Update 16/5

I guess the end of the AoF grind is near. GG offered me another screen name change, which probably says it all LOL.

Last night was probably my worst session ever. I usually do not post graphs, but to give you an idea:



Please note that the above graph does not include rake, so the actual result is even worse.

And still no jackpot after 36k hands. I do not want to moan too much about that, but jackpots are obviously a big part of that format.

At this pace, I am not gonna make it till next Wednesday, also the leaderboard looks kinda easy atm.


15/5-22/5 Progress
Hands: 17.9k
Leaderboard Points: 3,566 (1st)
Jackpots: 0 (Total: $0)


Big day today, for better or for worse.

Poker has a very unique way to humble someone.

About two weeks ago I felt pretty good, the AoF went OKish and I had two decent enough MTT cashes where I freerolled the buy-in.

Honestly, the only thing that keeps me going is the soft leaderboard where I currently have a pretty big lead. But I might drop out of the race if things tighten up too much.

Just writing this down to capture the moment and to reflect later on it.

I won five jackpots since the last Update, so it's nice to have some decent run in jackpot equity finally.

Therefore today (Sunday) sucked big time. The graph doesn't include the 15bb/100 rake.





The leaderboard got a lot tighter than I thought, but now I am pretty pot committed to go for 1st place. At least that's how it feels right now.


Anyways, on a much lighter note: I just watched Netflix's City Hunter and I must say it's a pretty damn good adaptation. It was way better than expected, definitely recommended when you are into that genre.

Tomorrow (Monday) is a Holiday here, but not sure how much I can play ... but as I noted above, would feel super stupid to miss out on the 1st place. Way to late to crunch through the numbers, so I will give a proper update with all the numbers tomorrow I guess.

Mate, that particular game mode is bleeding you dry. I know there are some specialists in it making money at higher levels but at your stakes it seems like a serious rake trap.

Every now and then I'll rail the degeneracy of the VIP games and there are definitely dedicated regs in the mode. But their rake is a way lower percentage of the pot than at the micros and their rakeback is much higher because of their fish buffet level being at Diamond or Black Shark.

Plus their preflop edge is higher against the punting whales that they play against than yours is against the leaderboard and jackpot grinders. As wild as it sounds it is more likely that the people casually playing the cheaper stakes are playing according to GTO preflop charts than the people casually playing at the $1000 level.

I truly do feel as though this mode at these stakes is unbeatable, no matter how good you run with jackpots. I also worry that the leaderboard is succeeding in its job of incentivising you to gamble beyond a point that you feel comfortable with because it is feeding a sunken cost fallacy where you seem to feel like you are in too deep to stop despite the losses.

I'm certainly the last person to be talking about having a problematic relationship with gambling so there is absolutely no judgement from me whatsoever. Just be careful hey, those leaderboards exist for exactly this reason and this particular game mode seems like it is a serious rake trap wrapped up in a quick little dopamine hit.

I would respectfully disagree with that part. Even some / most of the other regs have pretty bad ranges in certain spots and the average player is nowhere near GTO and is widely off when it comes to jackpot equity.

Besides, I totally agree with your overall point that the rake at $0.05 / $0.10 is just way too high. So AoF $1 definitely ran its course for me. Right now I am still contemplating if I give $0.10/$0.25 a shot but I am not sure.

Thanks a lot for input!