Updated on 21 Feb 26 by
Barry carter
Poker Expert

Learn how Damlqv completed the Bankroll Challenge

We interview the first player to complete the Bankroll Challenge. Plus, find out how you are doing in the current standings.

Congrats on being the first player to complete their challenge in just three months. How did you manage it and what was your bankroll management strategy?

 Damlqv: I actually started playing NL50 with around 25BI taking a shot at it. I played a decent volume at NL50 before so was pretty sure I could play at those stakes. Other than that I was just running very hot in the end.

Tell us about your poker career to date:

 Damlqv: I started playing a little in 2009, depositing $10 or $20 every once in a while. I played various cash games and some SNGs and tournaments. I started taking it seriously in 2010 where I played live tournaments with $20 buy in in Australia at the local bars. When I came back to Denmark in fall I started playing FLHE and started winning consistently.

How do you combine Poker & Fun - is poker fun for you?

 Damlqv: Poker is fun for me, I can’t play all day but the first few hours are usually fun for me. It can be hard to balance study and poker, sometime I probably spent too much time on poker and too little on my studies.

Graph
Damlqv's winning graph

You already re-joined the BR challenge with an even bigger goal. What's your goal with the winnings? We heard you like travelling a lot!

 Damlqv: My plan is, as the name of my blog says, to have a BR for Vegas. For now I don’t know when I will be there, plan is to travel to south of Argentina and Chile from January. Ideally I would have enough money to travel and be properly rolled for live games of $2/$4, maybe even higher. I’ve had pretty good results in these games before but then spend all my winnings on my trip afterwards.

What is your philosophy at the tables, how do you try to outsmart your opponents, what style do you play?

 Damlqv: I have previously tried to outplay people and be very aggressive, now I try to play a more patient and solid style. Aggression is necessary at NL50 but I try not to spew too much. In general I have learned mostly from watching videos at PokerStrategy.com, when I have time I watch or rewatch at least two videos a week.

What is your advice for our other challengers trying to beat the micro stakes?

 Damlqv: Play solid, there is a lot more value in letting others spew than trying to outplay them. If you, like me, feel like you keep running into setups, take a step back and see if you really have to stack off in these spots. People are not going to realize and exploit you on NL10 if you fold a little too often.

Beer and Poker

Onto our other challengers and a good week for LemOn36 whose first full week in the challenge included beer, parties, girls, sport and lots of poker

On a similar theme, our member KNNgroup learned a very important lesson this week - beer and poker do not mix!

Maybe he should listen to sftpn , who this week has started to overcome a tilt issue by reading Jared Tendler's book. 

We would also like to welcome our newest challengers as123st and IPtkv. In particular a big lucky welcome to IPtkv because he is the lucky winner this week of a status upgrade!

You can win an upgrade too. Join our challenge today!

Top  of the week!
Rank Nickname
Profit Rang 7 anomic $479
Hands Rang 2 kevin2001 24,443
Bankroll increase Rang 1 adelaar 110%

Overall results to date
Rank Nickname Hands/
MTTs
BR BR+
  $
BR+
  %
goal
Rang 7 anomic 4508 $3,033 479 19% $5,000
Rang 6 gooncal1 $898 -12 -1% $2,000
Rang 5 vainis $383 0% $1,000
Rang 4 kidzoltan 3905 $7,573 -67 -1% $20,000
Rang 3 zilltine $11,237 0% $50,000
Rang 3 kingkas 5000 $183 74 68% $1,000
Rang 3 lenny010 110 $730 155 27% $2,500
Rang 3 kkngroup 1077 $223 -23 -9% $1,000
Rang 3 djolusvicenus $792 0% $5,000
Rang 3 lemon36 10743 $716 216 43% $2,500
Rang 3 seagalsteven $1,617 0% $6,000
Rang 2 damlqv 9525 $2,731 62 2% $10,000
Rang 2 kevin2001 24443 $4,496 88 2% $40,000
Rang 2 vonki 1554 $174 -1 -1% $1,500
Rang 2 sftpn 5600 $363 119 49% $1,500
Rang 2 elpsycho 1941 $1,132 -151 -12% $5,000
Rang 2 keekkini $231 0% $1,000
Rang 2 agapiegheorghe 2572 $118 4 4% $1,000
Rang 2 coreysteel 2055 $88 14 19% $1,000
Rang 2 david1345 11458 $589 156 36% $3,000
Rang 2 guners89 77 $76 34 81% $1,000
Rang 2 jcseerup 10643 $401 -30 -7% $5,000
Rang 2 thebaptist333 14415 $226 43 23% $1,000
Rang 2 gadget51 $219 0% $1,600
Rang 2 negwin 5341 $85 13 18% $1,000
Rang 2 wlcked $192 0% $2,000
Rang 2 iptkv 12215 $219 43 24% $2,000
Rang 2 dreamc4t $651 0% $5,000
Rang 2 scaletta 49 $746 -16 -2% $4,200
Rang 2 spidey1978 1495 $102 2 2% $1,000
Rang 1 asimos $5,012 0% $100,000
Rang 1 gosuopossum1 $1,000 0% $50,000
Rang 1 wanmh $49 0% $1,000
Rang 1 rupucis2 160 $149 -13 -8% $1,000
Rang 1 rmsjoshua 4032 $43 -3 -7% $1,000
Rang 1 noname81 $9 0% $1,000
Rang 1 getrey $125 0% $4,500
Rang 1 churchilland $18 0% $5,000
Rang 1 thiamtan $134 0% $2,500
Rang 1 confidant91 15.550 $1,469 219 18% $10,000
Rang 1 as123st 4335 $59 -18 -23% $1,000
Rang 1 adelaar 1000 $21 11 110% $1,000
Rang 1 insanityonfire 3226 $322 -41 -11% $3,000
Rang 1 nmilan84 1938 $282 6 2% $2,500
Rang 1 alleen86 3019 $746 -34 -4% $5,305
Finisher
# Rank Nick Profit
1 Rang 12 moneymakerzzz $1,200
2 Rang 12 cambocat $1,000
3 Rang 12 damlqv $1,700

Our challenge continues and you have the opportunity to join at any given time. Being late in is not a problem at all. 

Simply register, create your blog and share your results with our other participants on a weekly basis. We want to give you a regular update once a week - this requires that all participants give us their updates once a week. Failed? No Biggie! We'll remind you with the , but a second one would mean you're out until you re-join. Feel free to request holidays in the reporting thread - so we know you're off!

We wish you the best of luck and hope you misclick fold Kings when your opponent has Aces!

Get rich or Die Tryin' - The Bankroll Challenge

Poker Expert

Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2, Poker Satellite Strategy, PKO Poker Strategy, Endgame Poker Strategy, GTO Poker Simplified, Mystery Bounty Poker Strategy and Beyond GTO. In 2025, he won the Global Poker Awards for Best Book and Twitter Personality of the Year.