Hi guys! Avid reader of the PGC thread and figured I might as well add to the thread count by MTT grinders.

Have been playing poker for around 3 - 4 years now, starting as a bored University student who picked up the game and decided to max out a Credit card with it (blame it on the variance ).

After about a year break, I started playing some small stakes tourneys held by local clubs here in Toronto. Had a decent amount of success and have been playing a bit more seriously since the start of 2014. Reading the threads here on 2+2 as well as watching any free videos available on the web. Surprised at how many more sources are out there in just a years time, its not surprising that games have gotten tougher.

Here are my lifetime results:

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Not any mind blowing scores, have been primarily playing tourneys between $1 - $35 USD across mainly Pokerstars, FTP, and 888.

Starting this year I had to leave my job working in Data with a Real Estate Company to do a few courses so I could obtain accreditation towards becoming a Real Estate Appraiser. I have sort of hit the wall in that I wanted to be able to balance a poker schedule with my courses but poker has consumed a vast majority of my time.

I decided that if I am going to give poker a real shot but I need to dedicate my full attention towards it. I want to use this thread as a tool to help me make progress in skill development therefore leading to an increased ROI.

This is my graph for 2015 where I have been pretty much playing full time:

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I am on a bit of a downswing since the middle of March but still up overall for the month, and the first 2 weeks was on an absolute heater. My profits are a bit low but I have been able to manage both my poker roll and life roll since I still live with my parents.

Here are my current short / long term goals for the year

1) Want to save up enough money so I can move to a country with a low Cost of Living so I can grind there (Thailand, Mexico etc.). Would really love to use this thread help me make some connections with grinders in these countries living abroad so I can make an informed decision on where I want to go. I have never really traveled outside of North America by myself and want to gain some new life experiences. I am aiming to save about 6k - 8k by the end of August in order to have decent savings while I settle down in a new country.

2) Making close to 6k in profit so far this month has motivated me to achieved even better results in April. I want to ideally have a roll to be able to play all the lows during SCOOP as well as be able to sustain the shots I want to take at some of the $109 SCOOP - M. Ideally I would like to play 40 - 50 tournaments a day with an ABI between 10 - 15 in order so I can get as close as possible to 1000 tournaments a month. There is also the WPT Spring Championship event being held in Montreal in the beginning of May which I might try to play some of the smaller buy-in events.

3) Improve my cash game, currently I am comfortable playing NL 10/25 Zoom, have tried at times to 8 Table Zoom / Rush 25 with mediocre results. I want to make sure I include cash sessions regularly and hopefully move up to NL50 by the end of the year. I am setting myself a flexible monthly target of 40,000 hands at ZOOM / RUSH NL25 which can increase as I hopefully get better.

Schedule for April

Wake up 8:30 - 9:00 am
- Have been consistently waking up mid afternoon which is due to sleeping
super late from watching TV, basketball and doing stupid stuff in general lol

Gym - 2/3 times a week, atleast get a couple hours of basketball if not lifting weights as I currently pay 40 bucks a month for membership and have not used it this year.

Sun - MTT Grind
Mon - Cash Grind (5000 hands min.)
Tue - MTT Grind
Wed - MTT Grind
Thu - MTT Grind
Fri - Cash Grind (5000 hands min.)
Sat - MTT Grind

I will try to post some daily updates, but will definetly post weekly updates on Fridays for sure so I can hold myself accountable for not working towards goals on a regular basis. On days where my sessions end early, will have to start amping up the self study through hands and reading forums / articles related to strategy.

Thanks for reading through (or scanning through ) this long ass post, hopefully I will be able to attain some great results and make a few friends in the process.

GL at the tables!!!!!

Pokerstars: lilnavinRTN
FTP: danger2call
888: lilnavin

http://www.pocketfives.com/profiles/lilnavinrtn/

Last 2 days have been ranging from mediocre to brutal, seemed to have decent stacks going in few tourneys but wasn't able to finish. Had a deep runs on stars in the Big 11, $11 12k, and $1 40k rebuy. Seems like I am stuck in that space where I feel like I'm losing crucial flips and a lot of 70/30 spots.

Hopefully I gain a bit of momentum tomorrow and take that into the new month as I feel that I am playing well and just need a bit of luck on my side.

Graph for last 2 days:

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I didn't manage to wake up early today and started grinding around 1 pm as usual, I am missing out on some good value tourneys on Stars and will try to get my lazy ass out of bed tomorrow. If anything that has been holding be back on getting better whether it be in school or poker it has to be my laziness. It's definitely something that I would like to change about myself soon.

Had a bunch of stacks going deep in a few tourney today, nothing but a few cashes. Still have this one final table left, hopefully can win this one. Not a major cash but hey I need the money so cant complain.

[IMG][/IMG]

BINKKKKKK!!!!!!




Always can trust Full Tilt to get me out of a downswing, lets hope the streak continues.

Decent day today, started grinding around 12 and was able to reg in a bunch of tournaments that I usually miss cause of waking up late. Deep runs in 8 cubed and 3.30 Rebuy $20k Turbo. The latter of which I made some critical missteps and really cost myself some $$$.

The best run however was the Big 22 where i reached the final 2 Tables, got it in with 77 (eff. 25 BB stack) against JJ and sucked out. Then this hand happened:







Figured it was a spot I had to bluff on the river, do I just shove here and make it look polarized?? Any suggestions on bet sizing??

After this hand I had KK and got it all in vs SB 3B, he had TT and flopped a set. lol damn karma !! The 5 figure score hunt continues.

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Last 2 days have been uneventful, didn't end up playing any cash as part of my weekly schedule on Friday. I ended up going to the casino with a few friends and spewed $120. Played roulette while I was waiting to get on the table for 1/2, ended up sitting at the table with $80 and flushed that down the drain after about an hour. Live poker is just not for me, but I can't help myself.

Started grinding today around 1:30, had to go out for lunch with the family even though I wanted to grind. My parents still have a negative view of poker and I haven't told them about my goals in poker. I want to be able to show them some strong results so they can see that I am serious about poker and that its not about me being a degen.

Nothing to talk about this session, after about 30 tourneys decided to just call it a day. Need to figure out a few strategies or techniques to self motivate myself during a session so I don't have moments like today where I just decide to quit.

Most interesting hand from the day:







I just ended up snap calling on river and after reviewing this hand I should have taken my time before making my decision. Thinking about it now, I don't really see any sets in villains range as I would expect him to raise on flop after my Cbet. TT is possible but don't see 66 or 77 flatting my Cbet, I think they would raise especially with flush draws on board.

With three Aces already in play it also cuts out a lot of the combos of Ax hands he could have flatted my 3Bet with. Which really only leaves hands like KdQd JdQd, other weird diamond combos, and hands like 78 and 97 that are beating me.

Thinking about it in hindsight I think this should be a fold if I don't think he has a set and or Ax with a diamond since the only hands that make sense which play this way all beat me.

It's hard thinking through a hand while multi - tabling but I really need to take my time making decisions as I feel like I rush into making calls too often.

GL to everyone on Sunday and I hope I can post a good result tomorrow.

Final Table Hypppeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Results:

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Ended up being fairly short stacked at the final table, no real hands came up and lost a crucial pot when I defended my big blind and lost about half my stack with top pair (A5<AT).

Shoved all in with JQs in SB to button raise, and he calls with Q3s and flushes me out the tournament lol so tilted after that hand. I know I should be happy with the result but this one definitely stings.

April results so far:



So April has started of well with a few decent scores to start of with. A top 3 finish in the double deuce would have been great bankroll wise but instead of dwelling on it I am going to review final table hands and see spots where I could have played differently. According to Sharkscope I had around 4k in profits for March, so aiming to surpass that result for April.

I also need to begin putting money towards my fund for grinding abroad. The plan is to save around $6,000 USD by the end of Aug, so that would require me to save around $1500 a month. Considering my life expenses at the moment are already close to a $1,000 a month this will be a hard task. I am going to start looking for part - time jobs and see if I can find one that will help me get some extra cash without affecting the poker grind.

Today was the definition of swingy, started the session around 12:30 pm and didn't have too much going. Built a few stacks here and there but didn't get close to winning in the first 10 or so tourneys played. Had a deep run in a Stars $8 4k, and came across this spot:







Felt like this was a good spot to steal about 10 BB, the initial raise was from a big stack and I was confident that the squeeze would fold him out. On the button didn't have any stats on the player, but the LP raise and Button 3Bet scenario is fairly common and the button most of the time should be fairly weak. Got to start working out on what ranges I can squeeze in this spot profitably as this comes up often.

Ran deep in the 3.30 Rebuy 20k, was at the final 3 Tables and this hand occurred:







Villain's 3Bet stats were around 4% but he has only 3Bet from the big blind in the hands I have on him. I wasn't too disappointed here in the way I played this but after running it through Hold Eq calculator it seems like ATo is too weak for me to make this play.

The Full Tilt run good continued in the Triceratops today until I got it all in for a massive stack with around 30 left with JJ vs. 89s and lost. Lol hopefully that is not the end of the run good.

Pretty much a break even day today, but I am happy with my play overall.

Interesting Hand:







Had no idea what to do with the donk lead on the river. Not sure if this is just a crying call and hoping to catch villain bluffing with As. Villain was running 21/14 over 200 hands and had a fairly high WSD on river.

OMG so Tilting:



Decided to grind tourneys today instead of playing cash, and this happens. I think this has happened already twice this year and its so annoying. Especially today when I have more than a few good stacks going. Hopefully this gets fixed sooner and or I can get most of my buy-ins back.

So all tournaments that have been paused are not going to be continued. Assuming I get most of the buy-ins back along with some extra from the remaining prize pool, this might end up being a break even day. Just going to call it a day and get back on the grind tomorrow.

So another long Sunday comes to an end for me, unlike last week no success to speak of. Did not have any major stacks and seemed disinterested for the throughout the day. Not sure if it was because of staying out late last night or just getting burned out from playing often.

Had a couple deep runs in the Big 11 and Storm, which kind of made up from losing big today. I will see how I feel around in an hour or so and play a few tourneys for a night session.
Month so far:




The month started of well and have now entered a bit of a downswing. I haven't reached my volume goals either which is kind of disappointing. Just can't seem to control my frustration / Tilt issues when busting out of tournaments and that leads me to calling it a day sooner than I should. So for this week I am going to make sure I am able to play at least 35 tourneys a day from Mon - Thu.

I have begun playing the deep stack turbo satellites for Big/Hot 55 and Hot 75. I have found these to be a good way to pad your bankroll during losing days, as most of the time if I do qualify I just unregister from the tournament.

Until next time, GL to all !!!!

Another day, another afternoon grind. Lets get it!!!

Good luck getting that big score! Is that table ninja you use for tiling?

The most I play is 6-8 tables, but I haven't purchased table ninja yet and that looks pretty clean.

Thanks! Yea I do use Table Ninja, I am paying for the basic subscription which is 5 bucks a month. It gives you pretty much everything you need if you play MTTs, there is no hotkeys but i usually manually enter my bets so it works for me. There is a bit of lag when using it on 888 or Full Tilt but stars works fine. I believe if you look up or ask on the Mentality135 thread he uses a different program which might actually be free.

GL at the tables !!!

Month so far:



Downswing official

This has been a rough few days, I am making tons of mistakes deep into the tournaments with like 5% - 15% of field left. Feel really weak with my game when around 20 BB to 30 BB. Really need to find some sources on how to work on a good strategy for those stack sizes deep in tournaments. I feel like I play it well when still early in a tournament, but when I do get conscious about the end I think I play too passive and then end up busting because of impatience when certain spots aren't going my way.

The downswing has been affecting my mood while playing, do feel an increased amount of pressure when past the money bubble and deeper into a tournament. I will try to play some basketball tomorrow morning and see if it gets me in a better mindset while playing. Part of the problem is also me being a bit more aggressive with my bankroll and adding a couple MTTs in the $50 - $55 range. Thinking of keeping just the Monster Stack on FT and dropping the Big 55.


Tough hands from today:

Monster Stack


No Limit Holdem Tournament
FullTiltPoker9 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by WeakTight.com poker hands converter
Stacks:
UTG Player6 (19,840) 40bb
UTG+1 Player7 (17,196) 34bb
MP1 Player8 (7,063) 14bb
MP2 Player9 (9,950) 20bb
MP3 Player1 (28,686) 57bb
CO Player2 (9,267) 19bb
BTN Player3 (21,985) 44bb
SB Player4 (6,126) 12bb
BB Hero (19,815) 40bbBlinds: 250/500 Ante 50
Pre-Flop: (1,200, 9 players) Hero is BB K 10

4 folds, Player1 raises to 1,000, 3 folds, Hero calls 500
Main Pot : (165,424) Hero: +42341.09 EV (26.20%)
Player1: +121082.91 EV (73.80%)

Flop: 2 5 8 (2,700, 2 players)
Hero checks, Player1 bets 957, Hero calls 957
Main Pot : (165,424) Hero: +21209.82 EV (13.40%)
Player1: +142300.18 EV (86.60%)
Turn: K (4,614, 2)
Hero checks, Player1 bets 2,839, Hero calls 2,839
Main Pot : (165,424) Hero: +8409.83 EV (6.80%)
Player1: +151336.17 EV (93.20%)

River: 2 (10,292, 2)
Hero checks, Player1 bets 6,895, Hero calls 6,895
Main Pot : (165,424) Hero: -6895.00 EV (0.00%)
Player1: +158529.00 EV (100.00%)
Final Pot: 24,082
Player1 shows
J K
Hero shows
K 10
Player1 wins 24,082 (net +12,341)
Hero lost 11,741

Player was running 27 / 18 over 90 hands with WTSD 25 and W$SD of 75. I was definitely mad about losing this hand, not beating any of his value range that would bet flop turn and river. I was floating the flop with the intention of check raising on certain turns. I decided calling was the best course of action on turned King, I convinced myself that a player with these aggro stats could be triple barrell bluffing here and called


Near bubble in Nightly 55





The bet sizing on both flop and turn really confused me. I have seen this often be done with draws and this board is full of them. No stats on opponent to note, I felt that based on the general button vs. BB dynamic that this was likely to be an aggressive bluff line and made the call. Analyzing it through Flopzilla suggests it is close but most likely a fold, my hand has roughly 41% equity against villains bluff and value range.

Still roughly 2 more days of guaranteed grinding left, with the NBA playoffs coming up it might be tough to play this weekend but I will try to work around it. Best time of the year for an NBA basketball fan so lets see if some of the good vibes help out when playing poker.

Another late start to the grind today, can't seem to get myself motivated enough to wake up early and go to the gym lol. Trying to work on this but laziness seems to have consumed me since I stopped working full time. Grind started of horrible, one of those days were the tourneys were ending as fast as I was reggin others.

Was on my last 2 tables before final tabling a $11 4k, always helps to get a nice cash.



Crucial hand that happened heads up:








Villain was super aggressive throughout the final table and I had already caught him bluffing a couple times heads up. Not sure if I can fold here to any opponent. Currently one tabling the Big 4.40 which somehow have ended up with a stack despite making some questionable plays lol. Let's see if we can end the session of with a win.

Month so far:


The last 2 days have been brutal in respect to both results and volume. Can't seem to push through my tilt issues and keep grinding. Was not able to make any final tables since Tuesday and the bankroll has taken a hit since I wasn't able to even min cash in the large percentage of tourneys played.

Hopefully I can rest up today and play a bit more confidently during the weekend. I really want to end this month with a good profit and hope this weekend can get me back on track.

Ahh man such a frustrating Raptor game to watch today. NBA decides to give us the "coveted" 12:30 timeslot , not sure but it seemed to affect the game flow as both teams started slowly. Paul Pierce decides to turn back the clock in the 2nd quarter adding to the list of early 2000 allstars who kill us still. Not sure why Casey decided to keep james johnson on the bench, he was brought here to guard guys like pierce. The comeback tho was sick, giving me confidence that we will win game 2. Ill be heading to washington for game 4, hopefully the raptors get there with a 2 to 1 lead.

Till then gonna pick up the grind starting tomorrow and hopefully make some profits.

Gl to all tomorrow !!!!

not sure why you're 3 betting the 87s hand,i think you're deep enough to flat +EV. and in the AA hand i doubt general small stake MTT villains ever have enough bluffs/worse hands in that spot

can you talk me through your thought process with the 87s hand

I like three betting suited connectors and one gappers in this spot against a late position raise. I think you have a high fold equity from a LP range by three betting. Once he flats here his range usually consists of smallish pairs, hands like KJo, KJs, and suite connectors like ourselves. On the flop I make a 1/3 size bet to get a feel for where my opponent is at and also for immediate fold equity. With him calling and checking the turn and checking the river, I don't see any Kc or Ac in his range not betting the river. His range imo is hands like KJo and some ATo without clubs. Small club connectors like 89s, 78s, would raise flop a large amount of the time so I can small see clubs flushes checking back the river. From villains perception my range can have a lot of Kc that might check turn and would value bet the river and even some Ac. Felt I could fold out the hand he called with AJo with no clubs but he made a good call there.

The AA hand was definitely a bad call on my part, think if I thought the hand a bit through while I was playing I would have made the fold.

Ye when you check back turn and bet river your hand doesnt look strong at all so his call was fine but i would probably be triple barreling here. Gonna look through some other hands later gl wit the great bink

Final 6 tourneys for today:



Wasn't able to put too much volume, seemed distracted all day so I am going to finish up with these last few tourneys. Took out a lot of the big turbos today, feel like at this point its better for me to use the buy-ins for reg speed tourneys with smaller fields. Let's hope for some run good to finish the day.

lol man where is the run good when you need it. Bottom 2 hands were for massive chip stacks deep in 2 different tourneys.

Deep in 13.50 Knockout, end up in 79th:







Deep in 3.30R, finished 111:







Currently:



This is my stack after just losing roughly 12BB to the guy to my right QQ<QJo lol. I know I shouldn't be complaining, a lot of things had to go my way just to reach this point. But I have to vent here....and as I am typing this the guy to my right calls my all in shove with K9s against my A7o (SB vs BB) and we hold. God I love poker!!!!