Hello all!

Have been working on this challenge for a while and wanted to document it to hold myself accountable and finish strong!

About me:

29 year old living in Las Vegas. Single w/ no kids so what is there to do besides make money right? I'm not a pro as I do work a full time job in upper management at an E-commerce company (take a wild guess) but I am currently grinding live 1/3 and 2/5 (rather not say where since I go to the same room every single time ) and the occasional micros to small stakes on an obscure bitcoin poker site with not a lot of traffic.

The Goal

As stated in the title, the goal is to get to 1.0 BTC through live poker, online poker, and the occasional $100 ACH transfer to my exchange wallet. The bulk of the volume will be done with live poker.

Results So far

Current Bitcoin HODLing: 0.71803477 BTC
Live Poker Results: +$25,009

mandatory giraffe:

I plan to play at least 100 live hours a month, with March on track to surpass this goal at 89 hours. After I have a decently over-rolled for the games I play I plan to allocate a small amount of my bankroll to purchasing more Bitcoin. I have abandoned a thread before, but this one will be seen through to the end! To 1.0 that is LFG!

Great results! I think your goal is more than realistic.
Good Luck with your challenge!

Nice goal with some crypto, glgl!

where are you staking? I dabbed in app.bomb.money a bit but their BTC token got a bit under peg. Still made good mone with them. Alternatively maybe Nexo w 4-8% APY for starters.

Thank you all!

@ Kelly - I don't actually do staking, not sure what that is to be honest lol. Until I get to 1.0 BTC I plan on keeping things as simple as possible - turn fiat into Satoshis

staking is earning interest on ur coins. you can do it on any CEX (centralized exchange) for about <10% APY (yearly) or go down the rabbithole of Defi ....the craze right now are peg tokens which try to be the same value as the real tokens and pay about 0.2-1.5% a day in interest...

oh now that I think about it, the exchange that I use, Abra, gave me a bunch of CPRX tokens as "cash back" on my ACH transfers, so I do have a few hundred bucks worth sitting to earn interest

Will update the thread with monthly results in a few days!

March Update

March was a big success! I finished the month with the second biggest monthly win since I started tracking my results.

I haven't purchased any additional Bitcoin, but plan on splurging quite a bit once I get some money back that I am owed from a friend, US tax refund, and some stock awards from my job that will provide a nice boost to the journey to 1.0 BTC.

Hours played: 126
Profit/Loss: +$3,032

Giraffe:

Hand of the Month

2/5, 9 handed, $1,000 effective

Hero UTG with KsKh, open to $10, 5 callers, BB (live pro) squeezes to $100, I call, all others fold

Flop: Q72r, villain bets 75, I call.

Turn: 5c, putting club flush draw on board. BB checks, I bet $125, BB raises to 385....Hero folds.


In theory I should probably be calling and then calling most rivers that aren't clubs. The issue with this point of the hand is I am not sure if villain is capable of XR in this spot with a hand like AKo with a club (king of clubs?), planning to empty the clip on a club river. Ultimately decided against the idea, which tilts my strategy towards an exploitative fold. Maybe I got owned though.

Cheers!

Yesterday's session

Having a swingy April thus far! It's been fun pushing myself to maximize edges in every spot I can and not shy away from big pots for fear of losing my money. If I'm making more +EV decisions than my opponents, I should prevail eventually.

Yesterday I lost $156 over four hours, but was down almost $800 within the first hour after losing 200bb flip vs a tough aggressive reg QQ < AK and losing a few small pots shortly thereafter.

Luckily though, a whale appeared! There was a lady who sat down and was fairly talkative and fun. She mentioned that she was an owner of a transportation company and was in Vegas looking to buy a limousine.

She was very spewy, going extremely thin with both bets and raises, like 3 betting the river on a paired board with a straight (not necessarily bad, but the general meta of low stakes live would suggest this is always a full house or better) and potting the flop with middle pair 4 ways. Very good action for the game. Which brings us to the hand of the night...

1/3 9 handed, $536 effective

Hero opens in HJ to $10 with Ah9h, whale calls CO, tough reg calls button, small blind calls with $120 behind.

Flop 9d Ad Jc

Checks to me, I check, whale bets $40, folds to SB who jams $120 and action gets to me. I raise to $240. Whale thinks for a while and then jams for the rest, and I of course make the call.

Board runs out 9d Ad Jc 8s 6s...whale shows J8o, SB mucks, and I show to take it down, which saved my night from being horrendous to forgettable. I'll take it!

Bitcoin Price Action

With the goal of this challenge/blog being getting to 1.0 BTC, I'm always checking price actions for the market to see where I can make my DCA buys. Right now BTC appears to be range trading in the 46K range. I think in general this is a decent time to buy, though I am trying to build my fiat bankroll to regularly play 2/5 once the WSOP crowd rolls into town.

If I go on another heater this month I'll probably splurge a bit.

Thanks for checking this out!

Currently -$11 on the month after a few unlucky sessions. QQ < AK for 200bb effective and then last night I lost top set to flush draw all in on flop for roughly 230bb effective.

Such is live poker. On the bright side I have already logged 32 hours for the month of April. The grind goes on!

Good luck this month!
You gonna buy btc now after it dropped 10% or when will you buy again?

wowza

APRIL UPDATE

We are currently sitting at a grand total of +$4! That would have gotten me like 2.0 BTC in 2011 LOL

Went on a pretty hellacious swing in the last couple of weeks where I lost $300-$500 every session and I was playing almost every day - this weekend was a quick savior as I clawed back almost $1K to get to break even on the month. Feeling good about the state of the games and how I'm playing.

Trying to reach 150 hours this month and next. We'll see how that pans out with my demands at work getting ratcheted up. I do plan on taking a month long vacation for the WSOP so I think I can really pump up my volume then.

***Not financial or investment advice*** but at the current 38K-40K price range I'm certainly looking to buy for myself. I think trying to time the market is a waste of energy and so long as you have a decent reason for buying at a certain level and you're planning to hold 5+ years out, you should be fine

Random Update

Currently +$500 for the month, enjoying a nice little upswing having rebounded from -$850 to current standings. Looking to make a sizeable purchase of BTC around mid may and then at that point I should have the capital to start taking another shot at 2/5, which I'm currently around 4.5bb/hour, though I imagine I can get it to 6-7bb/hour.

Also reached 108 hours for April so we are hitting our 100 hour month goal and looking to exceed last month's 126 hours. Cheers!

APRIL UPDATE

Hello all!

In April we completed 126 hours of play, tying our volume from March. Work is becoming more demanding by the day, but I'm doing my best to make time for what really matters: playing some ****ing cards.

Result: +$1,139.

Bitcoin Update

still hovering around 0.75 BTC, perhaps a bit less. My current plans are to buy Bitcoin with my 2021 tax refund (about 1K), stack USD from poker as well as my stock awards vesting this month, take another 2/5 shot through the WSOP times in June, and then hopefully run hot so I can make a big purchase. If BTC continues it's downward trajectory, it seems pretty clear that we will breach 1.0 this year!

Nice thread mate, would love some more frequent updates given how much you play. Either way, subbed!

hey thank you! I totally agree I should be updating more frequently, maybe a brief recap of each session would be good? I appreciate the sub!

I've had to transition to night shift for this week and next working on a new training initiative for my job, but the good news is that I will be on total vacation from 5/30 - 6/23 as per my annual WSOP vacation So at that point I will be able to play even moreeeee

May Update

Hours Played: 75
P/L: +$990

Been a very up and down month for me poker wise. Down $500, then up $500, then back down again, now 3 winning sessions in a row of $367, $310, $630 vaulted me back into the black. Live variance is a mfer.

Probably a punt given live nit dynamics lol, but I lost a $1600 pot the other day to a shitreg, 4bet pot holding AK vs KK on Kxx. All she wrote after that. But I've also been running really well this past week, just need to continue to overfold vs these nits. It's really insane how they're never bluffing! Or at least much less than they should be or they are bluffing with a hand that makes no sense to bluff with, indicating that they are behind the curve as to what types of hands make good bluffs.

BITCOIN UPDATE: Today I took a big chunk of the earnings I've made over the last few months and bought 0.11 BTC, which brings my total Bitcoin holdings to 0.85867561.

Over 85% of the way there!


other suggestions for updates/content are welcome! Cheers

4th winning session in a row

Starting to spike upwards as we reached another all time high in the bankroll as the current upswing reached $1,600 and puts us at:

May Hours Played: 78
P/L: $1,144

My bankroll is starting to approach 10K at which point I will be in prime condition to take another shot at 2/5. I've been playing 1/3 since probably February as I had emptied too much of my bankroll into bitcoin trying to buy the dip as it continued dipping lol. But I'm hoarding cash where I can and only taking large buys at significant dips.

My current results for 2/5 are 4.29 bb/hour over 276 hours, which OK but I know we can do a lot better. I don't like to focus too much on variance as it really doesn't matter and I control what I can at the table. During WSOP days especially it will be a great time to see where I'm at after 400-500 hours of 2/5

Cheers

Lots of swangz

shortly after last session update, I went on a $1,300 downswing which was quickly erased in tonight's session, putting me ahead for the month by $1,211!

I won $1,438 in 4 hours of 1/3 NL, highlighted by winning with a flopped straight flush, also winning the bonus money from a promo in addition to the stack from villain's set of 10s. Pretty crazy!

I'm intending to relax on my Bitcoin purchases right now with the WSOP so close and me wanting to take another consistent shot at 2/5 where I will be fairly overrolled and can comfortably play my A-game (I tend to play scared if I'm not).

Current Month hours: 99
Current Month P/L: $1,211
Current Bitcoin Holdings: 0.85867561 BTC

Cheers!

Picked up $180 in a couple hours today. Trying to squeeze in hours before going to work has been tough but I'm making it work. I also have a 3 week vacation coming up in a couple days so I'm already feeling myself mentally clock out lol.

Couple of fun hands:

Donk Leading The Turn

1/3 NL, $300 or so effective:

Hero opens CO to 10 with KsKh, BU calls, both blinds call.

Flop: 6h 6d 9h

Checks to Hero, Hero checks, villain bets 20, blinds fold, hero calls.

Turn: 6c

Hero bets 30, villain calls.

River: 4c. Hero jams, villain folds.


When you block villain's check backs

Hero opens CO to 10 with AdJh, BU calls (same villain from before), all others fold.

Flop: Jd 7d 6h

Hero checks, villain checks.

Turn: 4d

Hero bets 5, villain calls.

River: Qd

Hero checks, villain bets 15, Hero Raises to 75, Villain calls and mucks.

Studying CO vs BU SRP's has been really crucial for boosting my win rate over the last several months. When you're in these live games you play CO vs BU SRP probably more often than BU vs BB SRP, which is pretty crazy. But I'm learning a lot of cool lines to take and I'm throwing people off balance.

Challenge Update

Hours played for May: 104
P/L for May: $1,334

BTC Holdings: 0.85867561

omfg you need to stop using abra to buy, they have horrible spreads and huge fees, you probably would have several hundred more dollars worth of satoshis if you were using another exchange

and... abra will give you like 1.5% apr on your bitcoin so you may as well do that if you'll be holding what you go there

but for the love of god don't buy there anymore

Really? I've found the rates on Abra have been much lower than other exchanges. What do you recommend instead?

i'm fairly familiar with abra, wrote about them in one of the crypto threads cause i joined to bonus whore and it had good interest rates (it's since lowered them)



you were looking at rates not spread - spread is the much bigger fee and it's hidden

let's say the real price of bitcoin is 29500, then when you buy from them you're buying at 29700 plus fees and when you sell you're selling at 29300 from them, these are random examples, but when i went to fund my account i thought it looked off so i checked spreads/rates on coinbase and sure enough it was going to be significantly cheaper to buy on coinbase and use a transaction fee to ship over to abra

they get through hidden charges by claiming it's a low rate and giving you some ****coin cprx in rewards - abra is just a disgusting company

cprx has literally no use case whatsoever, it's only exists as a marketing tactic, it's decent to hold to give you greater interest rates on abra but it otherwise has no purpose or value and will eventually go to zero, just look at the pricing chart and read what it's for, reward tokens always go to zero because their only value is selling to claim the rewards and once buyers realize that they stop buying and price goes to zero

Good to know, I havent used coinbase in years but I may go back after learning this!

if you use coinbase sign up for coinbase pro, much lower fees and lower spreads, i'm sure there's cheaper options and you'll be able to find sites that compare fees, coinbase was best for me as it was one of the few ones that was ok with me being american but not living in america