05/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 6 (i guess cus i didn't play on day 5?)

Ran really badly, really trying hard not to post bb/100 comparisons since its really dumb, and doesn't reflect full picture in MTTs. But lets just say i ran far far far below EV in bbs

Managed to get 1 little run going at the end but it ended with heartbreak:

Lost a pretty big flip on first hand ;(

Anyways i'm back grinding tomorrow, hopefully i can make another FT!
Can't lie i've been feeling really stressed recently, and under a lot of pressure. I think there's a few reasons, i might write up on it more in depth at a later point. May also contact my old mental coach and get some advice on coping with it. But for now i'll just try to keep meditating everyday, get some fresh air, and get on the grind, hopefully things will turn out well.

07/05/20 Session
(SCOOP DAY 7)

Should be day 8 but i ended up skipping yesterday as i went a bit later than i wanted with some studying, plus i thought an evening off wouldn't be terrible seeing how things have gone so far.

So i came back today and got slammed again ;( Almost made day 2 of a 5.50 SCOOP but missed out by an hour. At least i cashed a scoop event.

Stress & Pressure
Obviously when you put significant effort into something and getting nothing in return for long periods of time it can be a bit stressful. So given this downswing has lasted like 7 months, its of course going to have some effect on me and my mental.
What i'm most worried about though is running out of real life funds, as i hate borrowing money from people and really don't want to ask my backers for funds. I thought i only had 1 months living costs left, but i think i got 2, which at least buys me some time to grind my way out. This is actually a big relief for me though.
I still feel a lot of pressure though, but maybe its me overthinking things.
Firstly my backers have tried to push me into these lower variance games for months, and even though i'm currently grinding ipoker, and i said i'd try to out fully after scoop, even during the series they're really trying to push me into it right away (partially since microgaming is shutting down by the time series ends). They also don't want me playing anymore 109 scoops since i've been getting pretty ruined so far, although i'm not really in control of my variance, and they seems to be very nitty with game selection in my opinion. I imagine i'm the person with highest amount of makeup in stable currently at just over £4k. Anyways throughout the series i know after each bad session that i'm going to get pushed in this direction i dont particularly want to go in more and more, and then even every all in a lose adds pressure. Its a bit unpleasant.
I also just feel like a lot of people expect me to have a huge bink sometime soon because i 'deserve' it, and i've been on this swing for so long. But the reality there's a good chance it will never come. And i weirdly don't want to let people down in that sense, and i do want to grind back out the swing, but i feel like variance is pushing me down further, and its just extra pressure.
(Also incase you didn't connect the dots if the stable is loaning me living expenses it easily gives them full control of my game selection, which i really don't want. Its not terrible but i'd rather do something by choice than by being forced to)

Anyways a lot of this is just rambling and getting things off my chest.
Tomorrow i'm just studying then hopefully can turn it around this weekend.

Blaming variance
As a side i know it seems like i just blame variance a lot. But i do think MTT poker, especially in bigger fields, revolves around variance a lot, and its about capitalising the most when you run good. Also i'm not so arrogant that i use it as an excuse to not work on my game, like i still study a lot, and i'm still critical of myself that i make bad plays. I'm just pretty confident that my game isn't so bad that i get endlessly crushed at $25-30ABI, since a lot of strong players have confidence in my game, giving myself confidence. And also my winrate in terms of BB has been quite far below EV, especially throughout 2020, and that paired with not running great at the few FTs i do make can result in this.
I just got a bit frustrated today when backers were saying that a reason for my swing can't just be variance (which is v possible), and that i must've had a significant switch in strategy that hasn't worked out. I just didn't believe this to be true, and a lot of the changes i have made are things that they approved of (reduced table count, playing less theory oriented, etc). But i also imagine a stable can ever say to a horse that they are doing fine and just running bad.

Ok now i'm really finished, goodnight

I think you underestimate just how hard it is to make $100k/year in poker these days. The whole “tough way to make an easy living” or whatever sounds cheesy but it’s so true. And like one of the earlier posters wrote, you can’t just expect to make $100k in 3 years. What’s your highest yearly profit so far? Like have you even ever made $25k+ in a year before? It’s crazy to be complaining about being pigeonholed by a site where you can only make $40k/yr when you’ve never even done it before.

Why don’t you set a VERY reasonable target this year, one that you think is so low that if you didn’t achieve it, it would be ludicrous to continue along the poker path. Also, it honestly sounds like poker isn’t a very conducive lifestyle for you. Why would you want to do something that is so mentally and physically destructive to you with a side of stress piled on top?

Just remember there are people working VERY hard to make it in poker. You have to work harder than them to make it these days. I wish you luck but seems to me like you are just looking for an “easy way” to make a good living. But the harsh reality is, if it was that easy to make good money, literally everyone would do it.

Ok so there are some good points made here, but i guess i'll try to address things point by point because theres also a couple things i don't agree on.

'I think you underestimate just how hard it is to make $100k/year in poker these days.' - I think i definitely used to underestimate how hard it was, but i've seen what it takes from people who have done it, and i've seen the amount of effort they've put in to achieve that.

'you can’t just expect to make $100k in 3 years.' - I agree with this, i can't EXPECT it, but i definitely think this is attainable if i work hard enough 3 years from now. Or to at least be at a level where i think its possible. I guess my mistake was expecting it, however i definitely think i can do it.

'Like have you even ever made $25k+ in a year before? It’s crazy to be complaining about being pigeonholed by a site where you can only make $40k/yr when you’ve never even done it before.' - So i started playing full time in march 2018 after a bit of a heater and decided to take a risk. Looking back now it was probably a bit too early on, but i went for it and thought i could do it. So in a 12 month gap i aimed for $25k, and here was the final result
Then in 2019 i think i had already reached $25k by october before my downswing hit.

And although setting financial goals is generally pretty dumb, i'm just proving that i had some success before, and that i felt as if i was making good progress in my poker career.

Also this idea that my entire downswing has come from stars is just not really true, i've kind of been buried on every site, and 50% of my volume has been on stars:

top is player group without stars, 1/2 of that volume is party, which is also 1/2 those losses. But i seem to be doing consistently bad on every site.
Fwiw avg field size on stars = ~3.5k, then other sites = ~550.

'Why don’t you set a VERY reasonable target this year, one that you think is so low that if you didn’t achieve it, it would be ludicrous to continue along the poker path.' - I think is very fair, i think my targets this year have been pretty meh. Obviously setting financial goals isn't really the one. But i have stated before that i'm unhappy with the lack of progress that i feel i've had, so definitely something in this area could be good.

'Also, it honestly sounds like poker isn’t a very conducive lifestyle for you. Why would you want to do something that is so mentally and physically destructive to you with a side of stress piled on top?' - This is a good point. I guess the main answer is because i enjoy it, i think when i stop enjoying poker is when i'd quit. Still even now before almost every session i'm pretty fired up and ready to go, unfortunately that same energy doesn't usually last throughout the session esp during tougher times. As for it being physically and mentally destructive i obviously think that's more my fault than pokers fault. And after SCOOP i plan on taking a bit of time off and working on my physical health, which will then hopefully improve on my mental health. I've already started eating healthier since this lockdown started. Obviously the approach of permanently grinding hasn't worked for me, and has had a lot of negative effects like you point out.

And i generally agree with the last paragraph that that's how i used to think, especially when i got into poker, as i was running pretty pure and i thought it would be pretty easy, then i got a reality check. Maybe some part of that thinking still remains.

Thanks for saying this by the way, its nice to have someone just tell you how it is straight up. And you've said it in a pretty constructive way which helps, also gives me something to think about. Honestly i have no idea how long i'll be in poker for since i've always had plans to go to uni at some point. But whilst i'm here i just want to try my hardest and if things go well then i carry on.

Love your response, generally don't see people listen to understand but rather listen to respond / get defensive.

That mindset alone is a great sign for your potential not just in poker but in life. Keep your head up

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Gl on your challenge.

Thought this was an interesting point to share. I’m jamming this everytime though, think it’s better to use chip EV for this spot when ur so short. In this particular spot I’m jamming 36-38% and if villains aren’t competent way more.

Thanks mate, when i initially recieve criticism obviously it hurts a bit, but i try to just sit back and look at it for a bit before i respond. Also having someone else i know give their take usually helps. And i wanted to make my response not look too defensive and as if i disagreed with everything since there were good points made, so i'm glad it came across as such!

Yeah when we're shorter stack we can defo take the very marginal spot given that we are by far the shortest stack and really need a spin. I may not go to chipEV but i'd jam the +0.01s and stuff. Also keep in mind that if villain calling a bit too wide this is worse for us in terms of ICM

09/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 8
Had a few deep runs which was nice, sadly nothing materialised. But if this keeps up i imagine i'll make a couple FTs throughout next week. I also played like a bit of a psycho, my turn barrel was like 60% (used to be 40%, usually at about 50% now). And had a couple spots where i potentially punted.

So ITM bb44, saturday version so bounties are pretty huge. Unsure if this is good or really trash.
I think i want to turn my hand into a bluff at some point in this hand, its just about when, and i think i have 2 options.
Bluff river if it checks to me 3 times, can just bet to try to fold out better pocket pairs. Seems fine, but may get snapped off by some Tx/Qx
Bet turn, jam river. When it checks through to me twice i usually expect an A to be bet by this time, and if not then its going to be a weaker A (that i kinda block) that may end up folding river. Also on turn KQ/JT type hands will call then almost always fold river, so i feel like our fold equity should be quite high, and its v tough for us to have bluffs here (essentially these types of hands). Of course some of the issues with this bluff is we don't rep much after checking the flop, however we are simultaneously targeting a somewhat weak range(s). Also this particular villain is a fish which makes the bluff bad for 2 reasons. 1. He will too often not bet Ax on the turn, leaving him with a good chunk of Ax in range. 2. He will unlikely fold Ax after checking twice, no matter what i'm repping. Whereas maybe a reg would.

In a weird way i'm a bit glad i punted ITM of a bigger tourney, shows i'm a fearless bastard if i think the spots good. Can worry about whether it actually is good afterwards

Looking forward to tomorrow! Going to try to get a full routine of a bit of study, go outside for a walk, and meditate before my session stars. Usually i do 1 or 2 of these things, but the full combo got me feeling very ready for my session.

subbed GL!

Thanks mate!

10/05/20 SUNDAY Session
SCOOP DAY 9


I can finally say i didn't get torched which feels really great! Was a bit sad to not bink 33BF FT, since FT started so deep and i was chipleading at one point. Plus i'm confident in my abilities, unfortunately like FTs go a couple unlucky spots then i was shortstacked. But i still ran well overall. That was my biggest score since october so i'm feeling pretty good, definitely no complaints tonight!


Also another punt spot that i'm kind of proud of, this time it worked out.
Even though if i jam this on turn i can easily end up overbluffing, since i may jam all A4/A5/AQ/AK and some other stuff, then QQ-AA/AJ to balance out, hard to say really.
Good thing about these flop is i think people call too much with 66-99 and Tx vs a cbet, so we actually have a lot of fold equity on the turn. Plus people just don't pull the trigger too often in these spots with the hands i listed as bluffs.

I tagged nearly 50 hands during this session. A lot of ICM spots from both FTs, so will need to go over them at some point even though mondays supposed to be my day off, i may have to switch up plans.

Last 2 days i've been playing pretty aggro and its turned out pretty well.
Maybe this is the era of Psycho Swann. No more folding and lots of spews

Have you ever thought of going back on your own roll but selling action on sundays ? I used to do that back in the day

Yes i have considered this, my plan is/was to get as good as i can before selfrolling, then go solo whether this be fulltime or not. Either way i'd then most likely sell action.

12/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 10
Quit regging early as i really wasn't feeling it, ended up playing quite late though still as i made F2T in the 33 big fish on 888.

13/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 11
Bricked pretty much everything unfortunately, made F2T of some 11 pko thing, but not much happened results wise outside of that.
Not overly happy with my play, although i'm making the transition to being psycho swann i think i made far too many hero calls. I think the EV of hero calling at low/mid stakes it generally pretty bad, the EV of being psycho comes from us having the aggression and applying the pressure. Still had a few decent spews though.

Spews

This is actually vs a friend of mine, he chopped the hot11 for like 3.6k today so GG to him. Although for some reason whenever he plays against me he always does a bunch of dumb ****, not sure why, but after this hand i was kind of tilted.
So when he cbets on the bigger size he lacks Tx in his range, so i can defo consider leading turn, although i felt like if i took this line he would never fold a better hand, and his range is quite strong. Once he cbet this sizing i'm pretty certain he doesn't have Tx, so at this point i feel like my hand makes a pretty nutty bluff, blocking boats as well as KQ. When i x/r turn it looks a lot more nutted, but i realise i still have to fire off river too to try to fold out Jx/overpairs. Which i thought was possible vs a competent player.
Anyways i fire river and he uses like 30s of timebank which super triggered me, i felt like i had been slowrolled, but this hand is too weak to slowroll since it can lose to some stuff, so it was basically a nitroll, as this hand is a clear snap as i can have AT/KT/QT, and i very rarely have boats since most 2p/sets would x/r flop, and may not x/r turn.
The bluff might be a bit ambitious in general, but if he tanks 30-45s with a straight then i guess i fold everything else


So villain here is like a weak/lowstakes brazilian reg. I think in theory IP is supposed to check back a lot, but these vamo regs usually just stab alot so when i see a check here i often think its very showdown heavy. Usually my plan after a check back on this kind of board is to just go pot/pot and expect a lot of folds. But on an A/K turn we can definitely do some x/r instead, and i decided on a Q he might also stab a lot, so i opted to go for a x/r as this hand makes a pretty good x/r, and i think we have good fold equity. I also had the intention of blasting off a lot of brick rivers. He can defo have some AsK/AsJ/AsT that bet/call turn and fold river, and just hands like this. And he may even fold some Qx.
Fortunately i made a straight on the river but unfortunately he turned a flush (making me dead ) after checking back NFD, which i don't think is very good. This hand is more than happy to get x/r on flop, especially since a lot of my bluffs will be worse flush draws, and worse draws in general.
General tree setup

In theory on flop it looks like villain can mix checking and betting with most of his range. The only hand that really benefits from betting is A6dd.
However this is given that i have a 26% x/r frequency inc hands like As4x, which i don't think a lot of people find in game, so we can probably cbet more as we won't get punished.

Q turn after x/x, we go really polar with our betting range and sizing as expected. T9 with a spade making one of the better bluffs (not sure why 9s overbets and Ts goes 2/3).
If OOP checks again then IP strat is a bit mixed with a range of sizes being used, but mainly 1/3. And OOP response to 33% and 66% is very different. It almost pure x/r T9 vs the smaller sizing but almost always folds vs bigger. Honestly i don't really know why this is. Although part of the reason could be that for IP flushes at some frequency use the bigger sizing, so its wants to use As/Ks as they are stronger bluffs. Also Qx often checks back or uses the smaller sizing.
In game its hard to say how villains strategy looks, i imagine he will bet Qx at a higher frequency than PIO, and can use the bigger sizing as a form of protection. Hard to draw any real conclusions, but i still think x/r turn aggressively can be good, although we can also just lead big ourselves depending on the turn card.

Seems like in theory it goes for more overbet or x/r on higher cards, then just leads more often for a smaller sizing on the middle/lower cards since these interact with our range pretty well, and don't need to go to big to max fold equity.


This was probably the only hero call that worked out ;D
Villain had been pretty tight pre so far.
I think flop is fine to x/c, can bet too. Turn i think is standard.
River is quite interesting, because villain is mainly repping 9x, i block A9, 99/T9 doesn't double barrel, and he doesn't flat Q9/J9 pre. We also unblock like KJ which i thought could triple here. We do still sometimes lost to QT and sets (we block 77), but i still thought it was worth flicking in, and it worked out.


I just spent an hour typing all that stuff up and running random sims. Although i think whilst utilising sims effectively in lower stakes mtts can be pretty difficult. I always think its interesting to understand how 2 ranges can be constructed and played out on certain boards. And seeing what parts of our range we can use the x/r and really try to understand why.
I also feel like when i know how villain SHOULD play his range, i find that when villains deviate for example with sizing, it can be easier identifying why they are, and whether this is a sign of strength or weakness.

Anyways i should get to bed, i'll save the sim so if anyone has any Qs feel free to ask i'll try to bury it back up

14/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 12
Got this nice little 2nd place to no complaints

Also had a decent run in bb44, i feel like i was really crushing today, building up a lot of stacks and whatnot.


I think my line here is really bad, but i think this is potentially a really nice bluff spot. Just bet flop+jam turn, expect to fold out a lot of villains' TT-KK. Sometimes we get snapped by AA but then we still have 3 outs.

Also made this pretty light hero call close to the money in bb44 (yes i spun it back up), but i thought villain repped **** all with this line. Pretty much just 66 and he may not flat that pre at full frequency given stack size, close to the money etc.
Villains sharkscope was blocked which means he's either a reg or slightly aware. Because of this i think calling down is kind of bad. Vs a fish i think it might be fine as i expect them to turn up with enough random QJ/KQ and still follow through with missed flush draws compared to a potential reg who won't really bluff too much here.

Anyways tomorrow is a study day, then will be back for the weekend grind. Hopefully can keep up with the decent results.

Liked a lot the post with all the pio stuff. Glgl today

Thanks mate, i don't use pio too much, but when i do i try to get the most from the sim! Hope your session went well

16/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 13
**** all happened onto the next day

17/05/20 SUNDAY SESSION
SCOOP DAY 14


Had these 2 deep-ish runs in big buy in big fields so that covered most of my buyins for the day on stars at least, which was nice considering i fired 2 bullets in the 109 main Got pounded on ipoker/888 though.

Unhappy with play
Overall i was pretty unhappy with my play, i had far too many spots where i didn't know what to do. The majority were preflop PKO spots, and after studying them all post session i made the correct decision most of the time. But i'm still not happy with this because i'm game i had no idea how i would construct my range in game (what i jam in X spot, what i'd call in Y spot), i felt very lost, it almost feels like a sign of rustiness, and not being as sharp as i usually am with my studying, drilling the preflop spots so i always have some idea of what to do.
I was also unhappy since i didn't have too many spots where i took aggro lines. I don't know if this is because the opportunities didn't come up, or that i didn't take them. Its hard to tell but i assume moreso the latter.

This is a good example, from the 109 scoop main. Vs a fish (plays quite a bit though).
I think river we should definitely jam, i think they'll lead just a bunch of random single pairs on the turn that just check river. And with A7o i had next to no showdown here and i think we can really put pressure on those random single pairs.

Anyways it feels really bad to know that i didn't play well during a session. On friday i really slacked off the studying and feel like i got punished for it, even if results weren't too bad. I really want to step it up next week now SCOOP has been extended an extra 2 weeks, i'll just make sure to turn up and have a solid routine.


I've been listening to this a bunch today, been listening to a lot of calm aesthetic music whilst grinding. And this one maybe fits my mood of feeling a bit down.
Tomorrow i'm taking a proper day off. Now restrictions for lockdown are being eased in the UK, i'm going to see a friend who i haven't seen in a couple months. Hopefully i get some nice fresh air, go on a long walk, and properly disconnect from poker for the day before coming back on the grind next week feeling refreshed.

hello mate. following your posts since the beggining. happy to see you are back crushing!

Got a question, what pool do you play ipoker on? ipoker.com or ipoker.fres? And which one you think has the softest field?

Thanks

Hey mate, thanks for the kind words!
I'm not sure what you mean by ipoker.fres, so i assume i play on ipoker.com pool. ipoker in general is super soft, lots of fish and the regs are pretty bad, although i'm somehow currently on a pretty large downswing on the site FWIW was using the betfair client but recently switched to grosvenor after microgaming ended, made the switch since stable wanted me to.

20/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 15
Skipped yday pls forgive me, been having viewings at my parents house where i am staying currently which really disrupts my flow since i have to leave my house briefly every hour or so, also forces me to start late. Its a bit of a weak excuse but i just didn't feel like grinding.
Anyways today i made a day 2!!!!

It took long enough Doubled up 2 mins away aswell which got me super pumped as i knew i was finally going to made a day 2, and felt better knowing it was with a workable stack. 25bbs but will be looking for a good spin.


This i felt like was a potential spew spot. Maybe AdQ/AdJ are slightly better. But vs a reg i still feel like i should blast off spots like this, i feel like such a pussy when i bet 1 street then give up. I was worried about him having flushes but he only has like a couple combos and if he does then good for him, we'll just get a tonne of folds when we triple this board esp multiway as it looks giga strong as i expect him to fold all his 1p by river.

Poker 'recession' and high stakes
Not sure if i've spoken about this already here but there's been a lot of talk that a poker recession is coming, and that a lot of tournaments are overlaying, and that fish are running out of money.
If you look at it, especially for scoop events, you can see that low/midstakes is still smashing guarentees and doing very well. Yes the odd mid/lowstakes event overlays but usually because of its absurd guarantee given when its running (its also mainly freezeout tourneys that are overlaying).
I think the bigger issue here, which i think has been the case for a while is that high stakes has really dried up. Most of the events that have overlayed are $500+, and even regular higher stakes tourneys are overlaying frequently too, and your average fish just doesn't have the money to play these games. And i think part of the reason for high stakes drying up is there are just so many high stakes MTTs to chose from, which kind of makes them lose their prestige.
If you think a few years ago on stars the main highstakes tourneys during the week were Super Tuesday + Thursday Thrill, the 2 big 1ks during the week that would both get 250-300 runners+ each time guaranteed (i think 1st used to be 70k-100k right?). Then outside of that there might have been a single $500 tourney per day but i'm not sure. But you look today and there are multiple 500's/1ks on stars daily, and this doesn't even include partypoker/gg who are also pushing for these higher stakes tourneys, and most of these tourneys are just 20-80 runner sicko regfests. Plus they are constantly pushing for high rollers series' meaning that 5ks/10ks/25ks are running somewhat frequently (when you used to only get a handful per year)
So because of all these games to choose from even the whales/fish will just get their money sucked out of them extremely quickly, also in the giga tough fields they'll just get chewed up and spat out even faster.
I mean there might be a case to be made that there's currently more money to be made in midstakes, although if hs reg makes 8% roi in 1k, then its more profitable longterm than 60% roi in 109, so idk.
I just think if the number of high stakes tournaments was reduced (e.g keep bb500, 1k super tues+thurs thrill, ditch rest 500+), then put more emphasis on these few high stakes tourneys (bigger prizepools, satellites, etc), then people could splash more during series. I think it would make 1ks more prestigious again and be pretty good for the longterm poker economy. Unfortunately sites are battling for market share now since stars is becoming less of a monopoly (which is for the most part great, but might not be great for this issue), and it seems unlikely that other sites would be willing to reduce its number of high stakes tourneys, as they could use this highstakes niche to get an edge over stars (like GG did originally).
Anyways this whole opinion might be dumb and very flawed, but at least thats how i see it.

Anyways i'm excited for tomorrow, should be able to have a full grind, got my day 2, and there's a few other scoop events that i'm excited to play.

21/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 16

My day 2 lasted about 30 mins ;( Wasn't too exciting a session outside of that.

Spews

Obviously have quite a few nuts in range and when BTN checks back flop multiway i think he is pretty weak, i expect him to bet strong value hands then check back a good chunk of draws. I could size up turn a bit. River i think BTN can still have a lot of better flushdraws that snapfold, i also block 86 and can put a lot of pressure on single pairs, so i think this bluff is fine. Could maybe go a bit bigger.

I think this bluff kind of sucks, i rep very thin (fold quite a few 3x pre). Flushdraws here generally make pretty bad bluffs since they block some of the snapfolds, and this one even beats some random flushdraws. Could bluff just worse hands (54, 74, 75, etc).

Unsure about this one. I defo take this line with 4x/6x/straights and villain can't really have any boats or straights. On river he can also have quite a few broadways spades that autofold. He should be betting flop a lot so when he checks back its generally showdown heavy, and trying to fold Ax maybe a bit ambitious but i thought i could get a weak reg to fold. KK checkback is meh, but dont expect him to fold this on river even though its the same strength as A high given what i rep but people can't mentally fold strong preflop hands postflop, especially when they take these 'trappy' lines.

This one i think is also fine, i very credibly rep Jx and we unblock all the flushdraws which will be most of the snapfolds. Unfortunately he trapped with AA so same as last hand he's never folding river no matter the runout

Overall i actually think all my bluffs that didn't work were fine/good, then the one that did work was kind of bad. Kind of hard to run in PIO as most of them started as multiway pots so we want to be a bit tighter with our bluffing ranges. Could maybe run the 97o hand before i go to bed.

Mental Health
Just a sidenote to say that fortunately my mental health has been a lot better these past few weeks, feeling a lot less anxiety and less worried about my situation as i know either way that i'll be fine. Also i'm happy with the standard i am playing at and my general strategy, as i feel as if i will continue to have good results, and if i don't then that is also fine, and i am coming to accept that it may be the case.
I'm always split between taking time off after scoop and to keep grinding, as i find on a lot of my days off i just want to study/do something poker related, then on some days i'm meant to grind i end up getting lazy. But now i'll put my foot down and say i'll defo take some time off after the series, i assume at least 2 weeks. During this time i really want to focus on my physical health as well as start some good routines whilst i have lots of spare time (start reading a book, consistent exercise, eat healthy), as well as just relax and fully disconnect from poker to see how i feel once i do that, as i think it will show if i'm just really burned out, lost my passion, or just needed a break (or even didn't need one)

Anyways tomorrow will be my study day, then take the evening off, then bang out the weekend and hopefully have lots of deep runs.

Ok i guess i'll type up all my findings in here.
Based off this hand:


Tree Setup:


IP Range + OOP Range
Ranges or loosely based off monker, i'm aware that OOP should probs have some AA in flatting ranges but i missed it at the time and it doesnt change too much on this board.

Flop
IP Strategy:
Rangebet for IP as kind of expected, given as it pushes a 60% equity advantage, also has nuts in A4s/55.
EV of cbetting for IP: (Red is bet, green is check, white is equal) So some hands like AA/KK/55 and STD broadways can definitely check back if they want, but A high and the rest certainly benefit a lot from betting small.
OOP response to 1/4 cbet:
I think its very rare that players would find a 32% x/r frequency here, even the good ones. So in game we could probably just cbet 100% then fold a bit tighter when we do face aggression (fold most 2 overs without BDFD, etc).

Turn
So given villain should rangebet flop, its get a bit ****y when he checks and into a weird part of the gametree, but we'll try to look into it anyways.
Broad turn strategy:
Anywhere from a 2-8 we can start leading pretty aggressively. Then more checking T+, i think this is somewhat natural, as his checking range may revolve around these high cards, and the lower cards are far more beneficial for our range.
6 OOP strat:

Using the bigger sizing mainly, 2/3 or overbet are both fine. Somewhat of a natural betting range when it comes to hand selection, a little bit surprised to see some of the Ax overbetting, although it may just target stronger Ax as it doesn't have too much showdown. Also surprised to see hands like 53/63 often going for an overbet.

6 River OOP Strat:

It seems overbet is pretty much our only size, really trying to take advantage of IPs pretty capped checking range, expected to consist of mainly showdown hands.
Was surprised to see 5x hands also all jamming, not totally sure why this is, but combined with all the bluffs this makes most Ax from IP pretty indifferent. And KK is obviously a snapcall.

Nodelocking
Nodelocking can get a bit weird, so you have to be careful with how you utilise it. I just went with giving IP a pretty high frequency check back range.

AA/55 100%, Ax 75%, broadways 25-50%. This maybe a bit exaggerated but i'm fine with that.
The only major change surprisingly was OOP flop response to 1/4:

Not sure why its x/r so much less considering a lot of the nuts are gone, but maybe its partly to do with a lot of the air/folds being taken out too.
As for the turn and river they are essentially just more exaggerated versions of the non nodelocked sim. 2/3 mainly on turn, overbet jamming river with most of range, really abusing the IP range.
Turn strategy after x/x flop in nodelock:

It just seems to no longer use overbet sizing, and pretty much just sticks with 2/3.

Takeaways

• Cbet range as IP on paired boards. Can get away with it moreso at shorter SPRs. But even as an exploit at deeper stackdepths since population will never find the x/r frequency (even though they do x/r somewhat aggro in comparison to other boards). Could check back some AA/KK as exploit traps though.
• Go crazy with x/r as OOP.
• The less IP cbets, the less OOP can x/r (this seems obvious, but applies more at deeper stackdepths)
• We can slightly overfold vs x/r as IP against population, even though these boards get somewhat attacked. Still not to the frequency that they should. Make sure to construct solid defending ranges, would rather defend KQs with BDFD than ATo.
• If IP checks back flop, go nuts on turn+river, can pot/pot, big bet/overbet jam. It puts so much pressure on a showdown heavy/capped range.

23/04/05 Session
SCOOP DAY 17

Pretty bad results wise, but have this nice sweat for tomorrow:

Also in higher buyin scoop events i kept getting coolered/bad beat in 100+bb pots it was pretty disgusting really
I was actually playing really well in the $55 afternoon deepstack (vanilla) before a huge cooler. Here's a couple fun spews from that tourney:

This was vs a brazilian low stakes reg. I guess i had a couple reads that played into me 4bet jamming here. Firstly i just think 2.5x 3bets are generally really weak, sure 10-20% of the time its AA but the majority of the time its a bluff, so i don't mind 4betting these small 3bets aggressively when i have good A/K blockers. Also the other read is population often 3bets more aggressively vs person directly on their right (BTNvsCO, HJvsLJ, even UTG+1vsUTG, but still be careful here), compared to like BTNvsMP, COvsEP which is often a lot more nutted. So in this spot i expect villain to have a lot of bluffs, ontop of the fact that he had a decently high 3b pre% overall (although sample not massive). Could defo be a punt, and T might be bad since it will block decent chunk of Txs bluffs but still went for it.


So villain i thought was a pretty tight reg. I think flop and turn are fine. On river because i think he's tight, i think i can get him to fold most of his Ax that he floats (although i guess i block A2/A6). Obviously we block boats and can check a good chunk of those boats/8x on the turn, so i felt like we could really put him in the bin, and i expected most of his 8x to bet the flop, even though its a board that favours my range far more.
He ended up max-timebanking and calling last second with 84o, which had me kind of tilted since i thought it was easy call. But upon reflection i guess he doesn't beat much. It also shows how effective this bluff can be, as when someone call with 1s left on timebank in this spot it feels like they want to fold but don't have the discipline to do it (with trips this time). Fortunately for him i was somehow bluffing, not totally sure about my bluff though.

Anyways i should rest up, i'm really excited to grind tomorrow, scoop schedule looks really juicy with lots of fun events to play, and i even have that day 2 to grind, hopefully i last longer than 20 mins

24/05/20 SUNDAY SESSION
SCOOP DAY 18

So results didn't go quite as anticipated. Busted my day 2 in like 30 mins. Then built up a few nice stacks in scoop events, including 109 PKO, but then pretty quickly it all fell to pieces. Also soft money bubbled the sunday mil which always sucks. Also i didn't feel like my play was particularly special, but after reviewing my hands there were a few interesting spots and plays.

Spews
Because imagine learning from the day before

Villain is a pretty weak reg IMO, and we've played against eachother quite a lot. I peeled turn since his bet is a bit weird as i expect a 9 to get checked back a decent amount, but it may still be a bit loose. River just felt like a sick spot to bluff again since i have all the boats and it would be super tough for him to call. Although i imagine i still beat a lot of hands. But its still super ugly for him if he has like T9s here or something.


Villain i believe is a solid higher stakes reg. Seen him in a lot of 1k+ tourneys. I think his turn lead for this size is a bit weird, i dont really know what he reps. And also this hands feels like the nut bluff, as we can pretty happily r/f, and we have GS and can bluff spade rivers. Also blocking 75 seems alright as villain might bet this sizing with this.

Good exploit spot
So this was one i learned from Pads

Generally in BBvsX spots where IP cbets and a turn comes that IP is likely to check back, this is usually when it becomes really good for OOP to develop a leading range (most commonly middle/bottom card pairing).
And i think this spot is a really good example of when we can lead. On these A/K high boards when the flush comes in on the turn, villain will often check back with top pair, so leading here can be really effective to maximise our value. Like we could go for x/r but if villain checks back top pair a lot then we end up losing some value.
Sure its tough to have bluffs in these spots, but we don't really need to be balanced at lower stakes where villains play pretty poorly and will have a tough time folding top pair. And if we desperately need bluffs for whatever reason we can defo find some with like 54 here for example.
In this specific hand villain was a brazilian lowstakes rofler, and i think showdown highlighted that.
Also i guess river sizing can be discussed, we can either go a bigger sizing that targets Jc/Tc hands, or we can size down a bit and tried to get hero called from some AK and even worse, i think either is fine.

Anyways even though the sunday session didn't turn out how i'd hoped, i still enjoyed it, so i'm not feeling too down about it. Hopefully next week we can get some deep runs and end the series strong. Also for some reason yday i put the date in my title as 23rd april 2005 xD I think i was really trolling with this one lol. Looking forward to my day off tomorrow, will probably go outside the entire day with my friend, go up to some green fields and just chill, i'll need to make sure to apply sunscreen this time since i got burnt pretty badly last week. I guess my Spanish skin is too pasty to tan nowadays ;(

26/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 19

Really frustrating session, got off to a really good start in a lot of tourneys, but as soon as i got close to the money/in the money i started to run pretty badly. So i imagine my '% of field beaten' stat is sick, but not the results to back it up.

This 5th place was my best result, could've been so much better if i didnt lose every all-in from F2T onwards
Also found myself skipping the 2 scoop events from today (109 super tues, 55 turbo pko), not 100% sure why but i just wasnt feeling it given table count and the runs i had going, and i know when i fire up the 109 it would end up consuming so much of my focus and taking that away from my big stack/deep runs.

Spew
Been having some trouble getting new grosvenor ipoker skin to work on my PT4, so heres a screenshot of my spew.

Villain is most likely a reg (sharkscope is blocked, which is rare for ipoker)
3.5x 3b pre
1/3 cbet
1/3 barrel turn
jam river
Not sure if the line is good, block nut flushes, but maybe QJ is slightly better since blocks AQ/AJ that he may not always jam. But its ***** tough for villain to call river with Ax i think. As reg will know its common for this spot to get underbluffed.

Anyways tomorrow i'll be grinding some scoop events for sure! Also won a $55 scoop ticket in a chest which is probs the best rakeback i've ever got So i'm excited to grind.

27/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 20

Unfortunately i got destroyed most of the session, so no decent results to show ;( Got a few punts though.


I think this turn jam is pretty bad. My logic at the time was that villain will barrel a lot on a Q, so he should end up having a lot of folds. However his main snapfolds are KJ/KT (which i block), and these hands may not go 2/3 on the flop. So his range should actually be quite strong here, x/c maybe better.


Vs the same villain, i dont think he's a fish. I think flop we just want to rangebet. Then my intention was to turn JJ/TT (maybe even QQ) type hands into a triple barrel bluff as we can really put a competent villain in the bin. Turn is close if we want to fire, as we then have to jam river since we unblock Kxhh which will peel turn/fold river, same with Ax. Then river is perfect to bluff jam, reduces his AQ combos, and we block AJ which will be his strongest top pair, and can still fold some KJhh/KThh/QJhh. Unfortunately he had JThh but i still really like the bluff.

Approaches to climbing stakes in poker
So i was thinking to myself the other day about how people get very good/climb the stakes in poker. And i feel like it boils down to 2 approaches:

• Study a tonne, play a bit
• Play a tonne, study a bit

So there are some guys who study like 30-40h+/week. Then others who play 1k+ MTTs per month. I think both approaches are viable, i definitely personally prefer the tonne of studying approach, but definitely seen people who make the other approach work.
A common criticism i have of people who take the high volume approach is they usually seem like not the strongest players individually, like they make quite a lot of mistakes, and clearly haven't studied certain spots. But the ones who make it work always seem to really crush, and grind out swings like champs.
I feel like i'm currently in this middle zone where i play quite a bit and study quite a bit, but definitely don't do any a tonne, and i think i'd like to change this. Certainly tried out high volume months, but haven't done a proper heavy study month, its often just consistent studying that i try to do.

Anyways as a side i felt pretty sad after a got dumpstered today, stats-wise i'm running pretty far below EV which always sucks, but theres obvs more to running bad than just stats. Still excited to grind tomorrow, i want to finish out the series strong!

Most of the hands you post as spew are not spews, are debatable lines that make some sense. I think that sharing hands where you think you made a mistake is great to improve and helps others to learn from your mistakes (or not mistakes lol).

With regards to the last bit you posted about studying/playing, I feel that if you study too much and play too little you can become a "paper champion". One thing is knowing how to play a certain spot afrer studying it on PIO/HRC, a different one is playing it when you're deep in a couple MTTs for hefty money that can affect your bankroll/liferoll. Those things are not taught on a PIO sim and can be learned only by putting in volume and "living it".

I guess it also will depend on what your goals and life situation are. If you dont have any financial pressure and are contempt living with your parents or with very little money per month you can afford to study more and grind less, whereas if you're living on your own and have to "go get it" then you'll necessarily will have to grind more than study.

In my opinion, a healthy balance between both is the best approach, intercalating periods of heavier grind (series for example) with others where you focus more on studying a bunch.
Most of the times I think the answer in life is balance, who would've thought?

Good luck to you

Thanks mate!
When i say spews i definitely think a lot of them are reasonable, but its more about me being able to pull the trigger, as i think this is what i really struggled with in the past. I think its better to naturally be a spewer than a nit, and unfortunately i think im naturally a bit of a nit.
And yeah i'd love to get back to a heavy study grind at some point, sadly i'm not really in a position to right now ;(

28/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 21

It started off really strong but definitely fell off towards the end, made a few deep runs but nothing spectacular.
Had this disappointing 6th place too.

I actually came into the FT chipleading, and i was still chipleading with 6 left. Then i got into a really nasty cooler situation QQ<AA, then with 20bbs i had another interesting spot but i can't find the HH as grosvenor client crashed and it had trouble linking back up with PT4 on relaunch. Overall i felt like my chances on FT were really good to win, but got pretty unlucky.


Here was a nice little triple barrel, although arguably somewhat standard. On river we unblock flushdraw snapfolds and block some of the stronger Kx that villains going to have, and its just generally a good spot to apply pressure since all sets/2p will raise at some point so we can kind of put villain in the bin on river.


This was an interesting hero call that i decided to make.
Think overlimping pre vs soft players is fine. Could check turn but betting is also okay, protect against some random overcards, also can get called by worse hands, mainly draws. I think turn we obviously call the x/r, but its a bit suspicious since villain should lead turn with a lot of his strong value hands, since the boards pretty wet and he wants to charge draws and get value. So x/r here on a card that i'm not expected to bet a tonne is a bit weird.
River when he fires off he just has so many whiffed draws that could x/r turn, JT/T8/86 just to stars, we also block 56/2pairs which i think is good and i cant think of many 5x bluffs that villain has so we unblock bluffs too, so i didn't mind flicking this in.
I think 62o is a bit of an ambitious bluff, but he probably just saw a small bet on the turn and decided to go nuts

Variance
After busting that FT today it was probably the first time i let variance really get to me in a bit.
So firstly, i'm running a fair bit below EV in terms of BBs this month:

this stat is obviously very hit or miss, its actually +1bb better than it was yday (was -4bb difference), which shows the volatility, changing it to pots below 150bbs lets say is probably more appropriate for MTTs:

Its not hugely important, but its easy to skew this stat when you enter every tourney lvl 1 and just wait for nuts to stack fish.
ANYWAYS i feel like this kind of just shows that i'm somewhat consistently not winning as many chips as i should, making it slightly tougher to build/maintain stacks.
And i think the reason the variance is really getting to me is because ontop of this i feel as if on an individual basis i've also ran pretty badly on most FTs that i've made (besides BF33 where i came 3rd, and 16.50PKO where i won the other month, hitting 2 outers in both of these). This is usually just losing the first flip i get into, but also just getting coolered like today or getting 2 outered which has happened a fair few times.

So the combo of struggling to build stacks in terms of chips, then when i do finally make FTs i run sub par there too, it then makes it feel very difficult to win. I feel like i'm trying to make the appropriate adjustments to improve, i think the aggression is a good step. And i still try my best to work on my game since i dont want to use this poor variance as a crutch. Although sometimes it does feel like there truely nothing i can do to affect my results, and i'm just trying to grind out the variance (which isn't working quite yet). Fortunately i have a pretty sick network of people around me, who give me confidence in myself and my game, so i know i definitely can turn it around (i feel like i've been saying this since i started the blog )

I can't lie i'm quite excited to just finish up the series and start experimenting with this 'low variance' schedule that they have. There's quite a few cool games that i want to try out on a daily basis, and it will be interesting to see how it do. Maybe i am sick crusher who was just running bad, maybe i am arrogant idiot who thinks he's a lot better than he is
And that's not to say SCOOP hasn't been fun, it felt a bit less special than from other years mainly since i was grinding from home, and wasn't sweating it with other people quite the same, but i still really enjoyed a lot of the events.
Just now i am ready to move on, and try out a new schedule. I plan to take 2 weeks off but i may end up reducing this based on how bored i get. I also just want to grind my way out of this makeup, which may take a couple months, but i want to get the ball rolling before i run out of real life funds.

Before the next step though i've got a nice study/relax day tomorrow. Then grinding out a final scoop weekend, hopefully its a mad one. One can only dream

30/05/20 Session
SCOOP DAY 22

Started off strong but couldn't quite convert
FTd the takedown for like the third time in a week, another 5th place though sadly


Anyway going to keep this very short as i want to turn all my focus to tomorrow, will be a huge grind to round out the series. Hopefully it goes well!

Anyways here's a song i've been listening to a bunch. Got to rep the home city! My friends used to play this all the time, but for some reason i've only really got into it recently.