MathrimC's poker journal

[MathrimC]

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@MathrimC wrote:

My first hand in video format!

Q: can I reraise the river for value? (as always, comments on any other action in the hand are also welcome)

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Thanks for the advice for this hand. Results: I called and he had J9, so hit trip jacks on the river. Bad decision from him to raise on that board.

I had a good run in the UK Tour qualifiers tonight. My ticket value is up to €299. It's going less well in the cashgames, bankroll down to €879,22.

[ArtyMcFly]

I enjoyed your write-up of the live tourney. We'll have to meet up at one of those one day... if I ever leave the house!

[MathrimC]

I had a bit of a bad run at 25NL this afternoon, bankroll is now at €822,66. I was at a table where a golden ticket was dropped, but I wasn't on the button, so a €10 UO ticket it is.

I'll play the UK Tour final tonight, let's hope this will be the one 😃

[MathrimC]

Time for another hand.

How do you proceed?

[MathrimC]

Was just playing some more 25NL and this happened:

Hell yeah 🆒

[MathrimC]

Bubbled the UK Tour final, and busted early in a UK25 qualifier, while at the same time winning 2 UK4 qualifiers and turning the €10 UO ticket I won earlier today into a €50 UO ticket. It's been a rollercoaster day for me at the tables, probably not so good for the heart but totally worth it 😀

For those not playing the UK Tour qualifiers, you're really missing out on some insane short-stack-ninja fun around bubble time:

 

[ChapInAChair]

Those short stack shovefests on the UK bubbles are terrific for honing your short handed game. It's amazing how relatively comfortable you can be with a sub 5bb stack sometimes.

[ArtyMcFly]

With the A8s, I could probably make a case for all three options. A read on the c-bettor could help. I think I normally flat call and hope there's no 3-bet, but against some player types, 3-betting yourself might be better.

The UK Tour turbos can be pretty insane. They are a lot of fun if you have the biggest stack, but can be quite tense if you're short and can't decide whether it's best to try and steal or just fold everything and hope for lemmings to spew off. I wonder if Neri survived that one.

[MathrimC]

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@ArtyMcFly wrote:

With the A8s, I could probably make a case for all three options. A read on the c-bettor could help. I think I normally flat call and hope there's no 3-bet, but against some player types, 3-betting yourself might be better.

The UK Tour turbos can be pretty insane. They are a lot of fun if you have the biggest stack, but can be quite tense if you're short and can't decide whether it's best to try and steal or just fold everything and hope for lemmings to spew off. I wonder if Neri survived that one.

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Neri didn't survive. I think he busted the very hand I took the screenshot, RIP.

I didn't notice anything particular about the players in the hand. Here's the result:

But I don't think a shove is ever profitable. It only is when I have additional outs to make a pair, but will he raise the flop with just top pair or a mediocre overpair? (the high pocket pairs he probably would have raised pre). A call would be much better I think, especially since it can keep the cbetter in the pot. I just have a habit over overplaying my flushdraws on the flop because I hate playing them on the turn without the initiative.

[MathrimC]

I'm the proud "winner" of a double trouble ticket for the third week in a row...

I had a very bad evening playing tournaments today. Played the 3 butler leagues, a €10 UO qualifyer and 2 €4 UK qualifiers and gained nothing. The bustout hands:

• My 12 bb shove of KJ cold called by 65o
• My 16 bb shove of AJ cold called by 65s
• My misclick call pre with AJo when I wanted to shove, which caused villain with K5o to pair his 5.
• My 16bb shove with TT called by 33.
• Me calling a shove with AA vs 55.

I know runs like these are normal and these kind of hands (except the misclick situation) will make me money in the long run, just need to vent a bit after I got 5 of these busts in the same hour.

[ArtyMcFly]

It's been a while since I had a Double Trouble ticket. I had a few weeks where I was really close to getting a ticket, but I either binked something to make me breakeven (or better) or I just got so fed up that I cut my losses and stopped playing while down about 18 quid for the week.
It's horrible when you have those stretches where you keep getting called by lousy hands that hit their 35% equity or whatever. Tourneys are brutal like that. Hopefully you'll bounce back and have a week where your hands hold up, or you come from behind yourself. Have you still got plenty of satty tickets?

[MathrimC]

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@ArtyMcFly wrote:

It's been a while since I had a Double Trouble ticket. I had a few weeks where I was really close to getting a ticket, but I either binked something to make me breakeven (or better) or I just got so fed up that I cut my losses and stopped playing while down about 18 quid for the week.

It's horrible when you have those stretches where you keep getting called by lousy hands that hit their 35% equity or whatever. Tourneys are brutal like that. Hopefully you'll bounce back and have a week where your hands hold up, or you come from behind yourself. Have you still got plenty of satty tickets?

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I still have €175 in UK Tour tickets, and €24 in MTT tickets I won recently that I can use to play the UK4s, so I'm safe 😃

[MathrimC]

I played some more cash the past few days, 10NL and 25NL, but I'm not really getting anywhere. My bankroll is now at €849,44. On 25NL I feel like I'm not beating the game.

I have the week off, so I should be able to play a lot before the year is over, although I did get some Starwars lego for Christmass that I need to build #nevergrowup

Here's another hand:

Is it better to 4bet pre? And should I lead on the flop?

[ArtyMcFly]

As a default, I would cold 4-bet, but there's nothing really wrong with flatting. I would not recommend leading the flop. Tbh, I'd usually check-call the turn too, although it's a bit of a fancy/deceptive play. There's not a lot of money to be made on boards like that when villain checks behind on the flop, but you can induce a bet by worse if you check again.

[NeriPoker]

25nl was the level I just couldn't beat (Stars). I'd say it's the first level of cash game poker where the money becomes a bit meaningful therefore competition gets tougher. I eventually gave up and now struggle at much lower stakes so credit to you for keeping on grinding. 

I remember in Glasgow you said you were considering switching to mtts. What changed your mind? 

[MathrimC]

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@NeriPoker wrote:

25nl was the level I just couldn't beat (Stars). I'd say it's the first level of cash game poker where the money becomes a bit meaningful therefore competition gets tougher. I eventually gave up and now struggle at much lower stakes so credit to you for keeping on grinding. 

I remember in Glasgow you said you were considering switching to mtts. What changed your mind? 

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The ease of jumping in and out of cashgames for 30 minutes to one hour at a time is just too tempting. But it's still something I'm considering. I might set myself an online MTT goal next year to motivate myself.

[NeriPoker]

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@MathrimC wrote:

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@NeriPoker wrote:

25nl was the level I just couldn't beat (Stars). I'd say it's the first level of cash game poker where the money becomes a bit meaningful therefore competition gets tougher. I eventually gave up and now struggle at much lower stakes so credit to you for keeping on grinding. 

I remember in Glasgow you said you were considering switching to mtts. What changed your mind? 

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The ease of jumping in and out of cashgames for 30 minutes to one hour at a time is just too tempting. But it's still something I'm considering. I might set myself an online MTT goal next year to motivate myself.

 

That's what I always found with cash games. They are just so damn convenient. I'm seriously thinking about heading back to them tbh (Always toying with the idea really). Sitting in microstakes tournaments for 8 hours as I have just done is just soul destroying and I even made money tonight!

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[MathrimC]

I've been running good today. Cash bankroll back up to €907.52, won a €10 UO ticket by sitting at a table where a silver ticket was dropped, and hit 50k challenge points, an all-time high for me.

This evening I also won 2 UK4 qualifiers (so won 2 €25 tickets) and a UK25 qualifier (so a €100 ticket). In the last one I came back from the dead with 2bb's when we were still 7 handed 😃 My UK Tour ticket value is at €300 now, I'm planning on playing 2 finals in January.

[MathrimC]

My last day of grinding for this year. I ran out of UK4 tickets and was too late to request a conversion, so I spend my evening grinding 10NL. Got in some good volume playing 7 tables, but the bankroll didn't really get anywhere, I'm going to end the year at €897,86.

On Monday or Tuesday I'll make my monthly & yearly evaluation and set my new goals for 2017 😃

 

[nelu6362]

Good luck on your poker journey. :rockon:

[MathrimC]

Evaluation of monthly goals: December 2016

• Cashgame goal: play at least 25 hours of cashgames COMPLETED
  • I mainly played 10NL and some 25NL, and ended the month about break-even. On 10NL, I did a couple of sessions where I played 7 tables for the first time, and I was able to keep up quite well. 
• MTT goal: play at least 20 UK Tour qualifiers COMPLETED
• Live goal: go play a cashgame session at Viage casino in Brussels FAILED
  • Should have gone for a live cash session when I was in Manchester. Guess I'll have to keep this goal for next year.
• Study goals
  • Finish reading Applications of No-Limit Hold'em PARTLY DONE
    • I got through 80% of the book. I'm just reading it though, I'll definitely have to go through everything again to take more notes and work to apply some concepts in my play. This is by far the most advanced and valuable poker content I ever read.
  • Study check-raising, both for value and as a bluf PARTLY DONE
    • I read some articles and watched some hand reviews about the subject, but not as much as I wanted, and don't really apply it in my game yet.

 

December bankroll evolution:

• cash: €907,59 -> €897,86
• UK Tour tickets: €266 -> €325
• Other MTT tickets: €59 -> €42

Busted another UK Tour final this month, and ended kind of status quo in the bankroll. It feels a bit like a downswing, but I'll take this kind of downswing were I end up break-even anytime over a real one. And the status quo is more than compensated by the highlight of my month: playing the UK Tour event in Manchester.

My yearly evaluation and new goals for 2017 will follow later today or tomorrow.

[MathrimC]

Review of my 2016 poker year

After picking up poker again at the end of 2015, and for the first time diving into poker strategy, I kind of see 2016 as my debut year as a serious player. And looking back, it's amazing what I achieved in just one year. Without making a deposit, I built a bankroll of around €900, made two trips to Unibet UK Tour events, made some new friends, and when it comes to poker skills, 2017 me would completely crush 2015 me. If I can continue to progress at only half that pace in 2017 I'll be very happy. I owe a big thanks to Unibet for achieving all this. I'm not just saying that because I'm posting in this community. I have accounts on Unibet, BWin/Partypoker and Pokerstars, and was primarily playing on the latter two, having big trouble getting my bankroll off the ground, until I discovered the Unibet twitch channel during the UO Antwerp stream in November 2015. After that I started gathering tickets on Unibet, ran them up, and "never looked back", as succesful players like to say. On top of that, thanks to a lot of free UK Tour tickets, I discovered the awesome UK Tour satellite structure which got me to my first serious live events. And most of all, I had great fun doing all that, while hanging out in the twitch chat and in this community. Without Unibet, I'm sure I wouldn't have the bankroll I have now, wouldn't have had the fun I had, and I probably wouldn't have made it to any serious live events.

Here's the evaluation of my yearly goals for 2016:

• Move up to 25NL cashgames online ALMOST COMPLETE
  • I mostly play 10NL with occasionally some 25NL. I think I'm not a loosing player at those stakes, but not sure if I really have a decent winrate yet.
• Get live experience. COMPLETED
  • I played about 5 small-stakes live tournaments in my area, and participated in two Unibet UK Tour events. One year ago, I was nervously counting my betting chips while completely losing track of the potsize, now I feel a lot more confident at a live table.
• Play at least one serious live event (at least €100 buy-in). COMPLETED
  • I played in the Unibet UK Tour events in Glasgow and Manchester. Definitely the biggest achievement of my year.
• Multi-tabling: learn to play at least 5 cash tables. COMPLETED
  • I play 6 or 7 tables when playing cashgames (if I'm not doing anything else at the same time). For MTTs, I can handle 4 without making big mistakes.
• Go play a cashgame session at Viage casino in Brussels FAILED
  • The only goal I didn't achieve, and actually it's more of a bucket list thing than an achievement, because all I have to do is make the trip to the casino. I'm reluctant to do it because of the insane rake in Brussels at the lowest stakes. Maybe I'll play some cash in Oostende or in one of the UK Tour casinos next year.

The evolution of my cash bankroll in 2016: €188,99 -> €897,86

My new yearly goals for 2017

• Make 25NL my regular game, and take some shots at 50NL
  
  • Or, in case I decide to switch games: make €10/€25 SNGs or MTTs my regular games
• Play at least 3 serious live events (at least €100 buy-in)
  • I'll keep aiming at the UK Tour events, and we'll see what other interesting opportunities come up during the year
• Play a live cashgame session at a casino
• Study goals:
  • Read two new poker books
  • Gather at least 10 pages of new notes in total from poker books, articles, forums, ...
  • Record 5 gametapes throughout the year
    • With gametape I mean videos of me playing, which I use to review myself, or to share with people to get advice

I'll set my specific goals for January tomorrow.

[VikingsAF]

That's nice that you almost finished all your goals :D

Last week I was also checking some Belgian casino's and found the rake at viage insanely high aswell ;) But it was also the only casino where I bumped into the rakes, so I don't know what's usual :)

For those 3 major events, just make sure you put the UO ticket to good use, and then you'll be sure of an insanely awesome event :) But that's only if you had in mind to ever get to Unibet Open :) The buy-in is maybe 10x UK tour, but if you get there by qualifying you should be okay.

It is not too hard to get a bigger ticket from 10UO if you know how to stay in play on the bubble (I busted 60% of my 10 tickets on the bubble because I wanted to bully the low players out when I was high stack, but if I would have just folded every hand (even AA AK or KK) I probably would have got there). For 50UO I actually have the same feeling. By putting pressure in the beginning and slowing down in the end you should easily be able to get the 250 ticket :) (but I would exchange my 50 into 5x 10 first). I really don't like playing lower than 10, but maybe you do!

I wish you all the luck with your goals, they seem perfect :) 

[ArtyMcFly]

Nice update. It seems you made a lot of progress in 2016. Congrats! Hopefully the success will continue this year.

[MathrimC]

New monthly goals: January 2017

• Cashgame goal: play 12 hours of cashgames
• MTT goal: play 15 UK Tour qualifiers
• Study goal: find a new poker book to read and read at least half of it.

The volume goals are a bit lower this month, because I'm going on holiday from the 20th until the end of the month.

I'm thinking about doing a SNG tryout. It seems like the perfect segue from cash to MTTs, since they are easier to get into my sessions, have lower variance, and they have a lot of similarities with the UK Tour qualifiers. First I would read up on some turbo SNG strategy (so that might be the subject of the book I want to read this month), and in Februari I would try to play 100 €10 SNGs, and evaluate along the way. I won't be near my true winrate after that sample, but I should get a feel of how tough the games are and how confident I am, and if I want to keep going in the tournament direction.

Any opinions?