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

Interesting challenge man, good luck with that! I am a bit curious about what you are playing though, SnG's I guess? And what Bi level were you playing before you cashed out would be interesting as well =D

With 4,8kfpps you can build a nice starting br by playing Sunday 1/4mil sat 6max hyper turbos.
GL

@dandycal i'd just started on the $5.50 9 man reg sit and go's prior to cash out, though had BR more suited for the $10, but i preferred a conservative 100 BI BR, just purely because i've messed around before and gone broke rather quickly. I was doing pretty well, you don't a mass too many FPP's unfortunately playing it that way, the SSS was far better for earning, but I cashed a lot in before.

gonna attempt anything that seems cheap enough for points, and not a complete crapshoot. Then I will attempt to steadily build a cash roll by trading in my tournament tickets. There's no restriction as such on what i'm going to play thereafter, just try and pump the winnings into the $1.10 sng's and move up when the time is right. ♦

I should point out that only a small amount of the $500 was towards the car, I wasn't able to buy a brand new car in full with just poker money alone. Though that would have been sweet ♦

I cashed out my BR(~500$) a bit more than a year ago because of exams and I had pretty much the same amount of FPPs as you do. Long story short, I never deposited again, just grinded out those FPPs and here I am, now I have somewhere around 20k$ in earnings from poker

Just to keep you motivated

That's some great motivation right there! What did you spend your FPP's on out of interest? This is the dilemma i'm having right now. What is the best value for points against the easiest to win.

I'm finding the 300/600 chips hyper turbo rebuys really frustrating but at 1 FPP, I have plenty attempts at these, but wondering whether to try the higher FPP buy in games for a better chance of reward! I tried a few last night, but today will be my first real attempt at this challenge, and as I have been at work all morning, I shall include last nights tester, and the rest of today as Day 1. ♦

I'll post my stats at the end of the day! I'm gonna need an awful lot of luck to get this firstly off the ground, then I think I can roll out reasonably well once I've cashed my first couple of tourny ticket $$!

Well, I played the 70FPP and 210FPP qualifiers for the 100k guaranteed(now quarter million). Then I unregistered and played the 3$ and 6$ turbo SnGs. That was bad BRM, but I wasn't really planning to build a BR

Intriguing challenge, mate. I was at Uni at Nottingham so always good to hear of another Brit aiming at the stars...

GL and let us know how it goes. Thinking about moving part of my roll to Stars shortly as I hear there are many many tables...

Tim

Thanks Tim, went to Nottingham Trent myself a few years ago graduated in law. Not doing a lot with it mind! haha

Right...

Day 1
It's been a tough day I must admit, but i'm writing this after my first cash win, a massive $0.90 in the $1000 freeroll which cost me a mere 10 FPP (A mere 0.2% of my FPP BR i might add). Not a bad return for an hour and a half play lol It's a long road! But at least i'm in the money now, nearly a 100% shift in my cash bankroll for day 1, could I ask for much more? Well yes actually I could!! I've spent (wasted?) 1235 FPP's already in a vein attempt to crack some of the 1/4 million hyper turbo satellites. This is going to be harder than I thought! 2 very very near misses down to some rather nasty beats, the others well, hyper turbos are a real crapshoot, wasn't I going to avoid those? Hmm beggars certainly cannot be chosers at this point! the 250 FPP ones are far too tempting, and yes with playing those I had around an 18 BI BR, which is far too few. I only tried a few, and needless to say, they were the closest ones in which I came to cashing.

So Day 1 stats (though I should point out Day 1 is by no means over, as I intend to have another bash at some of the satellites after posting this.)

FPP's used 1235
Cash BR: $0.90
Entered: 18 Tournaments (4x 250 FPP Hyper Turbo 6 Max Sunday 1/4 Million Satellite) (2x 3 FPP Steps Special) (11x 1 FPP Hyper Turbo 6 Max Rebuy Sunday 1/4 Million Satellite totalling 212 FPP's in total 4.42% of initial bankroll)

What I have learned from todays foray into the FPP challenge is that for my bankroll, although they are frustrating as hell, im likely to cash in one sooner rather than later the 1 FPP Rebuys are definitely the cheapest way of entry for the smallest percentage of bankroll. I'm yet to start playing with the cash i've generated, i'm going to wait until I have some tournament tickets before the $1 sit n go's commence!

That's all for now! Thanks for the support, and keep reading! ♠_cool:

Day 2 - Let there be light!

The beginnings of day 2, although high on the volume of FPP's used have been a much more fruitful experience, I have cashed in 2 satellites now, taking my tournament ticket earnings to $22, I'm closing in on a bankroll i'm going to be happy to start playing SNG's with very soon. If I can win 2-3 more of these satellites, that will be ideal, but if that doesn't happen soon, i'm going to start the mass grind! I left things tantalizingly close on my silver status, i need to achieve a mere 21 more FPP's before the end of this month to retain my status, which will be all important for a quicker ascent later on in the challenge! So I need to be playing reasonable buy in sit n go's, i.e. above $1 by the end of this week to stand any chance of achieving that with only 10 days left before the 31st! It might be tight?

Day 2 ended around here, due to work commitments, and such but I plan to play through the weekend and hoping to start making real progress now i've cashed a couple.

Day 3 & 4 - little but successful play

2 Cashes in the satellites was what I needed to spur me on, and I managed to find my niche game. The biggest reward for FPP's used was becoming obvious to me, and that was the 20 man turbo's with an entry fee of 210 FPP's. Due to the fact that 6 out of the 20 qualify, and you start with a proper amount of chips 1500, I found where I had my edge. The 10 man winner takes all were okay, but far too difficult to win consistently in a short space of time. So I turned my attention to these 20's after having a taster for them on day 2.

Now I didn't play a lot over the course of the weekend, due to having a busier time than anticipated. So my Saturday and Sunday nights were non starters really. Happily though i've played 7 of the 210 FPP Sunday 1/4 million satellites and cashed in 4 of them, taking me to a nice $66 in tournament tickets. For a considerably healthy BR to start playing the micro sng's. I also attempted a 0.25 45 man, and unfortunately finished in 21st, after being 2nd for a good while, hit a jack top pair with an ace, but got done by the better hand of QQ played quite well! Didn't see that coming!

The satellites are going well though, tight is right for sure in these with the top 6 going through. One double and sensible play on the bubble is easily enough to get you through. The happy thing also is, I have seemingly got the best value for my FPP's at this stage, as 5000 would have got me the $50 bonus, but I have already surpassed that, with no need for unlocking bonuses.

I now have a mere 823 FPP's left, so that's 3 more cracks at these satellites which I hopefully will cash in at least one, giving me a starting roll of $76 for the next stage of the challenge! Things are looking okay at this stage!

♠_cool:

BR: $66.65
FPP's: 823

Well the last 3 went well for me, I cashed in 2 out of the 3, took a bad beat in one, where my QQ lost to AQ, catching one of his 3 outs on the turn, highly frustrating! But all in i'm very happy with the progress so far, I have in total now a bankroll of $88.64 from absolutely nothing in essentially, but not solidly 4 days of play.

Day 5 - This is where the real work starts

Well today is where the real hard work starts, the grinding! I've decided initially to tackle the heads up $2+0.20 SNG's because i've had good success rate on these before, right the way upto the $20 ones. Also ive chosen these because you do not get a middle ground on the 9 max ones, its either $3.40 or $1.10 so im heading for these to begin with. I've had to come and paste a hand from my first one simply because, it's a damned nice hand, I think you'll agree, particularly pleasing is the last card which completes a flush for the opponent! So here it is:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 10/20 Blinds (2 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t1860)
BB (t1140)

Hero's M: 62.00

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, K
Hero bets t60, BB raises to t100, Hero raises to t240, BB raises to t380, Hero raises to t1860 (All-In), BB calls t760 (All-In)

Flop: (t2280) K, 4, A (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t2280) K (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t2280) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t2280

Results below:
Hero had K, K (four of a kind, Kings).
BB had J, J (flush, Ace high).
Outcome: Hero won t2280

I shall be back later to post more from my day. ♦

Money for nothing!!!
This is a great read - rags to riches better than a Jeffrey Archer novel.

Poker beats Law hands down as I myself can attest to

btw

Hero's M: 62.00

what does this mean?

lol thanks Tim. I like the idea of the money for nothing, so i've incorporated it into my blog title

The M i believe is the number of revolutions of the button before i'd blind out (or something, someone more clued up could correct me on this!? It's more relevant in sit n go's where there are more than 2 players.)

Rags to riches would certainly be nice! So far so good ♦

Originally posted by RavForenzo
lol thanks Tim. I like the idea of the money for nothing, so i've incorporated it into my blog title

The M i believe is the number of revolutions of the button before i'd blind out (or something, someone more clued up could correct me on this!? It's more relevant in sit n go's where there are more than 2 players.)

Rags to riches would certainly be nice! So far so good ♦

M value is the relation between you whole stack and the BB+SB+Ante of current level. So it is:

your stack: 1860
BB: 20
SB: 10
ANTE: 0

M = 1860/ (20+10) = 62

M is used as inflection point, so you could adjust your play during the tournament. The lower the M value, narrower is your starting hands requirement and more aggressive you should be pre-flop.

Harrington on Holdem volume 2 is the best source of information on this topic. A must read for any tournament player. Google it for more information.

That's a much better explanation, thank you daerson ♦

Had to come on and just post another hand at the end of my 10th headsup match for the day. My record is fairly decent, and should have been 1 better had it not been for this suck out. Played 10, won 7, importantly collected 10 VPP towards my silver status, looks like i'll be saving the silver for this month, just need to play another 11 before the 31st...i absolutely will make this! lol

This hand came on the very first hand of the match, I couldn't believe my luck when he went all-in, only to be shot down in flames on the flop!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 2.2 Tournament, 10/20 Blinds (2 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t1500)
BB (t1500)

Hero's M: 50.00

Preflop: Hero is SB with A, A
Hero bets t80, BB raises to t1500 (All-In), Hero calls t1420 (All-In)

Flop: (t3000) 6, 9, 4 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t3000) 9 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t3000) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t3000

Results:
Hero had A, A (two pair, Aces and nines).
BB had 4, 4 (full house, fours over nines).
Outcome: BB won t3000

BR: $94.64

This sounds really interesting, making a BR out of nothing, i'll be checking back here for sure...best of luck to ya.

Day 5 (part 2) - Happy progress

Day 5 has been a real interesting one, i've started on the main grind of my challenge now, having got the FPP money for nothing out of the way. I played 12 Heads Up SNG's $2.20, and the rake on this is massive 10% is a lot to beat, so I don't want to play these for long! I have a good win rate though in general from previous attempts at these, and that doesn't look like changing, 75% from my first 12 (yes a very small amount) but extremely happy with that. A small profit of $9.60, but more importantly, translating those T$ into actual cash I can use for cash tables later on in the challenge!

With the FPP's collected from these 12 HU matches (a total of 18), I actually had enough in the FPP bank for one last shot at a 210 FPP satellite for the 1/4 Million, so another chance to add a further $11 to the roll. Happily, I cashed! A tough 45 minutes of tight professional satellite play saw me ease through. So im off to play football shortly, but with an extremely positive outlook. I'm going to retain silver status on pokerstars very comfortably with days to spare I need to play a mere 10 more $2.20 HU SnGs. This will be completed tomorrow. I can then start focusing on the $112 I have in bonus to unlock. So this means achieving another 2000 base FPP's. This will be a much longer road!

BR: $109.24