"Without the blog I'd never have reached my goal" - Ossenberg

We chat to our Bankroll Challenge whose persistence paid off, making $1,000 over 300,000 hands of NL2 and NL5.

You played over 300,000 hands to complete your Bankroll Challenge - there must have been times when you wanted to quit?

ossenberg: Of course, there were times when I wanted to give up. However, I didn't want to simply abandon the Bankroll Challenge because I would have felt ashamed in my blog.

How did you keep mentally strong during the downswings?

ossenberg: During a downswing or when things weren't going well, I took a break and carefully reviewed the hands that led to it. After that, I would go for a walk and then resume playing.

You blogged when you had $9 left to go in the challenge - did you feel a lot of pressure to win those last $9?

ossenberg:  Yes, that was really strange; suddenly, I desperately wanted to reach the goal too quickly. That was also the reason why I lost about $16 in the week just before the goal, putting me $25 away from it again.

"I believe big river bets more at NL5"

Zooming out and looking at the whole graph it looks quite steady, but at the time the losing periods must have seemed to go on forever. 

osenberg: Yes, that was from the 50th to the 60th week of my challenge, where it went down by about $100. It coincided with my transition to NL5. I had difficulties adjusting to the fact that on NL5, losing premium hands like Aces, Kings, or others in an all-in could cost at least $5, whereas on NL2, it was only $2.

It was tough getting out of NL2, is it easier at NL5?

ossenberg: It was a long journey for me from NL2 to NL5. I switched to measuring my stack size in Big Blinds, so I didn't feel the difference. NL5 is a bit tighter, and there aren't as many recreational players at the table.

What will you do differently in your new challenge?

ossenberg: I won't change much because the beginner strategy from Paxis and Fallout works on NL5 as well. One thing I will change, though, is that I will always believe my opponents have the better hand on the river with a large bet, as that has been a big mistake for me.

Did the process of blogging help you?

ossenberg:  Yes, blogging definitely helped me. Without the blog and the encouraging and comforting posts, I would never have reached my goal. Thank you to everyone who supported me in my Bankroll Challenge!

Congrats to ossenberg from everyone at PokerStrategy.com!

What is the Bankroll Challenge?

In the Bankroll Challenge we encourage our members to get better by blogging about their poker journey and setting some ambitious goals.

Our members found that having a blog kept them accountable to their goals and it's a great way to help them get to know their fellow PokerStrategists. As the saying goes 'what gets measured, gets managed' and simply having a blog keeps you on your A-Game.

To help you on your journey and with a little bit of luck you can win $100 that we will raffle once a month among our active bloggers, regardless of where they play, accompanied by a special badge for their forum avatar for anyone succeeding in their first Bankroll Challenge.

How to join the Bankroll Challenge

The challenge is open to all PokerStrategists and you do not need to be tracked to us to participate. All you need to do is:

• Start a blog in our forum.
• State your starting bankroll, your regular stakes/games and your poker room in the first post.
• Set a long term bankroll goal of at least $500 and/or a minimum of five times your starting bankroll.
• Sign-up to the Bankroll Challenge in our registration thread, with a link to your personal blog, your initial bankroll and your goal.
• Post at least once a week in your blog.

Once a month we will raffle $100 among all eligble PokerStrategists participating in the Bankroll Challenge regardless of where you play.

Double Dip with the Blogger Raffle

After running our community raffle in familiar fashion for years, with one or two special editions sprinkled in, we're now switching things up permanently!

There are brand-new weekly prizes to be won that you can get your hands on and a whole range of new tasks that go along with the new Blogger Raffle.

As the name suggests, there are now way more ways available for active contributors in our forum to win one of the weekly prizes, alongside weekly StrategyPoints milestones and various other tasks. Commenting news, watching videos, or most of the other old website tasks won't result in weekly raffle tickets any longer, though.

We're also mixing things up when it comes to the weekly prizes, making sure all our weekly winners will be able to cash out their prize right away through our Tell-a-Friend account system, whichever way they prefer.

Check out the latest winners right away

There's a total prize pool of $375 up for grabs every single week, with the following tasks available for you to complete every week or once as a one-time boost in order to earn tickets for the new raffle.

After the official first run of the raffle, we've slightly adjusted the amount of tickets collectable through earning StrategyPoints or posting in a member's blog, with the former now bringing less and the latter more tickets than before.