Resurrection - AlcopopDK's road to Eureka Prague ME 2023 (SNG Challenge inside)

Update on week 4 (18-04-2022 -> 24-04-2022):

Games played: 81 - Meh!
Result: $22,60 :f_cool::f_drink::f_thumbsup:
Graph in spoiler

2 days of grinding during the week - was setting up the weekend perfectly. "unfortunately" the weather turning out to reflect the spring season, which made for a lot of outdoor activities (chores + excercise). That left me drained of energy (mentally and physically) by night, which led to no volume at all...

Its time to turn it up a nodge in week 5 (- Hopefully the $1 games will treat be better this time arround :f_wink:)

Getting on the grind in a few minutes

/AlcopopDK

Smallish session of 33 games tonight.

Still not getting a lot of love from the 1$ games

But still managed to book a (small) win

I passed 500 games total for the challenge - will break down the numbers and show some graphs of the challenge as a whole tomorrow.

/AlcopopDK

First ~500 games status:

Overall im satisfied with my play as well as my results.

507 games durring 14 days of playing equals ~36 games pr. session, which seems to be my "standard". Combined ROI of 13.17% isnt too bad:

Breaking down the games into 3 categories:

- $0.50 9man
Im actually surprised, that my results in these are so good. In my mind these games where just to "fill up the screen", while i was making money @ the 45man games - but this perception has changed now!
Rake is high (12%) - but the overall skill level of oponents more than make up for that

- $0.50 45man
The 45man games i've actually dabbled in before. Therefore I know from experience, that my fundamentals will bring me a long way in these. Results are better than expected though.

- $1 games combined
Trainwreck incoming...
I've gotten absolutely smashed @ these games (not much of a sample - i know)
I'm confident that im not falling victim of the skillgap between $0.50 games and $1 games (LOL) - so i'll keep coming back for more

I'm definately hungry for more games - heading into tonights session in a few moments

/AlcopopDK

Cutting tonights session short due to getting 2nd in a lot of allins

28 games
Lost $11,60

/AlcopopDK

Friday night session done.

Grinded the path of least resistance tonigh (ie doing $0.50 game exclusively).

It went well

40 games
Won $12.69

(Almost) everything went my way tonight

Interesting hand:

Limper playing 30/5/2 over 162 hands
Isoraiser playing 18/3/6 over 61 hands
BB basicly unknown (43/0/0 over 7 hands)

Didn't feel like getting it in on lvl 2 vs a percieved strong range from isoraiser - get somehow dragged into a mess preflop from not raising though...
BB donks flop - isoraiser shoves (i my mind theres a lot of chops in there for me)
Got all in in gr8 shape - that river though :f_cry::f_cry:

Going over interesting hands, posting and obv enjoying the perks of fridag night...

/AlcopopDK

~13% roi is awesome, love seeing all the updates and detailed breakdowns - samplesize on 1$ is really small so i think you are right that you don't need to wonder too much about it ^^ just happens.

As for the last post,
indeed interesting Hand, long time that i played SNGs, but wouldn't one basically always 3bet AK there? As played i see how calling can turn out quite nice (result obv doesn't matter) and could reduce variance in early lvls, just from my oldschool understanding this would just go in pre as kinda standard? I assume things have changed quite a bit, just wondering how much and for what reason?

Update on week 5 (25-04-2022 -> 01-05-2022)

Games played: 101
Result: $2.68

Graph in spoiler

Another week - another let down Volume-wise (3 days this week though).

Once again a good run @ $0.50 games and a poor run @$1 games (sample is still laughable)

For that reason i will try out another approach (Goal for week 6 as follows):

- 1 normal session of 12 tabling the $0.50 games.
- atleast 500 ICM spots in the ICM trainer downloadet from here
- 1 session 6 tabling $1 9man games

Hopefully that will improve my results @ the $1 games

@naDanje
I totally agree - AK is a standard stackoff even in the early levels. both players in the hand b4 me was extremely tight which led me to play an alternate route - it worked out in this hand (not being resultorientated), but I wont make it a habit

/AlcopopDK

hi alcopop, you remember me myself, when i started i beat easily the 0,50$ than i had some problems with 1$ which i still have at 2$ lol . Remember that 1$ has the new structure with antes so you need to adapt and play more loose since there are more dead chips. Also i wouldnt mix different formats and i would play and study just one, probably 9max since there is less variance compared to 45man. but just my noob opinion haha.

Do you know which graphic card has your pc ? mine is old and cant play more than 9 tables so im going to buy a new one but really don't know which is good enough to support that new heavy aurora software.

@maxiato

I think Main thing is still cpu/ram for most softwares and multitabling, but I am not familiar with needs of this aurora specifically. Any gpu that supports current apis should do the trick, for sure don't need a monster. Something like rtx3050 most likely is overkill at least I would be surprised if it isn't ^^ please take it with a grain of salt, so I'd recommend posting your whole hardware once (which cpu / ram / gpu you have right now) then I am happy to give a more accurate recommendation, as this could easily a type of bottleneck situation where buying the wrong piece of hardware leads to disappointment and not the desired result ^^

Yeah games with ante requires in general more loose approach. Especially late position stealing is important. Second comes BB defence.

Had to check about aurora on stars and seems like disabling it is no longer option. Kind of meh for that to limit playing. I wonder if better graphics bring new recreational players. I would doubt it but who knows

Originally posted by naDanje
@maxiato

I think Main thing is still cpu/ram for most softwares and multitabling, but I am not familiar with needs of this aurora specifically. Any gpu that supports current apis should do the trick, for sure don't need a monster. Something like rtx3050 most likely is overkill at least I would be surprised if it isn't ^^ please take it with a grain of salt, so I'd recommend posting your whole hardware once (which cpu / ram / gpu you have right now) then I am happy to give a more accurate recommendation, as this could easily a type of bottleneck situation where buying the wrong piece of hardware leads to disappointment and not the desired result ^^

hi buddy , thanks in advance for the help. CPU: Intel(R) pentium(R) G645 2.90 GHz , RAM : 4GB, Gpu: Intel(R) HD Graphics.
I remember purchased this pc more than 10 years ago lol.

Basically as i continue open more tables the pc start making noise, followed by lagging , overheating and eventually closed the system.
Currently im playing 9 tables , it makes a bit of noise and the lag is not that much, but i want to play 14-15 tables. Of course i set disable all kind animations and i play with the light theme carbon lite.
Other thing is that i cant mantein open pokertracker while im playing since the lag will be tremendous.
In the spanish community someone told me its the graphics card which get saturated gradually as i open more tables..i was thinking to buy something not expensive like gtx-1050.
Do you think is a problem of cpu or low ram ?

Originally posted by Maxiato765

Originally posted by naDanje
@maxiato

I think Main thing is still cpu/ram for most softwares and multitabling, but I am not familiar with needs of this aurora specifically. Any gpu that supports current apis should do the trick, for sure don't need a monster. Something like rtx3050 most likely is overkill at least I would be surprised if it isn't ^^ please take it with a grain of salt, so I'd recommend posting your whole hardware once (which cpu / ram / gpu you have right now) then I am happy to give a more accurate recommendation, as this could easily a type of bottleneck situation where buying the wrong piece of hardware leads to disappointment and not the desired result ^^

hi buddy , thanks in advance for the help. CPU: Intel(R) pentium(R) G645 2.90 GHz , RAM : 4GB, Gpu: Intel(R) HD Graphics.
I remember purchased this pc more than 10 years ago lol.

Basically as i continue open more tables the pc start making noise, followed by lagging , overheating and eventually closed the system.
Currently im playing 9 tables , it makes a bit of noise and the lag is not that much, but i want to play 14-15 tables. Of course i set disable all kind animations and i play with the light theme carbon lite.
Other thing is that i cant mantein open pokertracker while im playing since the lag will be tremendous.
In the spanish community someone told me its the graphics card which get saturated gradually as i open more tables..i was thinking to buy something not expensive like gtx-1050.
Do you think is a problem of cpu or low ram ?

Uh yes, just a gpu will not bring the desired results, this cpu is very low end, investing money into this system should be tricky.
I'd consider looking at something used / refurbished with an solid i5 or i7 / 5th or 6th generation+ / ssd/ + gpu an 1050ti or such.
I7-6700+16gb ram + 512gb ssd you can find complete systems like dell optiplex 3040 midi towers for around 300eur. Gpu you would just have to pick one that doesn't require additional power connector like mentioned 1050ti.
On ebay you can probably find it even complete like this for about 400eur or less and it will be a huge jump compared to the current system.
Of course there is no limit in what you can spend but something like this used offers a great price to performance ratio.

Edit, Just checked ebay, 1050ti goes for about 100eur used and should do the trick for aurora, so this plus a system I mentioned should bring you to about 400eur.
Of course if you prefer new I'd assume you need to invest a little more for same performance, for about 600-700 eur new should get you some extra cpu cores with same gpu ram and ssd. Question is if it makes sense only for the purpose of poker. If you plan on some videoediting or modern games it's whole diffrent story

Update on week 6 (02-05-2022 -> 08-05-2022)

Graph says it all:

No games - no poker study - no forum activity // This week is basicly a "Wash".

Work took alot of time and focus this week - even on the nights where I had time to grind, i just went to bed (Fell asleep @7pm on friday night to secure a good 11 hour night of sleep - fully dresse obv, since i feel asleep while waiting for the kids to fall asleep :f_zZz::f_zZz:)

This week starts out the same way, but I'll cary over the goals from last week - expecting to meet these goals this week...

Thanks guys for keeping this thread alive while i slack. I cant be of much help regarding PC setup...

Gotta look into those different structures, since i've been playing the games unaware of this (rookie mistake - i know :f_rolleyes:)

/AlcopopDK

First session of May just concluded.

Solid session of 72 games - results arent what i hoped for coming back from a short break...

Got into this interesting ICM spot:

PokerStars - 100/200 NL - Holdem - 4 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

Hero (SB): 11.86 BB
BB: 2.15 BB
CO: 46.89 BB
BTN: 6.59 BB

Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 1.5 BB) Hero has K♣ K♥

CO raises to 46.89 BB and is all-in, fold, Hero ???

ICM:

Hero action:

Punt (apparently)

Getting back into the action tomorrow

/AlcopopDK

I notice that some lines in the diagram say, "FGS" some say, "FSG"
I know FGS is "Future Game Simulation" but I'm at a loss for FSG
I looked it up here https://www.acronymfinder.com/FSG.html
Some of the better choices:
 French School Girls
 Falling Sand Game
 Fish Skin Gelatin

Another long session done - this time booking a win

thx @Vorpal for dropping by - not sure which of ur acronym-translations i like the most (prolly the one that could be interpretated rather sexist :f_o:)

Tomorrow i'll dip my toes in the $1 games again (will be 6-tabling 9max games rather than 12-tabling a mix)

Hopefully i can book that first winning session @ 1$ games

B4 i leave for tonight, im gonna drop this beaty of a hand:

Was worried preflop - felt confident on flop - worried again on the turn - happy to see the hands i was up against (that was b4 the devastating river... :f_rolleyes:)

Oh well - theres a new day tomorrow

/AlcopopDK

Just finished 2nd half (ish) of 500 ICM spots in the Pokerstrategy.com ICM trainer (200 simulations on friday and 300 today).

Im still fairly confident in my ranges. Going through my mistakes, im realising a pattern:

1. Im calling too tight 3-4-5 handed (I think this is true for the population in microstakes aswell)
2. Im shoving too wide 3-4 handed (No sure if this is a common mistake within the population)
2.5. Actually not sure if im shoving too wide, or just picking the wrong hands (Had quite a few "missteps" with Ax and Kx kinda hands - hands where i just autoshipped thinking i was right)

I'll try to get in a few training sessions weekly to polish my ranges - should be possible to get to +95% with relatively small ajustments.

Now dinnerprep, dinner, doing dishes, putting kids to sleep - all that before locking myself into my office for a few hours of top-notch focused 9max grind

/AlcopopDK

Originally posted by AlcopopDK
Just finished 2nd half (ish) of 500 ICM spots in the Pokerstrategy.com ICM trainer (200 simulations on friday and 300 today).

Spoiler

Im still fairly confident in my ranges. Going through my mistakes, im realising a pattern:

1. Im calling too tight 3-4-5 handed (I think this is true for the population in microstakes aswell)
2. Im shoving too wide 3-4 handed (No sure if this is a common mistake within the population)
2.5. Actually not sure if im shoving too wide, or just picking the wrong hands (Had quite a few "missteps" with Ax and Kx kinda hands - hands where i just autoshipped thinking i was right)

I'll try to get in a few training sessions weekly to polish my ranges - should be possible to get to +95% with relatively small ajustments.

Now dinnerprep, dinner, doing dishes, putting kids to sleep - all that before locking myself into my office for a few hours of top-notch focused 9max grind

/AlcopopDK

I was also studying nash ranges but after getting bad results i think i have to adjust these ranges because they are not respected in the microlimits. Villains often call more wide than nash, specially in the bubble so we need to adapt and tighten the nash range.

Sometimes in the bubble from the button as a middle stack nash says to push hands like KTo, J8s ecc.. but it assumes villains will call Ajo+ or AQo+ but the true is that in microlimit they snap call A8o A9o. So if we push nash range we are wrong.

Not sure of that, but i was pushing always nash ranges at 2$ and my results are negatives. Now i will try to adapt and adjutst by making these ranges more tight and hope it will work.

@Maxiato765
While i do agree, that ICM ranges isnt common knowledge at the microstakes, im not sure about your assumption that the population (in general) calls too wide - on the contrary I would argue, that the population calls to tight (Im well aware of the random ICM punts though - I see them multible times every session)

@Maxiato765
@Ghaleon

I did a quick study of the structure in the 1$ games (vs. the 0,50$ games):
While the ante structure is two different beasts in regard to the 9max games, I came to realise, that the (ante)structure of the 1$ 9max is quite similar to the 0,50$ 45 mans (and fwiw the endgame ante-structure of the two 9max stakes is the same).
For now im not changing alot in my approach.

Just ended a 2 hour session - Just got 13 games in.
Thats not bad though - made it itm 7 times out of 13 games - ran very well untill HU it seems :f_rolleyes::f_rolleyes:

Graph:

Will go through the games tomorrow - and do another training session in the ICM trainer - probably no time for actually playing the game though.

/AlcopopDK

For me the transition from the structure without antes in 0,50$ to the new structure with antes since the first blind level in 1$ was very tough, basically you need to change your nitty style to a loose approach , as described ghaleon- more steals, more post flop play fighting for more pots, more big blind defense ecc.. also the pushing ranges gets more wides, i wasnt used to push hands like Axoff QTo JTo or k7s from middle positions..my roi went from 22% in 0,50 to 0% in 1$ lol.