MathrimC's poker journal

[WuDu]

I track down my results with pen and paper. Whenever you finish a SNG you just write down the position you finished: 1,2 or 0. Or you keep a tally chart. Then you set up an Excel sheet and all you have to do is count the 1,2 or 0s and type in those 3 numbers into your sheet and you get exact info on profit, ROI, games played and so on.

[monkeyheaven]

Nice results, the jumps in skill level are certainly unique on Unibet. Stars it’s pretty linear, someone who’s gets 4% at 7s prob gets about 2% at 15s etc. On unibet very often the 50s are softer than the 10s, depends massively on who’s sitting the 50s.  The 10s are the same everyday, a bunch of ABC regs who all play identically (hmmm).  

[MathrimC]

Sepember has been another exciting poker month for me. The month started off with the €550 Belgian Championship, my biggest live event event. Next to my €2172 UK Tour Nottingham payout, I made some nice profits in the €25 SNGs in the first two weeks to get my bankroll up to an all time high of around €4600. Things turned around in last two weeks of the month, sending me on a €700 downswing. This is more than compensated by winning 2 more UK Tour packages, running good in the UO qualifiers, and winning myself a ticket to play my first and last Sunday Entitled tonight.

Also, I had some really fun twitch streams this month, thanks to everyone who joined me on Twitch. Next to the fun, they are also very useful to make me play longer sessions. I did some 5h+ sessions while streaming this month, something which I never did on my own.

On the study front, I finished reading Ed Miller's book, took notes on all preflop chapters of Janda's book, and I finally installed PokerSnowie and played a couple of short sessions against it, exciting stuff.

Evaluation of monthly goals: September 2017

• Play 200 SNGs, MTTs and/or qualifiers COMPLETED
  • 49 €10 SNGs (up €65), 124 €25 SNGs (down €52), 3 €25 Deepstack Turbo (down €75), 3 UK Tour finals (2 packages won), 17 UK25s, 26 UK4s, 5 UK1s, 25 UO10s, 1 UO4, 1 UO25, 9 SE10 (1 Sunday Entitled ticket won), 1SE25, 11 SE5s
• Study goals
  • Take notes on all preflop chapters of NL Hold'em For Advanced Players COMPLETED
  • Finish reading Playing The Player by Ed Miller COMPLETED
  • Watch at least 2 Run It Once videos every week FAILED

September bankroll evolution:

• cash: €4285,97 -> €3986,49
• UK Tour tickets: €296 -> €237 + 2 new €500 packages
• UO tickets: €50 -> €440

New monthly goals: October 2017

• Play 200 SNGs, MTTs and/or qualifiers
• Study goals
  • Take notes on all the remaining chapters of NL Hold'em For Advanced Players
  • Play 1 hour a week versus PokerSnowie
  • Watch at least 2 Run It Once videos every week

[MathrimC]

I managed to get 4th in my first and last Sunday Entitled! Had a very nice twitch stream with over 40 viewers when I was on the final table. It's been a great weekend at the online tables for me 😃

[fkingun]

Which book that you read helped you the most? Or which ones if there are more than one?

Thank you for the answer and good luck in your journey.

[MathrimC]

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@fkingun wrote:

Which book that you read helped you the most? Or which ones if there are more than one?

Thank you for the answer and good luck in your journey.

---

Different books I read were useful in their own way, because they focussed on different things.

Early on, when I was playing 4NL and 10NL, I read Small Stakes No-Limit Hold'em by Ed Miller, Sunny Mehta and Matt Flynn. It's a good basic strategy book that improved my tight play to a little more exploitative and creative style.

When transitioning to SNGs, I read Sit'n Go Strategy by Collin Moshman, which is a really good basic guide to SNG play. With that book alone, you should be able to be a winning player in the €10 SNGs on Unibet.

To take the step to understanding more advanced strategy, range analysis, solvers, etc No-Limit Hold'em For Advanced Players by Matthew Janda is a very good guide.

Also, youtube, google, podcasts and the 2+2 forums are very useful tools to find free strategy content.

 

[NeriPoker]

Good to see you're doing well Mathrim. Every time I read a few pages of your journal I'm very much inspired to throw myself in to sngs. Besides Moshman's book, what other sng related books would you recommend? What training videos also?

[MiaKhalifaa]

'We are on the same table on Supernova sat. :D

[MathrimC]

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@NeriPoker wrote:

Good to see you're doing well Mathrim. Every time I read a few pages of your journal I'm very much inspired to throw myself in to sngs. Besides Moshman's book, what other sng related books would you recommend? What training videos also?

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I got the ebook Crushing Low Stakes Poker Volume 3: Hyper Turbos by Mike Turner because it was rediculously cheap (I think I paid under 2$). Didn't really get that much out of it, but it was definitely worth it's money.

I also have Moorman's Book of Poker. I read it once and it hasn't been very useful for me yet because I didn't take notes yet. It's a book with hand analysis from mainly turbo MTTs, from which you can get a lot of useful strategy advice that is also applicable to SNGs, but you have to take notes to generalize the advice. I'll definitely revisit this book later.

I play around a lot with ICMizer (I had a pro subscription for about a month, during which I quized a lot), and writing my own ICM calculator has helped me get a good understanding of ICM dynamics. Also, the FloatTheTurn app is an essential tool for nash push/fold ranges. Next to that I also have a nash push/fold and call/fold chart for HU play (just keep in mind that you need to diverge from those ranges based on opponent reads).

I've also read dozens of free SNG strategy articles you can find with google, on sitandgoplanet, pokerlistings, pokernews, etc. But most of them don't really contain anything valuable that isn't covered in the books above.

For HU play, I read The Free Mersenneary Heads Up Poker Ebook. I still have a lot of work on my HU game, but this is definitely a solid introduction.

 

[MathrimC]

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@MiaKhalifaa wrote:

'We are on the same table on Supernova sat. :D

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Nice. If I'm playing with my MathrimC alias, I'm usually livestreaming at https://www.twitch.tv/mathrimc, so you can drop by to see which cards I had :Wink:

I binked one of the sats tonight, so hopefully see you in the Supernova on Sunday :Smile:

 

[NeriPoker]

Thanks for the tips Mathrim. Rather then enter random games, I think it might be better for my game if I pick something like SNGs and attempt to master them as I'm all over the place with regards to format selection and feel like I'm going nowhere. I don't have alot of time to play poker so maybe SNGs would be a better fit for me maybe? Can only help my MTT game long term right?

I'd like to ask a few other questions if you don't mind.

What are your bankroll requirements for sngs? (I liked your satty ticket one so much I implemented it myself and got to UO Vegas)

For study are you still having to take a screenshot of the hand history?

I used to play $3.50 9 man turbos on Stars and was actually thinking of starting back there but do love Unibet but I'm unsure of the SNG environment there. What would you recommend?

[MathrimC]

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@NeriPoker wrote:

Thanks for the tips Mathrim. Rather then enter random games, I think it might be better for my game if I pick something like SNGs and attempt to master them as I'm all over the place with regards to format selection and feel like I'm going nowhere. I don't have alot of time to play poker so maybe SNGs would be a better fit for me maybe? Can only help my MTT game long term right?

 

I'd like to ask a few other questions if you don't mind.

 

What are your bankroll requirements for sngs? (I liked your satty ticket one so much I implemented it myself and got to UO Vegas)

 

For study are you still having to take a screenshot of the hand history?

 

I used to play $3.50 9 man turbos on Stars and was actually thinking of starting back there but do love Unibet but I'm unsure of the SNG environment there. What would you recommend?

 

 

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I didn't really have to think too much about bankroll requirements, because I already had almost 100 buy-ins when I switched to €10 SNGs, and had around 75 when I started mixing in some €25 SNGs. My biggest downswing so far is around 35 buy-ins on the €10 level. I think with a roll of 50 buy-ins you're pretty unlikely to go broke as a winning player.

I would advise mixing stakes, like I'm doing now with €10 and €25 ones. Focus on the lower stake until you get quite confident that you are beating it (that confidence is a combination of seeing enough fun players around and getting a semi-decent sample with a positive ROI), then start mixing in more and more of the higher stake, waybe with a stoploss at a certain bankroll point. For example, you could mix €4 and €10 SNGs, as long as your roll stays above €300. As soon as you go below that point, only play €4s until you're above it again. This has the advantage that you don't need as much buy-ins to play a higher level without risking going broke.

I still take screenhots for study. I use Greenshot. With that app, you can program your printscreen key to take a screenshot of the active window and automatically save it as an image. That way, you only have to press one button during play to save your image. Furthermore, I have a mouse with an extra button which I linked to the screenshot key, so for me it's just one click to create an image. Also, when I stream on twitch, my whole session gets recorded, but I haven't used that for analysis yet.

I never played SNGs on stars, but I've heard from multiple people that the SNGs are much tougher there, especially on the higher levels. I would definitely advise you to play some €4s and €10s on Unibet.

 

[NeriPoker]

Thanks for the advice mate. I think that is me convinced. Will start playing the €4 sngs this weekend and see if I can get a decent enough sample first (which will be tough anyway on limited time) and go from there.

 

Will stop clogging your thread now!

[MathrimC]

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@NeriPoker wrote:

Thanks for the advice mate. I think that is me convinced. Will start playing the €4 sngs this weekend and see if I can get a decent enough sample first (which will be tough anyway on limited time) and go from there.

 

Will stop clogging your thread now!

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Hehe, no problem. I like some interaction in the thread.

[ArtyMcFly]

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@MathrimC wrote:

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I still take screenhots for study. I use Greenshot. With that app, you can program your printscreen key to take a screenshot of the active window and automatically save it as an image. That way, you only have to press one button during play to save your image. Furthermore, I have a mouse with an extra button which I linked to the screenshot key, so for me it's just one click to create an image.

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Oh wow, Greenshot is great! I just downloaded it and I love it. That will save me from having to have Gimp open during sessions and from doing an awful lot of copy/pasting.

 

On an unrelated note, how are you getting on with Snowie? Are you playing challenges, and if so are you doing "cash" sessions, or the "freezeout" format? What stackdepths are you focused on? I usually just do 50 hands (sometimes 100) of 6-max 100bb deep to get my brain ready for a cash session. After playing the 50 hands (in about 5 minutes), I analyse all my errors and that can take 15 minutes or so, unless I have one of my perfect sessions with no errors at all. (Such sessions have been increasingly rare this year. I appear to have forgotten how to play poker, so my error rate keeps being higher than 5. I might have to change my twitter name to NoLongerGTOpenguin!)

[MathrimC]

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@ArtyMcFly wrote:

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@MathrimC wrote:

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I still take screenhots for study. I use Greenshot. With that app, you can program your printscreen key to take a screenshot of the active window and automatically save it as an image. That way, you only have to press one button during play to save your image. Furthermore, I have a mouse with an extra button which I linked to the screenshot key, so for me it's just one click to create an image.

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Oh wow, Greenshot is great! I just downloaded it and I love it. That will save me from having to have Gimp open during sessions and from doing an awful lot of copy/pasting.

 

On an unrelated note, how are you getting on with Snowie? Are you playing challenges, and if so are you doing "cash" sessions, or the "freezeout" format? What stackdepths are you focused on? I usually just do 50 hands (sometimes 100) of 6-max 100bb deep to get my brain ready for a cash session. After playing the 50 hands (in about 5 minutes), I analyse all my errors and that can take 15 minutes or so, unless I have one of my perfect sessions with no errors at all. (Such sessions have been increasingly rare this year. I appear to have forgotten how to play poker, so my error rate keeps being higher than 5. I might have to change my twitter name to NoLongerGTOpenguin!)

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Greenshot is great in the beginning, until you realize that you're taking so many screenshots that you've build up a backlog of 3500 hands that you hardly take time to review :Wink:

About Snowie, I haven't really started grinding it yet. Played a bit of everything, from deep cash to shallow freezout, and some heads-up. I think I'll start with mostly playing 100bb cash, because I want some post flop practice. Also planning on playing some heads-up sessions against it, because I have a lot to improve there.

[monkeyheaven]

Nice work on Twitch. It’s fun bluffing someone then opening Twitch to see their reaction .  Think it was your last game last night, I jammed when you bet out with rivered top pair Kings.

[MathrimC]

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@monkeyheaven wrote:

Nice work on Twitch. It’s fun bluffing someone then opening Twitch to see their reaction .  Think it was your last game last night, I jammed when you bet out with rivered top pair Kings.

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Glad you like it 😃

I guess the streaming puts me at an extra disadvantage, especially in the €25 SNGs, where you play a lot against the same people. It puts all my leaks out in the open. I'm thinking about not playing any more €25 SNGs on stream, and only playing those anonymously.

[MathrimC]

I had a very productive poker weekend. Watched some Run It Once videos, advanced a lot in my notes on NL Hold'em For Advance Players, and reviewed my notes on the postflop chapters a few times. Because of that I felt really sharp and confident at the tables on Saturday and Sunday. The Twitch streams were a lot of fun, and really make it easy for me to play long MTT sessions. On Sunday I won the €85 MTT package from the community tournament, next to the Supernova ticket I already had from winning a satellite. I got some small cashes here and there, but didn't really go deep in any of them. I really enjoyed it though, and I'm planning on at least playing the Ice Giant every week, with the cosmic rays and nebula on the side, and hope to satellite into the Supernova every once in a while. I also started adding the €25 Dwarf Star Bounty to my daily shedule, I really like that tournament. I got a deep run in it tonight:

I think this might be the start of me transitioning towards mainly playing MTTs. SGNs are more and more going to become just something on the side to fill an empty table slot.

[MathrimC]

I just keep winning qualifiers lately. Yesterday I won myself another Supernova ticket, and today I won my third €250 UO ticket.

It's going to be a busy Sunday evening again, with the Nebula and Cosmic Rays for which I have tickets left over from last week, the Supernova and the Ice Giant. And if I bust one of those early enough, I'll play my first Unibet Open final 😃

[WuDu]

Re-watched your stream last night because we both cashed in the UO10 yesterday. Please deliver my best wishes to your room-mate Leonard Hofstadter. 😏

[VikingsAF]

Tought you should have made the transition to mtts earlier already :p don't know why, but you play style suited more for mtts :D

You really crushing it!!!

Keep it going :) 

[MathrimC]

It's been a fun Sunday again. For the first time ever I made a profit in the DaVitsche streamleague, winning around €15 in cash or so and a €10 Cosmic Ray ticket. In the Sunday Majors, I finished 6th in the spectrum for €91,37, busted all the other ones (Supernova, Ice Giant, Cosmis Rays, Nebula), and later cashed €42,21 for 9th place in the Dwarf Star Bounty. The total result of the Sunday evening MTTs is -€81, yet my cash bankroll went up by €40 or so because of ticket buy-ins. I also played my first Unibet Open final. Got short rather quickly, but was able to shortstack-ninja my way from 26 to 13 players until I finally busted. Still have a healthy ticket roll though, so might try again in the near future.

Tonight I had a deep run in the Abyss, finished 3rd for €279,18, my second biggest online cash ever (not counting packages), giving me a total of €174 profit on the night.

There's more good news: my first Twitch channel emote arrived! @FreakyPrince turned one of my youth pictures into the mathriNerd emote. My next stream on Twitch will be Tuesday starting around 20:00 CET.

[MathrimC]

Made back to back final tables of the Abyss today. This time finished 6th for €120. Also finished 3rd in the €500 Fireball for €67,5 after this epic bustout hand:

https://clips.twitch.tv/BenevolentArtsyCobblerPunchTrees 

[MathrimC]

After downswining on Wednesday and Thurday, I had a great two days on Friday and Saturday, making back to back final tables of both the Deep Impact and the Abyss, good for €741 in cashes, or a total profit of €521. I'm only €5 away from the 5k bankroll milestone now!

Tomorrow I will be playing some of the Sunday majors, and try to bink myself a last-minute supernova ticket in one of the qualifiers. I'll also be playing my second UO final.