Manchester or Bust

[GR1ZZL3R]

Thanks @Bing__ Sometimes you've just got to go for it but I hope the sound of my knees knocking don't give me away.:scared:

[Charl_xoxox]

Teaching is going okay, still a bit on the fence of understanding it. Wishing you all the best in Dublin and hope to catch up! I’d be dreading playing a live when it comes to it which will probably be the community game in Dublin 

[GR1ZZL3R]

Best of luck @Charl_xoxox The learning can be slow but suddenly you'll see a part of it that will make sense. (hasn't happened to me yet. 🤣)

 I haven't played a live community game but if they are anything like we have here I'm sure we'll both love it. 👍

[GR1ZZL3R]

 

You may have guessed by now that I didn't make it to Manchester, which was a little disappointing, but more than made up for by getting to Dublin. I think that took some of the shine off the urgency of the attempt as I put it on th "to do" list instead of the "must do". 

However it was a success in showing me it should be possible to qualify this way. I still have 4 x 50e tickets left but the closure of the ticket exchangers, already thoroughly debated elsewhere, will make it much harder. After winning my first 100e ticket I broke it down to 25 x 4e, won 9 of those, and out of 7 x 25e played won 3 x 100e tickets.this left 3 x 100 and 2 x 25, a total of 350e from my original 18.30e investment, a pity they couldn't be lumped together for the 250e buy in, but that's not the way they work. I'm pretty sure I could have gone on breaking tickets down and building my stash up like many others were doing, but all good things come to an end. :Sad:

I played 1 x 100 final before they were changed, a very unimpressive 10th out of 16 or so, and was then left with 5 x 50, one of which I blew with AA in the third hand :Veryangry:  (Not first out surprisingly). I'll use the remainder through January, last one expires Jan 31st and then have a review, but it doesn't really help not knowing the venues well in advance, there are some I'm sure would be harder to arrange for than others.

Four finals to play and a final update if I somehow manage to bink one, otherwise it's on to my next new challenge, taking a more professional attitude to poker and gambling.

Good luck all in your very interesting challenge threads or however you're approaching the next step, and a Happy and Successful New Year to all. :Cash::Thumbsup:

 

[MetalWolf]

Good luck mate. I moan about the timings of tour announcements all the time. If the first one is Brighton like this year then whether I have a package or not the expenses are astronomical to try and arrange at short notice and it puts me off the qualifiers, although I must admit the 50 final does seem to be very popular now. I will make more of a go for it after points reset in January. Hoping for a bit of freshening up on the tour next year. Would love to see Nottingham back but I really need to cash in the Welsh and Northern Irish regions to get the flags to complete my UK & Ireland tour lol

[GR1ZZL3R]

Nice idea collecting all the flags @MetalWolf, good luck on that one. I like my home comforts too much so Midlands up will be the ones I'm looking for so not too long away, let's see what's coming. 😃

[Silver1]

The @GR1ZZL3R what stakes do you play at in cash game? Maybe an idea to put up a challenge there? Like playing a number of hands in a month? Or playing CG to make up for the buy in to the OU tournament or half of it? A challenge like that might motivate you to step up the game as you want to:) (?)

[GR1ZZL3R]

@Silver1 I'm currently playing mostly 5-10 and dropping to 2-4 when I lose a bit, mostly NLHE and occassionaly PLO, which I do like but find more tilting.

I've never been a mass table grinder and really wouldn't want to be, I play small sessions as and when I feel like it, and at my age I don't really have much to motivate me.  However, I do like following these various challenge threads and set this one just to see what can be done. I loved following @MetalWolf Hexapro and see @Brocky is starting a HU today, will check out the stream later. There are many more, some pretty serious and some just entertaining and they all have their place, so in the New Year I will be doing a cash game challenge, a small one to start and then hopefully a bigger one if that goes well, which will include a give-away.:cash: simply because I've had such an enjoyable year on UB and in the community. The motivation will be to have a more professional approach to poker and gambling, not necessarily to become a millionaire but to be more self disciplined. These days I see challenges as more mental, (that's my excuse if I lose money 🤣) but if it leads to more :cash: then I won't complain.🤣

I still have 4 tx left in this thread so I'm not writing it off yet 😃 and will play more tourneys in future, I'm looking forward to the DIRT series, and we'll see where it all leads.👍

[Silver1]

@GR1ZZL3R like your attitude towards the game! I think that one step to becoming that billionaire, if someone has that goal, is to break it down to smaller challenges and put focus on enjoying the process. Having fun during the road, independently of what you do in life I think is one of the key success factors. If you are not having fun the process will, most certainly, become a very short one. Thumbs up:)

[GR1ZZL3R]

@Silver1 I'm a great believer in life that to be a success you have to enjoy what you're doing, what's the point of playing poker for a living if you don't enjoy it? you might as well get an ordinary job where the money comes regularly and there is less stress on paying the bills, BUT if you love doing something and can make money at it, why not? We all have our comfort levels, for some it's 2-4c for others it's 200-400e, and my challenge is to see how far I can go, so far not very far.:teardrop:

We know there are some serious players on UB but even they can do a fun challenge now and then so it shows it's not all nose to the grindstone, and I say the more the merrier, I can't wait to start, so look out for a new cash game challenge coming soon. 🤣

[GR1ZZL3R]

Don't you sometimes just hate poker and wish you could find a game that does not tilt you to the same degree?

Hoping to finish the old year on a high and still having 4 x 50e UK tx left, this was the last attempt this year. The tourney started off fairly quiet and sedate, about 36 entries. Nothing of note happens for over an hour then a late comer decided to have a go.

He put a small raise in pre-flop so I called, and called the flop.

My kicker was a slight worry but you have to go with it sometimes, so called the turn.

A shove on the river, all that's beating me is a pair of sixes so an easy call.

What did he have?

Less than ten minutes later I was cruising comfortably.

I suspected there was a flush out there but top set doesn't come along all that often and the river was a beauty. :Rofl:

 Another favourable flop and the turn induced more chips to go in. :Smile:

Two hours twenty minutes and 11 left in out of 60 entries and 6 rebuys, six UK packages, 2 x 50e tx and 2e for ninth, I was sliding down to 5th after being totally card dead for 40 mins with only a small pot with KK to show for it.

The dream flop would pretty much ensure a coveted UK package, but how quickly our hopes are dashed. :Veryangry:

 That left me 11th, 10th went straight out and I quickly followed.

Bubble boy and feeling pretty down.

Checking in on the community I immediately see:

@Brocky  "most tilting session ever"

@Bing__  "savage UK final"

@Kliedz_Zivju  "another crap day"

I'm not one for revelling in others misery but somehow it's not quite as bad when you know others are sinking in the same boat, hopefully not for long and not quite as drastically as

@betser  "unibet stinks" and "kill all invold (sic) unibet"

There may be tilt issues around.

Putting it all in perspective:

 

 

 And the day after the day after tomorrow is another year.:Heart:

 

[Kliedz_Zivju]

ughh that is brutal! my fist's wouldve already been pumping :/ not like that!! hopefully the new year brings the fire back have you qualified for the 10k freeroll that would be a nice win and davitsche loyalty freeroll is gonna be valuuue town 

[GR1ZZL3R]

@Kliedz_Zivju Sad to say but I'm steering clear of the freerolls for a while, although I went out of that last tourney I do find I'm enjoying the longer deeper tourneys more instead of the any two will do kind. The fact is I don't really like having to play a set schedule for missions and would rather play what I want when I want. Community freerolls are different however, the dynamic of playing "known" players is much more enjoyable so I will still play those. :happy:

[Kliedz_Zivju]

ill probably be in the same boat when i get busted early after following these 30 missions i do like abit of free value :P the community here is awsome tho always a good game when its not completely nuked with freeroll hunters hehehe :P

[GR1ZZL3R]

That's why I like the higher ranked ones @Kliedz_Zivju usually a bit deeper and more sensible, though not always. 🤣

[XY]

Ouch,that is cruel indeed @GR1ZZL3R ! :sad:

"Same" situations here.Won 100$ free bet on Betstars competition.Placed on Napoli to win at least one half against Inter. Bet lost!
Lose 3 Unibet open qualifiers with over 90% as a favorit till the river.
In one,jumped late in the game with two left to the tickets.Second hand (JJ),as UTG,min open,small blind had only few chips and is first candidate for kick out,went all in.BB reraise all-in.I have a litter over him and call.SB have 9X,BB 99 and me JJ.
9 on the river...
Played a few hexapros.In a 25x multiplier (2€) lost against AA.Had QQ in SB and shove onto buttons min raise.
Today gave a few spins on Dead or Alive.After a few spins bonus came.After 6 free spins had 4 Wilds,in a first row.I meant,this is it,"hello youtube",but system had other plans.All 6 spins were "shots in nothing".Just J,Q and K to fill the lines...
Finished with 170x... :waterfall:

Hope you fill a bit better now. 😉
I dont know do I need to turn right or left,or maybe just keep riding forward... 

[GR1ZZL3R]

@XY Your sense of humour always cheers me up. I honestly don't know wether to laugh or cry when I see some of the complaints about bad luck and downswings, some of them have only been playing 2 minutes and don't know what a downswing really is. It's so hard to explain bad variance to someone that hasn't truly experienced it in all its ugly forms, but as I said earlier "Tomorrow is another day" and then we'll really show them. 🤣

[Brocky]

Morning Grizzler.  That QQ vs AA on the bubble is brutal.  What is the next stop of the Unibet UK tour?  I may try and win a package if it's fairly local.

[GR1ZZL3R]

@Brocky Sadly it seems a recurring theme that UB have not released a schedule yet so we are still playing blind as to locations. When I won a UO package it was more than 6 weeks for an actual confirmation, apart from the e-mail informing me of the win, and even longer before Dublin was mentioned. All the other sites tours seem to be in place but UB need a new year resolution, must do better.:sad:

[Kliedz_Zivju]

im part of the level 12 crew now :) next year they will want level 15 hehehe

[GR1ZZL3R]

What's not to like about tournaments. You sit there for one and a half hours, 80 hands at a snails pace, getting absolutely no hands to play, and any attempt to get out of trouble is met with stern resistance. The registration period ends, there are 59 entrants and 11 re-buys leaving 6 uk packages, 5 x 50 tx and 40e cash. I'm down to 14 bb just under the starting stack, middle position puts in a min raise and I look down at AJo and lob it all in. they think a short while and call with A 10.

 

A nice double up, 30 bb and time to play, now I'm 16th of 36 and set. Three hands later I pick up AA so min raise and there's a snap all in by the big stack which I obligingly call.

 

Don't you just love poker? :Angry:

 

 

 

[GR1ZZL3R]

It's been a strange start to the year, which began with high hopes and aspirations but quite quickly I hit the dreaded downswing. Playing mainly micro cash I just got into the rythm of being sucked out on whenever I appeared to be ahead. I am a bit of a fatalist at heart, "It Is What It Is", but when you stop winning with any decent hand because someone somewhere is always willing to buck the odds, it can get into you're head. The inevitable (??) happened and the br disappeared over the course of three bad weeks, and like many before me I swore off poker (yet again.)

However, being a fatalist can be a benefit. Try again and what's the worse that can happen? I lose some more money doing something I enjoy (:puking:)

A small deposit was nicely boosted by 40 euros in the double trouble freeroll, received courtesy of my previous losses, so a not unreasonable br to try again, but what at? Ok lets get serious. Focus has to be the motivation, why not give the sngs a try? Every hand can be important, they don't take too long, I can dive in and out when I like as I don't really play long sessions, and they are mini tourneys in effect, good practice for increasing my workload.

So far so good, I'm actually in profit although not a huge sample size, so it's time to get back on the UK trail for a slightly longer tourney version.

The first attempt really made me laugh. 🤣

I joined a few minutes late and there had obviosly been a double knockout leaving 7 players for 6 tickets. I folded my first hand.

 

Second hand we are joined by a newcomer, 8 playing for 6 spots.I limped in but folded to a flop c-bet. 

 

Third hand I folded, one player called the river shove with 3rd pair.:Wonder:

 

7 for 6. AA v AK sees a transfer of chips. I folded.

 

Fifth hand sees the guy who lost with AK shove the turn with 2nd pair, called by big stack with 3rd pair and hits the river.🤣

 

Two minutes, 1 flop seen, 4 folds and ticket won. Does it get any easier? Probably not, but at least I've taken the first step, Manchester here we come.🤣

 

 

[MadAdo]

@GR1ZZL3R  nicer UK story so far. Hope you can "FOLDED" into Manchester as well 😃 Just earn money by folding as I mentioned in my thread one day ... good luck mate ! :cash:

[GR1ZZL3R]

The two faces of qualifying. After that first easy step, poker has a way of bringing you back down.

Next qualifier about the 5th or 6th hand.

 

Next hand, KK, such an easy game, isn't it?

Get the chips in pre-flop, sit back and collect.

Maybe not. Never mind, 2 hands later, KK again. What's not to like?

Eight hands and out! Variance really is a killer.:Teardrop: