Quick Update

I wanted to give a quick update as the end of January is quickly drawing near.  I haven't put in a solid session at Pokerstars in the last 2 weeks due to a few reasons.  The week following my last big session I had family come in town which left little time to put in a solid session, the following week after that I got really busy with work (which will likely continue this next week) which prevented me from getting any solid sessions in.

One thing I have been doing lately is playing HUSNGs as they are much more convenient for my semi-chaotic schedule.  It's easy to get a few games in here and there between doing things around my apartment; basically makes the grind a bit more manageable instead of having to set aside larger blocks of time to multitable.

I had originally started the year with only about $3 or so in my FT account, I ran this up pretty quickly but then hit a downswing that kind of wiped it out.  Well, I hit a downswing and then decided to redeposit a much larger amount if I actually bottomed out, so I moved up to the $2.15 games to reduce the rake %; naturally downswing continued and I ended up with $0.25 in the account.

I deposited $100, originally with the intent of using $50 of it on a volume prop bet but now I'm thinking that I will not do that as I don't want to set myself up for failure immediately.  Instead I will use this and keep grinding the $2.15 games up to around $150 where I will move up to the $5 games.

The overall game plan will be to build my roll up on full tilt until I'm comfortably rolled for the $11 pokerstars games, at which point I will transfer part of my roll over and begin grinding the $6-$11 turbos.  I have been playing a few of the $2.20s but would rather stick to the turbo format for now, and I've been running bad on PS so that motivation helps me :).

As an update on the challenge with my brother, we've had some set backs as he had to move and no longer has internet access.  He's anticipating a move out to Phoenix with me in a few months at which point he will resume the grind.  This will make the $50K challenge quite difficult, but if I can get myself in gear with these HUSNGs we might be in decent shape for a late year push.

To end, here's a graph of my Full Tilt HUSNGs for 2011 thus far, hoping to get in way more volume this week :)

45 Turbos

Volume this week has blown to be frank.  I desperately need to change that as I'd like to be in the $1 games this weekend at some point.  That said, I said screw the BRM tonight and loaded only the $0.55 45 turbos.  I only played 21 as I didn't want to do my usual 30+ tabling on a new and relatively unfamiliar format.

45 Turbos

Thoughts? I love the turbos.  Mainly due to the length of time they take (essentially half that of the reg speeds obviously).  I don't like to discuss strat too much for a few different reasons, but I will say that players are definitely too tight given that it's a turbo.  I remember looking at one of my last tables thinking to myself "I'm 6/16 and I have 7 BBs... wtf?"

Results were encouraging.  I know that upon hitting my target 80 BIs I will be doing nothing but mass tabling these bad boys, until then I may continue to do a 50/50 split between these and the reg speed games, I hope this isn't -EV but I think I can handle the diff structure types simultaneously.

OK, enough talking time for the results.

Overall

BR: 32.45

Stars Is Awesome

It appears that Stars has added $0.55 45 and 90 man turbos with no rake.  This is the perfect stepping stone from the $0.25 45s to the $1.10 45s.  Much Kudos to Stars.  After a bit more BR growth I will begin grinding these much more prevalently; for the time being still crushing the $0.25 45s.

BR: 28.50

Still Disappointed

Still disappointed in my volume.  I'm keeping this short but will do a full update later on this evening most likely.

Most recent graph:

First Update

Hello peeps,

So my brother and I launched into it at exactly 12:00am EST on 1/1/11 and started off with a solid 7 hour grind session.  I was a bit underwhelmed by the amount of tables I could get going, however; just not that many people playing at that time.  I'd guess that on average I was around the 15-17 table mark.

One thing I was forced to do a bit differently with this challenge at the onset that I believe will aid me while grinding is to actually keep my cashier open and keep an eye on it.  I agree that results aren't necessarily what's important and that making the correct decisions during play is what is striven for; however when you're trying to mass table with an extremely short bankroll it's important to know where you stand.

The first session I was having OK results, I saw my roll dip under $5 a few times which was definitely disconcerting at first.  My thought process on it was "screw it, I'm going to keep loading" mainly because it was only $10 and I knew that I could reload if I busted my roll initially.  Low and behold I went on a hot run at the end of the session to put me up around the $16.50 mark.

I got a few hours of sleep and then woke up and started up another session.  I probably shouldn't have started up this session because I was so tired but I wanted to get some volume in.  In point of fact I believe it's my first actual losing session in a very long time, so I just tell myself I was due.  My BR at the end of it was $12ish which was definitely better than it could have been.  I took the remainder of the first off and opted to get some studying in as I had already played around 140 games and definitely had a decent sample to review some spots in my newly purchased SNG Wiz.

The next morning, after 12 hours of sleep (the longest I've slept in recent memory), I decided to focus on the 360s.  I had changed a few strategic points of my approach towards these SNGs as they are very different than the 45s I was playing.  I made a point to not count my tables and not pay attention to any results, I literally just made sure that I regged every single 360 for over an hour (upon review I discovered I had up to around 35 tables going, per HEM).  I thought it was going to be a losing session until I ended up getting 3rd in 2 of my final games, cashing for $4.00 in each.  This brought me up to the $16.01 that I'm at now.

I was hoping to get a large session in tonight after work but a few things came up that prevented me, so I opted to take the opportunity to update my blog instead.  Additionally I'm going to get some more studying in so that I can hit the tables hard tomorrow.

BR $16.01.

Cashier - Starting Soon!

Well, in only 4 short hours the challenge will be officially beginning.  I have purchased SNG Wiz with what winnings I had and disposed of the remainder of what I had left over to leave myself with a paltry $10.00.  Additionally I disposed of my 615 FPPs that I had accumulated in 2010 so that I can start 2011 completely fresh.

Here's a screen shot of the cashier, beginning the challenge in 4 hours.  Best of luck at the tables in 2011 everyone!

2011 SNG Challenge

Happy New Years everyone! I'm writing this to officially launch into a personal challenge my brother and I are partaking in for the entire year of 2011. It's going to be a long and bumpy road, but with perseverance and determination we will see ourselves through it.

Challenge: Turn $20 into $100K

The challenge is quite lofty, but with hard work and dedication I feel as though it is definitely attainable. Our strategy will revolve around a ton of volume, a lot of self and team review of our play, and a very aggressive bankroll strategy at the early stages of the challenge.

We will be playing exclusively on PokerStars, and will both be beginning with a bankroll of $10.00. At the onset of our challenge, our VIP level will be Bronze and we hope to quickly rise through the VIP ranks so that our effective rakeback % increases quickly.

Our $20 bankroll will be split between the two of us at the onset of the challenge. So as to reduce variance we will be sharing our rolls and moving through the SNG stakes according to our combined roll and not just our individual roll. This will serve the purpose of allowing us to be very aggressive, but also reduce some variance as we're able to level each other out a bit.

Poker Background

I began playing poker in March of 2010 after returning from a trip to Vegas with some friends where I spent a night at the Luxor at a $1/$2 cash table. Since then I've dabbled in various SNG structures along with cash games. Additionally I've had (in the past) subscriptions to Card Runners, DeucesCracked, and was a part of Nick Rainey's RainmanPoker training site for a few months. I currently have no subscriptions to any training sites.

My brother began dabbling in poker in May of 2010 and didn't take it very seriously until more recently. He played around 100 HUSNGs on a different poker room before we decided to take on this challenge in 2011. Since then he has been practicing his MTT-SNG game at the PokerStars Play Money tables. I'm happy to say that he's grown quite frustrated only being able to 3 table the SNGs, as volume will be one of the most critical factors to completing this challenge successfully. As of the beginning of this challenge my brother has played no real money games at PokerStars.

Here is my lifetime PokerStars graph to date, it will change a bit in the next couple days leading up to the 1st as I'm grinding some DONs but there shouldn't be any big swings.

PokerStars Overall

Full Time Jobs

One of our major obstacles to completing this challenge is going to be that we both have full time jobs. This will be a direct hindrance on our daily volume along with study time. One perk, however, is that we are not dependent on the money made from poker; and as a result we will be able to use very aggressive bankroll management to help grow our bankrolls very quickly at the beginning of the challenge.

Progress Updates

I'll be updating my personal blog regularly throughout the challenge. Additionally I will keep my twoplustwo thread updated regularly with our overall BR progress. Please see my profile for a direct link to my blog.

Let's Do This

We'll be starting this challenge at 12:00AM EST on 1/1/11. I'll be playing under the screen name “yomatta”; I won't out my brother's screen name but rather will let him do so if he chooses.

Best of luck at the tables in 2011.