Hi all!

I have been grinding away at the Ferguson Challenge for over a year and a half. Im hoping to get some feedback and advice to help me improve as a player and achieve my goal. I originally started playing online pm and freerolls on ftp about 2 years ago. I was able to win a few dollars in the 500k/$40 freeroll thing. Surprisingly never went broke but discovered everest poker and their much better freeroll/micro sng offerings. Ground my way up the buyins: 5 cent, 10, 25, 50, $1, 2.50, 500. As of this posting my br is $784.00 on everest and $69.00 on ftp. Im a tournament player, mtt and sng. Currently I play $5 and under mtt and up to $10 sngs. Live I play in a couple of low stake NLHE homegame tourneys, records are kept (I may post them later on)
and have over 100% roi in about 400 of these games. In 4 trips to local casinos I also have over 100% roi in tournament play. Havent deposited anything online.

So at this point im a proven low stakes winner. Im hoping the community will provide advice and feedback to make me a winner at the middle stakes. So far my education includes studying at ftp academy. I have read the following:

super system (Brunson)
Harrington on Holdem for tournament (Vols 1-3)
The Book of Bluffs (Lessinger)
Zen and the art of poker
The psychology of poker
Hellmuth's book

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Stuff i need help with

Hand ranges for bb defense when stack deep (m=+20) vs random internet weirdos position raises (co, button opens) (links to good articles and threads would be nice, havent seen much on the topic.)

recommendations for books to read and free training vids. (im gonna read Moshman's sitngo next unless someone changes my mind.)

Advice on programs and how to access and analyse hh's. (i have access to my hh's on ftp but havent been playing there much cuz im rolled for higher stakes on everest) I would like to be able to crunch my everest numbers and use some program to look for leaks.

any advice on making adjustment to mid-stakes(?) play.

advice on game selection: the action on the 10 man 10min blind structure i built my everest br on is basically exhausted: the $10 buyin at that structure only goes a few times a day at peak hours. Am currently learning the 6plr/turbo blind game.

I would love to hear from anyone who has successfully completed the Ferguson Challenge (or build a large br from zip via freerolls.) I'm pleased with my results so far but am eager to hear from others on how much promise i show. It is my dream to play poker for a living. Im starting to think it is attainable.

also im a new forum user so maybe i need advice on ettiquette.

I will update this thread with br updates and some hh's.

TIA

boku did the ferguson challenge in 14 days, the key is obv only volume


GL2u

Kill Everyone has been highly recommended to me by several individuals and is at the top of my list of to do's as soon as I finish a few other non-poker related readings.

Moshman's has some good points in it but is fairly novice/beginner material IMPO. If you understand ICM already, the book doesn't help too much. For someone new to ICM, it is very helpful.

[Moshman's has some good points in it but is fairly novice/beginner material IMPO. If you understand ICM already, the book doesn't help too much. For someone new to ICM, it is very helpful.[/QUOTE]

er um i really dont understand ICM, and i really dont have the money for moshman's book right now. Anyone have a helpful link to a good article?

Interesting issue for me. Browsing the forums i get the idea that the average sng pro is playing many many tables at once. I only play 2. I like to play the game in a human way and vs what i percieve as my opponents tendencies.
My guess is that the hud helps them to play the same way i do without bothering to watch how often a player is betting,folding,raising, etc. i dont use any 3rd party software in game but perhaps their's a free or free trial program that ppl recommend. Does anyone have success mass multitabling without a hud? Can you win by mechanically playing cards, position, action readless?

really every single sngs pro who multitables 12+ tables i using a hud

sure u can download the free HE and PT3 trails, its free for 30 days or so...

holdemmanager.com

pokertracker.com

hf

Man you really need to get yourself a HUD. There's promotions to get holdem manager for free by signing up at different sites and earning a certain number of points depending on the site.
It also tracks more stats than you could ever even need really, if you want to play for a living tracking software and a HUD is pretty much a necessity.

As stupid as it may be from what I've heard from many, I've been playing professionally for 5 years and have never tried a HUD. I just tried my first ever additional software - table ninja- 5-6 weeks ago and I do like it.

somebody did it in 14days? hahha what lies

anyways gj so far but 1.5years come on up the volume

[ ] correct

at least 98% I would say though.

Good lcuk with the challenge. Always a cool story to make thousands without depositing

Yeah I know,just being pedantic,obviously i'm in that other 2%

you really need HUD bro

I have never used a HUD,the only software I use is tableninja.

Everytime I see a HUD I just think it looks messy and unclear and I think it would distract me more than anything.

How many tables do ya play at once? do you often have reads on specific opponents?

I play 24 tables at once right now.

Don't know if you'd call them reads but I know which players are good and which suck just from seeing them around.

I probably call when I shouldn't from time to time and shove more loose than I should now and again because of not using a HUD,just not sure it's enough to make a HUD necessity.

i done the ferguson challenge from $0 without a hud and still dont use 1 , thats not to say it doesnt make a differance ( i dont know) , but my point is if your good enough you will succeed if not u wont simples.

good luck.

thks: hey how long did it take you to reach 10k? how many avg tables u playing? were you a beginner when u started the challenge? if not, what was ur experience?

bump

boku87 did actually do $5 to $10k in 14 days...he's a sicko

50+ tabling ftw

So after a $100 downswing i run good for awhile and combined everest and ftp br stands at $911. Grinding slowly closer. gonna dl he manager and try a few more tables.

When i done this challenge i was new to playing online but i did play live (successfully). I only played 1 table sometimes 2 and it took me just over a year to complete ( about 14months). I deffo could of done it quicker but i undertook another challenge after about 6 months which slowed my progress down in this 1.

As i was new to online i learned lots doing this , proberbly much more than if i had just started playing at a decent level especially as i dont use any software.

Notice your upto just under $1k , well done and keep grinding m8, good luck , the achievement of succeeding is worth it.( well it was for me and hopefully will be for you).

thanks for taking the time to reply and the kind words. Maddenly close to cracking 4 figures. ($970 combined) Would really appreciate if someone could recommend software that i could use to analyze my everest poker data and figure out why and how i am a monkey.

Woot! Up to $1040. Am i overrolled for $5 sitngos at this br level? lately have been successful at coming over the top of weak bets with a wide range.. its cost me the odd tourney but im shutting down enough bluffs folding out the odd better hand when ppl donk out after calling my pf raise to make it very profitable. c/r's after flatting lp raises also profitable with with a wide range.
confidence is growing.