Starting fresh

I had a brief stab at blogging in 2011, and to be fair, whilst I was blogging my results were

very consistent week on week. I stopped making posts out of pure laziness I guess, and not long after my results made a turn for the worse. Now, I'm not for one second blaming my slump in results on me not blogging my progress, however looking back I always felt really driven and motivated whilst posting my weekly progress, and it definitely helped me stay on track. Back then I was playing off a 5 figure bankroll and grinding $100 PLO Super Turbo heads up on Full Tilt. I was the world number 1 earner for over a year and absolutely flying. I was really loving life. Then 'Black Friday' happened, I lost my bankroll, and quite frankly lost my way in poker. I know when Full Tilt closed it ruined 100's of online grinders careers, so I don't want to talk too much on this topic, but at the time Full Tilt was the only site in the world offering Super Turbo PLO HU. With that being my speciality, I had to try and totally re-invent myself as a player, which I suppose I failed to do.

I've gone through a lot of problems off the tables in the last 6 months, something I don't want to talk about on here but something I am very open about with friends and family. I am now over my personal problems that have held me back, and have a new found hunger for poker again. I have turned to Fifty50 games because in my opinion, once you can master them, they are the best SNG game to grind anywhere in the world. Here are my reasons for saying this:

• PokerStars has the highest number of players of any site, meaning games come thick and fast 24 hours a day
• With 5 players being paid out of 10, variance is a lot lower than MTT's
• They are perfect for multi-tabling because most plays will be made looking at HUD's and will become second nature once mastered.
• The rewards scheme on PokerStars is simple and pays okay for decent grinders
• I get motivated by competing to be on Sharkscope's leaderboards, and with Fifty50 being one of the most popular games anywhere, I will have plenty of people to compete against and keep me driven.

Fifty50's - How they work:

Fifty50's have 10 players, with the ultimate aim being to finish in the top 5. When this is achieved the game stops and everyone is paid, but with one main twist.... the amount you get paid depends on your finishing stack. 

For example: A $30 game ($28.63 + $1.37) Will be paid as follows: 1st-5th each receive their $28.63 entry fee + $0.95 for every 100 chips in their stacks. So, if you finish on 4,000 chips you will receive $28.63 + $38 = $66.63.

My approach:

As I've never properly played these games, I'm not sure how aggressive to play. I have an idea in my head that I want my VPIP to be around 14-18 per game, with my PFR being a similar figure to my VPIP. You can make profit in these games with an ITM of under 50% by playing bubbles aggressively - therefore finishing on higher chip stacks. You can have an ITM of 65% and have the same profit as a player on 45% as you could play with a lower VPIP and keep sneaking into the money with low chip stacks. I think the way I play will depend on how many regs are on my table in each game, and I will have to adapt to their HUD readings. Overall, I predict I'll have an ITM around 58%, with most of my cashes being 2nd-5th. This prediction is based on my current playing style, I'm not an erratic and aggressive bubble player and might be guilty of taking a decent stack into the bubble and playing it safe into the top 5. If this tactic doesn't bring me a consistent profit I will have no problem adapting, after all I am experimenting in the lower stakes for a few months to try and work out my approach to these games for 2014.

Updates:

I am going to be playing $1.50 games to start. I am hoping to play 500 games and be in profit. This may sound like a simple task, but I feel Fifty50's will prove to be very different from other standard SNG's. I will update after every 100 games, and if it all goes to plan I'll move up to $3.50 games and see how my new found style plays against better opposition going forward. 

I am looking forward to getting stuck into this now, it could be the start of something very special! 

Liam (The Reflex2)