Recently I heard on the Thinking Poker podcast, which I’ve listened to for years and highly recommend, that Two Plus Two is more of a writing forum than it is a reading. That struck me as really interesting, as one may imagine given my own post volume over the years.

I’ve also been wrestling with the idea of accountability in my poker playing - concluding mostly that it is wanting. I know everyone thinks they’re better than they really are, including me, but I do sincerely believe today that if I had more discipline and accountability my results could be significantly better (note, not that my play would necessarily be better but results).

So combining these two thoughts, I will be logging my MTT play for four months on this thread. My super ambitious goal is to grow $2.5K tenfold to $25K. I hope that through this writing, discipline will help me succeed. Here are my self-prescribed rules... (I welcome your comments and constructive criticism, but ultimately I will write to write, and for the discipline it may help to breed.)

Challenge Rules

** Playing on WPN exclusively as “Wormy Dog.” Yes this may not be possible simply because of WPN’s recent issues but I'm hopeful the MTT schedule will be returning in full. I’d like to keep the challenge on one site so I can easily separate bankroll for this challenge and keep things simple.

** MTT’s only. I consider myself primarily an MTT specialist (If I can be so liberal with the word).

** Volume: Honestly I’m a big believer that less is more when it comes to poker. Thus, I try to play fewer sessions, when I know I have the time and can focus without distraction. The volume may be relatively small. No hard rules on volume goals to begin.

** Bankroll Management: For the purposes of the challenge I’m considering $2.5K to be my beginning roll – which is maybe the hardest part of this for me, so I’ve set some aggressive boundaries.

BR < $500 – play $16.5 BI max
$501-1,500 – play $55 BI max
$1,501-4,000 – play $109 BI max
$4,001-10,000 – play $265 BI max
BR > $10,000 – play $320 BI max

** I may play satellites if there are tournament series with bigger buy-ins, otherwise I will avoid $500 and $1K tournaments completely. I think OSS will hit WPN again within the next four months.....please.

** Log all games and details (re-entries, field, etc.). I hope to post my games and results here.

** Be brutally honest and stick with this program, even if I go busto in one month, then so be it. No guarantees on volume of posts.

** Challenge and writing ends September 15th if no busto beforehand.

** If successful, I will give $2.5K to a charity to be determined.

That covers the basics for now. I hope to put a session in in the next two days. Good luck to me, and thanks for being a reader.

First challenge session in the books...

$55 20K 2 entries - 192 of 398
$30 20K - 279 of 777
$109 30K - 27 of 314 - cash $235.5

Overall, played well. In the 109, made one critical mistake late on a bluff attempt pre-bubble in late position. This chopped my stack down to the "hands-tied-shove-or-fold" range around 18 bigs. Should have been more aware of my remaining stack before firing the second bullet on the turn.

Playing with a keen awareness of bankroll preservation has got to be both a pro and a con. I found myself thinking more about preservation during the session and I wonder how that will turn out to affect overall results.

Total BI = 249
Total Cash = 235.5
Balance = 2,486.5

Session Two in the books...

$22 Satty to $265 - 3 of 25
$28 20K - 84 of 745 - cash $43.8
$109 30K 2 entries - 137 of 263

Hit by a pretty cold deck today, which of course is to be expected. Let's hope variance works both ways before we go busto... Also read that WPN revamped MTT schedule returns next week; please be true.

Total BI = 355
Total Cash = 279.3
Balance = 2,424.3

#3 ....

$30...... 249 of 664
$109 (2 entries) .....142 of 300
$55........ 35 of 393 - cash $127.72

New Sched is up in the lobby of WPN for the 23rd so that's maybe a long-awaited relief to many.

Today played a bit donkish, which I think means desperate. Jamming AQoff with 18bb utg+1 in 109 - not normal aggression. Funny how when you try to tighten up subconsciously to protect bankroll, you eventually may end up playing more aggressive than you'd like or you normally play.

Was hoping for a big cash earlier in this challenge to give myself confidence and more BR freedom, but not there yet. Can still play $109's for a few sessions probably so let's go...

Session BI = 303
Session Cash = 127.72

Total BI = 822
Total Cash = 407.02
Balance = 2,085.02

#4

$109 (3 entries) ... 94 of 314

Session BI = 327
Total BI = 1,149
Total Cash = 407.02
Balance = 1,758.02

Not running well out of the gate friends, but we're not dead yet by any stretch. Getting close to the 1,500 balance where I'll drop out of the 109 buy-ins. I hate dropping down. I think it's one of the hardest things to do in general in poker but it absolutely takes that kind of discipline to win long-term in the MTT world.

Also some developments at my work are likely to keep me off the tables more than I thought for the next couple weeks, but I think we'll keep grinding at this challenge when we can. MTT schedule coming back to WPN soon! Will try to post some hands too in my next session.

#5 - Brutal Friday Session

Just the summaries here...

Total Session Buy-Ins = $827 (average $76)
One cash in a $55 (28 of 264)

Tilt-regged the $215 30K after a brutal bad beat. So dumb. Ran up a healthy stack, lost a flip (44 of 123). I was super disappointed in myself for regging this tourney. Not only was I not in the $215 BI range, but I was just dropping out of the $109, according to my rules. This is the first major mistake I've made in past two weeks.

Total Stats Summary:
Total BI = $1976
Total Cash = $519.52
Cash Rate = 24%
Balance = $1043.52
Current max BI Level = $55

Opposition gives me an opportunity to dig deep and stay the course. I look forward to dropping down in bankroll buy-in's, and being disciplined to get some cashes and get back in there. I think I will play some hyper-turbo satty's to get into the bigger tournaments too. My rule on these is that my total in satty's buy-in for any one particular tournament cannot exceed current buy-in max. So if I played $10 satty's to get into the $215, I couldn't buy in for more than $55 (5 bullets).

Let's get some run-good sessions in soon!

So... had some decent scores on another site, and just couldn't motivate to play lower stakes. So so much for "digging deep and staying course."

This exp is a discipline failure for sure, and was really hoping it would motivate me to write on thoughts and theory more. Oh well. Maybe another time, or a higher BR challenge would be better.

WPN laggy-ness has also got me super tilted about keeping money on the network. Thanks to the 17 of you who followed along. GLOT