After hanging around the PGC and MTTc forums for a few years I figured it is even more fun to have my own thread for posting my goals, MTT binks and misplayed hands so here goes.

About me
Hailing from the better part of Europe, a few weeks ago I moved to Sydney after having bluffed my way into a full scholarship. I'm 30 years old and my field of study is astrophysics, specifically finding supernova's. Therefore following DoGGz very sharp table chat advice I will play solely on Pokerstars for the time being (right!?). In the recent years I binked some tournaments, ran pure at some times but also contributed to the better tiers players' rent. I mostly play multi table tournaments combined with 180-man sit&gos, preferably regular speed. Turbos generally make my blood boil and cash bores me to death.

My goals
Since moving to the other side of the world is an expensive hobby I am left with an $150 online bankroll, which looks like the perfect amount to fullfill an unlikely dream. My overall goal is building up a roll to go to Vegas during the WSOP and have enough to play some small stakes tournaments, maybe even a WSOP event or two. To be honest I have no idea how much this will take, but $6k seems ok for now. Quite a lofty goal for my small bankroll, but it's kinda cool that I don't need to withdrawal (hopefully) to cover expenses so I'm looking forward to it. WSOP 2015 might be too short notice, but 2016 should be doable.

My games
As a fulltime PhD student I don't have a lot of time on my hands to mess around, but on the other hand is poker something I really enjoy doing. To prevent sitting indoors behind monitors all week I'm looking for some fun small-stakes home games around town. I've already looked into the Kings Poker offer and going to check out some nearby venues soon. If you live in Sydney and/or know some ~$10-$50 tournaments to join I'm happy to hear it. For the time being live entries I will pay out of pocket, since it is also a social activity.
Online I'll play if I have some time left in the weekend and no plans to go climbing or surfing. Considering my small $150 bankroll I try to keep my ABI small, but I don't want to play for pennies so I guess my BRM is quite aggro/unreasonable. Scheduled tournamens I'll play from $3.30 up to $8.80 freezouts and $2.2 rebuys. The afternoon AEST schedule on stars is quite withered, but I only brought my laptop here so I don't want to play more than 6 tables anyway. I can always add in some $2.5 180-mans, too bad the regspeed $4.5 don't run during off-peak hours.


First two sessions
The start of my challenge went well: I binked a $2.5 180-man and made a $8.80 6-max FT. I also FT bubbled a $2.2 rebuy, which was fairly annoying since the competion in these off-peak games is dreadful. The main issue so far has been that playing 5 tables is a bit boring and my mind wanders, but it also is refreshing to have so much time to think about my plays.

I'll update this thread after every session, probably twice a week once I'm settled in. For all Sydney locals, I know no-one around here so if you have a place open in your home-game or if you climb or surf and don't mind me tagging along, pm me.

Start bankroll: $150
Current bankroll: $282

Hey welcome to Australia!

There are a bunch of us here on the forums. So what are you studying?

And good luck! Subbed.

Gl!!! Subbed

Celebrated Newyears sitting at the edge of the water of Sydneys harbour with perfect view of the Opera house and the bridge. Amazing fireworks, but also insanely busy of course. Didn't get home until pretty late in the night since getting out of the city centre was pretty mental. Still, definitely a must see for everyone.

After my headache subdued today I figured I might as well play a small session, played 10 tourneys and cashed in 5. Finished 2nd in a small $4 tournament, pleased with my shorthand game but HU I just got outflopped continuously. Ah well, still steadily moving upwards. Looking forward to some live play next week.

Current bankroll: $364

Played my first live tournament last night, just a 40-man $25 freezeout in a local bar. Level of play was, unsurprisingly, atrocious. Open limp - call big raise OOP with Q9o, stuff like that. It played as a deep hyper basically, tons of chips early on, but the blind levels increases were not forgiving: 300-600 to 500/1k to 1k/2k to 2k/4k for example. 50bb to 7.5bb in 45 min basically. Finished 12th after shoving 8bb over early open with AKs, call by A8o, river 8. Fun crowd though, gasps all around about what is a regular beat really. With the structure that it is and 4 out of 40 paid with half of the prizepool to 1st it's a variance-fest, but it's un times so I'll be back.

Played some online, FT bubbled $3+R, made some change. I have deep runs every session now, so I'll feel confident that my optimistic BRM won't cripple me.

Current bankroll: $402

Played a little today, but wasn't really feeling it. I don't understand people who play on just a laptop screen, I'm sure as hell getting a bigger monitor as soon as possible. So I think I played 8 mtts, cashed in three. FT bubble of a $5 deepstack after KK<AQo for 150bb aipf, and final 27 in the Big $2.2. Made $2, whoo.

Current bankroll: $404

Today I moved to another suburb in Sydney that does not feel so desperately suburbian. It's also just a 10 minute walk from the bar with live tournaments, which is a "coincidence". Anyhow, didn't feel like opening boxes and the room came with a 24" monitor, so I really wanted to fire up some tables.
A few hours in I noticed my laptop wasn't charging and I was deep in $8 zoom with half an hour battery life left. I tried everything, but the charger just didn't work. I managed to install the Pokerstars app on my mobile and made FT of the $8 zoom.
Busted in 5th for ~$200, ran to the Apple store only to find out there was nothing wrong with both laptop and charger. I must be stupid. Anyhow, still have a $2+R left with 15bb after sitting out for over an hour. Nice structure.

Current bankroll: $550

Last night I played my second tournament at the local hotel/pub, this time a $20 1R1A. It played pretty much the same way as the freezout, a huge stack early on and after some ridiculous blind levels the average stack at the FT must have been ~7bb. 40 players, $1k guarantee, top 4 got paid with half the prize pool for first. I played pretty tight early on with big value bets because everyone called way too much. After the blind levels diminished the average stack I started jamming. Beautiful spots where three 8bb stacks limp in and I find 77 in the big blind with a 10bb stack, I jam, and everyone folds.

Eventually made FT with 3bb and started off on a rollercoaster: all hands all in pre obv: KT>J8, A7s<44, K4>99, 59s<J9 (getting 4-1 on the call), T8s>99 and finally ATs>QJs,T9s to bust two at once and get in the money 4-handed. I had ~30% of the chips at this point and refused an even chop considering the level of play, but three-handed I got down to ~25% (9bb) and the even chop offer was still on the table so I took it for $300. The chipleader must have had 50% of chips in play and took a three handed even chop without a thought... What the hell.

So I guess I have a live bankroll as well now, pretty sweet. I won the final flip for the leaderboard points so with a 1st place I have a good shot to qualify for the monthly final, a $5k gtd freeroll (I think).

Current online bankroll: $560
Current live bankroll: $255

It was actually a $10 1R1A, with the rebuy only available if you busted. By the way, since I don't play a lot of volume I figured I'll do monthly graphs, just to pretty up the thread a bit.

Nice start!

Thanks! According to OPR my ROI over the games I played last month is 150%, lol sample of course. That is probably not sustainable
On the other hand, small stakes offpeak tournaments are incredibly soft, so I wouldn't be surprised if ~100% ROI can be achieved over a meaningful sample.

The heat continues! Last night I also chopped the $25 deepstack in the local hotel, for $270 this time. Final 4 were ITM, and immediately the other 3 wanted to chop it 4 ways. I had a little over average (8bb) and declined, since my edge over these players is pretty clear despite how short the stacks were. Example:

BTN limps 40k off 7bb stack, I fold 94o, BB checks.
Flop comes 763hh. BB checks, BTN bets 60k into 100k, BB shoves 160k. Getting 3.2-1 BTN moans a bit and folds a flush draw, BB shows KTo...

The lady in the BTN previous hand would continue to whine about getting shoved on after limping in off a 10bb stack that "we should play real poker!". Live poker is amazing.

Eventually we got to three, I had <20% (3.5bb) of the chips in play and I proposed an even chop, which got snap accepted. Lol.

Some other hands:

Blinds 500/1k:
HJ opens to 2k, loose-passive CO calls, I call on BTN with QJo with 24k behind, SB folds, BB calls.
Flop Q95r, pot ~10k. BB checks, HJ bets 3k, CO calls, I jam 22k. After some consideration BB just calls for half his stack, HJ and CO fold. BB shows Q8s, my hand holds.

Blinds 1k/2k
UTG limps in for 2k, UTG+1 calls, I call 76cc with 60k behind, BTN calls, BB checks.
Flop A76dd. UTG bets 3.5k into 11k, UTG+1 folds, I raise to 10k to get stacks in versus UTG either now or on the turn. Folds to UTG, he calls.
Turn 3c. UTG donk shoves for around pot. I'm confused what hand he plays this way that is ahead of me or any hand for that matter. Either way I'm not folding, he shows KK. My hand holds.


Online bankroll: $560
Live bankroll: $500

First losing session in the books, no worries. Forgot to bring my mouse back home from work, so kept the session short since playing with a touchpad is annoying.

I'm still in the race for the $5k freeroll at the beginning of next month, despite only having played 3 out of the ~10 tournaments that ran so far this month. I guess there'll be around 40 runners and a $2k first prize for the freeroll. So I'm playing both tournaments next week to eek out some points.

Online bankroll: $490
Live bankroll: $500

Didn't play online last week, but I did play both events at the local hotel. Bricked the $10 rebuy on Tuesday after jamming 40bb with AQdd on A67dd and running into a set. Given the hands it would've gotten in anyway, but the BB with the set donkbet quite large on the flop into 3 people, I raised it pre. This of course set off alarm bells, but I don't think I should get away from my hand. However, I should have raised smaller instead of just shipping it. Anyone in favor of just calling?

The $25 freezout on Thursday started off fun, with a very active table full of young guys with some serious fancy play syndrome. Couldn't really get anything going on this table apart from getting someone to 3bet bluff me on the river of a A8675 board where I checkraised with J9. He didn't show, but it was indicative of the table. After the table broke my fortunes changed and also I started abusing the passivity that occurs here after the blind levels explode. I must have shipped it pre around ~15 times and never getting calls apart from A4>KQ. Made it HU with 40% of chips vs. and adequate player and we chopped it for $350 each. Qualified for the quarterly final as well, which is a $5k freeroll with ~50 runners probably, so that's nice value.

Obviously winning/chopping 3 out of the 5 live forty-player tournaments I've played so far means I'm running hot, but to be honest these players are so bad that a lot of the chips won are from (re)stealing late stage instead of winning flips. Curious to see when they'll catch on...

Online bankroll: $490
Live bankroll: $795

Since it's the last day of the month, I figured I add some graphs in here. Although the sample both online and live is laughably small, I'm glad I got some poker in during my first month here. Also, I grew my bankroll from $150 to ~$1300, so that's good.

Online:


Live:


All in all the results last month have been fantastic, volume not so much. Hopefully in February I can get some more online volume in. FTP is launching a new schedule so I'm gonna check that out. In the live arena I'm fine with playing twice a week, and I've also got the $5k freeroll ticket locked up, that one would be nice to ship.

Played a $10 1R1A today and took 3rd for $150. Had some interesting hands:

5k/10k 6-handed
I'm UTG versus very passive opponents and 1 micro stack, I have 120k, which is above average. I open to 20k with KTo, figuring no one is shoving light at this table and I have position on the two bigger stacks in the blinds. Everyone is so tight/passive now I feel like this is a profitable open.
BTN (the only adequate player) calls with 70k more behind.
Pot 55k, QT9r. I'm a bit torn here, c-betting will pretty much commit me to calling a shove with these stacks and hands that completely whiff will fold. I don't do too well versus the hands he jams over a cbet. However, there are some hands that I do (kinda) ok against, such as TJ/AJ, and considering villain I really see him jamming these if I check, but value betting smaller with better hands like two pair/top pair. Eventually I check, he jams 70k into 55k and I call, he shows AJ and misses turn and river. I'm still really unsure, I did check to let him jam specifically AJ or TJ, but of course the fact that I was right doesn't mean I was right...

Thoughts?

Bricked the $10 1R1A on Tuesday, was short late stage and did not find any shoving spot until I jammed K7o into JJ. Pretty boring session.
Last night was more fun, some friends from work joined me and proceeded to donkbet big into me on all flops that I completely missed. Also, my friend called a 4bet with A3s and cracked aces on a 933 board for a 300bb pot. Calling a 20 bb 4bet pre with A3s is probably not a good idea, but is was pretty hilarious.
I got moved and started to tear up the table, gotta love some rungood:
First hand called a shove on A83KQ with AQ and got shown AJ.
Next hand raised ATcc to 6bb on BB after three people limp in. Average stack must have been around 25bb, but everyone called! Flop T94hh, I bet 60% of pot, 1 caller. Turn 3d, I put him all in for ~pot, he calls with 86hh and misses.
Fifth hand I put two players all in with T9 on T87 flop, calls by 97 and T5.

I ran up a big stack, lost half of it back and got to 5-handed with not so much. Top 4 get paid, mincash is 4x buy-in, so pretty big bubble. After the short stack in all ins won 6 times in a row, with someone coming back from a 1/2bb stack, I jammed AQs with 4bbs. Bigger stack calls with JTs, shortest stack calls off with 3.5bb with AA. How the hell do you wake up with that with 3.5bb... Anyhow, I rivered a flush, pretty sick. Finally finished 3rd for $200, obviously completely fine with that. Heat continues!

Online bankroll: $465
Live bankroll: $1065

Played a bit online, but having only played live the last few weeks it takes some getting used to, jeez. Bricked everything, but discovered that there are a bunch of good bowl comps on FTP during AEST time.

Online bankroll: $458
Live bankroll: $1065

Just busted the invite only $5k freeroll, the $2k up top would have been sweet. One notable hand, I'm still not sure about it:

I've been active and barreling a lot of boards with success. My stack is ~27k, avg if 20k. Although the opponents are slightly better than usual, villain in the hand seems fishy. Saw him earlier donkbet-calling a a 2-card flush board and folding turn, he also limps a lot.

Blinds 200/400
I'm in the CO and get dealt K9o, I make it 1000 and SB calls.
Flop QTJcc, pot is 2400
Pretty nice flop and I think there are a lot of made hands and straight- and flushdraws in villains hand that he will continue with. I bet 1500, he calls
Turn 5c, pot 5400
He checks, I have no club. I make it 3k figuring there are still plenty of worse hands that will call and I want to charge the plentiful draws out there, villain calls.
River 7h, pot 11400
Villain checks again with ~10k behind. Now I'm not sure, I really don't see him checking a made flush all that often, most of these players are too scared of not getting paid and lead out here. Given my aggro image I feel that there are definitely some two pair hands that will hero call a shove, maybe even top pair hands like KQ/AQ. I've shoved big hands on the river against these kinds of players more than once and so far have been quite successful, but haven't played this guy before. After some thought I jam, villain calls with K4cc. Hmm. Anyone prefers bet-folding something like 4.5k here?

Just shipped the $10 1R1A in the pub outright for $450, running crazy hot with six top 3's in ten games so far, will update tomorrow. Live poker is awesome.

So last night was fun, quite a lot of table banter and some proper rungood. My first table was incredibly soft, I think half of the table played poker and/or live for the first time, so not many hands/hour but a LOT of limp-calling. Ran up my stack a bunch until I got moved to a table with more regs. Of course, "regs" in these games are mainly consistent losers, but they have somewhat of a clue. Few hands of interest:

Blinds 5k/10k, 6-handed
I'm UTG+1 with ~140k (well above avg...) and minopen K8s. The blinds are huge at this point and the next level is 10k/20k, so you really need to put the pressure on.
BB (90k) calls, pot 45k, flop comes T96r. BB is one of the young fancy play syndrome guys, very aggro but weird betsizing/limping. I raised his UTG limp (he had 10bb) earlier after which he folded and asked if I would've called a shove. I'm sure he was contemplating it, I didn't answer. On this flop I think quite a bit of his range will check-shove and although I might be ahead I don't think I can call. I check behind.
Turn 9. He bets 20k, I call. Bit of a loose call, but the 9 means he is less likely to have one and I'm still ahead of a lot of his (semi)bluffs.
River T, pot 85k. He jams 50k. Quite a good river for me, straight draws miss and a T in his hand becomes less likely too. If I call turn I can't fold this river, particularly against this kind of player. I lose to made hands and aces, but win vs his air, missed draws such as QJ, J8/J7, Q8/Q7 and counterfeited 6s/underpairs. I chop with KQ/KJ etc. I call, he shows K2.

Blinds 5k/10k
Folds to BTN (150k) who makes it 25k, a bit hesitant. After winning a big pot earlier he's been quite active. I'm in SB and have 75k, with KTo. I should put this in ICMizer, but I think I'm ahead of a lot of his opening hands here. I know I have very little fold equity, but that isn't really an issue if I have the best hand. I jam 75k, BB folds, BTN thinks and mutters for a while and calls with QTo. Maybe a bit results oriented, but I feel pretty good about this shove.

Eventually I proceeded to FT and ran pure: A7>Q6, AA>88, AA>J5, K7 on K7KQ9, getting barreled into, and finally AJ>Q8 for my first outright win and $450. Good game.

Online bankroll: $458
Live bankroll: $1495

Weekly recap:
Last week I've played three live tourneys. I've been enjoying myself on the live felt too much to turn on my computer instead, so I'm just gonna ride this upswing for the immediate future. The level of play is just hilarious and the pace of the game is so much lower than online that I can easily play a game after a day of PhD work.
Anyhow, after shipping the $10 1R1A on Tuesday I played a $25 freezeout on Friday which I bricked. Then on Sunday I played a $22 freezeout at a different venue and chopped it HU for ~$310. This includes two $55 tickets for bigger games, so I guess I'll be raising my ABI. Fine by me. Some fun hands:

FT, blinds 15k/30k, avg ~200k
MP opens to 90k from a 180k (6bb) stack (sigh) and it folds to BB (120k, 4bb). He moans and sighs, and eventually folds TT face up. MP shows KK. Praise all around for BB and a bunch of people actually said nh to MP. Seriously, what the hell?!

Suffices to say that I played like a monkey on speed all FT, I think I shoved every third hand or so. Ran K8 into TT (BTN vs SB) and K2 into AA (BvB), but every time had enough chips to bounce back and retake chiplead fairly quickly. Heads up I was dead even with the best player at the table, so we chopped the money and both got 1 ticket. There was 1 $55 ticket left and he asked for $30 and I could take it. I explained that half my share was worth $27.5 and I would rather have $30 than half a must play ticket. In the end we flipped for it, he won, and again offered the ticket to me for $30. Nice freeroll there for me.

For people reading this, let me know if you want to see more written about crazy live play, interesting hands or Sydney life, I have no idea what you guys find interesting.

Online bankroll: $458
Live bankroll: $1755

And a brag just because I can: After 12 live games with average ~35 runners I have:

1 outright win
2 chops HU
2 chops three-handed
2 third places

for an ROI of 600%. Hell yeah sustainable.

There are plenty of pub poker/donkaments around (APL,NPL,Kings). I'd say better structured ones include Rounders and fives full but they generally cost a bit more. APL NPL and kings all regularly run freerolls if your roll is too low. The players are absurdly bad and the blind structure is too fast to be playing good poker.

The star also has weekly MTT's, buy ins are around 300-1k. They have a slightly better structure.

as for the "legal" cash games, the star is the only option in Sydney and it charges an obscene amount of rake (@1/2NL 200max they charge $5/hr +10%every pot capped at 10)

Hey, thanks, Kings/NPL are the ones I'm playing at the moment. The structure is ridiculous of course, but most players make such massive short stack mistakes that so far it has been very profitable and enjoyable. I'll be looking around for some better structured higher buy-in tournaments to take shots in when my bankroll allows for it. Playing a $330 ANZPT tournament in March is an option.

What/where do you play?