It's a damn shame that Bovada disallows poker software and player identification (nevermind playing more than 4 tables at a time); the play there is atrocious...like way worse than I've seen anywhere else. If only the volume was a bit better and poker software was allowed. I think I could play 10-20 $20 tournaments a day and eeeeaaaasily hit my mark.

Being American I don't play on Stars any longer, but do read others writing about the huge changes even over the past 2 years in terms of increased avg player ability, even at the lower limits. I'd rather not try and swim shark infested waters, but with little other choice that would offer the volume needs I guess Stars is where I would call home (hypothetically).

Truth be told, the wife is Colombian and we might be going south of the border. I was contemplating doing the poker thing immediately after the potential move to keep us afloat. Side note: I've been travelling back and forth from Bogota for a few years now, and the cost of living is LOL low there. I could probably live as comfortably on $15k/year in Bogota as I could live on $45k here. Would drastically change my needs as far as $$$ is concerned.

The minimum wage in country I live in is ~$2500/year so I get where you're coming from

Forget calculating how many tourneys you need to play and just play to get better, it will solve itself.

focusing on volume is totally non sense even if you play mtt fulltime. I've been playing mtt full time since 2010 and i played 15,356 scheduled mtt as of today according to sharkscope. So it's far less to most of you regs's suggesting 10k games/year minimum . Yes I only average 4k games a year for the past 3 and half years or so but my biggest downswing is only 35k ish with a ABI of 85.(It was much higher pre BF but dropped dramatically post PF) [IMG][/IMG]
Stars:shumeilove and FTP:nickyluvshu
btw I've shipped 160k and 100k score live Last year's Feb and this March.(in macau and Korea,seldom play live poker outside of Asia as I hate travelling so much)
In the end , the key to be successful in HSMTT is to Game select well. I do believe nowadays anyone who plays fulltime poker should have a solid BRM and this shouldn't be an issue any more compared to couple years ago when I first started. And in the worst case u can still get a backing deal if u can't manage your own money well. (oh well...I don't know how backing works as i never get backed in my whole life but many of my frds are ,it seems easy for even a BE player to get a deal somehow)
I mean playing less volume and put in more A+ games is obv much more important than playing more volume but playing C games all the time. Really feel pathetic for those no brain regs like urdeadlol who play 20k games a year while only have single digit roi ,it's just simply lol.
obv the downside of play low volume is that when u r in a downswing it often lasts for a long period of time. like I m breakeven online this year so far after putting in 2k games or so (but binked 100k live this March , XD) , but so what, I know i was simply running bad but not playing bad , and i would just tell myself if those idiot regs get the cards I was getting they would be -80k instead of breakeven and I make sure whenever I start a session I can put in A+ games otherwise I rather just do something else instead burning money in front of the computer . MTT is more like a all around competition where the competition is not only limited at the tables but also mentally, physically and many many more outside the tables.

That's cute but I was asking if tonkaaaa stutters. Hehe. Gl out there sir

Nice brag shumelove, no one is talking about highstakes tho. Op is talking about low to midstakes and volume is far more important there, along with improving of course. Oh yea, its pretty unlikely that you're running bad when you bink two 6 fig livescores.

He prob was due for 3 live 6 fig scores bro. When you're due your due.

There is absolutely no way to eliminate the potential for a 2-month downswing in MTTs or SNGs. There are ways to make them significantly less likely, but there's nothing you can ever do to be sure you're not going to hit a big downswing. Like someone else has already said, just play as much as you can while still playing your best poker, and let the rest take care of itself.

dude, im kinda getting sick of these volume stuff. cos of the variance? there's no such thing u should be scared of if u apply proper BRM and game select well. if ur abi is 20, don't even try to think about playing hot5,5/hot11/hot16.5 to increase that pathetic volume cos that won't help u reduce the variance by any means . by contrast , u should be focusing on how to max your roi in big22 because it's much easier of a task to achieve.
alot of you guys out there says 40 games/day(or w/e 10k games/year) is easy to complete is because u play too many turbos/super turbos while not even knowing how much EV u sacrafised in normal mtts.
Game select and apply proper BRM should always be the no.1 n 2 priority in mtts. if u take out my top 3 biggest scores online (192k,69k and 31k) , im still up 300k+ ,not like most regs if u take out their top3 biggest scores they would barely break even or even become a losing player. because they don't game select well, as simple as that,they can be trying so hard to figure out a way to increase their roi by 1% in daily 320 6max while don't give a **** about big22 while not even knowing big22 should earn them more money in the long run than daily 320 6max.
for the run bad part rowniwn, for the last 3 sundays I played . I lost TT to A6 on 226 for the CL 10 left in sunday big109 with 55k(or 45k w/e) UT ,27 left in SWU, i lost KK to AK aipf for the CL with 100k ut and last sunday I busted 11th in kick off when I 3b jam KT into QQ 5 handed where the guy is opening close to 100% in that spot. how much EV u think i lost in these 3 hands alone? so stop bitching about my live donkment bink, what goes around comes around right?

lol CSB. u shouldn't write stuff like that in the same thread as u posted that graph.

Not that I need to look at that graph to see u've ran great during your entire career that shows just by reading your posts itt, u write like a true rungood wizard.

Just wanted to say, but your obviously a very good player and do alot of things right so well done.

I actually agree with parker

I knew it online poker is rigged I'm gonna just play live for now and bunk 6 fig scores.

I mean I guess volume is good for the low/midstake guy trying to build a bankroll, but 15+ tabling isn't a way to play good or improve.....think these guys should cut out high variance stuff(super turbos/poorly structured turbos/massive fields thats above their ABI) and play lower variance/less tables/work on improving...I mean if your end goal is to play HSMTT(which it should be if ur playing MTTs) mass tabling isn't a good route to take.

ding ding ding

Btw, this guy makes some really good points. If 90% of mid/low stakes regs
listened to his advice they'd have more money.

holy **** that is sick dude. like seriously sick...

also i dunno about you mang but your lifetime results seems to be close to my 2012-onward **** volume though, that ****s overrated

parker

isnt the most important thing your hourly? which u can improve in many different ways (more volume, playing better, gameselection, 30- instead of 20- table and so on)

and OP plz stay in college if u consider abandoning ur RL career for 40k$/yr in poker and live in a first world country (also it sounds like u couldnt handle the grind/poker well)

i wouldnt play poker for a living if id make <60k$ (<100k personally) for sure, there are just so many longterm disadvantages and ure prolly much better of focussing on a real career OP instead of chasing the dream (esp when ure US based)

also agree w the 10kgames/yr thing parker mentioned, doesnt apply to HS regs obv (like nickyluvshu)

Confirmed

thats a really cool story. this thread is not about you tho. its about some guy who wants to grind low to midstakes. and i think i know a thing or to about grinding those without a lot of swings.

btw i wasnt bitching, so why are you so mad?


and yea, like parker already said, that 10k games part applies to low to midstakes, nevertheless great rant


ding ding ding

Bunch of communists itt

If Nickyluvshu was a low stakes grinder:



[ ] volume
[x] game select
[x] improve game

I think that game selection and improving your game is more important compared to volume. Like many have already said, getting to HSMTT's should be the end plan. Everything you do to get there should be considered to be an investment.

It's much better to play 3K games while drastically improving in skill, rather than playing 10K games mindlessly, making more money but being stuck at low/mids forever. I guess both arn't necessarily mutually exclusive, but mass tabling does stunt growth as a player.

lol, just lol.

I know it's a difficult concept, but why not just play as much volume as you can given your restraints as to how many tables you can play and how many hours you can focus. If that means its only a couple thousand of tournaments or 15 thousand, so be it. As long as you are getting better and working your way up the stakes nothing else is super important.