Hello all,
I am a 21 y/o student from good old PA. I have been playing on Full Tilt for a couple of months, however not playing very consistently when it comes to how much or when. Over the past week I have been developing an effective schedule to play, one which will hopefully mesh well with my class schedule and social life. I want to take poker more seriously than I have been, mainly because I am aware that I have a ton of room for improvement, and I believe that I am intelligent and focused enough to improve. All advice and/or criticism is welcome. This will be a challenge for me for sure, but I hope that in time, this challenge will seem like a piece of cake. In case you could not tell by the title of this thread, the details of this challenge are that I will start with my $150 bankroll, and attempt to get to $2,000 in my account by February 1st, 2011. I will be playing the $4.40 Rush MTT's almost exclusively during this challenge, aside from the occasional MTT. I will keep this thread/all viewers up to date on not only bankroll details, but also session time(s)/duration, and I hope to be able to receive all sorts of criticism, in order to get better myself. Do not hold back. I want to learn. I will also be posting hand histories, ones that I think will be a good indicator to you guys about my standard style of play, so that you may give me a clear and accurate response. Thank you for all/if any support, and I am looking forward to having 2k by Feb 1.
Thank you in advance to all who view/post replies,
jimmoney89 <---- scope me on FT I have 1591 games played as of today, with a profit of $1,415. (not at all a brag lol, just so I can look back and make sure that my updates along the way in regards to profit in this challenge are indeed accurate)

Jim

Update: Have not even started playing yet due to holiday shopping and being very busy with other things as well, but my first planned session will be tomorrow night, Thursday December 23rd. I will four table the 4.40 rush MTT's from 7pm until midnight/or whenever I finish my last set. In that time span I think I will be able to play at least 16 of them (4 sets).

Good luck man

good luck

gl

new on demand tourneys are tougher than old 135 rush imo

GL, you might want to start with $440, 100 buy-ins/ Any less and you run very high risk of going broke, regardless of skill.

Quick question: Do you prefer the rush or you dont have a whole bunch of time to invest, just a thought because I like what the last poster said about the +/- 100 Buy ins.... even if u are an exceptional poker player it is hard to do it buying in with 25ish buy ins. and i know alot of people who have trouble climbing out of the -$500 BR by doing in strictly through RUSH MTTS

cosign but good luck with your challenge

Thank you for the good luck wishes to all who posted. I do prefer playing rush, and it does have to do with time constraints but also due to the fact that I feel I play better (patience is an issue at times). I do realize that I should have at least $440.00 to responsibly attempt this. However, I do not have enough money to deposit and create that sort of roll, so it is definitely a shot, and a betting man would say that I will go broke soon. I am not afraid of going broke on a $150.00 roll though, and I am still confident. And to the poster who said that the MTT's are tougher than the 135 man S&G's, I agree. I played a decent amount of the 135's and was reasonably profitable, and once the MTT's came about I did notice that there seemed to be tougher players, but could this also be due to the increase in field size, which obviously will cause larger swings/variance etc. I am not sure exactly how far/long this "challenge" will last, but I will report religiously on this thread with updates, without fear or shame, so like I said before, please do not hold back and I look forward to taking my irresponsible shot tomorrow at 7! (Are all shots irresponsible?)

Original BR/stats- $150.00 w/ "1591 games played as of today, with a profit of $1,415"

As of 12-30-2010- $305 1620 Games played with $1,683 profit

Basically, I played 24 of the $4.40 MTT's, with one victory, and two other final tables, and one small cash, and also played 5 of those $2.20 tournaments on demand, going 0-5. I do not plan on playing any more of the $2.20, at least not while I am playing Rush MTT's, I seem to lose focus on the $2.20's and play extremely nitty the whole way through until I have 10-12 BB's --> PH style =) The $4.40's are treating me well I guess, and I will be playing 16-20 today in a couple of hours. I look forward to booking a win today, I feel good. Here is a funny hand which I guess I should have just folded, any problems with it though?


Full Tilt Poker $4 + $0.40 Rush On Demand No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t80/t160 Blinds - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter By DeucesCracked Poker Videos

BTN: t3904 24.40 BBs
SB: t2710 16.94 BBs
BB: t2320 14.50 BBs
UTG: t13283 83.02 BBs
UTG+1: t865 5.41 BBs
UTG+2: t3947 24.67 BBs
MP1: t2040 12.75 BBs
MP2: t2460 15.38 BBs
Hero (CO): t4560 28.50 BBs

Pre Flop: (t240) Hero is CO with J J
UTG calls t160, UTG+1 calls t160, 3 folds, Hero raises to t880, BTN calls t880, SB calls t800, 1 fold, UTG raises to t13283 all in, 1 fold, Hero calls t3680 all in, BTN calls t3024 all in, 1 fold

Flop: (t14224) 3 Q 7 (3 players - 3 are all in)

Turn: (t14224) 4 (3 players - 3 are all in)

River: (t14224) 3 (3 players - 3 are all in)

Final Pot: t14224
BTN shows A A (two pair, Aces and Threes)
UTG shows K K (two pair, Kings and Threes)
Hero shows J J (two pair, Jacks and Threes)
UTG wins t1312
BTN wins t12912

Quick Update- Just played two $4.40 MTT's, got 11th and made a deal in the other when it got to heads up. 1621 Games played- $1920 profit. Debating how long I want to play tonight, and about to eat some pizza.

Played Last night/this morning. I played in 8 four dollar MTT's, taking second in one of them, and first in another. Other than that I only had one other min cash. However my to date total on sharkscope is now 1631 Games played and $2084 profit. I am moving up in bankroll, just have not been playing as much as I had previously estimated, a lot of stuff has been going on in my life so it's been tough to get in a lot of volume. I am still confident that I will have more than 2k in my account by Feb. 1st. I will continue to keep you all posted.

I'm a reg in these, my roi is %75 over a litte over 1k games. I have swings over $150, $400 is the ideal bankroll for these. Hopefully you have a good run in the first part of your grind, good luck man.

Oh I thought you just made this thread, good job in your winnings.

I saw your thread sXeffects, actually before you posted here. Is that your username on full tilt?, I feel like I have played against you a good bit, but I will have to verify that with HEM. And yeah, I know $440 is an ideal bankroll, and at the start of this challenge I only had $150, but luckily I ran well to start and have about $750 now, I might start mixing in a few actual rush MTT's, (the $10 2 o'clock is soft, and the $5 rebuy at 2:35 is as well). I cashed fourth in the $10 for like $1100 a few months ago but have only played it a handful of times. If i play enough, I eventually wanna reach that 5k mark that you accomplished too. Good luck to you and to all who are reading this and play those $4.40 jumpoffs. I'll keep you posted...

You have to remember that people play very tight in these turnys, and when someone just limp, either they are superstrong or got a drawing hand, JJ is a okay hand, but when u reraise a limper and someone comes over the top with a shove, the best thing you can hope for is AK or maybe AQ, people dosent bluff alot, because why should they when they can just fold and hope for a better hand

I know, believe me I wish I could go back and fold the JJ, but I just found it amusing that in that hand, 2 of the 3 hands that crushed me were involved, and just the way it played out with not only the open limp, but the flat call behind....funnnnny stuff. But, I promise I will play tighter casper!!!!

any news?

Original BR/stats- $150.00 w/ "1591 games played as of today, with a profit of $1,415"

Current- 1652 Games Played w/ $2,444.00 profit.

have not played as much as originally expected. Good volume past three days...including a deep run in the 35K guarantee. Was in 1st place w/ 160 ppl left (event started with over 1600-2000 ppl, cannot really remember), got all in pre w/ JJ vs. short stack shove and reshove by 35K stack, I called BB with JJ. shorty had A9, 35k had AKo, turn K ball. Very next hand I shoved out of small blind with 27 BB w/ 44 (lol), after 40K stack limped (Blinds 800/1600), 17K shorty shoved...I reshove.....limped has 99.....he was running 17/11....limped in UTG+2....im guessing 99 is top of his range (?)..FWIW the short stacker with 17k had J 10 off so +1 for the flip i wanted. First place in that binger was like 8k....daaaaamn. Oh well back to grinding $4.40 MTeeTeez. Shoutout to SxEffects...dunno if you won that $4.40 we were in but i busted in 10th and was pretty pissed i didn't get a chance to pwn you at the final