MathrimC
3 points
Time for my monthly evaluation. August was another high in my poker journey, thanks to the awesome final table experience I had at the UK Tour in Nottingham. I also won an extra UK Tour package, and since I only used one in Nottingham I'm already sure to attend the next stop in Brighton in October. Online things didn't go that well and I ended the month slightly down. But that's ofcourse more than made up by the £2000 live cash.
Evaluation of monthly goals: August 2017
Play 200 5-man SNGs, including 50 €25 SNGs - Completed
Played 127 €10 SNGs and 63 €25 SNGs. 10 short of the goal, but I'm giving myself a pass since I also played the €25 deepstack turbo 6 times, and I played some €4 and €2 SNGs against fellow twitch members. I'm down €178 in the 10s, up €246 in the 25s, and down €150 in the 25 deepstack turbo.Play 50 qualifiers - Failed
Played 2 UK1s, 17 UK4s, 6 UK10s, 11 UK25s, 2 UK finals and 2 Belgian 10s, resulting in 1 UK Tour package win.Study goals
Finish reading No-Limit Hold'em for Advanced Players, and start taking notes on some chapters - Completed
Finish reading Playing The Player by Ed Miller - Failed
I did make progress, but still have 1/3rd of the book to read. I'll definitely revisit some parts afterwards to take notes. The advice on handling the different types of loose players is really useful for live events.Watch at least 3 Run It Once videos every week - Failed
Slacked off a bit with the run it once videos. I blame the Unibet twitch streams :p
August bankroll evolution:
Cash: €2236,59 -> €2113,83 + €2172,14 (my UK Tour cash)
UK Tour tickets: €325 -> €296 + €500 package
UO tickets: €0 -> €50
New monthly goals: September 2017
Play 200 SNGs, MTTs and/or qualifiers
I'm thinking about starting to play Sunday Entitled qualifiers, some more MTTs, and UO qualifiers. I'm just going to group everything into 1 volume goal.Study goals
Take notes on all preflop chapters of NL Hold'em For Advanced Players
Finish reading Playing The Player by Ed Miller
Watch at least 2 Run It Once videos every week
Sept. 5, 2017 | 9:06 p.m.
I had a great time in Nottingham. Finished in 5th place for £2000. Not bad for a first live cash :)
I was quite nervous at the start of the final table, but it was an awesome experience.
Aug. 30, 2017 | 8:31 p.m.
It's been a while since I updated here. I've got an exciting week coming up with some live poker I've satellited into: playing the Unibet UK Tour in Nottingham this weekend (£220 buy-in and I have 2 bullets), and playing the Unibet Belgian Poker Championship the weekend after that (€550 buy-in).
On the study front, I finished reading Janda's book and I've started going through it again to take more notes. I've been slacking a bit on the Run It Once videos, hope to kick that up a notch.
Aug. 24, 2017 | 11:48 p.m.
July has been the most exciting month in my poker journey so far. I grindeded my biggest monthly volume ever, had my biggest upswing and biggest downswing ever, binked a Unibet UK Tour package, won a Unibet Belgian Poker Championship entry, started reading Matthew Janda's new book which turns out to be the best poker book I've ever read, and subcribed to Run It Once and watched my first videos over here. I'm in love with the game right now.
Evaluation of monthly goals: July 2017
Play 200 5-man SNGs, including 20 €25 SNGs - COMPLETED
I played 296 €10 SNGs and 26 €25 SNGs. I'm down €56 in the €25s and up €175 in the €10s (not bad for a month that included a €354 downswing)Play 50 qualifiers - COMPLETED
UK Tour volume: 23 UK4, 12 UK25s, 2 UK100s, resulting in 1 €500 UK Tour package
Belgian qualifier volume: 1 BC4, 1 BC10, 10 BC20s, 6 BC90s, resulting in 1 €550 live entry and 1 €90 cash bubble payoutStudy goals
Study post-flop SNG spots - PARTLY DONE
I did some hand reviews, but not as much as I shouldRead Playing The Player by Ed Miller - FAILED
Only finished the part about exploiting tight players. Definitely need to read the part about exploiting loose players before my next live event.
July bankroll evolution:
- Cash: €2000,01 -> €2236,59
- UK Tour tickets: €246 -> €325 + €500 live package
- Belgian Championship tickets: €320 -> €20 + €550 live entry
New monthly goals: August 2017
- Play 200 5-man SNGs, including 50 €25 SNGs
- Play 50 qualifiers
- Study goals
- Finish reading No-Limit Hold'em for Advanced Players, and start taking notes on some chapters
- Finish reading Playing The Player by Ed Miller
- Watch at least 3 Run It Once videos every week
Aug. 1, 2017 | 10:15 p.m.
Nice thread with some interesting strategy content. Good luck with your new goals!
July 29, 2017 | 5:04 p.m.
I reached the 1k volume milestone in the €10 SNGs. I had a hard time in the last 150 over the past week, with an over 38 buy-in downswing, but I hope the worst is over now.
After 1000 games, I made €655,89 profit, which is a ROI of 6,56%.
Kind of weird that I end up in the bubble spot more than any other place, because I think my biggest edge should be in ICM knowledge around bubble time.
In the coming weeks, I'll keep playing the €10s together with some €25s, and hope to post my first €25 update sometime next week.
July 28, 2017 | 11:26 p.m.
Thanks!
I had a 28 buy-in downswing in the 5-man SNGs over the past week, my worst downswing as of yet. I will probably reach the 1k volume mark for my €10 SNGs later this week, I'll post a full results update at that time.
On the bright side, I've won an €550 entry to the Unibet Belgian Poker Championship. This will be my biggest buy-in event yet.
I've watched 4 Run It Once videos so far:
- Constructing Preflop Ranges by Jono Crute
- Stack Size Dynamics by John Daly
- The practical math of MTTs part 1 by John Daly
- Complex Range Analysis by Nick Rampone
And I'm currently somewhere halfway in Hand Reading (part 1) by Lucas Greenwood
I took some very useful notes from all of them, and I'm motivated to work on my ranges and my postflop lines based on their advice.
Also, I've started reading Matthew Janda's new book No-Limit Hold'em For Advanced Players.
July 27, 2017 | 12:05 a.m.
I signed up for the essential plan tonight, and watched Jono Crute's video from the MTT Preflop Ranges learning path. Took some notes on minraise-fold and minraise-calling ranges when under 20bb. I fall back on simply push/folding too often now. It's something I could improve in my game and which comes up very often in the turbo SNGs and qualifiers I play.
I synced two other videos of that learning path to the app to watch on my commute to work tomorrow.
July 17, 2017 | 10:11 p.m.
Hi all,
I've just created my account on this site, and I'm planning on signing up for the essential plan in the coming days (when I have the time to watch my first video). Next to the usefull content, I hope the monthly fee will also motivate me to put more effort in my studying.
In this topic I would like to keep some sort of poker journal, posting about the progress, goals and failures in my poker game. My primary motivation for this is to force myself to work harder on my goals, since I don't want to fail in front of a crowd. My second motivation is to get feedback on stupid things I do, and to get good advice and suggestions for good Run It Once content. This first post is an introduction with a bit of introspection and background information about my poker game, so that you can get an idea of where I'm at.
My poker history
I first played NL hold'em 10 years ago, but never learned any strategy, and didn't play online for the last 7 years. I started playing online again near the end of 2015, and this time seriously dived into strategy articles, videos, podcasts, etc. Unibet became my main site to play, because of the soft field, the good bonuses they offer for lowstakes low-volume players like me and because of their fun community. In the past year and a half, without making a deposit, I've built a €2200 bankroll on that site and won myself 5 packages (worth €500 each) to Unibet UK Tour live events (but I didn't cash in any of them). My main games at the moment are €10 5-man turbo SNGs and turbo qualifiers for the UK Tour live events. Here are my €10 SNG results so far (I track them in my own spreadsheet because the site I play on doesn't allow tracking software):
My personal disadvantages
- I have a fulltime job and other interests, so I have a limited amount of time left to invest in poker.
- I'm a procrastinator.
My personal advanages
- I have an analytical mind, I'm good at math, and I like to study (in other words: I'm a nerd).
- I like my job and have a healthy financial situation, so I have no monetary expectations from poker, no pressure to be results oriented.
- I'm very calculated and risk averse, so will always carefully decide which games and stakes I play (however, this might also slow me down sometimes).
- I'm not easily offended and good at dealing with and learning from critisism.
Strategy content I consumed in the past
- Books: I've read and took notes on 'Small Stakes No-Limit Hold'em' by Ed Miller & co, 'The Free Mersenneary Heads Up Poker Ebook' and 'SNG strategy' by Collin Moshman. I've read 'Moorman's Book of Poker', 'Crushing Low Stakes Poker Volume 3: Hyper Turbos' by Mike Turner, 'Applications of No-Limit Hold'em' by Matthew Janda. I think it would be very useful for me to reread Moorman's book to take notes. I'm currently reading 'Playing the Player' by Ed Miller (mainly because it's very applicable in those soft UK Tour live events I play) and 'Kill Everyone'.
- Podcasts: I listen to the Red Chip Poker podcast, Postflop Poker podcast, Smart Poker Study Podcast, Thinking Poker podcast, Tournament Poker Edge podcast, Jonathan Little's weekly poker hand, and the 2+2 Pokercast (yes, I have a long commute to work :p )
- Applications: I have Equilab, Flopzilla, FloatTheTurn and an ICMizer account. Earlier this year, I had an ICMizer pro membership for 1 month. I also made my own ICM calculation sheet (you can use it yourself if you make a copy to your own google drive). I don't have any tracking software or hud, because the main site I play on doesn't allow it and doesn't have a downloadable hand history. As an alternative, I sometimes record a video of my own session to review later.
I also have a poker journal on another forum, in which I have set myself these goals at the start of the year:
My yearly goals for 2017
- Make 25NL my regular game, and take some shots at 50NL. Or, in case I decide to switch games: make €10/€25 SNGs or MTTs my regular games
- Play at least 3 serious live events (at least €100 buy-in) (I'll keep aiming at the UK Tour events, and we'll see what other interesting opportunities come up during the year)
- Play a live cashgame session at a casino
Study goals:
- Read two new poker books
- Gather at least 10 pages of new notes in total from poker books, articles, forums, ...
- Record 5 gametapes throughout the year (with gametape I mean videos of me playing, which I use to review myself, or to share with people to get advice)
7 months into the year it's looking pretty good: I'm starting to play the occasional €25 SNG and I've been to 3 live events this year already and won a package for a 4th one.
For the short term, I also set myself monthly goals. These were the ones I set at the start of this month:
Monthly goals: July 2017
- Play 200 5-man SNGs, including 20 €25 SNGs.
- Play 50 qualifiers
Study goals
- Study post-flop SNG spots
- Read Playing The Player by Ed Miller
I think some of the first things I will look for on Run It Once, is content about 20 to 50bb play in SNGs / MTTs and preflop ranges in those situations. Also, I'd like to learn how to recognize good turn and river bluffing spots, because it's something I'm really bad at. Feel free to suggest any good videos on those topics, or other content that you think might be useful for me. And thank you if you're still reading up to this point, hope I didn't waste too much of your time ;)
Sepember has been another exciting poker month for me. The month started off with the €550 Unibet Belgian Poker Championship, my biggest live event yet. I made some nice profits in the €25 SNGs in the first two weeks to get my bankroll up to an all time high of around €4600. Things turned around in last two weeks of the month, sending me on a €700 downswing. This is more than compensated by winning 2 more UK Tour packages, running good in Unibet Open qualifiers.
Also, I had some really fun twitch streams this month (at twitch.tv/mathrimc). Next to the fun, they are also very useful to make me play longer sessions. I did some 5h+ sessions while streaming this month, something which I never did on my own.
On the study front, I finished reading Ed Miller's book, took notes on all preflop chapters of Janda's book, and I finally installed PokerSnowie and played a couple of short sessions against it, exciting stuff.
Evaluation of monthly goals: September 2017
Play 200 SNGs, MTTs and/or qualifiers - Completed
Played 49 €10 SNGs (up €65), 124 €25 SNGs (down €52), 3 €25 Deepstack Turbo (down €75), 3 UK Tour finals (2 packages won), 17 UK25s, 26 UK4s, 5 UK1s, 25 UO10s, 1 UO4, 1 UO25, 9 SE10 (1 Sunday Entitled ticket won), 1SE25, 11 SE5s
September bankroll evolution:
New monthly goals: October 2017
The new month started of great. I played the €90 Sunday Entitled on Unibet for which I qualified earlier this week, and finished in 4th place for €460. I'm also looking forward to the next Unibet UK Tour event in Brighton at the end of this month.
Oct. 2, 2017 | 1:16 a.m.