CuteRaven

Ok, I found the blinds button now! The Supernova is 12 minutes for the first 27 levels, so 5 hours and 24 minutes in total for day 1 (it's an hour less than that for the Supermoon then).

Sorry, I wrote the wrong tournament name! I have two tickets for the 100€ buy-in Supernova that I won from satellites. So I'm talking about the 100€ Supernova, I'm an idiot 😂 But thanks for the answer, probably I can go and find out the information myself from that!

It says the duration is 8-9 hours but that must be for both days combined right? The level up time is "12-16" minutes (27 levels played day 1), so there is no way to calculate it either because of the uncertainty of the level up time. I don't want to destroy my sleep if I play it tomorrow 😂

Well, I guess you know best, especially with all that experience. A player who tries to avoid bad players is a new one for me 😄. I also enjoy playing against good regs (especially HU with all the mind games you mentioned) as a fun challenge, but I don't mind facing bad players that donate their chips to me. Great start! And I guess, who cares about BR management when it's only 50€ and you can always redeposit 😄 I've heard that with a big stack you shouldn't, and otherwise you should take the add-on. Probably someone could do some rough ICM calcs to get an approximate threshold for how many chips you need for the add-on to not be worth taking anymore. Yeah it's a shame with the SnG volume (they don't get much love in promos either). Hexapros are a bit too much of a variance-fest for my taste, though I do still enjoy them sometimes, for similar reasons that I like HU SnG ( I could see myself grinding Hexapros maybe, if for some reason I stop liking HU SNG, or the HU SnG volume drops a lot on Unibet). But the ICM and the "bubble bursting excitement" and related strategy of 5 man SnG is something I like, that's only present in MTTs, which take too long on average for my taste.

Could be, but some players just do this with their whole range (to put something like Q8 or other air, which I have a lot of here, into an awkward spot), so usually I don't read into this sort of tiny flop bet too much. I'm enough of a station to have other FD that call the tiny flop bet and arrive on the turn. 😅 Admittedly I would jam most of my suited Ax preflop, but some of the worse ones I could call sometimes (e.g A6, A4), but maybe I jam some of them sometimes (ones with a gutter and backdoor FD) on the flop against the small bet. Then there is stuff like Q9hh, Q8hh, 46hh, 56hh, maybe even T9hh that I could call sometimes on the flop (though some like 46hh, 56hh I might jam or minraise on the flop), but I guess still not so many FD combos 😄 Good point, I didn't think of it in that way during the hand, though I don't think shoving Kx is bad, probably a tiny turn bet is slightly better or more natural with most hands on the turn. But the timing is what made me more convinced. Before I called, I was mentally preparing a little bit for they chance that he might hit an A or 9 (or whatever overcards he could be bluffing with), but luckily it didn't happen. 😄 You mean post-flop? As a bluff I assume? Thanks! Might need it. Hopefully I run as good in moving house as I have recently in poker. 😂 I decided to withdraw 500€ from Unibet since I might need it, there was some annoying bureaucratic mistakes from my employer with salary for some of the work shifts, so some of it is delayed, but I should get it soon. Maybe I will redeposit the 500€ once I get the salary 😄. Luckily the Unibet withdrawal was instant so that's really nice.

I think it's a fun thing to look at (probably even more so for newer players that don't have much intuition for the probabilities). I don't think it will really have any effect on the skill of the player pool, it only helps with all-in equities which most bad players have some idea of anyway, and for example poker strategy Youtube videos and articles have been around forever, for those who are actually interested in improving, yet here we still are with the player pools being quite beatable 😄.

You're probably correct, but sometimes I still wonder if it is really so. It's a similar dilemma with proprietary vs open source software. On the one hand it should be easier to find a vulnerability in open source software because you can just see the code. On the other hand the code is open to everyone, so everyone can report and fix problems that they find, so problems are usually fixed faster. I would imagine it's similar with anticheat, it's more difficult to break into a black box like Unibet, but on the other hand if you find a way to cheat it's less likely that you would be caught by a smaller team that trusts their own anticheat system, (compared to a completely open system that everyone can fix and monitoring) and you will probably have more time to cheat before you are banned. I don't know if open anticheat systems have ever been tried in practice so maybe it's just a bad idea.

TBH I'm not sure it makes sense to me (apart from having a proper bankroll size for tournaments). I try to enjoy poker for the strategy, competition, thrill etc. regardless of how good or bad the competition is. I don't think playing higher stakes will be less frustrating especially if the low stakes felt like a bit of struggle. If someone is playing really weirdly (or even if they are playing normally) I take it as a fun challenge to try and hand-read them ( and you seem like a decent hand reader from some of the hands that you posted). I start playing less robotically and sometimes level myself into doing dumb stuff (so I have the opposite problem 😛 ). When I start playing robotically it is usually a sign that I need a break from poker. Getting to L6 also seems really tough regardless, unless you were planning on depositing more than 1000€. You need to rake 2205€ to get there (which is over 3000 10€ Hexapros for example which is quite tough even when playing a high volume format like that). Same, and especially the add-on tournaments feel a bit like a scam, you pay the 5€ buy in and suddenly you are surprised with a prompt to invest double what you thought you would for the tournament (I know there is the tournament filter but new players won't notice it or know what an add-on is and many recs won't care about it, great way to bust the bankroll of recs fast). At least Unibet should rename the tournaments to "Good luck Mr Scamsky ADD-ON REBUY tournament" or something and show the buy-in column as "5€+5€" or something to make it more clear and drive the point home. Mini rant about the scam-on tournaments. 😅 Hopefully you can get it sorted whatever it is and hopefully you are doing well regardless!

BR is 1021.47€ (+ two 100€ supernova tickets). 1000€ is a pretty meaningless value, but it still feels good to pass that value with the bankroll after my swingy bankroll run so far 😄. Most of the profits are from 25€ heads up SNG (about 150€ profit from that) and I also managed to luckbox myself into a 125€ Hexapro extreme once again. I barely played since the last update because of starting a new university and having to move cities etc. I just played today and yesterday. Still gotta move properly to the new city (I'm probably the worst house/city mover in history but hopefully things will go well with that 😂). Eventually I'll probably get back to poker properly, but it might be a week or two.

I agree with you mostly: Someone always starts spamming this to me eventually 😄 Definitely sarcastic. Like the fish emote but more subtle. Someone is just donating their stack. I'm so good, dominating everyone (I sometimes use this or the popcorn emote as a reply to the fish emote to try and mess with them a bit 😄). I don't follow football really though. Re-buy when someone lost a stack or sometimes people use it before a big river bet or all-in. I also use this to suggest to others to open more tables (when volume is low in e.g SNGs) but I think often they don't get the message. This sucks, that hand was nasty, feeling bad etc... Thanks for punting your stack to me! Or just a normal thank you as a reply to the clap emote for example This would be great. Also a "I would like to add tables" would be nice.

Bankroll is 728.61€ (+ two 100€ supernova tickets). I played a short session of mostly the 25€ buy-in 5 man SNG yesterday and got to about 650€ (was running quite hot 🤩). Today I played some 25€ HU SNG and got up to about 740€ (played against some exploitable regs that never bluffed or really underbluffed). After that I played a long session of the 25€ 5 man SNGs but couldn't get past breakeven this time. I don't think I played that well in the 5 mans today. For example I made a really bad ICM call with A6o vs a preflop all-in from a reg shortstack (who seemed to be shoving quite wide) on the bubble. Probably if I thought it through properly I would've found the fold. In that spot ATo or maybe A9o is the worst hand I can call with. The reg won with QTo and was spamming fish emotes after that. 😄 I also ran worse. There was one comical bad beat moment where I busted or nearly busted two of the 25€ SNGs at the same time. On both tables I was all in preflop with JJ. On one of the tables villain had 55 and on the other table villain had 77. They both made a set 😂. I lost a bunch of pivotal all-ins but made some big hands, overall I think I ran ok (or I wouldn't have stayed at breakeven). And of course the general direction of the bankroll is up so gotta be grateful about that. 🙂 I'll be taking at least a few days off from the poker grind, life is getting quite busy again.

Bankroll is 491.14€ (+ two 100€ supernova tickets). I played a late night 5 man SNG session (10€ and a few 25€ buyins) when I came back from work today and it went quite well. I was feeling quite fresh despite the work day. I also won a 30€ Hexapro (bought in with a 10€ ticket that I got from the August mission) after my last BR update.

I understand that but what is 88 getting called by that's worse if you are not up against a calling station like me? It feels like if you shove with them you are turning those hands into a bluff. But maybe some players would do it regardless. Good point. Though I like to take into account reads, especially when you are just playing 4 tables (max of the browser version), it's impossible not to get reads even if you try 😄 But yeah multiway it's not so relevant. Yeah just wanted to give something more specific than "I play aggro" which doesn't mean that much, but yeah I play quite aggro overall, probably too aggro 😛 I don't really like to play 3bets purely to steal. I think if I give up on flop or turn almost always whenever I'm bluffing I'm going to be losing many pots when I get called preflop (which is pretty often I think) and I'm going to be losing big pots too often. I actually float and checkraise flop cbets vs some regs quite loose as an exploit if I notice they cbet flops and then give up turns too much (not specific to 3bet pots though). But I guess most players I would face wouldn't think about stuff like this. But anyway, it's a matter of preference and a bit nitpicky I guess, probably most important that the frequencies are good. I noticed that you have a blog and looks like you are crushing the MTTs, so probably I should listen to your advice (and I appreciate the thoughts 😀 ). Hopefully the poker has been going good lately (if you've been playing)!

I think many people are slowly waking up to the fact that climate change is not some distant threat of the future but has already been happening and affecting the world for years now. I remember some years back many people were still thinking of climate change as something that only concerns polar bears and future generations.

@ladyluckpls Thanks for the opinions! Yeah, BB defense ranges is something I need to do some work on. It gets a bit complicated with antes, differing stack sizes and ICM stuff. On the one hand you can probably defend wider at low stack sizes because you realize more of your equity. But yeah, probably too loose with 53o. You think that players would show up with something like 88 when they take this line postflop? I don't think most players would do that, but maybe you are right that I'm underestimating how often it happens still. That was the plan initially but when the turn checked through I thought I had an opportunity 😂. In the end, if it folds through 70% of the time it's very profitable, only 50% and I'm burning money. It only takes one calling station to ruin things. I thought at the time that all players seemed quite "normal". SB was playing another table, BU name seemed familiar but no reads beyond that and MP seemed solid (also that 2.3x raise size seems reg-like). So does it fold through enough of the time? I still don't know, but moves like this have worked out a lot in the past so that's probably part of the reason I still make them sometimes. 😅 But especially with 86s probably being more of a possibility than I thought at the time (and me not blocking it when blockers are especially important multi-way), probably check fold is the smart option 😛 Pretty aggro, gamelab told me in the past that I have a VPIP/PFR/3BET of something like 30/23/12 at 4 NL, probably that's close to what it is in the early stages of 6max tournaments too (tighter if the field is tough). This is the advice that surprised me the most, usually I like to play more playable hands as 3bets (e.g 65s or A4s), and the great price incentivizes calls over 3bets in general I think. I thinks it's quite awkward to play something like J7o out of position against their calling range (especially when J7o is dominated quite often bu AJ, KJs, QJs, JTs...). But maybe since calling is so good here with many hands, it would be a "waste" to 3bet fold stuff like 65s? I also thought that calling J7o would be relatively standard here. I guess it's something I need to think about more. You inspired me to research BB defense ranges for MTTs a bit more 😄. I found some videos and articles on it: https://upswingpoker.com/big-blind-defend-strategy-mtt-vs-cash/ Overall, from a quick glance, looks like I'm too loose in some spots and too tight in other spots, though these ranges don't factor in ICM. A bit surprising how much it differs from cash games.

Bankroll is 334.69€ (+ two 100€ supernova tickets). If you can't beat the fish join them: Context: This was the 250€ asteroid (10€ buy-in), early stages of the tournament. Preflop, I call with the premium hand J7o. The initial raiser cbets flop and everyone calls, I might fold if there are no callers, but with the good price, I thought if the 7 pairs on the turn I usually have the best hand. Turn (Queen ♦️) checks through. At this point I think it's pretty unlikely that anyone has a set, I think 33 would usually raise flop, I block 77 and if someone had 99 there usually wouldn't be four callers on the flop. So I thought there are a bunch of flush draws, 9x and overcards, or stuff like that. River is 5♠️. Looks like a brick, and that hits my range better than the range of the other players. I don't block flush draws or T8 (though I block JT). I decide to overbet jam here, thinking that most of the time it will just fold through (even Qx would fold usually too, but maybe not for a smaller size). Well, the initial raiser calls with 8♠️6♠️, the nut straight (others fold) and probably the table got a good laugh from the hand 😂. TBH I didn't expect that to be much in anyone's range preflop. Well, nice hand! What do you think, completely stupid or has some logic? Anyway I torched my chiplead right there. With some nice luck I was actually able to get to the final table, but I managed to bubble the tournament. I think the hand is not that interesting, but in retrospect I think it was a bit of an ICM punt (not terrible, but not good). At least I managed to win another ticket from a satellite for the supernova. So I guess technically the day has been slightly profitable but to the credit of the ticket bankroll, not sure how to feel about that. And I completed this damn thing, which is the main reason I was playing tournaments in the first place 😂 Probably the disciplined thing would've been to not play today after work and to not be tempted by the missions. I don't think my play was great (though maybe not as bad as I expected it to be). Oh well, at least I got a fun hand to post on the blog 😛

Yeah sometimes I feel like I might have an edge on the player pool just by living up north, though the heat waves hit here sometimes too 😕

Legend in the big blind getting max value with 29s 😂 I like how you played those hands (though I'm not the right person to give and opinion on this). Looks like you made some nice folds especially!

Ok, it makes sense, if you have been winning at the format for years there is no need to track stats like that. For someone like me it's nice to try and figure out what is the best stat to know if you're winning at Hexapro or not. ROI doesn't make sense because of the changing prize pool so I guess win% is the best one for Unibet. Without downloadable hand histories it's not really possible to figure out chipEV or stuff like that.

BR is at 413.52€. I also have a 100€ supernova ticket which I won from a satellite (which I only played because of the August mission lol). A lot of those winnings were from a 125x Hexapro extreme that I won (the rest are from a few tournament cashes, SNG, and a bit of 5€ Banzai). I actually got into another 125x Hexapro extreme later, but I torched that one and came third 😛 Overall, can't complain with how I'm running, especially when my volume hasn't been super impressive lately. Here is a fun hero call that worked out in the 1000€ black hole (I ended up cashing that tournament but not for much). This happened a few paid places before the bubble: Preflop with a premium hand like 53o and antes I call (kind of weird stack size for villain to be minraising from especially close to the bubble, probably a limp/shove/fold or shove/fold range makes more sense, but some players would minraise stuff like AA as an exploit, but I don't think this player was like that). Flop of course I have to call. On the turn villain snap jams for a bit over pot. I was thinking that would most players snap jam a jack when the turn comes a king? Probably most players would think for a bit before jamming Jx (and many players would end up checking back with most of their Jx). So I thought most of the value range would be some sort of Kx, and then potentially a bunch of bluffs (none of which I really block except A5 of clubs). Maybe not the best play but always nice when the reads work out.

Nice one! I managed to win one too (at 1€ buy-in) with my Mr scared avatar. Saw that the counter was at about 200 and decided to hop in, and I hit the 125x on my 5th or 6th try like a proper luckbox. 😂 Do you know what your win% for (normal) Hexapros is at the stakes that you play, if it's something that you are willing to reveal? I'm curious about what the crushers are able to achieve at this variance-fest of a gametype.

I think it's healthy to be a bit paranoid about players being bots since that is an existing threat nowadays. It would be very easy to program bots to randomize their timing, so if a bot has consistent timings it would be an oversight by the creator. I wouldn't say the long timing thing is super common behaviour for players. Some players are overly concerned with staying balanced, but I would say that's usually not the case if it happens preflop too. If you see some player seemingly never making mistakes and playing a lot of tables, and taking difficult to find, profitable but low EV lines, but not really trying to exploit opponents, then maybe they are a bot (or just a really good player who didn't use reads or tilt when they played with you). I would guess bots usually have somewhat consistent timing but not super long or short, probably much more consistent than humans do on average? On the other hand if someone is playing similarly but only one table and taking lots of time for every postflop decision, then maybe they use RTA. But in the end the poker sites have all the data so we kind of have to rely on them to find the cheaters, but personally I haven't seen anything too worrying at the Unibet lower stakes at least.

Hand with TT: I think I would cbet the flop a lot with the range advantage, and also a hand like TT which is vulnerable, villain probably has lots of A high and K high in their range. As played the river is tough. I don't think I ever call if there's lots of ICM (e.g: on the bubble). Probably otherwise I would call. I don't think it's clear that you lose to all value bets (would random villain value bet 99? IDK). With reads probably a fold can be good especially when you block flush draws. Hand with AA: I would have bet the turn, especially when I unblock flush draws that would call or shove vs a turn bet. Maybe I would rather trap something like JT or 97 (I don't think having a somewhat capped turn checking range is too bad when you are this shortstacked). As played I'm always calling river when villain could maybe valuebet KJ and stuff like that.

Yeah, for me the positive is that if I have a big downswing I usually start thinking about changes I need to make, or sometimes I try to study poker a bit. I don't do much of that when I'm on an upswing 😅. In this case the main change was to focus more on SNGs than I have been recently to give myself a better chance to recover the roll (and it also made me think about the differences between cash and SNGs which resulted in the post). Yeah, I think there's a decent chance I would've made more last month if I didn't do the mission, but it is good value at the micros and quite fun (and it was a good chance for me to retest how much I like different poker formats). The deepstack legend promotion has cash tables that are basically 10 NL (5cent/10cent), except that you buy in for 50-100€ instead of 5-10€ (and the player with the biggest stack before 3 am Finland time gets a 100€ cash ticket). So I was playing 2 tables (you are capped to 2 tables) of DSL on Thursday after work and bought in for 100€ on both. I got it up to about 130€ on both tables at one point, but lost all my profits later in a few bad bluffs ( I was playing overaggressive for a shot at victory as the clock was ticking) and then in the last two minutes or so the KQ hand happened. Also lost a bit in 10€ SNGs on the side while I was playing deepstack legend. So overall I lost about 130€ and BR was down to 120€ or so after that session. Maybe not the best bankroll management 😂 Yeah I agree that this is a pretty nice thing in favor of cash games, though SNGs don't take that long so for me it's not too bad.

You need to get the more expensive bounty tournament edition. The standard run good package wasn't designed to withstand players as crazy as coco4742! Unfortunate run, as fun as bounty tournaments are (my favorite one is space madness) the variance is pretty brutal sometimes 😛