Hi everyone. I'm Laura and I'm from the UK. I've been lurking here for a bit, but I'm pretty new to posting. I started a poker challenge a few months ago (not on this site), where I started with $20 and aimed to build up to a $2000 bankroll. I was doing ok, hit over $100 but got side-tracked with other things and stopped playing poker for a while.

A few days ago I had a $15 bonus dropped in to my 888 account, so I decided to play some SnGs. I've managed to get my balance up to $57.28 playing $1 9-handed tourneys.

A few days later I entered a $1.65 satellite on stars for a hot $33 MTT. I won a ticket and came 26th for $121.

Now that I have a decent roll to start with, I figured I will carry on playing and see how far I can take it. I mainly play SNGs and the odd MTT, but I would like to get better at cash games. I'll be playing a mixture of these throughout the challenge.

I have been trying out NL5 zoom for the past couple of days and it's been going ok. I'd like to start this challenge to help keep me motivated.

Goals:

- Devote more time to studying poker. I started reading Poker Maths That Matters a while ago. Ideally I'd like to start it again and finish it this time.

- Become a profitable cash game player

- Win an MTT (Best so far is 2nd place)

- Make some poker buddies to discuss hands and strategy etc.

- Make $10k profit

Results from playing 5NL zoom yesterday:

Hands played: 2692

+$36.21

bb/100: 26.90

Nice graf GL

Played more NL5 zoom today - it didn't go well, to say the least!

Hands played: 7286

P/L today: -$62.93

Total P/L: -$26.72

bb/100: -17.27



This is what usually happens when I play cash games. I seem to end up tilting, calling down too light and generally spewing chips. I'll go back to SNGs & MTTs for now.

Good luck and will be following your thread

GLGL ! Will obv follow that closely

Convert your graph to $ instead of BB... that said.. GL

Good luck!

Thanks for the support guys

I know I said I wouldn't, but I tried zoom out again today. This time I went for 9-handed instead of 6. It wasn't going so well, and I lost a huge pot with KK vs KQ at one stage which just frustrated me even more. TILT

I've come to the decision that I have to ban myself from cash games for the time being. It's weird, when I play tournaments / SNGs, I never feel tilted, but cash games drive me crazy!

NL5 zoom:

Hands played: 3670

P/L: -$23.48

Took a break after this and came back later to play some SnGs on 888poker, and an MTT which I made the final table.

I started with some $5 ones but then decided to move down to $3. I'd prefer to have 75 buy-ins before I move up.

$5 9-man SnGs:

2 x 1st place

P/L: +$30.50

$3 9-man SnGs:

2 x 1st place
4 x 3rd place
6 x 4-9th place

P/L: +$7.74

$1 ($150 Germany v England) with 2 rebuys:

Placed 7 out of 98. Shoved QQ with 10bb, got called by JJ and he made a flush... nice one 888!

P/L: +$3.75

P/L for today: +$18.51

Total P/L: -$8.21

Good luck OP

Glgl! What tilts you when playing cash? Mistakes you're making? Or people sucking out or something?

Yes people sucking out, or if I make a bad call I feel like I now have to work harder to make that money back, I end up taking more risks and losing even more.

Yesterday I tried to play really nitty and still ended up losing. I think it's a mindset issue I need to work on. Perhaps some coaching would help at some point.

Are you a member at dc? If not might be worth starting a trial & downloading 'eightfold path to poker enlightenment' & 'tolerance'. First will help with mindset & second for understanding variance. Also Jared Tendler's books are really good for helping with mindset!

I would suggest to watch a bit MingTheMerciless93 twitch and ask in chat what makes you tilt and how to deal it. I guarantee he will give a very good answer.

Thanks I'll definitely look into that.

Will take a look, thanks.

I've been away for a week so haven't played much poker. While I was away 888 sent me an offer... deposit $60 and get 5 x $3 tournament tickets. So I withdrew $60 from my pokerstars and used it for the offer.

I used 4 of the 5 tickets.

$3 9-man SnGs:

1 x 2nd place
3 x 4th-9th place

P/L: +7.29

Total P/L: -$0.92

I'm going to play a few sit and gos today, and I've used the final free ticket for a $3 - $750 guaranteed MTT.

Played a few more sit and gos this evening. Ran pretty bad yesterday, but back to business today. Here are my results including the tourneys from yesterday.

$3 9-man SnGs:

4 x 1st place
3 x 2nd place
1 x 3rd place
26 x 4th-9th place

P/L: +$3.33

$3 MTT free tournament ticket:

Placed 146 out of 255.

P/L: +$0.00

Freerolls:

Played 3, managed to cash a small amount in 1.

+$0.90

P/L since yesterday: +$4.23

Total P/L: +$3.31

Glad to have made it back in to the green after my cash game spewing at the start of the challenge!

Next session will be tomorrow evening.

Lost some big hands yesterday with bad beats... but ho hum, that is poker for you.

$3 9-man SnGs:

1 x 1st place
2 x 2nd place
2 x 3rd place
11 x 4-9th place

Bubbled 4 times

P/L: -$11.55

Freerolls:

2 played, 0 cashed.

Pokerstars Common Cents:

Came across these yesterday, they are worth a pop for a small buy-in.

Played 2, cashed a small amount in 1.

P/L: +$0.76

Yesterday's P/L: -$10.79

Challenge P/L: -$7.48

Results from my last session:

$3 9-man SnGs:

4 x 1st place
5 x 2nd place
5 x 3rd place
20 x 4th - 9th place

P/L: +$7.35

Freerolls:

2 played, 0 cashed

Pokerstars Common Cents:

I won a ticket to the main event of this series.

P/L: +$1.52

Total P/L this session: +$8.87

Challenge P/L: +$1.39

It's a slow start to the challenge. Since I started playing the $3 sit and gos, I have only made +$2.16 from 90 games, which is very poor. But I'm confident that my results will get better soon.

Decided to try out some turbos on 888 yesterday, as well as the regular speed. These seem to fill up really fast and I can get through them quicker. Went for $1 buy-ins because of the higher variance.

$3 9-man SnGs:

2 x 1st place
2 x 2nd place
1 x 3rd place
7 x 4th - 9th place

P/L: +$7.74

$1 9-man Turbo SnGs:

4 x 1st place
1 x 2nd place
5 x 3rd place
8 x 4th - 9th place

P/L: +$8.73

$1 MTTs

Played 2, no cashes

P/L: -$2.00

Total P/L this session: +$14.47

Challenge P/L: +$15.86

Been away for a few days but here are my results for some games I played before the weekend.

$3 9-man SnGs:

1 x 1st place
3 x 2nd place
6 x 4th-9th place

P/L: +$4.02

$1 9-man Turbo SnGs:

1 x 1st place
3 x 2nd place
2 x 3rd place
8 x 4th-9th place

P/L: +$0.58

Total P/L this session: +$4.60

Challenge P/L: +$20.46

I've played 100 of the regular speed $3.00 SnGs so far. I only have an ROI of 2.06% and ITM of 37%. I should be doing much better than this... so I really need to put some time into reviewing my hand history and studying more.

Just to let you guys know, I haven't given up on this challenge. I spotted a lucrative bonus on a UK poker site which uses £, so I have been using a seperate bankroll to complete it. I'll be back in a couple of weeks when I've finished with it.