Its a long way to the top if you wanna build a roll - the remix

Welcome back to the challenge! Tank your way up!

@SvenBe - Thanks man. This time I will make sure not to go wandering in the wilderness of Nopokera, a truly sinister place.

I may have slightly deviated from the challenge set out, it was my first week back though and those $2.50 Spin and Go's got me excited.

The results this week were not great. I was making rookie mistakes and didn't play nearly enough hands.

Hands Played: 1694
Profit/Loss: -$24.98
Spin and Go's and random micro tourneys: +£24.78
Bankroll: $99.80

So a few buy ins down saved by some cashes in the Spins and a couple of $1 buy in tourneys. Although I'm happy to not be down that much, I am annoyed that I didn't stick with the cash games for the challenge.

I said last week I would write down more concrete goals and here they are:

Poker

Stick to playing only cash games until the challenge is complete.

Play at least 1500 hands of normal speed 6 max. I think this will be the best way to get back into playing consistently. More focus, less decisions.

Health

Eat 5 meals per day.

Work out 6 days per week. I will be doing Insanity in the morning, I got the DVD at home. I will also be following the stronglifts 5x5 programme 3 days per week working the compound exercises to build strength before the second phase of my "become a legend " plan.

This is all for now. Over the coming weeks I will be fleshing out this plan to give me a clear indication of where I'm heading. I aim to keep this blog a sort of accountability journal, however having never had one before I think baby steps are necessary.

Best of luck to you, I will follow!

GLGL!

He garynicol85,

where are our updates, the start looked so promising and organized!

CU around,SvenBe

Damn... I did it again... sorry guys, I'll make it up to you. I promise

I really want to give this blog a proper go. Although previous attempts have either fell down after a couple of months/weeks, I am stating my commitment right now to at least post once a week till the end of 2016. Easy for me to say.

Before I get into the goals and my new bankroll challenge, I want to give a bit of background on the last few months. The last time I restarted the blog, I set a challenge to turn $100 into $1000. Since then my bankroll has dwindled to a lowly $30. This is for a variety including bad play, terrible mindset and just general burnout. This burning out was caused by trying to do too much while also working a full time job that can see me working up to 70 hours a week and no less than 45. I hate my job. I hate having to work so many hours in a company that doesn't appreciate its staff or its customers. I feel trapped because I need the money and am finding it difficult to find a job with the same pay in an industry I would enjoy, however I will keep looking and trying to build a roll in poker on the side.

I also didn't stick to the life goals I had set myself for my body and mindset. Several times I set a workout schedule only to fail after a few sessions, blaming it on no time or feeling tired from work. This is bullshit. I have made a realisation over the last couple of weeks. I am afraid of failure. I get so crippled by this fear, causing myself to self sabotage. This is the most important goal I need to work on. Not to eliminate fear, that is impossible, but to not let it lead me into ruin. I have started making a little headway in this already. I think this fear is what has caused me to quit on the blogs before. When I knew I was going to miss a big goal, like stopping smoking, I would create excuses for why I didn't have time to play or update the blog. The only way I can defeat this fear is to force myself to be accountable to these forums, starting now.

So with no further ado here are my goals:

Poker

Turn $30 into $1000 using the Tankroll Challenge format. This time I will mostly lay cash games but will allow time at weekends to play Spins and MTTS. I have actually stolen Mantelo's BRM guidelines for his MTT's and Spins from his blog. By the way, reading his blog was the final kick up the ass I needed to get me to this point.

Again I won't set volume goals, but for the first couple of weeks I will commit to an hour of cash games 4 out of 5 week days. I will also play over the weekend, however I won't set specific goals for that just yet.

Health

I will work out 6 days a week. I will be doing the 9 week Insanity programme. I have already competed week 1 (my legs hurt). I have taken measurements and will update once every two weeks on this, I may even through in a pic or two.

I will stop smoking. Tonight. I can't believe I am still doing it, I know how much of an idiot I am being by continuing to do it. After I finish up here I go and smoke my last cigarette and look forward to the amazing physical and mental improvements this will bring.

That's it for today. I will post my challenge in the Get Rich or Die Tryin thread and get to work.

That sounds good. Good luck with your new start with your challenge

Cheers,
SDK1987

Hi!

Originally posted by garynicol85
I hate my job. I hate having to work so many hours in a company that doesn't appreciate its staff or its customers. I feel trapped because I need the money and am finding it difficult to find a job with the same pay in an industry I would enjoy, however I will keep looking and trying to build a roll in poker on the side.

Reading these lines i recognized myself
I also tryed give up smoking several times but failed all the time.

Best wishes! Never give up (except smoking :))

Hi Kacsa, thanks for stopping by. The struggle is real but I won't give up

Hi guys. This last week has been a strange one. First off, the eagle eyed among you may have noticed i recently got an upgrade to Silver. I signed up for a tracked account with Unibet for the £10 no deposit free money with the intention of using that money to collect a few strategy points. The plan worked. As part of the offer you get €14.50 as a cash game ticket to be used on the NL4 tables, unlocking the winnings after playing 750 flops. I managed to complete and ran it up to €46, not bad. I also have a few weekly freeroll tickets to use, hopefully I can get some cash from those too.

Sadly this was the only highlight of the week as the $30 I had on pokerstars is gone.

The cash games themselves didn't go that bad, I only played 2500 hands and was pretty BE. No, the problem was with the tournaments I played. I did not show proper bankroll management and played far too many tournaments I was not properly bankrolled for.

As it was the first week I'm not going to be too down on myself. I will use it as a lesson on BRM as I am getting back in the game. I will reload with another $30 and do it right this time. So as far as the bankroll challenge goes it will be counted as a fail then re start at week 1 again.

Last weeks goals

Play 4 out of 5 days for an hour - DONE - I actually played a lot more but mostly on Unibet trying to unlock the bonus
Work out 6 days a week - DONE - Insanity week two complete
Stop Smoking - FAIL - Man this one hurts. I stopped for a full day then had a bad morning at work, finding out that my job may not be safe due to a corporate restructure, and started puffing away again.

As Meatloaf once said, two out of three aint bad. Although when the one you miss is the one that has the most life +EV attached, it kinda sucks.

So the stats are:
Week 1
Hands Played: 2284 (tracked on Pokerstars, I have no idea how many on Unibet)
Profit/Loss: -$0.35
Spins and Tournaments: -$29.68
Bankroll: $0.03

My goals for next week will be:

[*] Play NL2 cash until I reach at least $40 before playing any tournaments and even then strictly $1 max BI.

I will aim for 5000 hands minimum. Trying to slowly build up the volume.

Study 3 hours this week. I will have a look through the silver articles and videos. If anyone has any suggestions, specifically for cash games 6 max NLHE both normal speed and zoom, I would be grateful to hear them.

Workout 6 days a week. Insanity week 3 awaits. I will also be incorporating 3 days of 5x5 weight training.

That's all for today guys

The 1st week repeat only went slightly better than the first attempt. At least I haven't blown the whole roll this time:f_cry:

So the results are:

Week 1 (again)
Hands Played: 1185
Profit/Loss: -$13.06
Bankroll: $16.94

Once again my volume was pitiful although this time there is a reason. That job i mentioned I hate, well it just got worse. There has been a nationwide corporate restructure put in place effectively putting everyone within a management role on notice and having to reapply for their jobs. Some jobs are disappearing whilst other positions will becoming bigger with more responsibilities. Although I am not affected by the current round of redundancies, i am confident my department will be next on the hit list.

Every cloud does indeed have a silver lining as this has spurred me on to up the effort in my job search and I have already secured two interviews for more well paid positions with better benefits for next week. Due to my surge in motivation to find new employment, time for poker had to be sacrificed, as you can see by total hands played.

I also made the deadly mistake of getting a bit too excited for the card hunt which, having to be played at 10NL or above, i shouldn't have been involved with anyway. Stars really know how to push my degen button.

It was going well until I ran KK into AA and promptly lost another stack with QQ vs 55 with villain flopping a set. As I said, I shouldn't have been playing that even when tankrolling so only have myself to blame.

Last Week Goals

.Play NL2 cash until I reach at least $40 before playing any tournaments and even then strictly $1 max BI. - FAILED - fuck you stars with your fancy little card match game. Actually fuck me for being so damn gullible for the shiny shiny's.

.I will aim for 5000 hands minimum. Trying to slowly build up the volume and Study 3 hours this week - FAILED - for reasons stated above so not gonna feel too bad about this one

.Workout 6 days a week. - DONE - I didn't do the weights for time reasons but I nailed another week of Insanity

Goals for Week 2 of new Challenge

.No volume goals this week as there will be a lot of work ahead preparing for interviews and continuing the search. My only poker goal is, when I do play, to only play NL2 and follow the initial plan for tankrolling to 1K. No distractions from tournaments or Spins or damn side challenges. Hopefully I can get to NL10 before the card match thing finishes

.Workout 6 days a week. Insanity week 4 ahead. I kinda have to put this one on because its the only green tick I have been getting consistently.

.Read book - I recently got my hands on a book recommended to me by an ex smoker. Allen Carrs Easyway to Quit Smoking. Gonna read this and see if it helps get me off cigs.

.Get a proper meal plan. I have been working out consistently but my diet is still really bad. I need to fix this to optimise my results. Nothing fancy needed, just know what I am eating on a day to day basis and keep it simple with a couple off cheats built in

Its been a frustrating week. I was doing really well in the cash game grind, logging a huge volume of hands (for me). I managed to get up to over $50 which allowed me to play at NL5, using my tankroll BRM. I ran pretty bad and then came upon this hand, which drove me back down to NL2 where i then went a bit tilty and lost a bit more. Should i ever be folding in this spot?

Poker Stars, $0.02/$0.05 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players
Poker Tools Powered By Holdem Manager - The Ultimate Poker Software Suite.

SB: $15.99 (319.8 bb)
Hero (BB): $6.91 (138.2 bb)
UTG: $5.03 (100.6 bb)
MP: $5 (100 bb)
CO: $4.02 (80.4 bb)
BTN: $5 (100 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K♦: K♣:
4 folds, SB raises to $0.12, Hero raises to $0.35, SB calls $0.23

Flop: ($0.70) T♥: 8♣: 2♥: (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $0.50, SB raises to $1.80, Hero raises to $6.56, SB calls $4.76

Turn: ($13.82) J♣: (2 players)
River: ($13.82) 4♥: (2 players)

Results:

I qualified for the $1m freeroll, cashing for $15.50 which pretty much saved my week from being a total disaster. I busted out with TT vs KK with no help on the board. I was actually kicking myself after I went all in as the villain bet 50% of his stack rather than going all in pre. I know this is never usually a good sign.

Anyways final results below:

Week 2
Hands Played: 13169
Profit/Loss: +$21.30
Bankroll: $38.14

[*] only play NL2 - SUCCESS - I did play a small amount of NL5 but only after reaching the target of $50 so that's allowed.

[*] Workout 6 days a week - SUCCESS - This Insanity is quite brutal

[*] Read book - Im not putting this as a success or fail. I have started the book but not quite finished yet. It is a really interesting read and is really helping me understand the whole nicotine trap. Completely different approach to how i would normally attempt to quit but here's hoping it's the kinda different i need.

[*] Get a proper meal plan - FAIL - I still havent done this yet. I did start of really good at the beginning of the week but then let it slide towards the end.

[*] 15,000 hands - Its finally time to start setting some volume goals. I think this is achievable with the amount of free time i should have this week.

[*] Workout 6 days a week - keep it consistent. Week 5 in Insanity is called recovery week. Its mostly yoga time stretches with a lot of core work. Nice break before the killer last 4 weeks.

[*] Finish Allen Carr's Easyway to Quit Smoking - Number one goal is to complete this book. If Mr Carrs claims are true I will not only be a non smoker next week, but will actually enjoy the withdrawal process. God i hope this is true

[*] Meal Plan - I think I need to be more specific with my meal plan. I am going to work out the macros and calorie intake I should be meeting each day then build a plan around it. As Tony Robbins once said, clarity is power.

So there we have it. A frustrating but significantly better we than last week. Let's hope the coming week is even better.

He garynicol85,

I think you made a small mistake! You did not finish Allen Carr's Easyway to Quit smoking, but someone else book "how to stop a blog" :-(
That makes our forum kitten sad:

So, please come back for the sake of the kitten - and for your winnings!

Greetings, SvenBe