nice run! how was the quality of the field for the "high roller"?

Thank you. Field was tougher than the average tournament here, but I still saw a lot of weakness as I observed the hands I didn't VP$P as the event progressed. I also noticed a lot of people playing incredibly scared as the bubble loomed, seemingly far more so than usual, even though a mincash was only 1.4 buyins due to Bovada's modified 15% structure. I imagine there were a lot of $33-82 satty winners as well, which will of course serve to weaken the field. It was certainly no Super Tuesday.

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This was a hand I remembered off the top of my head.

Bovada No-Limit Hold'em t400/t800/t80 - 8 players

BB: t12,097
UTG: t52,604 (Hero)
UTG+1: t17,927
MP: t62,700
HJ: t13,092
CO: t52,921
Button: t31,038
SB: t9,486

Preflop: (t1,840) Hero is UTG with (8 players)
Hero raises to t1715, 3 folds, CO raises to t3900, 3 folds, Hero calls t2185

Flop: (t9,640) (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets t6200 , Hero calls t6200

Turn: (t22,040) (2 players)
Hero bets t12500 , CO calls t12500

River: (t47,040) (2 players)
Hero calls t29924 and is all-in, CO calls t29924 , Hero Showdown, CO mucks

Nice yeah I figured it would still have plenty of soft spots as even bovadas smaller tougher fields always do. Was gonna play it but unfortunately ended up having a busy monday. You are playing most days during the upcoming series?

I'll be playing most days, yeah

I finished between 12th and 14th in tonight's $270 GSPO3 event (a bit superstitious about the number)



Gotta admit, the 10th-18th finishes are pretty brutal on my mind. They shouldn't be, because they are successes in every sense of the word, but they make me go off the deep end every time they happen in higher buyin tournaments. Nothing to be done I suppose.

i feel ya there, just gotta shake it off and move on to the next one.

"On days where I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, well those are really good days". Enjoy the process and keep grinding. It will come man, good luck.

my old, trusted friend, the $109 turbo

nice job!

Nice work Zera

So what is the GTO strat on getting good at MTT's? From a cash background.

around -$6000 as of the end of tonight's session

tilted off a few hundred in non-MTT games for the first time in 5-6 months as well

decided that upon hitting the -$10000 mark i'm likely GGing and keeping the rest of my winnings to live off of as I seek a job (unsure if I want to stay around Chicago or go back to New York, but one or the other) with these degrees that were paid so dearly for

if it seems mentally weak, it's because it is. I have a ridiculous amount of respect for the MTT grinders that power through these swings, but I just think I'm losing it a bit

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on a side note, made final 14 of the $135 KO, final 24 of the $212 turbo, and final 21 of the $215 50k yesterday. bit of a recurring theme recently

Sorry to hear things are going poorly. It's a step in the right direction that you realize that your mental game is weak. Grinding poker for a living can be very stressful if you let it be. Not sure what kind of bankroll/liferoll you are working with but just to try to keep it in perspective that this is a very normal swing for the games you are playing. The most important tool of a successful long term poker player is bankroll management and being properly rolled will alleviate a lot of the pressure in the mental game as well. gl the rest of the series, i know how frustrating it can be to go deep over and over just to take a tough beat/cooler to go out right before the meaningful money. keep your head up.

-$600 today

stone bubbled my table in the $270 shootout 77<A5o, AA<JJ in a 34k chip top midway through the 109 turbo, and got in an 80k chip pot in the $358 with the nut straight that ran out to a chop (would've been chip leader)

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wired off 38.18% of my roll

thanks for the kind words and advice

stay persistent dude. get some exercise in, in hopes to release some of that negative energy/mindset. push through

Crippled my stack and proceeded to finish 40 people from the money in the $270 via this lovely AIPF hand

Sinking the blade deeper, I lost 12/12 flips tonight (strictly defined flips, as in 2 overcards vs. a pocket pair or vice versa). Had an instance of JJ holding over TT.

I have given up

Someone once told me that A: it can always get worse, and B: that I'd hit a point where I felt the site was rigged against me. I shunned this advice, but he was correct on both accounts.

GL all--special shoutouts to bm303, jakeeck, and RalphWaldoEmerson

“You want to know the Difference between a master and a beginner? The master has failed more times than the beginner has ever tried.” - Yoda

GLGL

if variance is beating you up mentally and financially the best way to lower it is cut out the big field games, turbos, and game select the high stake mtts.....even something like the ACR 540 million might offer a ton of value but if you have a 20k roll its not a great choice given the field size...just some thoughts from a long time grinder - gl

What, no Love for advice A and B?

youre in chitown? go rock the 2/5 game at the shoe or rockford charitables for awhile for a nice hourly

I played around 6k mtts, basically everything $10+ over the course of 14 months on Bovada and quit a few months ago becuase the last 2.5k games made me literally hate poker.

lower abi and grind it back. stop playing highstakes turbos. start playing them once ur properly rolled.

Hi everyone. I live in NJ now and (infrequently) play tournaments on Stars NJ. I had forgotten about 2p2, but as I played a little I remembered this thread and wanted to check back in with you all.

I did quit poker--entirely--after my previous post here. I think many people make for qualified professionals, so I'm speaking simply for myself here but...since quitting, I've been so much happier and my life has been so much more balanced. I work out a lot more now, get out a lot more, and eat a lot better. My sleep schedule is regularized now and heavens know it wasn't when I played professionally.

I was lucky enough to run well on Bovada, which gave me enough cash to live for some time without a job after I quit. In 2016, I began teaching mathematics, statistics, and economics full time, as a tutor. The flexible schedule, low stress environment, and good pay allow me to say I truly love what I'm doing. I don't think I'll be doing it forever, but it's a terrific occupation in the meantime.

I'm not that well versed in the poker environment these days, but the impression I get is that it's drying up a bit, at least for cash games? I don't know if MTTs will ever dry up, as the variance is so high and the general skill level so low, but I can't imagine they won't get tougher and tougher as the years pass--every format does.

I plan to play some MTTs here and there on Stars NJ, and maybe some live events down the road. Good luck to all of you.

Oh, and a couple notes on poker strategy--the takeaways that I left the game with. Take these as opinion, as I could be wrong with all of them, but I (modestly) believe that by the end of my career I was a pretty solid MTT player.

--People (only the smart ones, ironically) worry far too much about range balancing. Range balancing only applies vs. very good players, and even then only very good players with whom you'll be playing a lot of hands against. Play exploitatively--you are burning money by not doing so.

--Heads up poker--play more of it. Play tens of thousands of hands of heads up cash. Make sure you're at least 100bb deep when you do it. Also, play a ton of SNGs. It's downright insane how bad some MTT players are at short handed play--glaring, dramatic leaks exist in the short-handed games that many people play (from what I remember).

If you can play a winning HU Cash game over a decent sample, you're in good shape for your postflop play in MTTs.

--Run spots on ICMizer (is that what ppl still use?) a lot. I remembered seeing tons of players on Bovada make very bad calls at final tables, essentially ignoring ICM considerations

That's all I've got!