4th in all of them. I also 4x regged the $130, losing with AA twice, and never getting more than 2x starting stack. Really rough run of it.

I had some other okayish runs but nothing to mark. Ended up losing about 1K, nearly all of it in the $100s. Eventually, I'll win one again...I think.

Monday

Monday was slightly better. Had some good results on stars, winning both the $30 1.2K for $535 and $15 PKO 2K for $515. The $30 I entered the FT and thought I played pretty well, but also won AA>AK and AT>33 for my tournament life, A6>K8 vs a short stack, and then KT>QT to end it. For the most part, I just kept chipping up, but obviously ran well to win it.

The $15 was the easiest FT I've been at in a long time. I never felt like I was in trouble. I entered with the chip lead, and then got AJo in vs AKo when I squeezed vs a lag open and the guy behind with a 20BB stack woke up with AK. I ended up winning, and then after that I didn't get it all in again until we were 4 handed vs a 2BB stack. I ran 57/43 over 130 hands, and basically was never calling an all in without QQ+ because I knew the only way I was losing to someone at the table was losing all ins. There were 5 guys playing less than 10% of hands, and the other two were basically check folding if they missed or shoving if they made something. By the time we got to 6 handed, I had over half the chips in play. I was going to need to make a mistake to lose, and thankfully today I didn't.

Still only won a couple hundred on the day, as everything else fizzled out. won 5 straight days I've finished the day, though, so that's good.

Goals:

25/225 days played
Profit: $3717.94 of $150,000
EV BB/100 4.8
EV <100 BBs 6.99
Run 3/32

Another winning night. Another frustrating night.

Made the FT of the $100 8k on Party. This was a step up, as the last 3 times I’ve played I’ve finished 18-22 (pays~15). I had the chip lead at the bubble (15 players) with about 15% of chips, but I’m not sure I won a hand after that point. Missed 4-5 flops vs a station, then when I had TP, he hit a set. Got to the FT with 26bbs and 8/9, before squeezing 17BBs and running into AK. Missed and out in 9th for ~225.


Won the $20 RA 2K on every game after losing A7<A7 4 handed to get to 7 BBs. Pretty tight players, so shoved my way into the chip lead without much effort. Took it down for $650.

Made the FT in the $50 2.5k 7/9 20bbs. Did nothing but shove, never actually seeing a flop, though. Made it to 4 handed with about 15 BBs and in 3rd, but went semi card dead. Two guys won all ins that blocked me from laddering up, which was unfortunate. Ended up shoving 9T from the SB at 7BBs and lost to A3. Out in 4th for $290

Last big tournament of the night was the $15 7.5k on Ignition with 1.5K to first. Similar to the $100, I had a good stack with 2 tables left but left a lot on the table. I’m seemingly missing on all of my 3Bs this deep, and I’m certainly chipping myself into bad spots. With that being sad, I don’t think anything had been out of line, so not sure I want to change anything up-yet.

I did manage to get to the FT 6/9, but only had 15bbs. I didn’t do much before shoving KJ and losing to AQ to finish 8th.

I also managed to nut bubble a stars $50 (A7<28), an Ingition $25 (AJ<AK then TT<AT vs the same guy) and 10th with 8 paying in the $30 stars turbo (AJ<88). I don’t think any of them were the incorrect play, they just happened at a poor time. I’m not a huge fan of going into a shell at these spots, and winning any of them could have set me up for a very good night.

The good news is I feel like I continue to build stacks. Went at 23 EV BB/100 today (“only” 13.5BB) and felt like I was again making deep runs across all four sites. I’m going to have to keep attention deep in tournaments, though, especially on Ignition-it doesn’t feel like I’m finishing anything. I’m @ 9.71 EV BB/100 on sub 100 stacks on the site though, so I’d like to think it’s just a matter of time.

Goals
26/225 days played
Profit: $3,971.20
EV BB/100: 7.73
EV Bb/100 <100BBs: 8.57
Run 3/32

The woes deep in tournaments continue. 18th in the $100 8K on Party for the fourth time in 5 days ( pays ~15; cashed the fifth) and no wins on the site in the last week or so. Nothing on Stars or Everygame, either.

Ran up 29 EV BB/100 & 69.50 BB/100 on Ignition and STILL lost money today. Just not hitting a thing deep right now. Lost AQ<JJ and AA<AKs, both for the chip lead with 100 left in the $50 40K. Shoved JT into AK in the Thousandaire maker with 15 left (paid 9) in a spot villian should've been folding everything but KK+. Lost a few others deep as well. Not sure I could've run better early in tournaments or worse late today.

I know the profits will get there. Tough not to when running nearly 9 BB/100, and I think I'm doing one or two small things different the last couple days that could increase that even more. I'm just going to continue to try to volume my way through it, because eventually I'll have a day like this but instead of coming up short, I'll hit on 2+ of the tournaments. I'm going to look at some spots <50 BBs, but overall think everything will be fine.

Goals:
27/225 days played
Profit: $3011.42
EV BB/100: 8.43
EV BB/100 <100BBs: 8.99
Run 3/32 days

Probably going to start updating every 3-4 days, maybe once a week. Don't really see a reason to be updating every $100 cash.


Up $1300 over last three days of play. Most f that came today, winning ~900, which was the biggest day I've had in a couple weeks. It's nice to get out of the +200 days that have seemingly been every winning day I've had for the last couple weeks.

I ran really well on stars tonight. I won a flip with 5 left in the $50 2K with 5 even stacks, and was able to just ICM screw the shorter stacks the rest of the way to the title & $900. Also won the $30 5K. Nearly nothing happened at the final table that was remotely interesting until I got HU down 120 BBs to 18BBs. He was good; I managed to win I think AJ>A6, AK>AJ, A2>TT then chipped up the rest. I think he was likely better than me HU, or he at least was winning BB/100 today. In the end, it didn't matter, and hit for ~1K.

I don't think I managed to have any other really big scores the last three days, although I did win a couple of smaller Party tournaments on Saturday. The biggest issues right now is I'm not hitting anything on Ignition. I'm seemingly building up my biggest stacks in those tournaments, including 3 top 100 runs (1K+ runners) in the 50K in the last week, losing 3 hands that would've given me the chip lead.

Some stats:

EV BB/100 since 1/30 when I started tracking

Stars 9.93 (12.5K hands)
Ignition 15.89 (14.5K hands)
Everygame -7.57 (7.5k)

Overall 8.66

EV Bb/100 <100BBs

Stars 9.8 (10.5K)
Ignition 11.45 (10.5K)
Everygame -5.52 (6.5K)

Overall 6.84


EV Bb/100 <30BBs

Stars 7.84 (3.5)
Ignition 4.56 (3.5)
Everygame 5.5 (2.5)

Overall 6.00


Profits for the year:

Stars $8,289.98
Ignition -$3,310.33
Everygame $227.03
Party -$804.28

Overall $4,402.4


The profits are weird.

Stars is about $3,500 higher than I'd expect
Everygame is about 3K under. 1.5K of it is from their only weekly $100, which I haven't cashed once. A big chunk of the rest is because I've got a huge amount of 4ths compared to 1sts. Part of this can probably be explained by the above stats; I need to figure out why I'm not playing well on this site. Seems like I'm playing good deep, so it could be partly from when we are deeper during the rebuy period.

Party is an issue. The site is sooooo soft. Again, I'm not finishing anything here, particularly the $100. I'm likely going to take all $100 out of my schedule for now and instead add back in a couple of $20s. Adding two 20s @ 35% ROI is ~$14 profit, and if my ROI in the 100 is only 15%, then it's a pretty easy swap.

Ignition, again, is the big one. Playing at >15 BB/100, >11 under 100BBs, and >4.5 under 30 feels really good. I'm going to keep saying that it feels like a matter of time, but at a certain point I'm not going to just keep depositing money on the site. I don't think 4K is that big of a swing with a $50 ABI and ~600 average runners, but I'm still struggling mentally with getting back on the big MTT grind.


Goals:
30/225 days played
Profit:$4,402.40

Mtt variance is brutal man. 250 buy in downswings are a thing. I'm up 75bi and down $ over my last 2000 mtt's @ $100abi. I've also has stretches where I win at 100%+ roi for ~1000 mtt's. Just comes and goes.

You have about a 12% probability of being down after 2000 mtt's @ 20% roi when there are an average of 600 runners. $15,000 bankroll has a 5% chance of busto at $50 abi

Good luck. Try to stay focused on the long term.

So I know that, kind of. But it's very nice to see others say it, because it reminds me it's just part of MTTs. I think part of it is that I just started playing again on Ignition, and the fear is always "maybe the game has caught up to me" and I'm simply not a winner anymore.

An unfortunate part about MTTs is that you need to play so many of them to know your true ROI; at a certain point, you have to make a decision on if you're profitable and to keep putting money into them, without knowing your true return. If you're in a downswing, you're missing out on all the upside if you stop playing certain games too soon; if you're simply worse than you think, and you keep depositing, you risk losing your profits from games you do beat. Poker is such a game with incomplete info, and deciding what to play is just an extension of that.

Just play smaller fields - its very easy to negate variance that way. My ABI use to be around 100 and I think the worst swing I ever had was 24k over 7 years, but I played a lot of small fringe sites with small field MTTs.

I think part of the issue with that is that the smaller the field, the smaller the ROI. Generally, of course.