Thursday, November 13, 2014

Micro Millions Update

So since the start of the series, I've been hitting the Micro Millions hard! I got the initial start date of the series wrong though ended up missing most of the tournaments on day 1. Also, I wasn't really mentally ready for the 11 day grind or even prepared in terms of having groceries or a cleared schedule. I quickly got things sorted out though and have been playing around the clock ever since.

Trying to do well on the overall leaderboard is a serious grind-both mentally and physically. I've been super impressed with myself in terms of my mental game this time around...I've been very patient and have played quite well by my own standards. When I've done this challenge in the past, I found myself making a lot of questionable plays just looking for a quick double up or sleep but this go-around has been much better in terms of not punting off stacks. The physical part of the challenge is still incredibly difficult though because you just get so tired that it gets to the point where you can either ignore your alarm or it just becomes easy to brush off events(for example I'll wake up and go to register on my phone and if it's a format that isn't mobile app compatible, I won't bother getting out of bed and will just skip it).

Anyways, at this point a top 10 finish is completely unrealistic but I'm hoping to finish inside the top 100 and not walk away empty-handed, so to speak. I've racked up quite a few cashes but missing more events than I cared to miss, combined with some unfortunate runbad in important spots has left me sitting just outside the top 100 at the moment. Still, I'd like to see some kind of rewards for my efforts and hey, a $215 ticket ain't too bad!:



I actually just wrapped up Event 071, where I made a pretty deep run and banked another 15 leaderboard points so I should actually be inside the top 100 at the moment. The bustout in this one was pretty unfortunate for me, as I got AA cracked by 33 all-in pre for more than double the average stack with 185 left! Pretty much a beat of 10+ leaderboard points and potentially a lot of money. Stuff like that really makes or brakes a leaderboard quest but that's obv the nature of MTTs so I don't let it bother me too much.

I've been running my last longer promotion out of my facebook page and it's been going well. The final last longer will be tomorrow and then I'll be doing the draw for the 5 Main Event ticket winners after it wraps up. Be sure to check it out if you want in on the action...

Unfortunately, I've been finding it much more difficult than expected to play cash games alongside the MM. The combination of being super tired and needing a nap as soon as I bust the MTT plus not being able to easily start/stop a cash game session has resulted in almost exclusively MTT play. Now that I've lowered the bar from top 10 to top 100, I might be able to skip the night events and play both during the day. Anyways, that's all for now.

Gl to all those that are also grinding it out during the MM, I've had several chats and twitter interactions with a lot of followers so keep it up.

gl at the tables!

Thursday, November 6, 2014

I've Got Your Micro Millions 9 Main Event Tickets!

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/micro-millions/

The Micro Millions is back and once again, I'm going to be playing a ton of events to try and do well on the overall leader board. The plan is to play cash games on the side and hopefully end up logging a lot of hours at both the cash and MTT tables. Anyways, enough about me...here's what you need to know if you're looking to bank a free ticket to the Micro Millions Main Event:

What I'm going to be doing for the series is bring back my popular Last Longer contest but with a bit of a twist this time. In the past, I've held a last longer for a specific event and simply whoever lasted the longest in the tournament out of all of the entrants would win the Main Event ticket. This time, it's going to be more about outlasting ME.

The contest will work in the following way: I will hold 5 different last longers events (max 1 per day spread out over the series but no set events/dates yet) and after all of the events have finished there will be a draw for 5 Main Event tickets. To get your name in for the draw, all you have to do is OUTLAST ME in any of the last longers. If you enter more than 1 last longer and outlast me in multiple events, you can earn more entries into the draw...so for example, if you end up entering all 5 of my last longers and outlast me in all 5, you'll get 5 entries into the draw for the ME tickets. Sound simple enough? Good. All of the last longers will be ran out of my facebook page and the way it will work in practice is that I will announce the last longer event ahead of time, everyone will sign up with their Stars ID in the comments and then I will make a new status update to begin the contest. It will be on YOU to leave a comment with your place of finish in this new status update. I'll scroll through the comments after I bust the tournament and record all of the screen names that finished better than I did and they will be entered into the draw.

Hopefully this will be a lot of fun and motivating for everyone...might I remind you that last year one last longer winner went on to make a super deep run in the Main Event and cashed for around $4,000! The bar is set pretty high but maybe another winner will make a deep run again this year...

gl at the tables!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Getting Better-October Review

Alright, October is officially in the books! The month went by super fast for me and was action packed due to Thanksgiving, my birthday, Team Pro Online week, YouTube video making (check out my channel for multiple HOTW vids as well as a strat video ft. Nanonoko), PSO coaching, as well as the usual off-table activities that are on my schedule. It ended up being a pretty low volume month at the tables for me...not exactly what I was intending or hoping for but all things considered I'm pleased with my effort. I also spent a ton of hours away from the tables working to improve my game and especially in that department, I'm very pleased with the progress that I made in October.

As far as improving my game goes, I'm mainly just trying to miss less spots that come up regularly-something that can be easy to do when you're playing a lot of tables. Also, I'm more focused on trying to determine the best play for my overall range in a given spot rather than just playing each hand in a vacuum-unless I'm up against a weaker or obviously exploitable player. All in all, I still want to keep getting better and I think it's important even for winning players to keep your mind sharp by trying to continually improve your game.
 
 Alright, here's the breakdown for October:



I ended up running pretty well (obviously well in terms of EV, although I could post a dozen hands where I was set under set etc.) so I'll take that, especially over a small sample size. You'll notice most of my volume was just at 100nl in October, where I posted what I would say is a largely unsustainable winrate of 5.64 bb/100.

October:

1,894 table winnings
439    FPP value
----------------------------

$2,333 USD

Add in a bit of salary/coaching and exchange and I banked around $3,300 CAD in October. Obviously that 100K goal is looking pretty far off at this point lol but I'm going to try and get as close as I can by the end of the year!

I'm expecting November to be a relatively high volume month for me as I'm determined to log more hours at the tables and my schedule is crystal clear, unlike October. The Micro Millions is coming up and once again I'm going to try and make a run for the top of the leaderboard...I always enjoy the challenge and even though it can be very gruelling after a few days, I still find it fun. Also, I will be doing some more last longer promotions for my followers (with a bit of a twist this time) so stay tuned for that! I can tell you that there will be more MM Main Event tickets up for grabs and might I remind you that one of my ticket winners last time cashed in the ME for around $4k lol. As mentioned, details coming soon...


I suited up (or suited down?) as Clark Kent last night for Halloween and headed downtown with my girlfriend and friends to celebrate Halloween. I hadn't been out to a club for the longest time and honestly, I really don't feel like I'm missing much. I'm not sure how single frosty used to put up with the crowds, the lines, the noise but I guess he was more of a campus bar type guy anyways. Nonetheless, I'm a big fan of costume parties no matter where they're at and managed to have a good time throwing some shapes and then knocked back a few after seeing Wonder Woman cheating on me with Spiderman on the dance floor. My actual gf was dressed as a boxer and at one point in the night she ran into some dude that was also dressed as a boxer and a mock fight broke out. People went crazy for it and started pulling out their phones to film it...I'm not really sure why everyone was so excited but they were. She was also forced to fist-pump everyone that made eye contact with her as they went by-I guess that's the price you pay when you have sweet boxing gloves as part of your costume.

Alright, that's all for now...enjoy the rest of the weekend and I'll catch some of you guys/gals in the Team Online Freeroll tomorrow.

gl at the tables!