Samba

Thank you for the kind words guys, INTERESTING day yesterday, I woke up to news that one of my open bet's had a roster change (Fnatic) and went from evens to 2:1 so I had an extra 20 on it before the game starts. The replacement player didn't warrant that much of a change in the odds so I felt fine about. It lost. I was on tilt over the roster change. Roster changes prematch are a lot rarer in esports than in traditional sports as injuries aren't really a thing so the fact this happened pissed me off. I had another £5 bet and then a £90. Both losses. That was the first time I've ever felt on tilt from betting sports and betting on games I had no opinion of, it will also be the last time I do it. For 6 months 😉 Fortunately, I run a lot better at card games than I do at betting on children's video games and booked a small win overall ~£50. (I'm still salty about it) When I fired up some tables this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see all the same names from 11.30pm last night still playing at 6am with 1kbb stacks on several tables. There is absolutely nothing I like for breakfast more than the money of tired bad regs. Biggest pot: 4b pre to 46bb so the shortstack could rejam and reopen the betting and we squeeze the other deepstack and flip for the money, but the nit just flatted. AI On flop, easiest hold of my life Onwards and upwards we go! Short break to enjoy the DOTA 2 and LoL matches before recommencing the grind later tonight. I know I am a massive nerd. ❤️ Sam

BannedNit is a top class name 😄

I am officially out of the hole! And completely free from smoking! I even threw the vape in the bin and it feels F*cking good 😄 I did break one of my blog targets and on the tail end of the recent rungood I sat 100PLO for an hour. Biggest hand in terms of BBs: Game #1566666682: Table €25 PL - 0.10/0.25 - Pot Limit Omaha - 06:51:30 2021/10/07 *** Seated players *** Seat 1: loserbooser (€33.46) - early bird Seat 2: plotrix (€25.98) Seat 3: Bongihiiri (€70.61) Seat 4: ACRRTY (€58.77) - early bird (sitting out) Seat 5: ButtonB (€25.15) Seat 6: nonpareil (€73.38) *** Blinds and button *** plotrix has the button Bongihiiri posts small blind €0.10 ButtonB posts big blind €0.25 *** Hole cards *** Dealt to Bongihiiri [Jc Jh Kd 2s] Dealt in ButtonB Dealt to nonpareil [8s Js Qc 9c] Dealt in loserbooser Dealt in plotrix *** Preflop *** nonpareil raises €0.85 to €0.85 loserbooser calls €0.85 plotrix folds Bongihiiri calls €0.75 ButtonB raises €4 to €4.25 nonpareil calls €3.40 loserbooser calls €3.40 Bongihiiri calls €3.40 *** Flop *** [Jd Tc 7c] Bongihiiri bets €17 ButtonB folds nonpareil raises €68 to €68 loserbooser folds Bongihiiri calls €49.36, and is all-in Uncalled bet returned to nonpareil: €1.64 *** Showdown *** *** Turn *** [Jd Tc 7c] [Kh] *** River *** [Jd Tc 7c] [Kh] [6h] Bongihiiri shows [Jc Jh Kd 2s], Three of a kind, Jacks nonpareil shows [8s Js Qc 9c], A Straight nonpareil wins €147.22 *** Summary *** Total pot €149.72 Rake €2.50 Seat 1: loserbooser: bet €4.25 and won €0, net result: €-4.25 Seat 3: Bongihiiri: bet €70.61 and won €0, net result: €-70.61 Seat 5: ButtonB: bet €4.25 and won €0, net result: €-4.25 Seat 6: nonpareil: bet €72.25 and won €148.86, net result: €76.61 Biggest hand in terms of £££: Game #1567063551: Table €100 PL - 0.50/1.00 - Pot Limit Omaha - 22:19:49 2021/10/07 *** Seated players *** Seat 1: dachriiii (€145.31) Seat 2: Jamesbodman (€254.23) Seat 4: 5amba (€101) Seat 5: SikaRillo (€100) Seat 6: plopedro (€226.16) *** Blinds and button *** 5amba has the button SikaRillo posts small blind €0.50 plopedro posts big blind €1 *** Hole cards *** Dealt in SikaRillo Dealt to plopedro [Qh Jh Tc Ts] Dealt in dachriiii Dealt in Jamesbodman Dealt to 5amba [9c Ah 9d Jc] *** Preflop *** dachriiii folds Jamesbodman folds 5amba raises €3.50 to €3.50 SikaRillo folds plopedro raises €10 to €11 5amba calls €7.50 *** Flop *** [Qc Td 9h] plopedro bets €11.25 5amba calls €11.25 *** Turn *** [Qc Td 9h] [Kc] plopedro bets €22.50 5amba raises €78.75 to €78.75, and is all-in plopedro calls €56.25 *** Showdown *** *** River *** [Qc Td 9h] [Kc] [4d] 5amba shows [9c Ah 9d Jc], A Straight, Ace high plopedro shows [Qh Jh Tc Ts], A Straight, King high 5amba wins €199.50 *** Summary *** Total pot €202.50 Rake €3 Seat 4: 5amba: bet €101 and won €199.50, net result: €98.50 Seat 5: SikaRillo: bet €0.50 and won €0, net result: €-0.50 Seat 6: plopedro: bet €101 and won €0, net result: €-101 I have 5 esports bets open on the account for a max return of ~£200 (2 of which win or lose today) Other than that it is back to the grindstone! Low stakes grinding to minimise the chances of redepositing and DEFINITELY no sitting higher than 50. Thanks for reading! The next update will be when I either have to redeposit or hit £400 on the account. ❤️ Sam

Hey man, I've been reading your blog since before I started posting and it's awesome! If you are feeling down and have bad energy at the tables the hits are going to affect you more. You might need a break to give yourself time to mentally reset. You need to be expecting to win the flips not lose them 🙂. "But look at how unlucky I am getting" No. ❤️

Much better mental game at the tables, I moved down to .10-.25 & .25/.50 as I was still a bit wary of punting/tilting from the nicotine withdrawal but am happy to say I played and ran great. Still had to cut a few sessions off early as I could feel the stress levels rising but I didn't play a single hand on a table more than I should have so overall very happy. I donated £20 to the MTT community league before realising I would rather stick molten hot pins in my eyes than be forced to play a full schedule of £10 freezouts again and continued on with cash games. Good luck to all that endure it! Due to my cautious approach I've only managed around 7k hands of a target of 11k for the week so am looking to start scaling up volume. I have noticed that if I play any more than 5 tables simultaneously I will lose a lot of depth to my thought process (I'm old AF now) so 5 tabling 40k hands in 3 weeks... bring it on! 0/3 on e-sports (LOL WC) bets for another -£30 but I run good where it counts so its OK All in all, a great week. I hope you all feel the same! P.S. There is a distinct lack of HH's in this blog so far but that's due to the fact I am playing on a very old laptop and grabbing screenshots just isn't viable at the moment. I am in the process of building my man cave which will have a desktop PC instead of a laptop so HH's will follow soon! ❤️ Sam Net Unibet winnings (Year): £3090 Net Unibet winnings (Lifetime): -£488.42

Just a quick update since I haven't played much volume yet this month. Nicotine withdrawal has had some "interesting" side-effects. When I am playing a lot of tables I find that lots of hands are almost auto 3bets or auto folds, your subconscious has made the decision for you whilst you concentrate on the more complicated scenarios. When I am playing lots of tables at the moment my "automatic" decision making is definitely not running as well as it normally does. I've had to quit a lot of sessions early as I have suddenly flicked back to a table to find I 3bet an UTG reg with AJ67 with 4 spades and now have a flop decision I should never have to make due to my poor preflop choices. I couldn't agree more 😄 So far I have had 1 cigarette in 4 days and am starting to feel better for it physically so I am hoping to catch up on volume in the latter half of the month. Things could definitely be worse. As it stands I am +£25 on the week after bricking every tournament and playing B- cash games. Net Unibet winnings (Year): £2415 Net Unibet winnings (Lifetime): -£1163.42

What's up! My name is Sam, I'm 35 and identify as a fish. I've played poker since I turned 18 and played professionally for 7-8 years of my adult life (pre solvers). The years in between then and now were spent working as a chef on tour in the music biz (final tour i did was the Rolling Stones) before moving onto films (final film I did was the new Bond) and then COVID happened... I initially went back to poker during the first lockdown with an out of date skillset and a bad work life balance with almost no time devoted towards studying. After a bad run and about a -10k downswing I decided to put a stop to playing and study theory as a hobby until I felt confident in my game again. This blog is being started with the intention of detailing my progress as I work towards becoming a breakeven player and spin up a bankroll for a US trip next year with some banter and strategy sprinkled in. Most of my volume will be in cash with some MTT punts and occasional sports betting. My return to the tables in September started off hot and I even managed to bink a UOS low rebuy for +£1k! Net Unibet winnings (Year): £2390 Net Unibet winnings (Lifetime): -£1188.42 Goals for the month: Quit smoking, Update blog weekly, Play 45k cash hands, No shot taking, HQ Study sessions, Activate rungood VAMANOS!

With the last few days of the UOS upon us I thought I would share my thoughts and tips for getting the most out the series in the hopes that it helps anyone out in future series. This is the first time I have ever tried playing a full MTT series as I am mainly a cash player, but after winning a low event on the 2nd day I figured why not play the full series and see if I can get some free leaderboard money? Here's what I've been doing to try and turn some profit: 1. Satellites & Overlay The highlighted qualifying satellites for the daily UOS events run throughout the day in the lobby starting around 17.00 GMT. The fields in these satellites are varied, often times filled entirely with mtt regs and few fish. Why should you take notice of them? OVERLAY! The earlier on in the day the satelliets start, the higher the % chance of them having an overlay when reg closes. I have found up to £300 overlay in £500 value satellite tournaments. That means that a breakeven punter like myself can now spin up with a 150% ROI! 2. Tournament selection If you are truly min-maxing you will need to be smart about which tournaments you are going to take shots in outside of your roll (or with your satellite tix) The tournament titles often will mislead you (normal mtt title but with super turbo structure) so make sure you check the blind levels and structure to make sure you aren't firing a bullet in a high buyin super turbo that you though was a deep stack or vice-versa. For example, lets say you just won a £100 ticket and reg to an upcoming event without looking at the structure. You're either in a 2500 15/30 with 3 min levels or a 4000 15/30 with 8 minute levels. I know which one I would rather be playing. If you know the rules to PLO and can handle the variance the overall skill level in these fields is VERY BAD. The 100 & 200 ABI PLO events this series had an average skill level of a 25 or 50PLO cash table. Play PLO. Learn PLO. Profit. 3. Leaderboard and other freebies The weighting of the points structure means that even a min cash in a low buy in event could actually be worth more than the min cash itself if it boosts you up in the overall leaderboard so laddering is extremely important if you are close to the bubble in the low events. The £££ in the mid and high events generally outweighs the leaderboard laddering so it is more about playing to win, but stealing free points in low buyin events can be crucial. As for other freebies - check the forums and community for daily/weekly community giveaways and check out the unibet streamers on twitch as they often have giveaways for MTT tickets throughout the week by simply participating in the chatroom. Check them out here: https://www.twitch.tv/iansimpsonpoker https://www.twitch.tv/lappinpoker https://www.twitch.tv/unibetpoker https://www.twitch.tv/elron66 Thanks and Good luck! Sam

Excellent changes, the MTT break overlay was a nice touch.

What is this leaderboard about? I tried going to the "read more" section which just takes me to a default landing page here Thanks