Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:17 pm Post subject: Re: Diary of an online comeback...?
hackett wrote:
Pizzi - How does your staking agreement work in terms of volume required?
I assume Saturdays & Sundays are stipulated, but is the agreement fairly flexible for the remainder of the week as long as a volume target is hit - Or it is simply, play when you feel like it.
Also your range of MTT buy ins goes from $2r - $215 and beyond - When multi tabling 10 or 15 tables it must be too easy to make a mistake as the strategy of the differing tourneys will be vastly different.
Last question - Of all the MTT's on Stars which IYO offers the best value week after week.
I don't actually have any volume requirements on my staking agreement. Volume was only briefly discussed during 'interview' as my history clearly shows that I am capable of playing enough to satisfy most backers. I believe I said that I would be aiming for 500 - 600 MTT a month and I have been comfortably surpassing that. As for the rest of it, I play when I want and for however long I want though I do make sure to let him know if I am not gonna be around for a couple of days out of courtesy.
As for effectively multitabling I have a few things that I do to help me reduce mistakes. My current favoured setup is to have 2 cascades side by side on my monitor (22" widescreen). I have a couple of ways I arrange the tables within those cascades depending on how many tables I have/am likely to have open and if I am running a 'normal' or 'top heavy' buyin session.
Normally I just make sure the tournaments that have been running the longest stay at the top of the cascade so I know if an extra half second of thought is a good idea before acting based on cascade position. If I am running a 'top heavy' buyin session I sometimes group the higher buyin stuff on one side (usually the right) while keeping my more midstakes on the other side. If I am playing a more mixed session of MTT's and 180 man turbo SnGo I either go with SnGo on the right and MTT on the left or MTT's in normal cascades with a stack of SnGo on the bottom right of my screen...
All this said and done, I still make mistakes, my most common mistake being in the first few levels of turbos opening hands that that are fine in longer structured tournaments but have limited value in turbo mtt (ie 78suited from MP1 etc)
Your last question is quite possibly the hardest to answer as it really depends on what your good at and what level of variance your willing to accept to gain access to the value. If you had to hold me to one MTT I think it would probably be The Big 22 @ 5pm English time though there are several other mtt's within an 'nth' of it... I do think though that if you have the time available, the $22 Deepstack at 1:15pm deserves a special mention as a great structured deepstack that 'only' takes about 10 hours to win and in general is as soft as a bag of Flumps
Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 7:23 pm Post subject: Re: Diary of an online comeback...?
And now the play update for the last week...
Overall this week I have kinda slacked... I have had trouble sleeping again and that has been reflected in my volume. I pretty much spent Monday and Wednesday watching my Sunday gains shrivel up and die like a rose in the snow. That in itself isnt upsetting, the upsetting part is that I didn't feel like I had generated any equity though I am sure I must have gotten it in good a few times at least lol
While I don't like being results based my continued run of suckiness in The Big 109 continued (my highest daily buyin) and is starting to get a tad annoying. While I know that the tournament doesn't have a personality or anything humanitarian about it, I am sure it hates me as its a rare day I can make the antes with having AA or KK cracked for all the money aipf (usually for a 4x stack or more).
Anyway.. Moving onto happier times...
Thursday... So I actually got some sleep the night before thanks to a sneaky sleeping pill and woke up at 1:40pm. I stumbled down the stairs in my usual semi stupor expecting to be greeted by my other half instead of an empty room. I then remembered that she had said she had things to do so I trundled off to the kitchen to get the laptop turned on and start firing tables up.
Houston... We have a problem... (and not a crack problem fyi)
Awaiting my presence was a little note with the dreaded words... 'Babe can you do the washing up for me please... love you xxx'
Cue the inner turmoil... Do I do the washing up and miss several of the better tournaments (15 mins left of late reg in the $11r, $11r action hour halfway through the 'action' and mtt hypers and 6max turbos starting in 15 mins) I am likely to play that day or do I incur the wrath of a ginger mother who wants to get in and feed her offspring with minimum fuss?
She calmed down after I showed her the $2k win from the $11r action hour 6 hours later with the $1.4k gained from the 9:15pm $25 hyper ft fail getting a grudging acceptance...
Friday I managed another action hour FT (evening version) but busting in 6th after coming in with a huge chiplead and losing every 'sigh coinflip' thereafter meaning a slightly profitable day vs a hoped for +$3.5k day...
Saturday was pretty sigh as well with a couple of deepish runs (Splash and big 11) which came to nought and a $700ish or so loss for the day...
And so we arrive at another Funday Sunday...
Quite frankly it started out so badly I was almost ready to monkey shove the 4 tables I had left at 9:30 pm just to bring an end to the pain. Usual Sunday madness happening and I have to admit I really wasn't up for it. However I gave myself a stern talking to, manned up and re-registered the tournaments I had unregged from and regged a whole bunch of new ones to boot...
A few hours later I am sat there with 3 tables (on being the late $1r 3x turbo) feeling like a complete chump but starting to feel a glimmer of hope for the 3 tables I had left were starting to show promise of actually having a chance... It was actually starting to get fun as well because all 3 tournaments have a metric **** of chips in them and weilding 3 T$1m+ stacks at the same time is always good for the ego ($1m chips in the $1r 3x is probably equivalently close to 40k in a standard freezeout but who cares! lol).
I busted the $1r thing after a while but wasnt too upset about losing the variance bomb as I was really starting to get hopeful in the 2 remaining tables, The Bigger 11 and the $11r $70K Gtd. Then I had a really interesting hand which went as follows...
CBorders is 2+2 reg who I have sorta/vaguely known for a while. He isn't the best online player in the world but does have a reasonably solid understanding of poker. We have been on the table together for approximately 2 or 3 orbits during which time I have 3bet him three times and called in position once iirc. This is also the 4th hand in a row that he has opened...
This is one of those hands where the first real bet is actually the 4bet because we both know that the other is aware and capable of raising with air (and has been doing so) and the extra dynamic of this being his 4th open in a row. All that combined made the decision to 5bet rather than call much easier as by doing that I still kept bluffs in my range whereas I am almost never gonna cold call a '4bet' with air and these stack sizes to try and take it away on the flop or turn etc. My sizing was also an important part of this because I had to ensure I didnt appear over committed to the hand while ensuring any further action meant that any further action by him priced him in regardless of holding...
Anyway... Just realised how much time I have spent on this post so I kinda need to wrap it up (semi) quickly...
Overall I think I played very well in these 2 tournaments and I did make a mistake hu (stack size error) in the $11r which may or may not have cost me the chance of victory there.
I also ran pretty cold from 18 - 12 left in the bigger 11 and had to make a hero comeback from 6bb after having AJ < A7 for 100b or so but managed to come into the ft 2/9 which pleased me greatly as the overwhelming CL was 4 to my left. That was the end of good news for a while tho as the guy on my immediate left got busted pretty quick and the guy 3 to my left went not long after leaving all the chips on the table in the 2 seats on my direct left with everyone else having 10bb or less... The ft turned into an icm minefield with grenades being lobbed in every 3rd hand or so...
Thankfully I managed to somehow find myself heads up though with a 5/1 chip deficit and managed to pull out a win after getting there with K3 > Ax to get back into contention and managed to close it 2 awesome ( 88 > 55 aipf and TT > Q5 on 854 flop) hands later
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 5:12 pm Post subject: Re: Diary of an online comeback...?
Pizzicato wrote:
Good to see your alive and well mate
How you been keeping?
Not too bad mate, just riding this roller coaster, you know how it is. What about yourself? Easing yourself into living with a lady I see, haha. _________________ http://poker-den.blogspot.com
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:27 pm Post subject: Re: Diary of an online comeback...?
Congrats on last Sunday's results and nice bet sizing with the AA above. However I wonder why you are agreeing to be staked. It looks like a very expensive piece of insurance and with your current ABI and edge over the games in your schedule you don't need a massive bankroll (300 buy-ins @ $25 is $7.5k).
Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 6:25 pm Post subject: Re: Diary of an online comeback...?
evelyn wrote:
Congrats on last Sunday's results and nice bet sizing with the AA above. However I wonder why you are agreeing to be staked. It looks like a very expensive piece of insurance and with your current ABI and edge over the games in your schedule you don't need a massive bankroll (300 buy-ins @ $25 is $7.5k).
Yeah its a question I have been asking myself alot recently as well...
I do need a larger bankroll than $7.5K though as I am pretty swingy with the volume I do etc. For instance on a hard grind day I can play 70 - 100 MTT's and while bricking those sessions completely is unusual they are certainly easily possible. I think for the way I play with volume etc a comfortable bankroll would actually be alot closer to $15K - $20K though I could play higher stakes tournaments without a huge increase in BR over that.
Over the last 9 months or so I have struggled to make much income from poker and BF related events obviously took its toll as well. My personal finances suffered considerably so its been especially pleasing to have the big sunday. Now personal finances are in a much better shape again I can look to building my own br again with a view to getting on my own dime sooner rather than later but will still take a little time due to being staked etc.
Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 2:25 am Post subject: Re: Diary of an online comeback...?
So it seems like a reasonable time to make a small update to this...
The last week has basically turned into a slack week playing wise...
Its very rare I play on Mondays as I really like to have that as my 'guaranteed' day off from playing (occasionally if I have been slacking alot I play tho) and this week was no different... Its nice to have the chance to catch up on sleep (especially after a long weekend and hard Sunday grind) and take some mental down time. I had a pretty tired day off as Sunday had been a super long night and I only got 4 hours sleep or so before being woken up by workmen next door /sigh but managed a decent nights sleep on Monday night to leave me raring for a good Tuesday...
Started the grind nice and early Tuesday morning and didn't run great but built a couple of nice stacks I had good promise in. Tuesday afternoon at 3pm isnt the usual time where Stars servers randomly decide to take a dump and read the paper for a couple of hours but that day proved to be the exception. The way in which the crash happened was pretty brutal as well as it appeard only half the servers were non operational which led to a complete clusterfuck which in honesty didn't reflect well on the company.
The refunds when they came werent exactly ideal but a follow up email with more refunds helped rectify some of the issues I had with the original refunds. I do think overall Stars could perform a little more damage control/public relations following events like these as well. I think to get a list of everyone that was playing at the time of the problems and send a specific email (aside from the automatic refund emails which follow up to 48 hours after crash) out to those players saying sorry, refunds are being processed and maybe some explanation as to what occurred (ie more than 'we had technical problems') would involve players more with the business/brand as lets face it, its pretty amazing seeing numbers like 200K players online on a Sunday (when these instances happen more often due to insane field sizes) and everyone with an inquiring kind of mind (ie alot of poker players) is gonna be aware of and/or interested in the infrastructure needed to make everything happen. The fact that Stars even has the ability to make everything run relatively smoothly (obv with occasional hiccups) is pretty bragworthy in itself and they could be celebrated on a technical level as well as everything else.
Anyway having digressed enough...
I decided to continue playing after the crash which ended up going about as well as the first session but without the promising stacks emerging... Wednesday went alot better but was ultimately dissappointing after only regging a very short session but managing to virtually FT bubble the $22 cubed with $10K for first (77 < AJ for 2nd place chips). I did generate alot of equity though and while I got lucky in some spots I felt that I played very well...
Thursday was a different day than usual... I decided to take a trip up to Dusk til Dawn and get a little feeling back for live play as I am playing a few liveaments soon and I wanted to get a few hours under my belt...
Short version of the story...
Sat down at .50/1 and 30 minutes later lost £150ish with QQ vs AA on K59K2 board...
Reload and win about £140 back
Randomly decide to late reg and play the £56 £5K Gtd comp which also anded up overlaying
Busted in last 2/3 tables
Sat down at 1/2 cash with £600 and worked way up to about £900
Doubled Simon Deadman up after shoving missed world draw on river and him hero calling with 3rd pair semi shit kicker
Topped up a bit
Won a £400 pot from an already tilted Pete Linton with 42. Wasn't gonna show it until Simon called the hand and I couldnt resist any more so showed it to the chorus of laughs and resulting jokes.
Played huge pot with the afore mentioned Mr Linton where I basically jammed over his 3 barrels on the turn with an open ended straight and accidentally slowrolled his set when my straight binked on the river...
That pretty much rounds up a trip report in swift style lol
Friday I was due to go to the Alea with a friend to catch up with everyone there. My mate let me down at the last minute but I went anyway as it was good to catch up with the crew there who are a great laugh. I went with the aim on playing the tournament just long enough that I wasn't hanging round waiting for cash game to start. I failed. Its nice to get my second cash on the THM database though, especially it being a win for £750 so it coulda worked out a whole lot worse lol
Tonight I had a night out at the pub with the lovely MissPizzi while her fosterdad and his daughter sang country and western songs and I am feeling ready to get up and have another epic sunday tomorrow...
Joined: 12 May 2010 Posts: 2820 Location: nil fhios agam
Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 3:54 am Post subject: Re: Diary of an online comeback...?
Great read and WD on 2nd database!
Ms Pizzi please convince the cake-meister to send in a photo of the cake for his database entry
To me, the stars shutdown paragraph seems almost like an unresolved though quite civilized debate with yourself. I didn't quite suss whether it was overall 'they really should improve' or not. Granted, stars seem to be the only site going for high volume regs like you* but I think we all hope the future holds more competition in tournaments, guarantees and player fields available and so I'd like to know how you think the situation should've been handled ideally.
* is this right?
As for Sunday - make us all wish we had a %!
edit: p.s. hopefully you just fell asleep with the site open but just in case: go to sleep so you're well rested tommorrow! _________________ "I find it's best to start the day with no composure and then you've got nothing to lose." B. Boatman
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
We use cookies to make your experience on our website better. To comply with the new e-Privacy Directive, we need to let you know about this. By using our site with cookies enabled in your browser, you agree to their use. You can read more about this on the cookie information page. You can hide this message.
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
