MetalWolf

@Sect7G *In cheesy boxing ring announcer voice* LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!! Haha good idea should be good banter! I accept, of course 😃 I hope that, should I lose, my moustache adds some manliness to my already manly beer belly, but I fear it will only serve to make it look worse.

Quick Update. 2 new tournament wins and a nice couple days profit. Loving the new UOS schedule and really looking forward to playing it. Planning to play the full schedule all being well and would love to beat my previous overall leaderboard position of 9th. I missed 6 events I think in the last series. My goals last time were to finish in the top 30 on every board which I just about managed. I will go for the top 25 on each this time. Total games played: 1657 ITM: 481 / 29.03% Total buyin: €11,722.05 Total Cashes: €13,094.92 Profit: €1372.87 ROI: 11.71% Tournament wins: 21 1x NLH Deep Space 2x NLH Deep Crazy Moon 4x NLH Fireball 4x PLO Fireball 1x PLO Singularity 3x NLH Wormhole 3x NLH Shooting Star 1x PLO Shooting Star 1x Unibet Online Series Nano Event 1x Betting Freeroll Titles: 1 Q1 2018 Nano Leaderboard Champion

@XY Love that! Very accurate. I hope I shall hit a good peak when the next UOS rolls around! Thanks for the advice 😃

Finally I managed to put in a bit of volume to make it worth doing an update! 3 days ago I had a nightmare and everything I did went wrong. My bankroll took a severe hit. The next day, though, I won FIVE tournaments which i am pleased about. I followed that up with a win in the betting freeroll yesterday to make it 6 from two days. So i'm happy again now and we carry on as normal :haha: Hoping to make another full day of it today and I'm feeling good and feeling wins on the horizon. Total games played: 1591 ITM: 460 / 28.91% Total buyin: €11,337.05 Total Cashes: €12,426.94 Profit: €1089.89 ROI: 9.61% Tournament wins: 19 1x NLH Deep Space 2x NLH Deep Crazy Moon 4x NLH Fireball 4x PLO Fireball 1x PLO Singularity 3x NLH Wormhole 2x NLH Shooting Star 1x Unibet Online Series Nano Event 1x Betting Freeroll Titles: 1 Q1 2018 Nano Leaderboard Champion

@triceraatoppSome great points and you are right that the results will come as long as you are playing your best game. I'm actually disappointed at my ROI this year (around 10.76%, €1100 profit from 1450 games) and I feel like that sample size should be showing better profit for my level. For example in 2017 I only played 2100 games overall with an ROI of 26.05% and profit of £4500. But being lazy I think I'm better than I actually am and need to brush up on a few studies and plug a few leaks! 🤣 I am proud I won the Nano leaderboard in the UOS and came in the top 10 overall leaderboard so happy to know I'm still doing something right, but feel like with a bit of fine tuning I could be so much better! The last month for me has been very quiet for poker but from Tuesday I am expecting to be putting in full time hours for a couple weeks so see how it goes! I won't be in Malta unfortunately but I will be in Glasgow which I noticed you have a seat for so hopefully by the time that comes round I will have done a bit more reading 😃 Good luck!

Very impressive results! Need to take a page out of your book and spend more time studying. Clearly paying off. I'm so lazy on the study side of things! Good luck in Malta.

Wow 2 weeks since an update. What have I been doing with myself? Answer - not a lot actually in terms of poker! I've hardly played any poker and haven't really had a lot of free time in general. Hopefully May will be better as this is a big disappointment to me. New team collector promotion looks pretty cool and i can't wait for the UOS announcement so there is definitley some motivation on the horizon to get back to the grind. Just a small update to the stats below for now. Total games played: 1414 ITM: 420 / 29.70% Total buyin: €10,088.95 Total Cashes: €11,099.97 Profit: €1011.02 ROI: 10.02%

Quick stat update. Enjoyed grinding this week even though @Psycho79 stone cold bubbled me in one of the events today... NOT COOL MAN! 😏 Though tbf I played the later stages awful and deserved it so wp mate hope you went on to win it. Overall a decent week, though. Two tournament wins and two second places. Travelling for work tomorrow (who arranges these things on a Friday???) and then will be sitting down to an afternoon of horse racing and poker... and a beer or two! To be slightly more serious for the moment. My ROI is 20% below my personal target and I am not playing enough live qualifiers. This is my main aim to improve upon during this quarter. Total games played: 1392 ITM: 415 / 29.81% Total buyin: €9,941.95 Total Cashes: €10,961.28 Profit: €1019.33 ROI: 10.25% Tournament wins: 13 1x NLH Deep Space 1x NLH Deep Crazy Moon 4x NLH Fireball 2x PLO Fireball 1x PLO Singularity 2x NLH Wormhole 1x NLH Shooting Star 1x Unibet Online Series Nano Event Titles: 1 Q1 2018 Nano Leaderboard Champion

Well after a longer break than intended it's back to being serious. Long hours planned for this week of poker and dollar signs in my eyes. I'm feeling like it's going to be a good week. Below is a simple graph of the first quarter with €953.58 profit recorded over 1300 games. I'm disappointed that I am not in bigger profit but it's a solid start to the year and at least I am proving to myself that I am still a winning player if nothing else. Lots of lessons to learn and lots of things to look forward to in this quarter including UK tour Glasgow (if i can find a reasonably priced train!!!) and another edition of the UOS, although unfortunately I won't be going to Malta. Cya at the tables all!

This seems really a really good solution I'm looking forward to seeing it in practice.

Back for the first grind today of the quarter and I feel hyped for it! Brighton was a good experience. Of the 3 UK tours I've been to it did unfortunately ranked 3rd but that doesn't mean it was bad. It was a shame that there wasn't much community support there for reasons I'll explore in this blog but it was still great to say hi to some familiar faces and it was brilliant to meet Leo who had all the time in the world for me and we had a good chat. As for the poker I busted late in day 1 and decided not to re-enter but instead enjoy what Brighton had to offer. I had tough seat draws all day and consistently found myself on tables with Dara, Lappin, @MathrimC, Ian Frazer, Benny Glaser and other good players capable of steamrolling a table but despite this I thought I played pretty well all day. The problem came that I kept having great situations go sour and I should of busted numerous times before I actually did. Very early on I called a 2x raise in big with 5 4 to see a board of A Q 4 5 4 and very passive action all around probably saved me. Sensibly I chose to only call a river bet and not raise as the player on the right of me turned over QQ, a hand she did not chose to 3 bet pre. I also managed to get away mid way through the day when I checked A5 in the BB to see an A 5 2 flop (2 hearts). I called a bet and three bet from a third player but folded the turn of a 7 as i was certain I was behind. The river came a 3 and to my surprise Ian frazer lost allin with 22 vs another players 6 4 hearts who had managed to pick up a runner straight instead of the flush. As the day grew on I continually had great situations that just didn't go well and it was clear it just wasn't going to be my day. the most disappointing of which is when i flopped a flush with A6 vs JJ who had flopped trips and it all went in on the turn only for him to fullhouse the river. The pot was easily worth a well above average stack towards the end of the day. It crippled me and I thought I could quickly get back into the game being dealt KK but the obligatory ace on the flop slowed down all action and I only won a small pot against J10. Finally, as the day came to a close I found myself increasingly allin as I tried to get to a 30bb stack for day 2. After moving allin on the BB a fair number of times with junk I actually found a good hand to do it with which ironically would be the end of me. Bad call from the BB's KJ in my opinion who had an ok stack for day 2 but his J on the river was enough to beat my 99. So it then became a Saturday of hitting the bars! Some really good places to eat and drink but reason number 1 for most of the community not showing up: I don't want to say Brighton is expensive - but they water their gardens with Evian down there. £15.45 for what is essentially 3 coke cans!! Now, some of you from the south will be used to such daylight robbery but I come from a dark place where the crime is rife but the beer is at least only £2 a pint :Veryhappy: Accomodation, food, drink, and everything else in general is very expensive in Brighton and I think this was probably the main reason a lot of people stayed away. The tour was announced pretty late and it didn't give people much time to plan ahead for such large expense. I was also disappointed with the location of the casino. Whilst the marina is very nice it is pretty much no where near the city center so I ended up in an expensive apartment close to the marina but had to take £10 taxi's each way into town and back. I appreciate that a lot of players that turn up wouldn't necassarily be interested in exploring the city, though. The weather did it's best to make the weekend more miserable but I did at least manage to get the obligatory windswept Brighton Pier shot. Oh, and I got a Unibet hoodie! Which made the trip completely worthwhile :atisfied: On the Sunday I joined the community game (very late) and it was nice to just relax and chat to some of the ambassadors and other community members before partaking in some bowling next door to the casino and finishing off with a few drinks in a nearby Wetherspoons. I have been told that at least one of my pics has made it onto the Ladies of Unibet facebook page. Come on @balticblonde your supposed to be encouraging ladies to join up not scareing them off with this ugly mug! :Rofl: :Rofl: All in all it was an enjoyable weekend although certainly not profitable! Good to see everyone and meet new faces and hope to see more of you in Glasgow!

After a wild few days in Brighton I decided that I wouldn't chase the next points level on Unibet and instead take a break until the points reset. So this weekend I am off to Nottingham for a couple of drinks, couple of dances and maybe even a poker game or two. I will write up a full Brighton blog including some key hands. In a nutshell I think I actually played pretty well on the day. Constantly found myself on tough tables but did really well I thought. Just wasn't my day. Nearly all of my potentially amazing situations turned sour and a couple of coolers before eventually succumbing around the final level of day 1 in a mad dash to try and double up. In a couple weeks I may well run a small ticket giveaway on this blog too if I'm allowed. I know @Psycho79 did this before on his and if @RayL allows me to and facilitates the transfers I might give away a couple of 1e+ tickets etc just as a little bit of fun. Full Brighton blog followed by first grind of the new quarter incoming next week then! Have a nice Easter all.

Well I dunno about you lot but I feel pretty refreshed after a week off despite the fact I can't get off my driveway (AGAIN!) because of snow. Getting pretty sick of the stuff now... I was going to grind today but I think I will sit back and enjoy the football and coach the missus through a couple of games and the ladies freeroll later instead. Am I the only Wolves fan on this forum by the way? Any others let yourselves be known! Midland banter will also always be welcome on this blog (while Wolves are doing well) 😏 The plan is to do a couple of small grinds early next week and some proper analysis on my recent play in preperation for Brighton. Going to be a long day for me. My train to Brighton is at 7.50am on Friday and playing day 1a which may not finish til 3am. I'll be around until Monday so anyone else down there feel free to say hello. Stat update! Total games played: 1276 ITM: 377 / 29.55% Total buyin: €9,081.95 Total Cashes: €10,046.45 Profit: €964.50 ROI: 10.62% Tournament wins: 11 1x NLH Deep Space 1x NLH Deep Crazy Moon 3x NLH Fireball 1x PLO Fireball 1x PLO Singularity 2x NLH Wormhole 1x NLH Shooting Star 1x Unibet Online Series Nano Event Titles: 1 Q1 2018 Nano Leaderboard Champion

@theMachine There was definitely a difference between Nano and high. Marginal I would say between nano and low but certainly in the high there was an obvious difference in skill level and solid play. I found that it was very easy to use exploitive play in the nano events. I rarely got put under pressure or had decisions where it wasn’t obvious on what to do. I found It pretty easy to get away with applying my own pressure. One of the noticeable difference was barreling from players. At nano if I called a 2.1BB raise from the BB with JQ and saw a flop of K J 6 it would most of the time go check/check or I’d check and they’d bet half pot. A lot of the time I called that half pot bet the other player shut down after, even if they had the K. If they did barrel I would then go through the hand ranges and make assumptions about the player and base my decisions on that. But most of the time it was enough to call down the first bet without much thought, knowing that you have showdown value and could even value bet all safe rivers, or even float with nothing and bet awkward cards that came down. I found I could call a lot wider range even out of position and still turn them in profitable spots. In the high’s, which were a lot more reg heavy, these spots were few and far between and the games were overall tighter. Certainly over the series it was getting more obvious who the skillful players were as you would see them more often in the late stages, or on multiple tables at a time. I found myself talking aloud a lot more in these events. Running through the hand aloud start to finish to help me decide on ranges, as spots where it wasn’t obvious what to do were more common. It was easy in the sense that I was playing a wider player pool of ‘thinking’ players. You could level with them and say ‘what does it look like I have, what do they think I have’ and ‘can I make myself look incredibly strong here’. I found a lot more situations like this in the highs where it was profitable to exploit. In the nanos it was often not profitable to try this sort of thing as you either get people call you down who don’t go through that thought process, or simply don’t care because of the low buyin. Raising peoples blinds around the bubble was also very different for the most part. In the nanos you could get away with 2x from the button and stealing the blinds a lot more than in the highs where players who understood ICM would just shove straight back on you. Rather than getting wires crossed at specific levels one of the hardest things I found was having multiple bounties and rebuys open at the same time. Both spewy in nature but the difference is ones a freezeout. I found it difficult to keep concentration on which tables I was able to gamble safely in the knowledge I could rebuy back and which I had to think more about ICM, or general common sense permutations. I think overall I actually found the lows most difficult to play as there was such a mix of players and skill levels. I made plenty of mistakes in the highs. A lot more often I would find myself in hand review thinking ‘why did I do that?’ or ‘I wish I’d have done this’. I was forced into more mistakes. I would say that due to the amount of satellites there were still many players in the highs which were out of their comfort zone so to speak. Certainly enough players to make bad plays common and certainly enough players in each event to find simple yet effective profitable situations against, but the adaptation of players higher up was clear to see. When you took on DOKE heads up I think you were able to see that for yourself. Your average nano player I expect you would of crushed heads up but higher level thinking players have to be handled differently as time goes on as they adapt to you, and you learn more about them. I myself am not what youd call a highroller by any stretch of the imagination. My average buy in this year so far is €5.05 but having a lot of experience at higher levels definitely helped me blend in whereas it was often obvious where a lower stakes, or newer player, had won a seat and adjustments could be made to capitalize on it. Hope this helps and happy to answer anything else or expand on the above. Although I said I would take a few days off I can’t seem to ever be ‘away’ from poker and have so much learning to take from that series which I am enjoying thinking about and reviewing.

Without doubt my favorite blog. Brilliant updates and well done on your results!

Well it's official it seems. I have won the Nano board :inlove: Thank you to everyone who liked, commented or willed me on to do well over this series. It meant a lot. I am proud of my finishing position, although there is defo room for improvement at low and high levels. I loved following everyone elses blogs and the streaming various people did on Twitch. I have got so much learning to take away from this series and will make sure I am more prepared for the next one, which I am very much looking forward to. Will do a full profit update in the coming days when leaderboard prizes have been paid but after only missing 6 events I think I deserve a few nights off to chill. Good luck to all who are already ready to get back on the grind! FINAL STANDINGS Nano: 1st (Woooooooooo!) Low: 28th High: 30th Overall: 9th

So close yet so far last night! Made the final two tables in both a high and a low. In the high I was going strong only for AQ to wreck my AK allin pre and also wreck my chances of a 5th final table of the series. The low I didn't play well with two tables left and deservedly didn't make that one. I am happy with my positions going into the final day. I thought I could make the top 30 and it turns out my ambitions could of probably been higher. I am making the decision to skip the 25 rebuys tonight but fingers crossed for the main and good luck to all that play it. Whatevers happens I am proud of my personal performance during these events and can't wait for the next series. Nano: 3rd Low: 21st High: 25th Overall: 8th

It's not a disaster. I dropped one place on the overall and that's it. Playing the schedule drunk again tonight! Sorry in advance if I get you 😏 Nano: 2nd Low: 29th High: 29th Overall: 12th

Urghhhhhh terrible night. Few finals and cashes in the usual schedule, but my own gambly nature coupled with a horrendous run of luck meant that it is highly unlikely we will hold on to any of those leaderboard positions. Should of been so much better. Can't dwell on it. Get it out the way now ready to turn it all around on Sunday. A bad day on Sunday will see my profit lines below smasheddddd but what do we care ay? This is poker and we always come back for more!!! Total games played: 1220 ITM: 361 / 29.59% Total buyin: €8039.20 Total Cashes: €8820.26 Profit: €781.06 ROI: 9.72%

🤣 🤣 🤣

Thanks @Pucuri88 I will certainly try! Yesterday was a good but frustrating day really. I had a hatrick of 2nd places in the main schedule and I'm disappointed with myself that I wasn't able to close any of them out. In the UOS I made another final table, this time in a low event. It helped my position overall but the Nano leader continues to motor away from me in points. The gap seems to have opened a bit further in the overall board between me and top but I am happy with my 4 final tables and 1 win so far. Hopefully I can add at least another one (preferably in the main!) and finish in that top 10! Nano: 2nd Low: 29th High: 29th Overall: 11th Once again I like the look of tonights events and very happy to see bounty and ante tournaments as a bit of a break from the normality of the usual rebuy schedule.

It turns out one of the Nano's hadn't finished when I checked the leaderboard last night and rather than taking back 1st I have fell even further behind in second! I like the look of the schedule tonight and suspect it will fit my style of play pretty well so fingers crossed! Nano: 2nd Low: 44th High: 32nd Overall: 19th Total games played: 1138 ITM: 337 / 29.61% Total buyin: €7412.45 Total Cashes: €8124.47 Profit: €712.02 ROI: 9.61%

Despite 2 cashes tonight it looks as though we are still dropping on the overall leaderboard which is disappointing. But I have managed to nab back 1st place in the nano by the looks of it. Those of you watching Ian's stream would of laughed to see me fold with a quarter big blind on the bubble of the rebuy high but it was a £160 fold to me lol Unlucky to the person on the other table who was allin at the same time and lost. Was absolute releif on my part after a horrendous day at the tables - escpecially in the sats where I was getting 2/3 outed every minute it seemed. Big day tomorrow. WD to all tonights cashers.

Right. This is not over. After a new injection of money we are going to go for every event left. Despite going out everything early last night I didn't drop too much and I am still very confident that with some good play, some mental strength and a bit of luck I can grab a top 10 overall position. Overall sats are as follows: nano: 2nd Low: 34th High: 35th Overall: 16th Total games played: 1092 ITM: 326 / 29.85% Total buyin: €7152 Total Cashes: €7774.80 Profit: €622.80 ROI: 8.71% Tournament wins: 11 1x NLH Deep Space 1x NLH Deep Crazy Moon 3x NLH Fireball 1x PLO Fireball 1x PLO Singularity 2x NLH Wormhole 1x NLH Shooting Star 1x Unibet Online Series Nano Event

Wow... out of everything already. RIP leaderboard position. Just going to log out and come back all guns blazing tomorrow...