Event #37 is almost here

ok, fine. So I only get to go to Vegas for 4 days and play in 1 event. I am a rec. Not much I can do about it now... I've put in some solid study time in the past few months, shipping the $25 6 max knockout MTT twice, and really have a good feel for ranges.

Regardless of all of that, I haven't cashed in an online MTT large field in like a month. I've been playing the early levels well, but in the middle levels, I am not sure what is happening. Last night, I am not sure I could have avoided losing 20 BB when I kept 99 from folding pre by flatting, only to have him double through me on a Q9x flop. Even though at one point I have 1/3 of a STARTING stack, I still battled on for quite a while, even getting to 22BB again, only to have it fall apart on me at about the 25% mark.

Going to spend Father's Day in Vegas, NOT playing poker, then play Monday morning through the end. If I really flame out on Monday, I'll play the Venetian $500 on Tues.

My pre-flop game remains really good, my flop game is solid if not overly so, my TURN play can be better, and my river decisions, although solid, could be backed up with more range evidence when I bet or call. But I am still right far more than I am wrong. So I've been trying to concentrate on better TURN play as my target for improvement. "Based on the information available to me, am I making the max EV choice?" Despite being a game of incomplete information, there is a ton of information to process by the turn. Stack size drive behavior, as do flop texture and action, plus sometime Villain is playing his hand and sometime he is playing your range. Identifying which I think is sometimes BETTER than being balanced in an MTT?

Balance of ranges is all the rage, but it assumes your goal is not not be exploited. But then of course, you cant be exploitative. So being GTO early in an MTT seems worthless? In the middle stages, I think the jury is still out. After all, am I playing against a player or could I just play against the field (and its tenancies)? As the field narrows, or your Q gets >1.5, then it seems GTO has far more value.