Like cousteer i have also enjoyed following your thread

atm most of the games i play are 18 man and 45 man $3 and $6 with occasional $16 18 man thrown in

Your rollercoaster ride is exactly what life is like in these games and i applaud you for sticking to it, having faith in your game and after all of it, coming out better off in the end (ROI, bankroll, and theory wise)

Now when you are deep in a large MTT with a stack anywhere from 5BB to 15BB, your decisions will be eeeeezy and snap!

Like always though, just need a little bit of run good juice and you'll be away laughing

GL man

Games played: 300

Starting BR: $1389.91

Current BR: $1643.11

Winnings: $253.20

ROI: 13%

I got what I hoped for and hit a pretty nice upswing before I finished. Good thing because I do not plan to play these ever again. I think that these do not prepare you for real final tables because we are all so short in these and the money jumps just aren't there for you to practice and get used to like I was looking for. I'm glad though because now I can start grinding for some real scores.

Days left: 0

Games left: 40

Remaining cost: $260

Current BR: $1492.71

Games left: 80

Remaining cost: $520

Current BR: $1504.31

Today is crunch time! I probably won't finish before 5/01 like I was aiming for but I'm sure I'll be done by the end of it. I just hope I can get one more fat upswing or at least not a big downswing.

if you dont achieve your goal, go again next month. 

Games left: 120/2= 60/day

Remaining cost: $780

Current BR: $1440.31

Now were talking! I've toned the aggression down a bit and focused more on getting my money in good rather than going out of my way and trying bully everyone. I have finally learned that no matter what I do, I just can't get them to fold those premiums.

My only concern now is that I won't meet the deadline. These don't load fast enough and I'm afraid I'll have to grind them during the slow hours in order to make it.

geep going, you look like you are on the right track

Games left: 160/4= 40/day

Remaining cost: $1040

Current BR: $1257.51

Although this looks really bad, I actually feel really good about how I have been playing. I was surprised by how little I tilted and losing didn't seem to bother me. I felt like I was concentrating much more on the decision making and not the results. I was actually looking forward to bad beats because it confirms that I am +EV in these. I know I am playing well and using skill while the majority of these other players are completely clueless and must rely on luck. However, they were getting extremely lucky and there wasn't much I could do. I counted 4 times in these past 40 games where I got AA AIPF, and lost 3 of them. Sometimes it seems like a joke but I try to look at it as self-control challenge where the poker gods are trying everything they can to get me to tilt. It helps keep me level-headed but there are times when I just want to forget it and yell out, "F*** YOU POKER GODS!". I'm sure it will turn around soon.

When i was a member at sitngogrinders.com this subject came up A LOT. Handling variance and eventual questioning if you are actually playing correctly/ making the right moves/ leading to smashing the desktop/wanting to kill someone etc. and the overwhelming advice from the pro's is that you really have to push through it all. Keep studying, keep reviewing your hands, keep analysing spots. Hell they push through 100buy in down swings sometimes (thats what they say anyway) and bugger me i never got close to that. It is the nature of the game and the people who learn how to handle this, and handle it faster, are the one's who succeed.

Keep in mind the higher the starting field the higher the variance and that turbo's just add to the swings.

I reckon you're not doing bad at all.

It looks like from around game 34-60 and from game 75-100 you had downswings of approx $100. This is only 17 or so buy in's, on the light side i reckon.

Dont second guess yourself is my advice.

Keep your head down and love bad beats! After all, if you get bad beat, you somehow ended up with your chips in the middle with the best of it! cant ask for much more than that.

Good luck and keep it up

Games left: 200/5= 40/day

Remaining cost: $1300

Current BR: $1387.91

Grinding these seems hopeless to me. I can't stand the variance at all. Even if you manage to build a big stack, once the blinds get big enough, you can easily lose a few pots and go from chip leader to short stack or busto. Short-term luck rules in these since you are rarely able to do anything other than shove/fold and it really just comes down to who's dealt what in the end. Attempting to raise/fold with a 10bb stack left me in really awkward spots
where I was always getting decent odds to call and not sure if I was
being played back at or actually ran into a strong hand. I would much rather shove and avoid these tough decisions. Any suggestions out there?

Days left: 6

Games left: 240/6= 40/day

Remaining cost: $1560

Current BR: $1388.71

I officially hate these 18m's. They're too much like STT's and the variance is really tilting. It's not so much tilting from a single game but when I'm on a cold streak like this, hitting brick after brick, I start getting frustrated. At least I know I ran extremely bad. I lost a lot of important flips and on top of that, a lot of my premiums were not getting paid off--whereas I would pay off so many of theirs by shoving right into them--and usually I just took down the blinds when I had them. I feel that this is also considered running bad because these turbo games rarely last longer than 100 hands so you must get the most value that you can from every premium you're dealt. So as for adjustments, I'm going to try get more value from all my hands now and not bet players out just because I'm scared of a draw or something. But besides that I must also recognize when I'm up against regs who have seen how I play because I have started to see some myself and wasn't aware that there were as many as I've seen so far. And since these are like STT's, I'm going to start treating the blinds differently and value my stack more. I think I'm too used to playing in regular MTT's where it's okay to be shoving your stack for 15bb's and I seem to get into that push/fold mode too early. Perhaps I'll start to raise/fold with a 10bb stack and see if I get played back at more or if everyone remains nitty. Maybe then I can escape from their monsters.