The Week in Review

[SierraPhoenix]

Week in review 1

Introduction

I've come across a few other posts in the  forum where people are actively updating bankroll challenges, goals etc and this is something that greatly appeals to  me too so I've decided to give it a go.

In addition I feel that without my tracker software it makes it harder to review my play, so a weekly update where I analyse my spreadsheet and put my thoughts and findings here will be beneficial to me, and perhaps others as well.

So first off a bit about me;

I'm 29, live just outside of Glasgow and have been playing cards for about 6 years all-in; from 18-23 originally and pretty solidly or the  last year.

My results now are much better than they were when I was younger, maybe age gives a different perspective to  the game. That being said, I still have a lot to learn, but having been made redundant a couple of months ago  I have been spending a lot of time studying and playing  this great game we all love to hate.

In the last year I built my roll up from $50 on another site to around $700 playing 6 max SnG's, then in the space of a fortnight cashed in the  Sunday Storm for $497 and won $1450 for coming second in the big $3.30, and another cash of $2130 for 2nd place in a progressive KO including bounty wins.

Clearly, I was running exceptionally hot as I played the $3.30 tournament every day of the week for nearly a year and never seemed to do better than a top 200 cash, then within a month get 3 great scores all at once!

However, redundancy happened and that money had to stop being a bankroll and start being real life money. I'm in the process of moving what I left over to Unibet however made a 25 euro deposit at the start of the week with a view to just getting a feel for the site and the games it offers.

Here's how it went...

Tuesday

One of the main pulls to Unibet was and is the Glasgow leg of the UK Unibet Tour which is next weekend from the 7th to the 9th for any of those interested. The night before I installed the client I went out 7th of 18 in a live qualifier and decided I wasn't done trying, hence my original download of the client software.

I played a few different games, still have no idea what Banzai is??? But ultimately found my comfort zone to be 5 man SnG's which came as no surprise.

I played 21 (Usually I 4 table and can manage about 8 tournaments an hour assuming each lasts about 25/30 minutes.) $1 SnG's

$21.00	$23.76
NO	21
P/L	$2.76
ITM	42.86%
ROI	13.14%

The cashes were made up of 6 1st place wins and 3 second place finishes. 9 were bubble finishes (3rd) and the remaining 3 were 5th place exits.

My ITM for Monday is about where it normally is, but the number of bubble finishes is well above my average. I'm putting this down to A) The fewer number of players at the table and thus having to adjust my range earlier than normal B) The increased speed of the blinds (I am used to playing 4 or 5 minute blinds, but on Unibet they are every 3) resulting in me having 25/33% less time to make moves than I am used to.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a bigger day in several ways. I played 33 SnG's however this time at various levels, primarily to get a feel for the different standards of play at different levels, but also because I am used to playing $10/$15/$25 buy-ins and when I was winning $3.17 at a $1 tournament it just felt like I was losing money rather than winning it. It's been a while since I've had to play at such low stakes :(

$95.00	$124.19
NO	33
P/L	$29.19
ITM	51.52%
ROI	30.73%

 

I staked a total of $95.00 and was up near $30 come the end of the session, admittedly the $4  games went better than the $1 dollar games went on Tuesday.

In addition I won a $1 UKT tix, then a $4 UKT tix, then a $25 UKT tix and finally a $100 UKT tix which I have registered for use this Sunday on the basis that there are more seats guaranteed than there was tonight.

Overall really happy with play on Tuesday/Wednesday.

Thursday

Thursday it started to go in the wrong direction.

$117.00	$106.08
NO	39
P/L	-$10.92
ITM	43.59%
ROI	-9.33%

 

Having found the $4 games far more enjoyable than the $1 I started off in these and very quickly my P/L was down about 7 buy-ins down essentially all of the profit from the day before.

My figures for the $4 games are as follows

21 Played = $84

3x  1st place finishes = $38.01

3x 2nd place finishes = $18.99

8x Bubble finishes

4x 4th place

3 x 5th place

I went out in fifth with QQ once, and JJ once - can't recall the third exit but it would have been something similar. The JJ call was much looser than I would usually commit at that early stage of the tournament but on one of the other tables the same villian had just shoved PF with 89s for his stack and I figured I was probably flipping at worse, 75/25 at best. I'd also seen him call a 3-bet OOP with 84, check raise a broadway flop, check call a 4 turn and check call a 4 river. Inevitably he had AA on the occasion I had JJ

It became apparent really quickly that I just didn't have the bankroll to handle the variance at $4, the fact that I am still adjusting to the fewer number of players and the faster  blinds probably doesn't help either.

So on $4 games I was down $27

I dropped down to $2 games and ran pretty hot, a shame I had to drop down as I suspect the losses at $4 was due to variance more than anything else and if I had the bankroll to stay at that level I may actually have come out ahead on Wednesday, but it wasn't to be. Sometimes you've got to just take it on the chin and move down.

In	Out	Finish
$2.00	$3.17	2
$2.00	$0.00	4
$2.00	$0.00	4
$2.00	$0.00	4
$2.00	$6.33	1
$2.00	$3.17	2
$2.00	$6.33	1
$2.00	$3.17	2
$2.00	$0.00	5
$2.00	$3.17	2
$2.00	$0.00	4
$2.00	$3.17	2
$2.00	$6.33	1
$2.00	$6.33	1
$2.00	$6.33	1

 

$30 Staked $47.50 cashed out, much more like what I am used too. Despite the turn around, it was still a losing day to the tune of about $11.

Friday

Not as much play today as I would have liked, (I'm still going right enough), I had a 4 hour interview today which took up most of the afternoon.

Having ended my day yesterday at $62.99 I decided I'd play down to $40 at $4, fully expecting never to lose five games in a row given how bad they'd went yesterday, the same couldn't happen today could it?

Gambler's Fallacy.

Of course it can.

The hands I went out on were as follows;

Game 1;

Position ; BB (Blinds 15/30)

Stack; 2108

Hand ; AdKd

Action ; UTG limps, BTN cold shoves for 1987, SB folds.

I've seen this guy pretty much see every flop and he went from a stack of just under 4k a moment ago when he called an all-in with J7o and missed. Im superbly confident I'm ahead of his range and I call.

He flips over KhJd

75% favourite to me! Woohoo. Until a J hits the flop and that's all she wrote.

Game 2;

Position; BB (Blinds 100/200)

Stack; 1144

Hand; Kh10h

Action; On the bubble the BTN releases and the SB opens to 400 with a stack of 1200 back. This is the 4th orbit he has raised from the SB and I've just not had the cards to make a stand. The one time I did defend he shoved a pretty static looking flop but I didnt have any of it. I decided this was the time to make a stand. Blinds due up in a less than a minute, make or break time. I re-shove and he tanks, eventually calling with 6c7c

67% to me.

Surprised he called this to be honest. My image was pretty tight and he's never ahead of me here. He's never really going to be better than 67% but from nowhere he emerges victorious with a rivered straight.

Games 3 and 4 were KK versus AA and I was on the wrong end of it both times - pretty much fine with this to be honest, neither player did anything wrong. By this point I'm pretty pissed off despite it not being for a lot of money I can feel it getting to me.

To top it off Game 5 has just seen me flop a straight on the bubble to get it in against a villains two pair and he boats up.

With only 4BB left I shove with A2 into Q8 and don't get there.

5 games played, $20 lost and I'm down to $42 - grrrrrrrrrrr!

Back down to $2;

Things go a bit more normally now;

In	Out	Finish
$2.00	$6.33	1
$2.00	$0.00	3
$2.00	$0.00	4
$2.00	$6.33	1
$2.00	$0.00	3
$2.00	$3.17	2
$2.00	$6.33	1
$2.00	$0.00	4
$2.00	$0.00	4
$2.00	$3.17	2
$2.00	$0.00	3
$2.00	$3.17	2
$2.00	$3.17	2
$2.00	$6.33	1
$2.00	$3.17	2
$2.00	$3.17	2
$2.00	$0.00	3
$2.00	$0.00	3

 

At the moment bankroll is at $47.41.

I'll keep playing $1 and $2 SnG's until they die in the next couple of hours and then won't get another proper run at it until Sunday when I play for my Seat in the Unibet Uk tour.

Things I've studied this week;

So I bought a couple of Books from Amazon which appealed to me, Crushing Low limit SnG's Volume 1 and 2 (the second one deals primarily with heads up play).

I've read both and am re-reading the second again.

I've re-visited old articles and videos on ICM and the Gap concept as I think I am still pushing too light on the bubble in particular.

But I find it's a strange thing, like say I open with JJ on the BTN with a stack of 3k when blinds are 150/300, SB Fish folds with a stack of 1.4k and decentish player on BB re-shoves 1500.

His re-shoving range is something like 44+ A10+ and any broadway. I'm a mathematical favourite against his range, especially since I'm blocking a lot of his broadway hands.

Should I be folding here given how short the fish is and how big my stack is? If I call and lose I'll be the short stack so is this a snap fold? It doesn't feel like it - but it might be???

I've also looked at different articles on Static and Volatile boards and which textures offer the best results for cold bluffs and semi-bluffs both in and out of position. This was really interesting and has been working well so far.

You need to have a pretty good understanding of an opponent's range to use it effectively but Hand Ranges and Hand Reading have been my homework for the last couple of months so this too is coming along quite well.

Anyway, if you are still reading - nice one!

I'll post again Sunday night and say how I got on in the Qualifier!

Wish me luck!