So it's been the first week of my 180-player grind and it's been an indifferent start. It's not completely unexpected since I haven't been in full online grind mode for about nine months. Just like any specific discipline just knowing how to do something or having done it before doesn't make up for being active and in the routine.
Just to digress I am also experiencing the same rusty performance with my running at the moment. Due to my recent trip to Vegas and other commitments I haven't done The Bay Run (a 7km circuit around Iron Cove in Sydney) for about 5 weeks and needless to say I am very sore today after yesterday's run.
Back to the poker - I have been quite happy with my overall play this week and my discipline with no moments where I was affected by tilt. This was re-assuring as this was a very tough week even for any seasoned player in my shoes - the bad beats were frequent & horrific and a huge number of times when I either approached the bubble or was in the money I would see my over pair all in preflop lose to a smaller pair - that's poker! However as the week progressed my results got better as I made a couple of important adjustments.
As I outlined in my previous blog I aim to play four separate sessions over four nights a week with each session lasting 3-4 hours. Initially I focused too heavily on volume, six-tabling and reloading tables continuously. Over the first three night's I played a little too much in autopilot mode and found myself in the 10BBs zone far too often by passively blinding down. On the fourth night I focused on playing less games simultaneously moving down to four-tabling with continuous reloading.
The payout structure for the $2.50 ($2.28 + $0.22) 180-player SnGs is as follows:
1st: $123.19, 2nd: $82.08, 3rd: $32.83, 4th: $32.83, 5th: $26.67
6th: $20.52, 7th: $14.36, 8th: $10.67, 9th: $6.97, 10th-18th: $4.92
The payout structure suggests the requirement to play outright for 1st place in order to make a profit in the long term. This doesn't mean going crazy from the get go however its important to play big hands fast and not just sit back and try to survive in the mid stages. It is also important to not be afraid of coin flips in the later stages. Usually the difference in a good week vs bad week is the result of these late stage coin flips.
Here is the summary of my 180-player SnGs session this week:
Session 1: 14 played, Placed: 1 (11th), Prizes: $4.92
Session 2: 33 played, Placed: 1 (11th), Prizes: $4.92
Session 3: 30 played, Placed: 4 (6th, 9th, 11th, 11th), Prizes: $37.33
Session 4: 18 played, Placed: 4 (9th, 11th, 15th, 18th), Prizes: $21.73
I was very happy with playing 95 tournaments for the week and although I finished 62 buy-ins down there is no substitue for playing as many hands of poker as possible. This is nothing to write home about but also nothing out of the ordinary as a downswing - after all there is a reason 200 buy-ins are recommended for 180 player tournaments.
The main take away for me over the week was to reduce my volume down to 4-tabling so I could focus more on critical decisions and attack much more aggressively and frequently with a 20BB stack. These two adjustments certainly attributed to the improving results and something I will need to continue through the coming weeks.
As a refresher to any player wishing to get a quick summary of how to handle stack sizes and the different MTT concepts I like to review from time to time Bond18's excellent guide Things it Took Me a While to Learn. I also like to review this when on a downswing or when I feel I am just not playing well.
So what's next? I might be down 62 buy-ins but I still have plenty left and if the trend of improvement continues I might have a better week coming up. Oh and of course I will also need to continue my running regime on the Bay Run...
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