Offer - $2.50 180 man Stars Tournaments (Apply Within)

[Fatcatstu]

I dont have a clue what one would look like dave.

In this particular hand, I dont see people limping and calling off for their lives much at this stage in these. Granted i would have prefered a more suited connected type hand to do it with, but honestly couldnt see a call coming at all and it put me chip lead!!!

In other news, i just came 2nd in my last one of the night, which leaves the bank roll on $417.04.

Today has been an absolute rollercoaster, but feel that I have played really quite well, and am over the moon that I have managed a strong finish to close the day slightly in profit!!


Games played - 80
Games cashed in - 16
Total Profit - $167.04

[Charlie44]

Bit suspicious of Renne473 early limp. Any history of this ?  With 6 still in hand and 2 having shown some strength its a fold for me with such a relatively weak holding. Its ladder,ladder,ladder for me but not very successful at these - so what do I know.

[fatpants]

All pretty standard bar the 7-8 and a-5,  both folds pre for me dont think your ever in good shape with these 2 and you have enough chips to not have to get involved just let!  Enjoying the thread keep the updates coming and gl!

[Fatcatstu]

There had been very little limping from either if these 2 do far, it was all raise raise raise, so I read it as total weakness on their part and thought there was little chance of me getting called. If there is a raise from either then I muck fairly quickly!! As it was, they both played ball and folded and I was chip leader

The 78 hand was just a brain fart on my behalf!!

The ladders in these are tiny until you make FT, with no jump from 27_19 then 18-10, so making final tables with chips is always the way to go IMO unless someone cares to tell me different?

[AAroddersAA]

The A5 hand is likely to be OK tbh Stu, it is player dependent though and here is where we use our HUD, I would check their VP$IP against PFR before doing this but if they were players inclined to limp wide then it is an OK play. I tend to colour code players who will limp fold so I can shove marginal hands in LP in pots when they have limped in as I am super +cEV in those spots. Even if you get called you are going to be at least 30% and you will get lot"s of folds in these games. The HUD also has a stat for this.

I do get the concern with this play as well. The problem is when you get called you are usually getting called by pairs and better aces so are rarely in good shape. I would prefer this if it was done from the BB as my main concern would be the people still to act behind me. I would also be a bit concerned if a player who often raises suddenly wants to limp UTG unless the HUD gave me a reason to thing shoving would be +EV. This play actually works better in $4.50"s btw.

Do you have charts for shove/fold decisions?
Ray Norton was crushing these games at higher stakes using one.
He"s acknowledged as a master and yet even he has just had an awful downswing and gone bust.

Yeah, he might even be the best in the world at these games. He sold a stake in these on Blonde at 70/30 in his favour and I am disappointed I missed it as I would have snap invested, that was quite literally free money. I would suggest anybody who plays the $8 games try to avoid him.

This shows how swingy these games can be. At this level though it is harder downswing much more than 200BI due to the sheer amount of fish in the games. It is possible though.

The main difference though is he is a pro player that needs to make money to make his living. I don"t think he had an "awful downswing" as such though just a standard one? He was not winning enough basically and he just needed living money so chose to get staked for a while, a fairly standard thing for a pro to do?

[pokerpops]

From Ray"s diary 27 August

Currently going through my worst ever downswing ainec, would say maybe 3x as bad as any other downswing I"ve been through, and that"s probably massively understating it; Stars just won"t let me win. It"s pretty ironic as for the first time this year I"m actually working hard, in the last 6 weeks or so I"ve played over 5k games, and I"m down 5k. It"s pretty hard to produce those kind of numbers without there being major problems but I"m certain it"s just the most ridic run bad possible, I"m studying hard and have found no leaks, I know my ranges are solid, I just don"t win showdowns. To put those numbers into some kind of perspective, before this I had numerous sessions were I couldn"t lose, it was a joke how hard I was crushing it. Also my figures for the year inclusive of the 35s have me still winning at over $2 per game for the year, take out the 35s though and my figures are starting to look pretty ropey. As I said to James though, before this downswing started my figures for my own games showed me as the greatest, taking the past two months it"d seem I"m the absolute worst, I"m pretty confident I"m not the worst and have never thought I was the greatest.

One thing is for sure, when I do get through this and start crushing again it will be by far my greatest achievement in poker to date, and I"d say I"ve done pretty well but jesus this is testing me to the max. Another thing that I 100% gte I will stick to is this; If when I do start to crush again and once I have a few spare $"s again, if I then proceed to set fire to it acting like a ***** and not working hard and find myself back on the brink of busto I will quit the game for good. I think most of us who do this for a living probably underestimate the mental stress this is taking on us when it"s like this and I"m not going to allow myself to keep putting myself through it, I"m making it to hard for myself.

[Charlie44]

The ladders in these are tiny until you make FT, with no jump from 27_19 then 18-10, so making final tables with chips is always the way to go IMO unless someone cares to tell me different?

Sorry Stu thought it was the final table. Assuming its a 180 tourney, looking at chips tacks it looks as if now down to 14/15 and you have bigger than average stack. IMO there are still significant ICM considerations. I still think you need fewer than 6 players left to act in teh hand for it to be $+ev.    

[Fatcatstu]

1 11th cash and one 9th so far tonight, early doors yet though, so hopefully can get another profit banked!!

[Sillbags]

From Ray"s diary 27 August

Currently going through my worst ever downswing ainec, would say maybe 3x as bad as any other downswing I"ve been through, and that"s probably massively understating it; Stars just won"t let me win. It"s pretty ironic as for the first time this year I"m actually working hard, in the last 6 weeks or so I"ve played over 5k games, and I"m down 5k. It"s pretty hard to produce those kind of numbers without there being major problems but I"m certain it"s just the most ridic run bad possible, I"m studying hard and have found no leaks, I know my ranges are solid, I just don"t win showdowns. To put those numbers into some kind of perspective, before this I had numerous sessions were I couldn"t lose, it was a joke how hard I was crushing it. Also my figures for the year inclusive of the 35s have me still winning at over $2 per game for the year, take out the 35s though and my figures are starting to look pretty ropey. As I said to James though, before this downswing started my figures for my own games showed me as the greatest, taking the past two months it"d seem I"m the absolute worst, I"m pretty confident I"m not the worst and have never thought I was the greatest.

One thing is for sure, when I do get through this and start crushing again it will be by far my greatest achievement in poker to date, and I"d say I"ve done pretty well but jesus this is testing me to the max. Another thing that I 100% gte I will stick to is this; If when I do start to crush again and once I have a few spare $"s again, if I then proceed to set fire to it acting like a ***** and not working hard and find myself back on the brink of busto I will quit the game for good. I think most of us who do this for a living probably underestimate the mental stress this is taking on us when it"s like this and I"m not going to allow myself to keep putting myself through it, I"m making it to hard for myself.

Sad to see Ray running so bad.  I remember at UKIPT Nottingham sharing a sick starting table with Ray, Luke Fields (LFmagic) and John Eames

[Fatcatstu]

So, little 10 game session ended there, and an ok one, but frustrating as hell at the same time.

cashed in 4/10 games, which i am over the moon with.

2 FT"s (4th and 9th)
11th and a 16th.

So so so soooooooo close to another big hit there, gutted, especially in the 4th placed one, where the following happened to scupper our hopes.

PokerStars Hand #103754041801: Tournament #784506219, $2.28+$0.22 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XVII (1500/3000) - 2013/09/06 19:47:23 WET [2013/09/06 14:47:23 ET]
Table "784506219 4" 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 3: njes2 (30246 in chips)
Seat 4: jakakintok (74663 in chips)
Seat 5: fatcatstu (62318 in chips)
Seat 8: seinfeld1988 (28623 in chips)
Seat 9: chupacabra78 (74150 in chips)
njes2: posts the ante 300
jakakintok: posts the ante 300
fatcatstu: posts the ante 300
seinfeld1988: posts the ante 300
chupacabra78: posts the ante 300
seinfeld1988: posts small blind 1500
chupacabra78: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to fatcatstu [ ]
njes2: folds
jakakintok: folds
fatcatstu: raises 3000 to 6000
seinfeld1988: raises 22323 to 28323 and is all-in
chupacabra78: folds
fatcatstu: calls 22323
*** FLOP *** [ ]
*** TURN *** [ ] []
*** RIVER *** [ ] [Tc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
seinfeld1988: shows [ ] (two pair, Queens and Sevens)
fatcatstu: shows [ ] (a pair of Sevens)
seinfeld1988 collected 61146 from pot


bankroll now stands at $426.33 and i cant help but think that it could (and should) have been a damn sight more!!!

Still will take a 40ITM stat i think

Again, want to say thanks to Rodders for the chance to play these, i am really enjoying myself, and it is bringing my game on fantastically I feel, in particular the mental side of it. I havent tilted once yet, i just keep on grinding and grinding.

Off to get some food then i might fire up a few more.

[Fatcatstu]

So before this session starts,

games played 90
cashes 20
bankroll $426.33
Profit $176.33

[Fatcatstu]

Well that was rubbish! A bit furious with myself tbh.

Played 8 then forced myself to stop as Im far too tired, which if Im honest, I knew before I started. Shouldnt have bothered regging as my brain wasnt fully in it and it was just wasting money, which has result in my first losing session/day of the stake, and it could have easily have been avoided.

Muppet.

Roll stands at $406.33.

Sigh.

[AAroddersAA]

Well that was rubbish! A bit furious with myself tbh.

Played 8 then forced myself to stop as Im far too tired, which if Im honest, I knew before I started. Shouldnt have bothered regging as my brain wasnt fully in it and it was just wasting money, which has result in my first losing session/day of the stake, and it could have easily have been avoided.

Muppet.

Roll stands at $406.33.

Sigh.

Minor error mate, nothing wrong with trying to ride the rush, you regcognised it and stopped that is what matter. Still doing great don"t forget that.

[Fatcatstu]

Right!!!

Time to put right last nights asshattery!!!

LEGGOOOOOOOOO

starting roll $406.33

[Fatcatstu]

BOOOOOM 2nd hand of the tourny...

PokerStars Hand #103795778263: Tournament #784968108, $2.28+$0.22 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2013/09/07 18:47:37 WET [2013/09/07 13:47:37 ET]
Table "784968108 17" 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: BigBadFishy (1440 in chips)
Seat 2: BeBiBoi72 (1440 in chips)
Seat 3: fatcatstu (1440 in chips)
Seat 4: philhell24 (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: realaxmon (1680 in chips)
Seat 6: fcmaj4 (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: sit&goplayer (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: dos-circus (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: fasfasis (1500 in chips)
fatcatstu: posts small blind 10
philhell24: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to fatcatstu [ ]
realaxmon: folds
fcmaj4: raises 40 to 60
sit&goplayer: folds
dos-circus: calls 60
fasfasis: folds
BigBadFishy: folds
BeBiBoi72: folds
fatcatstu: raises 1380 to 1440 and is all-in
philhell24: folds
fcmaj4: folds
dos-circus: calls 1380
*** FLOP *** [ ]
*** TURN *** [ ] []
*** RIVER *** [ ] []
*** SHOW DOWN ***
fatcatstu: shows [ ] (a pair of Jacks)
dos-circus: shows [ ] (high card Ace)
fatcatstu collected 2960 from pot