CHALLENGE: $0 - $1k because anything is possible

Flash Update - First Real Money Game Cash! ♠_thumbsup:♠_thumbsup:

I wasn't expecting to be updating quite so soon, but I couldn't wait to let you know that I just cashed in the first MTT I played with the €1.00 ticket I won earlier at the start of the challenge. I debated with myself if I should go to bed and start in the morning, but I was feeling OK and I was super keen to play the first MTT of the challenge. There were 19 runners in the MTT and it payed top 3 finishers.

I hardly played a hand in the first 10 minutes or so of the MTT, but this didn't stop opponents around me going out like they had just caught some kind of plague

21 minutes into the MTT 60% of the field had busted

Thought i'd share a couple of important hands with you

Double Up - at push fold, to escape 10bb's zone.

Blinds: 40/100

Big stack (9.4k) UTG limps
Fold,
Fold,
Hero Shoves (1.3K)
BB (5.9K) calls,
UTG folds.

Big Blind tables - 8♣:Q♠:
Hero has - 7♥:7♣:

Both the UTG and BB big stacks were playing waaaay LAG.

They hold - I can't tell you the sigh of relief I breathed when the river was dealt and the hold was confirmed!

This was another big hand when I had about 22 big blinds:

AQs I decided to limp as the table was crazy aggro (i mean crazy) and two big stacks behind me so i expected a raise and to stack off. Weirdly this is one of the 10% times the table decides to limp behind. So I get to a flop 3 way.

Flop is AKx - I 3/4 pot into two other players, and player behind me shoves, third player folds.

I call him - and he turns over ATo - my AQ hold - and I get the double up.

Winning coin flips

At a later stage with low big blinds my A5 > JQ aipf - after he called my button shove for 12bb's.

Another hand that comes to mind is a KK I managed to get opponent all in on the flop with.

3 handed I kept it tightish as the big stack, and let the two shorter stacks knock themselves out, as they weren't playing correct push/fold for the stack depths - and the three ITM places had pretty steep pay jumps.

Then I took it down headsup!

So finish was 1st out of 19 - for € 8.55

phew! So the challenge is well and truly up and running now

Now a big decision is how to grow this € 8.55 ?

The choice is between the following lowest stake formats available on the site:

€1 MTT.
€1 SNG Headsup (turbo).
€1 SNG 5max (2 places paid).
€4 NL cash.

I'm going to think on this a bit and try to get some advice from the strategy forum.

If anyone has any suggestions about lowest variance route to take, let me know please.

My adrenalin is settling down a bit, so I might be able to get some sleep now i've updated the challenge - it is 7.33am after all. ♠_zZz:

Like your performance tracking

Btw. you should opted in here -> https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=325001

gl

Hey thanks Rauche

and for the challenge thread! I'll be sure to check it out

Day 2 Report

The day has gone well for the challenge and we are moving in the right direction.

Cash Game Tomfoolery

The day started off well when I cashed in another Unibet Freeroll, there were 1300 runners, and I finished 14th. Top 25 places were paid and I won a €4 cash ticket. The cash ticket didn't fancy sticking around for the challenge though as It jumped ship versus an insane maniac at 4nl!

I sat down and realized someone was shoving every hand. Like every hand, here is an example:

A fine UTG shove by the aptly named 'letmeloseeee'. It was interesting thinking about the best spot to take here, and in the end after patiently waiting for my time I decided to call her off with QKs. She hit and that was the end of that.

I did a quick bit of evaluation after that, and I'm pleased with the play. She was as you can see from above literally shoving any 2. But even if we give her credit for folding the bottom 20% of her range. Here's how we fair, courtesy of PokerStrategy Equilab:

Which is interesting because it means QK is virtually as good as AKo in this situation.

Yet given she was shoving any two (she shoved the last 10 hands back to back) we were a 63% favorite.

SNG Push ♠_grin:

The rest of today has been mostly centred around SNG's. I decided to concentrate on 5man €1 and Heads-Up €1.

To help me with the headsup sng's I've started watching HU with Twice T series, which has been nicely useful, and I've already managed to plug a few leaks in my game by watching it. I'm going to be watching more of the series over the next few days to really drive my edge up in these. I found when I did manage to get into headsup in the 5max, the husng practice really helped.

I'm enjoying the challenge so far, it's pushing me to learn new formats and it's quite exciting to see the bankroll start to grow.

How did we do?

HUSNG's : Played 20 ; Won 13 ; Lost 7; - P/L: +€5.
5MAX: Played 5; 3 cashes (one 1st and two 2nds) - P/L: +€1.50.

P/L Today: +€6.50.

Bankroll Update

Weekly Update for bankroll challenge:

Every Monday, every participant must write in his blog a weekly report, including:
- number of played hands / tournaments: 20 HUSNGS ; 5 5MAX SNGS ; 7 freerolls
- weekly bankroll movements in USD or EUR : +€15.05
- Current bankroll: €15.05
- How many weeks he has participated in the promotion: 1

Originally posted by iSoOwnYou
Weekly Update for bankroll challenge:

Every Monday, every participant must write in his blog a weekly report, including:
- number of played hands / tournaments: 20 HUSNGS ; 5 5MAX SNGS ; 7 freerolls
- weekly bankroll movements in USD or EUR : +€15.05
- Current bankroll: €15.05
- How many weeks he has participated in the promotion: 1

Not sure, I think you should look at the opening post in the challenge thread again, cause afaik you have to post your weekly report in a special thread so they can keep track of all participants easier.

Hi Rauche yeah you do but it says post in your thread too, so i posted in both, thanks mate.

Originally posted by iSoOwnYou
Hi Rauche yeah you do but it says post in your thread too, so i posted in both, thanks mate.

Ok. Wasn't sure that's why I "reminded" you.

Day 3 Update

A good day today. Some nice progress.

Played:

58 €1 HUSNGS 33/58 wins - + €6.02
3 €4 HUSNGS 3/3 wins for - + €11.28
4NL 394 flops - + €6.44

Also cleared a 5 €1 SNG bonus today. + €5.00

Total Profit: 28.74

I'm playing well on the whole, there's the odd spew here or there, but I'm nipping it in the bud as soon as it happens and then recovering which is working nicely.

Challenge has me getting all philosophical like...
As i was hurting as another fish sucked out on me in a HUSNG I came up with the following idea I wrote down.

People getting it in with worse cards and winning, that's the nature of the game. If you don't like that, or can't deal with it, poker isn't for you. This is what poker is about.

I think it's very true. When we are winning and cards are holding it's an easy game. But the game is really about dealing with bad beats and just accepting them as a key part of the game that is the reason why we generate profit. Was a useful reminder for me.

I'm feeling a bit strange tonight. Like I'm feeling impatient, I want to hurry up to 100 euro and beyond. I think this might be influenced by a bit of stress in my personal life, I'm trying to take my ex employer to a tribunal at the moment - and am in the process of trying to find a no-win-no-fee solicitor and have about 1.5 weeks to get it sorted :f_eek:. But the challenge is moving along nicely! I don't want to ruin anything by playing when I'm starting to get impatient - so I'm going to take a break, maybe watch a movie.

+1 for discipline!

One day I'll be typing my blog updates from a sunny beach on a nice laptop...
... that's the vision I am keeping in mind as I continue my challenge. ♠_cool:

Bankroll:

Originally posted by iSoOwnYou
I'm feeling a bit strange tonight. Like I'm feeling impatient, I want to hurry up to 100 euro and beyond.

Interesting thought/feeling. I feel the same sometimes, or felt the same in the past. Usually while I'm running good, and I "start to believe" I'm crushing everything, and kind of get greedy so I play longer sessions then I should, start making mistakes and losse money. ^^

Great idea to just watch a movie or something than to just "force yourself" to stay away from the tables for some time.

Yes it was a great 'idea' mate. Back to square one.

I didn't end up leaving I played 4 games, and lost a few, ended up going up to 10husng can you believe that? lost a few, and put a bet on with last 10 euros.

Man this is so annoying. Completely degenerate behaviour. I have to realise sometime I can not make it at poker my character is not setup for it. I have too much weakness in my discipline when it comes to money. So dissapointed. I just cannot control the urge to want to win back what I lose.

Nevermind. Thanks for follow Rauche, gluck with your own challenge.

Omg, I just can see somemuch of myself in your last post. Like I said it feels like crushing -> so I also play longer -> lose a bit -> want to win it back -> go broke...

So at least you know you are not alone with those issues.... If it cheers you up a bit. I donated over 10k€ over the last years like this...

If you play on PokerStars I would recommend finding the money to buy "TiltBreaker" cause you can configure it to:

a.) not allow you to sit a tables higher than limit X
b.) define stoploss limits after which table close automaticly for X minutes/hours
c.) define stop/win limits
and so on...

There is also a trial period if I'm not mistaken...

Besides that just remember you made it to over 40€ once within a few days -> you can do it again. Just don't give up...

That reminds me of the following...

Thanks Rauche. Inspiring stuff. I'm going one more time.
I've just started a new challenge but it's not a challenge to make money it's a challenge to stay disciplined.
This is my final throw of the dice with poker. I hope it works out.

Originally posted by iSoOwnYou
This is my final throw of the dice with poker. I hope it works out.

You're always welcome. You shouldn't put it like that btw....

May I ask you something? Why do you want to make your living with poker? What's your real goal? What's your dream?

My real goal is to be able to travel the world staying in hotels when I choose, and entering decent live poker tournaments when I want, and making a good circle of friends.

In my opinion/experience:

a.) if you really want something -> you won't give up until you got it.
b.) Your "goal" is not clear. You should be able to put a number to it (how much money do you need on your bank account to do that? it's a difference if you want to be able to travel by bus and stay at couchsurfers places or if you want to fly first class and stay in premium hotels) And you should be able to put a date to it (until when do you want this to happen).

The date and the amount are crucial AND the date has to be set in a way, that it is going to be hard but possible. Then you can simple calculate (based on your winrate or other things) how many hours you would have to

a.) work in your regular job (if any) to have that amount
b.) how many hands/tournaments you would have to play to get there

You see, the difference between 95% of the people out there and the 5% living there dreams is that those 5% are capable of setting clear goals.

Think about for a moment -> how many people say they want to "be rich asap"?
And now use the things I just stated above and you will see that it not a goal at all because rich for someone here on the Philippines mean like 20k€ and for someone in Europe like 500k or 1kk€ and ASAP might be in one month for you but for someone else 10 years might also be ok....

So at the end all that matters are the following steps:

a.) spent one hour a week offline/without phone or anything that could disturb you in a public place (coffee shop, park) and take a sheet of paper with you. Try to visualize what would make you happy and right it down. Next week look at your notes and think about it again, redefine them until you even know where you want to travel, what the hotels will look like and so on... then you got your "dream" in detail and know what you are fighting for.

b.) put a number and a date to it

c.) put pictures of your goals behind your PC so you are constantly reminded of why you are doing this

d.) do whatever is necassary to get there -> if you really want it, you will find a way. even though it might perhaps be doing something else than poker...

That sad (and I really believe that it's 100% true) I'll give you something else on the way:

What a really thoughtful post, thanks.
I will have a go at creating more concrete goals and add them into my blog soon. Good idea.

Originally posted by RaucheCh1987

Originally posted by iSoOwnYou
Weekly Update for bankroll challenge:

Not sure, I think you should look at the opening post in the challenge thread again, cause afaik you have to post your weekly report in a special thread so they can keep track of all participants easier.

Yes, results also can be posted here - please make sure to post your results by Monday - if we have enough guys in we'll give another update news already next week!
GL!

He iSoOwnYou,

we're waiting for your update for the challenge! I see you around in the forums but not here...
https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?threadid=326222&goto=firstnew

CU,SvenBe