Gl for the series. Really enjoy the updates and hands you put. Any reasons not playing gg spring fest ? For what I have noticed they have 3x of what stars gtd are.

Glad to see you took down the €50 pko last night, congrats!

We did a fair bit of battling last night, I took down the €20 PKO and FTd the €30 PKO.

Best of luck for SCOOP man.

Nice scores swann

Lets hope you smash the series glglglg

Hey, thanks! Well just with the high nature of scoop/ggsf i decided it would be best to only play 1. I choose scoop because i find it to be more prestigious, and i have more of a sentimental feeling towards it as its always been one of my poker goals to win a scoop event. Also i don't think its the case for series games that GG is 3x bigger, maybe for regular schedule games though.
Thanks! Nice work, we certainly have gone to battle a fair bit, always fun playing friends, brings a bit of a levelling war to spots
Thanks mate, maybe one time i don't bomb off everything

04/04/21 Session


A nice little double bink on sky for a solid day overall. Finally out of my sky downswing too

SCOOP jeopardy
Unfortunately my plans for scoop have been put on hold since when i tried to register today i found out that restrictions had been placed on my account.
So i went to check my emails and i had received this:

So this is from when i was playing some blackjack with a real life friend of mine, and i was just trolling in the chat and put the phrase "hello i am ready to lose my mortgage", the virtual dealer i guess reported this and stars now have to do a check to make sure im not an addicted degen.
Ffs i don't even like blackjack.
Obviously my comment was pretty dumb, but i wasn't expecting this to happen, they could literally do a background check on my account and see that i never deposit or play casino games. But whatever i understand why they did it. You can see i got this email a week ago, so i shouldve checked my emails sooner, but i logged into stars multiple times and got 0 notifications, it was only when i registered for a tournament that i got the pop up which is really annoying.
It was always a big worry for me having my account frozen/restricted during a big series since i put so much planning towards them, and given how long stars can sometimes take with customer support this is starting to look like a reality. Also annoying because i've already sold quite a bit of action for scoop events so if i can't get this issue resolved in the next couple of days i'm going to have to sort something out.
So if there's anyone with links to stars who can help me out pls pls do so, i'd be very grateful

Quick update
Basically stars still haven't lifted the restrictions off my account, even though when I msg'd support on twitter I was told I was put on high priority. The biggest issue i face is i don't know when/if the restrictions will be lifted and i could essentially miss the entire scoop series which really blows.
To be honest I'm just really not motivated at all to grind without scoop, so the last few days i've just kind of been lounging around, playing a lot of cod4 pc and essentially waiting for my stars account to get restrictions lifted. I get that this isn't the best response from me, but to be honest i've just been feeling really down and don't know what to do, i had literally planned for this moment for the last 3 months and now i can't do it. It's just really disappointing, and i know if restrictions got lifted tomorrow i'd be back on the grind and going hard.

I guess the easiest analogy to make, is imagine your studying for exams for a few months and at the end your promised to go on a nice holiday, then after you do your exams you find out you can't go on holiday because your passport has expired or something (or covid19 has struck, whatever reason), but by the time you get the issue resolved its likely that the summer holidays have passed and you can no longer go on holiday (new year starts lets say). You're obviously going to feel really bummed out because you've worked really hard for that reward, and you then question why did you do it (obvious answer is to better your future, or in my poker case to make me a better player), its just very demotivating.

Also the obvious response is why don't i just play GGSF? To be totally honest i have very little interest in the GG series, in my mind it has 0 prestige, when i got into poker 5 years ago one of my goals wasn't to win a GGSF event, it was to win a SCOOP/WCOOP title. GGSF just feels like another run of the mill series, i would rather just play my normal schedule. People say its bigger than scoop but thats because its buyins on avg are 2x as big, with a tonne of 5ks, 10k, and 25ks, and a lot less 5.50, 11, 22s, which i would play. GG is also getting smashed in entry numbers, so i really don't think its a bigger series, and even if it was, it wouldn't matter that much to me.

I dont know, just a shitty situation where i don't really know what to do. And it sucks to just feel like im waiting for an outcome which could arrive tomorrow or in a month. I'll just have to sit tight i guess.

At least you won't lose your mortgage, though.

What about... ehmm, playing poker?

Following up with your analogy of the exams, if you were not able to go on holiday after, would you just say f*ck it and dont show up for the tests and fail the year? I guess the answer is no, you would still show up and do the best you possibly can because that's what you're supposed to do. This is no different: you're a professional poker player, then do what professional poker players do and show up and play poker.

Same goes for any other career, if you were a plumber or a waiter or an engineer and your holidays were cancelled, would you just stay at home and feel sorry for yourself? or you would still show up and do your job?

I know that without the glory of winning that magic SCOOP bracelet and inscribing your name in the pages of poker history you'll be less motivated, but as everyone knows games are the best during the series and there's plenty of value everywhere.

In my opinion your approach to all this is very unprofessional. I'm sorry if I sound as a d*ckhead with my words but I rather be honest and straightforward instead of patting you in the back and saying: "Sorry bro, your situation is terrible, such a shame you cant pursue that SCOOP glory, go play COD instead and feel sorry for yourself".

That was good.

But in all seriousness, that really sucks Swann, I feel for you. I would do your best tho to not focus on it; it's just completely out of your control. **** happens. Per your analogy, you've prepared for the exam none the less, make the most of it. GG or not, games should be good with the all the series going on... move on and capitalize on the games you can actually play. Hope for the best expect the worst... Like you said, you've even considered in the past the possibility of something like this happening. Whatever you do, for ****s sake don't dwell on it, do work. This is that emotional side of your brain that the sooner you beat into submission the easier your profession becomes. It's tough to be that callous at your age but that's the direction you need to move in. I hope they get it resolved for you soon.

I'd say this is a pretty reasonable response. I think in terms of professionalism my response is definitely what you shouldn't do. I was just using scoop as a motivator to grind a lot during this month, and I'm never going to force myself to grind if i don't want to, and that's just how i was feeling. In all fairness i probably shouldn't always post how i feel to my blog, especially in the moment of feeling said emotions it will lead to some irrationality. So yeah your response certainly isn't dickish in any way, just honest and you're right for saying what you said.

On the note of your response to my hypothetical, i definitely think if i spent a lot period of time working towards something, and didn't feel like i got any kind of reward at the end, i would personally find it very difficult to stay as motivated doing the same task again, as i would feel kind of let down. Now this could most likely be a floor with me, but that's how i'd feel.
Also with your work example, the main reason you'd go into a job is because you have to, or you get fired. So if your work cancel your holidays, you obviously can't take that week off. But if your work didn't cancel your holiday and it was something else, then you just plan something else (which i could've done). So the difference between a normal job and poker is if i take an unscheduled week off poker, nothing happens in the short term, unlike getting fired. But in poker its the longterm that gets really effected, and that's what makes it very difficult at times.
Your example did remind me though of when i worked as a waiter, i didn't take a day off for the first 6 months i was working there, then one day i called in sick and my boss literally just said 'no' and that i had to come in. Luckily i found someone to cover my shift, but that was the day i decided i was going to quit (obvs handed in notice). Like i understand why that was his response, but i just thought it was really bullshit, and with other things going on at the time i just didn't really want to do that job anymore.

Yeah i mean you're totally right, to put it bluntly i was just being a bit of a ***** and feeling sorry for myself, instead of taking advantage of soft games. Obviously i spend the time improving at the game, and the only way i can take advantage of that is by putting in the volume, whether that's with or without a series. So yeah i should definitely have taken a different approach, my mistake.

SCOOP is back
Just thought i'd quickly add that i got an email through this morning saying that restrictions have been lifted off my stars account.
Obviously a bit embarrassing given that emo response i had yesterday, but to be honest i'm just glad that i can play scoop again, and i'm ready to put in the volume and hopefully have a fun series

08/04/21 SCOOP DAY 1 (FINALLY)
Bad news is i bombed all my scoop events

2nd

6th

6th
Good news is i'm up a bit on the day due to the triple FT
Main sweat had a reg make a terrible icm call so i ended up flipping for infinites and losing, otherwise i probably would've secured top 3, but hey ho. Not a terrible day overall.

I had 1 hand that really bothered me though, obviously from my biggest buyin, $215 PKO

I think a lot of this hand is decided on how often villain has TT, making it either a cooler or a bit of a punt.
Given his 3b stat wasn't super high, its fair to assume that he'll be flatting TT here pre at a decent freq, therefore making postflop a bit punty, I'll run it by some coaches though.

Song

Been listening to this song alooot today, only just got around to listening to dutchavellis album from 2020.
Although i understand now it maybe a little controversial to promote his music :S the song just slaps too hard.
Also Central Cees new album is the ****ing nuts. Its good that there are starting to be some really good drill albums released.

Booya glgl

GL on SCOOP this weekend! Tons of great events happening! I'm hoping to satty into a couple myself lol

Thanks mate!
Good luck mate, hope it went well!

SCOOP day 2+3 (10/04, 11/04) update
I got demolished, down about £2.1k on the weekend. Its slowly starting to set in that SCOOP might be pricey, but i am ready for that

Got lots of interesting hands though, some i thought i played well, and some i thought i played very badly.

Hand
Example of a bad one:

Preflop is fine, would jam weaker Axo
Flop is interesting, without getting into theory villains sizing is very strong/polar. And generally in spots where we will either be flipping or very far behind it's not going to be great to get it in. I imagine this sizing is Tx+ or some kind of flushdraw.
Pre sim thoughts: I think jamming flop even vs smaller sizing is really bad. The problem with this hand is its hard to get it in vs weaker hands (k7 probably check flop, 87/98 i guess should b/c. Also when blocking NFDs i think we much prefer to just play call/call, whereas if we didnt block NFD then we could get it in vs more hands that we're ahead of.
Sim
IP flop strat

interesting to see that even at 2 SPR bigger flop sizings are being used, wasn't really expecting that. But i guess there just aren't many folds for OOP vs small sizing.
OOP response

There's actually a lot to cover here. But firstly its kind of expected that most of the raising range for value is Tx, but there's also the pair+gs, which i'll get into later.
There is some weird PIO **** though, like nut flush draws are mainly calling, then getting in club draws without gutshot (K4cc,J5cc), but also some J9cc/Q8cc. Essentially club draws that can't call a x/j turn. As part of it that IP doesn't actually cbet a lot of club draws.

This means that IP's betting range is very very polar, so if you have K8cc you don't gain much from folding K4ss.
In game given people will have a much more equity driven range (lots more fds), i think the EV of getting in stronger flush draws goes up significantly.
Also to touch on my specific combo (Ac7x), it blocks the Ac9, Ac8 hands that would b/c, whereas a hand like 87 doesn't block that as much and dominates it.
Also very interesting that A7 just plays as a x/c flop, then just x/f on most turns, or is indifferent.

Pair+gutshot
Interesting little concept i've picked up on, is in PIO, with around 2SPR, pair+gutshot essentially becomes the nuts and is always getting it in.
This applies to 3bet pots as well as SRP. And i haven't found many situations so far where this isn't the case. I might look into where the threshold is in terms of SPR, as it might be fine for 3 and even 4 SPR, but i'm not sure. But certainly for 2-3 SPR and below, pair+GS very very strong! Will always have good equity.

and that ontop of fold equity (and getting it in vs dominated hands) doesn't seem like the worst thing.


Anyways today definitely felt like a bit of a wake up call, had a lot of spots that i played kind of bad, and want to make sure that next week i'm playing well, although its probably a little bit late.

13/04/21 SCOOP day 4
I'm going to be honest boys, it's not going too well. Today was probably my biggest losing day ever, lost about £1.4k/$2k. Fired 2 bullets in my biggest buyin ($215) after a really disgusting cooler in first level, and that pretty much set up my day. That means i'm down about £3.5k over my last 3 sessions, which is pretty brutal, but given my ABI is around £50, an 100BI downswing from time to time is expected, just brutal the speed at which this one is happening, pretty much bricked all buyins for almost 3 sessions.

As for play, i think i'm overall playing fine. Just running really far below EV for the past couple of sessions, so definitely just going to continue as i am. Although today my mental went a bit boom during session, with the frequency of horrific beats i was getting, it was a combo of people getting in really bad hands for infinite (e.g 100bbs with T9s) and then winning every single time that eventually set me off a bit. So defo some mental stuff to work on for next session.

And whilst i think my play is overall fine, definitely a lot of spots where i feel like i'm not getting enough value with my really strong hands (flopped nuts mainly). And just trying to transition my play from more EV oriented than equity oriented sometimes gets my head in a bit of a pickle, since the way i think about the game now is very very different, but still make a loot of mistakes.

Downswings during SCOOP
It's very easy to delude yourself during a big series, when you look on twitch, or on your twitter feed to see and feel that everyone is winning besides you. So it can be really nice to have a group of people around you, as you'll quickly realise that this isn't true, and many others are of brutal swings and not having the success too.
Now i'm selfrolled i'm not connected to as many people i definitely get this isolated feeling sometimes after a few tough days, but its not as bad as in the past.
So to those people who are having a rough start to the series and feel like they're the only ones, you're not Also the series doesn't end to the final MTT, and all it takes is 1 MTT to turn it all around.

Yeah variance must be brutal for SCOOP. High buyins and huge fields can result in some pretty sick downswings. The people you see on twitch are the one's who have been sunrunning in these fields (ofc they have skill as well, but they are winning flips)

Best of luck in the next 2 weeks of SCOOP, plenty of time and hope you can make some deep runs!

Yeah of course mate its no sweat, i've tried to mentally prep for downswing, so i'm not too worried! But this is the reason i didn't want to grind GGSF and SCOOP simultaneously, because the variance is a bit insane.

14/04/21 and 15/04/21 Sessions SCOOP day 5+6
Wednesday was okay, had a couple decent cashed but nothing of note

Today i finally had some decent runs in scoop events:

Given the big fields they are pretty decent runs, was fun to have them ongoing simultaneously. Other than that i'm down heaps again ;(
215 6max i built up a fat stack early, but got bad beat in a really big pot, could've had a really good run if i held but oh well. Just annoying as i just feel like i'm running kinda bad in those higher buyins (and in general) which doesn't help, i think my play is fine.

5 losing sessions in a row now, which i'm not used too nowadays, but i was defo due a downswing at some point

There are 2 things with my game that i'm not super happy with. 1, attacking pots in general but specifically small cbets (especially BBvsLP), 2, x/r turns for value and bluffs, i got into this really static and bad mindset where i wont x/r turns with value because i know i dont have bluffs, which is obviously really dumb since no one else knows that, and if people overfold then i should just start bluffing a lot, so yeah.
Good example here:

Like i'm sat here in game thinking low spr i can just trap since villain will just stack off most hands on river anyway, but on double fd board i should just always jam as he will call a lot lighter. And i have the nuts unblocking 2ps. Got hardpunished by him checking 2p on the river, so i learned the hard way which i think is good.
But this is an example of me trying to be an 'EV player' and evidently just making big mistakes and not maximising my EV (yes the irony).

Song

The original drake version i really like too. Honestly such a good instrumental i am a big fan.

Congrats on the deep runs! Making it to the top 1% of the field is amazing!

I don't play anywhere near your stakes for MTTs, but I'm starting to transition over from cash to MTT's.

I think for hand you attached, we should x/jam turn. There aren't many good river cards that are both safe for us and villain that will cause villain to triple barrel, besides like a 2d or something. If the board pairs or heart or club comes out, I don't think we can fold a straight to a half pot sizing. Or if they don't have a flush they'll just check back basically everything because they'll have just a half-pot size bet left and they have too little fold equity.

V's UTG open range should consist tons of high suited broadways, and you unblock the relavent ones. The turn size is very polarizing, and if V has any 2 pair, set they have to call because you're giving them 3:1 on a draw heavy board. FD's and FD+gutters could even call. I think you can balance the x/jam range with something like J8hh, A9hh, etc.

Just my 2 cents, but take it with a grain of salt, as I play ABI of ~$10 right now lol

I mean you're totally right, not raising turn was a really big mistake from my part.

17/04/21 Session SCOOP day 7
Been getting brutalised again unfortunately, was 1h off a day 2 in this one ;(

I actually thought i played really well today, had a lot of really interesting spots, just kind of annoying that i'm still running kind of bad.
Will just put runbad to the side and focus on tomorrows session, then if i get clapped again i'll have a proper analysis to see if anythings going wrong, as getting stomped for 7 sessions in a row is very unusual, but i'm actually more confident in my play now compared to a week ago.

Having seven losing sessions in a row (and more too) is probably a thing when playing massive SCOOP fields and firing 109s, 215s, etc.

My bad, I misread the original post and thought you wanted feedback, sorry lol

Yeah for sure, guess i'm not used to it after sunrunning the low variance schedule

18/04/21 Session SCOOP day 8
Bricked the lot again unfortunately but we got a sweat for tomorrow!

Its like 80k up top, so hopefully i can make a deep run! Just need to make sure that i don't play like a pussy and take all good spots.

Hand
Overall i thought i played pretty good today, but there was 1 spot that i thought i made a big mistake.

However the more i look into it, the more i like my bluff. In game i just thought he's going to have 2 pair a lot of the river, and he might even make some loose calls with QJ/QT type hands, so we don't get that many folds.
But now i think i like it more, ONLY because its against CO open, so he can have a lot of weak Kx that folds by river. I think this bluff sucks against an earlier position open.
1 other thing is i think my flop cbet is meh. The interesting think with A9, is CO doesnt fold AQ-AT, but then does fold A8-A3, so it doesn't really achieve that much, so if there's any A i should check i think its this, then bet the lower ones more.
Also i know flop is multiway but BB is dead money in my eyes
Obviously got to run a little sim.
IP betting strat:

OOP mixes some bigger betting, but mainly checking. Once IP is checked to you can see that A9 does some betting, but it bets at higher freq with the lower Ax for reasons that i stated prior. In game i think pop will be much more equity driven and bet most Kx, QT type hands then check more often with 33-55, 76s/65s, 97s.
OOP response vs b30:

You can see that some A7s-A9s actually float vs bet. But overall a clear block of folds from Axo, std connectors and some Qx. More just posted so you can visualise turn.
T turn IP strat:

Can see our A9/A8 type hands give up on turn and again we opt for the weaker Ax, and theres a VERY good reason for this.
OOP response vs b70:

BLOCKING FOLDS. J9o is literally the only offsuit fold, but it makes up a big part of the combos, so its really important that we don't block folds. Also J6s-J9s is v important not to block. Plus those weaker Ax fold out the dominating bigger Ax like A6-A9. Also very interesting to note that Kx should start folding turn here without fd. Because of this we want to be careful on rivers as villains range will be very strong. If in game we think pop calls too much Kx on turn, then we can obviously bluff a bit more on river.
8 IP river strat:

Interesting to note that weaker Ax mainly gives up, and 33-55, 65s/76s are used as bluffs. The reason is very similar to turn.
OOP river response vs jam:

OOP is folding AJo/ATo, this is massive! And its really important for IP to unblock these hands, hence why it chooses the unintuitive bluffs, as they have really good unblocking properties.
Also want to note that these 33-55 bluffs are really effective because on turn they fold out better PPs and river they do a really good job of unblocking folds.
Takeaways:

• Unintuitive flop strategy for IP. Checking quite a lot of top pairs, betting weaker Ax, 65s, 33-55 type hands.
• Unblock folds with bluffs!! applies to turns and rivers. Especially important on rivers where we want to be quite selective with bluffs.
• On boards with 3 BW, top pair/weak kicker is quite weak and will often have to fold or take passive lines. This is moreso the case vs condensed ranges (not vs BB basically )

Tilt/Rage
Not gonna lie i literally exploded part way through the session. Usually bad beats don't set me off, its more when someone makes a bad play and i lose as a result of that. Obviously the rational response is I want people to make bad plays, as that makes me money, but i'm not exactly being rational when i'm tilted. Also i'm sure most MTT grinders will know, every so often you have this 20-30min period where all the sick beats and **** you get in a session come in this 1 block, and its a real test of mental fortitude, unfortunately today i lost the mental game really really hard.
I know the moment it happened, i just took a sick beat in the 530, then 1 min later i played this hand against another reg, not gonna show his name because i know who he is, and cba with potential drama:

I mean its clearly a cooler, and i definitely should've sized up flop/turn myself so i hardly played it well. But villains preflop/flop line is so bad, and shows such a lack of understanding of the game. So in game i'm thinking i have the literal nuts, as sets i don't expect to lead flop and given my reads on this player might even 3bet flop, and 86 might not even raise turn. so i exploded once i saw this at showdown. If he just 3bets pre and fires off it wouldn't bother me anywhere near as much. But hey ho good for him, he certainly played a big pot with big hand.
So if you want to tilt me, just take a really bad line and stack me somehow, op strats.

Obviously i don't like tilting to this extent, more than anything it just makes me a shitty person to be around, and from past experiences i know how it makes other people feel, and that makes me feel really really bad. But i can't help it.
I've been like this for the longest time, and i tried to figure out why. I don't think its because of the money, but that might be bs because obviously a sick beat in 530 will bother me more than 5.50, same with a terrible play. However after the session i'm not really bothered by the financial loss i've taken, especially now that my roll is really beefy and i know i can afford the loss (unlike at times in the past). I think its mainly that i ****ing hate losing, more than anything, since i've been this way well before poker, in my tennis days i broke multiple rackets, in my xbox days i broke controllers, in my LoL days i broke mice/keyboards, and even when i played microstakes i broke a monitor. Obviously if you hate losing, then poker is not the best game to play, but saying that i can still hate losing, i just need to find a different way to channel it.
As for how i'm going to try and improve/sort this out, i'm not going to go to a mental game coach. I've had mental game coaches in the past, i think they're very good, but my issues are much deeper rooted and i don't think they have to appropriate knowledge required to help me to the extent i need. I actually decided a while ago, that once i move out of where i am currently (middle of nowhere) and into a city (should be soon), i'm going to hire a therapist, or something like this, and just start working with them to figure out what's going on, and start to work on it, as it'll definitely be a long process. Also it seems kind of wild to be that even more expensive therapists are cheaper than a lot of mental game coaches.
The only thing that slightly worries me, is i feel like my motivation is sourced from a similar place to the tilt/rage, which is hating losing, i try to be as good as possible so i dont lose. Evidence of this is i hop into the lab much quicker after a losing session than a winning one. So i worry that if i take that emotion out then i'll just become a bit bland and not really care at all, which can be bad. But maybe this is just dumb, i'll find out.

20/04/21 Session SCOOP day 9
I bricked that day 2 after about 50 mins.
I also misclicked a 530 turbo pko.

but luckily i had a bit of a sunrun in it, finally had a winning session during scoop, even if it was only a little win.
Sadly missed out on a day 2 by about 10 mins

Deciding whether to grind the badugi tourney tomorrow, as i am a bit of a badugi beast. I want it to become my secondary game

Song

21/04/21 Session SCOOP day 10
Got kind of buried again, but i mincashed the $11 badugi!!!
On a serious note the fact that an $11 tourney drained like 50% of my focus whilst 10-12 tabling is a massive L, so i probably won't play mixed games on the side anymore
Although i do want to become a really good badugi player, just to have it as my weird side hustle as an MTT player. Also if i learn it to a high level i will be able to play it much easier whilst multitabling as i don't have to think super hard about every decision.

Labelling Regs
I've decided from now on that i'm just going to note regs by 2 factors:

1. River bluffers
2. Not river bluffers

I think this will just make my decisions a lot easier, especially since river is where you can gain/lose the most EV. And there are just a tonne of regs who aren't river bluffers. Generally non-river bluffers are just tighter players, and river bluffers are looser players (i know).
Can't lie I enjoy playing against loose players far more than tight players. Probably best i don't get into why too much, as i may give away too much, but warring with aggro regs is just a lot more fun, having a 3bet pot K8s vs J7s is much more fun than AK vs JJ every time. Its just very boring knowing you have to cooler someone to get their stack.

Really liked that PIO analysis on the A9 hand, thanks for sharing.

With regards to river bluffers and not river bluffer tags, that can be hard to implement since we need a massive sample for river play and we'll be at risk of overadjusting or making skewed assumptions if our sample is small.

I've been looking into some other formats myself as well, but studying or playing anything that is not NLHE feels like a waste of my time/energy and I feel like I can invest those hours and brain cells into perfecting my NLHE that after all is what pays the bills . So I should study other variants on my "off time" and for that I'd rather do something completely different to poker to disconnect like hang out with friends, workout, watch a movie, etc. But if I ever want to win a WSOP bracelet my chances will be higher playing another variant lol

grunching

you seem down to earth so i'll be along for the ride glgl