u r right and I've realized that.. ♠_cool:
but look.. I can't stop whinning as this is my only speciality ♠_evil:
anyway good luck at the tables ♦
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Hi again!
After couple of years being married. It somehow drove me back to poker.
Before I continue..
I owe you all (and by all I mean ALL of you including poker sites etc..) big apology!
All the whinning and stuff came from simple fact. I knew poker!! Literally knew!! poker basics from A to Z and how the hand strenght should go etc etc..
As someone mentioned here and tried to motivate me, yes.. I was going through bad beats because mainly I didn't know who I stand against most of the time.
I bought PT but didn't know how to use it and using just stats was hopeless so I played without it. I didn't understand what to look for during hand analysing. And I had no will to "improve" my game because of amount of work taking notes (which I didn't know how to do either) will take..
Simply to earn money playing poker, you have to work hard or get extremely lucky, which happens either to very talented people who can grasp things or those who are just extremely lucky. I am not either..
Simple truth is I was just breakeven (or as I checked my stats recently) or tiny winner.
Yet my BRM was poor in a sense I always tended to start with very small BR which basically forced me to do scared decisions and made me tilt because every hit from variance was simply too tough to swallow. It was nothing like I was going broke. It was more like I am going to withdraw because poker was (in my silly opinion) rigged
I have been invited to decent study group run by very decent player but kept arguing about hands to the point, I was dissed upon and eventually dropped out of the group because I saw no point or benefit staying in either.
Well. I would love to apologise for all my ignorance and for all the insults I may have caused.
Sincerely
The fish 
Apart from marriage, that drove me at first to start and play chess again, it was set of coincidences, that took me where I am now.. Feeling strong as a grinder, no matter what obstacle is thrown under my legs..
So after some time, when I was getting tired of being dissed by my wife. Believe it or not, that's what your women will start to do, if all you care for is your wife 'nd kid, with no further ambitions. I started playing chess. (before I was doing bit of my usual. Gaming & different kind of sports. From baseball, football - try to think of this as soccer, cycling to running & general exercising. And obviously I let work grinding me down too.
I was playing chess already for two years, but never really gave it a thought. I had 19 wins and 3 draws, playing first board in local competitions, bringing both our A teams to top flight division and 2nd division in the country. As a result of my performances I became 2nd best player in the county and basically realized that if I want to keep it, I better study. Mainly because I wanted to quit. I knew I was mostly lucky because I was either playing weak players or getting good cards dealt. But without study I wasn't just good enough for my rating.
Confidence was gone and I wanted to stop playing completely. Instead I was being invited to couple of meetings with the club's chairman and set up with B team captain and "friendship" that led me to new motivation to try and turn tables around.
So I started to study chess from scratch and in very ineffective way, but overdone it as everything else in my life, to the point it made me sick. After about 3 months of intensive study, I was burned out. And I lost all my natural play and confidence. I was going broke there.. I have won by luck one game, lost one where I was being pawn up, lost another where I was just giving ground way too much to the point I had to lose.. And that was it. Every time I saw my team-mates and people that set me up for this. I was showing clear disgust in whole idea (me playing) and eventually they stopped me calling for matches ♠_biggrin:
Now they believed me that I won't play and I stopped studying bc of my tiredness.. I started looking for some other things to do.. Plenty of games came about and all of a sudden I started playing poker for fun chips.. And I was doing very well against total donkeys.
So I installed couple of poker sites, even found good deal on Unibet poker and made couple of bucks from their promo's (that has to be yet withdrawn). Then old syndrome shown up. When I was on coolers and down-swing, I started losing my calm and didn't know how to handle it.. My game went eventually out of window, I have withdrew money (made tiny profit of over $160 out of nothing) on Unibet. Yet still don't have pass-port because of baby, so I have to wait for real withdrawal as I can't present myself as a real person to them..
On stars I went to extreme.. Heater, down-swing, withdrawal of tiny amount and this kept on repeating no less than 6 times.. I was always following good BRM in a sense of depositing tiny amount, playing within my BR etc.. I even made it to NL5 for a while but on a down-swing withdrew all my profits etc.. I made over 2 mill play chips in very short time and 600k on other site and then started busting those 600k slowly.. At that time I re-discovered poker school online tourneys.
That was just month and half ago.. I made my mark by getting into top 2000 (that pays tiny amount) out of 100k+ players in less than 1/2 a month by proper grinding and finishing in ahead of decent size of field. Which, is not so hard to do to be honest.. Not with my average MoneyMaker skills ♠_evil:
After some time and my back and forth winning and quitting, which happened in short run as you can see. I went twice broke by short-term tilt, quit and found my way back, getting small BR in, making my money and chopping it when I went down-swing.
In the end I couldn't take variance and decided to switch from ZOOM to poker tournaments. This sounds silly right? Before you start to correct me. I know I need bigger bankroll and I know tourneys have higher variance as well as SNGs do. I also started to read some books to get inspiration. And instead of quitting one day, I became fanatic the next..
Now I have to hope that my fanaticism holds even though I am going to have second child, my wife is angry at me wherever she goes, and my first born is trying to shout at me whenever she can. Lots of distractions real time. And of course. I am complicating things by trying to do as much healthy things as I can. Work is kinda good to me, though.. 
Working only 3/7 leaves me enough time to do my stuff.
So what led me to even come back here and start posting? Very simple thing.. I have a materials, that opened me eyes so amazingly as did chess book Mein System from Aaron Nimzowitch in only two chapters!
I couldn't believe my own eyes. Finally someone formulated something that was in front of my eyes all this time playing poker. Basically every word I read so far is opening my eyes and brain to new poker world secrets more and more..
First moment I sat at the table with new knowledge, I became crushing my table. I run bit lucky somewhere but I kept on +EV line like mad-man.
Where I wasn't confident about my reads, I basically had no clue what I am doing, and I had feeling people are just plain mad with any two (which is true most of the time, esp. on my limit). Now just simply opening my eyes and looking around (even though we are talking about online poker), my poker win-rate just sky-rocketed!
I shipped 3rd place for some tiny profit of 12 buy-ins, even though I made horrible mistake not noticing my stack over-shoving J9s in a spot where I was likely to get called. I felt since last 5 that I have no edge and only way out will be my ranges. Also.. Action was so fast, that it was nearly impossible for me to take notes.. So I decided just to shove +EV where ever possible. Yet I didn't notice that my stack was 40BB and not 20BB so I went basically tiny -EV into effective stack 20..
Since then I played couple of tourneys and wherever I used my new knowledge, I either busted by being unlucky having set vs either flopped str8 or rivered str8 etc etc..
However my mind-set now is that I hardly can see any tilt coming my way.. I started thinking about proper BRM but I feel I need someone to give me tips here and there. On my play..
Here is sample of my first thoughts. Feel free to comment & follow my succes stories ofc. Any grinder that would like to sweat me in my tourney play or cash games, feel free to pm me :):
yay! ♦ Get really good read on the fella. I shoved my 2.8k stack (19BB) on his 5x opener as he was loose as f. Even though I didn't know what is his opening range but he was doing crazy stuff. Bc calling shoves with J8s A5 Q9 and limping with Q9 and KT.. So he was weak as sh. I re-shove on him with TT and he shows just J8s.. Unfortunately he hits J on interesting flop AKJ where I still have lifeline but hey.. 8 turn that was giving him two pair but me more outs with flush draw but K on river bricked it and that was it
Any comments on this one?
Last of the series. For a while..
PLAN
-------------------------------------------------->
Playing slow structure MTTs, STTs EXCLUSIVELY
Building proper BRM for MTTs
Taking shots
Keep improving my game
Reading poker books
Playing just one tourney at a time
Finding sweat partner
Not using any HUDs
GOALs
-------------------------------------------------->
Finish in top 500 in Poker School Online Open League
Moving up limits ASAP
BIT OF HU
Playing MTTs, STTs EXCLUSIVELY - I can't stand short-term variance in ZOOM cash games let alone waiting hours for tiny profit on side table and yet get outdrawn no matter how hard I try. My edge would be close to 0 plus my BR would need to be bigger and therefore I would have to risk bigger bankroll, experience tilts etc..
Whereas Tourneys have all the aspects I can benefit from. I can use my reads the best, prize structure pays the most, on lowest limits I will likely have edge until around top 5 % of the field, so realistically even with high variance I can show some decent profits and lastly my BR can sustain more hits, plus I usually get lots of plays in before my BI expires.
Main focus in this case will be on desired BI with desired blind structure MTTs will be preferred to STTs.
Building proper BRM for MTTs - Here I would like to pose question for you guys. What do you think is the lowest sustainable BR for tourneys. I know from experience on forums that proper BR would be somewhere around 100-200 BI min. I keep thinking though of taking shots, obviously. Main reason is that I feel too comfortable with fish on my current limit. And from my experience there is not many better players on limit next 
These guys might be playing spots for odds and try to justify calling off 22 with not enough Equity against tight player shove range, for example..
Taking shots - this plan is simple here. After winning a tourney, taking immediate shot in next available buy-in and after losing just one BI, dropping back. It might be bit of a hit, but if I catch a heater, I might be able to stay on the limit. You might say it is unrealistic target, but I really feel that with my current skills, I can eventually ship couple or win few extra buy-ins before I have to go back down, if I have to
Keep improving my game - as strange as this may sound, this is the easiest part. Simply by playing and knowing how to improve whilst playing. I expect to be improving drastically. Focus on table is the main thing in the concept..
Reading poker books - I totally don't understand some things as I am reading it now but somehow some concepts I have started to use, without realizing the influence of the material presented, figured some "standard" ranges for now and will be adjusting those ranges as I will learn how to exploit certain types of players.
Playing just one tourney at a time - whilst this is completely impossible, I will always keep main focus on table, where is most money at. Wherever I am buy-in for cash, I will keep focus on that table, unless I play somewhere else for more "free" money which at this point of my development might easily happen ♠_evil:
Finding sweat partner - tough racquet but this is one of the main reasons I returned to this blog. And also to prove, that one player and person can change with deeper understanding to a game. It is not coincidence you see all those cool guys on TV being huge winners and calm at the same time. It takes understanding so you can become a winner. You can figure out by now, why Jamie Gold is considered by many a fish and why is he such a sore loser. Unfortunately same happens to Phil Hellmuth. He "used" to be the best but it was at the time where playing just cards was perfectly o.k. I am not trying to say Phil didn't have something extra to his wins that other players didn't. He certainly did! So if you are sore loser, feel free to get educated by myself ♠_biggrin:
Not using any HUDs - this is personal decision. As stats may help, I am not interested in them. I will be more interested in how players play there hands rather than how many times they re-raise preflop ♠_mad:. I may change this decision with higher levels knocking on my doors. And I probably will have to as I have noticed that really tough players are hard to read. Mainly because they don't show many of their hands and increase their stack with absolute consistency. This may not always be truth but hey. I've noticed certain pattern 
I would love to have free version of HEM as I think this would help me to get organized replaying my HHs, showing winrate and different graphs but as I say. Last thing I want to do is either pay for it or use it for lazy HUD purposes :))
Finish in top 500 in Poker School Online Open League - Last month I have put volume in order to get into top 2000. This month I had some gaps due to my tilts (that luckily for my poker career has healed) but managed in last few tourneys to show back in top 2k and with 10 days to go, I have some space to squeeze in some lucky cashes and make it.. However I am realistic thinking that I will have to wait one more month.. In that time, even though it seems to be short now, I might be somewhere else with one lucky hit.. And playing PSO will be out-goaled by something much bigger and better..
Let's stay optimistic and realistic at the same time.. We have the edge 
Moving up limits ASAP - who wouldn't like that? LOL.. It should be piece of cake but I just hope it won't take forever..
STARTING BRM: 43.6 BI
It's time to stop posting and keep grinding.. I will come back minute I have some interesting hand to discuss or.. Some profit to show
Good luck to me & other grinders 
I am not improving as much as I would like to. Mostly because I am grinding just with some ABC poker late after work, sometimes even falling asleep between hands. There is no will to pick any tells as it is hard to concentrate. Shall I just take a sleep and try to play when wife and kid are around but with better chance to focus?
I am failing to get my stack over 40BBs at a time that blinds kick in and there is very little action for me to take. This is obviously for very short sample..
I have had some decent runs but no major cashes. Notable is perhaps 300ish place in 16k field, where my AQs went down the AK road if I remember right. Blew more than 50BB stack in that hand It was against limper from mid position and I didn't really want to just raise and be blown off the pot on later streets OOP.
Many people trapping this way. Some chronically and it would definitely help me to have concrete read on these guys. But as I say. I had hard times to stay awake last couple of days
Running BI 40.52
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below is transcript from (chat) what should be great comeback by carefully picking spots starting with just 1.4 BB stack but constantly running into better hands.. In the end I ended up being busted with 41% EV in 3-way pot
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Omg.. I am being dominated whole tourney.
I was AJs vs AQs that got me down to 140 chips with 50/100 blinds..
99 vs 44 vs AKs got me higher to 660.
A8s vs AQ board QTKQ9 got me to 1470 when I rivered my suit. I could see myself out, right there on turn, right? Being brutally dominated all the way! ♦
Now this hand.. I am sitting on BB with 88 and.. 5 ppl limps in all for 150 chips. So I have still some fold EV with my 1245 chip shove.. Guess what. First in to call shows KK..
He is only one to call and the board comes 25J3 8! ♦ Brutal!
most of the plus EV plays paid off despite me running into trouble every single time.. I am 18 out of 22 at the moment, still being short with 13 guys to cash.. Bit more luck, please! ♦
Got it in with some 13.5 BBs on river 9A67Q no suit.. With Q6d my opp shown Q6h LOL. Wars continue
18/20
Spoiler
I went down 19th AKo vs 56s where the guy had hit quad sixes ♦
If he wasn't in a hand. I would be going down to J9o. This guy instalimped in. (there was a raise preflop, 3bet (65s guy), my shove (12BB), insta-limp (J9), fold from initial raiser and call from 56s guy.. The board was full of sixes and a niner. Obv.. Guy with J9 went broke after seeing FH and 6es guy just checking all the way..
if you have any ideas for me how to play better, please let them come my way
I was playing tourneys exclusively but the more I played the more it became just all in fest. I wasn't playing poker at all.
So I somehow realized that I need to play a bit of cash-gamish until I get my under 40BBs where I can start being bit wilder..
So apart from very tiny cash in tourney, I was down few BIs. Almost 8.
On cash game tables I have won all three sessions and added few BBs to my overall stack. All magic was just to play without many mistakes preflop /. That influenced better post-flop play..
I found that in tourneys even though I am all in with positive EV, I usually end up busted. Yes I know.. I can't win all 65% and better +EV spots but I should've eventually catch string where I manage to build big enough stack for final table. This is not happening, yet.. I have only one final table appearance in two months 
I will wait patiently and tomorrow try another shot. Also will try to sleep a bit more as that is what perhaps limits my game. Also making myself some corner in the house, that would be more like a poker work-place would be perhaps beneficial
Running BI 53,28
So lady luck smiled at me the minute I was complaining that I didn't make enough final tables, yet.. Not only I made Final Table just by picking good spots and making tiny trades.
I was all in (flip) only once with AT vs 99 early in the tourney.
My chipstack rose progressively and to the final table I went like tight 2nd spot. After just 3 hands, I was clear chipleader with double the chips on 2nd chippo.
Everything went smooth down to last 3, where I lost the plot. I won't blame my wife for myself losing concentration and picking bad spots. (She woke up and came to my office just when we made it to last 3. She sat 10.5 months baby on couch in here and left. Baby fell so I had to run off 4 tables to see what has happened.)
I was very passive but selectively picking my spots but felt very uncomfortable. So on min raise I responded with shove ATs and faced KK.
I got back with TT KQ at one spot but fared pretty badly with pairs and made obvious mistake on 8 high flop with two overs and flush draw. Guy had set on me..
Few hands later I was out 77 vs AQs still busting big stack.
My biggest problem was to lose patience & to overplay my hands such as pocket pairs. It would be perhaps ok 1 vs 1, but with 3 players at the table, I was leaking like old man's catheter. And obviously ran bad too.
Part of my "partial" loss of concentration was tiredness. I realized too late that I should cut all other tables and focus as much as I can just on the final table.
Cash game approach seemed to work the best as I had opportunity to steal myself few extra blinds and easily cruise towards final table..
I also played up to 3 cash tables at a time. First I was doing well but in the end I just ran bad. So bad it would make many players to quit. I was outdrawn on every single set by only card that could save my opponent on river. And it always have happened. Had to call.
Now here is my Question...
I have AJs early with no more than 9 BBs left. I raise to 2.5 BB with simple idea. To shove almost any flop and to call had someone raised me. I got raised and I was thinking about folding.. He shows AA. My thoughts were that most players would shove right there giving themselves bit extra of fold EV. But I think on this level, there is not much Fold EV if someone shoves. I think I was in unlucky spot but it looked like both plays would lead me to same end. I can't see myself folding that spot at all.
Any thoughts?
++ As I have been thinking yesterday.. I got tired of grinding from sofa etc.. So I have simply found best place to set up grinding corner and did this idea in middle of tourney. I guess that was one of the +EV moves as I can easier feed myself during play and also focus. My next step will be perhaps headphones during grinding as my wife can be noisy at times
You can see my set-up here:
Spoiler
I have made 2nd and this time totally unexpected run into the money and final table. This time I combined my solid pre-flop play with some ranges for calling/shoving..
Worked like magic.. ♠_biggrin:
Towards last 30 I was somewhere down the bottom chasing bubble ghosts.. But I remained naturally pesimistic about my chances and played every spot to my best ABC knowledge as I couldn't concentrate on any reads.
When last 13, I was 10/13 with somewhat smallish stack.. But things progressed my way as I played fear-less-ly my spots around bubble (when I refer to bubble, it will always be Final Table -> I can't care less to get ITM). To final table last 10 was quite long and I made my way to bigger chip stack as I busted someone along the way and stole few smaller, few bigger pots ♠_biggrin:
On final table I arrived like 6/9. Within couple of hands I made it to 2nd stack whilst still all 9 and then looked around. There were 4 short stacks, 3 Russians, 3 Brazilians, 2 UK and one Ukraine. So I figured that grinders from United Kingdom were outnumbered.. However most Russians and Brazilians went out quickly ♦ So UK started getting ahead in lead. I have to note, that my UK counterpart was one of the shortstacks and rather luckily was handed double the chips twice, before he run out of luck and busted out 
Towards last 4 my position was still complicated but I was more or less ok with my chipstack. Towards last 3, I chased up by the then chippo, who seemed bit tilting about his hand..
500/1000 ante 100, 8 players
everyone fold to SB, our hero (63,079) is dealt A :spade:9 in SB and raises to 2500
villain (18,024) on BB calls
(pot 5,600)
flop A :club:3 :diamond:3
hero checks, villain checks
(pot 5,600)
turn K 
hero bets 2,000, villain raises 5,000 and hero calls 3,000
(pot 15,600)
river 7
hero checks, villain shoves 13,024 and hero calls
Spoiler
villain shows 3♥ 5♠
From this point on. I was trying to help Hero to calm down and realize that "she" made a mistake, no matter how she was shouting out loud about 1.5k defend from BB with such a hand..
I would expect A9 after this small re-raise to be just a bluff catcher. I was told that her play on turn was standard and therefore good. However I think how it was planned to the river was wrong.. It would make sense to me only to try and hit Ace on river. I can't see many hands not having A9 beat..
However it turned out that Hero was stronger and we started constantly talking.
Last 3, when this villain 53 busted later, I was in a very tight spot. I was concentrating on winning 2nd spot through all this talk. It was working out good at first as 3rd contender was just super-tight. I had this note on him. However hero started pushing me around and didn't eat any of my baits and traps as I was setting them along. Didn't have to.. Because my blinds were there to be picked up.
So at that stage I was just 20k in chips, so was 3rd fella and Hero deprived us from 100k chips. My only shot was to mix it up as raising into Hero wasn't just working well. I managed to crack nut after mixing it up and he got eventually busted by Hero, luckily though, when only 4BBs left. I was riding bit better stack at that point..
Last two my edge was gone.. I had nothing to lose.. I set two traps and as I was pushed around, one of them worked and we swapped roles. Then however I have lost completely plot again. Made mistake with 5s (simply overcalling too much post-flop - something I wouldn't do when last 10 for example) and paid the prize when I found my 10BB spot and pushed T5s to see almost impossible news.. AA.. I simply didn't show enough heart and was out-spoken in HU..
So now I have to focus on how to improve my Heads Up play..
I was running slightly bad regarding my tourneys, but towards end of the night improved on my ITMs.. Overall. I can be happy with two final tables tonight..
I have also improved on 4 occassions my overall position in league.. I am now around 1600 out of 100k+ peeps..
Running BI 60.76
I found many spots on stars where I have been dealt sets and simplest play was to just toss them ♠_cry:
No matter how much you would like to hit your set, its only a set 
and still can be beat by flush, str8..
For some reason I had problem to understand this..
I had yet another final table appearance. It was bit unexpected. I was like 10 out of 13 and rather on the exiting end for most part. However the usual has happened and by the time we were 4 or 5 left, I was sharing biggest chip stack within reach of chippo. When last 4, I felt like my edge is gone and I was for most part as well card dead. However I made it to top 3, where.. I went down JJ vs KK trying to defend my blinds.. 
I was tilting a bit and I played despite my feelings that were telling me to take a break before I even sat down to play. It seemed like I got back to mood to play, yet.. It was really hot in my grinding corner and I was rather struggling patience wise etc.
I found that my mind would rather like to play a bit of PES 4 than doing anything else. This all led me to be breakeven despite my final table appearance. Maybe I was +2 BI
So I think I will satisfy my mind today with something else first so I get more hunger for poker.
This morning I woke up and warmed up a bit on ZOOM tables ♠_evil: Made about 2-3 BIs and added bit more to my tourney balance
Running BI 71,64
Played six STTs only, today.
First had to feed my thirst for last few WALKING DEAD episodes, PES and my baby ofc. I was denied bike today. Which seemed +EV as it was raining anyway.
So I started grinding bit late, when my wife got home. Only exception was quick winning ZOOM session in the morning. Still chasing some points towards CHROME star. If I make it, I will be given entry to 20k tourney, which I find double +EV. I won't go to work that day ♠_evil:
After this warm up I started my tourney journey aka grind 6 multitabs..
I lasted first hour on all 6 + got 7th in freeroll and then had to start push/fold mode as I was, apart from two tabs, pretty short. All my spots were about 50/50 but none of them really held ♠_evil: So soon I was down to two tables. It seemed at first, like I might be able to survive bit longer in both, but my push/fold mode was just another 50/50 going down spot.. I tried to play cash gamish from beginning but only to find out most of my stacks pretty low due to other guys not giving enough respect and rather playing who goes out first strategy.
I will try to do something about it as I have pretty much idea where I will be given more respect for my raises. Though.. I am kinda concerned about my play until then. I know I know. I should be playing tight etc.. I also had to talk myself into simple: those 50/50 spots will just bring at least one good run (to keep me away from tilt)..
My last journey in the tourney seemed bit roller-coasterish and I definitely had to do more insane moves, to keep my stack going. I was down the bottom line at first but worked my stack way up around bubble. This time I was usually at least 50/50 but on average some 60-40 but my raises and my shoves were given much more respect at this stage. Mainly as everyone was trying to survive ITM.
Going to final table, I was 4/8 and was working hard as usual but was always unsure where I end up. At one point, I thought 5th place is guaranteed for me, but made one more spot, as fish on my right (who CR some 10k chips off me) went down to tatters.
I built my stack a bit, but usually spot-less or card dead, I soon became tail-ender with my friendly german, who might be available for sweat time to time..
My time came soon after few back and forth raises and I picked up A :spade:K and had only one move, run into TT and God! They held once again. 4th place gave me about 1.5 BI profit for the tourney night. It was my worst placing at final table so far ♠_evil:
After my grind, realizing that my wife and kid are sleeping, I went to grind two ZOOM tables and made decent profit on both. When I busted half of my buy-in, I decided to quit. (got my stop-loss to avoid nose-bleeding + busting my vital part of BR, that should go only to STTs). Still I don't feel quitting was +EV as I was up 3+ BI's..
My cash game is now pretty much mechanical. I will raise LP & SB all the time with my full range and became bit of a control freak. So most of the time I have pretty good idea where I stand, but sometimes can't avoid some "hero" calls.. But when I know my kicker is not good enough and that the guy has exact same hand with better kicker.
Why do I call with second best hands??
I play with very fast decision making, trying to improve speed and good thinking in between, so fast in fact, that stars time to time checks on my screen whether I am running bots or not. LOL
To improve:
I got finally some hand replayer. Universal Replayer that is. I recommend it to everyone & donate also.
I will definitely subscribe on TPE. I used to love their podcasts on my way to work. Will just need to see some live grinds to improve my game. It is nice to be told what to do in certain spots, but it will be much better to see what exactly and when. How it works etc.
Yep. I am aware that most of these things won't work against fishes I play, but why not.. I will try to grasp eeeeveeeryfiiiiiiiiing!
moving up a limits (soon, hopefully). When I get to = or >100 BIs, I will instaswitch for higher limit. This time from STTs to MTTs (mostly CAP 1000) as they're the next on menu ♠_evil: So when I hit final table there.. It will be nearly insta-moving limits
I quit poker league and focus on leveling up.. It is running around the clock and it seems -EV at the moment.. As I can't be sure what hands will be dealt to me and was only 5 days left. I will rather prefer to jump up in limits and when I decide to play Pokerschool, I will play them 1buck tourneys. Until then I find this model better, as I can be ruler of my own schedule and enjoy family and hobbies more ♠_biggrin:
Here is what I am listening to on my piano for last couple hours. LOL. I find this kind of music +EV
Spoiler
Remember! No lyrics!!
Running BI 85,24
Final Tables = 5
Well..
Stars capped my action on buy-in rule. I usually buy for 50 BB, run it to 150+ and then cut it off and start over. They should rather introduce 100BB buy-in tables and let me be. But offering game, that you can not undergo, under their conditions. What to say. LOL
Reason I was grinding ZOOM today: I need to get some better hand histories and didn't have time to play STTs yet.. Changed my language settings, nothing worked so far.
Somehow my hand histories from stars don't want to convert in Universal Hand Replayer. Whether I follow the tutorial or not. Maybe it doesn't like ZOOM?? But I checked and hands were complete..
(humm. It seems like I was able to find help on pokerstrategy forum. Viva Espana!) ♦
Anyway. My session started with coolers. KJ vs AA on KJxx board. He hit one of his 8 outs on river. We get it in on turn btw. And I don't think he had odds to call but I lured him enough into hand to commit mistake. All in all is fine to lose 17.02% sometimes. Then I got involved in one bad hand. Called open shove of shortstack (my shortstack crushing worked well, apart from this hand) with QQ vs his KK. So made immediate note on fish. Later on I saw him having just one BB at the table. Obv. fish 
I played kinda rock solid, picking good and dodging bad spots. I made perhaps only one overcall on turn with QQ on T high board. I guess he either had set on flop TT or caught set of 9s on turn. However I didn't realized how much he bet on turn and wanted to see what he is going to do on river. He blew me off the pot, that gave my read final look 
Question is, whether I should've called the turn or not. His re-raise was really big there.. I would give him like 10% bluffing range, 30% overpair and 60% set given river action. Might have been that he had read on me.. But dunno, really. I think he went for full value.
Given I have received one suckout, rest of the hands, I was running pretty good. 3 of my AA vs KK spots held and same was with less significant hands. Was paid str8s vs trips, someone heroed me with 6s on flush & str8 showing board, AA vs QQ held, then crushed sould of some shortie, I made him blow off the pot 3rd guy I was scared off and then put him all in on turn with just pair of Qs but I was pretty sure he has only weak pair or draw. I was OOP. Value towned AJ vs AK on J high board pretty routinely and did same for double the price with KK vs hand I will never know, apart from some drawish rubbish or small pair.
And apart from picking up tons of small pots and getting away with my danger radar ♠_evil: sheeped another profit.
So as far as I am concerned, I am crushing tourneys & ZOOM (not so much but I do) so will level up if I make +2.72 buy in more I will stay on same level on ZOOM, though.
Running BI 97,28
I just did.. At my final table. When 7 to go. I simply had to call AQ vs KQ and.. K on the turn.
When 6 to go and I was beet shortstacked, had to push KT to see JT from very same player. Flop came TT and turn? You can guess.. And that was it. Certainly a dissapointment..
Lost 6 out of 8 STTs so far but I will post the results later as I am still grinding. My running BI is 93,36 at the moment.. Was trying some stuff from bigdogpckt5s but hey.. Either I don't run this lucky or simply don't have those moves right :)))
Started doing bit better when on me own again I feel like I have one more final table in the making
I expect to level up soon and tame the deck once again ♠_evil:
KK vs AA set me for ITM battle. Just when I squeezed into bubble, I got another cooler. AQ vs KK.. That was eet.
I had kind of good position at the other table, but got rivered once again, pushing it as a favourite on turn with 2p against TP with better kicker, namely Q. ♠_cry:
Not running so hot atm. But still better run bad in tourney than in cash game..
Running Balance 95,2
I woke up and took two bad beats before I put my feet off the sofa..
First half of my buy-in went. I was about to sit out from next table as well but caught TPTK and felt in love with it right there. To see set. That session was damn short but cost me pretty much of my BIs.
After being crushed soul, I went onto my next grind.. Action was kind of slow so I took everything. Made one good run in two huge turbo fields and finished 11th which wasn't so great but yeah. At least something.
My STTs kind of evened out to 6x but I was busting few in between as well as freerolls,. It looked at first as if I am making only one final table. I was still alive on other two, but busted the rest. Long after my first final table finished, it turned out that I had two more final table appearances. But not for long. I tagged one player as LAG and went after him. Unfortunately I busted out 9th because I picked very bad spot to do so Still a fish. U know ♦ So I was down to my shortstacked table, where I felt more confident than ever but some unfortunate hands saw me out. I can remember only AQs vs 55 being the last.. AJs vs KQ etc.. All didn't work out..
Here is my hand against that LAG. I was confused as I was preparing my strategy on him, whether to limp trap him, but sticked to my own play.. I guess that is best thing to do once you want to play back at someone. Dunno. And obviously thinking of shove the flop but then again. He would most certainly call and even though I would be getting it in good.. You know. There are doubts..
[199/199]
##########################################
PokerStars Game Tournament
Table 916195671 2 -
Blinds : 200/400 - Ante 50.0
##########################################
9 players
[5] HERO (11461)
[But] villain (15920)
HERO 9♦ 9♣ Initial Pot: 1050
1 folds
2 folds
3 folds
4 folds
Matti79 raises to 800
5folds
villain raises to 1888
5 folds
6 folds
HERO calls 1088
### FLOP ### T♦ 2♠ T♣ Pot: 4826
HERO checks
villain bets 2000
HERO calls 2000
### TURN ### Q♥ Pot: 8826
HERO checks
villain is All in
HERO is All in
### RIVER ### T♥ Pot: 28331
Spoiler
HERO shows 9♦ 9♣
villain shows Q♣ J♥
villain wins 4459 from side pot n°1 with A Full House, tens full of queens
villain wins 23872 from the main pot with A Full House, tens full of queens
In the end I managed to show tiny profit but it wasn't enough to level up for now ♠_o:
Running BIs 98.76
Final Tables = 8 (or 9, lost count. Bad thing is that I didn't win one, yet ♠_evil: )
Today's grind saw me through some downs & then obvious up and up ♦
I started as usually to two tabling ZOOM which saw me to cut down 1.5 BI again ♠_mad: Bad spots and one bad hand, that was eet.
Session continued with STTs. There was such a lack of action, that I literally had to pick whatever I could and maximum tables was just 5 anyway. Had some deep run in PSO 121th out of 6k+ with getting some really weird spots towards the end. Don't even want to talk about it but might review it later ♠_evil:
Had decent run in .02 Turbo, but perhaps picked suicidal hand and went down to tatters. From few STTs, I played maybe 5 total, maybe not even that, I made 3 deep runs, 2 of them ended up with final tables. I made really good run being shortstack for most part and ended up 3rd.
In second I was deepstacked and tried to play against guy who switched gears on max, but it was obvious to me that he was just lucky. From about 10 spots, I didn't pick any hands on him and went down to tatters. However when last 4, he gave me bit of an idea how to play there. Will try one gear up game next time I am down to last 4 ♠_biggrin:
These three STTs, where I didn't make so many mistakes, took me up to profit zone and pushed me above my BIs..
I reviewed my hands in one STT last nite, where I wasn't sure how I played, and it turned out that I did perhaps good amount of work and busting was just inevitable.
However with my amount of Final Tables, something must be wrong with finalizing the edge I might have had in some of those. So I will try and watch some FTs from Sunday Million to see where my edge might be walking away on me..
So now only one question remains.. Will I be able to stay up the limit? I am on the lower edge of BRM for it, so will watch carefully bottom of this BR. I will quit playing ZOOM for a while, so it won't push me away from my higher level ♠_biggrin:
Buy ins (LVL 1)108,52 FT = 10 (11*) WINS = 0
Buy ins (LVL 2) 49.3
Had good run in 2/3 tourneys on higher limit 180 mans + one on lower 90 mans, but ended up break even ♠_cry:
Had two deepstacks when like 16 to go but all my hands just were going down the toilet. Even TT vs A8 couldn't have held. So made two final tables but exiting 8th lower and 9th higher limit respectively didn't add much of a cash.
I have also made decision to play not 0.55 CAPS, but jump to 180 mans and take my stabs there as everything in between is perhaps -EV for me..
On top of this I run pretty bad in my .25s so.. Break even might be good after all? Not sure.. But running bad towards final table is worst that can happen, me thinks. LOL ♠_evil:
lvl 1 110,28
lvl 2 27,6
I had one quick ZOOM session that literally added bit more to my tilt.
77 on flop 7J6 and we get it in here 3 way.
Turn A, river meaningless.
Spoiler
They show QQ & AA. That made me tilt a bit and quit the session.
Knowing I experienced just a bad beat last nite, I went to grind this morning and played some really sharp poker. Made some nice big lay-downs ranging from 2p, TPTK or some monster draws.. And built my one BI up to about 4. On second table I had bit of those big lay downs and when I was down to nearly half of my BI, the big hand came and I was paid greatly. Then just poking some pots but not really getting anything, I decided to quit the session with tiny profit...
Buy-ins
lvl 1 114,52
lvl 2 28,63
This means I can try up to 4 lvl 2s and gives me bit more room to try and grab the lvl. Yesterday wasn't really "lucky" as I had 2/3 deep runs but didn't make anything exciting.....
I kinda ran bad and it looked like from 5 tourneys I put in today, I won't make any cash at all. I was down to last two tables both with stacks around 3k. I managed to build it strong enough so it looked like making two final tables will be easy.
However trying to get some shortstacks away simply crushed myself. None of the 65%+ match ups held.. I made perhaps a mistake shoving J9 into BB with around 9Bigs. And bubbled on 11th or 10th before making final table on lvl 2.
On level one I have made final table easy, but JJ lose to AT, QT lost to T7 on T high flop, then couple more hands went in similar fashion.. Also shorties that played ultra bad were hitting so table of 9 didn't break until late.
My final hand went when 7 to go. I had 66 flopped 6, river came Ace and my opponent showed up with Aces..
buy-ins
LVL 1 107
LVL 2 26,8
Had decent run in 23k field.. I was focusing on taking this down and made reads on most of the table and was slowly crushing it. Funniest was snap into loose fish with AQ to see KQ and his stack rolling my way..
I have seen two fish plays.. Guys are not paying attention and run into big hands after they have just been announced by raiser.. Just catch JJ and lose huge stack bc of it 
These guys will be crying (like I used to) all over forums just how rigged the site is ♠_mad:
Just when I figured my first table, I was moved to another, for another hour. I figured the weaklings and started to feel comfortable. However beginning of 3.5 hour, I ran into Aces in a spot (wasn't it for set up), where I would pick up easy pot that would help me to stay a bit longer.
So my 12 Bigs went down the drain on cooler with KQ..
This tourney gave me bit of a cash and kinda nice 820th/23k+ field...
I've seen London PRO and Supernova (perhaps he was multitabling) making huge mistake against fish, that I crushed easily later on. I didn't get trying to raise the field with 3x bets EP and folding to re-raise with kinda smallish stack, that rather required PUSH/FOLD.. He did that twice and then got busted with A4s?
Was kinda weird. As I was focusing on winning this, I made note to nearly everyone and improved my reads/note making as well..
I feel storm of cashes coming soon ♠_love: