2nd in 18K

What an emotionally draining month July has been. I've taken a good amount of time off the past couple weeks and my sleep schedule has gotten kinda screwy. I've been burnt out on poker as this month has been such a roller coaster ride.

I played last night for the first time since Sunday (the 25th) and I only played the second half of my schedule (starting at 11pm). Luckily I was able to pull out a 2nd place in the $26 18k Guarantee. I really needed the boost of confidence.

The money doesn't even get me back to my peak profit for the year but the confidence-booster is probably more important anyway. It reminds me that my heater WILL come.

Healthy volume, anyway...

Having played 293 tourneys so far this month, and given the fact there are still nine full days of play left, I'm easily on pace to have my second largest month of the year in terms of volume (and largest since I stopped playing low stakes tourneys). This is good news.

And while the absurd beats and situations won't come to an end, I'm very happy with my play and my focus this month. All I can do is focus on making good decisions and continue playing. That's ALL we can do in this game. The rest takes care of itself.

Just Stuck

On July 1st I won the 20K for 5.2k. Things were looking up. Then I ran deep in a whole bunch of tourneys and got disappointed tremendously. Then I won the 15K for 4k and change. Things were again looking up. Then I continued to run deep in some big tourneys but come up short at the end.

Overall, my last 250 games have been intense, frustrating, and worst, not even break even. Since the 20K win on July 1st I'm down 1k. It's completely absurd. I've been playing so well. This is one of those stretches where if just a few hands had gone differently I'd be up 10 or 15k on the month right now instead of sitting at 4k.

Two nights ago I bubbled the FT of the 30c. Tonight I bubble the FT of the 20r when my AK lost to 88 then I go onto bubble the FT of the 20k when my AK lost to KQ.

Obv Sunday was another disappointment... like I even need to mention it.

Just sigh. Gotta keep movin' along though. My big rush IS out there and it WILL come.

Absurd Opportunities

I've had an upsetting last couple nights. They have basically summed up my frustration this year as a whole.

I've now bubbled the final table of the Fifty/Fifty and the Nightly Seventy Grand three times EACH this year. Not a single FT in either and they have been the staple of my nightly schedule since basically February.

Last night I bubbled the 23K FT and tonight I finished 7th in the Turbo Fiddy (another tourney I just get raped in).

Every time I think I'm on the cusp of a breakthrough month or a huge upswing I start to run well below expectation. My average buyin for the year stands at $40.82 (through 2,033 games) while my average profit per game stands at just $20.04. This is an absurd ratio. This is the kind of profit margin I had when I grinded 45-mans.

I know that 40K profit is on the LOW end of expectation for any given 2,000-game period based on the schedule I've played and the +EV decisions I've made. It's just a matter of time until I breakthrough and start seeing the results I know I should be seeing.

Tomorrow is yet another Sunday and yet another bevy of opportunities. Hopefully I can turn my long string of upsetting Sundays around.

Won the $26 6max KO

As advertised.

This is another tourney (per my last post) that has haunted me a long time. A few FTs before but never won it. Feels good obv.

I finished a disgusting 10th place in the 20r on Stars tonight also. I lost a flip on the bubble. So be it. Not a bad night considering I played an abbreviated schedule. I stopped loading @ 11pm (see my current schedule).

So I've played more tourneys in the last six days than I ever have, having already played 127 MTTs in just the first six days of July. In my last post I noted how I was 2/3 of the way to a Triple Crown, having won a tourney on UB and Full Tilt within a six-day period, thus leaving me with just one day to win a tourney on Stars to complete the crown. I mentioned how it wasn't a big deal.

Well it ended up being a bigger deal to me than I thought because I stayed up all of Friday morning (having been up all day Thursday) and played 40 tourney on Stars that were qualifiable for the TC. I loaded tourneys for 12 hours. The best I managed was a 14th in an $8r and a 17th in the $50 1r1a. It was exhausting and left me very unsatisfied but I feel like it was worth the effort. Winning a TC would have made my year.

Anyway, I proceeded to bubble the FT of the 50/50 AGAIN on Saturday night then have a really awful Sunday (losing 1k). I FTd the $55 Sniper 10K Guarantee on UB last night with the chip lead but ended up finishing a very disappointing 8th at a table full of complete fish. I'm very happy I won this tourney tonight because I was on a 3k downswing coming into today with a lot of bitter, close finishes in the process.

K I'm tired so I'm off to bed. GL out there.

edit: also officially broke the 40k profit mark.

Starting July with a Bang!

Won the 20k for $5,200.

This tourney has kind of been haunting me all year long. It's the last tourney I load in my schedule and I've FTd it plenty (including a 2nd) but never shipped it. Nice to get that monkey off my back.

To boot, I knocked out the lovely Cyndy Violette in 3rd place and picked up her bounty. Was weird seeing her in such a late night tourney, or even seeing her playing at all really. I just never cross paths with her or even see her in lobbies.

I also FTd the $30 1r1a but ran badly and busted 7th.

Tonight's session started off so so so horribly and I almost stopped loading after my first couple hours. Obviously I'm very happy I played it out.

Well this win ironically comes just one day after I make my "running below expectation" post and comes on the first day of the second half of the year. Hopefully that's a good sign :)

edit: also just realized I'm 2/3 of the way to a Triple Crown for Pocketfives. I would need a win on Stars and unfortunately only tourneys that start before 22:00 EST tonight (Friday 2nd) count. I think? I won the UB 30r last Friday night and it started at 22:00 so... pretty sure this is how the TC works. Anyway, I don't start my session until like 21:00 so idk. Maybe I'll throw in the NHG or something to have a tiny extra chance but I'm not counting on it. I just think it's a cool note.

June Review

Well June ended with almost identical numbers to May. I'll just get right to it:












 




I played 328 MTTs with an average buyin of $48.62 and made $6241.59 profit. Click on the graph at the top of the page to see how ridiculously and strangely similar this month was to last month.

This was my highest average buyin month of the year. I attribute this to the fact that I played two $216 majors every Sunday. I'm definitely investing more in Sundays as the year progresses and I hope it pays off by years-end

Even though these last four months have been steady volume and steady profit I definitely can't shake the feeling I'm running below expectation. Maybe even significantly below expectation. I know it seems strange to look at the consistency and think that but I feel it pretty strongly. Here's why.

My schedule has been quite consistent the last four months and so have some certain results:

1) I have yet to make even one FT of my largest potential nightly payout tourneys (the 50/50 on Full Tilt and the Nightly Seventy Grand on Stars). This has got to give at some point.

2) I have yet to have a single significant Sunday score despite the decent volume I've put in on Sundays.

So I mean, things just simply CANNOT continue on this way. I've got to eventually hit the 50/50 or the NSG for as often as I play them and/or I've got to hit something on a Sunday worth five-figures. I just can't keep running below expectation as I have.

This leads me to believe I'll have at least one standout month in the second half of the year where I have 20K+ profit but with no extra volume. At least one month like this will be necessary for me to meet my yearly goal. Speaking of which...

The year is half over and I stand below the halfway point to my goal of 100K profit ($34.6K). I feel like I've clearly stated why I think I'm below and why I think I'll make it (even though I don't appear to be on pace for it).

I've played 1,870 MTTs so far this year and this alone is a huge accomplishment for me. I'm averaging about 312 per month and as long as I can maintain that pace I think I'll have a graph to be very proud of by years-end.