A Record of Lingson's Journey to Poker Success

First of all, Merry Christmas everybody, although it's a few days late already.

I'm cancelling my previous challenge (let's refer it to 2025 challenge) and starting a new one (let's refer this one as my 2026 challenge). Few weeks ago, I installed GG app and tested the site, played some games with the free tickets from the daily freebies and luckily able to ride the 12 days of christmas promotion to get more free tickets. From there, I could accumulated a few cents to further testing all other games, and few days ago, I finally decide to make a deposit there. And since this site looks more appealing, I might not be playing much anymore on PS except for the mixed games which are only available there. So, I don't think I will be able to continue my previous challenge.

For this new challenge, it's exclusively to increase my bankroll on GG, and from previous experience with my 1st challenge, this time I will not limit it to any specific game. So this means that for my new BR challenge, I'll play anything there, and also include any bonuses that I receive. My only goal is to raise my €100 deposit to €500.

According to my PokerCraft timeline, I first installed the app and played a freeroll tournament there on 3rd of Dec. So I will sum up my 1st report from that time to today, and to make it easier to track since next week we already enter 2026, I'll call this the week 0 report.

Period: 3 Dec 2025 - 28 Dec 2025 (Week 0)

Played Sessions & Hands: Too many different games, and I only started to really log it recently, so I will break it down starting on the week 1 report next week.

Starting Bankroll: €100.00
Bankroll Movement: - €13.85

Current Bankroll: €113.85

Highlights:

• As I mentioned before, won the daily freeroll for Raab poker night qualifier to play on 9th of Feb 2026.
• Played several Spin&Gold (Spins) and Mystery Battle Royal (MBR) games with the free tickets from daily freebies. Does anyone has good resources regarding these games? Or should I just treat them as normal sit and go game?
• Played several aily tournaments with the free tickets from the 12 days of christmas event, and got ITM several times (only won $1-2 each time).
• Started the Honeymoon promotion, so tested more games as required for the mission. Stupidly, I started this promotion at midnight and read the notice about the reset time wrongly, and thought I have the whole day the next day to complete the mission, so I missed the 1st day mission which was so easy to finish, and miss my chance to get the big $150 bonus if I finish all 30 day missions. Thus, I also skipped the All In or Fold mission since it's basically a losing game to play. So, already missed 2 days of the 30 days mission.
• Tried to play short deck (because of the mission), which looks quite fun, but also scary. It seems that many are playing according to some starting hand charts that I found online, which listed many hands to just shove all-in pre-flop. All-in in cash game with full stack? No wonder the variance is crazy in this game. Maybe I'm still influenced too much with traditional NLHE, so unless I got premium hands such as AA or KK which still has high equity mathematically, I won't shove all-in and only limp or call up to a medium raise. Perhaps it's minus EV in the long run? I haven't found a good source that shows this or state otherwise.
• Also tried to play PLO 6cards, and was burnt to hell. LOL. I don't think I make many mistakes pre-flop, but since my post-flop play is bad, especially at reading the board even when playing normal PLO, the effect is really multiplied in PLO6c where it would even be easier for someone to hit the nuts. Thus, I was immediately down more than 3 buyins after one session. I guess trying it once for fun should be more than enough to know the game.
• Got ITM when played Omaholic the 1st time (just a regular non bounty/PKO $1 buyin tournament), and won $2.55. Then the next day played again fully motivated, and only then did I realize that it wasn't a PLO tournament, but has a PL-NL format (PL preflop, and NL postflop). I called an all-in re-raise without noticing the bet size because I thought it was just pot-size which should only be at most 20BBs which I was happy to call with my AAxx and ready to drop when the board is not good. Only when I suddenly see that I was out of the game because I was already all-in and lost, I started to wonder how could that have happened when I only raised a few BBs and the pot was still small. BTW, are there any good resources for PLO tournament strategies? And with this PL-NL format, what adjustments need to be done with our play?

P.S. Haven't had the time to prepare that 2-7 triple draw post. Will do in a few days.

BTW, when will the strategy points status get updated? I'm trying to reach silver status until the end of month, not sure how much points I still need because the point status is pending since the 19th of December. It's not too easy to collect points when you're still playing at the lowest stake.

Here are my tips for playing the 2-7 Triple Draw tournament at PokerStars. Most of them are based on the video: "Introduction to 2-7 Triple Draw" from Brian Hastings at RIO (Essentials) that I watched during their 3 days promotion. Because his video is about the game in general (including cash games that were still available during that time), I adjust (mostly simplifying) it a bit for tournament play.

Let's start with the starting hands.
Pat hands:

• 8 or better.
• For 9s with gutshots like 96532 or 97653, it's also better to pat when HU and depending situation.

1 Card Draws:

• 1 card draw to 7. Note: wheel draw (2345) are preferred against pat 87x.
• Smooth 1 card draw to 8. For 278x combos, discard the 8 if multiway.
• Rough 1 card draw to 8 like 8764 is better to fold pre-draw.

2 Card Draws:

• 72x always playable.
• 234, 235, 245 also playable, although with risk getting a straight.
• For hands like 236, 246, 256, I would rather play them when in position or HU.
• 82x and 83x are playable situational.

3 Card Draws:

• I personally would only risk playing 72 and 83 for aggresion and when in position.
• For hands like 23, 24, 25, maybe when defending blinds and not multiway.

4 (or 5) Card Draws:
This might happen when almost out of chips where I have to risk to play. Discard all cards 8 or worse, only hold 7 or better.

Some important keypoints:

• Blockers are important. For example, if my hand is 72222, I will definitely play it (discard the three 2s). It's quite a difference when you have 1-2 card draws where the discarded cards are low cards or high cards.
• As in NLHE or PLO: position is important, play looser when open-raise than calling a raise.
• When in doubt: play TIGHT and SMOOTH (especially multiway).
• In NLHE or PLO, your own hand (ignoring the opponents) can only get better after each phase (flop, turn, and river). But in draw games, you might draw a worse hand than before. So you need to draw with caution. I had a wheel draw 2345T and unfortunately, all three draws resulted in a worse hand than that. It seldom happens, but when it does: just be calm. Shit happens. Especially when at the end your opponent has a Jx hand (which was what happened with that unlucky hand). How you wish that you hold that T initially. But if that happens again, I would always always always discard the T again.

The Bettings
In general, alway bet pat or 1 card draw hands to the max. For 2 card draws, depend on situation (position, blockers, combos).

• Only continue to the last draw (3rd) when drawing 1 card to the 8 (or the 9 when HU, or if you think your opponent might bust).
• If your hands improved after the draw and you draw as many cards (or less) than your opponent, bet.
• Bluffing is an art, especially in this game. So bluff with caution. That's why position is very important in this game (unless you got the nuts).

After the 2nd or 3rd draw:

• In multiway situation (especially if opponents were still drawing more than you), patting and betting with T or better might be better than risk drawing a worse hand.
• When initially you pat your 8 high, and the opponent now is reraising you, it might be better to break your 8 and try to get a better draw. If you have gutshot hands, it might not be bad to even fold your hand as most likely, your opponent got a 7 high. If you got a 7 high and lose to a wheel at the end, just accept your bad luck. Think of it like losing your KK against AA when going all-in preflop.

Final Note:

• The format of this game is Limit, so you need to bet to increase the pot. Playing aggresively pays off, even when sometimes you will miss your draw at the end.
• Do not apply these strategies to 2-7 Single Draw game which has a NL format. It's totally different. Sure you might adopt some concepts. I haven't played the single draw yet, but I have watched several videos of that game. So if you want more action, you should study it first.

In my case, just adopting these strategies has already improved my game a lot and might bring you ITM. Too bad the game is only available in PS and only in tournament format.
Hopefully, this can pique your interest to play the game so more people will play it.

P.S. If you don't see me playing it on PS, it's not that I don't play it anymore, but at the moment, I'm playing more on GG because I want to get my bonuses.

Why are the strategy points not updated since 19th of Dec? According to my notes of my paid rakes in GG, I should have gotten enough points accumulated to reach silver. But today when I checked my status, it just reset to zero (because the start of the month already), but my last month points stay at what it was on 18th of Dec. So all points accumulated from 19-31 Dec are not accounted for (until last night still pending, and now suddenly gone). If writing it here on my blog doesn't get noticed by admins, where should I write this kind of question?

Originally posted by Lingson
Why are the strategy points not updated since 19th of Dec?

Hi Lingson,
I suggest that you create a customer support ticket Follow the link then click the beside "Open a new ticket"
Give them all the details you can, such as your username, how many points you expected and so on.

Keep in mind that some rooms don't always send the data to PokerStrategy.com in a timely manner.

…wishing you the very best for a peaceful, prosperous 2026,

@VorpalF2F

Thanks for your help. I just didn't know where to ask regarding that matter so I posted it here and was hoping an admin or moderator would help me.

Wishing everyone a happy new year 2026!!

Hi Lingson and welcome to your new challenge in 2026!
Thanks for posting the small strategy guide and all the best on the tables, looking forward seeing more from you!

Update for BR Challenge 2026 - €100 to €500 - Week 1 & 2
Period: 29 Dec 2025 - 11 Jan 2026

Played Sessions/Hands
S&Gs (Spins & MBR): 83 Sessions
Rush & Cash: 2082 Hands
AoF: 407 Hands
CG Holdem: 1029 Hands
CG PLO: 81 Hands
Short Deck: 146 Hands
MTT Holdem: 14 Sessions (excluding freerolls)
MTT Omaha: 1 Session

Results (€)
S&Gs (Spins & MBR): 1.51
Rush & Cash Holdem: -1.11
AoF: -19.60
CG Holdem: -2.19
CG PLO: -0.68
Short Deck: -4.64
MTT Holdem: 28.00 (including tickets and T€)
MTT Omaha: -0.85

Last/Previous Bankroll: €113.85
Bonuses: €25.31 (including $ to € adjustment)
Profit/Loss: €0.44
Bankroll Movement: €25.75

Current Bankroll: €139.60

Hightlights:

• Because of chasing the honeymoon missions, I was forced to play several games that I don't want to (such as the AoF), and even though I was playing very tight, but was quite unlucky during that day that all my good hands were cracked even though I had the better hands, including my AAs or KKs. It was a frustrating day seeing myself losing one hand to another, that it quite made me think to just keep folding any cards just to reach the required hands to play, which of course would be a bigger -EV if I did. But the goddess of luck wasn't by my side that day, so I could only sigh in relief when I finally reached the required number of hands.
• In total, I have already missed 3 honeymoon missions. The 1st and easiest one was because I started the mission during midnight, and misread the information. So I thought I had time to play the next day, but it turned out the missions reset at 01:00 my local time here. Then, I forfeit two easier AoF missions because I thought I couldn't get the 150$ reward anymore. But then I googled about the missions, and found out that the last few missions would be like impossible for me to do, so in order to still get some good rewards, I needed to play the 300 AoF missions. If I had known that before, I would play the easier one instead and would save me the huge loss. I still have to play the 500 AoF hands to be able to get the T$50 reward :(.
• On the good side, I reached final table (finished at 7th place) at one deep stack MTT and won around $20.
• Also manage to win a $10 WSOP Express stage 3 ticket from the weekly $100k freeroll.
• Watched some Uri Peleg's videos and it totally gave me new insights. Whether or not it will improve my results in the end, I still need to see through it. But the way he explained stuffs many things clearer for me and very doable to implement during a game. Maybe my big MTT win that day was because of this.
• Almost deciding to ditch cash games to focus on tournaments because my cash game results was always in red. However, because of the missions, I still needed to play quite some cash games. And after trying to implement the new things I learned and played more carefully, the results started to get better. So, I'm still going to play everything for now, focusing on the Holdem variants. Although I still need to play some PLOs because of the missions, I'll focus and try to learn more HE for now because I think that these new principles that I learned could also be implemented in PLO games later on. But if I also try to continue with PLO, I need to divide my time for PLO drills too, which I think would just be too much for me at the moment.
• During these few weeks (including before the challenge periods), I realized a problem that I'm facing. I didn't review my games, especially the tournaments. Digging in deeper, the reason for this is that I'm not sure how I should review my game. The easier way is to review my winning/losing hands. But it means, I might miss the hands that I didn't play but should. However, going through every hand that I played might be overkill. Can you guys share how you do your reviews, whether cash games or tournaments? Thanks in advance for your sharing.

Update for BR Challenge 2026 - €100 to €500 - Week 3
Period: 12 Jan 2026 - 18 Jan 2026

Played Sessions/Hands
S&Gs (Spins & MBR): 66 Sessions
Rush & Cash: 3099 Hands
AoF: 504 Hands
CG Holdem: 313 Hands
CG PLO: 532 Hands
Short Deck: 0 Hands
MTT Holdem: 3 Sessions (excluding freerolls)
MTT Omaha: 0 Session

Results (€)
S&Gs (Spins & MBR): 3.33
Rush & Cash Holdem: -4.50
Rush & Cash Omaha: 0.13
AoF: -2.60
CG Holdem: 1.38
CG PLO: 2.27
Short Deck: 0
MTT Holdem: 7.91 (including tickets and T€)
MTT Omaha: 0

Last/Previous Bankroll: €139.60
Bonuses: €78.69 (including $ to € adjustment)
Profit/Loss: €7.92
Bankroll Movement: €86.61

Current Bankroll: €226.21

Hightlights:

• I was really reluctant to do the AoF 500 hands mission because last time I was down about €20 just doing 300 hands. But this time, I was quite lucky. My good hands didn't get cracked, so after 500 hands, I was only down €2.60. I was more than satisfied with this result.
• I guess, this week was really a good one. Won around €17 from ThanksGG daily flipout, and I only needed to play 12 spins before I got the 10x multiplier to finish a honeymoon mission to secure the T$50 reward.
• Also won another $10 WSOP step ticket from the weekly $100k tournament consuming only 2 entry tickets.
• I also managed to get 750 fish points to secure the level for the Fish Buffet so I switch to platinum instead tryting to do the higher level. Playing at the lowest level (NL2) is not easy to accumulate points. And with the new reward system coming at the end of this month, I'm not sure how things work, so I think switching to fish platinum should be the best option.
• Besides playing freerolls and some micro stakes tournaments, I'm currently focusing on Rush & Cash. While I'm still trying to learn and get familiar with the ranges, even playing only 1 table on R&C, it's not too difficult to reach 1k hands in a day to get the free ticket for weekly tournament. And playing 1k hands should accumulate quite a good amount of FPs for this stake so I can clear my deposit match bonus. Once I've memorized all the preflop ranges, I'll try to do 2 tables. I tried 2 tabling for a short time, but realized that trying to remember all the preflop ranges under time pressure is too much, especially when I'm involved in a post-flop on one table. Then my play on the other table would be a mess usually. I don't mind playing 3-4 hours at the moment because it will also be faster for me to memorize the ranges.
• Still struggling with review. Haven't found a good way/system for me to do this review. What I'm doing at the moment is to look at the players before I start playing, and color tagging all players that are playing many tables as regulars. At least then, when I'm playing against them, I'll tend to be more careful. This is not optimal, because I don't check the players anymore once I open a table. And some new regulars will be joining without me color tagging them. Besides, just because someone is a recreational player, doesn't mean that I'm playing better than them. But I think having something is still better than nothing at all.

Would really appreciate any advices regarding review, or if you would share the way you do your review. Thanks.

If you play on site with hud and color tagging possibilities I would use colours to define player type. Usually if someone is multitabling a lot they will play more tag style ABC style. How many tables you play yourself if you don't have time to follow action on tables and profile your opponents?

PS: Also my opinion is to stay hell away from any fast poker tables... Play normal ones and look for good tables. Bankroll will often thank later.

I currently pause on Stars and only play on GG for my BR challenge. I only play 1 table rush, and still almost always run out of time because I'm trying to remember what the chart says, unless my hands are obvious cards like premium or trash. I'm basically okay with RFI ranges, but struggling with 3bets and higher, especially with hands in between premium and those on the edges, like K8-KJ, 88-JJ, or those kind of cards, which quite depend on your position and the raiser's position. And since the opponents keep changing, I won't have the time to check each untagged player in lobby to see whether he's a reg or not.

I tried normal cash game but whenever I sit down on a table, I notice that all players on my table are always only regulars. I tried several times, but at some point I gave up. What's the point playing on a table when the only fish on the table would be me? LOL. Besides, I haven't found a suitable preflop chart for NL2 yet, while there's a GTO chart for Rush&Cash that I can use for a baseline. Do you have a recommendation for normal 6-max NL2 cash games? Or were you actually suggesting full ring tables when you said normal ones?

Actually, my sessions are quite okay, except when I feel like the opponent is bluffing and gotten myself in the "flow" to call his all-in on river. Well, that was of course a joke on my foolishness aka TILT. When I'm being careful, I usually have a positive outcome. But once my chips started to rise, I have the tendency to start getting loose (not preflop, because I'm following the chart), but during post-flop, whether I play too aggresive or becoming too bold to call big bets. When this happened (loosing big stacks), I usually immediately get back to the cautious mode and full of regret. But getting back those big stacks isn't easy, while mostly the wins are only small stacks. And at the end, I end up the day loosing about 1BI because of that.

Also still learning correct bet sizing, especially when having the nuts to maximize the win. At current what happen most is winning small: 0.25-0.5 BIs only (even when getting the nuts), but losing big (0.5-1BIs). But I guess this is what we call the "learning fee" to become a better player? LOL.

At the moment, I'm doing fine with the BR challenge because of the honeymoon mission bonuses. But it'll be over this week, and then the real challenge will actually begin for me to keep my winning and of course get more winning.

BTW, @VorpalF2F. I just browsed some old threads and there was one where you giving randomizer advice for hands with certain probs by using the card colors. I never thought about that before and it's a really brilliant way. Just as reference, I'm quoting your advice again:

If you want to play them 1/6 of the time, you could play them when they're both "black" -- ie clubs and spades

This technique can be used for several percentage options, for example for off-suit hands:

• 1/6 = when both are black
• 1/3 = when both have same colors
• 25% = if one of the card is of a certain suit (the one you decide earlier, e.g. spade)
• 75% = if the cards have different colors

The possibilities by using the cards from your hand and board only depends on your imagination. Thanks for this great advice.

I would also avoid GG if at all possible. I think it's pretty obvious why if even micros don't have high vpip tables...

I would be really quiet about using preflop charts in GG. Check this post: https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=3464359#post3464359

This if from GG's T&C:
2.3. External assistance includes, but is not limited to, software, apps, websites, physical and digital reference materials. Referring to charts of any kind during play is strictly prohibited.

2.4. Potential actions for breaches: PERMANENT BAN, CONFISCATION OF FUNDS.

Hi Kyyberi,

Thanks for the warning. I'm aware of that rule. I'm not using the charts during play. That's also why I need more time when trying to recall/visualize the charts in my mind. Sure, I can just print out the charts, but I think doing so will make me lazy memorizing it, which in the end will not help me improve. Imagine multitabling while looking at the chart all the time. I'm pretty sure the play on all tables would become chaos. LOL.

There was one time when I opened PPT for study and left it open on my computer. Few hours later, I opened GG app to get to my pokercraft without realizing the PPT was still open. Suddenly I got a warning popup regarding not allowed app. Luckily I wasn't playing any games. But I'm aware the rule state that those app aren't allowed to be opened when GG is open, whether I'm playing or not. I was so shocked because I wasn't doing anything. Then I realized that I haven't closed the app before opening GG. Since then, I'm being extra careful when opening GG's app and make sure I don't have any other software open.

But thanks again for the warning. Some people might not be aware of this rule.

Other sites used that warning message, but when GG implemented that strict rule they didn't have any warning messages. People were banned because they forgot to close PPT before playing. I got a warning message because PPT process was left running, even as I closed the software. Lucky me for not getting permanent bans. But some members of PokerStrategy got bans for having forgot to close software while playing.

I would say that one option is to put hands to tracker, filter top50% and open them in replayer. Get the charts, and for each hand you make the preflop decision again. For no-brainers, just move on. For the rest, do the decision and then check the charts. This way you should memorize them pretty fast.

Wow, thanks for the advice/idea on how to do the review + traning/memorizing the charts. It's a very good and implementable idea. Much appreciated.

Update for BR Challenge 2026 - €100 to €500 - Week 4
Period: 19 Jan 2026 - 25 Jan 2026

Played Sessions/Hands + Results (€)
S&Gs (Spins & MBR): 3 Sessions = 4.20
Rush & Cash Holdem: 1545 Hands = -1.88
AoF: 0 Hands
CG Holdem: 0 Hands
CG PLO: 0 Hands
Short Deck: 0 Hands
MTT Holdem: 14 Sessions = 0.21 (including Tickets and T$)
MTT Omaha: 0 Session

Last/Previous Bankroll: €226.21
Bonuses: €96.87 (including $ to € adjustment)
Profit/Loss: €2.83
Bankroll Movement: €99.70

Current Bankroll: €325.91

Hightlights:

• The honeymoon missions are finished, and I manage to get all the rewards, except for the last one ($150). I collected the reward tickets at the end to get the longest expire date. Since there are several high value tickets, the value of the bonus become so high. Since I put everything (C$, T$, and tickets) in my BR, thus there's such a huge addition to the BR. However, before those tickets are played, I won't be able to realize their real value. For the satellites, I'm pretty sure I will lose playing most of them. As for the Weekender tournaments, as long I can get ITM, I'll get some value already.
• Won another $10 step ticket from the weekly $100k tournament. Because this time it's a step ticket for the GG Master tournaments, the ticket is redeemable. So, I won't play this one so I can redeem it later once it expires.
• I noticed that once my stack becomes big, I tend to play more careless, which resulted in losing those big stack plus some initial capital. So to minimize this problem, I come up with a strategy where I quit the table once my stack become +20BB to cash out that surplus, and start playing again with 100BB buy-in. I know this would not be +EV, but for the moment, doing so gives me more ease of mind and less worry when playing. Playing this way would be difficult on normal tables, so at the moment, I'm still continue to play at Rush&Cash tables. If I remember correctly, this was quite similar with what I did in the past (I think it was around 2008) when I tried SSS (short stack strategy) that was quite popular at that time. However, at some point, someone told me that in the long run doing so (cashing out) and also SSS itself would be -EV because we want to get the most of our opponent's stack when we go all-in to showdown with the nuts. Same here, once I can play more comfortable (maybe in a month or so), I'll try to keep the big stack again instead of quitting the table to cash it out like now.
• Found another tournament format (Speed Racer Bounty) where we all start with only 10BB stack. Although it's not that easy to get ITM, but I usually end up plus because of the bounties. And this kind of tournament also won't take too much time to play compared to normal tournaments.
• Because of that, I tried to play normal PKO tournaments. However, I realized that these normal PKOs aren't really my style, which I think is also because I just haven't understand them. But I will just avoid them for now.
• Started to implement that advice to practice memorizing my ranges with replayer, which also in a way is reviewing my preflop plays. I find it very good for the current me, especially since I play mostly R&C, so I will end up playing thousands of hands in a week. Although there will be many trivial trash hands that I will skip, but it's still a very good way to practice.

BTW, writing about that someone who told me about that -EV stuff reminds me of him. He was also a PS member, and has a black member status actually. I tried to find him, but he hasn't been active since corona I think. Maybe some of the moderators knows him? His ID here on PS is Thomas6409
If anyone knows him and still has a way to contact him (had his contact in skype in the past, but since I don't have skype anymore, I lost his contact already), please let me know.

My first ever big win in a tournament!!

Update for BR Challenge 2026 - €100 to €500 - Week 5
Period: 26 Jan 2026 - 01 Feb 2026

Played Sessions/Hands + Results (€)
S&Gs (Spins & MBR): 4 Sessions = 3.08
Rush & Cash Holdem: 1234 Hands = 6.44
AoF: 0 Hands
CG Holdem: 0 Hands
CG PLO: 0 Hands
Short Deck: 0 Hands
MTT Holdem: 14 Sessions = 173.78 (including C$, T$, and Tickets)
MTT Omaha: 0 Session

Last/Previous Bankroll: €325.91
Bonuses: - €0.27 (including $ to € adjustment)
Profit/Loss: €183.30
Bankroll Movement: €183.03

Current Bankroll: €508.94

Hightlights:

• With the two WSOP Express Step 3 tickets that I got from the $100k Weekly Freeroll, I was prepared to lose when I played them. I lost the 1st one, but on the 2nd one, I got quite lucky. With the number of players, the prize pool was 2 $150 WSOP Express Step 4 tickets, 3x $30, and 1x $5.xx. Although my chips were the least when we reached ITM, but maybe because it's a satellite tournament, and the participants' aim was the step 4 ticket, in just a few hands someone was eliminated, so I luckily reached the $30 prize, which was more my goal since I didn't want to win the ticket. After one player got the ticket and automatically exit the game, I got quite lucky and even got the 2nd most chips with 4 players left. This was when I started to search information on GG's website regarding the ticket prize to see whether or not the ticket prize is redeemable or not. Because if it's redeemable (since I don't plan to play the step 4), I will fight for it. But after finding out the step tickets are not redeemable, I don't want to continue anymore in case I "accidentally" won it. I was happy to win $30 to increase my BR.
• The days after, my tournament play were not good. Somehow I couldn't play as I usually play, and failed to even reach ITM. However, my cash game results improved. Implementing the strategy to cash out once my stack gets above 120BB improved my results and let me play with more confidence and less worry.
• Luckily, my bad streak ended when I played the weekly FR on Saturday. I wasn't feeling well, and with the previous bad streak, I wasn't confident at all to play.

  From the beginning, my chips depleted constantly, and I lost my whole stack just after playing like 10 minutes risking all-in with JJ, which of course was against QQ. Since I have several tickets ready, I hit the re-enter button immediately. Although still not confident, but realizing I was tilting previously, I played a bit more carefully this time. My goal was only to get ITM to get another $10 ticket (that is still redeemable) because to reach the next level, the gap was quite big. To reach ITM, you only need to be among the better 4200 players. But to reach the next level ($15 ticket), you need to reach rank 580.

  After getting ITM, I was already low on chips, which forced me to shove and luckily I won quite a good pot since a total of 3 players were involved in the pot. This brought me to a higher rank, and suddenly I had a chance to get a better prize and made me play very passively (definitely not ICM correct). At some point I was low on chips and forced to shove again. Fortunately I got an AA with a contender so I could increase my chips. At that stage of the game, just doubling my chips to 10+BBs was enough to secure my place for the next level prize without continue playing.

  Once we reached 580 players, I was so satisfied already. For my level of play, that was considered an achievement already for me. I was starting to play more "normally", where I don't play too passive anymore and gamble with the hands that in theory should be played. During one hand, I was lucky again to increase my chips, and suddenly I was ranked below 300, which if I can keep, will give me a reward of C$50. Because I never won so much from a tournament, having this chance to win that big caused me to again start playing passively.

  I was super happy when the player count finally reached 300 - $50 secured!! The next prize level is C$75 at rank 201-250, then the prize jumps to $150 GGMasters ticket (which I think should be redeemable since the $10 ticket is). Looking at the players information, I noticed that just by doubling a bit my current chips (that were almost reaching 5BB already) would already be enough to mostly secure the $150 prize. This made me think hard. Although from $50 to $75 is a 50% jump in prize, but it is nothing compared to the jump to $150 prize. At this point, I thought that it was worth it to gamble further, which I decided to do. When I finally shove, unfortunately I was the underdog, but luckily survived and doubled my chips. And my chips count survived until we reached 200 players, and I secured the $150 ticket prize. Being at this point, I got nothing to lose anymore. The next prize is $200 at rank 50. And my rank was a bit above 100. And when I finally manage to double my chips, the old problem happened again: I played passively.

  I skipped many spots where theoretically I should shove, and turned out to be my win if I did. And I almost didn't manage to get the $200 prize since my stack was already below 1BB during that "bubble". Although I finally reached that prize, but with a stack so low, of course I didn't have any chance anymore. But for me at that time, just the thought of being able to win $200 had sent me to the 7th layer of sky and made me tilt into playing zero hands (except when AA would show up, but didn't). At least, this tournament teaches me a lesson that hopefully I can use for my next tournaments in the future.

  But for now, yeah, my first big tournament win!! I'm totally happy. And overall, it was a super poker week for me.

With this big win, I also reached my BR challenge goal. So, I think I will continue immediately with a new challenge. This new challenge will definitely be much more difficult. During this 1st challenge, I still get many bonuses from the honeymoon missions. But for the new challenge, I won't get any bonuses anymore except for rakeback, which for my level of play would be quite minimal. I'm lucky enough to finish my 1st challenge in less than 2 months. However, for this new challenge, I might need a year LOL.

BTW, as I mentioned in my post from before, I couldn't implement my strategy to cash out in a normal cash game because this would be considered a "hit and run" situation, which isn't allowed by GG's rule. However, it still got me thinking whether or not doing this on Rush & Cash is also considered a "hit and run" and will not be allowed. In a normal cash game, we can't exit the table immediately after winning big, because we are supposed to give a chance to our opponent to win their money back. But on R&C, we automatically switch to another table after our hand is finished. So even if we win something big, the chance of that same losing opponent to face us again is quite small, especially since I'm only playing a single table. I myself seldom see the opponent I lost my stack to even after many hands. And I also don't immediately exit the table but wait until the next blind. So logically, doing so on R&C table should be fine, right?

Update for 2nd BR Challenge 2026 - €500 to €2500 - Week 6
Period: 02 Feb 2026 - 08 Feb 2026

Played Sessions/Hands + Results (€)
S&Gs (Spins & MBR): 3 Sessions = 1.92
Rush & Cash Holdem: 2061 Hands = -2.45
AoF: 0 Hands
CG Holdem: 0 Hands
CG PLO: 0 Hands
Short Deck: 0 Hands
MTT Holdem: 20 Sessions = 57.20 (including C$, T$, and Tickets)
MTT Omaha: 0 Session

Last/Previous Bankroll: €508.94
Bonuses: €1.25 (including $ to € adjustment)
Profit/Loss: €56.67
Bankroll Movement: €57.92

Current Bankroll: €566.86

Hightlights:

• Played many micro-stakes MTT, but didn't get good results. It was quite an unlucky week because my AAs were cracked several times and caused me to get busted from the tournaments.
• However, my luck did turn around during the Weekly $100k freeroll tournament on Saturday. I was ready to get busted when the prize was C$20, but got lucky and survived. And this continued until I reached C$75, where my chips was less than 1BB.
• For my cash game, it wasn't a good week either. The sessions were mostly okay actually, but on several occasion, I was "lured" to get all-in without the nuts where they got a straight/flush when I got a set, or my AA/KK got beaten, or just because I was on tilt. Had I been more careful, maybe the results would be better. But this shows that my post flop play still sucks.