Day 324 – The Golden SNG

On the odd occasion Pokerstars runs a Golden Sit and Go promotion which involves the random selection of a SNG in which the entrants receives 5x the tournament buy-in, also additional money is added to the prize pool. Allot of regs get excited about this promotion as it attracts more recreational players to the SNG game format and also provides a nice bankroll boost should you get placed in a Golden SNG. Some regs get so excited they post youtube videos about the promotion.

Golden Sit & Go’s are back Dec. 02-08 & @Katie_Dozier can’t wait to get her golden ticket! psta.rs/1dELd7E.

I was lucky enough to be placed in a Golden SNG which I was stoked about.

The SNG played out like a normal 45 man would until I got close to the money bubble. It was a dream everyone was playing so tight and it allowed me to steal the blinds and antes super wide and also re-steal from the regs a little wider than usual. I managed to get HU and got my 55 in against ATo with similar size stacks. Unfortunately he hit an A on the river and I placed 2nd but it was a great boost to my role and now Ive finally broken through the 1K mark for the challenge.

The 3.50 45 mans have been going well. Its a little harder to steal blinds as the average opponent is more willing to defend wider than they would at the 1.50’s but I was able to adjust to this by tightening my min raise range, widening my open shoving range. Also Ive done some work with the Holdem Resources Calculator, which I think is an awesome program, on ranges that I should be 3bet shoving from the blinds when facing a steal attempt from a regular or players with TAG or LAG stats. Ive also found the average field is made up of more tight passive and TAG players than the 1.50’s which has meant that there is allot less limping and allot more cbetting. This has required me to adjust by floating allot more in position and paying closer attention to the player type and board texture when facing a cbet.

Going forward the plan is to make 200 BI’s or $1400 at the 3.50’s before moving onto the $7 tournaments, which Im hoping will take my around 10 weeks should I stick to my volume plan over this time period. The challenge will be over before I make it to this stake but thats all good. For me the challenge has been about developing as a poker player and I have certainly come along way.

Day 314 – Unlocking the Micro’s

The challenge has been going very well since my last blog. I finally reached my goal of moving up in stakes to the $3.50 45 mans having grinded up 100 BI’s by playing the $1.50’s. Ive also added another 2 tables going from 6 to 8 tabling which has dramatically increased the volume I’m able to put in per session. Ive also been working on my playing stamina and am now able to play up to 8 hours while still maintaining a good quality of play. All of these factors combined has resulted in $$$.

I believe I can contribute my recent success to one factor, engaging a poker coach.

Up until the end of October my game was struggling. I wasn’t beating even the smallest games and cause I wasnt winning, I wasn’t motivated to play and therefore my daily volume was very low. What made the whole experience even more demoralizing was the fact that I was dedicating a lot of time and resources studying game theory which just wasn’t paying off. I could explain the maths behind ICM, calculate the reverse implied odds of drawing to the low end of a straight or even construct a shove/fold chart based on the population tendencies of my opponents. However I couldn’t even consistently beat the $0.50 45 man turbo’s.  Below is my graph from the beginning of March till mid October.

1st March till 23rd October

Then along can Mr Alex O’Neil aka Bazookadub aka Dr_Wonderful. Alex is a mid stakes poker pro who also provides coaching to micro stakes player wishing to move up to the mid stakes. I got in contact with Alex after a follower of this blog suggested that it may be beneficial to get some coaching. After my first session of tutoring, the theories I had spent so much time studying started to make allot more sense in the context of the games I was playing. And then something went ‘click’. I was taught some standard lines that resolved a number of spots I was struggling with, discovered how to become more self sufficient in productively analyzing my play to find and resolve leaks and also developed a solid meta game strategy tailored for the specific tournament I was playing. I could go on and on about how productive these tutorial sessions have been however I may just let the results speak for themselves. Below are my results since I started receiving coaching from Alex.

Results to date since receiving coaching

So my advice is if your struggling with the games at the lower stakes and cant work out what it is your doing wrong. Get a coach. No game analysis program or training website can substitute for the quality of teaching a good poker coach can give.

If you wish to get in contact with Alex regarding coaching you can contact him via email at bazookadub@gmail.com

He offers great rates at only $25 per hour and if you mention that you heard about him via this blog he will give you a 10% discount when you pre-book 5 hours in advance.

anyways guys I gotta go crush the $3.50’s GL at the tables 🙂