[Closed] The Self Made Man - Formally the FPP Challenge

wondering what anybody thinks with regards moving up to NL100 SSS in terms of buy ins? I've currently got 30.5, is this enough to take shots, or would it be safer to wait until I have 50, because if I take hits it could be really damaging right?

Experiences and thoughts much appreciated! ♦

unlike some, I don't really get bored with the SSS, and i'm extremely happy with my play with it. Also it's by far and away the most profitable in terms of earning the FPP's which reap the best rewards of course.

I would be carefull, I used to play SSS at NL100 and regulary had 30 buyin swings.
I did ok but was in no way an expert, I would wait

Yeh i think im more compelled to stay where I am for now. Can be rather swingy, and after such good work, I don't wanna kill it off in a couple of sessions at NL100! lol Don't think i'm mentally ready to risk $20 a time on one single hand.

That said, I was similar about NL50 and now that is very normal for me. It's all about adjusting and getting used to the limit I suppose.

Week 5 end - Just a little update for the weekend

Well it's been a great week with all the steps forward. Settled into NL50 SSS really comfortably now, and it's pretty much been my main variant. A little BSS in there, but NL50 SSS has been the bread and butter. Weekend play is a little crazier has to be said. Some real donks around, but that isn't always a good thing! Ups and downs galore! But it doesn't help when the poker gods deal you hands such as this KK, flop comes K99, you think you're trapping all the way against a guy you know well...the money goes in. I expect him to show AK, or AA, QQ...he flips over 99....damn! I wanted to put that in here but copied and pasted it and it said error on the hand converter!

Had a bad night yesterday, $54 down at the end of the session, weekend players tearing me to shreds. My showdowns win percentage were shocking. But ahead a tad today, so trying to recover from that. Nothing major!

Cashed in another satellite..280 fpp as usual. I'm happy to say I won't be unregistering, i'm going to attempt my first ever Sunday 250k so i'll let you know how that goes! ♠_cool:

Before I get into week 6 proper I must round up last nights events. Well, well, the Sunday 1/4 Million - my first attempt. What a laugh, this was over in about 4-5 hands for me. It's as simple as KK vs AA...I had the kings, no overcards or anything remotely draw-heavy, we were as good as all in pre flop anyway but quite deep with 3000 chips I think my opponent was happy to see a flop and trap me after the 4 betting action. I didn't suckout and my foray into the 250k guaranteed ended after about 5 hands. WOO!

I was playing 6 max BSS for the rest of the evening, dropped really low to like -$42 at one stage, clawed back and was up $32, ending the evening +$12 or something, mega swingy evening!

Week 6

Today has started off better, and the weekend's craziness seems to be at an end now. Business as usual and i'm plus +$34 from the 3 hours play, so that's a steady hourly rate which i'm happy at for NL10 BSS.

Curious as to what people think is a good AND sustainable win rate for FR NL10 with the BSS? 1943 hands for the day, and i'm at 8.75bb/100 I don't know what my overall rate is as i'm only using Realtime HUD at present. I'll load everything into Elephant soon as promised!

Played some 6 hours in the end today, got another 2 hours in late, which were a little disappointing, ended 1.4 BI down on the rest of the days performance which dropped it from a peak of around $51 which was a shame. I intend to post more hands for viewing in this blog starting tomorrow! Back to short stacking tomorrow as the rate of FPP collection on NL10 is shockingly bad, and i'm not making the most of my gold status boost.

BR: $592.91

Week 6 Day 2 - Back on the shortstack track

Quite obviously multi-tabling NL50 with the SSS is the best way to earn those valuable FPP's. I place a lot of value in those now having seen the benefits that can be reaped from them. It can turn a breakeven session or even a below average session into a winning one once you take into account their potential value. I started my morning with a 280 satellite, you know the ones by now. 6 max hyper turbo for the Sunday 1/4 Million...I cashed. I will never tire of saying that. So day has started +$11 lovely. Onto the SSS, to earn more points and hopefully some more dollar.

Well I have to say it's been a great morning, I had a real lazy one, and didn't get up til late so I've only played about an hour and half so far, but when you get sessions as good as this, who needs hour after hour? So 850 hands i'm +$44 in no thanks to this monster of a hand, i'd already doubled up and was sat waiting to time blind out - as I always do. I pick up AK suited on the button, the guy that paid me off the first time was a real fish, and I wanted to isolate him as he raised UTG, hence my rather large raise. I wasn't too fussed about losing everything on this table for the chance at another double with a large stack, so I went for it, and well, the perfect flop ensued....

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

MP2 ($34.85)
CO ($8.75)
Hero (Button) ($22)
SB ($19.25)
BB ($18.40)
UTG ($8.45)
UTG+1 ($9.25)
MP1 ($20)

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, K
UTG bets $1.50, 2 folds, MP2 calls $1.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $6, 2 folds, UTG calls $4.50, MP2 calls $4.50

Flop: ($18.75) A, 6, K (3 players)
UTG checks, MP2 checks, Hero bets $16 (All-In), 1 fold, MP2 calls $16

Turn: ($50.75) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($50.75) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $50.75 | Rake: $2.45
Main pot: $50.75 between MP2 and Hero, won by Hero

Results below:
Hero had A, K (two pair, Aces and Kings).
MP2 had 5, A (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: Hero won $48.30

Happy days ♦

You may wonder how after winning such a large pot I only ended with about the same amount in profit. Well as you can well imagine the blinds are rather crippling to the shorties at this level, so you have to win a lot of pots by stealing and such like just to keep your head above water. So with no real shocking beats to speak of all session plus this, you can see how under normal circumstances it can be quite tough to sustain a profit. But to those who have good post flop skills and such like, I'd recommend playing a few hands in good position after a double up, because if you get paid off like here it's a massive help. Just be careful, I'll play AK, KK, AA, probably QQ and that's about it, a lot of the time i'll fold AK unless it's right to keep it, like it seemed here but I had plenty of reads!

More to come this afternoon. So stay tuned!

Bankroll: $650.06

Week 6 Day 4

Been having a few problems with the old t'internet connection today, but managed to get around 1k hands in BSS on NL10. I think i'm really finding my feet and enjoying playing this. Gone for the full ring as opposed to 6 max in the last couple of days and it appears much more stable. One major problem I have with NL10 after having played SSS on NL50 is the rate that you accumulate FPP's is painfully slow!

I've had a couple of decent days, the end of day 2 was quite disatrious and it did carry on long into Day 3, which is why I eventually switched to the big stack for a while, shorting was killing me on NL50, at one point I was 7 BI down, getting smashed up all over the place whilst getting in with the best. I clawed my way back to just 2.5 BI down but that's why the roll has taken a hit from the $650 it was at just a couple of days ago. That was a peak though, and i'm hoping to create a new peak anytime soon. I'm safely into the $500 now though, I just wanna move past it and wave goodbye on my move forwards. Not a lot really to report for today, solid enough, getting some of that money back again. It is another month though, which means I'm going to be setting myself some targets tomorrow I think.

BR: $623.72

Week 7 - Moving up

I have entitled this entry, 'moving up' because that is exactly what i'm doing. Well actually i'm moving down in a lot of respects. Make sense? Well i've been shortstacking at NL50, but big stacking at NL10 which really has slowed down the FPP earning status. Plus it really makes it hard to achieve the higher member status' on Pokerstars. SO, i've now got a sufficiently high enough bankroll, so i'm on to BSS NL25. This will be good for 2 reasons, big stack I much more enjoy, plus it seems a lot less swingy than the SSS. Can anyone else vouch for this, or is it just me? lol

Targets for the week ahead

• Play mostly NL25 BSS
• Play a little SSS NL50 if I need to acquire more FPPs
• Cash in at least 5 satellites for a total of $55 in T$
• Wave goodbye to $500 sticking point, and really push on for the next level
• Keep a track of my win rate, by breaking sessions down into 1 hour a time
• Post more hand examples in my blog and also in the hand evalution
• Read some bronze BSS artciles again just because it's all I can view on here!

I didn't play too much over the weekend. My first session on NL25 BSS has gone really well this morning. I'm +$64 and also cashed in a satellite first thing, so my accomplishment in that respect is 1/5 for the week already.

♠_cool:

Hope there are still plenty of readers out there. I must mention this is all still money made from the initial FPP's in my account.

Bankroll: $737.41

Week 7 Day 2 (Tuesday) - New milestone reached

It's a happy blog entry today, i'm breaking personal records all over the place, and really enjoying NL25 FR BSS. Some think it's a bit slow and boring, but when i'm adding to my bankroll that is excitement enough for me. 6 Tabling at present, which I think is plenty enough. I may increase this to 8 if I really need to push on for the VPP's near the middle of the month to stay Gold. But for the time being i'm happy.

As I intended, more hands to be posted in here. I have chosen 3 this morning, from my 2 hour session. 1 horrible one to represent just how bad some of the players are on NL25, and 2 nice ones for me where I was having a good personal battle with the player I managed to stack.

PokerStars, $0.10/0.25 NO Limit Texas Holdem Cash Games, 8 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
MartinBB2001 (UTG): $15.05
Madouch (UTG+1): $5
xalno (MP1): $24.15
banjojandy (CO): $22
nzt333 (Button): $7.55
rtsv05 (SB): $24.75
javichu dart (BB): $30.40
cal322 (MP2): $39.45

Dealt to xalno K♠ K♥

Pre-flop:
(1 folds), MartinBB2001 calls $.25, (1 folds), xalno raises to $1.25, banjojandy raises to $7.50, (4 folds), xalno raises to $24.15 and is all-in, banjojandy calls $14.50 and is all-in, xalno returns $2.15

Flop: ($44.60) 5♦ 6♣ 7♦ (2 Players)

Turn: ($44.60) J♥ (2 Players)

River: ($44.60) 9♥ (2 Players)

Results:
xalno Showed K♠ K♥
banjojandy Showed 8♠ 8♦
banjojandy wins $42.40

This was fairly early into my session, and put me a whole stack down and a little bit. Was very annoyed, but didn't let it affect my play. Just made a little note on the player in question and was happy I made the right play.

My mood improved with 2 hands close together, now I must add that, the hands and the way I played them pre flop my have been a little unconventional, but i'd got plenty of info on the villain, and was just waiting for good spots on the flop to take him down. He really liked to bluff at everything, and when he hit even the smallest part committed himself way too much.

PokerStars, $0.10/0.25 NO Limit Texas Holdem Cash Games, 9 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
xalno (SB): $33
skinch (BB): $33.40
LiberalDude (UTG): $19.45
johnymac111 (UTG+1): $5
Kamil AA (MP1): $25
riven26 (MP2): $21.55
arabelladi (MP4): $4.30
chekraceboy (CO): $4.90
KAREN70 (Button): $12.20

Dealt to xalno 8♦ 8♥

Pre-flop:
LiberalDude calls $.25, (6 folds), xalno raises to $1.25, (1 folds), LiberalDude calls $1

Flop: ($2.85) 8♠ 5♦ 9♣ (2 Players)
xalno checks, LiberalDude bets $1.50, xalno calls $1.50

Turn: ($5.85) 8♣ (2 Players)
xalno checks, LiberalDude bets $2, xalno calls $2

River: ($9.85) 6♦ (2 Players)
xalno bets $5.50, LiberalDude calls $5.50

Results:
xalno Showed 8♦ 8♥ LiberalDude
xalno wins $19.75

PokerStars, $0.10/0.25 NO Limit Texas Holdem Cash Games, 9 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
xalno (SB): $33
skinch (BB): $33.40
LiberalDude (UTG): $19.45
johnymac111 (UTG+1): $5
Kamil AA (MP1): $25
riven26 (MP2): $21.55
arabelladi (MP4): $4.30
chekraceboy (CO): $4.90
KAREN70 (Button): $12.20

Dealt to xalno 8♦ 8♥

Pre-flop:
LiberalDude calls $.25, (6 folds), xalno raises to $1.25, (1 folds), LiberalDude calls $1

Flop: ($2.85) 8♠ 5♦ 9♣ (2 Players)
xalno checks, LiberalDude bets $1.50, xalno calls $1.50

Turn: ($5.85) 8♣ (2 Players)
xalno checks, LiberalDude bets $2, xalno calls $2

River: ($9.85) 6♦ (2 Players)
xalno bets $5.50, LiberalDude calls $5.50

Results:
xalno Showed 8♦ 8♥ LiberalDude
xalno wins $19.75

With hindsight I could have possibly checked the river, pushed all in and he still would have called. But I didn't want him to just check behind me and lose potential value. So I bet out, hoping he'd made some sort of hand, and hopefully i'd get a bad call or a massive re-raise.

The next hand occurred about 5-6 hands later. It got a bit risky towards the end, but I didn't give him credit for AQ, or JK - which would have really screwed me over. I was pretty happy I was ahead, I suspected maybed QK, low pocket pair or something.

PokerStars, $0.10/0.25 NO Limit Texas Holdem Cash Games, 7 Players
Hand Converter by Pokerhand.org

Board:
xalno (BB): $42.50
skinch (UTG): $33.05
LiberalDude (UTG+1): $20.80
Kamil AA (MP1): $25
riven26 (CO): $21.20
arabelladi (Button): $3.95
chekraceboy (SB): $6.35

Dealt to xalno Q♥ T♦

Pre-flop:
(1 folds), LiberalDude raises to $.50, (4 folds), xalno calls $.25

Flop: ($1.10) 4♠ T♥ Q♦ (2 Players)
xalno bets $.50, LiberalDude raises to $1, xalno raises to $3.50, LiberalDude calls $2.50

Turn: ($8.10) 6♥ (2 Players)
xalno bets $6, LiberalDude calls $6

River: ($20.10) A♣ (2 Players)
xalno bets $10.25, LiberalDude raises to $10.80 and is all-in, xalno calls $.55

Results:
LiberalDude Showed Q♠ J♠
xalno Showed Q♥ T♦
xalno wins $39.70

All in all, a good morning, I really got an opportunity to work on my 4-betting today, and wasn't scared that someone had AA everytime I got KK. One occassion I was dealt KK, and with a 4 bet managed to get another full stack to lay down his hand pre flop. Taking a nice pot of $19 there and then. I suspect he was a decent player, and had AK or something, or a small pocket pair and decided to lay it down. In the past I'd have been scared to 4-bet with such big stacks and probably just called and taken on a flop..where things can get very messy!

So milestone time, not posted one of these in a while, so here it is in all it's glory. My cashier lol

♦

its technically not money for nothing but ok.. nice blog. i can't seem to get over $50 >.>

Btw.. im suprised there are so many donkey's at that high limit. honestly going all in with top pair no kicker?

I can't believe the play is that bad there tbh. you would expect the players would be good..

Just say hi, chat u on pokerstars today while u are doing Head Up

Originally posted by Justin37
Just say hi, chat u on pokerstars today while u are doing Head Up

Hey man, thanks for looking me up. Nice to know people out there are reading and interested. Yeh I am over the $700 mark, the 99 is just T$ lol that's spare for now. I'll post a full explanation tomorrow on what ive been doin today, but it involves short stacking heads up, the mid stacks cant play me, can't adjust, and the other $10 stacks are hopeless. It is highly profitable done right. The big stacks hate it, as do I when i'm big, but that's why I don't play the short stacks.

Anyway, full round up tomorrow, needless to say. Maaaaaaaaaassive swings, but im back on track now with this short stacking business.

♦

Shortsacking heads up looks really interesting, specially against people unable to adapt. I'm highly interested on your views on the matter, if you wanna discuss it sometimes (or maybe even normal SSS), just message me or post in my blog.

P.S. Your blog is one of my favourite ones

Thanks mate, well I don't wanna put the jinx on things, but ive already made $125 this morning in just 2 hours of playing short stacked heads up. For sure we can discuss the pros and cons in depth over the blogs. Could prove to be very interesting. I'm amazed how many people will play and play back at you just to win back their own money lol it's brilliant. Then the rake just eats them alive.

♦

Full update as promised very soon!

Week 7 Round Up - Found a new niche?

Well it's been a really good week for me, eventually!! I've hit a new milestone and the bankroll is finally over $1000 for the first time since I started doing this, and the first time in my poker career, and for it to come whilst I've been documenting my progress and starting from very humble beginnings i'm more than thrilled! I think it takes money to make money of course, and now i'm finding the big numbers are just dream figures to me, absolutely love it.

So this week, well I started playing BSS NL25 which for 2 days went brilliantly well, as posted above Monday was +$71, Tuesday +$141.30, then it all went a bit wrong on Wednesday, everything I seemed to be doing right the previous to days was just getting me beat all over the place, and I had 3 losing sessions, finishing -$86 bit of a shame after all the hard work the previous 2 days. Thursday was then experimental day, and it was a horror show, my bad run continued on 6 max, on FR and I tried a little bit of heads up, played within my roll and bought in for $25 rather than the full $50, you can find plenty of people willing to play, so I thought i'd give it a try. I'd gained plenty of heads up experience earlier in this blog, and in my career anyway so I was happy to give it a try, massive swings as expected but the day ended on a catastrophic -$170, however I picked myself up dusted myself, in the knowledge I was playing well, and recovered admirably. Cashing in 3 satellite's for $33 and a final winning session of $135 playing short stacked heads up, which is my new niche and thus far seems to be a profitable adventure! Thursday finished just -$2. What a result!

Friday was a full day of short handed heads up, I won 1 out of 2 satellite's and my day finished +$161.76, this short stacked heads up business seems quite enjoyable at present. I buy in for $10, play against the other monkeys that buy in for $10 and have no idea, there are a rare few doing the same as me and you can spot them straight away and move onto another game. The big and mid stacks are great, people buying in with $30 trying to have you covered and losing big time, then reload to try and win their own money back whilst the whole time you've only risked $10. I don't think my system is for everyone, maybe not even the purists, but it's doing a job for me right now.

1 hour this morning, and that session ended +$74.40, all of which has culminated in my $1000 roll, so here is the cashier for this momentous day for me...

♠_cool:

As for the goals I set myself at the beginning of the week, let's see how i've got on there:

Originally posted by RavForenzo

Targets for the week ahead

• Play mostly NL25 BSS
• Play a little SSS NL50 if I need to acquire more FPPs
• Cash in at least 5 satellites for a total of $55 in T$
• Wave goodbye to $500 sticking point, and really push on for the next level
• Keep a track of my win rate, by breaking sessions down into 1 hour a time
• Post more hand examples in my blog and also in the hand evalution
• Read some bronze BSS artciles again just because it's all I can view on here!

1) I achieved this for 3 days, until I essentialy found something better lol
2) Didn't feel the need to do this at any point, and I have to say I haven't missed the FR short stack action
3) Yes, I have cashed in 6 out of 13 satellites for an additional profit of $66 in T$ which is a total of 3640 FPP, the best form of rakeback you could want if you ask me!
4)Wow $500 sticking point...ive hit $1000 this week!
5)100% been doing this, my win rate this week is $12.95 / hour
6)I've done a few as above, and posted 1 in the hand evaluation, so could do better on this one
7) I must admit I didn't do this.

Bankroll: $1015

why are you playing NL 100 HU?

short stacking if no one joins the NL50, same as playing on a number of NL25 ones, $20 is still 50 buy ins, im not gonna do it all the time but im happy that's conservative enough for now.

sick effort. applause

Originally posted by shortfuse
sick effort. applause

Thanks man.

Into week 8 we go!

This isn't a full update, just a general entry and musings. I've been wondering about 2 things, signing up through pokerstrategy to another one of the partner sites to a) clear some additional bonus cash, and b) earn some strategy points. Now I have a dilemma, because I have an account from a high percentage of the decent sites listed, none of which apart from Mansion are tracked...don't wanna go back there! So, i'm left with these:

Bwin
Poker Heaven
Cake
Inter Poker

which is best for traffic, and also, which is best in terms of software and bonus available etc? If anyone who reads this can shed any light that would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance there.

Just a quick note to say, this shortstacking heads up is going really well, i'm still buying in at NL50, for $10 and tackling the low/mid/and full stacks with success. Will be leaving NL100 alone for a good while, 1, because I think I make sufficiently enough at this level currently, and 2, there are likely to be much less donks willing to throw away their cash...but i'm looking forward to being proved wrong on that one! Made a nice sum of $116.50 today, so it's going well. Bankroll is at it's highest point once again as I write this, and I have cashed in no less than 4 satellites today for an additional $44 in T$. I'm also only about 400 VPP short of securing Gold status again for another month, would be nice to go for Platinum, but we shall see! It's quite a big step up in VPPs!

Bankroll: $1123

so Cake looks to have a good bonus 110% upto $600 plus 33% rakeback, I know you can't use HUD on there but that's the same for everyone, so hopefully more fishy. It's not going to be a permanent move, i'll probably split bankroll between stars and wherever...

so looking for some quick advice please, any experiences? The actual Cake poker forum section is just full of people moaning about bad beats, I don't wanna hear that rubbish. I want to know about the software and the amount of games at NL25/NL50 plus are there any heads up tables? etc