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Crushing HUSNG's mid-high stakes!


Brocky

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Hi all, 

As I lay in bed at 1am on a Thursday morning having work in a few hours I thought to myself what better time than to create a blog to track my progress through my 2018 poker life?  

A little about me - I'm a 26 year old accountant who has been playing poker on/off for 10 years.  Up until the age of about 24 I played religiously, sometimes from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed.  I've played cash, MTT's, SNG's, HUSNG's, pretty much everything but with varying success.  My biggest issue is that ultimately I've always loved chasing losses at stakes I would be better off avoiding, even though I have learned over the years how not to tilt at the tables.

For the past couple of years poker has definitely taken a backseat as I've focused on my career and relationships but I think 2018 is the perfect time to get earning some extra money, pay off those debts and maybe even store a little away for a deposit on a house.  

I deposited £300 around Christmas and managed to spin it up to 1k euros which I felt gave me the perfect opportunity for this challenge, which itself is fairly simple:

Reaching the highest stakes HUSNG's without playing outside of the bankroll.

My plan is to start at the 25s, giving me 40 buy ins and move up only when I have 40 BI's for the stake above, while moving down when the bankroll gets halved.  With my experience in HUSNG's I have no doubt that the 25/50s should be fairly comfortable with the 100/200s having some better regs and I feel this challenge will simply succeed or fail based on how well I can stick to the BRM.

Unfortunately volume won't be massive as I have work commitments/girlfriend/accountancy exams but I always try and squeeze games in on the mobile app when I can.  

After the first 3 days I managed to find myself up €375 which is a great boost to not only the bankroll but confidence after a while away from the game.  The games have been fairly soft so far with just a few regs, none too troubling.  

Anyway, just wanted to casually track my progress and it's there if anyone wants to follow.  I will add pics/more when I'm at my computer so well done if you've made it this far.

Thanks.

 

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Thought I'd just write a few thoughts in my break between sessions as my recent return to poker had reminded me just how much poker is a confidence game, especially for me anyway.  A lot is made of bad beats but I think what people don't take into consideration is running good/bad actually comes in many forms other than simply winning/losing ahead all-in.  It may simply be that I notice it more due to the number of flops I see playing heads up but I'm going to give a few examples of what I find affecting my confidence during a swing:

1) Card distribution - Fairly commonly talked about I guess but massively important, especially in the end-game of HUs.  Obviously you want to avoid being on the wrong side of coolers (KK vs AA for example) but I'm talking more specifically about when I get to the stage where you're playing around 10bb and under effective stacks and you have someone who is very aggressive on the button.  The number of games where I have this and I'm getting dealt hands that are simply not profitable to call before finding myself blinded down to a situation where I'm having to double up just to get back to even stacks.  Of course there are opportunities from my button but if villain is calling anything near a correct range, you are limited, especially when they are attacking your limps.  

Often to combat this I will limp a large percentage of my range to balance but you know for a fact that when you're downswinging they are attacking your 83o and check/folding the flop to your AA.  I think I find myself deviating from what I know is the correct play at times like this because I convince myself they're going to attack my junk.  Alternatively, when it's all going right I often feel like I'm at a level that is almost unbeatable for the stakes I'm playing.  

2) Board run-outs - This is something I feel I need to focus on.  Picture the scenario, you're playing an agressive reg who you have seen 3 barrel with high frequency so you're waiting to set the trap.  You flat JTcc to a min raise at 20bb, the flop is T72ss and you check-call a half pot c-bet.  The turn is Ks and he continues for 5bb after you check to him, not a great spot.  When you analyse how you can play the flop/turn, of course there is merit to check-raising the flop but with the reads that we have, flatting with the intention of calling down most boards may well be the most profitable play.  If we are taking this line then of course it seems a very nitty fold on the turn while raising seems completely counter-intuitive, so calling seems best, prepared to call a shove on all decent rivers.  The river is then As, sweet.  Now we are expecting an agressive reg to shove all his bluffs and good spades here, while checking back showdown value that beats us, which puts us in a spot where we either have to take the initiative and jam (not a great choice as a reg will know we will check our nutty hands) or check/fold the river having committed almost half our stack.  

Obviously not all boards will run like this but referring back to my earlier point about confidence, I am intrigued to hear how others deal with this type of variance.  I find that were this to happen a couple of times during a session I would instantly revert to just check/raising the flop, a play which I think has lower expected value against the described opponent.  It's very easy to think that the game is out to get you at times, I've definitely had those types of thoughts during the past couple of days where I've dropped about 10BI in spots that are really stupid.  

Anyway, back to the grind for now, will update results tonight.

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Quick update, managed to claw back 10 buy ins after my last post so the bankroll has gone from 1.15k euros to 1.4k which feels good.  Here's a couple of hands from the session:

This first one I open the button, he flats, he min donks the flop, I 4x to 120, he flats, turn he check/calls 180, river he check/calls my jam with 6 high 🤣

Untitled_LI.thumb.jpg.78c257a2a1d9527028e5c604eabce27b.jpg

This second one, he limps, I 3x to 120, he flats, flop I check he bets 95, I call, turn check/check, river I check he bets 355, I call with K high.

2_LI.thumb.jpg.b1d573d2809d9cf2b7eb5a7a0f65fa63.jpg

Off out for dinner tonight with the gf so doubt I'll get any volume in but overall a decent day.

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  • 11 months later...

Yo, completely forgot about this tbh, don't even remember posting it!

Anyway, funnily enough I quit my job a few weeks back to play poker full time.  Unrelated, I won a package to Unibet Open Dublin for 50 euros and ended up finishing 6th for 14k which was a great result.  I was chip leader with 6th left and lost AK vs QQ for over half the chips in play though.  75k for first would've been unreal but can't complain too much.

I pretty much exclusively play the 25/50 euro HUSNGs now and am doing alright so far.  I've played some Hexapro's but the rake is unbeatable imo plus the liquidity in the 25s+ isn't high enough to get the volume in needed to play them for a living.  I was concerned about the HUSNG traffic being eaten up by Hexapro but it looks unlikely, which is good news for me.

I will update regularly from now if there are people interested!

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@Brocky wrote:

Yo, completely forgot about this tbh, don't even remember posting it!

Anyway, funnily enough I quit my job a few weeks back to play poker full time.  Unrelated, I won a package to Unibet Open Dublin for 50 euros and ended up finishing 6th for 14k which was a great result.  I was chip leader with 6th left and lost AK vs QQ for over half the chips in play though.  75k for first would've been unreal but can't complain too much.

I pretty much exclusively play the 25/50 euro HUSNGs now and am doing alright so far.  I've played some Hexapro's but the rake is unbeatable imo plus the liquidity in the 25s+ isn't high enough to get the volume in needed to play them for a living.  I was concerned about the HUSNG traffic being eaten up by Hexapro but it looks unlikely, which is good news for me.

I will update regularly from now if there are people interested!


Awesome.

Congrats!

I'm interested. 😃

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Thanks all.

In an ideal world I would play between 3000-4500 (100-150 per day) per month but since going pro a few weeks back I've definitely been lazy, often putting in reduced volume when I hit my daily monetary goal.  My plan for the new year is to get more discipline and a routine, at the moment I'm sleeping all day, grinding a bit in the evening and then traffic is low in the early hours of the morning so not doing a massive amount then.  I want to add the gym, regular meals etc as I think some sort of structure will be massively beneficial to the grind.  I have definitely had a lazy/lethargic few weeks but that may also be due to the fact that I went deep in the UO, had a flip for ~40k equity and now I'm trying to grind 25 euro games day in day out.

I do track my results but I will be starting fresh I guess in 2019 so will post graphs and what not after that.  I am also thinking of streaming but I'm not sure how much strat I want to give away and I'm not sure a non-strat stream of HUSNGs would be well received as it'd be pretty boring to watch I guess.

In terms of bankroll, I've paid off about £10k worth of debts and I've got a few hundred buy ins for the games that I play so the risk of ruin is miniscule.  My expenses (rent, car, food etc.) total around £1300-1500 per month, so anything I make above that will be added to the bankroll/invested when possible.  2019 is going to be a massive year for me.

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BOOOOOOOOM!!!! --> of course you gonna stream mate! I like HUSNG so you will at least have one follower;) And being one of those who do something ordinary that others don't stream I think can be really nice. Haven't seen anyone stream HUSNG's so to say.

Will be interesting to follow you, wish you all the best!

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Hey, yeah I think that you could benefit massively from adding some structure in terms of food and exercise to your routine. Same goes for volume, not sure if it's a thing on unibet but try to hide your balance/not track your results and just play while you feel good.

Regarding streaming, it's ibvobviou no surprise there aren't many people streaming, for the same reasons you brought up, without talking too much strategy it won't be massively popular, but giving away a tonne of info obviously isn't smart either .

I'd personally watch it either way, as I'm very interested in the format, but I guess it'll take a little thought to get the right balance.

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Hey guys and gals,

Not a massive amount to update really - I had a close but not quite in the €100k gtd, Had 32k going into the last level of day 1 (9bb) and managed to finish the day on 64k without seeing a flop.  I then built from 64k to 200k in the first hour of day 2 without seeing a showdown, except knocking out 1 shorty in a flip, I was just abusing the hell out of the bubble even with some bigger stacks around me as they seemed like scared money.  I then open AKs from the CO with a very active image, the BB rips 160k (35bb) with KQ and flops the queen.  Would've had a top 5 stack with 50 left and €18k up top.  Clawed my way back from a low of 36k to 100k before losing 55 < AK to put me back at average stack with 30 left.  Pretty frustrating but finished in the money nonetheless.

Apart from that I've been playing some HU, a few Hexapros and also testing out my stream.  My computer is awful so I'm really struggling, having to run the stream at 480p which makes the picture really grainy but you can still make out what's happening.  I will probably not talk too much strat for obvious reasons but will post a link if anyone is interested in railing some HUSNGs.  

Won 22 out of 26 in a small session earlier today at the €25s giving me a lovely €417 profit for an hour's work.  

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Thanks, unfortunately the secret is there is no secret.  I've played HU for many years and even now as I'm grinding I sit here and ask myself why I just threw a buy in away playing exactly how I know I shouldn't.  I think what I love about HU is there's nowhere to hide and if I can figure you out before you can figure me out then I should profit. 

I've played probably close to 100k SNGs lifetime so it's not happened overnight and I'm not exactly the baller that everyone aspires to be, I mean I'm grinding 25 euro games when 5-6 years ago I was playing 100/200s on Stars.  I've done very little actual study, none in the past 4-5 years, but there's a whole load of trial and error in HUSNGs and the experience I've gained has allowed me to almost perfect my strategy against recreational players.  Most recs are very similar in style which makes it easy to exploit when you know how they tend to size bets based on strength of hand for example.  

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How many tables do you play at the same time?

I have started out with two now and tried 4 but 4 is not totally optimal during the first levels when the stacks are deeper.

HUSNG are really testing your tilt factor. Don't know how many times I got it in as a major favorite today but ended up busting the majorty of the spots. Ended up todays games with -2 BI. Think I managd to get in like 40-50 games or so in HUSNG's. No monster volume or huge sample. (And before those I got in like 30ish 5SNG's as well and 180 hands of CG. But the day ended like -2€ lol🤣 ). So todays playing is not something that went to the records so to say. Pretty ok volume overall but it was far from profit heaven:cash:

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19/12/18 - The highs and lows of HUSNGs

My sleeping pattern is absolutely messed up at the moment, today I slept from 10am to around 6pm so the results are from over multiple sessions but all within 1 calendar day.  As described previously I was running really good and made a lot of money, however, the dark side (and potentially my biggest downfall) of my game definitely crept in towards the end, which is entitlement tilt.  I don't want to disrespect anyone that I've played against but there are definitely some not very good players I've been up against and when they get lucky or cooler me I can feel myself instantly start tilting as a basis of how unfair life is.  "I've been playing for years and I'm losing to these idiots..." I can hear myself mutter as I punch my mouse.  "What's the point?  Right, I'm going to jump in a 200 game." (For the record I didn't move up stakes)

Obviously in poker we want these bad plays, that's how we make money but it's definitely something I've struggled with more and more over time.  I generally don't tilt if I lose a few flips or whatever but it's those spots where you feel entitlted to win and it's definitely not a good mindset to have as a pro.  Ran into a few coolers at the end of my session and decided to wrap it up, going to grab some food then grind again afterwards.  I'm not complaining about the results by any stretch of the imagination though and I would take this every day.

Results

101 games at €25s, 68 wins, +€773

1 game at €50s, 1 win, +€47

Total = €820 profit, 31.84% ROI

Just a couple of things about this graph, as I've had to track the results without a proper 'tracker', the only way I could create it successfully was to include the buy ins and then returns, so if I played 1 game and won it, the graph would go down at point 1 then up 2 buy ins at point 2, which isn't entirely accurate compared to a HEM or PT graph but it's close enough.  Therefore it shows 169 points which is 101 buy ins and 68 wins, as opposed to just showing 101 results, if that makes sense?

Also, it's in £ as that's the currency of my account.

19-12-18.PNG.710309ccbb87f4c31e5667c929139988.PNG

 

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@Brocky wrote:

 

Results

 

19-12-18.PNG.67c57ea4983cef3ef38688d009e5ca52.PNG 

All I want for Christmas is a graph like that. :Thumbsup: 

How my graphs normally look. :Teardrop:

1752356588_Screenshot(205).png.a7b0e3ff331470e3a28e96c08af0d32e.png 

Seriously impressive work @Brocky results the majority of us can only dream of and a good explanation as well. More please.

How much work do you actually put in on the study side? 

 


 

"It turns out that 75% of all poker players think they play better than the other 75%."     image.png.99a4e82708d54abfc527324e8836768e.png

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