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

So i've gone off the idea of Cake because you cannot withdraw back to your card, how ridiculous is that, they're happy to take it as your deposit, but make it as tricky as possible to take it back out...good one Cake, you won't be getting my business!! So it's either Bwin or Pokerheaven!

I'd like to just also post here another screenshot, a milestone achieved, it was one thing to make $1000 combined with the T$ winning, but never before has my stars cashier been in 4 figures (in front of the decimal) in the cash bit in full, so here it is, a proud moment for me, 2 months since i started at zero.

I'm not bragging (much) ♦ lol I do hope though it is an inspiration to those who are struggling right now, wonderful things can be achieved, i'm not a lucky player per se, I work hard, I track everything I do, but the rewards can be great. I'm also gonna quote myself at this point, sometimes you want words to come back to haunt you...in a good way! lol

Originally posted by RavForenzo
Thanks man, $10k would be lovely! haha. I'd settle for $1k and I think even that may be ambitious!

Bankroll: $1203

just a quick question, when u were playing SSS on NL25 (i think it was that) how many tables were playing at?

Btw this blog is awesome youve done very well and looks like u can go even further!

just wanted to post and say i've been following your blog here for a while, it's a very inspiring story for those of us still trying to get our bankrolls going

keep it up!

Originally posted by monkey0nfire
just a quick question, when u were playing SSS on NL25 (i think it was that) how many tables were playing at?

Btw this blog is awesome youve done very well and looks like u can go even further!

Hi thanks for reading, SSS NL25, it really depended on my mood and what I was trying to achieve for that particular session. I'd play a minimum of 12 always, never any less because I just start playing silly. I've played so many thousands of hands of the SSS I knew the chart off by heart etc, but certainly I've played 18-24 tables. It's hard to sustain 24 though because of leaving and needing to rejoin others etc. What I tend to do was sort the tables in the lobby by % of players per flop on the ones that were full and join the waiting lists, unless there was an excessive amount of short stacks on them. Always helps!

I must point out I was playing with stats too, I'd feel very naked and lost playing 16+ tables without stats because the action comes thick and fast, I think you can make good lay downs with the right stats, for instance I think AK, QQ, JJ become much more foldable than they might if you didn't know how tight your opponent was.

I think NL25 is nice and beatable, but I think in my experience the play against the short stacks is even worse at NL50, and there are more big stacks that won't be as tight. I think NL10/25 are obvious Short Stack Strategy breeding grounds because it suits people's bankrolls so as soon as you can get out of it the better I think it is. But that's just my opinion.

The main thing I got out of playing so many tables was obviously the FPP's, it's a great way to rack em up.

Looking forward to a good days play today, only played a couple of hours yesterday due to having a game of golf in the autumn sunshine. We can't say that very often in October in the UK!

♦

the one was funny, he came with the whole money on the table :)....did you gouge him?

lol you been watching me again?

erm who was that, I don't remember, remember his username? played plenty of donks in my earlier sessions today. Typical weekend players!

People buying in with $72.35 and things, love it!

♦

just to update everyone, i'm currently shortstacking NL100$, $20 buy in heads up, my bankroll is now $1745, which is 87.25 buy ins for this current level. No plans to move to NL200 just yet, maybe in a couple of weeks if I can get passed $2k

Hello, this blog has been a good read and I hope you continue with it. How come you have the T$ on your account? as mine doesn't show that on my stars account... I only showw the FPP's

Originally posted by kan00
Hello, this blog has been a good read and I hope you continue with it. How come you have the T$ on your account? as mine doesn't show that on my stars account... I only showw the FPP's

im not sure what you mean, i've won those T$ and not used them, so i'm pretty sure if you have any T$ they should show up automatically....are you sure you have T$?

Originally posted by RavForenzo
lol you been watching me again?

erm who was that, I don't remember, remember his username? played plenty of donks in my earlier sessions today. Typical weekend players!

People buying in with $72.35 and things, love it!

♦

just to update everyone, i'm currently shortstacking NL100$, $20 buy in heads up, my bankroll is now $1745, which is 87.25 buy ins for this current level. No plans to move to NL200 just yet, maybe in a couple of weeks if I can get passed $2k

I meaned the one with 72.35...that guy was sooo funny...

The first thing i do, is to show: " are you playing at the moment?"

Month 2 end

Well i'm now officially 2 months into my challenge (it's not really a challenge anymore..it's just me blogging about my poker!). I'd have absolutely loved for the month to have stopped on Saturday night, and i'd be coming here to say, i'm 1.7k up, HOWEVER, yesterday was an awful day and I just couldn't hit a single hand. I lost $110 experimenting with SSS at NL100 FR for the first time, won't be doing that again in a hurry. 1000 hands there. Then some shock horror heads up sessions, yes the swings in this game are sick. I was up against a total idiot, had aces against him twice and this was the turning points of each game, first time AA vs 10 2 , he hit 2 pair on the flop, now i didn't try and play it trappy or anything preflop, raised etc yet he still called me with crap, his 10 2 wasn't even suited lol

2nd AA, he 5 bets me, yes 5 bets with 72..flop of course comes x77. So amongst many other horror shows i lost $500 yesterday, my biggest day of losses ever in my poker career. Almost sickening, however I know even those hands I didn't play wrong, and I wasn't as such at any time playing outside of my bankroll. Just the numbers get really big when you're playing heads up of course. Oh well.

I've pulled back $100 of it so far today, despite still running pretty badly! So hopefully things will pick up. The upside is, even with massive losses on sunday I was still in profit for the week, of around $120. Just a shame it wasn't so much better!

Bankroll: $1256

Week 9 Day 3 - A little something to remember

I'm back play BSS NL25 today and yesterday, the swings playing heads up got a little too scary, i'm not happy losing $500 on single day of the week..i'm not rich enough to handle that kinda crap just yet! lol

So, my thing to remember....

If i'm ever having a bad day with Aces I need to come back and remember these hands, to make me feel better. This happened in very quick succession on my morning session and I felt the need to post it straight away

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25 BB (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG ($37.60)
UTG+1 ($6.15)
MP1 ($5)
MP2 ($5)
Hero (CO) ($25.45)
Button ($5.95)
SB ($24.75)
BB ($7.35)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 10:heart:, 10:spade:
2 folds, MP1 calls $0.25, 1 fold, Hero bets $1.50, 3 folds, MP1 raises to $5 (All-In), Hero calls $3.50

Flop: ($10.35) K♥, 2♥, 10:diamond: (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($10.35) 10:club: (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($10.35) 9♠ (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $10.35 | Rake: $0.50

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Was trying to steal to a degree with this one, had a tight imagine and hadn't really done a lot for about 20 hands on this table. Got lucky I must admit, but the guy should have re-raised me pre flop.

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

Board:
geoffthebuzz (SB): $8.80
ovchinnicova (BB): $24.55
yuandejing (UTG): $7.05
Arez88 (UTG+1): $27.65
iildaen (MP1): $26.10
xalno (MP2): $24.65
purrt (CO): $11.10
even dwarves (Button): $23.85

Dealt to xalno K♠ T♠

Pre-flop:
(3 folds), xalno raises to $1, purrt calls $1, (1 folds), geoffthebuzz calls $.90, ovchinnicova calls $.75

Flop: ($4) T♦ 9♦ T♣ (4 Players)
geoffthebuzz checks, ovchinnicova checks, xalno bets $1.50, purrt raises to $4.50, (2 folds), xalno raises to $9.50, purrt raises to $10.10 and is all-in, xalno calls $.60

Turn: ($24.20) 5♥ (2 Players)

River: ($24.20) 8♥ (2 Players)

Results:
xalno Showed K♠ T♠
purrt Showed A♠ A♥
xalno wins $23

How come u already gold on pokerstars and u still bronze here?

How come i'm silver here and you are bronze BUT u got more money than i am? (jusk kidding!!!)

Just wanna say hi, been following u since ur head up with $800 BR.

Real question, do u usually raise with KTs?

Hi Justin,

I'll answer you're last question first, do I usually raise with K10suited..quick answer no! Absolutely not. However 2 things, the table was so tight, and I got to a point where I was happy to open raise in mid to- late position with a much wider range than usual, if I was to get re-raised, undoubtedly i'd have folded. I do play with stats though, so it depends where that re-raise was coming from. So unfortunately for the guy with AA who was happy to flat call such a small bet (he paid for it in the end), he could easily have not lost all his money here. I got lucky for sure, but we all need some of that from time to time!

My status on here - well, i'm tracked at Mansion and unfortunately before I found this site I had a lot of existing poker accounts, Full Tilt / Stars / Titan all the bigger ones, so I can't really play for points on here which is a massive shame. I hate the software at Mansion, and their cashout process really annoyed me on several occassions. So I ditched them for Stars, and never looked back really!

Hope that answers your questions, and thanks for reading, hope you continue to do so! Having a break from Heads Up, cus the swings are annoying as hell. I have like 1800 VPP left to get for Platinum on Stars this month, so really hoping I can get there!

♦

I'm happy to say the recovery is still on bankroll stands proudly again at

$1433

did i mention how sick a guy you are?

haha maybe you did earlier in the blog? i don't feel it right now, i'm stuck on this $1300-1500 mark and it's a bit of a tough spot right now. Not far off platinum status though on Pokerstars so that should improve my happiness into next week. Won't be able to play a lot this weekend, so hopefully the rest will do me some good. That $500 slip on Sunday really hit home that it isn't just a smooth climb upwards lol (though I knew that really!)

♦

update?

Yeh sorry ive been a little bit lazy this week, still going strong! I'll post something proper in the next few days. I'm platinum on pokerstars now ♦

Damn this is pretty amazing man. I hope to have a similar story building up my starting capital at FTP. Good luck

thanks for the read man. Good luck in your career.

Quick note to self:

Do not play Omaha it is swingy as hell and rather frustrating! Lost $100 dabbling, I was doing rather well to begin with. Before anyone says anything, Yes I do know how to play this variation, however, I won't be playing it again for a while! haha was nice for a change, albeit an expensive one!

Back to NL25 SH

♦

after a cashout and an Omaha loss, i'm on $1150 ish, for those that are wondering how im doing. Stalling a lot on my early months progress! But I have been playing a lot less this week due to work commitments

Time to focus again though!

First of all just want to say to everyone that enjoys reading my blog, very sorry for the lack of updates lately! No excuses, well maybe one excuse, the last 2 weeks I have been at my day job a lot, so less time for poker.

I have made an important decision in my poker career, and that has caused me to have a split bankroll now. I've decided that playing the volume I do without an extra incentives/bonus's is really a missed opportunity, so in a bid to get some extra boosts to the roll, i've deposited $300 at pokerheaven. It is a very raw and ugly site compared to pokerstars et al. But hey, 30% rakeback, AND strategy points again! So i'm happy with that, see how long I can survive playing here for lol