Breaking Even

[Samba]

What's up!

My name is Sam, I'm 35 and identify as a fish. I've played poker since I turned 18 and played professionally for 7-8 years of my adult life (pre solvers). The years in between then and now were spent working as a chef on tour in the music biz (final tour i did was the Rolling Stones) before moving onto films (final film I did was the new Bond) and then COVID happened... 

I initially went back to poker during the first lockdown with an out of date skillset and a bad work life balance with almost no time devoted towards studying. After a bad run and about a -10k downswing I decided to put a stop to playing and study theory as a hobby until I felt confident in my game again.

This blog is being started with the intention of detailing my progress as I work towards becoming a breakeven player and spin up a bankroll for a US trip next year with some banter and strategy sprinkled in. Most of my volume will be in cash with some MTT punts and occasional sports betting.

My return to the tables in September started off hot and I even managed to bink a UOS low rebuy for +£1k!

Net Unibet winnings (Year): £2390

Net Unibet winnings (Lifetime):  -£1188.42

Goals for the month: Quit smoking, Update blog weekly, Play 45k cash hands, No shot taking, HQ Study sessions, Activate rungood

VAMANOS!

 

[GR1ZZL3R]

Welcome and good luck, 🍀 

Goals for the month:

Quit smoking, Just do it, easier than you think and your health and pockets will thank you.

 Update blog weekly, Harder to do than you think, if you're running good you'll want to play, running bad and you'll postpone it.   

Play 45k cash hands, Too many for me, go for it. 

No shot taking, We all say that till we do it.  

HQ Study sessions,  I'm too old.  

Activate rungood  Definitely.

Looking forward to some juicy results. 😄

 

Edited October 1, 2021 by GR1ZZL3R

[Samba]

Just a quick update since I haven't played much volume yet this month.

Nicotine withdrawal has  had some "interesting" side-effects. When I am playing a lot of tables I find that lots of hands are almost auto 3bets or auto folds, your subconscious has made the decision for you whilst you concentrate on the more complicated scenarios. When I am playing lots of tables at the moment my "automatic" decision making is definitely not running as well as it normally does. I've had to quit a lot of sessions early as I have suddenly flicked back to a table to find I 3bet an UTG reg with AJ67 with 4 spades and now have a flop decision I should never have to make due to my poor preflop choices. 

On 10/1/2021 at 8:32 PM, GR1ZZL3R said:

Play 45k cash hands, Too many for me, go for it. 

 

 

I couldn't agree more 😄 So far I have had 1 cigarette in 4 days and am starting to feel better for it physically so I am hoping to catch up on volume in the latter half of the month.

Things could definitely be worse.  As it stands I am +£25 on the week after bricking every tournament and playing  B- cash games.

Net Unibet winnings (Year): £2415

Net Unibet winnings (Lifetime):  -£1163.42

[Samba]

Much better mental game at the tables, I moved down to .10-.25 & .25/.50 as I was still a bit wary of punting/tilting from the nicotine withdrawal but am happy to say I played and ran great. Still had to cut a few sessions off early as I could feel the stress levels rising but I didn't play a single hand on a table more than I should have so overall very happy.

I donated £20 to the MTT community league before realising I would rather stick molten hot pins in my eyes than be forced to play a full schedule of £10 freezouts again and continued on with cash games. Good luck to all that endure it!

Due to my cautious approach I've only managed around 7k hands of a target of 11k for the week so am looking to start scaling up volume. I have noticed that if I play any more than 5 tables simultaneously I will lose a lot of depth to my thought process (I'm old AF now) so 5 tabling 40k hands in 3 weeks... bring it on!

0/3 on e-sports (LOL WC) bets for another -£30 but I run good where it counts so its OK

All in all, a great week. I hope you all feel the same!

P.S. There is a distinct lack of HH's in this blog so far but that's due to the fact I am playing on a very old laptop and grabbing screenshots just isn't viable at the moment. I am in the process of building my man cave which will have a desktop PC instead of a laptop so HH's will follow soon!

❤️ Sam

Net Unibet winnings (Year): £3090

Net Unibet winnings (Lifetime):  -£488.42

[Samba]

I am officially out of the hole! And completely free from smoking! I even threw the vape in the bin and it feels F*cking good 😄

I did break one of my blog targets and on the tail end of the recent rungood I sat 100PLO for an hour.

Biggest hand in terms of BBs:

Game #1566666682: Table €25 PL - 0.10/0.25 - Pot Limit Omaha - 06:51:30 2021/10/07
*** Seated players ***
Seat 1: loserbooser (€33.46) - early bird
Seat 2: plotrix (€25.98)
Seat 3: Bongihiiri (€70.61)
Seat 4: ACRRTY (€58.77) - early bird (sitting out)
Seat 5: ButtonB (€25.15)
Seat 6: nonpareil (€73.38)
*** Blinds and button ***
plotrix has the button
Bongihiiri posts small blind €0.10
ButtonB posts big blind €0.25
*** Hole cards ***
Dealt to Bongihiiri [Jc Jh Kd 2s]
Dealt in ButtonB
Dealt to nonpareil [8s Js Qc 9c]
Dealt in loserbooser
Dealt in plotrix
*** Preflop ***
nonpareil raises €0.85 to €0.85
loserbooser calls €0.85
plotrix folds
Bongihiiri calls €0.75
ButtonB raises €4 to €4.25
nonpareil calls €3.40
loserbooser calls €3.40
Bongihiiri calls €3.40
*** Flop *** [Jd Tc 7c]
Bongihiiri bets €17
ButtonB folds
nonpareil raises €68 to €68
loserbooser folds
Bongihiiri calls €49.36, and is all-in
Uncalled bet returned to nonpareil: €1.64
*** Showdown ***
*** Turn *** [Jd Tc 7c] [Kh]
*** River *** [Jd Tc 7c] [Kh] [6h]
Bongihiiri shows [Jc Jh Kd 2s], Three of a kind, Jacks
nonpareil shows [8s Js Qc 9c], A Straight
nonpareil wins €147.22
*** Summary ***
Total pot €149.72 Rake €2.50
Seat 1: loserbooser: bet €4.25 and won €0, net result: €-4.25
Seat 3: Bongihiiri: bet €70.61 and won €0, net result: €-70.61
Seat 5: ButtonB: bet €4.25 and won €0, net result: €-4.25
Seat 6: nonpareil: bet €72.25 and won €148.86, net result: €76.61

Biggest hand in terms of £££:

Game #1567063551: Table €100 PL - 0.50/1.00 - Pot Limit Omaha - 22:19:49 2021/10/07
*** Seated players ***
Seat 1: dachriiii (€145.31)
Seat 2: Jamesbodman (€254.23)
Seat 4: 5amba (€101)
Seat 5: SikaRillo (€100)
Seat 6: plopedro (€226.16)
*** Blinds and button ***
5amba has the button
SikaRillo posts small blind €0.50
plopedro posts big blind €1
*** Hole cards ***
Dealt in SikaRillo
Dealt to plopedro [Qh Jh Tc Ts]
Dealt in dachriiii
Dealt in Jamesbodman
Dealt to 5amba [9c Ah 9d Jc]
*** Preflop ***
dachriiii folds
Jamesbodman folds
5amba raises €3.50 to €3.50
SikaRillo folds
plopedro raises €10 to €11
5amba calls €7.50
*** Flop *** [Qc Td 9h]
plopedro bets €11.25
5amba calls €11.25
*** Turn *** [Qc Td 9h] [Kc]
plopedro bets €22.50
5amba raises €78.75 to €78.75, and is all-in
plopedro calls €56.25
*** Showdown ***
*** River *** [Qc Td 9h] [Kc] [4d]
5amba shows [9c Ah 9d Jc], A Straight, Ace high
plopedro shows [Qh Jh Tc Ts], A Straight, King high
5amba wins €199.50
*** Summary ***
Total pot €202.50 Rake €3
Seat 4: 5amba: bet €101 and won €199.50, net result: €98.50
Seat 5: SikaRillo: bet €0.50 and won €0, net result: €-0.50
Seat 6: plopedro: bet €101 and won €0, net result: €-101

 

I have 5 esports bets open on the account for a max return of ~£200 (2 of which win or lose today) Other than that it is back to the grindstone! Low stakes grinding to minimise the chances of redepositing and DEFINITELY no sitting higher than 50. 

Thanks for reading! The next update will be when I either have to redeposit or hit £400 on the account.

❤️ Sam

Edited October 11, 2021 by Samba
Formatting

[Stubbe-Unibet]

Well done with the smoking! And nice blog so far 🙂

[OmahGAWD]

have fun with the blog sam😍

i am a life long alcoholic and know how hard it is to quit a drug but how rewarding it is and how mucy it helps my poker! so well done for kicking the 'cigs'

gl and run well

[Samba]

Thank you for the kind words guys, 

INTERESTING day yesterday, I woke up to news that one of my open bet's had a roster change (Fnatic) and went from evens to 2:1 so I had an extra 20 on it before the game starts. The replacement player didn't warrant that much of a change in the odds so I felt fine about. It lost. I was on tilt over the roster change. Roster changes prematch are a lot rarer in esports than in traditional sports as injuries aren't really a thing so the fact this happened pissed me off. I had another £5 bet and then a £90. Both losses.

That was the first time I've ever felt on tilt from betting sports and betting on games I had no opinion of, it will also be the last time I do it. For 6 months 😉

Fortunately, I run a lot better at card games than I do at betting on children's video games and booked a small win overall ~£50. (I'm still salty about it)

When I fired up some tables this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see all the same names from 11.30pm last night still playing at 6am with 1kbb stacks on several tables. There is absolutely nothing I like for breakfast more than the money of tired bad regs.

Biggest pot: 4b pre  to 46bb so the shortstack could rejam and reopen the betting and we squeeze the other deepstack and flip for the money, but the nit just flatted. AI On flop, easiest hold of my life     

 

Onwards and upwards we go! Short break to enjoy the DOTA 2 and LoL matches before recommencing the grind later tonight. I know I am a massive nerd.

 

❤️ Sam

[Samba]

Humble pie! That is what I had for breakfast this morning.. Small downswing over the last few sessions to bring me back to my senses and stop being an arrogant twat. Definitely didn't play my best either and punted 80% of a stack OTR with only imaginary fold equity.

 

❤️ Sam

[Samba]

Well, the blog run good continues. After a few nice sessions where I played & ran well I cashed out some profit and am now officially a winning player on Unibet! For now atleast. 😉

Biggest pot won (298.36BB) MP raise I call in CO, BU 3b, SB cold call, MP call, I roll a 97 and repot feeling pretty good based on opponent's frequencies. BU Jams and SB calls, I call. It turns out I was 32.69% pre so slightly +EV, I actually expected to have more than that vs non AA hands but there you go. LOLmaha

 

When I hit 60k XP Ill have 4500BP to spend but I am planning on saving them up for the entire quarter 

 

Net Unibet winnings (Year): £4,309.45

Net Unibet winnings (Lifetime):  £731.03

 

❤️ Sam

[Samba]

The post-smoking cough has started and it is disgusting, I won't go into any more detail than that.

Ran pretty bad yesterday but the day was saved by some absolute legend who just decided to start 4bet/calling me and only me for stacks every time I 3bet him. EVERY. TIME.  Fast foward a few hours and I managed to get out of the 5 BI hole and back into some profit.

I decided to spend my BP on a cash game ticket instead of saving them as there is no real incentive to save them other than a 2% discount on the top end playthrough bonus. Considering I will already have playthrough bonuses active by the time I purchase it, I don't really see the point.

The site going down has actually given me a chance at doing OK in the rake race this week, since the eastern european androids who usually grind 18 hours a day missed out a large chunk of playtime yesterday in their prime hours. Every cloud...

 

❤️ Sam

[Samba]

As I was starting this update I realised I have messed up math somewhere with my winnings totals so I am gonna simplify it to one figure for future updates: Net profit

I fell off of the rake race leaderboard because I joined the dark side and went to play some poker in the real world vs some live fish. The game was atrocious.

1/2 NL vs four 2/5+ regs who I know from the Vic/Hippodrome in London and one 5/10+ reg who I hadn't seen since 2018 because he has been in Macau. Everyone is back because of the pandemic and it was my first time playing live since March 2019 for the same reason so I had no idea what the game was like.  I have played in some bad 1/2 games in my life but that one takes the cake. Left after an hour and about an orbit after losing 50BBs with QQ < AA in a 3b pot to the high stakes Macau reg. In a 1/2 game in Portsmouth. Go figure.

Glad my improved discipline levels helped me to pick up from the game though, That is the first time I have ever picked up from a live game in my life! Previously When I sit a game in a casino I play until it breaks or I can't stay awake anymore.

Net profit (including BP + Tickets):  £925.71

❤️ Sam

[Samba]

I resisted the urge to go and get dealt 10 hands per hour at the casino to put in some volume on the tables this weekend which was nice.

I even tried 9 tabling out again last night during peak hours, the stress levels are a lot higher and any loss of concentration just snowballs instantly into a backlog of decisions.

I managed 45 minutes of 9 tabling at peak hours last night which got me about 500XP. It's probably slightly +EV for me to do it if I stay on my A game but it just seems very easy to tilt off playing that many tables. I watch the other 9 tabling "regs" do it all the time.

No live cash and no donkaments this week, it's been great.

Net profit (including BP + Tickets):  £1106.92

❤️ Sam

[Samba]

I want to preface this post with noting how insanely hot I have been running to win as much as I have over the last few months playing at such low stakes and I am very well aware that my winrate shouldn't be as high as it has been, with that being said:

In my experience I always know when the downswing is coming but I just try to grind through it. Not this time!

The poker gods punished me for not sticking to the great game of PLO and after punting £20 in a NLH satellite I got cold decked on repeat until I tapped out. Top boat vs quads, NF vs SF etc. you get the idea.

I decided to go and play a different card game (MTGA) to blow off some steam and I lost 11 games in a row. I have a 65% winrate over 8k games. Yep the runbad is definitely with me. Even if it isn't I know I will be seeing monsters under the bed and tilting off stacks at the slightest bad beat until I fix my mental.

Tap tap tap tap tap I submit. See you guys in November!

Net profit (including BP + Tickets):  £913.13

 ❤️ Sam

 

[Samba]

Hello again! I've spent a couple of days of my downtime doing some solver work around 2 betsizes, pot & half pot. I use a lot of 1/4 pot when I play online since the god Phil Galfond does. Most of this is going to be for when I grind the GUKPT London cash games later next month or to respond to population tendencies who use 1/2 and full pot without much nuance. What I have noticed is that the EV difference between decisions in a lot of spots is very close as long as you are categorising your hands correctly based on their hand class. My main losses in EV came from making bad flop calls or bets in pure fold or pure check situations, so learning to recognise the qualities of a hand (including backdoors) helps with accuracy.

Take a look at the EV difference in this example scenario of a BvB 3b pot where you call a 3b and call a flop 1/2 pot. Turn c/c and you are now to act on river. Your decision to check or bet is almost neutral regardless of the sizing you choose if you choose bet. The qualities of this specific hand are that you block rivered 2 pair and the nuts, although the value of both of these qualities is marginal but still relevant.

This illustrates the utility of having a good understanding of GTO. You can start exploiting neutral EV decisions based on your specific opponent to generate some EV. If your opponent is over-folding you can start mixing with hands that have a high % river check to print money (until they adapt)

Are they over c-betting and then pot controlling with hands that should be pure checking the flop? Hands like A544 w/ a suit with no backdoor is pure checking but the population are definitely c-betting this. Well in that case a flop fold might be better than an 80% flop call as they are unbalanced in their flop construction.

A few days of study has definitely made me feel a lot better about starting up the grind again, mainly because a lot of streamers (even up to 5kPLO) are making tons of errors. I watched the final table of the 25k PLO and was amazed at how many calls were being made on flop/turn/river pure fold situations where they were calling with terrible call candidates. Shaun Deeb just printed money by exploiting and TID. People really do suck at PLO still.

Goals for November: Study more, get a calisthenics routine, No shot taking

 

❤️ Sam

[Samba]

I've started mainly playing the .25-.50 instead of the .10-.25 games and the PLO regulars are considerably more whaley, they just want to get the money in and realise their equity. It's basically roulette with cards and I guess it works on punters who tilt from the sw0ngs and then give it away when they're on tilt but it is pretty motivating to see. 

I withdrew my balance on the 25th and redeposited £195 on the 31st together with £11 from a rake race payout so started this month with £206 on the account.

The sessions have gone well, and I even won a Supermoon ticket in the Halloween freeroll. What a life.

My fave hand from the sessions so far was a 3b pot where I call flop & turn and then induce river:

Spoiler

I nearly folded

 

❤️ Sam

[Samba]

The degen apes have been getting me good. I didn't play any .25-.50 luckily otherwise I would have probably busted the account and my laptop.

15 hours grinding micros and losing every all in ain't it.

Gonna do hill sprints until I pass out tomorrow, can't fucking wait.

❤️ Sam

[Rushbie]

Losing your mind when playing micros is probably the dumbest and worst thing one could do to itself. Exactly because of time.
And it somehow seems to happen for a lot of people.. only when playing micros 😃🤔
Something to think about while running the hill and torturing your mental pain out.
But strength, man 💪 You know what to do.

Edited November 3, 2021 by Rushbie

[Samba]

Thanks @Rushbie. Trying not to project anymore of that energy. I guess it's better to have a downswing now at the micros than playing in London. Usually when I have a bad run over more than a few thousand hands I put my account balance on the highest stakes possible and play like a monkey until it's gone. It only took 16 years to develop any sort of self control with my gambling 🤣 better late than never I guess?

[Samba]

1.5k+ under EV this week so far. Also accidentally sat .25-.50 on 2 tables and went 0/4 in all ins, didn't realise until after the session.

Lifetilt.exe

 

[Samba]

Managed to grind through it. Also found some amazing content that went into deep analysis of the GG player pool vs PIO ranges and of the top 20 players vs PIO ranges to see how the best of the best exploit the player pool to achieve the highest winrates. Eureka moment sorta stuff. Not something I can directly implement into PLO but will try transposing the ideas into my game and it will definitely help me win more when I play NL.

My e-sports bet lost in a 5 game series 2-3 I should have laid it off after watching the semi finals and locked up profit because EDG were not a 5:2 dog

❤️ Sam

[Estzen]

On 11/4/2021 at 10:41 PM, Samba said:

Thanks @Rushbie. Trying not to project anymore of that energy. I guess it's better to have a downswing now at the micros than playing in London. Usually when I have a bad run over more than a few thousand hands I put my account balance on the highest stakes possible and play like a monkey until it's gone. It only took 16 years to develop any sort of self control with my gambling 🤣 better late than never I guess?

I ve never understood that logic of going higher when your losing 😄 ! I know a friend whom I have coach from very bottom, and he had previously done the same many times. It should never be even an option. 

[Samba]

@Estzen I'd compare it to other masochistic behaviours, it's essentially financial self harm. Even when I have done it in the past I know in the moment I am being an idiot but I didn't care. Consider yourself lucky you don't have those tendencies, I was crippled with that sorta behaviour for a long time and dusted off 5 figure rolls multiple times back in the golden days of online poker. (And back when I had no understanding of the value of money)

[Samba]

I span a freeroll ticket into a 680 cash in the supermoon bounty and the cash tables treated me well too. Definitely got some of those EV bbs back.

When I was doing some hill sprints earlier today I was going through spots and ways to play the day 2 and considered playing a total ladder game since every ladder is like 6 buyins for me and I start the day off 12/12.

I remember thinking "I'll be an uber nit and open fold 66 and jam 77+ OTB and not tell anyone"

Well my bustout hand was 66 OTB < KK in SB for 12th place and no ladders. Justice. Stick to the fucking plan Sam.

Net profit (including BP + Tickets):  £2177.45

❤️ Sam

[Rushbie]

2 hours ago, Samba said:

Justice. Stick to the fucking plan Sam.

🤣

Got that same feeling often while busting some random sats or tourneys 😁

Had to wrote it once down to a paper in front of screen to remind about it. Still doing it sometimes🤦‍♂️🙄😄

Edit. Sweet progress you've made anyways, man! Keep on rockin 🤘😎

 

Edited November 9, 2021 by Rushbie