[Closed] My Personal $10 to $10k Challange - $9,987.27 to go!

I have heard of several pros trying these personal $10-$xxk challenges and some have succeeded (Ferguson) and others seem to mention the idea, make one post on their first day's progress and than not mention it again for a year and counting (Negreanu).

I am not saying I will definitely succeed, nor that I will fail but I will put forth the best effort a guy with a demanding full-time job, wife, and two kids can put forth. With my present schedule I can usually get a solid hour in a day, some days I can manage to get three hours in, the odd Saturday, Sunday, or holiday I might be able get away with playing all day long. I guess what I cam trying to say is that if you decide to follow me on my journey, understand that it will be just that, a journey, and a lengthy one to boot.

As for a history of my poker playing... I started playing around 2001 shortly after graduating High School. My first games where just cash games with friends, and my God looking back we sure had no clue what we were doing. I remember the day I got my first credit card in the mail I instantly brought up PartyPoker, where I was making a killing with the play money, and threw $50 on to "try my luck". As you might expect my balance was down to a few pennies with about two hours, but I had fun and finally answered my burning question... I did not have a future in a career in poker.

I did still play with friends and came out ahead more times than I lost, but I did not put anymore money online until... welp, until I decide to quit my call center job, cash out $3k I had in RRSP's and have some fun, a typical stupid thing a 22 year old guy does. I did a little traveling around the country (Canada), and enjoyed just not working for an entire summer. Than in August I realized the $5k egg I started with ($3k in RRSP's and $2k from stocks) was down to about $1500. I loved all the time I spent not working and decided to try anything possible that would keep me from a regular job. I tried selling different things on eBay which brought mixed results, and after a few annoying customers I gave it up.

During this period I was watching quite a bit of poker online and decided, what the hell, I threw $100 on UB and got to work. I did pretty good playing SNG's and build up to about $300 in a few days (Never heard of BR management at this time and was playing way to expensive games). That Sunday I decide to play a MTT and placed 2nd out of, if my memory serves me right, about 1500 and netted around $350. I was pumped, and cashed it all but $50 out, and within another week my account was again at a few frustrating cents.

Fast forward about five years, and I am now a much more mature adult with a lovely wife, and two great kids, not to mention one of them pesky full time job things. Seeing a trend here? Anyways, the poker bug has once again bitten me and I have been playing quite a bit online and with friends over the past month or so. One of my friends was playing online at FT so I threw $50 on to see what would happen. I did okay, but he did worse and went broke, and I really didn't care for the FT platform so I played a few expensive SNG's to see if I could get enough to cash out and lost it all. I then figured I would go back UB, which I liked several years ago quite a bit, but downloaded their software and absolutely hate their new layout. I than found PokerStars and have been playing there for the last two weeks or so.

I started on Stars with $25 and in these last two weeks went up to $275 and now back down to $20.17. Am I proud of this? Not at all, but I see no point in lying about it. If you haven't noticed BR management and I don't see eye to eye at all times and, as with every other time, it has yet again bitten me in the ass.

So, now as I sit here typing this I will magically slice my current BankRoll into two separate stacks; $10 for this challenge, and $10.17 for my "crazy money". I will do my best to keep you updated on how each stack progresses through time, but will mostly focus on the $10 specifically for this.

Now onto the technical stuff (which may change as things progress)

1. I will do my absolute best to stick within a reasonable BR management system.

2. I will do my best to not allow emotions to play a part in my hand to hand decisions.

3. I will do my best to keep this blog here updated.

4. I will do my best to improve over time and hopefully succeed in my challenge.

Okay, there will be more to come, but I just realized this has turned from blog post to short story, perhaps novel, so I will cut it short here and talk to you again after I spent some time at the tables!