Blog: Grind on the mind

[SkilfulPoker]

❤️♥️❤️ guys, this was very nearly a failure at day 2. Having grinded for 2 days and peaking at 104 euros (I played a tonne like 8 hours one day, and 4 hours the day before) i got really frustrated when I lost 5 stacks and ended up back to where I began at the end of day 2 and.. the degen tendencies came back! I played outside of bankroll management and basically almost lost my bankroll again... I was down to 2x4 euro MTT tickets.

With just 8 euros of my 80 euro bankroll left I tried to do to the right thing (better late than never ha?) and I asked Unibet to convert my 2x4 euro MTT tickets, into 8x1 euro tickets, I noticed a 10 euro MTT in the lobby (6max deepstack, with 3 minute blinds) and decided this was one of the mtt's with the most playability in it in the afternoon. I grinded 1 euro buy in events for a bit and got up to 15 euros. I then grinded some 4nl cash and won a stack, to bring it up to about 20 euros.

I entered the 10 euro 6max deep turbo this afternoon with a 300 guarantee, and won it. The bankroll is now at 128.71.

So a very near miss. But managed to pull things back at the last minute... Going forward I will also mix in some mtts (but at the 4 euro buy-in level) to break the cash grind up a little bit.

I thought about where the discipline failed this time at cash, and I think it failed because I wasn't present when playing. I was thinking too much about how much money I wanted to make and how I had 'wasted' the last two days because I hadn't profited... which of course is not how poker works at all.

Anyway, things are back on track. Managed to salvage things... but have to stick to bankroll management going forward... or the challenge will not continue for very long...

Also I checked out October's promotion today (moving on up) couldn't have asked for a better promo to try to build my bankroll in October.

I made a video grinding 4nl yesterday for the challenge, will post it soon, it's almost finished uploading to youtube.

[SkilfulPoker]

Hi all, played a 4 euro mtt yesterday but didn't cash, played some 1nl banazai, a couple of 2 euro headsup sngs and for main session played 4nl.

Bankroll peaking at the moment at 141.71

I want to increase my volume going forward...

Also my video I made yesterday finished processing, so here it is! A 4nl session (if you click full screen you should be able to see it properly if watching). I recorded it in 1080p but you'll just need to switch to 1080p on the resolution toggle, if it doesnt show at 1080p automatically (youtube does it according to your bandwidth i think).

Cheers!

 

[juicyapple]

Hey.

Gl building ur bankroll.

 

I just saw some mins of ur Video and i remind of some hands but i will just go throw 1hand fast.

pocket 77 on sb vs 2bb openraise from bu, which its away to good to fold. Especially on micros we can always setmine for this price, u both had like 100bb, we cant make any misstake with a call. We espect like no squeeze on micros from bb, most likely bb will call too and thats absolutly fine.

 

We just have to put 6cent in the pot, for setmining we can always use the math.

6cent x 20 = 1.20euro

That means we can always call If villian has 1.20euro Stack behind.

 

Idk If u ever heard about the 20x rule for setmining.

 

Greetz

 

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey juicyapple, thanks for your comments. I'll have a think about this spot, always nice to have ideas from other people for sure.

I think if I was flatting with 77 it would be one of the lower pairs I was flatting with, as we are out of position, which reduces our chances of getting paid a bit, and also villians range is wide OTB, so he's going to have a fair few hands in his range that he doesn't want to stack off with.

Appreciate the feedback! Will think on it a bit when I'm next at the whiteboard for sure! :)

[psrquack]

I'm really curious about your tilt handling managemant. After I've watched the video I realised that you are playing too much tables on compairing to you entire bankroll. Losing a buyin at every table isn't out of varience and that would be approximately 20% of your full BR. Do you have any specific method to handle that situation?

[SkilfulPoker]

---

@psrquack wrote:

I'm really curious about your tilt handling managemant. After I've watched the video I realised that you are playing too much tables on compairing to you entire bankroll. Losing a buyin at every table isn't out of varience and that would be approximately 20% of your full BR. Do you have any specific method to handle that situation?

---

Good question psrquack, tilt handling management is for sure something I should have a more definite system in place for.

I do tilt less when playing few tables on average I would say, but for me it's a balance between trying to build my bankroll so I can move up (which requires some volume) and taking a nice slow route which is more comfortable but, well slower. I do think about tilt strategies away from the table sometimes but one of the key problems which makes it so hard to put this into practice is 'the conscious fallacy' basically the idea that when we are planning and thinking about our game etc, we assume we will be conscious all the time during our session, when in fact our tilt usually shows up when we are unconscious and auto piloting.

My main way of trying to combat tilt at the moment is talking to friends , and listening to very clever people talk about the mental game of poker. For example today I was listening to Haseeb Qureshi's 'How To Be a Poker Player' - it's one of the deepest poker books i've read. I wouldn't reccomend it for basic strategy, but for learning how to think about the game and thinking about the intricacies of the mental game it's a great book. I think I've got more from the audiobook than I did from the mental game of poker for sure.

Today for instance I was playing and one of my weaknesses is when my bankroll starts soaring downwards from it's peak. E.g. it peaked at 140 something earlier, and right now it's at about 120. I was just combatting the desire to play other games higher in buy-in, when the book started talking about 'points of reference'.

It's an interesting idea and basically haseeb articulated something that I had noticed myself before but never really thought about directly, and that is where we mentally place pointers in our bankroll progress. For example this morning i was feeling kind of deflated that my bankroll was at 120, because it had been 140 just 4 hours earlier. But this is because I chose the point of reference to be my bankroll peak.

Yet yesterday when I had just 2x4 euro tickets left in my bankroll, and converted them to 1 euro tickets, and grinded them up, then binked the 10 euro MTT, I was super pleased with my 120 odd euro bankroll. Because I was looking at the gains from my 8 euro low point. But all of this is completely arbitrary. Haseeb also suggested that one of the reasons we tilt is because we reset our reference points, we either win money back and then we are no longer 'losing', or we go busto.. in which case the reference point is reset, we deposit again and that is our new reference point.

It was kind of interesting, so I thought about that today while I was playing that was part of my tilt management strategy. He also talks about being process orientated. Like we all know that being 'results orientated' is bad, but do we ever pay much attention to being 'process orientated'?

This is the idea that we should focus on the quality of our play, and our process and decisions, and let that dictate how good or bad we feel from game to game. It's a great idea and I thought about that a bit today too.

In the end I decided to quit my session as I was tired, so am writing this from my bedroom :D

[psrquack]

Thank you for the answer I really appreciated it. Btw, what is your plan with the october mission's moving on up tickets?

[SkilfulPoker]

Not sure yet psr, try to win some i think!

Brief update.. well it's been a challenge I always knew it would be, before I started this challenge I mentioned I would have my main bankroll on unibet and some small bankroll on a tracked sites to get hands to evaluate.

My unibet bankroll has bust again... bankroll management really isn't my forte, and this is after having just 20 euros left in unibet the other day and entering the 10 euro deep turbo, and winning it for 104 euros.

So i had 40 euros left on another site. Ended up down to 20 today, the last 20 of the bankroll for the challenge and I started playing some satalites (6max) into bigger mtts, my plan was to cash some of them then unregister from the MTT, and grind them. Made the schoolboy error of entering the sngs when the mtt was already running so ended up insta seating it when i cashed the satalite, it was a $25 buy in and had about 1k runners.

8 hours later I finished 6/1000 odd, and although I'm dissapointed I didnt win it, I'm pleased with my success, and that's twice I needed to score well in mtts I've performed at my best.

So bankroll is about $500 at the moment, I think i'll try to grind some live cash 1/1 , as I find it easier to be professional live than online...

I will be playing the 10 euro countdown mtt on Sunday though.

All in all, very happy with the results I guess, I needed a score and got one.

I may never develop the pro poker mindset, but in the meantime I'll continue to do the best I can , and play as well as I can.

Have a great weekend!

[YpresX]

I recommend you to read 

The Poker Mindset by Matthew Hilger.

 

This is book has helped me over the years many times to get the right mindset for poker/gambling etc. Its not a long read as well, only like 300pages, but the improvement is massive.

Many pokerplayers have the skillset at the tables to be succesful but have the wrong mentality/attitude which keeps the from achieving more.

 

[SkilfulPoker]

---

@YpresX wrote:

I recommend you to read 

The Poker Mindset by Matthew Hilger.

 

This is book has helped me over the years many times to get the right mindset for poker/gambling etc. Its not a long read as well, only like 300pages, but the improvement is massive.

Many pokerplayers have the skillset at the tables to be succesful but have the wrong mentality/attitude which keeps the from achieving more.

 

---

Thanks YpressX will check it out for sure

[SkilfulPoker]

I feel like renaming this blog post to the trials and tribulations of a wannabe poker player :D

Having decided it was better to risk my mtt winnings live than online... given my haphazard mental game online off I merrily went to my local casino... however not before stopping for a few drinks en route... needless to say the poker was not profitable it was however fun. On the way home I met some random people... and ended up drinking/relaxing/semi partying ... for another day.

Now my poor little online bankroll is demolished, but it was indeed fun. On the plus side, I have a few double trouble tickets to get involved with next week (i meant to play them on Tuesday, but this was one of the days I was out doing random things...)

Having decided I am not depositing anymore into my poker account for at least a few days, I was left pondering the .20c in my account.

Aha, then I remembered.. that 10 cent step it up I spied earlier in the week. I remember smiling at the guys playing it, as long as they are having fun :) oh how topsy turvy the world can be, now I'm playing it :D

So here we are with 23 players remaining, and 11 paid a 1 euro SNG ticket. The dream is still marginally alive. Will keep you informed!

P.s. i got that book reccomended by YpresX now i just have to read it :D

 

[SkilfulPoker]

Ouch KQs utg runs into AA and thats that! out in 17th, for a min cash of my entry fee back! Tomorrow as they say is another day :)

[SkilfulPoker]

Today I have to do some work on the computer, so am going to play a few little freerolls alongside. I'm also going to play the 1c Unibet Open Centrol for 10 stacks buy-in (baller!) and start a little campaign to get a UO package.

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey guys, my blog was the fortunate recipient of a post of the week award for a few weeks ago today, which has put me in the fortunate position of having a small bankroll again! My plan today is to run it up, and clear the 6 cash tickets I asked for at 4nl (they need 325 flops each to clear) will keep you updated regularly. Right now have just started.

[SkilfulPoker]

Ran bad tonight, also turned into a bit of a calling station, calling river bets with Top Pair type hands. Ended up with 8 euros of the 25 left.

Made a nice disciplined decision to jump down to the 1 euro sng's at this point. OMG. I have never seen such a splashhhhy game!

Is this just Friday night or are they always like this? OK this is a bit of an extreme example...but I took a picture to show you guys...

Yes they were all in preflop :D

Just managed to profit a much needed 3 stacks in the last set of 8 I played.

Bankroll now: 11.96 and a victory for moving down in stakes! Will keep you updated with how these are going...

[AmongCats]

I just blasted off my 1€sng tickets earned from challenges into the pokerverse while grabbing something to eat. 

So if i donated a double up to you with a triple barrel with Jhigh, then you are welcome sir ;) 

Anyway good job making profit, keep it up! 

[SkilfulPoker]

Hey all a quick update, feeling pretty great at the moment for no other reason than I've just been chilling a bit, catching up on things I needed to do.

Yesterday I played a bit and tilted a bit, then I decided to purchase a course about overcoming tilt. Well I played the most tiltless I ever played yesterday in my first session since starting it.

Today I'm reviewing some of the materials again and will be hitting the tables shortly after.

Things I've been concentrating on are : -

• Adopting a more stoic viewpoint (don't worry about / get annoyed about things you have no control over).
• Understanding variance more.
• Looking into the gambers fallacy and reminding myself that the cards have no memory.
• Remembering that no body likes whiners, and nobody likes listening to bad beat stories :D
• Getting clear on a definition of tilt - basically anytime I make a play I know to be incorrect but make it anyway.
• Thinking about strategies to help with tilt in the short term, e.g. quitting , stop loss, and in game behaviours etc.

Getting annoyed about things you can't change burns up your mental space, and it's a mental spiral. OMG this fish sucked out on me! :Heart::Hearts::Heart: such a calling station blah blah... this serves no purpose. Concentrate on the things you can change and have control over.

e.g.

• Getting yourself into the right state of mind.
• Having a nice environment to play in (just cleaned mine up today!).
• Being more methodical with my approach.
• Educating myself on tilt, and focussing on it.

My key poker mindset for the next while is going to be: -

• Stop blaming others.
• Focus on things I have control over.
• Recognise what variance is and expect it to happen.
• Stop complaining about anything (poker or non poker) - trying to not complain about a single thing for 30 days straight.
• Accept that life is unfair and variance is a bitch.
• Make the best out of whatever resources and opportunities I have available and ignore everything else.
• Remember that poker doesn't owe me run good if i'm running bad, or run bad if i'm running good (gamblers fallacy).
• Have zero expectations going into a session, apart from playing well myself.

Will be depositing 20 euros soon, and will update how that went in a day or so.

Good luck if you're playing today!

[SkilfulPoker]

Starting Bankroll:

[SkilfulPoker]

Well guys this could be IT!

I type this with some trepidation given the times I have felt like I have made a little bit of progress on the not being a poker fish campaign, only to realise it was a temporary blip in an otherwise perfect poker fish career... but I played an awesome mental game today!

Following on from my 2nl session on another site yesterday to test the waters after studying the mental game stuff I related in my earlier post, today I deposited (yet again!) and decided to see if my mental game held up on Unibet as it did yesterday at 2nl on another site.

Well, I played really well for myself mentally and I'm really pleased as best as I can ever remember playing.

I was playing with a huge recreational player. I mean... this guy would like tiny compared to him....

See that big mouth at the front of him...

That's where all my chips went today. You wouldn't believe it.

Lost a stack in just smallish pots, where he kept hitting... then having waited patiently with my 150bb stack... the opportunity arises...

He has just had his 52 euro stack (at 4nl) reduced to 48 and seems to have gone a bit tilty (yes must be hard life being reduced to a mere 1200 big blinds)... He insta raises the button to 3x... I am in the blinds with KK.

Oh wow... thank you poker just what i wanted...I quickly shove all in, expecting a call and... he calls!

He turns over 9Qs woohoo.. I reach for my pepsi getting ready to take my celebratory gulp, as the cards are dealt...

Then he hits two pair... 150bbs shovelled into that big whale mouth.:puking:

The good part of this sorry tale? I did not tilt! I reminded myself that I have no expectation to win against bad players, I just play my game and what will be will be...

 An hour later having almost  broken my neck running down the stairs and back up again to get my pizza from the kitchen lest I get timed out of the table and lose the opportunity to continue playing with this guy...

I have 210 bbs... he has about 1000 by now... I look down at Aces....

Now ordinarily I would be cautious with Aces at 200bb knowing relative hand strength is important here post flop... but this guy... he's a maniac, I'm almost salivating... he raises the cut off, I make it .60 ! Yes 60... over his 12 open.. he snap calls of course... Flop QKJ.

Now my initial thought is this could get nasty we're deep obviously if he raises I'm out of here... but otherwise it's value town city....

I cbet the flop a little over 3/4 with my overpair... he snap calls... turn is a blank happy days... i pot it... he calls.

The river brings a... blank... great! I shove the river for about 1.5x pot.... he slow rolls me then calls... with QK for top two pair...

So I was well and truly put in the cage by our whale friend today, but the positive element is I did not tilt once. I think I may have actually turned a corner here... And instead of hitting my mouse on the table... launching it at the floor... cursing players, the site and the poker world in general... I instead feel a sad little pain in my heart for my 200 odd big blind punting itself down the swanny, close the table and come here to update my blog instead 🤣

Yesterday on the 2nl site I played to test the water... I was 2 outered on the river (again in a 3bet pot)... all in on the turn.. and the opponent put a smiley face in the chat window at me... I didn't tilt, instead about 10 seconds later I put a winking face in at him. Ended the session up.

Ended this session up.

Mental game victory. Hope it continues! Cheers!

[SkilfulPoker]

Br Update:

[SkilfulPoker]

Wow ran so bad today. The last 12 hours I've been playing straight, and just keep getting smashed in by fishes.

Last hand of my session was this one,

I 3bet pf, get 3 callers, get it all in on the flop with AK of course he has a full house.

Haven't tilted once so that's good. Not sure what i'll do tomorrow continue with cash with my 17 euros left or move to SNGs.

 

[SkilfulPoker]

Now time for some sleep, have a good Monday everyone!

[SkilfulPoker]

Bankroll currently 0.68.. i did what a good friend advised me not to do and was mixing formats, just about everything under the sun. Butler league 2 euro mtts didnt cash one, then was like why am i even play these for 14 euros first prize ahhh then went a bit mental and shoved a stack away...

Also played the jackpot mtts... and lost... with 20 euros left I decided it was time to gamble and played a 10 euro sng...

The positive is i didnt tilt, i really think i've improved a lot on that front since studying the course.

The bad news is i still kind of degend as i got bored/impatient.

May deposit yet again soon...

In the meantime I'm playing double trouble and am currently...

67/342 so fingers cross i cash.

I also have super double trouble to play next, cashing that would be pretty awesome...

lets seeeeee...

 

[SkilfulPoker]

woohoo just as i'm typing my blog update this happens

seems the big stack thought it would be a good idea to aggrssively defend his blind with... 75s reshove :D

not optimal double trouble strategy he should come and read our guides in the community :d

 

[SkilfulPoker]