Originally posted by Primrose6789
So did I get it right: Your knife fell into the toilet and right into the sh........?
Nah, I only took a leak, fortunately. 
Still, considering that it was a public restroom...
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Originally posted by Harrier88
Originally posted by Primrose6789
So did I get it right: Your knife fell into the toilet and right into the sh........?Nah, I only took a leak, fortunately.
Still, considering that it was a public restroom...
Well, if you have to poo, then any restroom is fine for some people. But I cannot poop in public places either, I can only poo in peace and quiet.
This is a very important topic to discus, I know. :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:
Originally posted by Primrose6789
This is a very important topic to discus, I know. :f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:
Indeed... 
This was how it looked like this morning before I left, at around 8:30 AM. Yes, German April weather can surely be a troll...
It was warm and sunny, and stayed that way. All but the most persistent lumps of snow should be gone by now. Still saw a bunch of them in the forest on my drive back home.
The tough football weekend is over. Now I just need to get through four more days of early shifts until I can get some proper relaxation next weekend, including Friday, though I'm making the most of today too.
Poker stats for March should be coming up either later today or tomorrow.
Stats Time!
My body is still aching, I feel like a zombie when I arrive at work early in the morning and I don't feel like doing much except relaxing when I'm home... but let's get those poker stats for March out already, shall we?
Obviously, it was a really quiet month for me at the felt. There were only seven days throughout the entire month where I played MTTs in the evening. Overall, I finished slightly better than break-even with a $9.63 profit thanks to that 2nd place in the $7.50 8-Game.
Badugi, on the other hand, did not see a single cash or even just a bounty on the five days where I found time to play, losing me $22.
8-Game carried the month, as I mentioned. $42.63 in profit over six days played technically puts my 8-Game ROI% for the month in the three figures, at 115.22% - a rather pointless stat over so few games, of course.
Not included in either of those graphs are satellites, which are currently listed under "Specials" in my tracking spreadsheet. All of them bricked.
Still, at least we picked a few bucks over those couple of MTTs last month.
Updated stats:
5CD stats coming up shortly.
We saw a slight loss in the SNGs, $6.15 over 33 games, putting my ROI% for the month at -8.91%.
There was only one cash table played, so no need to bring it up. But here's the big picture this year:
Thanks to the lack of success last month, my ITM% unfortunately dropped below 50% too.
Updated stats:
I'm happy to see the overall ROI% in the SNGs including last year still over 30%. I think that's a good value to hold.
I just found some photos from my training camp last Saturday.
The first one was from when we just started clearing the field from the snow, a few minutes after we arrived.
As you can imagine, I had quite a day...
How screwed are we exactly?
And what can we do about it?
First of all, I hope you don't mind the use of "we" whenever I speak of things that are only really affecting me, as I have been doing for a while here already. I like to see myself and everyone who supports me here in any way (or even just follows my progress) as a team, like we're in this together.
It's no secret that my results are currently lacking a little, and it was to be expected. I knew when I started with my full-time job at those inconvenient hours that poker will suffer, both in terms of volume and of quality of play. It was a necessary sacrifice. We all have to let go off some of the things we like in order to make room for things that are simply necessary. It's part of life. My recent poker results, however, are in many ways even worse than I was afraid they would be.
How bad are they exactly? In my 5CD SNGs, I just ended my worst losing streak yet, with nine games in a row failing to cash. This was only interrupted by one very lucky win, and immediately followed by two more losses. My ROI% sank from 46.93% at the end of February to just 30.08% now. Overall profit is well below $100 again already, currently sitting at $93.24. In Badugi, my last cash occurred on February 27th. Granted, I only managed to play on weekends, with only seven games played since then, but I didn't even manage to collect a single bounty during that time, and today even had me taking a second bullet.
The only thing that kept those results from being a complete disaster was that one 2nd place in 8-Game, providing a very useful cash windfall, but apart from that, we are basically free falling.
So, how screwed are we? Well, I think we can safely speak of a downswing by now. It's no fun, it hurts your confidence, and it makes you question your previous successes, and your skills in general. At least in 5CD, I actually do believe that I may not have as much of an edge as I did earlier this year anymore. Still, let's put it into perspective. Remember last year?
Those were my overall stats for 2021. I started the year on a big downswing that lasted until June - actually, it already began in December 2020. Even the slight overall winnings in January were only due to one windfall from a shipped $1.10 8-Game at the end of the month, the rest of it was losing big too. So really, I kept losing for about half a year - and I played on a regular basis back then, it wasn't like it is these days, where I rarely have time to play at all. It was a challenging time for sure, and it often felt like it would never end, as if I had lost my touch, and I might as well quit. And what happened then? I eventually managed to turn it around after all, and after that surprising breakthrough in June - usually one of my weaker months - I managed to follow up with relatively consistent success again.
Compare this to my current situation: Just a little over a month of bad results, and that at a very low volume. If we managed to escape the downswing from last year, surely we can escape this one too, even though it often feels like it would never end, just like it felt back then.
Lastly, what can we do about this situation? While paying the bills obviously takes precedence, it became clear to me that poker simply is important to me. It is more than just a hobby, it is a thing I have built up for myself over the years. The money is secondary, it is mostly about simply achieving something. It is my own personal project, something to take pride in. This, I believe, is what I need to remind myself of. That there is no need to force myself to squeeze as much money out of it as possible, which is often counterproductive anyway. At the same time, it means that poker is not something I should take too lightly - results do matter, they do have an impact on me.
Unless something bad happens to me, like a nasty injury or me somehow getting on the wrong side of my bosses, my job situation is not going to change any time soon. I am constantly on the lookout for new career opportunities, and better work hours are a priority, but finding a spot could take months, even under optimistic predictions. It may not even happen this year. So there is little hope for more grinding hours in the near future.
What I think I should do is to take a more disciplined approach. Set aside some dedicated time for poker, and stick to that one. Think long-term. Realize that there is always tomorrow, with new opportunities. It's not always easy with those low traffic games, where you may not always be able to get a game started at all, but I think it's the only sensible approach.
Advice would be very much welcome, of course.
As we exit the weekend, which will remain my main grinding time, I can at least report $3 in bounties from tonight's Badugi, which ended just a few places shy of ITM for me. This technically ends the month-long streak of complete bricks, but still won't even cover the buy-in.
Three Five Card Draw SNGs resulted in three 3rd places, which do a whole lot of nothing with only two places paid. I even tried a Stud8 SNG today as a little practice for 8-Game, and finished 4th with three places paid. That's a lot of close misses, which don't matter in the slightest because they pay exactly as much as getting out in your first hand.
Here is the updated 5CD SNG graph for this year:
Looks good? Well, sure, we have some early successes to build on. But what's the current situation really like?
We're looking at 14 games lost with only one lucky win in between. We're looking at $19.28 lost since February. We're looking at a complete trainwreck.
This is my current poker situation. It's terrible, and it's not getting any better.
We can only hope... but there won't really be any time to make an effort to turn things around until Easter or so. And even then, it may be easier said than done.
What's the rule?
"It's a marathon, not a sprint"
So in the long run, it should work out.
I'm pretty sure you know that, but sometimes feeling and knowing are different.
I periodically lose confidence — sometimes even when I'm winning.
When that happens, I go back the basics for a bit.
Sometimes helps, often doesn't.
Originally posted by VorpalF2F
I'm pretty sure you know that, but sometimes feeling and knowing are different.
Very much so.
It may be a marathon rather than a sprint, but continuing to fall behind in a marathon after having gained a good lead is also a frustrating experience.
In times like these, I think I should take satisfaction in the little things, like having played certain individual hands well. If I start to realize that I made the right decisions in certain sections at least, maybe I can start building upon it, even if the overall results aren't there yet. And once I have established this kind of foundation, maybe the results will eventually follow too.
Also, I think that I should make an effort to make room for maybe one or two SNGs at least after work. By playing a few games in the meantime, maybe I can take some pressure off my big grinding days. Hopefully, playing so few games would also mean that stress won't build up as much if the losses keep coming in, and ideally, I will have managed to break the bad streak that way by next weekend, or whenever my next bigger grind can happen.
Head in the bucket, butt on the toilet... I suppose that's one way to get a vacation.
Caught some nasty infection last night. After getting some good rest, I almost felt as if I could drag myself to work again, but soon thought differently once I got up.
I've been to the doctor, having to wait almost two hours, at which point my shift had already begun. 
I've been put on sick leave until the end of the week.
Maybe this will give me some time for poker already - and hopefully, my results won't make me want to throw up all over again... 
Thank you very much, guys. 
My limbs still hurt like a female dog, it was definitely a good decision to stay home.
I did play two SNGs today. The first one finished 3rd, for the 4th time in a row. More than half of my last 13 games finished in that spot. My second one finished 4th, breaking the chain, but not in a good way.
Disregarding that one win in between, we are now on a 16 game losing streak. Luckily, I was in too much pain to get upset about it. 
I talked about small victories the other day, and I guess the high amount of 3rd places kind of is one. Nevertheless, I believe those SNGs could be a candidate for the chopping block if things don't improve within a few weeks, or maybe a month.
I have posted some Hands of the Day, which may give you an idea how poker has been treating me recently...
That being said, I did have some success in the Mini Octopus, which I played today. I made one HUGE mistake earlier on which cost me a big pot and a bounty, and almost my tournament run, but I did make a comeback somehow. Final result was a 36th place finish (77 paid) with $3.75 in bounties for $8.63 in total returns. Unfortunately, this was right on the verge towards the next ladder, but the Stud part that round had not been kind to me, constantly setting me up with two pairs vs better two pairs.
As a bit of a counter piece to that one hand of the day where I didn't have the guts to bluff with my straight in 2-7 Triple Draw, here's what happened in the Mini Octopus instead. Note, however, that my opponent probably knew what they were doing this time.
PokerStars, $4.90 + $0.60 - 2-7 Triple Draw Limit (8-Game) - 500/1,000 - 5 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat-
UTG: 7,000 (7 bb)
CO: 13,835 (14 bb)
BU: 11,925 (12 bb)
SB: 25,617 (26 bb)
BB (Hero): 20,048 (20 bb)
Deal: (1,500) Hero is BB with 6♠ 2♠ Q♣ 4♣ Q♠
3 players fold, SB raises to 2,000, Hero calls 1,000
Draw One: (4,000) 6♠ 2♠ 4♣ 8♠ 4♥ (2 players)
SB draws 1, BB (Hero) draws Qc Qs
SB bets 1,000, Hero calls 1,000
Draw Two: (6,000) 6♠ 2♠ 4♣ 8♠ 5♣ (2 players)
SB stands pat, BB (Hero) draws 4h
SB bets 2,000, Hero calls 2,000
Draw Three: (10,000) 6♠ 2♠ 4♣ 8♠ 5♣ (2 players)
SB stands pat, BB (Hero) stands pat
SB bets 2,000, Hero calls 2,000
Total pot: 14,000
Showdown:
SB shows T♠ A♦ A♠ T♥ T♣ (a full house, Tens full of Aces)
BB (Hero) shows 6♠ 2♠ 4♣ 8♠ 5♣ (8-6-5-4-2)
BB (Hero) wins 14,000
After another loss in the Five Card Draw SNGs, I also managed to finally pick up another much needed win there, breaking the horrible streak. This hand helped a lot:
PokerStars, $1.76 + $0.24 - 5 Card Draw Pot Limit - 75/150 (15 ante) - 4 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat-
UTG: 1,124 (7 bb)
BU: 1,340 (9 bb)
SB: 2,308 (15 bb)
BB (Hero): 4,228 (28 bb)
Deal: (285) Hero is BB with 4♥ 4♦ 8♠ 4♠ 8♣
UTG raises to 585, 1 fold, SB 3-bets to 1,676, Hero 4-bets to 4,213 (all-in), UTG calls 524 (all-in), SB calls 617 (all-in)
Draw One: (7,675) 4♥ 4♦ 8♠ 4♠ 8♣ (3 players, 3 all-in)
SB draws 2, BB (Hero) stands pat, UTG draws 3
Total pot: 5,755
Showdown:
BB (Hero) shows 4♥ 4♦ 8♠ 4♠ 8♣ (a full house, Fours full of Eights)
SB shows 5♠ 5♥ 5♣ 6♣ Q♥ (three of a kind, Fives)
UTG shows 9♠ 9♦ 9♣ 5♦ K♦ (three of a kind, Nines)
BB (Hero) wins 5,755
Modest returns altogether today, actually still finishing at a loss thanks to that bricked $7.50 tournament (the one where I had a good run, but then lost to those trips in lowball), but the important thing is that we finally had some success again. 
Health-wise, I'm doing a lot better too, my appetite is slowly returning and I had some proper food already. My bladder is still causing some pain, though. I might make another trip to the doctor tomorrow if this keeps up, I worry that I'm dealing with a bladder infection here.
Another shot at the Mini Octopus. This time, we actually had a pretty good run. 
Final placement was 16th for $10.05 plus $10.63 in bounties, for total returns of $20.68.
You may have noticed that I wrote nothing about Badugi both yesterday and today. That's because I didn't play it, I only played 8-Game, and some occasional 5CD SNGs yesterday, but not usually at the same time, if I remember correctly. Tonight, it was only the Mini Octopus, nothing else.
It's nice that I found the time for this during my "vacation" of sorts - and speaking of which, I'm already feeling a lot better. Even my bladder isn't causing much trouble anymore, and no, I did not go to the doctor. I was feeling a little better in the morning already, so I figured there was no need.
With Easter around the corner, you might think that I have plenty of time to grind, but this will have to wait until at least Saturday. Ever since I first started donking around at some 888 microstakes Hold'em games in early 2012, I've made it a point not to gamble on Good Friday - there are 364 other fine days for it in most years. Also, with my brother and his wife and kid visiting, I'm going to spend some time with my family this Easter, as usual, though this should still allow for plenty of time for poker.
My recent successes in the Mini Octopus are an important confidence booster nonetheless, both for poker in general, which, as you know, suffered a bad downswing recently, but also for 8-Game, which is the format that should hold the most promise with the new tournament schedule. Maybe I could give those $11 Weekend Specials a shot now too, instead of playing those satellites, assuming that I have the time for it. And maybe I could make those $7.50 MTTs, which start earlier and have shorter late regs, a mainstay on my workdays with early shifts as well.
It was a welcome development in any case. Maybe we can continue this momentum and get something going to get out of this mess.
I'd wish you guys a Happy Easter, but you'll likely hear from me until then. In the meantime, just enjoy your fish and/or veggies this Friday, assuming that you observe this holiday too.
What a hustler...
People in low stakes 8-Game MTTs tend to be not very good at 2-7 Triple Draw, so I sometimes call a bit looser there than I would in a dedicated 2-7 TD game. Occasionally, you also encounter people there who genuinely don't know how to play it, even in later stages of the tournament. Here we appeared to have one of them in the very first hand of the $1.10 tournament I decided to play tonight:
PokerStars, $0.98 + $0.12 - 2-7 Triple Draw Limit (8-Game) - 50/100 - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 3,000 (30 bb)
MP: 3,000 (30 bb)
CO (Hero): 3,000 (30 bb)
BU: 3,000 (30 bb)
SB: 3,000 (30 bb)
BB: 3,000 (30 bb)
Deal: (150) Hero is CO with 4♥ 8♥ Q♥ 4♠ 3♠
2 players fold, Hero raises to 200, BTN calls 200, 1 fold, BB 3-bets to 300, Hero calls 100, BTN calls 100
Draw One: (950) 4♥ 8♥ 3♠ A♦ 7♦ (3 players)
BB draws 1, CO (Hero) draws Qh 4s, BU draws 2
BB checks, Hero checks, BTN checks
Draw Two: (950) 4♥ 8♥ 3♠ 7♦ 2♠ (3 players)
BB draws 1, CO (Hero) draws Ad, BU draws 2
BB bets 200, Hero calls 200, BTN calls 200
Draw Three: (1,550) 4♥ 8♥ 3♠ 7♦ 2♠ (3 players)
BB stands pat, CO (Hero) stands pat, BU draws 1
BB bets 200, Hero calls 200, BTN raises to 400, BB raises to 600, CO (Hero) folds, BTN raises to 800, BB calls 200
Total pot: 3,350
Showdown:
BU shows 3♦ 2♣ 7♠ 5♣ 6♠ (7-6-5-3-2)
BB mucks 8♣ 6♣ A♣ 3♣ Q♣ (a flush, Ace high)
BU wins 3,350
As luck would have it, I got a very playable hand right after that and ended up being heads-up with that player. Normally, I would definitely aim for an 8-low with my smooth draw here, but after my opponent's previous nonsensical showdown which could in no way be reasonably explained as a snowing attempt, I figured that just about any decent hand would do just fine and I could simply raise him all-in with it:
PokerStars, $0.98 + $0.12 - 2-7 Triple Draw Limit (8-Game) - 50/100 - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat
UTG: 3,000 (30 bb)
MP (Hero): 2,300 (23 bb)
CO: 5,050 (51 bb)
BU: 2,950 (30 bb)
SB: 1,700 (17 bb)
BB: 3,000 (30 bb)
Deal: (150) Hero is MP with 9♠ 8♦ 2♣ 3♠ 5♥
1 fold, Hero raises to 200, 2 players fold, SB 3-bets to 300, 1 fold, Hero 4-bets to 400, SB calls 100
Draw One: (900) 9♠ 8♦ 2♣ 3♠ 5♥ (2 players)
SB draws 2, MP (Hero) stands pat
SB bets 100, Hero raises to 200, SB raises to 300, Hero raises to 400, SB calls 100
Draw Two: (1,700) 9♠ 8♦ 2♣ 3♠ 5♥ (2 players)
SB stands pat, MP (Hero) stands pat
SB bets 200, Hero raises to 400, SB raises to 600, Hero raises to 800, SB calls 200
Draw Three: (3,300) 9♠ 8♦ 2♣ 3♠ 5♥ (2 players)
SB draws 1, MP (Hero) stands pat
SB bets 100 (all-in), Hero calls 100
Total pot: 3,500
Showdown:
SB shows 5♠ 7♦ 6♥ 4♥ 2♥ (7-6-5-4-2)
MP (Hero) shows 9♠ 8♦ 2♣ 3♠ 5♥ (9-8-5-3-2)
SB wins 3,500
What a hustler... 
Either that, or the first hand was a very weird "brain fart" of sorts on his part, though I find it hard to believe that he somehow thought he was playing some highball version of Triple Draw or whatever.
I rebought after busting out shortly after that and lasted a few cycles, but as in my previous higher stakes games, Stud runouts are not all that kind to me recently, especially in the later rounds with higher antes.
No success in Badugi either despite an okay-ish run - I actually encountered a similar "hustling" case in there, but a lot milder. Someone recently got out with a three card KQJT hand (or some other very high "run down" that you really shouldn't be drawing to) and rebought, so I figured I should put him all-in with pretty much anything when I got heads-up with him a few hands later. He wised up and won with a better incomplete 3-card draw, though, dealing my stack a blow I couldn't recover from. I should have known that a rebuy suggests that they do know how to play.
Really not my finest hour tonight, and I got trolled quite a bit, but losses were kept small, partially thanks to low traffic. Better luck tomorrow.
Looks like I overestimated my skills in 8-Game a little. Tonight was expensive, with pitiful bricks in both the $7.50 game and the $11 Mini Octopus (Weekend Special). Rolled-up trips still don't fare very well for me, and Stud in general... makes me grateful that I'm at least not grinding dedicated Stud MTTs anymore.
Five Card Draw had a 1st and a 2nd place, but also four losses, so no profit. At least Badugi had a good run, we finished ITM with good bounties for $9.55 in total, which at least technically breaks a bad streak in that format.
Maybe my grind needs a little overhaul. $7.50 8-Games can still be an option for weeks with early shifts, like next week, but I need to do better than I did today, of course. 5CD SNGs seem increasingly like a game to be dropped, unless I can turn things around. Apart from that... I'm not sure. I need to think it over, I guess.
Originally posted by Harrier88
Maybe my grind needs a little overhaul. $7.50 8-Games can still be an option for weeks with early shifts, like next week, but I need to do better than I did today, of course. 5CD SNGs seem increasingly like a game to be dropped, unless I can turn things around. Apart from that... I'm not sure. I need to think it over, I guess.
I went several months without a deep run in 2-7 SD Then I had several FTs in a row, with 2 2nd's and a bink.
It all comes out in the wash. Fear not