From Recreational to Regular (Challenge Completed $37 to $1000)

Interesting — thanks for that.
I really need to work on hold'em, and this might be a way to do it.

Hello guys,

This week the result are not that great since mainly I tried to qualify to SCOOP Main Event Low. Unfortunately I didn't get my ticket, nevertheless I will still try to win my entry this week too via satellites. The only good result this week is the 8th place on the Monday Scholars tournament. I also played some $1.10 Bounty Builder On-Demand tournaments but no big results on them either.

On GGPoker I saw that the GG Online Championship is taking place this month so I qualified via sit & go satellites to 4 Low Events.

In this events I haven't reached the money places but I got some bounties :f_grin:. It's nice to see how players on this relatively new platform for me are playing, so I decided to play some more $5.25 events if I managed to qualify

Let's hope I get some good results this week.

So the Bankrolls this past week are taking a little hit with so many qualifiers played :

Pokerstars: $103.55
GGPoker: $76.82

Played from 16.05.2022 to 22.05.2022

Challenge Starting Bankroll: $36.48
Last week Bankroll: $206.70
Current Bankroll: $180.37

Profit Last Week: - $26.33

Goal: $1000

Good luck at the tables guys and have a nice week.

Hello guys,

This past week was a grinding one. I feel a little bit exhausted I was trying to qualify to SCOOP Main Event Low so I played around 650 Spin & Go's and around 300 micro satellites ($0.55 $1.10 and $1.50) unfortunately I didn't managed to qualify
I played also 2 low buy-ins SCOOP events ( 82-L and 92-L ) but no major results in those either. The SCOOP this year is a sad one for me because I was hoping to be better then last year one.
So that being said today SCOOP event that I am playing will be my last one of the series since I had qualified to phase 2 of the SCOOP event 1 Low. After today I will take 2 day off, I need to recharge and be ready to grind. The study part I neglected also for the duration of SCOOP so I need to see what mistakes I have done and how to improve.
The Bankroll took another small hit this week.

Also on the Monthly Scholars Leader Board as of now I am on 61st place with 2 more games to be played this month. This will be my best finish since I started playing in this tournament but still not good enough to reach the cash positions.

On GGPoker I have played only the daily freebies so no big results there either.

This week the Bankrolls are:

Pokerstars: $ 89.57
GGPoker: $ 81.07

Played from 23.05.2022 to 29.05.2022

Challenge Starting Bankroll: $36.48
Last week Bankroll: $180.37
Current Bankroll: $170.64

Profit Last Week: - $9.73

Goal: $1000

Originally posted by mariussica88
Also on the Monthly Scholars Leader Board as of now I am on 61st place with 2 more games to be played this month. This will be my best finish since I started playing in this tournament but still not good enough to reach the cash positions.

You missed it yesterady, did you? Only about 10 points and 10 places to go, you would have had a good chance to get ITM I think. I was about 13 points after you and managed to score about 30 points yesterday. So I have some expectation for todays last one of the month (but I am already angry, that I missed one tourney at the beginning that would have been at least 5 points more). Anyway, what is your strategy on registration? Do you go from start or late?

Originally posted by irieill

Originally posted by mariussica88
Also on the Monthly Scholars Leader Board as of now I am on 61st place with 2 more games to be played this month. This will be my best finish since I started playing in this tournament but still not good enough to reach the cash positions.

You missed it yesterady, did you? Only about 10 points and 10 places to go, you would have had a good chance to get ITM I think. I was about 13 points after you and managed to score about 30 points yesterday. So I have some expectation for todays last one of the month (but I am already angry, that I missed one tourney at the beginning that would have been at least 5 points more). Anyway, what is your strategy on registration? Do you go from start or late?

I could not play the yesterday one unfortunately. I got home to late I am always playing from the start. I will be playing today's one and hope I can get into the points. We'll see. Good luck to you.

Hello guys,

SCOOP officially ended for me. Overall was a though one this year for me. I played some Low events unfortunately not many good results. Trying to qualify via satellites was a lot harder then just buy-in like I did in the years before. I will start and study a lot more how to play satellites, so that my win rate in them to go up and be more productive. (If you have some good advice of how to improve my satellites win/rate please let them in the comments ).
Yesterday I played phase 2 of the SCOOP 01 - Low event starting with 15BB so it was basically push or fold for me. I busted after only 10 hands when I went all in form CO with AQo vs JJ.

PokerStars - 800/1600 Ante 200 NL (8 max) - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by Holdem Manager 3

UTG: 31,027 (19.4 bb)
UTG+1: 18,634 (11.6 bb)
MP: 51,548 (32.2 bb)
MP+1: 45,104 (28.2 bb)
Hero (CO): 24,960 (15.6 bb)
BTN: 84,190 (52.6 bb)
SB: 63,326 (39.6 bb)
BB: 40,271 (25.2 bb)

8 players post ante of 200, SB posts 800, BB posts 1,600

Pre Flop: (pot: 4,000) Hero has A♣: Q♦:
2 folds, MP raises to 3,200, fold, Hero raises to 24,760 and is all-in, 3 folds, MP calls 21,560

Flop: (53,520, 2 players) T♥: 7♦: 9♠:

Turn: (53,520, 2 players) 4♠:

River: (53,520, 2 players) 6♠:

Results: 53,520 pot (0 rake)
Final Board: T♥: 7♦: 9♠: 4♠: 6♠:

MP shows J♦: J♠:: (One Pair, Jacks)
(Pre 57%, Flop 78%, Turn 86%)

Hero shows A♣: Q♦:: (High Card, Ace)
(Pre 43%, Flop 22%, Turn 14%)

MP wins 53,520

So I min cash into the SCOOP 01 - Low for $5.16 and that was the end of SCOOP for me.

Now I get back to study the MTT (satellite tournaments also) and review my plays from SCOOP so I can see what I did wrong and need to improve.

Have a great week guys and good luck at the tables.

Hello guys,

So yesterday I saw that I had one more $1.10 SCOOP tournament ticket so I played the DeadlineSat to the SCOOP 102 - Low an $11 tournament and I managed to get a ticket to it.
In SCOOP 102 - Low I finished 1915 from 13497 players and got $17.60

So that wraps-up my SCOOP this year. Just wanted to let you now that I played another event...this one wasn't planed.

Have a good week.

Nice result !

Hello guys,

This past week was the end of SCOOP. In the last day I managed to turn a $1.10 satellite ticket to a min cash on the SCOOP 102 - Low event for $17.60 and in the phase 2 of the SCOOP 01 - Low event I min cashed also for $5.16. After that I took some days of and try to disconnect a little. The plan for the coming weeks is to review my games played at SCOOP and see all the mistakes that I made and try to improve my game. I also be watching all the videos from LuckyLukePS about the mental part of poker and all his tournaments videos, I really like a lot how he explain his views on the game.
Also the May Scholars Leader Board on Pokerstars has finished, this month was the best month for me since I started playing in this series but unfortunately not good enough to win some T$.

On GGPoker I played only the daily freebies....Also this week since my bankroll is quite enough to play some daily $1.10 tournaments I will try to see how the field of players is on this platform at those buy-ins.

So the Bankrolls this week are:

Pokerstars: $110.48
GGPoker: $86.33

Played from 30.05.2022 to 05.06.2022

Challenge Starting Bankroll: $36.48
Last week Bankroll: $170.64
This week Bankroll: $196.81

Profit Last Week: + $26.17

Goal: $1000

Hello guys,

Took a couple of days of from the tables after SCOOP ended and played only some private freerolls. Yesterday I managed to win one

Still this week I am focused mainly on reviewing my SCOOP hands and the MTT & mental videos from LuckyLukePS. Late at night I play only some freerolls.

Have a good week.

Hello guys,

For the past week I was focusing on studying the MTT strategy and on the mental/preparing part of poker. I only played some freerolls on Pokerstars and some daily freebies on GGPoker. I managed this week to reach 2 final tables (one I won it and one I finished second ). In the 2nd final table a deal was made between the final 3 players. On Saturday I finished 40th on the $300 freeroll and cashed $1.65. Also on Saturday I finished for the first time in the money on the Monthly Freeroll since I started to play this games back in March.

Wednesday win

Saturday 40th place:

Saturday Monthly:

Sunday Final Table:

So overall this week was a good one for me....and the Bankrolls this week are:

Pokerstars: $192.45
GGPoker: $87.83

Played from 06.06.2022 to 12.06.2022

Challenge Starting Bankroll: $36.48
Last week Bankroll: $196.81
This week Bankroll: $280.28

Profit Last Week: + $83.47

Goal: $1000

Good luck at the tables guys

*Since I took some days off after SCOOP I haven't play the Scholars Leader Board tournaments this month but there are still 9 more tournaments from the 13 this month. Do you guys think I should play them or play only from the next month?

This is the approximated points system:

place ---------- points
500-101 ......5+
top 100 to 26......20+ --->40
top 25 to 10......40+ --->64
top 10 to 04......65+ --->100
top 3 ......100 --->115
top 2 ......115 --->145
top 1 ......150+

At this point the top 50 place has 86 points.

Originally posted by mariussica88
Do you guys think I should play them or play only from the next month?

Play them! First reason is that I want somebody from the community I can watch at and compete with in that tourney. Second is that I more and more get the feeling that this tourney is very very proftiable. It is soft and the overlay doubles the PP on average and on top you get the chance for the 1k extra on the leaderboard.

At least you got about 2 points more than me today

Hi guys,

Got another final table in the private freeroll yesterday. Played really well this past weeks. It seems that I found a balance between studying and playing poker that suits me. I only hope that this will continue.

I might try to play some $0.55 satellite to the $11 Special Sunday Million satellite ( it's an $11 tournament that gives the top 2 final tables tickets to that weeks Sunday Million ).

Have a good week guys.

Hello guys,

So yesterday (My time) I played some $1.10 and $0.55 tournaments. (2 x $0.55 Sunday Million $11 satellite, 2 x $1.10 ON-Demand $250 Progressive Bounty and the $1.10 Regular [1000 Players Cap] $750 Gtd ). On the first 4 mentioned tournaments I did not get into the money but on the last one I managed to win it. Played really well in it and also in some spots I have to admit I was lucky. AQ vs AK I hit a Q on the board and most important on this hand that change the balance in my favor when we where 3 left.

PokerStars - 9000/18000 Ante 2250 NL - Holdem - 3 players
Hand converted by Holdem Manager 3

Hero (SB): 1,019,702 (56.7 bb)
BB: 428,419 (23.8 bb)
BTN: 789,879 (43.9 bb)

3 players post ante of 2,250, Hero posts SB 9,000, BB posts 18,000

Pre Flop: (pot: 33,750) Hero has A♣: 2♠:
BTN raises to 41,400, Hero calls 32,400, fold

Flop: (107,550, 2 players) A♠: 2♦: 4♥:
Hero checks, BTN bets 48,398, Hero raises to 197,571, BTN calls 149,173

Turn: (502,692, 2 players) 4♠:
Hero bets 778,481 and is all-in, BTN calls 548,658 and is all-in

River: (1,600,008, 2 players) 2♥:

Results: 1,600,008 pot (0 rake)
Final Board: A♠: 2♦: 4♥: 4♠: 2♥:

Hero shows A♣: 2♠:: (Full House, Twos full of Aces)
(Pre 30%, Flop 69%, Turn 26%)

BTN shows A♦: 9♦:: (Two Pair, Aces and Fours)
(Pre 70%, Flop 31%, Turn 74%)

Hero wins 1,600,008

So the winning streak continues this week too. Hope it will last a long time. Not taking the results into account I really think that this balance between study and playing time works for me. ( I am studying my game and watching MTT videos for at least 2 hours daily, also the mental preparation before every session ).

Have a great week guys.

Hello guys,

Quick update on some changes in this challenge. I decided that on GGPoker since I have a bankroll of only $86 and the $1.10 $1.05 tournaments are starting too late for my time I will play only daily freebies until I reach $100 and after that I will play 1h to 2h session a day of cash games (NL2 and I will play for start 2 to 4 tables ). I took this decision because the spin & gold and the Battle Royal games have to much luck involved and to big of a variance for me. When I have a bigger bankroll on this platform I will return to tournaments ( from $2 up the hours for the tournaments that fit me are reasonable ).

So mainly on GGPoker I will be playing daily freebies and then cash games NL2.

Also in the Scholars Leader Board tournaments this week was terrible my big pocket pairs where cracked every time.

PokerStars - 30/60 Ante 7 NL (6 max) - Holdem - 6 players
Hand converted by Holdem Manager 3

MP: 2,877 (48 bb)
CO: 2,852 (47.5 bb)
BTN: 2,502 (41.7 bb)
SB: 2,691 (44.9 bb)
BB: 3,446 (57.4 bb)
Hero (UTG): 3,632 (60.5 bb)

6 players post ante of 7, SB posts 30, BB posts 60

Pre Flop: (pot: 132) Hero has Q♠: Q♥:
Hero raises to 180, MP calls 180, 3 folds, BB raises to 3,439 and is all-in, Hero raises to 3,625 and is all-in, MP calls 2,690 and is all-in

Flop: (9,820, 3 players) 4♥: K♣: 9♣:

Turn: (9,820, 3 players) A♦:

River: (9,820, 3 players) K♦:

Results: 9,820 pot (0 rake)
Final Board: 4♥: K♣: 9♣: A♦: K♦:

BB shows 6♠: A♣:: (Two Pair, Aces and Kings)
Main Pot: [8,682]: (Pre 26%, Flop 17%, Turn 95%)
Side Pot: [1,138]: (Pre 29%, Flop 17%, Turn 95%)

Hero shows Q♠: Q♥:: (Two Pair, Kings and Queens)
Main Pot: [8,682]: (Pre 60%, Flop 74%, Turn 0%)
Side Pot: [1,138]: (Pre 71%, Flop 83%, Turn 5%)

MP shows J♦: T♣:: (One Pair, Kings)
Main Pot: [8,682]: (Pre 15%, Flop 9%, Turn 5%)

BB wins 9,820

Originally posted by mariussica88
Hello guys,

Quick update on some changes in this challenge. I decided that on GGPoker since I have a bankroll of only $86 and the $1.10 $1.05 tournaments are starting too late for my time I will play only daily freebies until I reach $100 and after that I will play 1h to 2h session a day of cash games (NL2 and I will play for start 2 to 4 tables ). I took this decision because the spin & gold and the Battle Royal games have to much luck involved and to big of a variance for me. When I have a bigger bankroll on this platform I will return to tournaments ( from $2 up the hours for the tournaments that fit me are reasonable).

Need your help guys. As I said yesterday that I will be playing cash games on GGPoker they announced that from June 19th to July 3rd starts a new series microMillions so now I don't know what to do. I looked over the full schedule and there are a lot of tournaments that starts at a decent hour for me and within my $86 bankroll so now I am thinking that since I mainly play tournaments it will be better to use this bankroll to play some of this events. ( after the end of this series if I still don't have enough bankroll to play the regular tournaments maybe I move to cash games )

What do you guys think? Should I play the microMillions on GGPoker?

Hey Mariussica88! I've recently found your blog, and enjoy it pretty much, thank you for the effort you put in it!

I'm not an MTT player, so it's just my personal opinion, but if the reason for you to skip MTTs for a while is the scheduling problems, I would say to run the tournaments in this series. Best case scenario you will have the bankroll for the games fit your schedule, worst case scenario is you have to play CG as you planned yesterday.

Good luck at the tables and let us know about your decision and progress!

Update regarding the GGPoker Micromillions.

Hello guys,

So for the next weeks I will be focusing on the Micromillions series at GGPoker. I will be playing all the events from $1.05 to $3 (that start at a decent hour in my area ) and I will try also to qualify to some $5.25 and $5 events via satellites within my bankroll. There are a lot of satellites between $0.11 to $0.55 that offer tickets to big buy-in events. Also there is a $25 Main Event that I will try to qualify.

On Pokerstars I will be playing the $1.10 Scholars tournaments and only some Freerolls.

So let's hope I can have a nice couple of weeks. Have a good day

I think you made a good call, good luck at the tables!

By the way, have you ever played on 888? I am a SnG player, but got a bunch of free MTT tickets, and I would say the micro tournaments are extremely soft. I played a lot of satellites, freerolls, and $1 MTTs, and even I had a decent ITM%. For example, I'm late regging to 10 1$ ticket GTDs for $0.10, and I usually fight with 30-50 people for a prize pool worth at least 100 times the buy-in, and 10-14 places paid. All I do is a slightly modified push-or-fold strategy as I always start with ~10bb. Usually it doesn't take more than 2-3 double up to reach the money.

I wanted to play MTTs once I'm decent enough in SnGs, but right now I'm in doubt if I should reschedule my learning path. I live in Hungary, and I think the starting times fit you, but I can't recall if we have 1 or 2 hours difference in time zones this time of the year.