a lot of us in the online community have add. ive really grown to dislike playing live because im sitting at the same table seeing 30 hands per hour instead of mass tabling online. normally ill play 10-12 tables but will go up to 16 or whatever i really feel comfortable with on occassion.

mtt players hail the almighty volume as the one thing to get you through the huge fields, and i agree 100%. nonetheless i think ive been trying to play too many tables at once and figure i can autopilot most of the early stages off mtts and 180s. anyway i think this is problematic. even worse is the fact that you can subconsciously punt off a few buyins and not realize while youre playing. you get frustrated or rushed and make a bad play or call all because there are a million other tables waiting for you to act. ive found this happening the last few days and decided id play 10 tables max in order to concentrate more and not feel as rushed. thus for the past two days ive cut out the $12 180s and have focused solely on mtts. in doing so i also cut out a bunch of random $11 freezeouts on stars and tilt.

ive seen this suggested a lot recently. players will mention how instead of grinding a billion tables on sundays they play 6-8 and give those their all. it makes sense to me. but at the same time at the end of the day i dont want to play for 10 hours and have only gotten 12-15 mtts in.

ok so here is an update from the last few days

10/18 -$440 for the day

i run like shit and cant seem to get anything going. losing tons of hands etc etc youve heard it all before. i played 29 mtts/180s and this is when i come to the realization that im probably blowing 1-3 tournies per session for the aforementioned reason, that im playing too many tables. with a 25-30 abi that is ~$80 im losing, which is absolutely unacceptable. i realize its time to cut down and aim for 10max the following day. nothing to report in terms of cashes, i think i cash in 3 of the 29 tournies and two of those were 180s.

10/21 -$352 for the day

once again i wake up with the drive and motivation to grind grind grind and ship something. it ends up being a light day because i cant get anything going. KK gets cracked 3 times within the first 25 minutes or so and i realize its not going to be a good day. the only saving grace (and its not much) is that im finally able to cash in a $55 mtt, which ive played 10-15 of and absolutely cant seem to break through, mostly due to running bad. the competition in these is a lot softer than i originally assumed, so thats good. 1 cash in 18 tournies....sighhhh

10/22 +$752 holla

today was both great and frustrating all rolled into one. first off, i had 7 cashes. ive been playing a lot of the new stars $22-27.50 360-500max mtts and love them. they are a great way to cut down on variance compared to 2k fields. anywho i got 7th in a 27.50 for like $250 when i lost a standard flip. i also went deep in a 55 and got 40th place or something. lost a race to foutight and that was that.

now the disappointing part: i got 2nd in a $22 6max capped mtt for almost 900. HU i had a 10-1 chiplead and couldnt close the $%@ deal. i havent shipped a tourny in my last 17 final tables and its starting to get to me. i ran pretty bad hu and the guy was super aggressive. i definitely misplayed some hands and let the pot get too big when i should have been playing small ball vs him. oh well.

i also bubbled the $3r final table on ftp. villain was 22/18 over 103 hands and had been starting to get aggressive (though not aggressive enough) on the ft bubble. i had a solid image up until to the previous hand where i shoved bvb for effectively 11bb with j9s and the bb woke up with 10s. anywho i think the shove is ok since hes raising more than 18% of his hands here. gotta stove it though

Full Tilt Poker Game #15521510576: $10,500 Guarantee (Rebuy) (113608849), Table 57 - 15000/30000 Ante 4000 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:22:16 ET - 2009/10/23
Seat 3: hmmm strange (525,512)
Seat 4: chunkymonk3y (385,214)
Seat 5: LucasNobre (1,219,663)
Seat 7: gio1818 (396,957)
Seat 9: Goldenad (356,550)
hmmm strange antes 4,000
chunkymonk3y antes 4,000
LucasNobre antes 4,000
gio1818 antes 4,000
Goldenad antes 4,000
Goldenad posts the small blind of 15,000
hmmm strange posts the big blind of 30,000
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Goldenad [Ad Tc]
chunkymonk3y folds
LucasNobre has 15 seconds left to act
LucasNobre raises to 75,500
gio1818 folds
Goldenad raises to 352,550, and is all in
hmmm strange folds
LucasNobre calls 277,050
Goldenad shows [Ad Tc]
LucasNobre shows [Kd Kc]
Goldenad: gg
*** FLOP *** [Js 3d 4d]
*** TURN *** [Js 3d 4d] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [Js 3d 4d Th] [Qh]
Goldenad shows a pair of Tens
LucasNobre shows a pair of Kings
LucasNobre wins the pot (755,100) with a pair of Kings

ok thats enough for now, taking the day off after grinding 11 hours yesterday. im basically breakeven over my last 3 sessions. bummer.

ive been thinking about doing a blog for awhile now since im always interested in reading other grinders' perspectives/stories and thought some might be interested in mine.

anywho, my name is adam or goldenad or whatever you want to call me. my story is as follows:

we can skip all the boring early stuff that happened a few years ago. i played poker with my friends in high school and eventually all of them lost interest but me and one other friend of mine, who ive been talking poker with ever since. i played a bunch online and blew some money with no bankroll management and no real skill in general. eventually i bunkered down and started reading/posting here and on 2+2. fast forward to this year

starting out 2009 i was grinding micro sngs, mostly $10 turbo DONs on stars. after 4k of those i got burned out and moved on to mtts, which id had some success at before, but nothing serious. fast forward to the summer, i have graduated from college and am in the fortunate/unfortunate (depending how you look at it) position of not being able to find a job. luckily i am in the financial position where any money i earn from poker can be used 100% for my bankroll and buying random things like concert tickets, beer, and gifts for my girlfriend.

since graduation poker has been great for me. ive had some success in mtts and am really determined to be able to beat the mid/high stakes one day. i dont have any interest in becoming a full time poker player and i think thats for the best, since i believe id lose the love of the game if i felt the pressure of using it as my sole source of income. despite this, i want to win and am determined to do well and continue to study the game by reading, posting, watching videos, taking coaching lessons, and reviewing hand histories.

a month ago i was an extreme bankroll nit that was playing way too low for the money i have for poker. i have finally worked up the balls to stop playing $2-5 mtts and now am playing $11-55 freezouts and rebuys up to the 11r. im grinding about 3-4 days a week playing mtts and have had some success, including a great/horrible day the other day, in which i placed 16th, 20th, and 23rd in a $26mtt, 27.50mtt, and 11r, all with fields between 1300-2400 people. this disappointment was offeset by...even more disappointment, getting 2nd in some mtt.

i ran good this summer in mtts and got an unusually high number of 1sts. now im paying for that and have gone 16 final tables without a win. im determined to make that happen as soon as possible.

anyway, i know the grind is getting to me, but in a good way, since those 16th, 20th, and 23rd place finishes didnt bother me besides the huge potential money on the line. in two of the tournies i busted QQ<A10 and KK<A5 aipf but what can you do. ive learned to shrug those things off and feel im a better player because of it.

now im hoping to get involved in a plb contest at the medium stakes as a little extra motivation to do well in the following week or two. all i know is that each time i sit down to play im even more motivated than the last to do well.

to quote mr cheezle from grandma's boy, "good things are coming"

gl