I’ve been talking about this for several years now—five or six, no less. This is exactly what my first post on bitB’s Instagram was dedicated to. From the very beginning of my career in MTTs, it was obvious to me that Sunday was the key day that would decide whether I was a prince or dirt. Looking back at the results, I see that all my main victories came either in series or on Sundays. When I demand that you don't miss a game on Sundays, that applies to series too. Still, I won most of my money in Sunday tournaments.
For a low-limit player, the most profitable tournament will be Big11, for mid-stakes – Sunday Million, where one deep run is enough. Huge fields allow for a very high ROI, and this is our best chance. The ROI will always be lower on Monday because the fields will be much smaller due to amateurs who don't play every day and are resting after the Sunday grind.
What does a typical Monday look like for a professional? You sit down at around six in the evening, register for suitable tournaments, and around ten you stop joining new ones because there is nothing interesting on the schedule.
Today is Monday, this is what the lobby looks like with a $40 to $500 filter.
Bounty Builder for $215 starts at half past four. This is a tournament with a high buy-in and a large field, but it is PSKO, which means it is advisable to play it from the very beginning. However, there are practically no other suitable tournaments at the same time. This means that I will have to play 4-5 tables for quite a long time or go to late registration, sacrificing the wait.
Go ahead. BB for $44 is a good tournament. Big $109 is bad. Omaha tournament – most people don't play Omaha. Hot $82 – very low expectation. Mini BB for $55 is an amazing tournament, a very high EV. Hyper for $82 – not interested. PSKO for $55 is a good tournament, decent ROI. BB for $109 is a great tournament, good enough. Monday 6-max for $215 – a lot of regs, a lot of reentry, we don’t need that. Hot $55 is a turbo, the ROI in a turbo is always very low. $215 BB – If your average buy-in is closer to $50, you probably don't need to take a shot at this, the tournament is too tight for such a jump in limits. Next is Omaha, skip. Big $55 – once it collected 600 people, now – 200. It is quite possible to get an ROI of 15-20%, tolerable, but not fabulous. Hot $109 – not interested. PKO for $44 – add and collect your 10%. The Daily Cooldown starts at 10 pm for $109. This is a turbo, you can add-on, why not, let's do our 10-15%.
In parallel, there will be some tournaments on party, the same Gladiator, and some tournaments on GGPoker (although the structures there are usually disgusting and you have to gamble a lot). Of course, we will create some kind of grid and play it to the advantage. There will be about 25 tournaments in total. Usually, they can be placed quite comfortably into 8 tables. The average buy-in is, say, $50. A good working ROI for Monday is 10%. Predicted outcome? $225 wait.
Other rooms – ACR, Microgaming, Unibet, etc. – rarely offer anything decent on Mondays. Maybe you can add a table or two from there. They won't change the weather.
Let's compare this to Sunday. Of course, Sunday is a special day. We must be prepared to play for a long session because there are a lot of promising tournaments. You can run tournaments from three in the afternoon until eleven at night. Honestly, I would love to play long sessions on Mondays, but the rooms don’t provide this opportunity. And on Sunday you can get a good network as early as three o’clock in the afternoon. If there are not enough regular tournaments, the screen is easily filled with satellites with excellent anticipation.
A conservative estimate is that we will play 60 tournaments. It's likely that this number could easily be increased to 80. The average buy-in would be higher, say $125, because the weaker lineups in the more expensive tournaments would make them more attractive. Remember when we discussed BB for $215 on Monday and came to the conclusion that it was not necessary to play? The same tournament on Sunday becomes much more profitable, so I don’t think we should miss it. Sunday Million is strictly compulsory. GG Masters is strictly required. One Shot at the party is strictly required. You can even take a closer look at GG Masters 1k – say, invest $200 from yourself and sell 80% of the shares. For a player with an ABI of 50, there are plenty of ways to increase your buy-in on Sunday.
ROI increases due to weaker formulations. I'll rate it at 25%. What will our expectation be?
This is a conservative estimate. You can increase the volume of the game, raise the buy-in a little, pump yourself up, and raise the ROI to at least 30% – and the anticipation will fly to the skies.
Let's look at yesterday's Sunday session.
The Bounty Builder guarantee is now $200k, down from $35k. Right behind it is Sunday Warm-Up. It is a crime for a player with an ABI of $50 to miss these two tournaments. You will show an ROI of about 50% in them. One such tournament will give you a third of your total anticipation on Monday.
$44 BB Guarantee is now $200k. Your ROI will also increase dramatically. Bigger $109 is a so-so tournament. High Roller Club BB for $530 you won’t play every day, but on Sunday, I think it’s a must-have. If your average buy-in is $50, sell half and play it for $250. This is a great chance to win big money.
BB $55 becomes much more profitable. The Sunday Million is the most profitable tournament of them all, and it's within your reach. The BB $109 Guarantee on Sunday becomes two and a half times higher and increases your ROI. Next comes another BB for $215 with a $200k guarantee. I can go through the list for a long time, but the download will not be limited to Stars alone. There are quite a few decent tournaments to be found on ACR. Party also has an excellent offer, plus very profitable satellites. Lots of good tournaments on GG. Throughout Sunday, you can constantly play more than ten tables and at the same time select exceptionally good and profitable tournaments.
In my opinion, the anticipation for the session on Sunday is about ten times higher than on Monday.
Reload
Because this day is so important to us, Sunday should begin on Monday. Yesterday I played the Sunday session, today I started preparing for the next one. Since this is the most profitable day in terms of expectation and the most expensive in terms of buy-ins, all our preparation should be subordinated to a single goal – to approach Sunday in the best possible shape.
On this day we give our all. Registration for tournaments is from 15 to 23, then there are deep runs, and the session may well last until 4-5 in the morning. The next day we wake up exhausted. There will be no desire to play or study theory, sometimes you won’t even want to think about poker. And that's okay! Of course, you need to recharge. A new peak of energy should occur next Sunday.
Therefore, I advise you to take a break from poker on Monday and Tuesday. Play sports, take a walk, try to get some sleep, in general, regain your energy and taste for the game. It is very important. Pay attention to nutrition. I won't pretend to be an expert, but it's clear that we need to eat healthy and well. On Sunday this does not always work out, but on Monday and Tuesday, there is every opportunity for this.
Recuperating on Monday will give us much more of the little anticipation we can get at the tables.
Enthusiasm and positive attitude
Most of the Sunday sessions will end unsuccessfully. Waiting on this day brings huge gains, but most often luck will not be on our side. You definitely need to come to terms with this. Be prepared for regular disappointments. Most often, a 14-hour grind will not give any positive result. Against this background, it is easy to slip into negativity. Bitterness, envy, even towards close friends, are normal emotions, but you need to switch from them to something else as quickly as possible. Bring back positive emotions, remind yourself of the positive aspects of your life. We can afford local failures, because overall everything is going very well for us.
Working on the game
I save all the hands about which I had questions as screenshots. Yesterday I took about 25 screenshots.
Here's one: On the final table of a $5,200 tournament, I opened with AQo and got 3-bet by David Yang.
Should I go all in? Call? What is the expectation for these actions? I didn't have a clear answer.
Sunday helps me accumulate study material beyond what I usually do. It is better not to look for answers to all these questions on Saturday. When exactly? Depends on you. Some people are ready to work on the game on Monday, but it’s also possible on Tuesday or Wednesday. It's okay to take a couple of days off from poker, but starting on Wednesday you need to be mentally prepared to work hard on theory over the next four days.
My schedule and my habits work for me, but they may not work for you. Find your way. I sit down to study at 7-8 in the morning, and many people write to me: “Wow, you work so hard, wow!” No, I don’t sit at theory at 2-3 o’clock in the afternoon when you sit down!
Tournament grid and sale of shares
An extremely important topic. My approach? I wake up on Sunday, open the lobby, and see what tournaments interest me. I find interesting tournaments that are a little beyond the bankroll and negotiate the sale of shares. Don't give up on these tournaments because they're too big for your bankroll yet, but turn to backers. A more expensive tournament is an additional wait and an extremely important experience of playing against stronger opponents.
By selling 60-70% of the Sunday load at odds, you reduce variance dramatically. If you don't have that many potential backers, remember that having them is up to you. You need to make an impression on the poker world. Participate in discussions, create content, and be active! Or find a stable. The main thing to remember is that all professionals sell shares.
Life outside of poker
I keep a calendar with friends and family's birthdays, important dates, wedding days, and so on. Many people have holidays on Sundays. So when, for example, my friend's birthday approaches, I try to meet him on Friday or Saturday and have a good time.
My parents know well how important Sundays are for me – I showed them the calculations and tried to explain my position as best as possible. So when I visit them on a Sunday – like Christmas week – they try to do everything so that I can fully play my session. They can give me a good monitor if I come with a laptop, and they bring me food during the game. It seems so small and insignificant, but it helps a lot, believe me! Taking care of support from loved ones and explaining everything in advance is very useful. And when, after a bad Sunday, they remind you that this is part of the job, that everything will be fine, such support helps you recover much faster.
The day before
It's important to get enough sleep before Sunday. It is advisable to wake up later than usual, because the Sunday session can drag on, and strength is most needed at the very end when the cost of our decisions is sometimes comparable to the cost of a car or house. Therefore, on the night from Saturday to Sunday, I try to go to bed around six in the morning. I sleep until two o'clock in the afternoon, and that's enough for me to gain strength for the whole day.
Also, the day before, you need to restart your computer, make sure that all updates are downloaded and installed, and that your software subscriptions have not expired – we don’t want to waste time on this on the day of the game. Restart the router, and check the backup Internet. Order food, and prepare snacks and water. In general, do everything to free yourself as much as possible the next day from worries not directly related to the game.
This is a very important video. If you only watch this out of the entire course, the course will already benefit you. Try to evaluate the value of Sunday for you personally, work with Sharkscope, and compare different days of the week. Yes, the variance is higher on Sunday, and Mondays are reliable money, our bread and butter, but poker is a game in which we chase money, not stability. If you want stability, don’t cut short the wait, but sell more shares.