How samni crushed the Bankroll Challenge

After a two year break our member has just scored big in an MTT to be the latest player to complete their Bankroll Challenge.

Hi samni, congratulations to your success in your Bankroll Challenge. How well are you used to these long grinds? How long was it?

samni: Hi, thanks a lot! I'm pretty used to very long sessions. As long as I can remember, tournament poker has been my favourite form of poker and you can't play tournaments without having enormous grinds so I can say a 10 hour session or so doesn't really scare me. This session in particular wasn't a really long one. I think The Big 7.5 was the first tournament I registered for so I think I wrapped it up in around 8 hours.

Many cash game specialists might now become more interested in joining MTTs, what would be your three tips to stay focussed in MTTs for the long grinds?

samni: 1. Music, I can't play five hands correctly if I don't have my music on, especially when multitabling. When I'm down to one table and it's not very deep, I often load up a stream or a TV show to keep me from spewing.

2. Food and drinks, make sure you drink enough and that you have access to food quickly. There's nothing more tilting than wanting to eat but not having the time to get it.

3. Take the breaks you are given. I know some pro's like ‘Tonkaaaa’ and Doug Polk mostly run Spin and Go's during breaks and they are the best in the world so who am I to judge but from a healthy point of view, you should really take the five minute break you are given each hour to start of fresh the next one.

"I've tried and failed to become a pro"

What’s the craziest thing you have done to finish an MTT - Cash players are afraid of having to use "the bottle" when there is no break in sight?

samni: I haven't done too much crazy things. My bathroom is right next to my man cave so no problem there, I can even use it when not on break if I hurry. I think the craziest thing I did was driving for 50 km to play a $22 MTT because the internet at my dorm broke down.

What are your favourite tournament typesand structures? What was your biggest success so far?

samni: I play all kind of tournaments, turbos, non turbos, Bubble Rush. The only tournaments I really don't like playing are Zoom ones and Ante Ups. These kinda require a different approach and while multi-tabling, this isn't very convenient. It's hard to choose one big success but I think that up to today, the result I've been most proud of was winning the Daily Dollar on Full Tilt poker. It's a $1 tournament with 10,000 entrants that started at 2:15am and finished at 13.30 pm. It was a $1.6k ship and if I busted one hour earlier I would've won $150 for 9th which would be really tilting as I wouldn't have had any sleep either.

"I quit poker for two years"

How did you start your poker career? How and why did you move to MTTs?

samni: I've been playing poker for 10 years now although I had quit poker for the last two years. I restarted back in May. I've always been a SNG or tournament player. In the beginning I played 9-man SNGs and when I had like $200 in my bankroll, I started mixing in tournaments. After a very tilting live experience, I decided to quit but my girlfriend wanted to bet back in May that I couldn't turn $25 into a bankroll anymore since I haven't played for so long. Boy, did I prove her wrong.

What are you doing to counter the long grinds - doing lots of sports or relaxing?

samni: I play some tennis every once in a while and I can enjoy watching movies but I don't really have the feeling that I have to counter long grinds. If I'm not feeling it, I simply don't play, easy as that.

Would you dream of becoming a poker pro?

samni: Hell no, I've tried and I failed. My mindset isn't good enough for that. I can't live with the feeling that I lose the amount of money some ppl have to work for months for. I know it's standard for high stakes MTT poker pro's but it's just not my destiny I think. Back in the days I played staked and I was allowed to play pretty high stakes and even then the guilt of losing "so much money" wasn't a pleasant feeling.

How many % does your girlfriend claim of any win? What would be the ultimate goal with poker?

samni: I told her she isn't to claim anything until I hit the $10k mark, until then I'll use my roll to move up and to have shots for bigger money. I'm not seeing it as money at this point, I'm just playing cards and those are pixels on my screen. I restarted with $25 back in May and I can live with the feeling of losing that so in my perspective I'm not even playing with money. I'm playing to achieve higher levels and we'll see what happens once (and if) I make really big money one day.

Let's end with a fun question: which famous Poker pro's would you like to go on a two weeks vacation with?

samni: ‘Tonkaaaa’, I think that dude has the perfect balance in his life and he's making tons of money while playing a card game. His streams are super enjoyable and he's Always in for a good laugh. If you're talking about high-stakes poker-episodes kind of guys I'd choose Phil Laak because he can turn every single situation into a hilarious one!

Thanks very much good luck in your next challenge

This week's results

The winner of a status upgrade this week is......ettorek!

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