Benkroll challenge

Hey Ben,

Nice challenge and a bonus that you go in with the confidence of knowing that you have already achieved it .

Quite frankly playing HU makes be go a little like Bender.

Good Luck

Laz

Ben is this guy

(starting benkroll)

First day.

Played only a bunch of HU sit and goes, they seem really easy but I didn't put a lot of volume today because it was first day playing after a break and I am just warming up now.

Bankroll: 136.96$

Had the biggest burnout of my life for almost two months, right when I started this blog.

I have been playing poker since I was 16. And I just turned 21. I have had ups and downs, but this was something new to me. For the last year my spendings IRL have been bigger than income from poker, and it just wasn't the same for me as before.

When I was still going to school, poker was just so much fun, I would come home and play tournaments til 1AM, occasionally 4AM, and I had a blast. And I made and average of 25k$ a year until 2014.

When school ended I was really excited because I thought I was going to make myself rich as fuck because I had all the time in the world for poker, but in reality it wasn't like that at all. I tried to make poker my job, but it didn't work out.

One reason for that was that I couldn't manage my time properly, I would just wake up at 6PM because of all the tournament action, go to bed when everyone would wake up, after doing that for 4-5 months I couldn't live like that anymore. Then I tried to switch to HU cash, because I thought that I would be able to chose my hours more flexibly, but it wasn't like that at all, every day I had to spend at least 3 hours waiting for action, getting hit and run a bunch, and owned by rake. Also I had to work on my game a lot, and grinding database was something new for me and I really didn't find it fun.

Other reason it didn't work out was because it was just way to stressful having to rely on so much variables to make a living.

And the most important thing. Poker was no more fun. The more I tried to make it my job, the more it felt like job. I didn't like it as a job.

Then I decided to make a switch. This august signed for car mechanic courses. I saw many benefits in this. First of all, I would have something to occupy my time, so poker could be only a hobby again. Secondly I would have a backup job opportunities if poker disappears. And also I would be able to fix my own shit, and understand how to build and sustain a drift machine I am going to have one day.
Life twist is that these courses haven't started yet, but I have some kind of other courses to keep me occupied until 26.01.15.

So here I am today. I have less than 10$ IRL. I just had 2 months when I would just turn sick if I played a hand of poker. (It really was that bad) In total since the start of this blog I have played about 10 hours of poker.
I have spent all my last withdrawal. And on top of that I took some overly aggressive shots, with my baby bankroll and it is 54.87$ now, still more than IRL.

However. This time has helped me realize how much poker has given me, and I really miss it now. So I am making a comeback.

Not gonna go in too much more detail because I think it will be too long of a read and who cares anyways.

TL;DR : I had 2 month burnout from poker and I have no more money IRL, bankroll is 54.87$

Dropped down to 40, then up to 63. Today I am taking a shot at saturday duel.

Did not win. Bankroll about 46$

Update.

I am still playing more league than poker but it's getting better. Played a bunch of spin and goes so my bankroll fluctuated between 85 and 25$. I was down to 21$ at one point but decided I'm not going busto so I started winning a bit.
While doing that pokerstars mission where you have to play zoom poker I found out that it's easy money. So I am going to play nl2 zoom poker for a few days and see what happens.

The reason why you don't see my bankroll growing steadily is because I am constantly taking shots at tournaments so most of the money I grind I lose in tournaments, but plan is to eventually win one of those and get money.

Two more things:
1) I will no longer use hud for tournaments and 6-9max games. HUDs are bad for game and piss me off.
2) I will no longer be participating in pokerstrategys bankroll challenge because I don't want to. I will be keeping this blog though.

Bankroll is 76$

Past week played close to 20k hands in zoom and won money.

Even with all this nice profit from zoom games I still managed to lose some money overall and the bankroll is standing still at 60$.

I may or may not be taking too many shots at tournaments, but I am a tournament player at heart and pokerstars offer some real nice tourneys I just cannot pass up

Going to try and control myself now and play less tournaments more zoom. Get money, go from there

So far i've made about 100$ in nl2 zoom this month.

I think I've been running hot, but maybe it is just nl2.

Bankroll is 107$. Going to hop in nl5 zoom now.

Wish I didn't degen so much and just stick to cashgames.

I was smoking so much weed lately that it started feeling bad. So I set myself a rule that I can only buy myself 1g for every 100 hours I put into grinding. I'm not a junkie or anything but this is so exciting, I actually want to put in those 4+ hours every day and am looking forward to my first hard earned weed ♦

Also I made a 100 euro bankroll bet with my only poker friend, first one to make a 10k bankroll wins 100 euro from the other. When we made this bet he had 1k bankroll, I had 50$. He is playing only tournaments so it will be a fun race. He currently has 1.5k already ♦, but I think I am going to win this bet anyway ♦

Bankroll is 60$, all under control don't worry guys

He Mikus8,

crazy stories about your life! Mix some hands in and we have the perfect blog. Also, is your friend also at PokerStrategy - just share the blog to always be up to date!

We are trying to give a weekly or at least bi-weekly update of everyones challenge. Just to make sure we include you - don't forget to post your update in our https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=326222&goto=firstnew thread, it's due every Monday! So don't miss out & let your BR grow!

Have a nice Sunday,SvenBe

I like this hand
Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

BTN: $4.03
Hero (SB): $5.40
BB: $2.06
UTG: $2.22
MP: $1.48
CO: $2.03

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is SB with 3♦ 2♣
4 folds, Hero calls $0.01, BB checks

Flop: ($0.04) A♥ 9♣ 4♥ (2 players)
Hero bets $0.02, BB calls $0.02

Turn: ($0.08) Q♣ (2 players)
Hero checks, BB checks

River: ($0.08) A♠ (2 players)
Hero bets $0.03, BB folds

Yesterday I decided to hop in four 6max tables for change and my god it was fun. How did I not try this earlier and put all those hours in full ring ♦

Alright I will update there after todays session

I am a bit sick today, tried to play but couldn't really concentrate and lost a bit of money. This really sucks because I want to grind hard.

I wanted to exclude myself from tournaments for a month but apparently you can't do that, so I did this instead

Nothing really special nor helpful but it's something. Also lowered tournament BI to 2.21$ as I write this.

I think I've been running funny in these 6max games

Yesterday I woke up feeling really sick so I stayed at home and tried to grind, but I wasn't happy with my game at all, lost a bit of money, quit and played league for the most time. Then I decided to pull and allnighter because I had a friend with whom I could play league. After she went to sleep at about 5am I decided I was not going to mess up my sleep schedule really bad so I rather stay up the whole day.
I played 2 or 3 tournaments that in the end only cost me money and tilted me a bit.
Then I watched a bunch of documentaries, one about Jonestown massacre, about some serial killers, then I watched a documentary about 9/11 called 102 minutes that changed america, really, really crazy movie made from witnesses filmed materials, and you can see the hell that was happening on that day. Very powerful movie.
After that I opened two zoom tables and grind those for a bit while watching streams, things went pretty good and I actually played those two tables for 6hours, making 20$ stack at one of the tables. So I made some profit these days whilst being a bit of a zombie. And speaking of zombies...

Pokerstars offered me a really generous ultimative challenge with 77.50$ reward if I grind 3100VPP in 30 days. And I made 28VPP so far only way I can make this happen is by moving up stakes ASAP and grind that bitch hard.

I wish I could just refresh myself right now and continue grinding, but I guess the only option for that is going to sleep and see what tomorrow brings.
Bankroll is 61.30$

Also won my biggest pot in this challenge so far. Played it perfectly, I think

Poker Stars $0.01/$0.02 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
BTN: $3.85
SB: $0.94
BB: $0.60
UTG: $4.97
Hero (MP): $13.84
CO: $3.77

Pre Flop: ($0.03) Hero is MP with K♦ K♥
UTG raises to $4.97 all in, Hero calls $4.97, 4 folds

Flop: ($9.97) K♣ A♦ 9♥ (2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: ($9.97) 6♥ (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($9.97) 9♠ (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $9.97
UTG shows 5♦ A♠ (two pair, Aces and Nines)
Hero shows K♦ K♥ (a full house, Kings full of Nines)
Hero wins $9.67
(Rake: $0.30)

He Mikus,

for the hand, your opponents facing 2 allins:

What would you do with queens in this hand? With 4 players behind you probably not an easy call,right?

btw, we're waiting for your update for the challenge!
https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=326222&goto=firstnew

CU,SvenBe

Still an easy call, if someone has kings or aces then good for him

I am super tilted today. Fuck everyone and fuck everything.