Member plays 500,000 hands at NL2 in February
Yes you read that correctly. In today's Saturday Coffee we look at an insane prop bet inspired by one of our promotions.
Poker Clip - 'No, No Limits'
This weekend's Saturday Coffee we start with a very energetic retro music clip (from the early 90s). We chose this song because it gets you pumped up, 'No Limit' has relevance for poker players and this week's interview really fits with this song:
One of our members from Polish community - stafu used this song as an anthem for his insane challenge.
Our promotion - the Blog Job - inspired this micro stakes player (stakes NL2-NL10) to try to do something crazy - playing 500,000 hands in one month at NL2 (during the shortest month in the year, by the way) with a 3bb/100 profit!
His declaration was looking so ludicrous for some users, that they bet $725 against him. But guess what - he did it!
Interview with a challenger
: You just finished a really crazy challenge - playing 500,000 hands in 28 days! You did it. You won $300 from a game and $725 from side bets. Congratulations!
stafu: Yes, even I had some doubts about it. It's cool that I did it.
: What was your personal volume record prior to the challenge?
stafu: I think something like 250,000 hands in one month, but I was studying back then, and didn't have so much time.
: How many hours did you play this February?
stafu: 280 hours approximately.
: Did you played one long session every day, or a few shorter sessions spread out?
stafu: I was experimenting and I decided that best choice for me was three shorter sessions per day with one hour breaks.
: Did you have some mental slowdowns during the challenge?
stafu: Of course! I had a crisis when the financial results were not good. In the second part of the month I turned off all distractions - TV series (in the first part of the month I watched all seasons of Prison Break), forums etc.
: You were playing on a joypad, we can see this on a video you recorded. Can you tell us more about it?
stafu: The pad is very helpful tool. Many people use hotkeys on PokerStars. And I just made the next obvious move - transferring hotkeys over to a controller. It's very ergonomic.
: In the challenge thread there was a huge discussion about the profitability of this challenge.
stafu: The financial aspect wasn't important. Poker is just fun for me right now. As a micro stakes player I recognised NL2 was the best limit for testing my persistence. Hopefully this challenge will be one of many steps in my poker adventure.
: Coincidentally, last week I wrote about this how betting money on yourself can be good for motivation. You did it too - you put extra money on the line. Did it help you?
stafu: Yes, it boosted my motivation. Especially at beginning, when it was hard for me to have a good tempo. After few days, those "hard" things became a routine.
: What are your future plans?
stafu: I think I'm very lazy. So next step will be a repairing of this leak. February's challenge helped me understand this, that we can be our biggest enemies.
We will finish this incredible story by quoting one of our coaches (and Chess Federation Master) - kaldas90:
"You are a personal hero for me mate and your work ethics is incredible. If you work on your game even 50% as hard as you worked this month, you'll be a top dog. It's much easier to learn proper poker strategy than develop the right mindset, so you have huge potential."
We can't agree more. Wish you all the best Sir!
