So I thought that I would post a goal and try to get myself a little more involved and hopefully actually get some more development out of my volume.
CLIFFS: Get in 1000 HYHUSNGs during the golden SNG promotion on Stars, Bink a golden SNG, maintain a >3% EV ROI.
A little about me
I think that I joined the forum in February when I stumbled across it while looking for HYHUSNG information. I started to focus on these games this year and after finding Mersenneary’s ebook I have managed to plug a lot of leaks and correct a lot of misconceptions that I had about Hyper HUSNGs. After reading the book about four or five times things started to soak in and making sense and I have had some pretty good success since then. Below is my graph for all my games at the $7s, anything higher I am about breakeven but I usually play higher when on mobile and do not have the HH (sorry guys for not rematching :p )
I have been a pretty strapped for cash until after June so I have been grinding out the $7 level. This is probably a good thing because I am able to put in volume against weaker players and still work on my game and improve before I move up. I have managed a pretty good return but I really need to start to play more games. To be honest I have been busy outside of poker so I am not beating up myself over the volume but I really want to make sure that I make the most out of this promotion and get in some serious volume (for a newb like me). Since February 10th (when I started actually working on my game and putting in work) I have had some pretty good success at the small stakes games. Below is my graph and you will notice that I actually have not put in a lot of volume in any particular month. I actually typically have some soft tournaments up while I grind the HUSNGs however with the promotion I am going full out any trying to get in ~2500 games this month (I leave for Vegas June 25 so month ends then). I am also moving out of my house the weekend of the 22nd so it’s not going to be a breeze to get games in (and I am not 100% sure where I will be playing this weekend).
As you can see in the graph I have been working though a lot of variance this month, and by posting this challenge I am hoping to ensure that I push through the variance and get in the volume and maximize the value from this promotion. I mean aren’t a lot of these challenges self-fulfilling so I am aiming for the volume and expected that if I stick to it that the variance will even out. And by posting the challenge I will be forcing myself to update the forum and get in that volume.
I am hoping to post daily graphs and maybe some other questions and links to threads that I have questions about. There are still a lot of stops that I am losing money in which I think that I can play better and also many times that I am unsure of what my default play should be. Tomorrow might be a small volume day, it is cheap date night and need to make the most of every nickle but I will be putting together daily updates.
Haha, the cheap date night thing is well said. Details please.
Are you going to Vegas for WSOP or are you actually moving there full time?
I am going for some WSOP and other tournament action June 25th - July 5th (if anyone is playing the $350 HU game at Caesar's let me know and I will say hi. After Vegas I actually have nothing figured out which is scary and exciting. I have a few places that I can stay but my wife and I are thinking about going to Montreal or Windsor for the rest of the summer and than Costa Rica and return to Toronto for Christmas (even though we hate the cold)..
If Tournamanents go good will probably stay longer but time will tell :)
If you ain't first you're last
So did not get in as much playing as I would like today, had a visit from my father in law to help with some packing so that cut into my afternoon, and as I mentioned yesterday Tuesday I normally go out with the wife.
The brag: managed to have a pretty sick session of +14bis in under 100 games (ran above EV for D’uh).
The beat: Tuesday night out was cancelled in favor of my niece’s dance recital.
The variance: The dance recital doesn’t cost much so was easy on the wallet compared to diner and a movie
TODAY'S SESSION
It was nice to hit that sick upswing at the end, I actually had to quit on two good players I was getting rematches against. I was sweating it a bit at the start of today’s session because I really did not want to have another big losing day (was going to stick to my typical -10bi stop loss). But got out the gates pretty good and never looked back.
I was pretty happy with my play today, after some punishment like I took yesterday I try to just stick to some of the basics and make sure that I avoid some of the marginal (or dynamic as we like to say when we get tricky with marginal hands) parts of the ranges. Today I really stuck to some good calls PF which made a lot of post flop play easy (making quads and straight flushes help too). Often when I find I am playing bad I either:
1) Start to call too many hands OOP, and I pretty well star to play bad hands badly OOP. Now I know there is math in poker but sadly to negatives do not make a positive (common misconception and beginner leak I am sure)
Call MR with 15+bbs effective
2) I start to shove to wide and too early. This is kind of funny because I start to take the bottom of my calling range (most of my calling rage sometimes) and start to shove it 14-18bbs deep. Then I start to flat the hands I should be folding (as mentioned above). Yes it’s a thing of beauty and an easy way to set money on fire.
Range of 3BAI against a MR with 15bbs+ effective
I am pretty happy with a lot of the hands in these ranges, a few light calls against MR, but a leopard can’t change his spots overnight. The 3b shove range is pretty nice too, I looked at the hands that could be considered light, K5s, A8o, A7o, and they were against players opening 100% of hands so I like taking the shoves there with these marginal hands.
There were some hands that I need to go back and look at, I did want to try and mark more hands but it might be difficult while I try to make the most out of the Stars promotion. Tomorrow I am going to try and keep my PT4 window in the corner and hot tag hands to import and question.
TO DATE OF GOLDEN SNG PROMOTION
On track volume wise still, I actually think that I could have set this higher but as I mentioned with the house closing I am not sure when the volume will come in. Also at about 3% EVROI which is acceptable but I know that I am capable of playing better and there have been a few weaker stretches of play over the last two days. Still pretty happy with where I am, wish I could bink one of those 10x golden tickets but that is really up to Stars and the gloom switch department.
On another note my niece received an award for dancer of the year for her studio which is amazing considering there are dozens of girls her age at the studio). She has put a lot of work into dance (she’s about 13 and has been with it for over ten years now). I actually enjoy seeing people have success at things that they enjoy doing. It’s small examples and moments like this that have really made me happy about my decision to move and focus on poker. For the past six years I have really sat back, held a safe job and made the bank. But I am really ready to just dive in and do something that I love for myself, friends and family.
Cliffs: Poker was played, I ran well, banked all the money I lost the other day, and am happy with the volume so far :)
I expect to be able to get in 150+ games tomorrow and I am really hoping to have a HH or two to contribute to the thread.
Good luck tomorrow all and go get them golden SNGs
If you ain't first you're last
What a day. I put in a quick session before I had to do some house work and won 6 fof 7 games, which put me at what is probably my hottest stretch of winning 23 of 28 games. But we all know variance goes both ways. So after going for a walk and coming home to put in a session I got completely beat up. I mean I just ran into hand after hand. I know we all talk about running bad and running into top of people’s ranges but I was just getting felted left and right, set against straights, out kicked, and out drawn. It was so sick.
So I went for a walk took a break and figured I would come home, push through the rest of my stop loss and try to get through 100 games for the day.
Cut me mick, I am ready for more.
I was ready to quit if my slide continued, I really could not go through another -15BI day so was going to stick to the stop loss of ten buy ins. That being said I thought that I had played well earlier considering the amount of coolers and set ups that I faced. So I dug in and started to play hoping to get to 100 games for the day.
WTF…..
I managed to grind until 3AM and put up nearly 300 games for the day. Did this really happen? It just goes to show what you can accomplish when you put your head down and put in the work. I am very happy with the fact that I got in so many games today. I was aiming to get in about 100 to 150 games so clearing near 300 is so boss.
Graph for the day
Running good definitely helps to clear the games and I am definitely grateful to get a little variance on my side. But as I mentioned I think that I played pretty well over all. I actually marked some goo hands too so will post them in the tread to talk/discuss/brag.
I think that I am going to post each hand in a separate post so that it will be easy to discuss since I think that the hands that I tagged all have merit to discuss.
To date
So after crushing nearly 300 games today I am sure that I am going to clear 1k games over the challenge. It’s up to Stars if I get my golden SNG but all I can do is put in the volume and hope for the best. The adjusted ROI is at about 3% but between sets/running good/variance I will take it at this point.
If you ain't first you're last
Admirable comeback !!!
Go forth and CRUSH !
If you want your HH from mobile you can either request your complete HH from support@pokerstars ( or request from within the software HH for last week, hour etc )
You receive the email, copy and paste the text into a text document, convert to plain text. Save as.
PT4 import HH from disk.
And load.
GL.
Go forth and CRUSH !
Lol very amusing post.
Love the comments on your graph - sums up the emotion of breaking a downswing when you're playing well.
Absolute heart.
So I hope I get the HH posted correctly, this is the first time that I tried to post hands. (couldn't get hand converter to work)
PokerStars Hand #100301114811: Tournament #749609890, $6.85+$0.15 USD Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2013/06/19 22:56:14 ET
Table '749609890 1' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: luzzzy (546 in chips)
Seat 2: rukidinme82 (454 in chips)
luzzzy: posts small blind 10
rukidinme82: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to rukidinme82 [2c Qc]
luzzzy: raises 20 to 40
rukidinme82: calls 20
*** FLOP *** [Kh 6s 4s]
rukidinme82: checks
luzzzy: checks
*** TURN *** [Kh 6s 4s] [Qd]
rukidinme82: checks
luzzzy: bets 44
rukidinme82: calls 44
*** RIVER *** [Kh 6s 4s Qd] [Th]
rukidinme82: bets 40
luzzzy: raises 422 to 462 and is all-in
I thought that this was a pretty interesting spot. I made a blocking bet on the river expecting the villain to call with all one pair type of hands. Instead villain decides to go all in but considering the action, and board texture I am not sure what he could possibly have that beats me. I do take this type of line with a lot of my range so perhaps he thought that I was FOS but I think that this would be a call since villain rarely has Kx AJ or two pairs in this spot (right?).
If you ain't first you're last
I think the bet is too small to serve a purpose in this spot.
Given he bet the turn, I wouldn't expect a lot of bottom pair or even 3rd pair on turn (4th on river) to show up here from the avg $6 opponent. I also would imagine he would call a larger bet than 40 with a ten.
Betting so small also induces some raises at times in my mind, and it's not a great spot to do that because I think he really can have some strong hands. Look at the potential straight draws on the turn. Opponents at the $6 level aren't cbetting as high a % on average, so it's not unusual to see AJ, or even J9 type hands show up here. You also have those "slowplay" potentials with Kx, not to mention sets and two pairs hands like QT, Q4, Q6, T6 even.
I'd consider check calling in this spot, his line doesn't make me feel his range contains enough hands that would call a value bet on the river that I beat. There are probably enough bluffs to check call in this spot, but it's hard to say.