I've started and pretty much failed at quite a few PG&C's now - the main problem is that I try to hard to make an epic PG&C with some ridiculous and unattainable goals.

So 2018 I'm going to approach differently and who knows, maybe I'll achieve something.

I've finally finished building my own office in my garage. It's my grind station, and I'm really stoked with it. The most important thing though is that it's a fresh start - as fresh way of playing Poker.

I've always approached poker as a form of entertainment, always been happy to play a tournament for half my bankroll, in 2018 though, that stops.

Whilst I'm not going to set 'goals' for next year, I have 5 things I want to try and achieve. They aren't finely detailed goals like "Play 512,584 hands of poker at 9.82bb/100", just loosely defined tasks I'd like to complete.

• Get a >5% payrise at work
• Win $1k in an online tourney
• Find a partner for my new website, get it off the ground
• Spend quality time with my family, achieve a really happy home life
• Implement at least 5 'new years resolutions' throughout the year

To poker, then:
As I mentioned above I've never really taken poker super seriously. I've always enjoyed playing poker, and the end goal for me has never been to make some serious coin, it's always to win. It's gotten to the point that I'm happier seeing my EV line go up over my actual winnings.

I've been studying quite hard recently actually, and not played a single hand of poker for over two weeks, probably the longest period since I started playing.




Tl;Dr This PG&C isn't really a G or a C, it will be filled with pretty much whatever I feel like posting. There willbe some GIFs, some Videos, some music, some photos and maybe the occasion graph or hand history. Mainly just somewhere to type my mind.

The next post will feature pictures of my new office, my grind set-up and maybe a fun video to watch. It will also feature my plan of Fridays schedule, something which I aim to do before each session to avoid playing outside of my BR and playing with more structure.

Been looking forward to today all week. I played a couple games yesterday to test the HUD and PT4 etc since I set everything up on my desktop and all seems to be working good.


I am not sure how well it will go, but I have decided that I will try and sell 40% of my action when I play at all times (for now anyway).

Even though I am still only playing Micros, I want to build a trusted name for myself on here, and I want to minimise variance. Given that I'm not doing this for the money, I don't really care if I make a big score and then have to give 40% away. I'll just be happy that I won/FT'ed a big tourney.

I have decided that when I play, I'll play no more than 10 scheduled tourneys. I will not register anything other than those 10 scheduled tourneys until I can guarantee there will be screen space (i.e if I have 2 tourneys left to reg, but I've busted 2 already, I can load up 2 more tables).

I will only ever play the 10 pre-determined scheduled MTT's. The additional screen space will be made up of <$2.5 MTT SnG (45/90/180).

My total buy-ins for one session (until I begin to move up stakes) will not go higher than $55.

So, the schedule for tonight:

• Big $1.10 @ 18:00 (Late Reg)
• BB $3.30 @ 18:30 (Late Reg)
• Big $11 @ 19:00*
• Micro Fast Friday $2.20 @ 19:01
• PKO $4.40 @19:05
• Hot $2.20 @19.15
• BB $1.10 @ 19:30
• Hyper $1.10 @19:35
• Big $2.20 @20:00
• Hot $3.30 @20:15

Total: $31.90

There's a good mixture of Turbo, Slow and one Hyper. I do think that Hypers are where many of my strengths lie (shortstack push/fold) but there's just too much variance and not a huge amount of them running at micros consistently.

If I don't sell much/any, I won't play the $11 which is essentially my "main event". It is a higher buy-in, but I don't think it's outside of my comfort zone. My biggest win came in an $11 BB, and the Big $11 has a decent structure.


The office is now complete! I'm so happy with it. It's so nice to start of this new 'Poker Chapter' with one of the first really big projects that I've done start to finish (Pics below). I feel really comfortable sat at the desk and everything is set for me to have a really good session.
I bought a notebook for 2018, with a page for each day. I don't plan on writing much when I don't play, but on the days I play I want to write a small sentence for each tourney, and notes that I think I did well or need to improve on.

• Don't put my stack at risk without heavily thinking about the decision
• Don't make quick decisions ever
• Range people before making decisions on bluff/value
• Stay focussed - don't get carried away
• Update 2p2 staking thread, be constructuve on breaks
• Tag hands in PT4 every time I am not sure about a spot
• Finish session by paying out staking and update notebook

I will put a link below when the staking thread is up for anyone who wants a sweat. With the value so low hopefully some people might just fancy a little gamble (40% will be $21.66...) and want to be a part of the journey.

GL US!


Graphs lifetime to date (MTT & MTT SNG) for ref for people looking to invest.

Sick office!

Thanks! I'm pumped on it - first time I've had a 'space' for myself. There are some elements of my wife's influence in there, but hey, you can't have it all your way all the time.

Congrats mate I plan on doing a $500 into $10k Cash game challenge this year coming from MTT this should be something different I have subbed and will prob take some a lil action just for **** n giggles ( Please win Please win )

GL us!

So managed to bink an $11 ticket from the Stars twitter comps, so will def be playing that tonight.

Completely forgot that I needed the approval to post Marketplace threads. Have requested it but we'll see if I can get approved at a reasonable time to still get some action. If not, tonight will be on our own coin!

Session is complete - bricked quite heavily. Ran pretty good at the beginning and got showered when I ran deeper.

Best run was in the Micro Fast Friday - was top 50 stack for much of the tourney then ran like aids. Bustout hand:

Hero (BTN): 190,590 (23.8 bb)
SB: 195,635 (24.5 bb)
BB: 592,155 (74 bb)
UTG: 214,579 (26.8 bb)
MP: 324,378 (40.5 bb)
CO: 218,877 (27.4 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BTN with A A
3 folds, Hero raises to 19,200, SB calls 15,200, BB calls 11,200



Flop: (62,400) J 9 4 (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets 44,700, SB raises to 175,635 and is all-in, BB folds, Hero calls 125,890 and is all-in

Hero Shows: A A
SB Shows: J Q



Turn: (403,580) K (2 players, 2 are all-in)



River: (403,580) Q (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: 403,580 pot
Final Board: J 9 4 K Q
Hero showed A A and lost (-190,590 net)
SB showed J Q and won 403,580 (212,990 net)
BB mucked and lost (-20,000 net)



Had a couple of interesting spots that I flagged to go over when I have a chance.

Overall I'm happy with how I played. There are obviously spots where I would have done things differently but I don't think I spewed any stacks like I used to.

Ended up in slight profit thanks to the $11 ticket from Stars!

Classic tourney bustout hand that AA. Feel good on the flop when you see his cards, turn gives him a slither of extra equity and then you just know you're dead, bam, game over.

Ul man lets hope its upwards from here

Feels like whenever they maintain or gain equity on the turn after flop all-in it's always ending bad. It's all good though - gotta lose some to win some.

Thx brotha - onwards and upwards indeed



Think next session will most liklely be Weds - iirc the Triple threat is on Weds and I love me a short-handed game!

Nice setup, GL!

Ty ty


Really looking forward to Wednesday's session. Downloaded OBS last night and looking at maybe streaming. I tried to play like 10 cash hands with it and I think I need to make some adjustments to my table structure etc but I am thinking of maybe streaming on Weds.

Have put together my plan of tournaments and will be selling 40% over in the marketplace, will post a link when that is up.

• BB $3.30 Late Reg @ 18:30
• Micro Battle Royale $2.20 @ 19:00
• PKO (Deep) $4.40 @ 19:05
• Hot $2.20 @ 19:15
• BB $1.10 @ 19:30
• Hyper $1.10 @19:35
• PKO $7.50 @ 19:50
• Big $2.20 @ 20:00
• Hot $3.30 @ 20:15
• BB $7.50 @ 20:30
• $4.40 $3k GTD @ 20:25
• Hyper $2.20 @ 20:35
• Hyper $1.10 @21:05
• Hot $1.10 @ 21:15

I will only play a max of 8 tables at a time, and will late reg tourneys up to 30 mins before LR closes. Last time I did 10 and it was fine but I think I have a better ROI with 8 as I don't need to stack tables. Therefore hopefully we won't reg any more than the first 8 tourneys!

Plan is to set-up the stream beforehand - been working on an overlay today for my old RaASc0 twitch channel. I will record for the first hour and try to see how it is with operating the stream and talking and if it adversely affects my play. If I feel like it's too much then I will just not bother most likely. Maybe I will just do a 4 table screen capture stream with minimal talking.

Will post some goals for the session tomorrow.

Ill take 15% for a sweat if you could resv

Sorry mate, all sold - will post here 3 hours before I do a marketplace next time to give anyone subbed first dibs.

Sick even tho I did mention id buy some

What a ****show that was. Not even sure where to start!

By the first break (45-50 mins into the session) was running 300bb under ev and was bust from some of the best tourneys that we had ($3.30BB, Mini BR, $4.40 PKO).

Altho I ran massively under EV I do think that my deep game needs some work. As someone who has spent most of my time playing $2.50 Turbos and not much time actually playing an MTT Schedule I'm not used to sitting over 100bb deep in a tourney very often.

I also think next session I'll disable my HUD. I don't have a big enough sample on any regs in the MTT pool and it's just making me kid myself into making bad decisions.

One hand in particular:

We have TT UTG on an 80BB stack, we raise 2.4x and it's folded to the HJ on a 200B or something stupid stack who has an 85VPIP over 12 hands. He makes it like 15x and the BTN who has like a 60VPIP over not much bigger sample shoves.

I'm looking at these guys and thinking that they are just getting spazzy with jack-**** and call. The other big stack calls and he has AK and the other dude has QQ.

Obviously calling with TT here is probs the nut worst play against two aggro players. I'm at best flipping with one of them with no chance of bounties on either - but because of looking at their VPIP and just assuming they are getting OOL then I call.

There were a few other spots very deep and early on in some tourneys where I 4b shove with AQ and was up against JJ for a 120BB pot - we won that one but we should obviously just be taking a flop there.

Session Mistakes to Learn From

• Don't auto GII when deep
• Play postflop - most players in these tourneys suck postflop
• Don't rely on HUD with small samples
• Take time on decisions

I think it all comes down to having played tonnes of $2.5 180's where you start off 75bb deep and the levels are 5 mins and in about 10 hands you have a <40bb stack and there is very little 3b pots postflop.

I also think that I'll probably change up the schedule a little for next time I play.
I will not play any non-turbo/hyper event from the very beginning and will wait until starting stack is like 100BB - I think that is the best EV way for me to play these tourneys at the moment.
I also won't reg any non-turbo event after 1hr30 into the session.
I will also try to reg every Hyper with BI under $3.5 - I feel like those are my biggest ROI tourney and most people playing them truly suck at preflop play at less than 25bb.

Not sure when the next session is but will definitely sell again. Will post here beforehand.

Might post HH in here next few days of a couple interesting ones from last night.

Hollyyyyyy Shiiiiieeeeet dat office before/after pics are sick!! V- V -V wp man!!

Subbed and i will be catching up on this later (currently at my wayyyyyy less good looking day-office

Best of luck!

As I get the vibe you are serious about poker, I will offer some criticism. If you are a purely recreational player and don't plan on playing poker at least semi-seriously in the future, disregard below.

If you feel your biggest ROI is in hyper-turbo MTTs, then you need to study poker a lot more. ROIs in hyper-turbo MTTs, even at the micros don't offer much in terms of potential ROI and are low-edge games due to stacks being so shallow. Playing turbos/hypers as your main game will also hinder your ability to improve at poker, this comes from experience.

Altogether I would avoid hyper-turbo MTTs. You're playing micro/low stakes MTTs. At that level, making money and maximizing EV/hourly should not be your main focus,it should be on improving at poker so you can move up in stakes to where significant money can be made, and then if you really want to, figure out the best way to maximize your EV/hourly.

I would also recommend branching out to other sites, such as 888 and Party if you want to play MTTs with smaller and softer fields.

tyty! I'm trying to improve my work desk bit by bit. Trying to convince the boss that a happy work area is a productive one and getting there slowly!

Thanks - plan is hopefully to at least play semi-seriously at mid-stakes.

You are def right about needing to Study Poker a lot more. Although I probably wasn't clear about what I meant. I don't plan on replacing Slow/Turbo tourneys with Hypers - I know that I need to practice on my deeper game and get better post-flop, and I know that is the best way to learn.

Because I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of short-stack play, esp in Micro Hypers where people are super exploitable by just following simple push/fold, I think that I can add say 2-3 tables of Hyper to my current schedule and play them without impacting my ROI in other tourneys.

Say I'm playing 8 tables of mixture of Turbo/Reg Speed - if I add two hypers then I can play them and have a decent ROI without really having to think too much.

I am definitely going to start adding some Party tourneys into my schedule, and probs 888 too.

Thanks for the advice, feel free to tell me that my explanation above is ridiculous. haha

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. Poker took up about 0.1% of my mind since the last session - I did a bit of studying on one evening but nothing more.

Was initially going to wait until 2018 to fire up another session, and I had no intention of playing yesterday, but at about 5pm I got a huge buzz to play and I felt super focussed. My wife was working last night so I was stuck at home with the little one so I decided I would fire up a small session.

I intended to play a couple of Winter Series events and some Sunday specials but to my surprise there were no Winter Series events on! I guess Stars think that their playerbase does have a social life after all.

Anyway, decided I would reg some higher Buy-ins but keep table count low and focus 100% on each tournament and really put the process I have been striving to achieve into action.

I regged the Bigger $11, Sunday Storm, Mini Million and $3.30 BB. I felt great right away - it's weird, I don't think I've ever felt so focussed to play. My mind was working in a way I have never been able to get it to do when playing online before. I was thinking about everything without having to prompt myself to do so.

Chipped up a bit in everything other than the Mini Million which is a shame as it was out biggest BI.

Had a pretty sick hand early in the $3.30 BB...

we have 88 in UTG+1 & raise 2.5x & get 4 callers.
Flop comes 363ccd and we bet around 60% pot and get called by the HJ and BB
Turn is 8h which makes us jizz a little as SPR means we should be getting stacks in here. BB checks, we check and HJ shoves. BB folds and we obv snap call and he shows 32ss.

He has a bigger booty than the rest of the table and we cover so we're doing high fives until we see the river 3...

So at that point we have like 12BB but I kinda like being short in BB tourneys as if you do find a decent hand you can triple/quadruple up pretty easy with people chasing bounties.

Anyway, played pretty well but busted the Mini Million and Sunday Storm (in a hand that I will probs go over in a seperate post) Regged the Hotter $2.20 and managed to make the money in that and get sucked out on in a chiplead pot with KK vs QQ and AJ where QQ made a set.

Started to focus attention on the Bigger $11 as I had built a pretty decent stack (was top 100 most of the way through). Was picking up little pots all over the place and felt like I had a pretty good grip on the table. Got moved to a table with the chipleader on my left at one point which wasn't fun but wasn't for too long.

Ended up playing pretty well IMO and made the FT 4/9. There was a super aggro player that I managed to put in some awkward spots and got some nice value from and also some bluffs thru against.

There was $4.6k up top which would have been my biggest score ever and I needed 5th to take home 4 figs which would have been nice.

Unfortunately we had a bad seat at the FT with the chip leader 2 on the left and the guy 3/9 on our immediate left which really limits you at a FT where the blinds are pretty high. Ran pretty card dead also, picked up Aces with 12BB from the CO and open shoved and got it through vs the 3 big stacks in the BTN and blinds... The chip lead swapped a little as the FT went on and the two stacks on my left became a little shorter which would have been good if I could have avoided the below final hand...



And that's all she wrote.

Still can't complain. Nice to start the year with an OK score and be so close to taking down a big one. Need to play like that every session and we're onto a winner.

Not sure when the next session will be, maybe this week but most likely next week.

One quote I think I am going to get something pinned up in my office...


Happy new Year everyone, hope you all had a good one.

But I'm not going to play (other than this $1.10 8-Game tourney for ****s n gigs) until the Sunday session where I'm gonna win a mother ****ing Platinum Pass.

Previously I'd have gotten so excited to play that I'd have just fired up a session and played with no thought or planning of what I'm going to play, and ultimately that was a huge downfall - now, when I get excited to play I just load up RIO and watch videos, difference is between now and before is I actually watch the video rather than have it on in the background.

One I watched recently that I think is going to help my play no-end is one by Owen Shiels about labels and how to use them. At the moment I have just the standard 8, and they are mainly good reg, bad reg, fish, aggro fish, friend, nit and calling station

After watching that video I have a much more detailed labeling system that actually means something and incorporates things I can use when playing.

So, next session will be Sunday and it's going to be huge. End of the Winter Series and I'm buzzing.

I've decided that I will shot take some higher BI events - I don't feel that I'm exactly out of my depth in a $22 tourney, esp the sunday Majors - so therefore there will be two packs for Sunday. A Micro pack with a couple $11's, and a low-pack that has only a few events but higher BI.

Will put up a post in the marketplace probs tonight, so you guys have a good few hours to rsv.

Pack A - Selling 50%:

• Winter Series 37 - Micro Main Event - $2.20
• Bigger $1.10
• Sunday Storm - $11
• Bounty Builder - $3.30
• Bigger $11
• Prog KO - $4.40
• Hotter - $2.20
• Bounty Builder - $7.50
• Winter Series 38 - PKO Micro - $1.10
• Winter Series 39 - PKO Low - $11

Total $54.80 (rounded to $55)

10% (Min): $5.50
15%: $8.25
25%: $13.75

Pack B -Selling 60%:

• Winter Series 37 - Main Event Low - $22
• Prog KO Deep Stack - $16.50
• Mini Million - $22
• The xxx Open - $11

Total $71.50

10% (min): $7.15
15%: $10.73
25%: $17.88

Send to Stars sn 'Shakeylakey' - GB - Scott Seiver avatar

25% of each pack rsv private, 25% pack A remain, 35% Pack B.

so excited to play these.

Bit of a delayed update here

Had a fun session on Sunday. Have not played a full Sunday session for probably over a year - usually we visit my in-laws on a Sunday evening and chill but this week I told them that it was a huge Sunday for Poker and if I won big I'd pay for 20% of flights to the USA for a Holiday we're all going on later in the year (in reality I was just gonna use airmiles).

Cannot believe how soft Sundays are on Stars - so much fun.

I had a negative session, but again ran about 300bb under EV - not even mad though really. I know I am playing well and I know it's just a matter of time until I bink something reasonable.

I really enjoy playing the $22 ABI stuff but I don't have the B/R for it yet, even with selling peices. I feel like people there take lines that I am able to think about more clearly and actually use what I've studied. With the <$10 stuff people are usually just punting and it's a bit more luck based, but still good fun.

I know I said at the beginning of this thread that I didn't want to make any goals for the year, but I actually feel like a completely different person recently. I'm working much harder at pretty much everything in my life. It's really weird - it feels like a switch has just flicked in my head and I'm a different person. I can't sit still at home, I'm always wanting to do DIY or jobs that need doing.

The weirdest thing is that I turned down my wife's offer for a takeaway the other night and cooked myself instead - 3 mo ago that would never have happened.

I think my New Years Resolution for this year is actually just going to be "Do everything as best as you can all the time" - and I'm going to rate myself out of 10 for a variety of things every month. Goal is to be as close to 10 on each by the end of the year.

Categories will be:

• Husband Rating
• Parent Rating
• Poker Studying Rating
• Poker Paying Rating
• Housework/DIY Rating
• Eating Better (not always 'healthy') Rating
• Smart with Money Rating
• Focus at work Rating

I feel like I'm doing them all pretty good so far, but it's only the 10th Jan.

Also, my Poker goal for the year is a bit weird and is probably a bit silly to most - but since I started playing I've always had this thing about being over 97% rated on OPR. I know it doesn't actually stand for much, but I've always been on there and been looking at the stats of the people at the top of the leaderboards and I want that to be me.

GLA on the grind!

Friday Session is a go!

Going to give myself a side roll for this session as I will likely load up some 180's when I have table space, and given that most of these are turbos and early events I want to have something going on to keep me focussed.

Session is as below:
Mini FF - $22
Micro FF - $2.20
Big $11 - $11
PKO Deep - $4.40
Win The Btn - $3.30
Hot $2.20 - $2.20
Hyper - $1.10
BB - $1.10
PKO 6-max - $7.50
Big $2.20 - $2.20
Hyper - $5.50
Hot $3.30 - $3.30
BB $7.50 - $7.50
Hyper - $2.20
Hot - $1.10
Micro Triple Threat - $2.20
Hot - $7.50
Side Roll - $43

Total $120 - selling 60%

Min 5% -$6
Max 20% - $24

setting a max as I want people to have sweats if they want it.

RAYRAYRAYRAY has 20% and has returns R/O from last pack.

Posting here and then posting in Selling Shares forum at 4pm GMT.

Cheers!

Haven't updated in here for too long...

Last Fridays session was total showers. Ran AA into KK AIPF and he spikes 4 to a flush in the $22 Fast Friday about 25 off the money and we're both top 100 stacks. Kinda a kick in the nuts to have your biggest buy-in get torn away like that.

Rest of the evening just ran into the top of everyones ranges and didn't get there with flips. Think I probably started to lose focus near the end and never ended up playing the Hot $7.50.

Been doing a lot of studying this week. Found a couple of good video series on RIO that I'm getting into. Already noticed a few spots that I find myself in where I'm totally 'WTF' so hopefully that will be good going forward.

Also bought and started reading the Jared Tendler book and can relate to a lot of the things that he says people do wrong, so hopefully plug those mental game holes soon too.

Had tonsilitis this past few days which meant not really any poker. Probably try and put in two days next week and really adjust what I'm doing. Think I'll play 6 tables max at a time and try and really focus on each spot.

GLA at the tables.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Someone asked me the other day if I'm addicted to Poker - obviously gut reaction is to immediately say no, but the more I thought about it the more I realized I probably am.

But I don't think being 'addicted to poker' is really a bad thing. I'm not addicted to gambling in the slightest - I don't have the urge to degen on blackjack, slots and I don't even really sports bet anymore unless there's a big game that I'm watching with my mates. But I can't stop thinking about Poker sometimes... I'll be laid in bed and be thinking about a certain spot from a session, or a part of a training video I've watched, or even just thinking about various other Poker related things.

Does that mean I'm addicted to Poker? Maybe - and in the eyes of society that probably labels me a bad person. To be honest, I don't think having an addictive personality is a bad thing. There are plenty of people 'addicted' to working out, running, healthy eating, football, sports, gaming, work... my addiction is Poker, and learning how to be a better player.

Anyway, the thing that got me thinking about that is that I've not played for a good while now after the showers of the last session and have just been putting solid time into reading the Jared Tendler book and watching RIO videos and looking at HH. I feel so prepped. Going to fire a session tonight and hopefully make some deep runs.

Also, the last time I played Poker was at a local £100 2-day event with a £10k gte that doubles easily everytime. I managed to take 2nd and £4750 for my biggest ever poker score (by a long shot). The same event is back again in two weeks time and I'm so excited to play again. Of course I don't expect to make a deep run again, but I do think I'm in the top 10% of players there. I just need to think about everything and hopefully the cards fall my way.

GLA @ the tables.