From Micro Stakes To $10,000 - Interview With Pavel 'Cornie4ever' Stehno
One of the team at PokerStrategy.com recently completed a challenge to turn $50 into $10,000, using our poker training material along the way. Find out how he did it, and what he learned about the journey from micro to midstakes.
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| Cornie4Ever |
Anyone who thinks online poker is unbeatable needs to check out Pavel 'cornie4ever' Stehno's achievement. He is the Business Unit Manager for our Czech community and a few months ago, he completed a personal challenge to turn a $50 bankroll on PartyPoker into $10,000.
Throughout the entire challenge, he documented his many ups and downs on his blog (Czech only). He began his challenge in August 2011; 10 months and 317,229 hands later he had reached his $10,000 goal.
PokerStrategy.com editor caught up with our man cornie4ever shortly after the conclusion of this challenge for an interview about the highs and lows of taking $50 to five figures.
How did he do it?
"I started at NL2 full ring on PartyPoker," says cornie4ever. "I was playing between 9-12 tables at once. When I played more tables, I saw the quality of my game drop, so it was not +EV to play more tables.
"For total beginners, I recommend playing 2 or 3 tables at NL2 full ring. I played full ring until NL10; when I reached NL25, I switched to short handed tables."
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| Pavel's NL2 graph (click for bigger) |
Pavel's NL4 graph (click for bigger) |
Even more impressively, cornie4ever began this challenge without the aid of a first deposit bonus and no rakeback.
"It was my plan to crush micro stakes with my skill & winrate only, and by the time the field was tougher (at NL50 and above), I would get a winrate boost from bonuses. So until NL25, I more or less relied on my skill, occasional reload bonuses, and the monthly promotions of PartyPoker and PokerStrategy.com.
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| Pavel's NL10 graph (click for bigger) | Pavel's NL25 graph (click for bigger) |
"This was also the reason I chose PartyPoker for the challenge, they have the lowest rake on micro stakes, and from NL25+, there is awesome cashback value through PokerStrategy.com - plus there are a lot of soft games."
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| Pavel's NL50 graph (click for bigger) | Pavel's NL100 graph (click for bigger) |
"I didn't mind investing so much time in the micros because I felt I could get to NL50 soon enough (which proved incorrect as it took me five months). I had actually never played below NL100 before this challenge."
"I enjoyed helping the community more than grinding for profit."
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| Winning $10k on PartyPoker |
PokerStrategy.com: What prompted this challenge in the first place?
cornie4ever: I'd been playing MTTs and didn't want to continue them because of the sleepless nights. I didn't have any motivation to start grinding midstakes cash again, plus I was worried I wouldn't be competitive there after a 4-month 'MTT break'.
Our Czech/Slovak community was started in May 2011 and we had a lot of beginners who struggled on micro stakes. The community has a great atmosphere and I realised I enjoyed helping the community more than grinding for my own profit.
So I decided to help our beginners by playing micro stakes too, and sharing knowledge and tips on my blog. We called it a challenge to make it more fun and allow others to join."
PokerStrategy.com: When did the standard of the players noticeably change between two limits?
cornie4ever: NL2 all the way to NL25 is easily beatable with a strategy advice available from PokerStrategy.com articles, videos and coaching. In other words, if you get rid of basic blunders and play a solid, tight-aggressive strategy, you will be a winning player.
NL50 is a crazy limit; people 3bet and call 3bets preflop with absolutely ridiculous frequencies and hands. They also 4bet and 5bet weirdly preflop. NL100 is a nit-fest. Players who made it through NL50 are capable of folding and know how to play tight. They sometimes 3bet light preflop too much, but fold to 4bets. Nobody 5bets light.
PokerStrategy.com: So which limit did you find toughest on your journey up?
cornie4ever: For me the most difficult was NL100, as I have a natural problem with being a calling station - I always paid off the nits. It cost me a lot of stacks to find out what was going on. Don't make the same mistake: take a big piece of paper, write "Fold the river!" on it and stick it on your screen.
"If you don't have the skill to beat your stakes, move down and study."
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| Cornie4Ever in Vegas |
PokerStrategy.com: Did you encounter many downswings on your journey?
cornie4ever: I had three major downswings, they are visible on the graphs [see above]. The first was at NL2, where I had a 10 buy-in downswing - quite scary, given I started with 25 buy-ins and it is the lowest limit.
It was just variance. I kept a good mindset and managed to stay calm, play well and fight through. It was also a nice story for the beginning of the challenge.
A bigger problem came at NL25 and NL50. I switched to short 6-max and was not even able to judge what was a downswing and what was stupidity.
It was a frustrating and weird feeling to not have things under my control. My graphs from those limits looked like cardio shocks. For these limits I strongly recommend everybody to use hand judging forums a lot. It is the only way to find out where you are, and it worked for me.
"It was painful moving back down to lower limits"
PokerStrategy.com: How often did you have to drop down back to a lower limit?
cornie4ever: Lots of times. If I was not successful with a shot at a higher limit, I had to grind a lower limit again to build my bankroll for a further attempt.
It is painful to move back down, I had a hard time accepting it. But it is part of the game and if players don´t move down fast enough, they can go bust.
In the end, skill is most important. If you don't have the skill to beat your current stakes comfortably, move down and study more. It is a long game, and what prevails in the end is the simple fact; are you better than the majority of the field? If yes, you will win. If not, you need to go down the limits (or bust, if you don't accept it).
PokerStrategy.com: Tell us about the learning material you used along the way?
cornie4ever: I began with the No Limit articles. There is a lot of good knowledge hidden mostly in Bronze and Silver articles and I read them all. With Gold to Platinum articles, I recommend to read only ad-hoc what you feel you need.
Then I watched a lot of videos and observed plenty of coachings. They show you how to use that theory in practice. Last but not least were the the strategy forums. Post your own hands and judge others in the forum.
"I learned that I'm a fish and it is good to accept that."
PokerStrategy.com: What did you learn about poker as a result of doing this challenge?
cornie4ever: I learned that I'´m a fish and it is good to accept that. Poker is such a complex game and you can´t understand it all at once. What you can do is to study slowly and try to become better than your opponents. We have a lot of great coaches and video producers who helped me progress in the games - big thanks to all of them.
If one decided to study and invest some time in the game, it is possible to beat a lot of opponents and enjoy the game of poker. The good thing is, we are a community; a lot of people share good knowledge and you can easily use it to improve your game.
Building a bankroll from the micro stakes is still possible, if you have a goal and determination. There is also one important thing to realise - at the beginning, everybody is a losing or break even player.
Studying poker is an investment which will not bring results immediately. Once you start being good, it comes fast and you are able to climb from NL4 to NL100 relatively easy, because the basics of the game are still the same.
Pavel's overall results (click for bigger image)
Want to climb the ranks yourself?
Pavel showed that it is not impossible to climb the ranks in poker, so what are you waiting for? You can have access to all the same learning material he did.
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