Bankroll Challenge 2025
Week 63
Weekly loses -45 €
Starting bankroll 10 000€
Last Update 17 534€
Current Bankroll 17 489€
Goal Bankroll 60 000€
Hello grinders 
A small drop in bankroll, but I've got another ticket for Campione Main Event 
So now I have two attempts for the Main Event and hopefully I won't have to fire multiple bullets 
That looks like goals for your 6 travels abroad will be exceeded! Does your little one already know how to hold the cards (still some time though...)
Originally posted by SvenBe
That looks like goals for your 6 travels abroad will be exceeded! Does your little one already know how to hold the cards (still some time though...)
When I play on GG, she sometimes says: "Oh that funny clown got Aces" 
And for travels, I am aiming for 10 
Six alone from PokerStars Open probably 
Bankroll Challenge 2025
Week 64
Weekly profit 2038 €
Starting bankroll 10 000€
Last Update 17 489€
Current Bankroll 19 527€
Goal Bankroll 60 000€
Hello Grinders
Just got back from PokerStars Open festival in Campione, where I sneaked into the money, but only did that for 2x. From 2423 participants, I left the table in 273rd place, which is not bad but not great either. Overall, I am very happy with my play with maybe only one questionable call on the River in Level 2. But there were 3 more interesting hands in the last orbit of my "life" which I would like to look using GTO Wizard.
Hand 1. I open UTG AJo and get 3bet from BU, around 50BB effective. Wizard splits between all 3 options, so my choice to pick aggressive line by 4betting is fine. Opponent calls and we see a flop 9♣:8♦:4♥:. I small double barrel on flop and Turned 2♠:, but had no balls to fire it all on the River Q♣:. Interestingly, Wizard agrees with my lines until now, but more often than not, ch/calls River with A high. Crazy 
Hand 2. Very aggressive lady, who was chipleading at our table, makes a standard open from BU and I defend my BB with K3s. She triple barrels me on K♦:Q♥:5♠:J♣:8♦: which I pay off. She shows me bad news with runner runner J♥:8♠: 
Once again I just got a green light from Wizard that I chose the optional line. My opponents bet on the Turn? Nah, not so much.
Hand 3. My exit hand on SB with 6♠:6♣: 14BB, facing an open from HJ position. Opponent was kinda spewy, two orbits before 3bet jammed T♦:9♥: 30BB versus big Button open. But at the current hand Big blind only had 6 BB which I thought strengthens the opening range. In the end I 3bet jam my hand, was happy not to hear snap call, but eventually was looked up by 9♦:9♣:. Wizard again shows that this line was preferable.
So would I play these hands any different now? Probably not. Until that AJo hand, I made three light 4bets with KQs, 75s, ATo, all worked well by taking pots preflop and allowing me to have easy bubble phase, so can't blame myself too much for picking another 4bet spot with AJ. But as you now, aggression works until it doesn't
See you soon at the tables!
Bankroll Challenge 2025
Week 65
Weekly loses -3463 €
Starting bankroll 10 000€
Last Update 19 527€
Current Bankroll 16 064€
Goal Bankroll 60 000€
So motivated after the trip, so ready to dive into online poker again! And the result? 3 brick sessions in a week Plenty of entries, multiple re-entries and yet my bullets didn't reach the target. My next desirable Live stop is Irish Open which I still have two weekends to qualify in. This Sunday my Aces didn't hold up, but after the hand I was wondering If I made a mistake by not jaming myself on the flop.
PokerStars - 350/700 Ante 85 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
BTN: 38.31 BB (VPIP: 16.51, PFR: 11.82, 3Bet Preflop: 4.73, Hands: 327)
Hero (SB): 21.05 BB
BB: 15.49 BB (VPIP: 22.64, PFR: 17.40, 3Bet Preflop: 7.80, Hands: 352)
UTG: 65.72 BB (VPIP: 12.00, PFR: 12.50, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 27)
UTG+1: 11.54 BB (VPIP: 22.51, PFR: 14.58, 3Bet Preflop: 9.06, Hands: 704)
MP: 36.75 BB (VPIP: 13.33, PFR: 10.17, 3Bet Preflop: 7.41, Hands: 60)
MP+1: 18.17 BB (VPIP: 13.56, PFR: 10.71, 3Bet Preflop: 0.00, Hands: 60)
CO: 42.01 BB (VPIP: 24.02, PFR: 15.30, 3Bet Preflop: 8.37, Hands: 590)
8 players post ante of 0.12 BB, Hero posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.47 BB) Hero has A♦ A♠
UTG raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, Hero raises to 5.5 BB, fold, UTG calls 3.5 BB
Flop: (12.97 BB, 2 players) 9♥ 8♥ T♥
Hero checks, UTG bets 12.97 BB, Hero raises to 15.43 BB and is all-in, UTG calls 2.46 BB
Turn: (43.83 BB, 2 players) Q♥
River: (43.83 BB, 2 players) 4♠
Hero shows A♦ A♠ (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 86%, Flop 53%, Turn 0%)
UTG shows Q♣ K♥ (Flush, King High)
(Pre 14%, Flop 47%, Turn 100%)
UTG wins 43.83 BB
According to GTO Wizard, all options are fine on such flop - ch/call, bet small or jam. My opponent shouldn't arrive here with KQ offsuit, but in this Irish Open satellite I've seen even crazier calls. And that's another reason why I want to attend this festival so much
See you at the tables!
Today I reviewed Irish Open Satellite and from ~200 hands from the tournament, I found 3 spots that could (should) be played differently
1.Seems like I defend my BB too wide in multiway pots. There is a huge difference in Heads-up pot, 3way and multiway as I have to fight against couple of opponents. It might look that adding 1,5BB is not a big deal, but all the ranges of my opponents should be strong and I would need to hit the board hard as it could be very costly on Q and 9 high boards.
2. I though K6s is a fine hand to flat in the SB, but GTO starts only from K8s. Probably not a big mistake considering most of the players are bad in this tournament, and there is extra value postflop than originally expected.
3. A very small loss of EV, although Wizard also likes to check this hand one third of a time. I though that as T9o is the weakest offsuit Top pair hand, it could be a good candidate to check back for deception and pot control. But this hand can still call check/raises as T♣: can give me lots of straight outs. The only hand of nines is 95s that likes checking back more than cbetting.
Bankroll Challenge 2025
Week 66
Weekly loses -2952 €
Starting bankroll 10 000€
Last Update 16 064€
Current Bankroll 13 112€
Goal Bankroll 60 000€
Just like a week before, lots of bricked tournaments
No seats to Live tournaments either and now only last Sunday is left for the Irish Open Festival.
Funny fact - if I had to give myself a mark for my performance, I would give a high grade as generally I am happy with my play. Tomorrow again I will go through some spots that I saved for review and put it here for some criticism
Until then, see you at the tables
What kind of AVG buy-in and fields you play? Seems to be quite healthy variance after all.
Originally posted by ghaleon
What kind of AVG buy-in and fields you play? Seems to be quite healthy variance after all.
Weekdays small fields around 50$, and Sundays mass ones that can climb over 100$. One bad session, especially on Sunday, and it becomes very difficult to save a week
3 months passed, let's look at my progression of yearly goals 
1. Have 10 trips outside Lithuania, at least 1 country new to me
February - Cyprus
March - Switzerland, PokerStars Open Campione
This is a casino I have played recently. One of the biggest poker rooms in Europe, although yet again it was not big enough to accommodate all players. All days they had to cancel some tournaments as the Main Event attracted too many participants. I guess that's the price of being too popular
And as Switzerland is my new country, it fulfills my 2nd part of this goal!
2. Extend Trophy board or ship Major MTT online event
Still in progress Today in Lithuania starts a small festival and I will try to play couple of events. The first one is a 150€ Freezout.
3. Reach Final Table in Sunday Million, GG Masters or any 1 Million Guaranteed event
This one still stands as the closes one
4. Study poker 360 hours
January - 47 hours
February - 34 hours
March - 33 hours
Another good performance talking about the hours. Also happy with the quality of studying, seems like after every session I improve some aspects of the game and for sure today I understand the game much more than before. If only results would prove that
5. Experience of 10 educational trails, in Lithuania & Europe
Larnaca, Salt Lake Trail
Lugano, The Olive Grove Trail
I added "Europe" to my goal as it is a great way to understand foreign countries when I travel abroad. Plus, every country has something unique, like Salt lakes or Mountains like in my previous trips, and that's something I can't witness in Lithuania
6. Foster our Homestead
Finally the snow melted down and we can start working in our land. This is how area looks at the moment
7. Reach 100k XPoints Total on French Duolingo
On track as all 3 months completed
8. Help Top Kickers team avoid relegation and have 10 attacking returns
New season starts in a month and there are 10 teams in the league. Strong division so finishing somewhere in the middle would be great. Quite a task to have an attacking return in every second game but gonna try
9. Read 12 books
Mysterious Egypt by Angelina Zaleckaitė
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Numero Zero by Umberto Eco
When travelled to Campione, I wanted an Italian writer's book so I chose Umberto Eco. Not that engaging like "The name of the Rose", but it was still a good read not far away from the area the plot takes place
10. Complete 10 Bucket List activities
Listen to a famous Concert
Experience Sauna procedures with friends
Set eyes on the Nature Wonder
Listen to Live Opera
Organize outdoors event for friends
Take part in Formula-1 weekend
Watch Live reputable football match in a stadium
Attend a music Festival
Watch a performance in Theatre
Witness one of the new World Wonders
As Campione is a very little city, I had to look for hotel in a nearby city Lugano. And now I truly understand why Switzerland is considered one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Lugano itself is surrounded by mountains and lake Lugano, so you get impressed wherever you look. As I was playing only 2 full days, I could spend another 2 by exploring the area. Taking a ferry was great, but climbing to the top of the mountains was even better. Hopefully PokerStars will organize more tournaments in this area
Bankroll Challenge 2025
Week 67
Weekly loses -2366 €
Starting bankroll 10 000€
Last Update 13 112€
Current Bankroll 10 746€
Goal Bankroll 60 000€
One more week like that and I get below my starting point
All jokes aside, this is a longest breakeven period in my career and last three weeks were pretty bad in particular. Overall I feel (or at least felt :f_biggrin:) really confident in my game so decided to include $525 Bounty Hunters Main Event to my weekly schedule. A mixed field with some whales but also with some great names in it. Unfortunately I constantly get on the bad end in this tournament and when you fire 2-4 empty bullets, it adds up quickly in red. Also to note that this tournament starts very early on Sunday, basically my first tournament of the day, and when after first hours I'm down 2k, it kinda dictates negative emotions for the remaining session as mentally it is tough to keep on grinding knowing that it's almost impossible to get a profitable week. Now let's look are 4 key hands from last Sunday
Nut flushdraw versys 2nd Nut flushdraw. Runner runner straight for opponent
3way Allins preflop. Good equity versus a pair and dominated Ace, but no help on the board.
Button versus Big blind, got a check/raise from my opponent on the flop and called down to the River. Nut flushdraw + TopPairGoodKicker once again outdrawn versus gutshot+lower flushdraw.
And cherry on the pie, Aces versus Kings versus ATs preflop. It would have been a powerful situation to have a 4x starting stack in the 2nd level of play, but that King washed out all my hopes. 4 unlucky outcomes in my most expensive tournament in a week, and probably I will stay from this tournament for a while
Bankroll Challenge 2025
Week 68
Weekly loses -1267 €
Starting bankroll 10 000€
Last Update 10 746€
Current Bankroll 9 479€
Goal Bankroll 60 000€
Might look like another disappointing week, but there is something hidden from the Bankroll..
Yesterday I took down one of the two Gold Passes on PokerStars, each worth 10k. And now I have couple of options how to use it:
1) The original purpose is to use this for EPT Festivals, Monaco being the nearest for it. 5300€ EPT Main Event, 1100€ Open Main Event, 550€ Cup event + cash for expenses around 3000€. Not sure if I would like to spend 5k for one tournament, so probably I will stay away from this option.
2) Exchange Pass for tournament tickets. But once again the tickets are quite expensive, 3 of them for 1000€, 6 of them for 550€, rest for 100€ and 22€.
3) Third and most likely option is to divide Gold Pass to 4 Silver Passes of 2500€ value and use it for PokerStars Open Festivals. I could still attend Monaco for the first time, later travel to Namur, Malaga and Barcelona for the summer period. These stops were already in my mind when planning 2025 trips, and having 4 Silver Passes wouldn't require me to win direct satellites to all those events.
I wonder, what option would take other players? Drop a line below with your thoughts
Well you seem to like doing those live poker tournaments so third option probably make more sense. Have you actually profited on those though? E.g. maybe online mtt would offer better EV money wise? Though of course life ev and ev€ are somewhat different thing.
So second option would make most sense for online grinder and first is quite a gamble with 5k€ mtt and is worst from any sort of brm point of view. Buy yeah it's one of those YOLO options I guess
What an amazing dilemma to have! I would be so torn on this one.
Option 2 would give me the chance to supercharge my online bankroll by just sun running one of the bigger tournaments. It would however require me to run like god as I don't feel my skills are at a level to guarantee it becomes a good bankroll.
Option 3 would let me play a variety of live tournaments that I have never had the chance to play before. That would require me to use all my annual leave from work to play poker which might upset my family.
Option 1 would give me the chance to play a prestigious EPT which I would probably have no chance of playing otherwise. It would be a hail mary, just looking for a great experience and a min cash.
If it's possible I would probably look for a sneaky option 4. Turn the gold pass into 4 silver passes. Turn 2 of those into live tournaments and the other 2 into online ticket bundles. Best of both worlds.
I would play that EPT Monte Carlo, but it is very expensive to just stay there for the hole festival. I think it will be an experience like no other. I had the opportunity to visit Monte Carlo once, but I did not stayed there....it made me feel so poor 
Originally posted by ghaleon
Well you seem to like doing those live poker tournaments so third option probably make more sense. Have you actually profited on those though? E.g. maybe online mtt would offer better EV money wise? Though of course life ev and ev€ are somewhat different thing.
Well, it is tough to estimate Live total profit, but I guess pure profit should be around half of earnings listed in Hendom. So in theory Live is much more profitable but also it requires more time and preparation for the events
Reply:
"If it's possible I would probably look for a sneaky option 4. Turn the gold pass into 4 silver passes. Turn 2 of those into live tournaments and the other 2 into online ticket bundles. Best of both worlds."
Good point Gary! I see there is an option to turn a Silver pass into 20 tickets of 20$ and 20 tickets of 109$ which I could use for Sunday Million and other satellites for Live events. In that case my online bankroll could only go up and there is a chance I could win that qualifier anyway
And now for the stops I could use the remaining passes. I looked through the available options of EPT and PokerStars Open Festivals.
Monaco is the only one in Europe where I have not been yet. It is a bucket list event, something special about the location and the aura itself. And I think I can take the same experience even if I only play an Open event here of 1100€ instead of EPT 5000€. (Open festivals also take part in all EPT festivals one week before). Even if it makes me feel a poor guy for a week like Mariussica
Bankroll Challenge 2025
Week 69
Weekly loses -1087 €
Starting bankroll 10 000€
Last Update 10 746€
Current Bankroll 9659€
Goal Bankroll 60 000€
After 69 weeks of play, I found myself below the starting line. Silver passes would greatly change the balance, but it still sucks
Now talking about those passes, at the moment I can convert into the following trips pictured below. Monte-Carlo, Namur & Malaga are the upcoming ones in Europe and it is very likely I will attend all of those. Probably the last pass will be converted into the ticket bundle so I wouldn't hurt my online bankroll too much
Bankroll Challenge 2025
Week 70
Weekly profit 572 €
Starting bankroll 10 000€
Last Update 9 659€
Current Bankroll 10 231€
Goal Bankroll 60 000€
Finally a profitable week! I used one of my Silver passes into 109$ tickets and it instantly paid back
Last year I played in Namur and my overall experience was very positive. Although it is not very easy to reach destination (plane+bus+train), but the trip is much worth it. I was probably going to use one of my other Silver passes anyway, so it is nice to save one for the future events.
I was also close to PokerStars Malaga satellite but Kings got beaten on the Final Table. Only 5 packages were awarded, so it was not a guaranteed ticket even if I won this hand.
PokerStars - 400/800 Ante 100 NL - Holdem - 9 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4
Hero (BTN): 14.51 BB
SB: 77.24 BB (VPIP: 30.43, PFR: 27.91, 3Bet Preflop: 19.23, Hands: 93)
BB: 40.38 BB (VPIP: 25.00, PFR: 23.16, 3Bet Preflop: 15.38, Hands: 104)
UTG: 24.62 BB (VPIP: 22.85, PFR: 15.21, 3Bet Preflop: 6.56, Hands: 578)
UTG+1: 38.9 BB (VPIP: 27.06, PFR: 21.04, 3Bet Preflop: 10.00, Hands: 686)
MP: 43.44 BB (VPIP: 44.44, PFR: 25.00, 3Bet Preflop: 25.00, Hands: 9)
MP+1: 16.53 BB (VPIP: 31.49, PFR: 25.57, 3Bet Preflop: 12.12, Hands: 515)
MP+2: 67.69 BB (VPIP: 19.92, PFR: 16.26, 3Bet Preflop: 12.94, Hands: 487)
CO: 57.94 BB (VPIP: 23.95, PFR: 18.26, 3Bet Preflop: 10.06, Hands: 890)
9 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB
Pre Flop: (pot: 2.62 BB) Hero has K♣ K♠
UTG raises to 2 BB, fold, fold, fold, fold, CO calls 2 BB, Hero raises to 14.38 BB and is all-in, fold, fold, fold, CO calls 12.38 BB
Flop: (33.39 BB, 2 players) 4♠ 9♦ 2♣
Turn: (33.39 BB, 2 players) 7♣
River: (33.39 BB, 2 players) 8♦
CO shows 8♠ 8♣ (Three of a Kind, Eights)
(Pre 18%, Flop 8%, Turn 5%)
Hero shows K♣ K♠ (One Pair, Kings)
(Pre 82%, Flop 92%, Turn 95%)
CO wins 33.39 BB
And my last ticket of 109$ went into Sunday Million game, where I had my deepest run of the year.
I got into day2 with a middle stack of 20BB. Only folds in three orbits until I received Q♣:Q♥: in MP position. Some raises preflop and we went Allins 3way - perfect chance to triple up and retake Table captain position. If one ten was not enough for my opponent, another appeared on the Turn and it was GG for me. Pity, as at that point 25,000$ and 10,000$ mystery envelopes were still left in the game and with only 140 people left, everything was possible
But the biggest score went on GG, where the Main Event Bounty Hunters attracted almost 20k runners.
Plenty of bounties and it was obvious that other players will try to hunt me. I was in good dominating shape for my last hand of the tournament, but rivered straight sent me to the rails. Not gonna complain, I would also call in my opponent shoes
So lots of deep runs last week and hopefully the trend continues for another one
