xdeucesx
Bar Master
Silver Level
Sir you have to make quality posts to get post counts towards the freeroll club. This isn't going to count. Reported
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
DOUBLE REPORTED
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
While I think it's safe to say all three people currently following this thread (hi, mom!) prob are just in this for the lullz, I'm gonna make a real post anyway.
I've accomplished a lot of the past few weeks since my last post, and I'm feeling rather good about it.
Basically, I'm now a pro MTT player. AMA.
In all seriousness, overall it's obviously been going well and I've been enjoying the trials and tribulations of... basically being an online MTT specialist.
Not that it means I'm any good yet, but I'm probably marginally better than the field. Marginally.
I've accomplished a lot of the past few weeks since my last post, and I'm feeling rather good about it.
- Picked and stuck to a play schedule (Fri - Sun)
- Got a good amount of study in (for me... so like... several hours)
- Got all my results written down in Google Sheets so I can look at both tracked and untracked site results, and not rely on Sharkscope's shitty data techniques
Basically, I'm now a pro MTT player. AMA.
In all seriousness, overall it's obviously been going well and I've been enjoying the trials and tribulations of... basically being an online MTT specialist.
Not that it means I'm any good yet, but I'm probably marginally better than the field. Marginally.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
It was the $55 Special 100k GTD on ACR. It's been a heck of a dry spell since then. Down like 8k from peak or something, but at these stakes that's far from ridiculous.
I do wish I had any hope of achieving a meaningful sample though lol.
I do wish I had any hope of achieving a meaningful sample though lol.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Hasn't been much to update on lately, so I'll give an update I should have given a while ago.
I'm moving to Las Vegas come the end of July. It's sort of an awful time for it with the COVID stuff going on but it's already been delayed 3 months, and I still expect things will get back to some semblance of "normal" at some point, and delaying here would just mean standing in place instead of getting ready for the transition.
Honestly, I'm pretty much freaking out right now. My mental health has never really been at a lower point and the combined stressors of the pandemic/quarantine and the uncertainty that creates along with the move have really done a number on me.
Tomorrow I drive home to visit my parents and future in-laws for like ten days. Then it's five days back here to wrap up the last bits of packing, and then we're on our way, driving to Las Vegas to beat the movers there.
It's a real mind **** knowing I'm doing the right thing rationally and still being so freaked out about the whole thing. I'm hoping that once I'm actually settled things will get better. Actually, I'm even hoping this mini-vacation will do me good FIRST but we'll see. Family time is great but can get stressful on its own, too. Wish me luck!
I'm moving to Las Vegas come the end of July. It's sort of an awful time for it with the COVID stuff going on but it's already been delayed 3 months, and I still expect things will get back to some semblance of "normal" at some point, and delaying here would just mean standing in place instead of getting ready for the transition.
Honestly, I'm pretty much freaking out right now. My mental health has never really been at a lower point and the combined stressors of the pandemic/quarantine and the uncertainty that creates along with the move have really done a number on me.
Tomorrow I drive home to visit my parents and future in-laws for like ten days. Then it's five days back here to wrap up the last bits of packing, and then we're on our way, driving to Las Vegas to beat the movers there.
It's a real mind **** knowing I'm doing the right thing rationally and still being so freaked out about the whole thing. I'm hoping that once I'm actually settled things will get better. Actually, I'm even hoping this mini-vacation will do me good FIRST but we'll see. Family time is great but can get stressful on its own, too. Wish me luck!
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Thanks Jilly, I appreciate it. I'm actually doing a LOT better after getting to MA. Something about being in the apartment when it's like 70% taken down but not ready is just so stressful. It's been good seeing the fam so far. I'm hoping I can sort of mentally recuperate this week and then wrap up the packing strong.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Can't believe it's been so long since I've updated. Yikes.
I've since moved to Las Vegas, gotten settled for about 3 weeks, and am set up to play Doug Polk HU at $2/$4 as he preps to play Daniel Negreanu. I'll be livestreaming the action on my YouTube channel, hole cards up, no delay.
Meanwhile I've booked my biggest online loss (excluding a few MTT grind days) in poker possibly ever. Literally so disgusted at how it went, but this is how it goes when you play like a 10x-15x range in stakes (100nl at 100bb cap up to 500plo with 400bb cap).
Overall just really frustrated and don't know what to do with myself as this day that was already well below average ended with....
A 4 hour session of 500plo in an AMAZING game and just getting bad beat or best handed over and over.
A 2.1k pot loss to a guy who needled in chat and then hit and ran
A realization that I probably shouldn't have even played today since I haven't slept well the last few nights.
Just kind of have to vent. Hate that I need it. Have to give this news about Doug. Hate that it's overshadowed by this session from hell.
Overall hard to put it into words but just not feeling that great about poker after the last few days - and at the worst time possible. So basically you're all welcome for the very cheery post lol.
I've since moved to Las Vegas, gotten settled for about 3 weeks, and am set up to play Doug Polk HU at $2/$4 as he preps to play Daniel Negreanu. I'll be livestreaming the action on my YouTube channel, hole cards up, no delay.
Meanwhile I've booked my biggest online loss (excluding a few MTT grind days) in poker possibly ever. Literally so disgusted at how it went, but this is how it goes when you play like a 10x-15x range in stakes (100nl at 100bb cap up to 500plo with 400bb cap).
Overall just really frustrated and don't know what to do with myself as this day that was already well below average ended with....
A 4 hour session of 500plo in an AMAZING game and just getting bad beat or best handed over and over.
A 2.1k pot loss to a guy who needled in chat and then hit and ran
A realization that I probably shouldn't have even played today since I haven't slept well the last few nights.
Just kind of have to vent. Hate that I need it. Have to give this news about Doug. Hate that it's overshadowed by this session from hell.
Overall hard to put it into words but just not feeling that great about poker after the last few days - and at the worst time possible. So basically you're all welcome for the very cheery post lol.
Figaroo2
Legend
Bronze Level
The thought of playing Polk heads up would be giving me sleepless nights as well. I'm not sure I'd want to prove to myself that I'm not in his league by giving him a bunch of my hard earned cash.
Against Polk I'd be toning it down to 1/4 to 1/3 cbet sizings to try and avoid the big polarised river spots you know he's going to put you in.
If the pots are smaller you can use your reasoning to work out the spots to call him down lighter.
Against Polk I'd be toning it down to 1/4 to 1/3 cbet sizings to try and avoid the big polarised river spots you know he's going to put you in.
If the pots are smaller you can use your reasoning to work out the spots to call him down lighter.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
LOL. This gave me a good chuckle. My sleep has nothing to do with playing vs Polk - I've been battling sleep issues for months. I'm actually really looking forward to playing him. It's a good experience, will teach me a lot about gaps in my game, and will be a cool opportunity for viewers to watch and learn from.
It sounds like you might also be overestimating Polk's edge over such a short time period. We're just playing 2 tables for 4 hours. So it's not like I'm locked in for 25k hands. He's probably a 55% favorite to be above breakeven, and if I had to guess under 30% to win more than 3 BI? That's just speculation off the top of my head but the point is that he can't just take me for thousands and thousands at these stakes. I most likely had a much worse loss at PLO than I could take playing HU.
Regarding strat adjustments: I've spent the last 4 weeks+ thinking about this. It's not as simple as "avoid big pots" - that's highly exploitable as well and debatably more so playing my already proven cbet strategy and being put into a tough river spot once in a while.
I think what you're referring to is more about the the pain threshold. Just because we are put in tougher spots doesn't mean we lose more EV in big pots. Making a small mistake in a spot that happens all the time (like cbetting an unusual size on bad boards) gets iterated more and may lose more money than medium mistakes in bigger pots that occur a lot less frequently.
Besides, if I was playing this trying to "minimize my losses" I just wouldn't have signed up in the first place.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Lol well I have respect for him but yes the edges at the highest levels now have to be very small nowadays. He should still have a big edge against Joe Shmoe non-HU pro though.
Oh man that's funny.
Well we booked the loss but seeing as I believe I lost every all in spot, I'm okay with it. Lost less than 2 buyins. And actually sold a little action to give some friends a sweat, so it really wasn't bad at all.
Also the replay is viewable here if anyone wants to watch:
Alucard
Santoryu
Silver Level
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Thanks guys! After the game with Polk, things calmed down a bit. Went on a massive MTT downer. Am currently on a minimum 2 week break.
Not sure precisely what my volume will look like when I get back but I'll definitely be playing a little smaller. Most likely the plan will be to cut all 215's and potentially add in 33's and maybe 22's.
I'm still playing cash but have cut out online 2/5 and mostly playing 100nl and 100plo, only playing 200nl/plo when the game is good.
All in all I didn't handle the downswing the best possible, but I handled it the best that I personally could at the time. Definitely learned a lot, and should be better equipped next time.
Not sure precisely what my volume will look like when I get back but I'll definitely be playing a little smaller. Most likely the plan will be to cut all 215's and potentially add in 33's and maybe 22's.
I'm still playing cash but have cut out online 2/5 and mostly playing 100nl and 100plo, only playing 200nl/plo when the game is good.
All in all I didn't handle the downswing the best possible, but I handled it the best that I personally could at the time. Definitely learned a lot, and should be better equipped next time.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Cheers man, I appreciate that!
Since my last post, things have bottomed out and I've managed to right the ship in regards to my mental game. Two entire weeks off from the MTT grind and minimal cash volume until the last few days.
Still not playing live, so it's difficult to maintain an appropriate relationship with my volume given how easy it often is to just fire up and grind.
Technically it's already been 2 full weeks and then a few days with no MTTs. This Sat or Sun I could fire them up again, but am debating putting it off another week or two until I can finish the RYE course. I've been doing that only haphazardly on and off for like a year, I'm embarrassed to admit.
But I'm also grinding PLO a lot right now on ColorUp, and the games mimic live quite a bit so at first I wasn't studying much, but I eventually decided I needed to focus on maximizing my edge potential more than putting in pure hours. So I've been on the PLO study grind too and that's been going well. So that's another reason to consider delaying playing MTTs again is just to focus my attention on where I'm learning the most and where I'm currently getting a return.
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Bumpity bumpity bump.
I guess there's sort of a lot to report? At my last post I was down piles in MTT's and trending down in cash while grinding a lot more PLO.
Since then I've lost another ~2k across like ~90 entries of MTTs but that's really not bad all things considered at my stakes and playing a few very large ones during wsop Online Circuit. So even though my avg stakes are like 100-200 generally this was a big set of entries including a lot of 300-550.
I've since cut everything above 109 so I can regroup and because I don't have a sample above that. Below it I have stellar results. So that is what it is.
Meanwhile cash game results have improved dramatically. I've been in the lab primarily on PLO, and playing a LOT of hours. It's been showing in my execution, my mental game, and my results. So that's cool.
We're also playing pretty massive, so I'm a bit skittish about how big it's consistently going, but the spots are so good I can't really complain, and I'm willing to fire them.
At the time of last post I was almost at the bottom of a 5k cash downswing on top of the MTT swing. Since that point I'm up 8k in cash, which is basicaly my peak point for 2020.
The main event has also been announced as a 10k freezeout. Two parallel events in the US and the rest of world. WSOP.com and GG Poker respectively. I am for sure going to be playing, just not sure yet how much I want to sell and at what price. I personally think the event is unprecedented and that the US-facing one may well be the softest online 1k+ buy ins in history, as well as still very soft in the context of typical main event fields.
Reason being that there aren't many international players who will play inside the US during this time. So I'm chomping at the bit, ready to get some wins under my belt, and getting fired up for the main. Overall it's been a good recovery month and I'm excited for what the next few months will bring!
I guess there's sort of a lot to report? At my last post I was down piles in MTT's and trending down in cash while grinding a lot more PLO.
Since then I've lost another ~2k across like ~90 entries of MTTs but that's really not bad all things considered at my stakes and playing a few very large ones during wsop Online Circuit. So even though my avg stakes are like 100-200 generally this was a big set of entries including a lot of 300-550.
I've since cut everything above 109 so I can regroup and because I don't have a sample above that. Below it I have stellar results. So that is what it is.
Meanwhile cash game results have improved dramatically. I've been in the lab primarily on PLO, and playing a LOT of hours. It's been showing in my execution, my mental game, and my results. So that's cool.
We're also playing pretty massive, so I'm a bit skittish about how big it's consistently going, but the spots are so good I can't really complain, and I'm willing to fire them.
At the time of last post I was almost at the bottom of a 5k cash downswing on top of the MTT swing. Since that point I'm up 8k in cash, which is basicaly my peak point for 2020.
The main event has also been announced as a 10k freezeout. Two parallel events in the US and the rest of world. WSOP.com and GG Poker respectively. I am for sure going to be playing, just not sure yet how much I want to sell and at what price. I personally think the event is unprecedented and that the US-facing one may well be the softest online 1k+ buy ins in history, as well as still very soft in the context of typical main event fields.
Reason being that there aren't many international players who will play inside the US during this time. So I'm chomping at the bit, ready to get some wins under my belt, and getting fired up for the main. Overall it's been a good recovery month and I'm excited for what the next few months will bring!
Matt Vaughan
King of Moody Rants
Bronze Level
Man I really wish I had more to bump this thread about. But really it's just same old at this point.
Cliff notes updates:
This past weekend I also fired some big stuff and mostly bricked, although my cash rate has gone up at least, which isn't that great but at least eliminates some of the TOTAL brick days.
One good thing is I made Day 2 in a Million guarantee and I'm in the money. Who knows how many damn flights there will be, so it's not like I'm close to winning it, but 10% of the field remains from my flight, and I'm in the top 10% of the remaining stacks with ~50bb coming back to Day 2 this Sunday. Will probably still be 600-1,000 players remaining when I return, but will be in good shape and have a realistic shot at around $150k up top.
Anyway just doing the mandatory occasional bump. Hope all my CC peeps are doing good.
Cliff notes updates:
- I played the main, was very happy with my play but didn't cash.
- Still mostly getting killed in MTT's overall and mostly crushing PLO cash games on ColorUp.
- The vlog has been very slow lately. Just haven't had motivation to make tons of online content when I'm having very few deep runs.
- Still not playing live poker with the pandemic numbers going pretty nuts everywhere and the vaccine now rolling out. I've waited about a year... I can wait 4-5 more months.
This past weekend I also fired some big stuff and mostly bricked, although my cash rate has gone up at least, which isn't that great but at least eliminates some of the TOTAL brick days.
One good thing is I made Day 2 in a Million guarantee and I'm in the money. Who knows how many damn flights there will be, so it's not like I'm close to winning it, but 10% of the field remains from my flight, and I'm in the top 10% of the remaining stacks with ~50bb coming back to Day 2 this Sunday. Will probably still be 600-1,000 players remaining when I return, but will be in good shape and have a realistic shot at around $150k up top.
Anyway just doing the mandatory occasional bump. Hope all my CC peeps are doing good.