Hello to anyone who may be interested in following this, although I am simply writing out my journey from small stakes NLO8 all the way to the WSOP this summer in Vegas. I will document my grind starting with $50 in my Pokerstars account with the goal to play Event 64: $3000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better!

A little about myself: I started playing poker about 15 years ago at my local casino, grinding $1/3 limit hold em. I found out right away that if you took the game a little seriously, you could always go home a winner. A couple years later I moved over to online games. I've been a small winner throughout my life, never enough to live off of, but enough to build a decent investment portfolio over 10 years.

I was diagnosed with severe Crohn's Disease 25 years ago, and have had 9 surgeries removing portions of my bowels. 3 years ago, I became too sick to work, luckily having insurance through work to pay my expenses until I retire. Now I stay home to look after my 4 boys(3 foster sons and 1 of our own).

My Goal: I am going to be playing 6-max hyper NLO8 songs and small stakes PLO8 tourneys to build my bankroll. I have been a small winner in these games my entire poker career. They are easy to beat for a 8-10% ROI, and I have wide-open days to put in the volume every day. There are occasional swings in these games, but for the most part, you can see a nice gradual graph upwards. I will start at $1.50 sngs, and as my bankroll grows, I will add in $3.50s and $7.00s. My tourneys will stay between $1-5 until the bankroll grows to add in bigger buy-ins.

I will write about my days, my opponents, show some occasional graphs(once I figure out how to!), and write about life in general. My life isn't too cool, but some people may enjoy! Thanks for taking the time to read.

BR: $50

Started out well yesterday, going up 5 buy-ins in my first 10 sngs, took a short break to grab my kids from school. Afterwards, I hit a bit of a downswing, bricking on most of the next 15. This type of variance is common in NLO8 hyper, where hand values are much closer than in hold em, but I definitely was running bad. Decided to fire up a few MTTs after supper, and ended up shipping the late $5.50 PLO8 for ~$100. I definitely feel that these tourneys are +EV, I have always been able to run one of these when my BR suffers. The best players have gone to bed, but there are still enough players to make it worthwhile. Luckily my wife let's me walk around the house with my tablet at night for a few hours!

BR: $124.92

Continued to run below expectation in hyper SnGs, but did manage a handful of cashes throughout the day. Played some tourneys which were larger than the bankroll should allow, but I satellited into these tourneys. The 4-max, double shoot out satellites are nice and soft.

BR: $147.62

GL, will follow. Do you still play any live in Winnipeg or are you exclusively online these days?

gl, hyper downswings for 50-100 buyins are common i believe, u might want to read thorugh the hyper trash thread in omaha/8 forum

Also 8-10% roi seems high but gl with the challenge.

Edit: check out 888 the 08 mtts are smaller but 10x softer if you have a small bankroll.

And try sattalite into ftops and weeklies and sell %s on marketplace. Too much value in these to not play and if your rolls to small sell for them

Play online most days but make it out to regent a day a month for PLO or LO8

I may have overstated the 8-10%, I think its closer to 7% according to my sharkscope.

I have played some 888 but I run real bad in their MTTs, but I agree they are terrible there.

I play many satellites, thy provide me the best opportunities to play higher. Selling in the marketplace is an option, but I have not utilized it up to now

Not sure why I lose these hands at important times in tourneys. I got the action I desired, especially from the initial caller who is very loose. His hand has little to no equity against my hand. The overshove seems very loose and reckless to me, maybe I am completely wrong? This is a regular speed tourney, so it seems unnecessary to make this move. It is likely that at least one of his suits will be covered by the other action. Any information would be appreciated.


PokerStars Hand #149727640320: Tournament #1491197204, $12.30+$12.25+$2.45 USD Omaha Hi/Lo No Limit - Level XIV (300/600) - 2016/03/02 12:08:59 CT [2016/03/02 13:08:59 ET]
Table '1491197204 13' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: peldini (14139 in chips)
Seat 2: kreiz (21984 in chips)
Seat 3: giabest (42289 in chips)
Seat 4: IlmaineVaiva (60608 in chips)
Seat 5: MaMicha1 (3066 in chips)
Seat 6: 1MTM91 (22076 in chips)
peldini: posts the ante 70
kreiz: posts the ante 70
giabest: posts the ante 70
IlmaineVaiva: posts the ante 70
MaMicha1: posts the ante 70
1MTM91: posts the ante 70
IlmaineVaiva: posts small blind 300
MaMicha1: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to peldini [As Ts Ac 5d]
1MTM91: folds
peldini: raises 13469 to 14069 and is all-in
kreiz: calls 14069
giabest: raises 13469 to 27538
IlmaineVaiva: folds
MaMicha1: calls 2396 and is all-in
kreiz: calls 7845 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (5624) returned to giabest
*** FLOP *** [Ks Qc 6c]
*** TURN *** [Ks Qc 6c] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [Ks Qc 6c 4h] [9s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
kreiz: shows [6s 6d 9d Ad] (HI: three of a kind, Sixes)
giabest: shows [2h 6h 7d Jd] (HI: a pair of Sixes)
kreiz collected 15690 from side pot-2
peldini: shows [As Ts Ac 5d] (HI: a pair of Aces)
kreiz collected 33219 from side pot-1
MaMicha1: shows [Ah Js 2d 4d] (HI: a pair of Fours)
kreiz collected 12704 from main pot
No low hand qualified
kreiz wins $15.31 for eliminating peldini and their own bounty increases by $15.30 to $87.22
kreiz wins $9.19 for eliminating MaMicha1 and their own bounty increases by $9.18 to $96.40
peldini finished the tournament in 16th place and received $24.62.
MaMicha1 finished the tournament in 17th place and received $24.62.

Got back to winning at SnGs, but slipped a little in the tourneys through the day. Small loss overall. I think my mindset was a bit off after the above tournament.

BR: $134.07

Played 30-35 SnGs today, running pretty pure in most of them. I usually play 4 at a time as I find this allows for better ICM decisions as we get short-handed. I mixed in some $7.00s with my $3.50s & $1.50s, with pretty decent results. At these levels, half the table is filled with good regs such as HunMatt and Juicy_J(who I am almost certain is UnNaturalDisaster on this forum). They play very high volume and I am always impressed with the ability to make consistently decent ICM decisions when they have 16+ tables on the go. They also understand the fact that volume in these games leads to profit over time, pushing a smaller ROI over 1000s of games. Having fewer tables open allows me to make some ICM decisions that may be slightly better, but I wouldn't be able to match their profits because of the sheer volume they play. Anyway, I do still enjoy battling the best players!

BR: 192.49

Not much to report, have been pretty sick which has kept me on the sidelines for most of the weekend. Saturdays are no-tech day in my home, so we shut off our devices and do stuff as a family. We went out to my brother-in-laws farm, took the kids for a ride on the horses and ATVs. Always nice to have a break like that. I will be playing a bit more in the coming days.

BR: $204.48

Turns out my illness became pneumonia, which kept me in bed most of last week. Managed to get a decent PLO8 Tourney schedule in yesterday, including 2 FTs, the first tourney I played and the last. Couldn't make much happen at either because I was handcuffed by my short stack, finishing 4th and 7th. Nothing spectacular but still ended in profit.

BR: 250.72

Getting back into the grind after losing a week to illness, played a bunch on SnGs, not many tourneys. Played a few step SnGs and ran really pure, netting a couple step 3s and a few step 2s. Goal is to play the bigger NLO8 PSKO tourneys on Sunday, and maybe get a step 4 to play that massive Sunday Million. Hoping for a big result tomorrow, need a 4 figure score, or at least a mid 3 digit cash, to take a bite out of that $3K goal! Gonna be a long day, starting with the $16.50 Omania at 5:05am, Winnipeg time! 20+ tourneys in the lineup for tomorrow although I will likely cap myself at about 7-8 tables at once. Any more than 6 and my play starts to suffer slightly. Good luck to all my poker friends tomorrow, big one for everyone!

BR: $273.69

Ended the day with about 10 cashes, satellited into a bunch of tourneys. Made a deep run into the $5.50 Bounty Builder, only to lose AK<QQ for a top 3 chip stack. 23/7000+ runners kinda hurts to get that far and miss out. I definitely made a bunch of mistakes along the way, really just need to tighten the screws a little and focus on making the best decision each time. Next Sunday, I guess!


BR: $337.93

Subbed,

Seems like you've definitely had a tough break over the past two decades. Good luck!

As I mentioned in my original post, my health has always been a struggle since I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease 25 years ago. After 9 surgeries, my digestive system no longer works as well as it should and I get half of my nutrition through a tube. It goes directly into my stomach and my feeds provide me with 1500 calories every night while I sleep.

A couple weeks ago, while I slept, I aspirated on my tube feed, meaning the formula crept up my esophagus and entered my lungs. I woke up about 5:30, with a terrible burning in my chest and I was struggling to catch my breath. My wife phoned for an ambulance and I was rushed to the hospital. Fortunately, the doctors determined that only about 20ml of formula entered my lungs, but I quickly developed pneumonia during the day. After 4 days in the hospital, I was sent home to recover. Needless to say, I have spent the last few weeks getting better, but it was a huge effort on the part of my wife to keep the house running with 4 kids and me in bed.

Nothing to speak of as far as poker goes, but now it's time to get back into the grind. Losing 3 weeks will be a bit of a drag on my challenge, but I don't give up when I set a goal, so let's get back to it. Good luck to all of you and send a little luck my way as well!

BR: $319.14

Wow, man. I'm glad you're ok! That sounds like quite the set back, but health must come first, then family. You seem to have your priorities in check, good on you. Keep your head up and get healthy and be with you family. All the best and good luck to you. I hope to see you in Vegas! I have a thread on here of my progress if you want to check it out. I'm a live play in South Florida, grinding out $2/5 NL

Good start to my first day back! Finished runner-up in the $2.20 6-max NLO8 this morning for $111.00, coasting to the final table. Pretty smooth ride the entire tourney, just played really well, no mistakes, then played a smart FT to get HU with the CL who just ran over the rest of the table. Real happy with my play today, lets keep it going for tomorrow!

BR: $410.04

Unfortunately I have been hospitalized with a total bowel obstruction, meaning I will probably be having my 10th surgery this week. I don't know when I will return to this challenge if at all. Good luck to all who bothered to read it, it was fun while it lasted