Tennis coach's blog - Midstakes Hyper-Turbo HUSNGs - 2013 review

Thanks sir, I also enjoy reading your blog, but hardly ever have anything worth writing there.

Anyway, passed both of my tests today, and now it's real pokers time.

I was thinking a lot about this poker stuff past few days (had a lot of free brain time while studying) and it just seems I have it all wrong. I was focused on moving up limits, reaching gold/platinum stars/supernovas etc. I focused so much on it, that actually losing didn't matter so much, but not being able to move up, or reach gold star really sucked. And after I'd realize that, next several games I'd be pissed because of it.

Obviously I knew all of this on a rational, cognitive level, but it would still tilt me. I made like a million calculations of how many games of which type on a certain level I'd need to reach those rakeback levels, and generally be a moron.

That led to playing/studying time be 90%/10%, which is probably one of the reasons I played and ran as bad as I did.

So, my fist goal is to forget about those things. I've removed VIP progress bar from the lobby, and will try not to look at it at all.

Also, I'm definitely going to be playing hypers, and from the 3.5$ level, using a bit more conservative BRM than before, and REALLY focusing on playing well.

OK, I'm now gonna go re-watch 3 hyper turbo beginners' videos, and put in some volume.

I haven't played very much over the weekend, mostly watched some videos and read strategy threads on 2p2. Also, some relatives came to town, and I was hanging around with them, and went to Red Star's football game.

I thought about a few other things, mainly about playing with or without a HUD. I think that playing with hud, although useful, quickly brings me into an auto-pilot mode, and that when I don't use one, I tend to be focused for longer.

Also, playing without a hud has a hidden advantage. I don't need to have HEM open while I'm playing. I tend to check graphs, hands, reports etc. while playing, and it obviously just distracts me. I might try to play without it for a week or so, and see how it goes.

Anyway, I'm watching United now (lol penalty) and going to Serbia's Futsal qualifier for (I think) the Olympics. In the evening it's basketball Derby, so preparing for that, too

Hey guys, time for an update.

As planned, played without HUD, with expected results. While I do miss the stats occasionally (I tend to drift away from the table, and forget everything about my opponent ), I do concentrate more. And not checking HEM all the time helps.

My focus in general is not that good, not only for poker, and I am aware that it's probably my biggest RL leak, and am trying to fix it. Not easy, though.

As for results, they're pretty good. I took a shot at the $7s today (with 40BIs), and lost 4Bis in 20 games, spewing the last two games when I got tired. I felt that my game was a bit worse on the 7s, as I felt pressured to perform at the higher level. I might postpone my next shot until I have 50BIs for it. Or maybe I bink the next week's S.Storm for 150k

Also, I'm spending a lot of time randomly browsing the net, on facebook/9gag/forums etc. I really need to cut that down. Not only does it waste my time, but it also really tires me. I don't remember it had that effect a few months ago, but now my eyes hurt, as does my back/wrist, and my brain just feels empty.

Tomorrow just a few hours at uni, and then planning to put in 3-4 hours of quality poker. Some exercises might not be bad.

Managed only two hours after all. Had some in-house crisis right when I was about to start playing, and after was tilted for a while.

Took a small 3BI shot at the $7s with 35BIs (I know, I know, but I felt really good playing), towards the end of my session, and won 1 BI in 5 games.

Focused mostly on my mental game after such a tilting day, and I must say I'm impressed with me. Played 45+35+35 minutes (used my phone to warn me), trying to recognize tilt triggers, loss-of-focus moments etc... and it really worked. I don't think I've ever played this well. Also, as a precautionary measure I hid the taskbar. Just with it out of sight, I didn't open Fifefox/HM once.

Also fulfilled my exercise plan for the day (will do some lower back work now), which might've also helped with focus/anti-tilt.

Oh, and I switched back to HM1, HM2 sucks.

No poker planned for tomorrow. Going with mum to the doctor's in the morning, work from 1-4PM, then Derby day (Cup Semi-finals rematch, 2-0 for Red Star in the first leg), and probably gonna watch Man United if I return home in time. Might play some MTTs/MTTSNG during that, if I feel like it.

Played a bit yesterday, won a bit, then started today pretty OK, won a few BIs in my first session, and decided to take another shot at the 7s in the second. Played pretty much only 7s after that, lost 5BIs in the process, running very very poorly. Villains hitting guthots on river, flopping trips and checkraising me for the n-th time, just for me to play back at them at that exact time etc. Standard stuff, but pretty frustrating not being able to move up and stay up.

Oh well, grind continues tomorrow. Going to watch a vid+play for 1 hour before work, and try to play at least 3 hours after work. I might lower that only if I go out in the evening (slim chance for, as it is Holy Friday for us, Orthodox Christians.)

Peace be with you all.

A short update.

Yesterday started off as planned, watched a video + played for an hour before work. The problem was that I had to cover a colleague, and had to work from 1PM to 7PM, and came home pretty much dead. I tried to put in a session, managed ~45 minutes, but decided to call it a day.

This morning I also managed a video + session, then had some errands to run, now going to have some lunch, go grocery shopping, watch Red Star's game and then poker.

Hristos Voskrese ! Happy Easter to everyone celebrating it today.

Didn't play much the past few days. Had another unsuccessful shot at 7s yesterday, and kinda lost motivation+focus after that, and wasted my evening watching some stupid TV shows...

Today is Orthodox Easter, so pretty much spent the whole day with my family, had an amazing lunch, and now I'm watching United finally playing some decent football. Next up it's Tottenham + Sunday Storm, for which I got the ticket with the 50$ deposit. Also regged for some other micro-donkaments, 6-7 in total. Had some drinks with lunch, so I sense some aggro playing ♠_biggrin:

Here's for binking a BR...

EDIT: Busted out of everything.

Had 10k chips early-ish on, busting a fish and winning a few small pots. Then a run of OK cards came, but with awful flops/turns/rivers. I folded a lot postflop, and in the end busted...

Thank god I didn't play for 4 hours for nothing.

Super proud of myself today. I set myself a target of 70 hypers, and I actually made it. And despite running like shit for the first half of it. I actually managed to get in the black for the day after all. And having made a daily schedule, and actually doing it meant I could watch Arsenal getting kicked in the groin after finishing the day...

I've actually set myself targets for this week's number of games, and then went on to set the target for each of the days separately. In the end I should get the Sunday of, to play MTTs, or just relax, or add more games if I feel like it. Something like a treat.

Also, I worked for 4 hours, exercised and ate semi-healthy ♦

I'm trying a new eating regime this week, will write about it if it turns out to be good.

Raining here in Belgrade. A perfect weather to run 10BIs below EV in 30 games, while running into a bigger ace 3 times, and into a bigger pair twice.

Tilted in terms of banging my hand/foot into my desk, but played pretty well (I reviewed all of the games, to see the damage). I know it's pretty standard stuff, but:

a) I hate losing, and
b) I just hate not being able to move up. Every time I come close, I either run bad and lose money at 3.5s, or take a shot and then run bad.

I don't know if I could, or even should, get staked for the 7s, or maybe even the 15s. I have an EV ROI of 7% over the last ~400 games @3.5s, which (albeit a tiny sample) should mean I am beating the game comfortably.

I think that the stake for the 7s would be a waste of time (except for slightly better RB, as I think I might get gold on the 7s) unless it's something like 70/30 in my favor, and I don't think I can get it. Also, I don't think I can get staked for the 15s based on my results. Only if someone wants to do charity

Played the day out like a pro. Really happy that I managed to continue playing (after classes), even though stars really didn't want me to.

Constantly being raised when I have air, people playing opening 100% openfold when I hold AA, running into top of people's ranges etc...

For some reason I can't post a graph, looks like a forum error. It might be better that way, but it's here, if anyone wants to take a look. Standard for hypers, but that doesn't make it suck less...

So many blogs here, let me just mark the HU SNG ones ♦

Will follow!

Thanks for the visit ♦

Managed 40 games today, between uni and work, and I was almost 2 hours without the internet. Won 1 BI in the process, again some BIs below EV. Again really happy with the level of my play. I'm gonna crush these games soon, just need to wait for that big heater ♦

One thing I need to be better at is c/r bluffing flops against people who raise+cbet a lot. Not many of those on the 3.5s, so I tend to forget that it's an option

And, I tend not to know what to do when I cbet, then c/b turn and villain bets river, or when I should bet river in the similar situation. I tend to auto-pilot c/f or f those situations, but I'm sure there's an extra % of ROI there...

Good night all.

Hey, it's my 500th post here on this great site, and what better way to celebrate it than with a graph. It is a graph of my hypers since I've restarted playing them. Well, all of them on the 3.50$ level. And guess what, there are 500 of them

Solid 5% ROI. Too bad those 4-5 little shots on the $7s ended rather poorly, I could've been crushing the 7s already

Today, I've managed ~40 games, and I'm going to uni in a few minutes, and probably wont be able to play again. I've been ~30$ up, but I've dropped it all again. Why don't heaters last?

And I've fallen back into a crappy pattern of checking HEM graph every few games. I guess it has something to do with the downswing, as I didn't look at it that much while running OK/winning money. I guess I need the comfort of the red line while losing game after game.

Can you really put enough volume in to make these worthwhile? You're clearly a winning player, but is this the format with the best hourly for you? I love playing HUSnGs, but I can't ever imagine having the time to make it my main game.

Well, I think I can. And I've always disliked multitabling, so these are probably the perfect game choice for me.

Matt (another HUSNG player from here) had a good point. Playing turbos should be more profitable until the 60s. That way you can move up more quickly, as you need fewer BIs for each level. But I was very impatient to play hypers, and now I'm kinda paying the price of that. But, in the long run, my way might prove to be better

In comparison to micro/low stakes cash games, these have higher hourly. I can play 23-25 games per hour, one tabling. With this ROI (EV), which is sustainable till the 30s/60s (look at Pavel's blog) IF I continue to improve, which I obviously plan to.

As for time - I don't have a lot of it, but I get small chunks (of 20-30 minutes) in which I can put ~10 games. I couldn't do anything similar with any other game format...

And, I'm trying different things to use my day more efficiently, which are working over a sample of... well, this week. Much better volume already. Plan is to get to 400-450 games per week before July, when I finish uni stuff, and can put in even more volume.

Well, my top tip would be to get some coaching from Boris. He's your man for these hyper HU SnGs.

I'll definitely be looking into coaching, but my current BR doesn't allow it. And I don't want to deposit money for poker, that was the first rule when I started playing.

Right now I can consider coaching only as a part of a coaching/staking deal of some sorts. Pretty sure he would not be interested in that.

Another tough day. This time it was the coolers turn to fuck me. I managed to make 1.5BIs over 55 games.

I also checked reports for the first time in this database, and I'm actually losing money from the button After checking some of the hands, yes, there were some coolers, and EV I AM above 0 (3.5bb/100 hands), but I still suck.

I think two biggest mistakes I make are cbetting too much against loose passive (70% of people I play), and not calling some rivers I think I should.

While writing I remembered that I have ~1k games at the 7s (before really studying) and I'm also losing money from the SB (same situation, 6bb/100 EV, though, but still worse than from the BB). So this is an old problem.

OK, so from unconscious incompetence straight to conscious competence you go, now fix yourself Jared Tendler would be so proud

So I woke up today with the intent of playing some turbos. You know, to even out variance a bit. And then I remembered why I loved HU SNGs so much in the first place.

I remembered that they don't need to be the mindless grind, but can be more fun. Getting to know your opponent, and how to take his money.

Obviously I won some money, or I wouldn't write such a positive post, but really that's not the point. Grinding, and really grinding hyper-turbos is a difficult task. Grinding 3.5$ hyper-turbos is an insane task.

So, I'm (again) switching. This time it will be for the foreseeable future. Meaning, until I reach a level of these where it's more profitable to play the hypers....

As for the results, not really sure how I've done. I won 5BIs over 26 games (4 hours), but as HEM doesn't separate $ and € tourneys, I'm not sure how much actual money I've won. Somewhere around 40$ is my best guess...

This switch means I need to recalculate my weekly and daily schedules, so I'm going to do that and turn in.

Good night.

Good luck with the switch back. Not sure if it is the best idea since the fishes love hypers and you won't get much action if you intend to move up.
However turbos are fun, good luck with it!