- Beer and tacos for all!

I owe a huge thank you to 1mikeand1 and l0bsta for helping me during this downswing. Took more than just a change in luck to get things rolling again. Turns out there were a lot of missed opportunities and bubbles that I completely shied away from just to avoid bad beats - which meant I was forfeiting tons of equity and allowed myself to get crippled really easily.

Mike had some especially solid points to turn my suckometer off. First, I dropped my table volume back to 12, but did it in a way that wasn't mindless. He said to start with 4 tables, then once the blinds hit 25/50 bump in another 4 while keeping the high blind tables at the top of my monitor. It's pretty ridiculous how much you miss in early game situations when you just rev up 15-20 tables every time. Note-taking, spotting the fish within two or three hands, and taking minor risks to stack a fish early became so easy it's sick.

So, we were also discussing the difficulties posed to sng grinders and how tough it is to become one of the best at a game that, more or less, is a solved one. Obviously there are the endless variables of who's pushing what in which position and can I call based on his most recent action or has he adjusted to my range, etc. etc. etc. Most of the regs at the 38s and 27s are actually very easy to read and call against (I guess many of the 60s regs, too). With everyone push-botting so well, Mike said it's probably within our best interest to try to pick up chips in the early levels without risking much, if anything. If the last 3 days have been any indication, he's absolutely right. Just because you double up early in a sng does not guarantee you'll win (or even cash), BUT it definitely gave me 3 or 4 opportunites in my last two sessions to survive in spots that I would've busted earlier in the month.

Example: A fish donked off his stack in the 3rd hand of a 38 this morning when his A7o (that he limped utg) hit top pair, but couldn't beat my flopped nut flush (KQs) on an As4s8s board.
--brief aside -- Now, I am totally not advocating playing any two sooooted cards or baby-aces or pocket pairs that don't have good implied odds, but there are definitely spots that are +ev for the most part. A.) There were 4 limpers (before the blinds) in the pot making the odds favorable for me. B.) I was on the button making it easy to get out if one of the blinds raised or there was a rough flop. C.) I'm not a complete freakin moron when it comes to reading boards/opponents. Yeah, there may be players that will limp AK in early position in one of these so I'm obviously not going to turn into Jo-jo, the idiot circus boy, when I hit a king. However, when I do hit a very strong hand against someone I've pegged as an fishdonk, I'm going to do everything I can to take him to the cleaners - and, fortunately, many of them oblige. --aside over--

Anyway, because I had the good fortune of stacking a guy early in the game, once we got to 4 or 5 handed (can't remember exactly), I called a reg's shove with a K7s blind vs. blind at 100/200 with antes (he had about 1600 chips). After losing to his J5 (obv), I'd normally be either on the rail or very close to it. Managed to chip back up with my remaining 1800 and took 2nd. True, the early KQs will not hit very often and most of the time I'll forfeit 20 chips or play down a very small pot, but this time it worked out and got me some money.

If you completely disagree with that play and think it's stupid to risk any chip you don't need to early in a sng, settle the hell down because you very well could be right. I'm just trying some new things to see what works and make improvements where possible.

Trying to finish off this $4k bonus before I leave for home on Monday...really don't know if I can make it in time. Have about 5800 vpps left to release (about 360 games at the 38s) and only 3 days to do it. Still, it's good to figure out that my luck is turning around because I was bubble-sucking, not because Stars hates me.

L0bsta, come to LA so I can get you some beer and Chipotle with Mike.