Name: (AUS) – Variance, Mental Game (Tilt) & Victory: My Poker Journey

Thanks dee I’ve been seen your likes in the occasional post- how are you enjoying the blog so far? Any feedback for improvement

I like it a lot.
Mixing cash/mtts, did a lot of mixing myself this year, but my cash game (main game) results/performance droped significantly so I'm cutting online mtts for next few months...
Not sure if this is a problem for you as mtt is your main game.

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If you really want it... you are the only one who can make it work. I'm very happy with decision to go pro in November 2024.

Congrats on going pro! - I sorta have always played the occasional cash session- but yeah heard specialising is preferred to playing both - I guess I’ll find out if it’s a problem or not moving forward - time to put some work into trying to get better at cash!- thanks for the vote of confidence

You could take your laptop to work and get four mobile phones and play 8 tables of cash games on your smoko breaks. Also get another laptop and hop onto the TAB and bet on the crows.

Sorry for the quietness lads- update in coming - put it this way have slept for 14hrs over 3 different sessions on Friday night Saturday so update will be positive!

The Rest of the Stacked Series to date

So since our last update our cold has gotten better and we have had 3x more sessions done at stacked during the Adelaide poker champs, ill recap all of them quickly!

Monster Stack Monday

So the monster stack Monday was an mtt I wasn't planning on playing. However after my 1st coaching session with a well-known live coach I felt extremely motivated and made my way down to stacked. I spent my 1st bullet whiffing everything and didn't play bad but couldn't make a hand and after 1.5hrs of play eventually blinded down and lost a flip to bust bullet 1!

Bullet 2 didn't go much better, I flopped a boat 1st hand extracted value and was like okay here we go I have a larger chip stack in 1 hand on bullet 2 then I did my whole 1st bullet. 2nd hand I flopped an over pair and made a great fold on 958 after I got x jammed on by the sb and the BB called, so nearly back to SS, I played a good short stack game finding lots of doubles of 10-15bb as the blinds went up but right at the end of rego (15mins away) I found AQ 3bet jammed vs a utg open got called by 77 and somehow a flatter in MP called KTo vs raise flat jam re jam and he called and we lost to both opps on K46 8 2......... Another Flip another lose.

I didn't plan on bullet 3 but the TD and my GF said if you think your playing well and its 30k prize pool for a $350 you should MLR bullet 3. So we did sort we jumped in with 10mins of play before the break and won a couple of small pots and found myself at nearly double SS.
Post break I won an all in AQ vs KQ to be above average, I got in AA vs A7s after we raise we got jammed on for 20bb and we snapped and held and AQ vs A3 and faded a wheel and flush draw on the turn!! - Approaching the bubble we had a big stack before losing AQ vs A7 after getting x/r on A42 by the bb we called and the turn was a 7..... We lost this pot and were a middling stack 2 off the money. Thankfully we found some heat got a couple of jams through picked off a bluff made the money and the FT.... However we finished in 6th place for 2k...
Our bust out hand was funny a reg who has won 2 mtts already this series (he wins this one too) jams on me bvb when we have 7bb we called of A2s and he had 32o..... Flop A45........... I have video was funny but nice to profit on bullet 3!

5 game mix game 1k (limit holdem, O8, stud, limit Omaha and 2-7 triple

As someone who has played a bit of mixed to me this was the main event of the series. I hold Mixed MTTs in high regard. To be the best you need to prove yourself over multi disciplines. As such we really wanted this one. I started great dominated our table in a small field and got to over double SS without too much fuss.
We lost a big cooler in stud with 3mins before late rego, We were in the bring in with a 2 showing with A3 buried 2 to a suit, somehow 3 calls and we got to see 4 street for free, we found a 4, we called a small bet and then on 5th st caught a 5 and played x/r.......... Long story short I then catch club and have 4 clubs to go with our wheel and opp has open JJ with 2 clubs and our other opp has 55 on board.... Long story short on 7th we get x raised from the opp showing JJ with 3 clubs, i find just a call and somehow with us having 4 clubs he has found 5 clubs for a flush.....................

So he was pretty slim in making his flush and he found it...... the other opp had trip 5s- we would of had a monster stack.

However in mixed it’s about being there for your rush and we found it. Post rego we folded down to 3big bets - then we doubled with split KK in stud vs buried 77 and then in 2-7 we made the number 1 and got paid before drawing to an 87 and made it on the 3rd draw to beat a 95, I then hero vs a fish with a made Q (nut draw bricked made a Q) and he lead into me after draw 2 draw 2 draw 2, i called thinking its bluff and sure enough he had a Qhigh flush..........

We made the FT with the chip lead but only top 3 paid, we leant on the small stacks grew our chip lead and got 4 handed, we then lost a few pots to the guy 2nd in chips and he ko the other 2 opps and went into heads up with a 2-1 chip deficit, We started well found the chip lead and was crushing, then it was all over in 16 hands, I had the nut draw 3 out of the 4 hands in 2-7 and lost I made an 87 in the 4th hand and witness my opp draw 2 and find an 86..... - We lost every limit holdem hand, we lost a crazy 08 hand where we flopped a wheel and managed to only get half with our opp going running boat, and in limit Omaha our opp called a 3bet with K854 on suit vs AQKT double suit flop 664 two hearts 1 diamond turn 8 d, we have two flush draws overs etc. and our opp called a bet flop and a x/r turn and a lead on the river when we bricked,,,,,,,,

Anyhow we eventually lost after having a dominating position and had such an equity edge in a lot of hands vs an opp playing his 1st mix game mtt...... I broke my headphones made a dick of myself and overall I was extremely annoyed. I sit here now happy with the 5.1k and my play but i really wish mentally we just do a bit better in dealing with adversity and the swings of not closing out mtts. However another close spot bites the dust...

Main event day 1b

A very cold high wind rainy night in SA saw only 12 runners, we played 1 table all night and 5 handed for 3 hours plus, we got our 50k ss to 220k exact when we got to 3 handed with two levels of play and all 3 players agreed to sit out and just tank out the clock as we all had over 30bb for day 2 (2/3k blind levels one stack of 290k ours at 220k and 14
130k), we sat had a drink talked the shift till 1am and the clock ran out of play. We saw no point in playing 3 handed fighting it out in such a small field but we had to sit there in case someone decided to come and reg the last 2 or last level of the day.

We built our stack by A) 3 betting a bit more an winning lot of small pots on flop or turn B) KO a 20bb stack with AA when the re jam ATs C) KO and opp who re jammed 25bb vs our open on btn in the sb with QJ when we had QQ.

In the end a very easy day 1 and 73bb for day 2 with 150k GTD prize pool. Due to the wild weather it looks like there could be overlay as well!! Hopefully a great day 2 showing

Below are some photos of the fts! I’m extremely happy with my play and the coaching session however I really wish I took coming 2nd a lot better. My reaction was awful; I broke my JBL headphones and made myself look like a real dick in a place i really love playing. Anyhow this will all be part of the improvement.

A very profitable series with a potential big score coming in the main (fingers crossed) I’ll keep you updated!

Main Event Update & Series Conclusion

So the main event has concluded an another series has finished. Lets recap the last event we were in and provide and update as to what is next.

Day 2

We came into day 2 with 220k stack, we had only 30 or so players out of the 124 that played day 1s. With rego still open this eventually got out to 30 players left with 143 runners.
In this time we had 3 bigish spots. We had KK UTG + 1 3bet vs a utg open bet flop on TT5 size up turn on the 6 and river another 6 and jam for value, unfortunately got a 2min tank and fold for huge amount of chips. I doubled up a 10bb stack (this opp would finish 2nd)- he jammed J9s co, we have KQ sb and call off, flop is 995......
We then lost a decent pot with 64s after defending multi way vs utg open and the btn flat, flop a flush draw on AjT, turn gave us a flush and river was another spade and lost to Q6o from the btn with the Q of spades....... So in the 1st bit of play we started with 220k peaked at nearly 400k and finished at 230k.

The rest of day 2 was a bit of blur till the bubble, I was on the feature table on stream and was really locked in, I got a few 3bets through, some raise fold takes down and grew my stack back to 400k , as only 30 people were left with 18 ITM we found ourselves very close to the bubble with 25bb, lucky for us we caught heat.

We won a massive pot with JJ, we raises MP btn a good reg (he finishes 3rd in this mtt) 3bets and we call, a Q was exposed pre by the BB and the flop comes QQ5, x call, turn is a J, we x call, river is 2 and we lead for value villain tanks forever and folds..... From there we picked off a bluff vs the other big stack and went to town on the direct bubble which lasted a little bit.
We ended up going from 300k- 900k by the time the bubble burst.

ITM and we had a great stack, we won a number of small pots cracked the 1m mark with 15 left, unfortunately post this break we lost a few pots however we found the final table of the main event and bagged 755k and good for 30bb and 5/9 come the final table.

Final Table Monday

So we had great prep, go karting with friends a nice steak and I dressed up in suit to feel my sharpest best (I also promised the owner I would do this). The day started pretty standard not too many spots, found a couple of ladders and took down a few pots with some 3bets or cbets after being called and I got my stack passed the 1m mark.

Then with 6 left what felt like the changing point happened. We are in the SB, our Opp has opened 32s 65s etc. (30min delay stream on) and has shown aggression a lot, we have also joked about how much we both love clicking back. he opens 2.1x on the btn of 35bb we have 30bb and in the SB with AQo, the BB has 10bb at this stage. I 3bet to 6bb, BB folds and our btn opp thinks for abit before moving all in.....
What do we do?? can we ever fold sb vs btn with AQo, does he have bluffs etc???? - After a couple of time banks I call it off, AK sighhhhh- Window QQQQQQQQQ we win!! We have the chip lead!!!!!
shortly he busts and there is 5 left!!!!

We go into the break 1 of 5 and think this might be our time finally its changing that big deep run and win ive said might be coming is happening!

Unfortunately, this wouldn't be the case. Post break I lose a few small pots before losing the below 3 hands in about a 30min span....
We have AKo btn- good reg opens CO of 25bb we have 40bb- sb has 10bb and bb has 13bb- we decide to trap and flat call to induce a sb and/or a bb jam, and if co iso jams we snap call of course.
This happens SB folds BB goes all, CO does fold and we snap, unlucky he has pocket 99 not a hand we crush (Have Ajo one time sir), we lose the flip 13bb gone that brings us back to the field.

Blinds go up then this happens, in the sb J2s, our opp in the bb now has 12bb we have 20- Decided on limp fold with ICM, BB will jam correctly but also check back a lot in pos as a reg. he checks
flop J2Q wow 2 pair, we go for value with 1.1bb bet, he calls, turn 3h bringing 3hearts on board, alot of his suited hands would raise pre so he has some really bad suited hands but not many.
So with this we go half pot to set up for a river jam if we get a blank. He calls, river off suit 6..... pretty clean river, however something doesn't feel right, you just get a vibe live that things arent all good, so i actually size down and bet 40% pot where spr was less than 1....- our opp thinks for a bit and calls
We think we are good and table two pair (J2) he has J6o with the 6 hearts, so flopped middle pair called a small bet, called a down bet on the turn with a pair and flush draw and found two pair on the river........................

We are left with 7bb as the blinds go up next hand, we wake up 22 utg a hand later jam it in 5 handed and the sb wakes up 77 and its game over........... we bust in 5th for 9.6k after being 1/5,,,,,

So an annoying feeling we were a flip away from a commanding chip lead (AK vs 99) and we would of been back in the chip lead if our two pair held up (J2s vs J6o BVB)
However this wasn't the case. I can't help but feel a slight bit annoyed considering what could have been and the downswing could have been long over if we just ran well for 30mins more.
Thats tournament poker.

Conclusion

We cant complain, we should of busted in 6th with AQ vs AK, we ran unreal around the bubble to build our stack and in review we played fantastically overall in this tournament. (very little mistakes)
Since our 1st coaching session where my coach plugged one leak off the bat, we played 3 tournaments for 3fts and over 13k profit. Immediate ROI on the session and future sessions however it won't always be like this. We still didn't run the best in the biggest spot but nice to find a Q in a big spot. Overall, I cant complain and ill say it again if I keep playing like this a big result will come!!

My next series is Lex Live I can't wait!!! - ill speak to all shortly after a little bit of time off, below is the photos of the FT and the result! speak to you all shortly

GG, Nice run!

Ty Ty - would have been nice with a podium finish but wasn’t meant to be- I was pretty happy with how I played!

r u good enough 2 win WSOP main?

Interesting question, in a field of that size anyone that buys into the MTT is good enough to win. Some players may have small % to win some would have a larger % because of their skill set, however, to say if your good enough to win the main is hard. Maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to play it and play my best. Combine with the sickest run of variance then maybe I could but so could you!

In other news, only a couple of days till I leave for Lex Live, I have most my bags packed and everything in order. I'm really looking forward to seeing people again that I haven't seen in a year.
Also keen to hopefully play my best and showcase that I am decent at this game to the community again.

Grateful to be bringing my partner along as well so its not just all about the poker and results this trip!

Next update will be as we travel! Feel free to ask questions below etc. and ill try answer over the next few days.

u should buyin with ur own money. bink it. then go to high roller pits and run a measly 10 million or whatever up to a measly 100m.

Hey everyone from Bratislava!

So travel and jet lag have taken it out of me writing this at 5:28 am - (12pm in Adelaide give or take)!

Travel wise - never had to run in an airport but due to delays nearly missed 2 flights!

Beautiful city though highly recommend! Was really nice to see everyone again and they welcomed my gf with open arms ��

In terms of poker only played day 1 of the opener and soft bubbled 10 off the money

Played decent with the body clock being shot- had 4x ss then played awful for 20mins before end of rego. Built back to 4x ss before losing a flip for 12bb bvb (we had 20bb exact)

One of the community members jam 12sb look at A7o call they have K8 - K high flop - left with 8bb jam KJo for 8bb utg into QQ and GG!

Win the flip probably bag itm in the top 15% but oh well!

Here are some photos more updates to come! Looking forward to trying to grind some long hours once the gf goes to bed tonight so I can get my body clock on euro time!

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We are Back!

Post Lex Live Update, will keep it brief as there was a lot to cover but in short, we had a great time!

Seeing people I only get to see once a year. Having my partner experience her 1st poker series (and now she wants to learn the basics to play the small sit n go's we run during Lex Live) & obvs the poker side of travelling abroad was really cool.

Poker wise not our best series. Down 1.5k AUD on the trip. We had 2x deep runs which we weren't able to convert.

Our events were alot of side events.

In short the opening event finished 10 off the money and a day 2, lost a flip for 12bb eff with A7o in the bb after sb jam 12 bb with K8o hold and we make the money and day 2. Ended up jamming KJo for 6bb into QQ not long after.

We busted the PLO event and a couple of hypers. We came 9th in the 8-game off 1 bullet soft bubbling the FT but making a couple of hundred euros back.

We weren't able to play the high roller due to this event and we also bricked a couple of other side events.

Main event title defence

Well 4 bullets in the main event no bag, I did get my 30k ss up to 110k on bullet 4 before losing some absurd hands. I just never held a flip or I would open JJ on the btn get 3 bet get it in it would be KK or AA, so just ran into the top of everyones range.

I was pretty upset and annoyed but we MLR day 2 with 15bb and then finally the luck turned in the main. We won our 1st flip AK vs JJ finding a K on the flop. Then we won some small pots doubled again with JJ vs 99 before squeaking into the money with 13bb- We got to 21bb in the money before a couple of bad run outs and folding down to 9bb with 92 people left.

Our bust out hand was pretty simple, reg on the btn with decent stack covering SB hero with 9bb and BB reg with 12bb. BTN open jams we look down at A8s of diamonds, we should be ahead of this jam range alot and flipping at worst. Unfortunately the reg went for the jam with ATo instead of the min raise induce, we are basically flopped dead on a T high flop and GG.
I actually really dont like his Jam, as he loses a lot of value and potential re jams from worse hands but anyhow it is what it is.

we come 92/953 runners. If you offered me this as a title defense before the series I would of snapped your hand off! So im pretty happy with the result, just wish it didn't take bullet number 5 to win a flip or not just run into the nuts. This mean I have played 3 Lex Live main events, for a 39th in London a 1st in Braca and a 92nd in Slovakia! 3 out 3 cashed with 1 win!

Conclusion

So are we a little annoyed poker didn't go the way we wanted. Yeah we are! However, it was a great trip with great people and amazing food! I really cant wait for the next Lex Live. Plus life is short just be happy, Im a little shook by Diogo Jota dying a guy I watch each week for Liverpool so I am just glad right now I am home safe I am healthy and I can fire again!

Tells someone you love them give them a hug and be happy for what you have! Cant wait for the next update from a session. Taking a little time off to recover before we go back to the online streets again!

1st online session post lex live

So decided to fire up a quick 2hr session on iggy and coin poker for some cash.

I know I want to move to playing more cash to accomdate work. The more time i spent with Online MTT regs I really get swayed to sticking to what I know which is mTTs, however with our time constraits with work, GF and other lifestyle habbits (family etc) its hard to justify the time I put into online MTTs.

So we fired up a cash session. I believe I am better a PLO then NLH cash so decided to see how I would fair at 50PLO stakes. Lost 4 buy in in 2 hours playing super loose agro (did get unlucky 2x on IGGY). The games seem super soft but are also super swingy.

As such if we do decided to go down the cash game online root, even though I find it boring it has to be NLH. Two reasons as to why! 1st its less swingy there is also less edge but controlling the swings is key to long term success. 2nd it will improve our MTT game when deep stacked early in MTTs. This can only be a good thing for the future live series I have and my long term goals of moving to full time play.

As such not a good day down $200 in 2hrs and a nice kick back to reality of thinking your good but your just meh! Hopefully moving forward Ill play some more online cash or if I find the time play more online MTT session which I am used too.

Outside of the live mtt game I really need to figure out what I want to do to improve my bankroll to 300k in 10 years. I think cash is the best way but I am far and away a better MTT player considering the time and effort I have spent studying.

Maybe its time to just move up the MTT stakes from our $15abi which we are betting on ACR and IGGY and see how we go at a $25 to $30 ABI. This however increases swings which tbh I really want to avoid at the early stage of building up to this 300k mark. I think deep down I know the answer long term will always be MTT poker just the variance can be super cruel and I dont think I am ready to live with those swings just yet.

Anyhow food for thought! Off to a mates 30th and the rest of the weekend off. I think next week ill have some time to either fire a few online MTT sessions on coin iggy and ACR or some small online cash sessions. May have to throw GG in the mix for extra volume too.

Writing all of this all I can think about is how silly it is to move away from a game I do well at to reduce swings in a game I havent studied to much Hahah! I think Ive written my own answer.

Morning team how are we all!

Didn’t know DKB who occasionally posts in the blog has his own blog! Highly recommend - read 6/ out of 10 pages and hooked!

On a side note after reading a pros blog cash is just so important to master and play majority of the time!

So think I’m gonna make myself a goal for next week

Find days I can grind (atm think it’s Tuesday Thursday and Friday)

Spend 1hr studying a cash game course before playing

Then play 2hrs each day on GG and Coinpoker focusing on (25nl)

Finish the session and review the next day

I hope to hit over 2k hands to start and work my way up from there!

Also as some of you are aware I play some mix games - and finally my local room are looking to run some mix game cash (20/40 limits) little steep but I have the br for it! So if these game run I’ll have to check it out (player pool is super soft for mix games here in SA)

Basically in short - I’ll save MTTs for the live series and the online series/Sunday Monday mornings if I can play!

I’ll let you know how I go either after each session or the end of the week!

Slight change of plan lads!

A series that was meant to run in Adelaide while I was at lex live has been pushed back till this week and I wasn’t aware.

As such we will now be playing another mtt live series!

Unfortunately the super soft 1.5k we have to skip as day 2 falls on Saturday and I have a 1st bday party to attend.

I also can’t play the 2.5k 75k gtd as day 3 (final table) falls on a Friday while I am at work.

My schedule for the series is Tuesday Thursday Friday Sunday

I’ll be playing the $450 100k gtd main event and some of the side events.

Let’s hope to run well

glgl

🎉 Thanks Blez! Hope you enjoy the blog.

🃏 Quick Update – Main Event Flight 1: Chip leader: DAMMO_23, who bagged a massive 455k – that’s 9 starting stacks! We’re coming back to 4k/8k blinds (unless they repeat 3k/6k). The 100k GTD prize pool is sure to get crushed. After a rough Lex Live (poker-wise), it feels great to build a big stack in a main event.

No crazy hands to report – I was card dead most of the day. Then, in the final level, I decided to knock out three opponents and run it up.

💥 Key Hand That Got Us to 320k: This one was pretty standard but pivotal.

Hero (UTG): JJ

Blinds: 2k/4k

Stack: 110k

Preflop: UTG (Hero) opens to 8k MP (recreational player, didn’t know what “bagging up” or “multi-flights” meant) calls SB (older cash game reg) calls

Flop: J♠ 5♦ 3♣ (rainbow) Hero c-bets 6k, MP calls, SB folds

Turn: Q♦ (adds diamond draw) Hero sizes up to 28k MP snap-raises to 75k – basically putting us all in We snap it off with top set

Villain: A♠ Q♣

Hero: J♥ J♦

River: K♦ – which might’ve cost us if we weren’t already in

✅ Hero holds – stack jumps to 320k, and we finish the night with 455k!

📅 Upcoming Plans:

Wednesday: Nice chill day

Today: Planning to late reg the $600 Freezeout after work. I can either:

Arrive at 6pm with ~20bb

Or head straight there after work (4–4:30pm) and start with ~40bb – leaning toward this

If that doesn’t work out, there’s a $350 PLO MTT as backup

Friday: PLO/NLH switch event

Saturday: Day off

Sunday: Day 2 of the Main Event – and we’re going for the win 💪

💻 Side Note – Cash Game Grind: Working from home today, so I fired up 1.5 hours of 25NL on GG to test how well PT4 tracks cash vs. MTT data.

Played 539 hands in 1.5 hours across 4 tables

PT4 tracked everything perfectly – cash data imports cleanly, unlike MTTs

Super hyped to grind more and get accurate graphs/stats

🎯 Plan is to keep playing on GG (35% rakeback + slick UI), mix in some CoinPoker (33% RB), and Xpoker (60% RB despite the clunky app). Also got a 60% RB offer from an agent on PPP – UI is rough and I tend to punt there, but might be worth it for volume and guaranteed rakeback.

Thursday Update from APL PT

Hey team! Hope everyone’s doing well. Thursday brought a mix of swings and stories from the live series—here's the breakdown.

🎯 $600 Deep Freeze: Left work early for this one, and it had a stellar prize pool—$11k up top. Had 30% of a mate in the event too, so extra sweat equity.

For me, not ideal. Played two hours and won exactly one hand—AQs 4-bet jam for 30bb vs MP open and BTN 3-bet. That was the highlight. Lost every other hand—played five total. Eventually jammed A8o for 7bb from MP into AK on the BTN. GG.

Fortunately, our buddy went deep and cashed, finishing 10th. He got it in AJ vs A7, and unfortunately the villain rivered a 7. Still, we locked up 30% of his $1.7k score, so a sweet little rakeback.

🃏 $350 PLO 8-Max: Jumped into this one next—I've FT’d it 2 of the last 3 years (3rd place three years ago, 7th two years ago; skipped last year).

Built a monster stack after late reg—5x starting stack with 2 tables left. Sitting in a commanding spot before the break. Post-break, lost two big hands and dropped half the stack. Regrouped and made the final table (pic below), starting 5th out of 9. Top 5 paid—min cash $815, $4k up top.

Got into the money as the shortest stack—17bb—before our bust-out hand. Preflop, 2x open and three calls—I'm in the BB and priced in. Led out and pot-committed, got it in versus top set. Bricked the runout—2-K—and busted in 5th.

📊 Overall: Slightly profitable day. Playing sharp, another deep run—just waiting on the breakthrough. Still alive in the Main Event with the 3rd biggest stack and the $100k GTD is about to be smashed. Fingers crossed this is the one we convert!

💻 Bonus Grind: Been mixing in some 25NL on GG—will break it all down after the series. Really enjoying the cash side of things lately!

Thanks for following along—good vibes only. FT photo + bust-out equity photo below!

🎬 Main Event Day 2 – Vlog Recap What’s up legends! Time to break down a wild Day 2 from the APL PT Main Event, and spoiler alert—it was an absolute heater.

We came in as chip leader from Tuesday’s flight, sitting 7th of ~110 players, with 509 total entries, and a juicy $41k up top, plus a ticket to APL Millions. 63 players made the money, so there was work to do!

🔸 Early Momentum: Started strong—we got AQ all-in vs AK and binked the river Queen. Later, jammed A2s for 10bb blind vs blind into TT… and spiked an Ace. Two lucky shots early, and suddenly we had one of the biggest stacks in the room.

📈 Midday Domination: We rampaged through the field, built a monster stack and were chipleading with 24 left. Got on the feature stream table and just punished spots hard in a soft field. And yeah, we ran pure too—no complaints!

🚧 Road Bump at 14 Left: Blind vs blind, 15bb effective. We limp KK vs an aggressive reg. He rips AK, we snap. Flop: Q-9-J Turn: 3 River: A Brutal. That pot would’ve given us over 50% of the chips in play. Instead, we limped onto the final table with a 1bb chip lead.

🔹 Final Table Highlights: Kicked off the FT with a clean check-raise on 6♣ T♠ 8♥, holding K♠ Q♣ vs a fishy c-bet. He had A♦ 2♦, folded instantly. From there, we chipped away, won small pots, and then hit turbo mode.

We knocked out 4 opponents in 3 levels and found ourselves heads-up with a 3:1 chip lead. Still, 20bb in play kept it interesting.

💰 The Deal: To take some pressure off, we chopped a little off the top—sent $4.1k from 1st to 2nd, locking up $30k for them and just over $36k for us. Honestly? I didn’t care about the money—I wanted that trophy, especially in my home state. I’ve never won in SA. That was the goal.

🔥 Heads-Up Madness: First bullet: A6o vs Q5s—flopped top pair but villain hit running two pair to survive. Next hand? It was destiny. We’re in BB with K♠ J♠, villain limps, we raise to 850k, he calls.

Flop: 4♠ T♥ 7♠ — flush draw + two overs We down-bet 550k, he overjammed (never a strong hand here), and we snap. Villain flips 3♥ 4♥.

Turn: 7♦ (extra outs) River: 3♠ — we hit the flush!

🏆 SA APL PT Main Event Champion – DAMMO_23! After 4 years grinding, we finally ship one in South Australia. We ran hotter than the sun, played with confidence, and converted a massive score.

🙏 Big love to all who supported, commented, and lurked! Every view means a lot.

📌 Next up: APL Millions Taking a few days off before hitting the online streets again. Sitting up over $40k on the year—let’s keep the heater alive!

How are you playing on GG? did you buy an account or is there a workaround to sign up?

Well done on the recent bink as well.

Hey Mate, yes there is a work around, feel free to follow my insta and DM me (think you can even do it through here) and ill be happy to share the insight.

Thank you for the congrats on the recent bink! Love seeing both trophies in the office together when I walk in

🧢 Weekly Update – Riding the Momentum
Hey everyone! It’s been a week since we locked up that APL PT SA Main Event title, and I figured it’s a good time to check in. Let’s run through where we’re at, what’s happening online, and what’s ahead with the live grind.

Settle in—there’s graphs, reflections, and a whole lot of strategy.

♠️ Live MTT Arena
After last weekend’s win, I’m itching to get back to live poker. But we’ve got a bit of a wait—the next stop is the APL Millions in August, mid to late month.

🗓️ Time off is locked in, and the Gold Coast calls again. As always, I’ll be there for the second week, aiming to fire the two mix game tournaments on the schedule. From there:

We’ve got a Main Event seat already paid via the SA win

I’ll be selling action for the $1.5K Jackstar and $2.5K Centurion

For everything else, I’ll likely take my own action, depending on the flow of the series

Worth noting—last year, I played 20 events, didn’t cash once, and walked away $15K in the hole. And I had just come off another big win (Lex Live Main Event) back then too. So here’s the lesson: momentum is great, but this game humbles you fast.

The plan this time is to be mentally locked in, trust the work I’ve been doing with my coach, and embrace the possibility that variance might still show up. Hard work and process over everything.

🌐 Online Grind Update
The long-term goal: $300K bankroll over 10 years, so we can realistically assess a shift into poker full-time.

Most of that will come from live tournaments—that’s just where the skill edge and volume meet up best. But I’ve been experimenting with online formats again, and here’s the honest assessment:

💥 NLH Cash? Not for me. It felt like a robotic multi-table factory. Wait for a good hand. Ship it. Hope you hold or don’t get sucked out. Repeat. There’s nothing about that format that clicks with me emotionally or mentally. Zero fulfillment.

💻 Online MTTs? Love them—but schedule's tough. If I can fire a Sunday slate (Monday morning here in AUS), I’ll take it. But weeknights after full-time work don’t align. The idea of prepping for a 7-hour grind after a 7-hour shift, then waking up six hours later? Not it. It’s mentally draining and disrupts everything else.

🔁 So What’s the Play? Spin & Golds on GG
This is a format I dabbled in last year—and this time, I’m doing it right.

✅ Fast-paced ✅ Guaranteed prize pools (based on spin multiplier) ✅ Strategic depth, especially postflop HU and 3-max scenarios ✅ Great training tool for shallow stack endgame situations

Last time, I had no bankroll management, no tracking system, and no awareness of how crucial rakeback is. I just jumped into $50 Spins and let variance decide.

Breakeven overall, with most wins coming from lucky 5x and 10x spins—because I was sitting in a reg-heavy pool with zero study behind me. Terrible game selection.

This time, we’re locked in:

Playing $5 Spins, bankrolled properly

Tracking everything with PokerTracker 4 and a custom RB spreadsheet

Studying the format more seriously to see if it's a viable edge long-term

📊 Metrics I’m Using to Gauge Performance
These are what I’m focusing on consistently:

ROI%

0–2% = breakeven

2–5% = solid

5–10%+ = crushing

ITM%

33–37% + Rakeback = long-term winner

Chip EV / game

$1–$5 Spins = 20–30 chips is good, 35+ is strong

$10–$25 = 15–25 good, 30+ crushing

$50+ = 10–20 chips is good, 25+ is elite

BB/100

Not a key stat here, but 3–5bb/100 = winning, 5–8bb/100 = crushing (variance-heavy though)

📈 Early Sample Results (July so far):

203 games played

Chip EV/game = 24.63 (4,999 adjusted chips / 203 games)

Rakeback tracked separately in a custom sheet

Historic PT4 data imported for bigger sample comparisons

⚠️ Data Tip for PT4 users on GG: GG Pokercraft imports Spins as flat win amounts (e.g., 3max $5 Spin= $13.95 win for all games). I manually adjusted each game to reflect the actual win based on multiplier—tedious but necessary. Removed hourly metrics for simplicity.

🧠 Why Spins Make Sense
I can’t commit to online MTT volume with my current schedule. But Spin & Golds offer the flexibility of cash, the strategic arc of MTT/SNG formats, and way more postflop dynamics than meets the eye.

My goal is to put in 5,000–10,000 games, even at stakes lower than I’m rolled for, to see if I can build a consistent edge and meaningful sample.

If I crush—awesome. If not—I still improve HU decision making, postflop play, and overall MTT readiness.

Thanks for tuning in. Writing this out is part of my own prep before tonight’s session. No leaderboards, no ego—just pure volume and focused improvement.

Until next week, — DAMMO_23