Been a bit since my last post. I've really been putting in heavy volume and the results weren't such that I felt much like posting.
As stated in my last post, I continue to decipher the evolution of the online game since Black Friday. It's been an incredible couple of months, a period of time where I could have pretty easily thrown in the towel on more than one occasion.
I have been struggling slightly with updating my techniques to adapt to this new "crazy" MTT environment. There are a lot more players out there who understand the game incredibly well and a lot of players who think they do but in reality they are just spewy.
Regardless of which player type, the result is higher variance and a realization that very few of the strategies that brought me much success and consistency pre-Black Friday are consistently successful now. Couple that with the fact I'm limited to playing on a site with anonymous screen names, thus complicating the decision making process hand by hand. I can't even put a simple note on a player for when I run into them again in another tourney. Substantial handicap to say the least.
Well, I spent the overwhelming majority of August digging a ridiculous hole it seemed I would never get out of. On top of the above adjustments, I have been running ridiculously below expectation. Without complaining too much about bad beats/variance, I'll just say I have literally never run worse in my poker career in +EV situations.
I was approx. -4.5K for August going into Sunday the 30th. I was 700 MTTs deep into the month and running horribly, even beginning to question Bovada's legitimacy (I've only been on the site for 2 months). My confidence was low. I chose to play anyway and, thankfully, pulled out a 4th in the $22 10K guarantee and 2nd in the Sunday $44 25k Guarantee for 4.8K. In one fell swoop I was able to finish the month in the black somehow. Incredibly relieving. The graph up top clearly illustrates my frustrations. The month-to-month data is updated as well, just click the graph.
September has thus far started out more promising, though I know I am still running below expectation. At some point variance will correct itself and I'll go on a nice run. In Real Estate, it's "Location, Location, Location". In MTTs, it's "Volume, Volume, Volume".
Last night I finished 3rd (again) in the $33 Turbo 5K guarantee (gonna have to win that one one of these days...) and also won the $44 6max 3K guarantee for 1.3K (got 2nd in this tourney 11 days ago on August 22nd). Below are some screenshots of some recent tourneys, including the 2nd place score in the 25K.
So here's hoping September yields results closer to expectation as I continue to reintegrate myself back into the online MTT scene, handicapped as it may be for my situation. Still looking to accumulate a lot more data to determine long-term expectations in this limiting environment.
Good luck out there guys and remember.. Perseverance is Paramount.
