FTP is back!

Been a little while since I updated, been pretty busy and not much time to update.

Overall happy at how things are going, my cash game is coming on and if I can alleviate the random MTT spew and need to win pots all the time I think it will be a nice side income.

Sunday went well; I took the decision to pretty much not play on stars. I don't like the MTT schedule really, its way to turbo heavy, the structures are designed to play very quickly at the start (as they have to) and payouts are really flat.
So this Sunday I didn’t play stars for the first time ever, switched the warm up and milly to playing the party major and the Sunday brawl on ftp. I also made a schedule as well so I didn't end up 25 tabling (happened first time I was back on ftp because I got over excited ).

So I had a nice balanced schedule and it went really well, I made final 2 tables of the Party 109fo 20k, the 11r 10k gtd and 22r 10k gtd, even though I forgot to register the 11r and 22r until the last level of the re-buy

With FTP I am in love, not only do I like the structures more and the escalating blind time levels, it's great for a mid-stakes player with the amount of 26/55/75 mtts. They also have triple draw 6 max and HU tables, rush poker obv and I seem to be one of the few that likes the new edge RB program.

If you’re a high volume player either sngs/cash then I think stars is better for you by far. But, for a MTT player who is unlikely to get Nova unless you play a stupid amount of volume and purely on stars, then I think edge has the edge (I know it’s bad pun).
Also think the deal me in bonus was a good idea to stimulate traffic as well, if only they could get rid of multi entry mtts and I would be 100% happy.

Anyways on Sunday I had a good day on FTP, I cashed in the 22r, the multi-fifty, the 18k KO and I final tabled the double deuce.
Felt like overall I played really really well (with one or two bad spews ofc) and from about 50 players out bossed it pretty hard. I did lose a huge 70/30 with about 15 players left which would have given me about 35/40% of the chips in play but kept it together.

Was pretty annoyed not to ship it tbh, lost a huge pot TT v AA where he flatted a 3 bet IP. The guy was a complete psycho in genral and I was more than happy to get it in pre versus his range. fwiw for a guy that had no significant results and was a losing player on OPR was suddenly cold 4 and 5 betting light

I think I played that hand kinda bad, but not as bad as I thought given I had light 6 bet shoved on him twice (got it through) and we had a huge aggro dynamic and I had a pretty solid read on him post flop as well.

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Also love the software on tilt as well

So anyway that’s enough of me moaning about having a score that’s a year’s wages in half of the world.

Manchester weekend

so didn't play over weekend

was to busy having a awesome weekend with 2+2 ers, duerdy, njd, entim, josem and puyan (who is not 2+2)

Rented a nice place in the centre of manchester which was pretty dam good and reasonable for roughly $500 for 2 nights between 4 of us.

Drank way way to much, lost 3 buyins in the sat nigh homegame (finished 5am) mainly to entim who lives up to his rep running hot winning another huge flip with 54s v KQs for 300bb. It was a small stakes drunk cash game so to say the play was less than optimal from all is understating it

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just the main room, had 2 bedrooms as well, one with en suite which was cool.

Really great weekend, watched the rugby league challenge cup final (njd's team lost) at old trafford. Where one of the warrington players ruptured a testicle and played out the rest of the match. Went to hospital after to have it removed talk about a hardcase!

In other news, my man ozzie shipped hot 11 on sunday for 11k which was nice. Guys solid and deffo got game and deffo deserves it.

Yours truly managed to play through the pain barrier (on monday) despite still being hungover (yes we drank that much lolz). Monday was ok I think I had 4 FT bubbles and not one actual FT but played well. Went out of gsop 5r 6 max in 18th lost Ak v AQ for 100bb pot and chip lead sigh obv.

Yesterday was a car crash of a day, I don't think I have run as poorly as I did yesterday in my whole 'poker career' (I am sure I have but you know it was yesterday). I played slightly to many tables as well I think which did not help. I am super proud of myself I didn't unreg a bunch of mtt's and kept it together.

I ended up final tabling a small 20fo on 888 (came 7th) and played really well to ship the late 55fo 10k gtd on party (well chopped HU)

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Its a nice win in a semi tough field (a couple decent regs at FT), but I feel more proud of this than my big scores. I feel like grinding through the pain barrier when it's not going your way is a huge mental leak. Even if you dont realise it i think it can affect your play, and I feel like I still played my A game so pretty pleased

Students crush!

Shout out to 2 of my students

fluffykiller chopped the bigger 22 on Sunday for a nice 5 fig score and Ozzieown chopped the bigger 55 for a tidy sum as well

Both have worked pretty hard on their games and it's nice to see guys like that finally getting a decent score

Also had my MTT class with Jaxtraw on Friday and I think it went pretty well for the most part and I hope all that came got something out of it. I got some nice feedback after so was pretty satisfying

In cash games so far it’s been pretty good and the thoughts I have had about certain spots seem to be backed up by results (and others thought processes)

Here is a graph of cash results over the last 2 days only 6k hands or something but not bad and only 25nl. (just to get back into it really) I think lifetime I have about 8bb/100 over 120k hands there (not sure need to check old database on other comp).



I plan on playing a little cash to work on postflop stuff and prob move up to 50nl/100nl next week

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In triple draw I broke my database but I was running at 3BB/100 (big bet not big blinds that would be 6bb) and pretty sure I am prob around 2BB/100 since then over prob about 20k hands. I played a little 2/4 last week and made a few hundo as well so feeling good about my triple game

In MTT's been playing really well had some super deep runs and feel like it's only a matter of time before I am really competing in the biggest games with the rate I feel I am improving.

I need to play more volume, and I constantly seem to be struggling to get in full mtt sessions. With playing, coaching, studying, family and social life balancing it all has been tricky.
Our baby is now 12 weeks old and starting to get a proper sleep pattern and it's getting a little easier for me to grind etc. Wcoop kind of handed my ass to be a little hence why I have been working on my deeper stacked game a lot...

Gonna send a bunch of hands to my backer today and I am sure all my new found confidence will evaporate as he tells me I suck (his pretty dam good though so it’s ok)

Its that time of the week again

Sunday sigh

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Started off well ran deep in a $75fo (19th I think) and FT a 33r on Party, but as a whole played to far to nitty for my liking and didn't build stacks as I normally do.
I was trying to be a bit tighter after some advice that I open to many hands basically in certain spots. Though it can be true, I think the benefit's for me personally well outweigh the cons.

Basically be true to yourself is what I am saying

It's funny actually talking about peoples styles, I know some people (students or people I study with) who think my game is really nitty and then others who think I am insane.

I have seen the same said about other so called lags actually in fact one 2+2 guy who is really well known as a super lag spewtard, my HUD stats and experience with them is that they are on the tighter side. Just shows how mtt's are so situational and so much depends

gl if your playing, I am going to be reviewing this god awful session to cringe at all the spots I didn't take

Just another sunday :D

Sunday was a pretty good day overall

I played less MTT's and I think played really solid and well, ran pretty bad at start of session but made up for it runnig well late on

I shipped a 22fo on party for about 1.6k which was a nice way to start the day

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The late on I made my second Sunday Major FT, the $215 888 mega deep which is my fav MTT of all time.

I played probably some of the best poker I feel I have played for a long time. Picked my spots well, didn't spew at all. Made 2 huge bluffs in spots where it was really really tough for my opponent to call (one was more semibluff)

I think I may have got him to fold Jacks actually, thats what he said in chat (don't know how true this is). He lurks 2+2 (and this thread) so maybe he will come in and verify.

So I got HU versus a drooler and after getting him down to 16bb v my 70bb ish we get it in AJcc v AQo on a A68cc board and he holds. After this my HU play was not stellar and its going to be a long time before I can watch this part of the MTT

Still another 5 fig score which is nice obviously and a 2nd FT of a Sunday major

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Lastly I also made day 2 of the French 100 euro summer event

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would be awesome to FT this as well

gl all

Updated coaching package

Hi

So after some feedback we decided to scale back the planned coaching package I am doing with Jaxtraw poker.
Changing it from a 2 day course which was difficult for some to attend to a 1 day course and the price has droppped as well to reflect the reduction in hours. Hopefully this makes it more accesable to some of the people that wanted to come.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=34225136&postcount=50

gearing up for the sunday grind, so gl if your playing :)

New coaching package/project and MTT stable

Hey guys

So I have 2 new projects going on aside from playing

The first is I am pleased that I will be taking on another group of players to crush the low/midstakes :) my current guys are doing well and a new opportunity has arisen with a new company I am working with.

They have a different approach which focus on making the player better, anyone can get a staking deal these days. The problem is we live in a world of make up grinders as my good friend calls them!

The aim is to make you a better player, therefore they only allow 5 players ina group, they must have 4 hours coaching a week at least and coach must be available for advice to students/horses

I have a thread on 2+2 which I have bumped and it's here if anyone interested

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/135/staking/low-mid-stakes-mtt-staking-offered-1199743/


Secondly super excited that I am working with Jaxtraw poker on a coaching package aimed at intermediate players. It covers the essential tools I think you need to beat MTT's and for many students that can't afford 1-1 coaching or for guys that say just play on a Sunday or MTT's are not there main game its a great starting point.

The package is set to be 5 hours but I think its going to go over time by a long way considering all the material we have. Link is below for any one who is interested

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=34144650&postcount=42

gl guys if your playing and hope I can work with one or two of you via the above :)

July in review

Ok so July update

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volume was awful obviously, finding it tough to play with new born baby and family commitments

also the last day I played, I played really bad like a reg fish and was super annoyed with myself for being just another meh grinder on that day. Played far to many tables and my game suffered. I also ran bad for the first time in an age which ment I only FT one MTT and even then I didn't play well.

Lesson learned though

this month though (once family who are staying leave) I am gonna put in some real volume again. My pocket fives ranking dropped 400 places this week (my plb only dropped 50pts though) and I really want to stay top 500 and push on for top 100

I also prob lost about $400 playing triple draw, played HU yesterday versus a spewy guy. Not realising that spewy loose players can run you over very easily

I have a triple draw coaching session with my buddy snowboard tomorrow so we can see if I have huge gaping leaks. I think his also coming along with his MTT game which is cool and our coaching swap is proving benficial

As for my group they are doing really well we now have $18k profits total which is nice (cant post graph as players all started at different times). This is july results

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still no news on finalising details of my other project, but I have another new little project (in addition to the one I am working on) in the pipeline so it's good to have some diversity whilst I am struggling to get in volume

gl guys and hopefully I can have some more volume this month

weekend warrior

Wife went away for the weekend so I could get some work in!

Not a bad start yesterday, won a $50 fo on party for about 1.5k, came 6th (i think, can't remember) in the 8 cube on stars, 15th in the $22 big ante on stars, 14th in 22r on party, 19th in some rando small 22 on party.

Also had another deep run in the $22 cube on stars (30th or something), but spewed off when I misjudged mr. Brimlow's cold 4 ball (his good but very spewy) as a move and got it in with 99 v JJ. Was kinda annoying as it's one of my fav mtt's and I really want to win it outright (chopped once, and 5/7/8 place finishes).

All in all ended up about +2k for the day which is a solid day for sure.

Also working on a little project at the moment which I am super excited about and will reveal more later

Gl if ur playing

Keeping busy :)

Still not back to playing full time MTT yet as life has been so hetic

Just a quick update though on my group of guys I am working with. They are starting to have some real results and I am pretty please with the progress of everyone

Group progress so far since I been coaching them

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The great thing is that we are having prob 2/3 FT every day at least, in fact I think we might have even got to 10 the other day

I am also working on a couple of other projects that I am super excited about, and of course donating at mixed games

Back!

Hi All

It's been a while since my last update; reason being that my wife gave birth to our second daughter on the 26th June (Gabrielle) :)

So as you can imagine it's been a bit busy in the household and I haven’t had much time to play or focus on much poker stuff and have been far to tired to put in a session.

However, I am slowly starting to get back into it. My group of players are starting to progress a little bit which is great and we are starting to have a couple of scores and I can see some improvement in the guys already which is good.

On my own poker front I have started on the long journey to become competent at mixed games. I ideally want to be able to hold my own in all the mixed games and hopefully play the various online and live series including these games (Scoop, Wcoop and Wsop)

I have started with triple draw something that’s always fascinated me, and so far I am have gone from being a total fish to just a small fish. I have managed to put in about 5k hands this week (you can only really 2 table it) which is not bad and currently I am more or less breakeven (-0.3BB/100) at up to the 2/4 level.

The game is really high variance actually, but the great thing about it is that you can get fish to put in so much money basically drawing dead a lot, it’s a limit game so it's taking some adjustment but I feel like I have a good intuitive grasp of the game already.

MTT wise well I am going to be putting in my first session since the baby was born, and I am probably going to take it a little bit easy and just play $20-50FO and 11r for today. Blow off the cobwebs (though I have been working on some stuff postflop in the meantime) and then get myself back in the groove for a big Sunday



gl all 

For the love of the game

Those who know me know playing large volume has always been my issue, and studying I have no issue with putting in hour after hour. It's probably my biggest leak and strength as a player actually and perversely

I guess its love of the game and learning about it, and even though I have been playing this game for prob about 4 years total now and have improved exponentially to the point where I can play this game for a income, I still feel like a huge fish in certain situations. 

So the last couple of days I have been working super hard on my game, prob even harder than I normally do which is pretty hard.

I feel like my preflop game is solid and I am super comfortable playing 30bb-40bb stacks like most MTT regs, and in this respect I can compete with most players if not all. Of course there are some things to work on and some little edges and spots I am discovering still but nothing ground breaking.

However, deep postflop play is still a huge weakness of mine and though I feel like I am better than most of the average regs out there, but the top echelon of players definitely have a lot more tools in their arsenal to work with and use them pretty effectively against meh regs and fish alike.

So I have done a couple of things, firstly I had a great session with Alex Assassinato Fitzgerald on Wed of my deep run in the 888 major. He introduced me to a couple of new tools/software which really helped me look at some postflop lines, mainly on the flop (just because of effective stacks are shorter) actually and some for preflop. We still have to finish off the review actually as the discussion got so in-depth.

The great thing though is that I spent about 6/7 hours yesterday (as my internet is being glitchhy, more on that later) playing around with it, Already I feel like I have developed 2 or 3 great postflop lines both for value and as bluff in very specific positions (defending from the blinds) using the tools he gave me to work out if they are profitable.

The awesome thing is that my intuition about a couple of spots was proved correct actually (mathematically) which is nice to know. Secondly, I bought Beluga Whales Easy Game at Xmas and it’s a great book but I had only read the first couple of chapters. So I read a bit more of this, and a few of the chapters discussed the exact same things I had been looking at and confirmed my thoughts as well.

Added to this; instead of my normal Wednesday coaching session which I conduct, the investor in our stable decided to run the session himself. His very good mid to high stakes cash game player and again it was situated around the same blind defending range when deep. Digesting some of the lessons we talked about might take a while and I need to work them into my game slowly (to avoid catastrophe) but I feel like I already have a much better grasp of these concepts.

Of course this is only the beginning of my postflop journey and the more I learn the more I realise there is so much more to learn like Alice down the rabbit hole.

So with my internet being a issue until Monday when I get fibre optic, which should help with coaching sessions where I have been having issues (lag for my students) looks like I will continue to put in some hard study hours.

I am not sure if I will risk Sunday yet, not sure I fancy having 5k of buyins on the tables and the internet cut out for 10 min every 2 hours. Plus England are on Sunday night, which I am a little optimistic about (falsely I think) given I didn't expect them to even get out of the group let alone finish top.

So if you’re playing this weekend gl all (unless I play)

PS. Shout out to my buddy Kennl who shipped a triple crown this week, I am a little jealous but also determined to get one now as well. It’s a lot harder now due to the number of sites that meet the required criteria – see here for it
Also he overtook me in the P5 rankings as well this week. So I have to get some volume in and crack that top 500

The wife's officially balla ;)

Bought a new car today

Brag

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Beat

It was a tossup between this which is an Audi A6 S line le mans sport and a BMW 5 series SE.
Me and the wife test drove both of them, the BMW handled much better and I preferred it (slightly better colour as well), but the Audi had better options and interior and lower mileage

Variance

I flipped a coin to choose best of 3; BMW went way a head but the Audi came through: D

Guy in the shop literally dropped his jaw that I did that (fwiw I never do stuff like that normally)


Second beat, its gonna be the wife's car mainly as my friend said

[x] balla wife
[ ] balla husband

#dontgetmarriedkids

gl all

I love sundays :)

Sunday was ok in the end, could have been huge could have been terrabad.

I got stacks everywhere especially in all the majors I played (except mill)and went deep a bunch, think i misplayed to many spots overall and was not happy with a couple of decisions.

I only made one FT which was the 11r on stars france, was going for my 9th win of this MTT and was my 20th FT

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Its only about $600 for 5th and I messed up a hand right near the end for about 65% of my chips. I had been bossing it until then so was a bit annoyed tbh

Also had a huge run the 888 major, over 100bb the entire MTT and chip leader (or top 3) from about 100 left. Played a hand poorly considering I had no reads where I bet small for thin value with TP on the river in a 3 bet pot with AQs on a QxxJx board and called a min raise (he shows KK)
Got coolered for 35bb AK v KK, turn a A weeeeee he rivers 4 flush boooooo Then the last 20bb flatting a open with AA and getting it in on a 77xxK board OTR and opener has A7

Until then I had really been bossing this one as well and was super confident on at least FT it, kinda the one that got away a bit this sunday

This has to be my favourite MTT I have 5 15-30 place finishes in it already and pretty sure I am gonna FT this and ship it one day. Its kinda of a baby major I geuss as its a sunday special $215 buy in but on a secondary site...

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Not sure on playing schedule this week, but Tuesday is deffo out as the mighty (lol not all) ENGERRRRRR LAND are playing

gl this week all

We bubbling ;)

Had on of those frustrating nights last night.

I final table bubbled (pretty much) 5 MTT's, two $55 on Party both where I was chip leader or close to chip leader with 15 left. One I just got coolered for most of my chips where I 3 bet a very active guy (we had been going back and forth) with the intention of getting it in with AQs.
He flats OOP, flop is Qxx and he ch/calls a c bet and ch/calls a turn shove and shows a set of Queens . I like his line actually pre given I may have been light and keeps the air in my range

The other, I made a somewhat spazz play trying to apply pressure on a table I have been bossing. Won't post the hand as I don’t like it and I need to temper the aggression sometimes.
Also FT bubbles a $22 FO on party as well, again I had chips in this with 20 left so kinda annoyed.

Last one of the night was French kiss, which is pokerstars.fr version of the big 11. Exactly 10 left I am second in chips and bossing it The only other good player RUmad/mo3rtelmu busted in about 15th so I was super confident.


This comes up on the exact bubble fml. It not the beat more that’s its 4.15am in the morning and I been one tabling this for about a hour sigh

Poker Stars, $9 Buy-in (30,000/60,000 blinds, 7,500 ante) No Limit Hold'em Tournament, 5 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

Hero (BB): 2,804,372 (46.7 bb)
MP: 6,471,339 (107.9 bb)
CO: 1,890,751 (31.5 bb)
BTN: 715,000 (11.9 bb)
SB: 782,318 (13 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A A
MP raises to 139,999, 3 folds, Hero raises to 300,000, MP raises to 810,000, Hero raises to 1,440,000, MP raises to 6,463,839 and is all-in, Hero calls 1,356,872 and is all-in

Flop: (5,661,244) T 9 8 (2 players, 2 are all-in)
Turn: (5,661,244) Q (2 players, 2 are all-in)
River: (5,661,244) T (2 players, 2 are all-in)

Results: 5,661,244 pot
Final Board: T 9 8 Q T
Hero showed A A and lost (-2,804,372 net)
MP showed 8 8 and won 5,661,244 (2,856,872 net)

Can't complain that I don’t run good in general though Really happy with the way I played yesterday. I really struggle with finding the balance in my game between aggression and control sometimes. I lurch from super LAG to nit at times (which can be a good thing), and I find it’s like walking a tightrope to get the right mix

Looking forward to Sunday which will be my first back on stars (if I can ever get the bloody money off)

gl to those grinding today/sat