Bond18 grinding online

PokerNews caught up with Tony "Bond18" Dunst to see how he grinds online. Bond is his usual calm, laid-back self in the interview. Nothing too revealing but he does give a few tips on getting yourself set-up to grind.

Cash game

Last Sunday I played in a cash game with a group of friends from APL. I haven't seen some of them for a while so I was keen to catch up with them as well as test my skills of course. Since its a poker group, its always a tough challenge rather than just playing against friends.

It wasn't high stakes, $20 buy-in, ring game format and 5c/10c blinds. Buy-ins allowed and there ranged from 6 to 10 players throughout the afternoon. Things started fairly slowly for me and everyone was fairly cautious early on. I didn't see many cards early and when I did I was catching middle pair but someone almost always had top pair and was playing it passively.

I won a hand here and there but it wasn't until mid-way through where I got in to my biggest hand of the day. I had pocket 8's in the small blind and I think there was only one limper from early position. I chose not to raise and hoped obviously to catch a set ... flop, king 5 8 ... nice! I checked, big blind checked and the other person bet (like she had the king). I umm'd and ahhh'd and made the call, hoping the big blind but come too but he folded. Next card out was another 5 and I again check-called. The river brought another 5 and since there was a bit of money in the pot and my opponent now also had a full-house, I decided to lead out to make sure I got paid. Thankfully my bet paid off as I got min re-raised by my opponent and after a minute or two I decided to push all-in as I knew she didn't have a 5 (or pocket kings). She tanked for a long while and her worrying thought was that I had aces but ruled that out since she thought it unlikely I would play them so passively pre-flop. Eventually she said, "Sorry Roger, I have to call" ... to which I obviously had no problem with as she turned over king jack and scooped in a sizable pot as she rebought.

A little while later the girl from above raised my big blind, small blind called and I had ace king suited and decided to just see a flop and re-assess. The flop came ace, 10, rag so after the small blind checked, I led out causing the initial raiser to fold but the small blind called. I figured she had the 10 or a worse ace so was fine with her call. The turn came a jack which also gave me the nut flush draw and a straight so I bet and was check-minraised by the small blind. With top pair top kicker and a number of good draws still in play I of course made the call. The river was perfect for me as I made the flush and after the small blind checked I bet solidly and was snap-called by the small blind who turned over two pair, jack ten.

The last significant hand for me was when a loose player raised solidly pre and I had queens in the small blind and re-raised. I got a snap call and we saw a ten high flop heads-up. I led out solidly because there was a flush draw and possible straight draws on the board ... snap-call. At this stage I'm putting her on either a good ace that hasn't yet hit or low to mid pockets and I'm wary of a set. Another low card on the turn so I bet solidly again and again got a call. The flush draw gets there on the river so I check, thinking I'll likely call depending on the bet should it come but my opponent checked turning over pocket 6's and I scoop the pot.

Other than folding jacks verse aggression on the turn of a 7 9 9 flop, I stayed out of trouble and ended up walking out of the game with $50. Not too bad an effort for me, considering the $20 buy-in, low blinds and my lack of cash game experience.

Start of August

Apologies for hardly blogging of late, business has been good, I've been pretty social and have been consistently getting to the gym 3 or 4 times a week.

August started very badly. The plan was to play a lot more of the $6.50 45 man games because it was time to get the bankroll moving a bit quicker than it has been. It seems like I've floated around the $1200 - $1400 mark for a few months now. The $3.25 45 man games I beat consistently with an ROI of around 15% but I just haven't been able to put in a large volume for the last few months.

So with that in mind, the first Saturday (8th) I had no plans during the day so decided to get some volume in. The weekends is essentially the only time I get to play large field MTT's so I was playing those with a couple of 45's (a mix of $3.25's and $6.50's) running at the same time. I did ok in a few of the MTT's without breaking through for a big score but for the life of me I couldn't do anything right or make anything happen in the 45's. Considering they are my specialty ... I played more than 20 and cashed just ONE ... and yes, that was a min-cash. HORRIBLE

As you can imagine, that isn't great for the bankroll and I think I dropped $150 - $200 in that one session. Sure, not much, but when my bankroll was around $1400 ... that's more than 10%. Disappointed would be an understatement. I had a couple of days away from the table after that and since then I've been fighting my way back. The last 2 sessions have started off very slowly (8 and 9 no-cashes in a row), plenty of suck-outs in the first few games but I've finished each strongly to finish each profitably.

My ROI for August sits down 10% on OPR so far, my bankroll is just over $1280 ... I'd like to get it over $1500 very soon. I feel I'm playing quite well, picking my spots better and have added a few different steals in to the mix ... hopefully the results will follow.

July numbers

Wow ... a month since I've posted ... very slack I know.

I guess the main reason I hadn't been blogging is that I hadn't actually been playing that much. Yes, I was still following the WSOP very closely online but July turned out to be more of a social month for me and there wasn't the same time for poker.

Period Full Tracking Last 120 days Year 2010 Year 2009 Year 2008 Year 2007 ? <> 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2009 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2008 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2007 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2006 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January with estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) without estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) View by Game Game Size All Holdem NL Holdem L/PL Omaha Omaha HiLo Other Games

ITM Finishes 1st 1 1st ties 0 2nd 5 3rd 2 4-10th 10

MTT Avg. Finish% Early 3% (10%) EM 9% (20%) Mid. 47% (40%) ML 27% (20%) Late 13% (10%)

HU/STT/MTT * Prizes Profit ROI ABI AFS R/A ITM ITM Heads-Up 2 player $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Single Table 3-10 $0 <$0 -100% $5.10 9 0% 0/1 0% Multi Table 11-45 $342 $53 18% $3.25 45 0% 18/89 20% Multi Table 46-180 $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Multi Table 181- $8 <$0 -55% $3.15 3313 33% 2/6 33% $350 $37 12% $3.26 249 2% 20/96 21%

As you can see from the table, the main number that jumps out is only 96 games played. Normally even if I'm not playing heaps that number is closer to 200.

The finish % breakdown is very similar to normal but I failed to get the wins and deep finishes to make it a more profitable month. ONE single win for the month just isn't going to get it done, but when you play less than 100 games, its unlikely they'll be too many more victories.

I've been playing a few more rebuy MTT's of late, so while my 181+ game numbers look bad on paper, they're probably not as bad in real life since I don't churn through rebuys like many looser plays do.

Anyway, I've already racked up more games in the start of August than I did in July so I'll be posting more regularly from now on.

Main Event update

Work's not crazy busy at the moment so I have been following closely the World Series of Poker updates on Poker News and Twitter.

One of my friends who I play with in the APL actually won his way in to the main event but wasn't able to make it past day 2. Apparently he ran kings in to aces and pocket 2's ... yes, you guessed it, the 2's won the hand with quads.

Plenty of the big names have already fallen but for me its great to see so many of the guys I follow online doing so well. Nick Rainey (MI_turtle) is leading the way and was one of the top 3 stacks for much of day 3. Tony Dunst (Bond18), Alex Fitzgerald (Assassinato) and Jay Rosenkrantz (pr1nnyraid) are all still in the running and all have good stacks going in to day 4. My fingers are crossed for all of them and hopefully they can make it through to day 5.

Most of the "live" players that I'm a fan of have been knocked out already. Kenny Tran was the last man standing but got knocked out late on day 4 after flopping top set.

The story of the day tho was the run of two-time champ, Johnny Chan. It would be GREAT for poker if he can make it deep in this tournament. There's 1240 players left and we don't even reach the money until we're left with 747.

June numbers

Period Full Tracking Last 120 days Year 2010 Year 2009 Year 2008 Year 2007 ? <> 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2009 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2008 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2007 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2006 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January with estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) without estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) View by Game Game Size All Holdem NL Holdem L/PL Omaha Omaha HiLo Other Games

ITM Finishes 1st 5 1st ties 0 2nd 6 3rd 8 4-10th 23

MTT Avg. Finish% Early 3% (10%) EM 8% (20%) Mid. 52% (40%) ML 27% (20%) Late 10% (10%)

HU/STT/MTT * Prizes Profit ROI ABI AFS R/A ITM ITM Heads-Up 2 player $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Single Table 3-10 $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Multi Table 11-45 $978 $133 16% $4 45 0% 42/211 20% Multi Table 46-180 $4 <$0 -90% $2.20 180 0% 1/19 5% Multi Table 181- $38 <$0 -74% $4.66 2156 59% 5/32 16% $1,020 <$0 -1% $3.95 313 7% 48/262 18%

June started well, but headed south in the middle, I had a solid run in the last few days to get almost back to break-even.

PokerStars were running a large WSOP Main Event satellite so I attempted a number of times to qualify through their $1 rebuy satellites. The play was unbelievably bad and I couldn't get hands to hold so that's the reason my MTT numbers above are so poor.

I'm glad my bread and butter game the 45 shows a decent return as I played a lot more $6.50 45 mans and did ok in them.

So to analyse the numbers above, yes, technically it was a losing month but I don't believe I rebought in the satellites as many times as most people would've. The telling numbers tho are not enough 1st place finishes and not enough late finishes (top 10%) ... that's where the money and the profit comes from and I just wasn't there often enough.

I really haven't been playing much of late as I've been working on a few other things so wouldn't be concentrating like I should. I played last night and upon checking OPR that was the first time I had played online in 9 days! I had a slightly winning session last night and have done ok again this morning. I'm still in one MTT and will head to the gym once its over. Bankroll currently sits at $1316.

Bond18 teaches you to grind

Came across a great post on Two Plus Two from Tony "Bond18" Dunst. Its long, but its well worth the read. Click on the title below to read the full story.

The Theory of Grinding (TL;DR) - MTT Community - Multi Table Tournament Poker Community

It will come as a surprise to very few people that those who become the most talented at a certain skill set are those who practice the most and spend their time the most efficiently. It's no secret that in order to excel at something, you have to do it with enormous volume, repetition, and frequency, particularly if it is in a field where your competition will be doing likewise. Poker is just such a field, and a difficult field to stay at the top of because its demand for time forces us into a conflict of interest between pursuing excellence within the game and pursuing our passions outside of it in order to become a more well rounded person. Additionally, a sect of our competition will have few interests or activities outside of poker, lending them the opportunity to envelop themselves within the game and with a fervor that is difficult to match for those of us with more obligations.

What many people aren't aware of is their potential. We generally assume that we are naturally talented at certain activities and functions and that our capacity for learning the others is limited by genetics, resources, time, opportunity, or our own apathy. As a result of years of social conditioning we have had programmed into our personalities what are known as 'limiting beliefs': assumptions we make about we are able and unable to do based on our own experiences, what society has told/taught us, and the feedback we get from peers and loved ones. Limiting beliefs are especially restrictive and damaging to those who have no prior success to draw upon; if you were never successful at one thing what makes you think you could possibly be successful at something else? We often believe that we are capable of what we are currently doing and perhaps a little more, and few of us have the confidence, ambition, or sheer audacity to believe that we have the ability to be elite at something, particularly something that's highly competitive. The truth is however, that you have a near endless supply of potential and options, and over the last few years I have watched my own limiting beliefs get shattered so many times that I now understand that near anything is possible.