**Awkwardly Assinine April Tournament Chat Thread**

[Big_Rudy]

Make it stop......

Please...... make it stop....... Played played 47 ST Bounty SnG's so far this month. 14 buy-ins below EV. In one stretch I played a set of 10.... finished 7BI below EV. How is that even possible??????

If this keeps up I'll be back at the DoN's (where I belong) sooner than anticipated. Fortunately, ( I guess) I always play way over-rolled for the stakes so I'm OK there, but it is depressing none-the-less. Started month at $324 for BR, now at $283.

Anyway hopefully this stretch of the dreaded playbad/runbad combo is over soon.......

 

[Karkus77]

dont take any notice of the ev line for stt and mtt's it doesn't work right

 

[BlueNowhere]

Please...... make it stop....... Played played 47 ST Bounty SnG's so far this month. 14 buy-ins below EV. In one stretch I played a set of 10.... finished 7BI below EV. How is that even possible??????

If this keeps up I'll be back at the DoN's (where I belong) sooner than anticipated. Fortunately, ( I guess) I always play way over-rolled for the stakes so I'm OK there, but it is depressing none-the-less. Started month at $324 for BR, now at $283.

Anyway hopefully this stretch of the dreaded playbad/runbad combo is over soon.......

Not sure how it works for tourneys but for HU I know you could drop like 4BI in ev in one game. If it's like that you could've just dropped loads of ev in one game/

 

[WiZZiM]

dont take any notice of the ev line for stt and mtt's it doesn't work right

It's pretty close for hypers actually.

 

[Big_Rudy]

Not sure how it works for tourneys but for HU I know you could drop like 4BI in ev in one game. If it's like that you could've just dropped loads of ev in one game/

That's sort-of what happened, I guess. Not one game in particular, but in that one small set I dropped 7 BI of the 14 I'm down for the month. Hopefully things turn around soon....

dont take any notice of the ev line for stt and mtt's it doesn't work right

So...I just suck . Gotta work on that, too. Seriously, though, in what regard do you mean it doesn't work correctly? Last month I played roughly 200 ST SnG's, finished 1 buy-in above EV. Month before that 300 SnG's, 3 buy-ins above EV. I know these are ridiculously low sample-sizes, but in the past EV has always tracked pretty closely for me in SnG's.

 

[WiZZiM]

basically, look less at EV, it doesn't really help you much. And look more at individual spots or percieved trouble spots in your game.

Or buy a book, or go get some training, post hands on here, play with yourself, these are all better options than looking at EV graphs.

 

[Big_Rudy]

basically, look less at EV, it doesn't really help you much. And look more at individual spots or percieved trouble spots in your game.

Or buy a book, or go get some training, post hands on here, play with yourself, these are all better options than looking at EV graphs.

Thanks. Buying and studying a book (Moshman's) is on my list of goals for this month. I'm hoping this thread gets/stays active for the HH and stuff like that. Right now it's just frustrating for me as I'm frequently getting it in good only to be sucked-out on and when I get it in bad I'm not catching-up.

I don't have a huge sample of games, so a downswing like this hits my numbers/stats pretty hard and I tend to focus too much on that. Before this swing I only had a sample-size of 500 games (tiny, tiny, I know) but I was running a ROI of over 20% through those games. My downswing started at the end of last month and is continuing this month. Through that time my numbers have been bad enough that my toatal ROI is now at 11-12%. Frustrating for me. I average a ROI of around 10% at DoN's, so I'm wondering if its worth the effort for me to switch formats at all.

Anyway, thanks for your help. I'm going to keep working on my game/goals for the month and see how things go. And, I'm going to TRY to be less focussed on stats/graphs, but there is no guarantee on that.

 

[WiZZiM]

i'd just suggest playing one particular format, whatever it is and get real good at it. After you learn one form of STT, changing to others is just a matter of adjustment. If you move formats too much, it's a hell of a lot harder to get good i think.

I played around 3.5k $3.5 STT's when i started about a year ago to give you an idea. Which again, isn't very many, but i stuck to the one limit and game and helped me get a much better understanding. Then to move up it was just a matter of adjusting to better opponants and differant ranges. Also the cool thing about small stakes is that downswings really shouldn't matter that much.

Moshmans book is good i believe, never actually read it, but as far as books go that would be the one. Perhaps a subscription to a video site might be more worth while, but it's really up to you, your goals, what you want out of poker etc. (probably not worth getting into STT to give you my really honest opinion if your looking to make money.. small stakes are easily beatable, but it's hard to move up.)

 

[KingCurtis]

Hey, great to hear from you, KC! I'm sure you're ready to get down to playing; but, as your "Official" strategy post has become fairly legendary around here, was wondering if much has changed in these past few years -- either with the strategy itself, your own ideas, or the general tourney landscape...

Tbh I am totally reassessing my game right now. I was playing so many tournaments daily before black Friday and my experience levels where keeping my game sharp. I honestly have no idea where my game is until I start playing a lot more tournaments. It doesn't look like much has changed and on these smaller sites the play is terrible so I should have no problem!

 

[polingpower]

good see you again............ KC

 

[Big_Rudy]

i'd just suggest playing one particular format, whatever it is and get real good at it. After you learn one form of STT, changing to others is just a matter of adjustment. If you move formats too much, it's a hell of a lot harder to get good i think.

I played around 3.5k $3.5 STT's when i started about a year ago to give you an idea. Which again, isn't very many, but i stuck to the one limit and game and helped me get a much better understanding. Then to move up it was just a matter of adjusting to better opponants and differant ranges. Also the cool thing about small stakes is that downswings really shouldn't matter that much.

Moshmans book is good i believe, never actually read it, but as far as books go that would be the one. Perhaps a subscription to a video site might be more worth while, but it's really up to you, your goals, what you want out of poker etc. (probably not worth getting into STT to give you my really honest opinion if your looking to make money.. small stakes are easily beatable, but it's hard to move up.)

Yeah, money-wise the downswing really isn't that big a deal, just annoying. Being able to move up, tbh, is probably my biggest concern. I've beaten the lowest levels of DoN's easily for quite awhile and, even with my current downswing, I'm still beating the regular SnG's, but again this is at very low levels. Guess we'll find out eventually if I can move-up or not.

 

[Poker Orifice]

Some decent overlay in iPoker's S.P.$40k today!!

iPoker's discounted tourney series tourney today Sat.$40Kguar. has buyin dropped down to $35 (from $109) has good structure (5,000chips, 15min. levels & blinds only reach 30/60 by 1st break) & has some decent overlay (< what? an online tourney with overlay...wtf?)
Just started 20mins. ago, currently 924 registered = over $7,500 overlay!

 

[Poker Orifice]

hmm... might not have 'late reg'??? Which seems kinda odd seeing as all the other tourneys on iPoker now have late reg. (maybe just looks that way on my lobby?)

 

[BlueNowhere]

Need to crush tonight to try and pull myseld out of this current avalanche. I'll post some bubble spots to check my play.

 

[Big_Rudy]

Need to crush tonight to try and pull myseld out of this current avalanche. I'll post some bubble spots to check my play.

GL man. Bring us back some interesting spots to check (after you've crushed, of course).

 

[BlueNowhere]

Does anyone know of any tracking websites where you can't block your stats? There's a reg that I often play in 6-max and he's blocked his stats on pokerprolabs where I usually look people up. I want to know whether it's worth just trying to avoid him.

 

[Big_Rudy]

Does anyone know of any tracking websites where you can't block your stats? There's a reg that I often play in 6-max and he's blocked his stats on pokerprolabs where I usually look people up. I want to know whether it's worth just trying to avoid him.

I actually don't know of all that many tracking sites, period. I'm sure there are many out there, but the only ones I'm familiar with are sharkscope, PokerProLabs, and PTR (or whatever it's called) for the cash guys. On all of those you have the option of blocking.

 

[BlueNowhere]

Snap shoving here, right? Relatively new to these so having to make it up as I go along.

pokerstars No-Limit Hold'em, 3.5 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds 3 Ante (5 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t572)
BB (t472)
UTG (t514)
Hero (MP) (t462)
Button (t980)

Hero's M: 7.70

Preflop: Hero is MP with A

, J

UTG calls t30, Hero bets t459 (All-In), 3 folds, UTG calls t429

Flop: (t978) 10

, 4

, 8

(2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t978) 5

(2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t978) Q

(2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t978

Results:

Spoiler

UTG had A

, 4

(one pair, fours).
Hero had A

, J

(high card, Ace).
Outcome: UTG won t978

 

[only_bridge]

Does anyone know of any tracking websites where you can't block your stats? There's a reg that I often play in 6-max and he's blocked his stats on pokerprolabs where I usually look people up. I want to know whether it's worth just trying to avoid him.

Pokerprolabs sux IMO.

Almost everyone is Ace with 5-stars.

(but I dont know of any better.)

 

[Poker Orifice]

hmm... might not have 'late reg'??? Which seems kinda odd seeing as all the other tourneys on iPoker now have late reg. (maybe just looks that way on my lobby?)

No Late Reg.
Out after 1.5hrs., QQ < AA *note to self - don't play MTT's with new 'hyper-turbo' puppy (Boston BullTerrier)running underfoot. A gazillion toys & he chooses the cords underneath my puter desk!! Then makes off with my headphones & numeric keypad!

 

[BlueNowhere]

I actually don't know of all that many tracking sites, period. I'm sure there are many out there, but the only ones I'm familiar with are SharkScope, PokerProLabs, and PTR (or whatever it's called) for the cash guys. On all of those you have the option of blocking.

I remember seeing people arguing on 2p2 and then somebody brought up somebody elses stats and said you might think you've blocekd them but you can't block them from everywhere (or words to that effect). I've never ventured outside the well known ones either though but there def sounds like there are less mainstream sites.

 

[BlueNowhere]

Pokerprolabs sux IMO.

Almost everyone is Ace with 5-stars.

(but I dont know of any better.)

Yea I don't look at the stars though, just their graphs which is why I use pokerprolabs. Giving the year graph is quality imo as well as being able to quickly look at how they've faired in certain formats.

 

[Big_Rudy]

Snap shoving here, right? Relatively new to these so having to make it up as I go along.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 3.5 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds 3 Ante (5 handed) - PokerStars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t572)
BB (t472)
UTG (t514)
Hero (MP) (t462)
Button (t980)

Hero's M: 7.70

Preflop: Hero is MP with A

, J

UTG calls t30, Hero bets t459 (All-In), 3 folds, UTG calls t429

Flop: (t978) 10

, 4

, 8

(2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t978) 5

(2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t978) Q

(2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t978

Results:

Spoiler

UTG had A

, 4

(one pair, fours).
Hero had A

, J

(high card, Ace).
Outcome: UTG won t978

Snap shove for me. Standard result (well, lately anyway).

 

[BlueNowhere]

Yea AJ shove felt right, just wasn't 100% on it. People are calling like that and I somehow have a -35% ROI lol.

GL man. Bring us back some interesting spots to check (after you've been crushed, of course).

FYP.

 

[BlueNowhere]

Also amused me that I just recognised somebody I've only ever played once before (about 3 weeks IIRC) based on their picture (very hot girl) lol.