Dimitar's Poker Career

[LeVsKaRa]

• UK Tour goal: Finish the month with at least 10x5€ tickets!
• UO goal: Finish the month with at least 10x10€ tickets!
• SNG challenge: Don’t play any 10€ or 25€ SNGs!
• SNG challenge: Play at least 163 5 seat SNGs with 4€ buy-in
  • An odd number, but this will bring me to a total of 1100 games on this level
• HexaPro goal: Don’t play any of these!!!
• MTT challenge: Don’t play any MTTs!
  • I want to focus on the satellites and SNGs this month
• Study goal: Finish Collin Moshman’s “Sit’n Go Strategy” book”
  • Well it takes me forever to read the whole book. It is time to finish it!

[LeVsKaRa]

I haven’t updated my blog recently. There are two main reasons: first I had a lot to do for my regular job and there were weeks with no time for poker at all. The second one is a downswing, that I am currently in. Nobody likes to write about their losses, right?

 In February I played my № 1000 5-seat SNG with a 4€ buy-in at Unibet. It is a good sample to look at some more details of my results. 

A ROI of 11,47% is a solid one. The sample is yet too small to know if this is my true ROI (1000 games is a 66% true indicator). According to different sources online the maximum possible ROI at this stake is 20%, so there is still room for improvement.

Let’s now take a look at my finishing positions.

As you can see I won 252 games. My longest winning streak was just 5, which I only achieved once. There were several streaks of 10-15 games without first place, which is a combination of bad variance and some leaks in my game. 

I do decent at HU (won 55,7% of the HU battles) and on the bubble (out of 651 bubble situations, I was 199 or 30,6% the bubble boy). I can improve here, for example by using some tool for bubble spots, which I never used so far and by studying HU more.

The amount of 4th and 5th place finishes is the biggest leak in my game in my opinion. I definitely make very stupid mistakes at low blind play. Now that I finally finished the “Sit ‘n Go Strategy” book and made lots of notes, I am certain that I can reduce the amount of these finishes. This will give me the chance to play more bubble spots and to cash more often.

Note: I have currently reached 1070 5 seat SNGs with 4€ buy-in. The last 70 are not included in this update (big downswing) and will appear next month.  

9 seat SNGs (turbo) with 5$ buy-in

The “Sit’n Go Strategy” book is based on this format. I decided to give it a try at the other poker room, that I am playing. So far, so good, I had an upswing there and won 80,56$ after 53 games, which of course made much more fun then getting bad beaten time after time at the 5 seat SNGs. There are lots of regs at the 5$ level, but their level isn’t something extra special. I see lots of mistakes from them in all phases of the game. I can apply the strategies from the book, play tight early on and wait for my spots. At the 5 seat SNGs the blinds hit you more often, blind levels are shorter, so you end up playing more speculative hands, more marginal spots and I am not 100% sure, that I am always doing the right thing. Often there is a bubble play with very deep stacks and I find it strange to call 50 BBs shoves. The presence of more fishes at Unibet is of course a good thing for your winrate in the long run, but the bad beats are more brutal (49o call for his life on the bubble), which tilts me a lot and the result is bad plays from me in the next games. Not sure what format I am going to play from now on. The short-term results at the other poker room might be just good variance. Maybe I will mix them for some time.

 

[WuDu]

---

@LeVsKaRa wrote:

 

A ROI of 11,47% is a solid one. The sample is yet too small to know if this is my true ROI (1000 games is a 66% true indicator). According to different sources online the maximum possible ROI at this stake is 20%, so there is still room for improvement.

As you can see I won 252 games. My longest winning streak was just 5, which I only achieved once. There were several streaks of 10-15 games without first place, which is a combination of bad variance and some leaks in my game. 

I do decent at HU (won 55,7% of the HU battles) and on the bubble (out of 651 bubble situations, I was 199 or 30,6% the bubble boy). I can improve here, for example by using some tool for bubble spots, which I never used so far and by studying HU more.

---

 

Nice writedown, especially since I like advanced stat keeping as well. 👍 And I think I remember your name from the tables.

However according to your stats, you're on a massive heater over your sample size, you'd like to keep that in mind.

55,7 % HU Won is not sustainable and 45 % ITM is a little bit low. I just looked at my stats and whenever I reached 45 % ITM within a sample, I was hovering around 2-5 % ROI. Once your HU rate cools down to 50 %, which is still a good number, you'll feel the effect in your ROI, since you're not reaching the money enough.

However it's really interesting to see the number for other regs at that level. I'm wondering what 4WARD963's stats would look like...😃

[LeVsKaRa]

Hey @WuDu ! Thanks for your reply.

You are right about the massive heater, it was actually in the first 200-250 games, where I had a ROI of 20-25%. In the next 700-800 games my ROI is about 3-5 %. I agree that my 45% ITM is a bit low, the amount of 4th and 5th finishes should be reduced, if I want to cash more often. 

About the HU: my stats don't tell the whole truth. One important factor isn't accounted - the HU starting stacks. I didn't write them down, but for sure I was more often the bigger stack, which gives me more chance to win the HU battle. I recently started to write down the HU starting stacks, I will add the numbers in my next big sample update. 

Good luck at the tables (not against me of course xD)!

[WuDu]

@LeVsKaRa 

Maybe this template helps you to compute your HU stats:

To me that was too much work for too little impact. But doing it this way, you can see whether or not you're actually winning or losing during the HU phase.

[LeVsKaRa]

One quarter of the year is gone, so this is a good time to update my blog.

It wasn’t a good quarter for me at the poker tables, mostly because of the lack of discipline. I played formats that I know, that I am not good at and I should stay away from (Spins, Hexas). I also broke my bankroll management rules several times and let tilt moments affect my game and decisions.

I will try to focus on the positive things though:

• I always recognized the tilt moments and I also managed to leave the tables most of the time, when tilted, but sadly not always. It made me realize how important the mental side of the game is one more time.
• I did finally finish the Sit ‘n Go Strategy book from Collin Moshman, made very good notes and now use them with success. I also reviewed hands after busting some SNGs and tried to figure out what I did wrong and what I did right. Overall the studying part went well. My improvement as a poker player continues, which is the most important part.

The overall bankroll is something around 1500€ with around 150€ in opened sports bets and 66€ in bonus points (UK Tour tickets converted), so it was a breakeven quarter. 

The money is still not so relevant, I am still away from the 5-figure bankroll and possible withdrawals, so the main objectives are improving my game, building a larger bankroll and moving up the stakes.

Next big milestone is 2500€. This bankroll will allow me to start regularly adding some 10€ and 25€ MTTs to my schedule. For now the SNGs and satellites are my main game.

[LeVsKaRa]

• UO goal: Play 30 UO qualifiers.
• SNG challenge: Don’t play any 25€ SNGs.
• SNG challenge: Play at least 200 SNGs
  • 5 seat SNGs at Unibet with 4€ and 10€ buy-in;
  • 9 seat SNGs at the other poker room with 5$ and 10$ buy-in;
  • I want to play maximum 3 tables at once. A fourth table produces way more mistakes for now.
• HexaPro and Spins goal: Don’t play any of these!!!
• MTT challenge: Don’t play any MTTs!
• Study goal
  • Read my notes for the SNGs at least once a week (it takes me like 15-20 minutes to go through the full notes);
  • Make at least one session (30 minutes) of studying my own play and the play of my opponents (hand replayer) and add something to my notes;
  • Review my notes on the satellites strategy at least twice this month.

• Try not to look at the results too much. Update the results at the end of the month.

[LeVsKaRa]

April 2021 Starting Bankroll: 1500 €

 

SNG

5 seat 4€ buy-in: 65 played (21 wins, 14 other cashes), profit: 94,69 €

5 seat 10€ buy-in: 58 played (13 wins, 14 other cashes), profit: 53,33 €

9 seat 5$ buy-in: 68 played (6 wins, 10 runner-ups and 13 min-cashes), profit: 22,18 $

9 seat 10$ buy-in: 30 played (6 wins, 3 runner-ups and 3 min-cashes), profit: 80,70 $

For the next few stats I convert the $ in € like this 1 $ = 0,83 €.

I played 221 SNGs with an average buy-in 6,20 €. I made a profit of 233,41 €, which means 17% ROI.

UO Satellites

UO Ticket Bankroll:

I won't have time to play anymore this week, so the poker month is over for me.

 

April 2021 Ending Bankroll: 1767,82 €

[GR1ZZL3R]

I've run out of likes again @LeVsKaRa but I like it.

[LeVsKaRa]

As I did review my hands after my sessions, I picked some of them up to show you.

HAND 1

9 seat, Low-Blind Play (LBP), blinds 10-20, 9 players. I am MP1. I raise first in (RFI) to 50 chips (2,5 BB). MP3 3-bets me to 90 chips (4,5 BB), B and BB call and I call as well. 3-bets like this one are always weird. These are mostly premium hands from players, who want to get more action (poor play thought, because you invite more players to see a flop). I excluded 66-TT, because this is mostly a call during LBP.
397 chips at the middle, flop comes 3s7s4h and I lead with ½ pot bet (200 chips). MP3 raises all-in, B and BB folded. JJ-AA should never raise all-in here, because I am doing the betting already. So I am up against two overcards and/or flush draw most of the time. I call, turn is a disaster, the river saves me.

HAND 2

9 seat, LBP, blinds 25-50, 9 players. I am EP3. I RFI to 150 chips (3BB). Only the BB calls.
379 chips at the middle, flop comes 9hKsAc. BB checks, I make a c-bet (47% pot c-bet) to get some value of my top 2 pair. BB calls and decides to lead the turn (7h) with ½ pot bet. Nothing to be afraid of here, I lose just to a set of 9 or 7, which makes no sense to lead here, when I am the aggressor. I just call the bet and then call his all-in on the river (Jc).

In my notes from the “Sit ‘n Go Strategy” book is written: “LBP AQs, AQo: these are solid, but not premium hands. Tend to fold if someone has raised already. This is because if the raiser has a better hand, you will often lose all your chips on a seemingly favorable flop.” As I read it in the book I was sceptic about this one. Folding AQ was way too tight in my opinion. I was in the opposite side of the HAND 2 several times and I learned, that Moshman is absolute right about this one. I see it way too often how people end up 9^th or 8^th with AQ or JJ for example.

 

HAND 3

9 seat, LBP, blinds 10-20, first hand of the tournament. MP1 open shoves, no information about him at all. In such situation I am calling just KK-AA. Once again: 6 months ago I was calling with AKs, which is a small mistake. Doubling up early only doubles your chips, not your tournament equity. Maybe too tight, but I am confident, that I have an edge over most of my opponents and can outplay them later.

HAND 4

9 seat, LBP, blinds 15-30, 9 players. UTG limps, MP1 raises to 3,5 BB. I decide to slowplay my monster hand, but as it turned out it was a mistake. The blinds and UTG completed. 561 chips are in the middle, bad flop for me. The original raiser makes a c-bet of just 105 chips, so we all call. Turn is a dream one for me (at least I thought so at this moment) and chips go in the middle… A 3-bet pre-flop can eliminate both players from the hand. Weird hand, not necessary a huge mistake, but 3-betting the monsters in LBP pre-flop is a better play.

HAND 5

9 seat, Mid-Blind Play (MBP), blinds 60-120, 6 players left. Player 1 is a reg and open-shoves his 9,3 BB pre-flopfrom the CO. Very often this is an attempt to steal the blinds with speculative hands. Easy one to call.

HAND 6

5 seat, Bubble play, blinds are 100-200. I am chip leader with 5232 chips (26 BB), the player in BB is very tight and passive and was folding almost every hand, trying to get into the money without risking. I started pushing any two against him and started the HU with more than 8000 chips. I won the tournament. 6 months ago I was folding more than 30% of my hands in this situation.

HAND 7&8

5 seat, Bubble play. These two hands are from the same SNG. The one player is sitting out the whole tournament. I am huge chip leader and decide to be a bully. Even the weakest HU starting hand 23o is a correct shove, giving the fact that it was a decent player and not some maniac against me.

 

HAND 9

9 seat, Bubble Play, blinds are 25-50. Player 2 opens to 100 chips (2 BB), I call with AJs, I don’t want to end up pushing/calling pre-flop, because we are still deep stacked. Player 1 calls as well. I flop the second nuts, the original raiser bets ½ pot, I call, Player 1 folds. Turn gives me the nuts and goes check/check. Player 2 checks the river. Well an A calls my bet regardless of the size. I don’t think I can get value from any other hand, even a flush is a fold here. I decide to push all-in (2,6 x pot bet). Instant call and a maximum value for me.

HAND 10

I shoved the flop and was so happy to see that I am going to double up. Biggest bad beat of the month.

[LeVsKaRa]

Evaluation of the monthly goals: April 2021

• UO goal: Play 30 UO qualifiers. COMPLETED
  • Exactly 30 UO qualifiers played. I was very close to win one 50€ ticket, but my QQ pre-flop shove was called by 24s from a maniac and he got a straight on the river. I was also close to one 250€ ticket, but no luck there as well.
• SNG challenge: Don’t play any 25€ SNGs. COMPLETED
• SNG challenge: Play at least 200 SNGs COMPLETED
  • 5 seat SNGs at Unibet with 4€ and 10€ buy-in
  • 9 seat SNGs at the other poker room with 5$ and 10$ buy-in
  • I want to play maximum 3 tables at once. A fourth table produces way more mistakes for now. COMPLETED
• HexaPro and Spins goal: Don’t play any of these!!! COMPLETED
  • I played 2 HexaPros with the tickets won from the challenge points system. So this part is still completed.
• MTT challenge: Don’t play any MTTs! UNCOMPLETED
  • I broke this one twice: I played the MoonWalk at Unibet once (10€ spent) and a 11$ tournament at the other poker room.
• Study goal
  • Read my notes for the SNGs at least once a week (it takes me like 15-20 minutes to go through the full notes); COMPLETED
  • Make at least one session (30 minutes) of studying my own play and the play of my opponents (hand replayer) and add something to my notes; COMPLETED
  • Review my notes on the satellites strategy at least twice this month. COMPLETED ·     
• Try not to look at the results too much. Update the results at the end of the month. PARTLY COMPLETED

[LeVsKaRa]

New monthly goals: May 2021

After a solid performance in football, the coach doesn’t need to make any changes of the starting line-up. The April monthly goals were perfect for me, kept me disciplined and focused and I performed near my best during most poker sessions. So there is no need to change the anything.

However, as the new regulations in Germany will happen in two months and this will probably mean the death of online poker in the country (thank you, politicians!), I will add one more goal:

• UO goal: Play 30 UO qualifiers.
• Play 5 Supernova qualifiers (10€ buy-in)
• SNG challenge: Don’t play any 25€ SNGs.
• SNG challenge: Play at least 200 SNGs
  • 5 seat SNGs at Unibet with 4€ and 10€ buy-in
  • 9 seat SNGs at the other poker room with 5$ and 10$ buy-in
  • I want to play maximum 3 tables at once. A fourth table produces way more mistakes for now.
• HexaPro and Spins goal: Don’t play any of these!!!
• MTT challenge: Don’t play any MTTs (except the Supernova xD)
• Study goal
  • Read my notes for the SNGs at least once a week (it takes me like 15-20 minutes to go through the full notes);
  • Make at least one session (30 minutes) of studying my own play and the play of my opponents (hand replayer) and add something to my notes;
  • Review my notes on the satellites strategy at least twice this month.
• · Try not to look at the results too much. Update the results at the end of the month.

[LeVsKaRa]

Evaluation of the monthly goals: May 2021

• UO goal: Play 30 UO qualifiers. UNCOMPLETED
  • I played around 20 UO satellites, but the results were nice.

• Play 5 Supernova qualifiers (10€ buy-in) COMPLETED
  • I couldn’t qualify for the tournament.

• SNG challenge: Don’t play any 25€ SNGs. UNCOMPLETED
  • I played 1x25€ buy-in in a moment of tilt, the good news is I won it.

• SNG challenge: Play at least 200 SNGs UNCOMPLETED (volume wasn’t enough)
  • 5 seat SNGs at Unibet with 4€ and 10€ buy-in

  • 9 seat SNGs at the other poker room with 5$ and 10$ buy-in

  • I want to play maximum 3 tables at once. A fourth table produces way more mistakes for now. COMPLETED

• HexaPro and Spins goal: Don’t play any of these!!! UNCOMPLETED

• MTT challenge: Don’t play any MTTs (except the Supernova xD) UNCOMPLETED

• Study goal COMPLETED
  • Read my notes for the SNGs at least once a week (it takes me like 15-20 minutes to go through the full notes);

  • Make at least one session (30 minutes) of studying my own play and the play of my opponents (hand replayer) and add something to my notes;

  • Review my notes on the satellites strategy at least twice this month.

• · Try not to look at the results too much. Update the results at the end of the month. PARTLY COMPLETED
  • I will update my results tomorrow, which is the completed part.

[LeVsKaRa]

May 2021 Starting Bankroll: 1767,82 €

As I am writing this now, I can’t believe how I did so many stupid things during this month…

After few days, when I ran bad at the SNG tables I started to break my monthly goals. First MTTs, then couple of Spins/HexaPros and finally big sport bets… I was completely out of control, so I withdrew my money from both sites after just 10 days (after I lost more than 800€). I also took one week away from the tables… I will still count the withdrawn money as part of my poker bankroll.

In the second part of the month I played mostly SNGs with 4€ and 5$ buy-in. Nothing special, but I was still tilting, so I reduced my time at the poker tables.

SNG

5 seat 4€ buy-in: 44 played (18 wins, 6 other cashes), profit: 90,04 € + 36 € (from BP)

5 seat 10€ buy-in: 36 played (5 wins, 7 other cashes), loss: 90,84 €

5 seat 25€ buy-in: 1 played, 1 win, profit: 54,17 €

9 seat 5$ buy-in: 33 played (1 win, 9 runner-ups and 2 min-cashes), loss: 13,42 $

9 seat 10$ buy-in: 25 played (0 wins, 3 runner-ups and 4 min-cashes), loss: 106,18 $

For the next few stats I convert the $ in € like this 1 $ = 0,82 €.

I played 139 SNGs with an average buy-in 6,80 €. I lost 44,70 €, which means -4,73% ROI. When I add the 36 € from the bonus point, the loss is reduced to 8,70€.

Satellites

The only real good news this month was my performance at the UO satellites. I managed to win 5x50€ tickets. Qualification to UO will become my biggest poker priority after the 01.07.2021.

UO Ticket Bankroll:

MTT

120 € lost in MTTs…

Sports Betting

These destroyed my bankroll… First I tried to cover my losses with a 200€ sports bet (my rule is actually maximum bet amount of 1,5% of the bankroll, which was around 25€ at that time). I lost the bet and then I tried one more time to cover all my losses with an even bigger bet, which I also lost…

May 2021 Ending Bankroll: 1019,91 €

[LeVsKaRa]

New monthly goals: June 2021

This will be the last month before the big changes in online poker in Germany. So it will be the last month with the 5 seat SNGs and challenge points system at Unibet for customers from Germany.

• SNG challenge: Don’t play any 25€ SNGs.
• SNG challenge: Play at least 200 SNGs
  • 5 seat SNGs at Unibet with 4€ and 10€ buy-in
  • 9 seat SNGs at the other poker room with 5$ and 10$ buy-in
  • I want to play maximum 3 tables at once. A fourth table produces way more mistakes for now.
• HexaPro and Spins goal: Don’t play any of these!!!
• MTT challenge: Don’t play any MTTs
• Challenge Points: Reach 15 000 challenge points, this will give me 2x5€ prizes, as I am currently at 11 000.
• Study goal
  • Read my notes for the SNGs at least once a week (it takes me like 15-20 minutes to go through the full notes);
  • Make at least one session (30 minutes) of studying my own play and the play of my opponents (hand replayer) and add something to my notes;
• Try not to look at the results too much. Update the results at the end of the month.
• Sports Betting: 100€ budget for the month, 10€ maximum bet size!

[LeVsKaRa]

June 2021 Starting Bankroll: 1019,91 €

SNG

It is over with the 5 seat SNGs at Unibet for players from Germany. I like the format very much, it is sad, but it is what it is…

They were my main game for the last 12-18 months. I included the 9 seat SNGs this year as well and it seems, that these are still going to run at some poker rooms without any changes in the rake, so maybe I will continue to play them. I am not sure about this yet.

Let’s take a look my monthly results:

5 seat 4€ buy-in: 35 played (8 wins, 4 other cashes), loss 13,32 €

5 seat 10€ buy-in: 48 played (10 wins, 12 other cashes), profit: 26,66 €

9 seat 5$ buy-in: 11 played (1 win, 3 runner-ups and 1 min-cash), profit: 12,38 $

9 seat 10$ buy-in: 14 played (3 wins, 0 runner-ups and 2 min-cashes), profit: 20,74 $

For the next few stats I convert the $ in € like this 1 $ = 0,84 €.

I played 108 SNGs with an average buy-in 7,26 €. I won 41,16 €, which means 5,25% ROI.

Satellites

I played just a few of these. The UO satellites will be the only format that I will play at Unibet next month (a rare MTT could be the only exception).

UO Ticket Bankroll:

MTT

22,79 € lost in 6 MTTs.

Sports Betting

There are some very nice sports promotions for the EURO 2021 across the sites. Unibet had the Streakr for the group stage and some quote boosts for German customers. Unfortunately I can’t take part in the Team Collector missions at the poker tables, which I enjoyed very much last time. Also for some reason the sports promotions here in the community aren’t relevant for German customers. The reason wasn’t explained to me (I needed to ask twice, just to receive king of rude answer…). As far as I know there is no legal reason not to allow it for Germans, so very poor management from Unibet…

Overall I won 14,09€ from sports bets.

June 2021 Ending Bankroll: 1070,53 €

[LeVsKaRa]

Evaluation of the monthly goals: June 2021

• SNG challenge: Don’t play any 25€ SNGs. COMPLETED

• SNG challenge: Play at least 200 SNGs NOT COMPLETED
  • I played 108 SNGs.

• HexaPro and Spins goal: Don’t play any of these!!! PARTLY COMPLETED
  • No spins played, just 3-4 Hexas in a moment of tilt, I ended up +/- 0€.

• MTT challenge: Don’t play any MTTs PARTLY COMPLETED
  • I played 3 MTTs at Unibet, all of them in good mental moments, not a result of tilt. I also plan to play more of these in the near future, so nothing to be disappointed about at this goal.

• Challenge Points: Reach 15 000 challenge points, this will give me 2x5€ prizes, as I am currently at 11 000. COMPLETED

• Study goal COMPLETED
  • Read my notes for the SNGs at least once a week (it takes me like 15-20 minutes to go through the full notes);

  • Make at least one session (30 minutes) of studying my own play and the play of my opponents (hand replayer) and add something to my notes;

• Try not to look at the results too much. Update the results at the end of the month. COMPLETED

• Sports Betting: 100€ budget for the month, 10€ maximum bet size! PARTLY COMPLETED
  • 140€ spent, maximum bet size was 10€.

[LeVsKaRa]

New monthly goals: July 2021

The new regulations for online poker in Germany are now official. Lots of poker rooms closed their entire market, others are still here, but some formats are gone. At Unibet the 5 seat SNGs, which were my main game for the last year and a half are gone. The good news is that the UO qualifiers are still available and they are going to be my main focus this month. I hope they don’t exclude us from the exchangers…

• SNG challenge: Make a research, which poker rooms are still offering SNGs, what is the format, rake, rakeback program, traffic, etc.

• HexaPros and Spins goal: Don’t play any of these!!!

• MTT challenge: 150€ budget for these, 10€ maximum buy-in (5€ for re-buys + add-on formats).

• Satellite goal: Play at least 40 UO qualifiers!

• Study goal: Read “The Mental Game of Poker” from Jared Tendler

• Try not to look at the results too much. Update the results at the end of the month.

• Sports Betting: 150€ budget for the month, 10€ maximum bet size!

[LeVsKaRa]

July and August 2021

I haven’t updated my blog in the last two months. The new gambling regulations in Germany are the main reason for this. Lots of formats like the SNGs are gone or not playable with the additional tax of 5,3%. There are no poker promotions, no freerolls, no rakeback programs at most poker rooms. Unibet also excluded all the German accounts from the UO exchangers…

So my motivation for playing is low.

SNG

I tried to play the 9 men SNGs at Pokerstars (7$ and 15$ buy-ins), but the player pool there is full of some pros from Eastern Europe and Russia and the games are just not profitable (or at least I can’t beat them). Pokerstars have now something like 7,5% rake on the SNGs, which is an increase compared to the 5% at Unibet and 6% at Partypoker, which I paid before the new regulations. There is still a rakeback program at there, but you get something like 1-2% rakeback, which is as good as nothing. After playing 150 games (I hit a 25 buy-in downswing) I decided to quit the SNGs for good. As much as I love the format, it is just dead. The edges are so small, there are almost no fishes at Pokerstars in these games. I did plan in the beginning of the year to switch to the MTTs, so now is the time!

Satellites

The fact that the UO exchangers are not offered for players from Germany anymore was a huge disappointment for me. I did praise Unibet for having a statement what will change from 01.07.2021  6 weeks earlier, but nothing was mentioned about the UO exchangers. So I didn’t even have a chance to exchange all of my tickets…

Anyway, it is what it is, I need to adjust my strategy. I have invested lots of time into studying the format and UO qualifiers are so soft, that I will continue playing them. I still have some tickets left, so first I will use them all and try to qualify for an event.

I am also playing more superqualifiers for 25€ buy-in Neptune and 100€ buy-in Supernova. These are extremely soft, very often an overlay, so they are profitable and allow me to play some bigger events, which are more exciting than 5€-10€ buy-in MTTs.

Sports Betting

I won a nice prize from an EURO promotion at bwin. Some more small sports bonuses at Unibet and other sites boosted my overall bankroll the last two months, so that it went up to around 1400 €.

[WuDu]

@LeVsKaRa

1400 Euro bankroll. Check!

Experience playing the UO qualifiers. Check!

Played Unibet SNGs before. Check!

Honestly, if I were you, I'd try to become an MTT regular. With 1400 Euros, you could try to play the 25s here, which would give you enough tournaments to fill out your poker schedule.

I also thought the same about the special qualifiers, however personally, my BR isn't big enough to play them, yet...

[LeVsKaRa]

On 9/2/2021 at 6:25 PM, WuDu said:

@LeVsKaRa

1400 Euro bankroll. Check!

Experience playing the UO qualifiers. Check!

Played Unibet SNGs before. Check!

Honestly, if I were you, I'd try to become an MTT regular. With 1400 Euros, you could try to play the 25s here, which would give you enough tournaments to fill out your poker schedule.

I also thought the same about the special qualifiers, however personally, my BR isn't big enough to play them, yet...

Thanks for your comment! I agree with you, I am in a process of switching to MTTs entirely. Some nice MTTs at the other poker rooms as well for 22$, but the fields are much bigger, so Unibet will be the perfect option to make the transition. The player pools here are relatively small, which means less varience. I am listening podcasts, watching youtube videos and try to mentally prepare myself to play for the win every time, which means more aggression, more risks taking, less time ITM, but bigger ROI. 

[WuDu]

Yes the ROI is bigger, since there are a lot of recreative gamblers playing these MTTs. And the regulars are nothing special. However you also have to keep in mind that your turnover will be much lower, because depending on the games you like to play, the MTT schedule is a joke here.

Round about 30 % in the money is a nice target, then you also don't have to worry about swings so much:

If you won playing the SNGs here, adjust a little bit, then playing MTTs here is much easier.

[LeVsKaRa]

Time to say Goodbye, Unibet…

I am going to interview myself in this post (just like @MadAdo does in his thread)

Unibet poker client isn’t available anymore in Germany. What are your thoughts about this?

This is hopefully just temporarily. The news wasn’t a huge shock to me, because I expected something like this to happen after the new regulations regarding gambling. Still I didn’t expect it so soon, I thought at least until the end of 2021 no more changes are going to happen, after the SNGs, cash games and UO exchangers were removed.

The only positive thing was that my tournament tickets were converted into cash. So my overall bankroll went up to 2000€.

Why did you play poker at Unibet?

Unibet was my main poker room, until the beginning of 2021 I played poker almost exclusively here. I liked pretty much everything: the software, the 5 seat SNGs, the satellite structures and exchangers, the small and soft playerpools, all promotions (especially during December and during a major football tournament, when there were daily missions and rewards). All community activities as well, all stories, etc. In the last 12 months everything changed: first the community promos were gone, then no rakeback system, no SNGs, no exchangers and now no poker room at all… Very sad, but I can’t do anything about it.

What are your best memories from playing poker at Unibet?

My transformation from a gambler (fish at the poker tables) to a regular player happened at Unibet. All freerolls, satellites and micro MTTs which I played here, helped me to become a better player and to eventually win some money.

I managed to qualify for the Sunday Supernova and made my debut like 3 weeks ago. But it was a short experience, as I decided to triple barrel bluff a hand early on and was called.

The highlight is of course my qualification to Unibet Open Paris 2019 live event. I started from the centrolls and managed to win a 2000€ worth package and then I even cashed for almost 3000€ at the live event. It was an amazing experience in Paris. One dream of mine came true. Unfortunately the pandemic began shortly after and there was just one more UO live event after that. I couldn’t qualify for this one and then I didn’t really have any motivation to play the satellites regularly just to play an online event with 1100€ buy-in. The whole point was the experience of the live event, meeting new people, visiting some nice places.

What are your poker plans from now on?

At the start of the year I made a list with some yearly poker goals. So many things changed and I don’t have the opportunity to try to achieve many of these goals anymore.

I am in a transition period right now. Not only from Unibet to other poker rooms, but also from SNGs to MTTs. Until the end of the year I am going to focus more on studying the MTTs and volume is going to be low. My bankroll allows me to start at 22$ buy-in events. I am also going to play some satellites and T$ tournaments.

What about your poker blog here at the Unibet community?

I will continue posting, as long as the mods don’t have anything against it. I will try not to make any advertisement of other poker rooms/sites.

Do you want to add something else?

I want to thank to everyone who liked, comment and read my blog so far. I also want to thank to the mods, who were always helpfull and I hope that Unibet poker will be back in Germany very soon.

[LeVsKaRa]

October 2021

During October I didn’t play poker at all. The plan is not to play a single poker hand during November and December as well.

Did I give up on poker? Not at all!

“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”

― Albert Einstein

Well, I realized that I can’t explain to a six year old child, how to play profitably MTTs. So, I am studying all the fundamentals, concepts and details of this poker format. The plan is to return to the tables in 2022 better than ever.

Edited November 4, 2021 by LeVsKaRa

[LeVsKaRa]

Happy new year, guys! I wish you all the best and most importantly stay healthy.

One year ago I set myself the following goals for 2021:

1.)    Stay discipled! Respect my bankroll management!

2.)    Improve my SNG-, MTT- and satellite-play!

3.)    Play at least 10 UK Tour/UO satellites finals.

4.)    Reach the 25€ SNG level.

5.)    Stay away from the cash tables, HexaPros, casino slots and sports betting.

6.)    Make a Supernova (100€ buy-in) debut and a Big Bang (200€ buy-in) debut

Lots of things happened during the year. The new gambling regulations in Germany changed drastically the poker in the country. There was the closure of Unibet Poker in September, before that the UK Tour was cancelled, so some of my yearly goals were impossible to reach.

I respected my bankroll management, made my Supernova debut (the first and last time I played this tournament due to the closure of the product in Germany), studied a lot and improved my game.

Unfortunately, there were times of weakness, when I played some HexaPros, placed huge sports bets, etc., which I am not proud of. Let’s hope to minimize these moments (if possible to cut them completely from my game) in 2022.

Here is my plan for 2022:

• I am going to play only MTTs this year; max 4-tabling.
• Bankroll rule: 100 buy-ins for each level! My bankroll at the start of the year is 2000€ / $2260. I am going to start at the $22 buy-in level, moving down to the $16,50 level with $1650 left and moving up to the $33, when I reach $3300 and so on. There is no requirement for some numbers of tournaments at some level.
• I am going to play 6 hours per week. 1,5 hours per week will be spend in reviewing my weekly session and studying.