MTT Low Stakes Grind Journal

So from the last tourney...

Although I was very pleased to find a lot of 'any two' spots, I got a bit trigger happy in some scenarios. An example of a good 'any two' was here:

The reason why this spot is amazing for shoving any two is because of the tiny stack behind me - the two middling stacks should be playing extremely tight in order to not blunder an almost guaranteed jump in pay from the short stack eventually busting.

However a not-so-good spot was the following:

The shortest stack is in the BB, and so he will be incentivised to call as he is being forced to make a move at some point. Being able to call with no action behind is great for him.

So my main takeaway from this tourney is: keep an eye out for the 'any two' spots, but reevaluate after each hand. Table dynamic can shift after a single change in stack sizes, and so going all in with any two in one spot might not be good in the next. The biggest factor for deciding whether to shove wide or not as the big stack is where the position of the shortest stack is. If they're in the BB, it's often not great, as they're more incentivised to call.

BANG!

Wrapping up the night, and what better way to do it with a beautiful 1st place finish out of 871 in the $2 Daily Turbo!

Managed to go from starting 5th on the FT to building up a dominant big stack, which dwindled a little bit, and after going heads up fairly even I managed to pull through with some good play.

Feeling really confident in my ability lately! Will analyse a lot of spots from this tourney tomorrow and probably post a few here.

Yesterday's update...

BR standing: $1, 629.86
Daily change: +$132.24

The sun run continues, and the bankroll continues to grow. The win in the $2 Daily Turbo was massively needed to recoup a lot of fired bullets from yesterday. Managed to get a few deepish runs, but only the one final table.

Was very close to satelliting into both The Weekender and GGMasters, however just got a bit unlucky (lost with QQ vs AKs in The Weekender after getting it all in pre).

I'm going to be taking a step back from playing for roughly 3 weeks since I'll be staying in a country where GGPoker does not have a licence to operate. In this time, I'll continue to study by predominantly watching youtube videos, and reading forums.

To try and keep my engagement up, if I watch / read anything interesting, I'll link it here and give any thoughts of mine 😀

Thinking of buying a 1 month subscription to GTO Wizard to play around with it and do a bunch of drills whilst away.

I think it'll be roughly $50, and this is something I'd be happy to take out of my bankroll.

I'll sleep on it tonight and decide tomorrow.

So today I decided to buy 1 month of the starter tier for GTO Wizard's MTT subscription.

I've already given the drill feature a go, and I'm loving it already. Very reminiscent of the times when I used to grind puzzles on chess.com.

So far, I've created two of my own drills, titled 'EP Deep Stack cEV MTT' and 'EP Middling Stack cEV MTT'

I'm planning on creating my own drills for each combo of position (EP, MP, LP) and stack size (Deep, Middling, Short, Tiny) in order to practice each variation of position individually, to refine my study.

Apparently there's quite a few good lessons on the app as well, so I'll see if I can find them and give them a spin.

If anyone has got any tips + good resources from GTOW, then feel free to let me know about them here! 😀

The conservative bankroll strategy is admirable! Are you on a morning/day UK schedule? And have you stuck to late-regging throughout and that is the plan going forward as well? (max or x BB?)

Hey Stapes, appreciate the comment!

Yeah I'm from the UK - usually have a slowish morning and start playing, break around lunch and grind till late evening.

I have stuck to late-regging throughout and shall be my plan going forward. I've read a fair bit around the topic and given the ICM implications of buying in late, I've decided it's a good strategy that I'll continue to implement. Although this means my variance will be a lot higher than others, my conservative bankroll strategy helps to mitigate downswings.

I used to buy in at around 20-15bb, but now I've shifted to buying in as late as possible (i.e. max).

Umm....

BR standing: $1, 994.04
Daily change: +$364.18

So I've been home for a couple days now. Played literally 2 tournaments yesterday to get back into the groove, and have been grinding today.

Well...

BAAAAAAAANG!!!!!!!

1st of out 905 entries in the $4 Daily Classic. This was the last tournament I started today and in all honesty, I was hoping it was going to end a little bit sooner (almost begging that I lost my flips early on). Suffice to say that once I was nearing the final table, I had to lock in a bit.

Lots of swings in the endgame of this tournament - went into the FT with a big stack, double that of 2nd place.

Went down to a microstack when there was only 4 of us left due to an unfortunate all in pre with JJ, and managed to work my way back to a heads up battle. I'll do lots of analysis of this tournament at the start of tomorrow.

Not only am I back on the grind, but back with a triumphant start. The sun run continues!

An interesting hand I've just played, and I would like some advice on it.

I understand that folding on the river is 'terrible' due to the pot odds, however, I simply don't see how my opponent could be bluffing here.

Everything gets there, and I'm most afraid of my opponent having a K.

If I didn't have the A of hearts, it might've been a different story, as I could justify my opponent having a missed nut flush draw potentially. But other than that, what would they end up with here after betting all 3 streets?

Curious for people's opinions!

Little decent score from just now, nothing too crazy

Although kx could be it, you so under repped that could open up a few more. Surely he thinks you at best have a Qx or missed draw.

So besides the kx
He could have
AQ
Besides the missed draws
He knows you don't have a K

BR standing: $1, 978.75
Daily change: -$15.29

Forgot to do yesterday's round up, but overall ended up a little bit negative. Not the worst, but wasn't paying the most attention whilst playing so I'm going to try and be more focussed from now on.

I still need to review the tournament which I came 1st in a couple days back, and also yesterday's where I came 4th.

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole on a hand where I had 10BB and was dealt AA - my key takeaway from the hand is that sometimes, I need to accept that I 'might' be behind in a hand, but that doesn't mean it's bad to get my money in. Even though I think I might lose more than 50% of the time, when I only need to win 1/6 times, that doesn't matter.

Thanks for your comment amatola. Yep those are all valid statements - I think I just need to call on the river and accept that if they have it, they have it. Given I've under repped my hand, I need to just flick in the call at the end.

A nice run in the Daily Classic $10. Got busted right before FT, I will review whether jamming with KQo there is the right move or not using ICMizer but overall happy with how I've played.

Currently sitting in 2 more FTs, one which will end soon I imagine for me, and another which I am starting off as chip leader in!

Great result! Managed to scrape my way into 3rd in the Daily Turbo Deepstack $10.

Lots of interesting ICM spots to analyse from this one, particularly the battle between me and 4th place to see who would get blinded out first.

BAAAANG!

An amazing result coming 2nd, was hoping for 1st since I had a pretty large chip lead, especially going into heads up, however, sometimes the coin just doesn't flip your way!

Very happy with how I played, especially this hand on the final table which shot my stack up:

BR standing: $2, 350.43
Daily change: +$371.68

Another amazing day yesterday, with the BR continuing to grow, and the heater carrying on.

I haven't been able to put in the volume I've wanted recently, so I'm going to try and bump up the number of tourneys I'm playing. I'll have quite a few tourneys from yesterday to review and if there's any particularly interesting ICM spots, I'll post them here.

BR standing: $2, 315.18
Daily change: -$35.25

Nothing crazy to report yesterday, played a bit but not much happened.

Played at my local £12 tournament and came 2nd for £75 which was a solid result on the other hand! Was quite an easy 2nd - there was 4 of us left on the final table, and on one hand, all 3 of my opponents went all in! I was loving it.

Solid result! I feel like I got a bit unlucky with my all ins near the end, just getting coolered by worse hands and getting it in bad against better ones. Still, very happy!

Currently reviewing the $10 Daily Turbo tourney I came 2nd in a couple days ago and I've already noticed this hand on the FT whilst reviewing:

These are spots that I should be finding to shove any two. The BB can only call with 99+ here profitably.

An even crazier example from the same tourney is the following:

Everyone's calling ranges after me have to be so tight given that there are 2 short stacks that have folded before me. Hence, I even get to shove any two from this position. Even when I nodelock the BB to include a few more hands to call, I can still shove practically any two apart from hands like 32o - 72o.

I think the month long break from playing has affected my ability to recognise these shoving spots. No concern though, that's why I am reviewing right now! Hopefully now that I've reminded myself of some critical ICM shoving spots, I will be more vigilant in future tournaments, and if I manage to find any spots that I successfully recognise, I'll be sure to post them here to further reinforce this concept.

BR standing: $2, 476.96
Daily change: +$161.78

Another super successful day. Feels like I keep on commenting 'bankroll grows, new time high' etc etc here and I don't want to jinx this hot streak!

Furthermore, I played in my in-person local tourney today and came 1st for £100, great result! I managed to work my way up from having a middling stack on the FT, to being the big stack in 3rd and knocking out my competition.

Since it's the end of the week (and I haven't done this for a long time), let me post my PokerCraft graph for my GGPoker tracking, and my in-person graph:

PokerCraft:

In-person:

My current ROI at my in-person tourneys is quite crazy atm. At the main venue I play at, I'm currently running at 81.47% avg. ROI per bullet!

What a crazy tournament! Started as a MEGA (and I mean MEGA) stack on the FT, somehow dwnidled down to 4th place after losing too many flips (jamming every hand due to ICM pressure), and then managing to claw my way back up to 1st!

Commendable BRM to be playing $3 tourneys on 2.5k bankroll, what is ur average buyin?

Thanks Shuckle! According to PokerCraft, my avg buy in is $2.34 across all the tourneys I've played on GG. I'd now say it's closer to $4 as I mix in $8 and $10 tournaments nowadays, however I play any stake from $0.25 upwards.

My BRM might be a little bit excessive, however I am trying to take my game seriously and ensure that I don't wipe out my balance. I'd say I have this mild 'fear' due to how aggressive I initially was when first playing MTTs, and how I've now read up on BRM articles since.

Let the good times keep on coming! Another very solid victory, applying my concepts of ICM very well on the FT to secure 3rd place. Got unlucky at the end BvB jamming AT into AQ but that's poker Phil!