Okay this is my 3rd attempt at a blog, hopefully it'll be successful 
I am a 21 year old Information systems student, living in the UK. I also work part time around 25 hours a week as I need to pay this year's tuition fees (~£2k) myself. Been playing poker for a while now but haven't really taken it seriously. I had built up a bankroll of about $200 before the whole FTP fiasco - I withdrew after black friday and was lucky enough to get my money before they lost their license.I focused mainly on 9 and 10 man games. After black friday itself though I kind of lost confidence in the whole online poker scene(didn't we all?) and thought to myself "why bother investing your own money into this?"
(JUNE - AUGUST) The challenge itself began on FTP. I had a bankroll of $0 and a couple thousand full tilt points. I used the points in the 60 point turbo 9 man satellites for the daily dollar tournament. At one point I had around 10 tickets for the tournament itself. I never really went deep in it - my profits were a staggering $2.54 - with a couple of tickets to spare. This was shortly before FTP went down and I had to look elsewhere to build a BR.
When I first started out,before this challenge, I got my starting capital on William Hill - I got the money off there and decided to play elsewhere but I still had some William Hill points. I found some points tournaments(mtts) that were actually quite lucrative. Best score was 2nd for £7.50 ( last hand was A 
K vs 7 6 :heart:, with him having narrow chiplead. Oh well). Also, I still had a VIP level 4 on william hill so I was eligible to play their $5k freeroll. A mincash, $12.50, at the time was great for my challenge and I play for just that. Dont really enjoy folding hands like AQs while waiting for the shortest stack to bubble but it had to be done.
I also signed up with 888 and poker770 to get their free $8 and $7.70 respectively. The $7.70 got used up on the $20k tournament that PS held. I played well but still couldn't make a cash. Busted the 770 BR. The 888poker money was first used for DoNs, cashed in a PS freeroll for $4.44. With my BR on $12.06, I stuck the lot on red and doubled it up.
Over the points tournaments and the freeroll cash - I'd made $32 on william hill. Around the time they were offering a 300% reload bonus which I dediced to take. I deposited $32 on top of my $32, which of course I'd take out. This didn't turn out well as I barely broke even overall...
(SEPTEMBER) - I got a free $25 on carbon via another affiliate and I got it. In essence it's 25% rakeback but I'd have to play 1000 $1.10 games to clear it and the traffic there is absolutely DIRE.
I deposited the $32 on carbon and began playing there. One of the first tournaments I played was a 27 man private MTT, 5 places paid. I thought it was good value for money but it was $5.50 - so strict BRM wasnt in place. I played alright, aggresive in spots and managed to sneak into the money as short stack. When play got to 3 handed I lost AQ vs AJ to get headsup with big chip lead. My bustout hand was AKs vs 33 where I had 4 to a flush on the flop... Still, a good score - 3rd for $26.70.
STT wise, carbon has been good to me as well so far:
(OCTOBER) - Arguably the best month for my challenge so far. PokerStrategy offered me a second starting capital,on Titan Poker, which of course I snapped up. I decided to deposit $24 on there to get $48 in bonuses(rakeback). Before I began my actual grind on Titan I decided to use up the rest of my William Hill points, playing a 5 man sng with top 3 places paid. This was actually really bad value for money(points) but I shipped it for $15. The next day, I played the $10k freeroll that PS held on Titan, finished around 70th for $30.
The STT grind went okay volume wise - played around 430 games but I ran about 30 bi below EV
Carbon: $108(can't withdraw yet)
888: $23.60 (have decided to play MTTs there to use up the money as their bonus is awful)
Poker770: £1.08
Overall, I am looking to play with around 50% rakeback where possible, especially at the lowest levels of STTs. I will bonus whore for a bit I guess and after that settle somewhere.
I have also bought HEM 1 for the offer PS have for the free upgrade on HM2. So I've to take out $71 when my bankroll allows it.
GOALS FOR NOVEMBER:
Play 340 games on titan for the Go4GOLD promotion - [ ]
Play the new depositor's freerolls on titan - [ ]
Use up Titan points for more rakeback - [ ]
