yooo why you playing hypers man?

Switched from cash to get into the BPC SNG coaching program since I wanted to learn from Bencb and thought it would be the fastest way for me to get to good at poker. He happens to teach and recommend playing the hypers so that's what I went with. Turned out to be really enjoyable for me. Much less auto-piloting than I did when I played cash. Really helps to have someone who's gone through the stakes guide you through learning everything you need to know and helping you fix up all your mistakes. Of course the variance can be brutal but that's a challenge that needs to be overcome.

IMO hypers are a great format to get experience into a lot of different short stack spots with varying bubble factors and to learn short stack play (Very useful for tournaments). Bonus is that the games end nice and quick and as a uni student it's the closest thing to cash in terms of time flexibility (Can fire up a quick session between uni classes).

Edges are so tiny as it was and now with stars RB changes, things look even more -EV for playing STTs on stars.

I think edges can be quite significant still.


The Knockout variant is also pretty soft and far from solved.

$30s + $25 KOs so far. Roughly 50/50

Haven't updated in a while due to having uni exams. Trying to play atleast 1 session/day but just focusing on doing well in my courses. New type of graph this time. BB winnings over all my hyper games.

So spent most of my holiday travelling around Central/East Europe and back in for a bit of action then just got completely owned by the variance + being a bit rusty. Some deeper runs in tourneys but couldn't FT anything in the micromillies


Ended up playing some 25nl and 50nl because I just didn't really feel like hypers which worked out just fine though. Ran much better.

Have a feeling I played against/stacked you today. Was an unknown reg playing 2x25z and 1x50z, was dat Chu?

Saw you at the tables but didn't really get into any pots with you. Was playing 4x 25nl zoom last night.

Had a deep run today out 11th in a $11 6max PSKO. Eventually lost a flip.



Been mainly studying the 6max KO hyper spots atm with ICMizer. Still trying to figure out some of the adjustments and plenty of interesting bounty hunt spots.

Played more cash today 25z pool just feels so random at times. Button clickers everywhere xD.

Went for the classic flat v 3bet a little bit deep. Obv fine to 5bet/GII but not sure what sizing to 5bet to given stacks... probably $12.5-$13.5. Obv don't want to see A5s but I think Bet/Call turn is probably fine. X/R or X/C probably good too.




Call flop for the gutshot+set potential but wtf how do I win at showdown.



Pretty weird line by Villain guess could check back some Kx I guess. I 1/3pot for protection/value but could def go a bit larger. Think checking turn is probably fine.

Goals for this month:

-Implementing cold showers and meditation into my morning routine: Starting the with hot water but jump in before it heats up (takes about 30 seconds to heat up for me) then finishing cold for 30 seconds. Eventually until I can just stay in the cold shower for like like 4-5mins.

-Sleep before 12 am every night

-Go outside and exercise for 3/7 days. (No I won’t be playing Pokemon Go… Will get my gf to help me with this one.)

-Poker related: Aim for 2hrs play/day + 1hr study –> Mainly focusing on 6-Max Hyper KO SNG math atm since they’ve added the format to ICMIZER2.

Results for the month so far. Let’s see how I go.

Continuing to look good in terms of volume + results. Goalwise I slept slightly later one night than 12 --> ~12.05ish and have maintained the cold showers + a bit of meditation in the morning well.

Played 4 50nl reg tables for a bit. Got some pretty nitty tables and improved my redline.

MTT grind this morning. Slept early and woke up to play the storm. Busted but cashed in some $3.50r tourneys that I played on the side. Managed to get 2nd after blinding down to 0.25bb and winning some big flips.

Think this is the most games I've ever played in a single session... Played a $16.50 bounty builder but ended up busting deep AI AK v QQ pre for 20bb. Nice cash from the bounties for ~200ish though. Rest of the session was mainly $10 6max KOs. Got owned in those at the start by the run bad but pushed through and ended up having a nice run today. Just tried to play my best and the focus was absolutely incredible. ~5hrs of play.

MTTs + SNGs so far for the month.


Cash for the past two 25nlz and 50nlz -> Not my main game but I like to get some hands in for fun when I don't have enough time to put in a solid SNG session. Helps with the variance a bit.

Kind of sick you can win at both 25/50 and sngs.

Took a lot of off-table study and coaching over the past almost 10 months but starting to feel like I have much more of a clue about what I'm doing and why. Lot of post flop decisions are starting to seem clearer in terms of understanding what my own range and how to play it.

Becoming more keen to play reg speed MTTs but struggling in terms of time commitment on a lot of days trying to balance with uni. KO hypers are mad fun though so gonna keep playing those. Embracing the mad swings :P

Want to try to update more but at the same time balancing uni workload with poker + other time is hard. Finding it tempting to play those MTTs to try and get a score. Hypers are going very well this month. Current dilemma atm is whether to solely play 6max KOs or also mix in some regular hypers.

On a side note, my sleep schedule is staying intact except for friday nights and I've been doing the cold shower thing and it's working out great. Still struggling to get the meditation in and I know it helps me out so much yet I often feel like just jumping online when I get up and starting a session.


Here's the graph for the month.

Nice!

End of month update

Goals: Cold showers were a success this month but struggled a lot with meditation. My sleep stayed somewhat together with the most nights being pretty good and I felt my game was better as a result.

Poker: Hit a longish downswing at the end but came out with 4th place in a $22 MTT. Felt like I was running terrible in those last 400 games but held through and just tried to play my best. Started playing at 9pm because I didn't have uni the next day and hell if I run deep I don't mind staying up till 4am and playing a big FT. Ended up paying off

My main realization from this score and from other sessions in general is that while I think I can just go and play a ton of tables and be profitable, I'm not really improving as much as I can and making great plays + exploiting enough. Towards the end of the session ~12am I had 2 tables left and didn't load 6max hypers with the MTTs so I could concentrate more on those two deep runs which let me think a lot more about the correct decisions. Last 3.5hrs was just 1 tabling. Ended up making some exploit folds to 3bets pre when I might've just thought "I have AQ ez get in with 25bb" which sometimes happens when I play 8 tables but notice that the guy has 4% 3bet over like 200 hands and is playing 12/10 and has me crushed. Just really surprised by how much of a difference adding those extra 7 tables might've affected my play at the end.

Needless to say a great finish to a solid month

Standard downswing I guess but feels like I've been doomswitched or something when this happens. Hands just don't hold and fish call the shoves with trash and get there.

Buy in Graph


$Graph


$EV at slightly over breakeven

Update: Graph this month is looking disgusting. Pretty swingy playing MTTs and KO hypers. I'm about $900 below EV this month.


Don't like having downswings but I think they're pretty great for improving as a player. Just gets me to play more and study more than when you're on an upswing. You start to constantly re-evaluate a lot of your play and go back to study/review the basics. The important thing is having confidence in your play, understanding what your edge is and continuing to play.

Pretty sick session today. Made 3 Final Tables 4th in a $22 FO, 3rd in a 7.50 and 5th in a 3.50r 180man for ~1250. Covered my Downswing which feels great. Performance wise I felt great about my play. Coulda run better 3rd place bust KK < A2 all in pre for a big equity swing. Nonetheless very grateful for the card distribution today and getting bluffs through in good spots. Can barely see the green line at the end of the graph lol.