Hi all..

Welcome to my challenge.

About me:

I`m a 23 year old who has been playing poker for a year and half. I have probably put in a lot more time than 90% of players with a years experience. My introduction to poker started off with me playing round a friends house, home games £15 buy ins just for fun.. it then turned to me getting into playing tournaments at the local casino and then I really got the bug. I then began to play online losing about 500$ total in deposits before I realized I wasnt phil ivey ... Then the reading and studying began, starting off with phil hellmuths and daniel negreanus books. I then stumbled upon gripsed on youtube and dissected all of his videos. Once I had grasped a good understanding off mtt strategy and lost about 400$ I started playing 2nl and 5nl cash where I lost a further 100$ (lol). My final deposit was 300$ which I ran up playing cash games with the help of xflixx grinding it up series, all his pdf guides, dusty schmidts cash game book and a tonne of run it once videos. I`m now a winner at 25nl cash over a good sample with some 50nl and crush 100nl live. My goal is to transition back to mtts.

The Challenge:

The whole aim of this challenge is to transition back into MTTS and achieve something that will progress into something alot bigger eventually.

My aim when it comes to this challenge is to use correct bankroll management to achieve my goal of 15k. Acquiring coaching at sngs and mtts as I progress will also be a huge part of the success.

Bankroll Management:

Starting bankroll:



Goal: $15,000

Buy in guidelines:

$50 - $75 = $0.50 45man turbos
$75 - $150 = $0.50 90man turbos
$150 - $200 = $1.50 45man turbos
$200 - $300 = $2.50 90man
$300 - $400 = $3.50 45man turbos
$400 - $700 = $2.50 180 man turbos
$700 - $2000 = $2.50 180s, $4.50 180s and $7 45mans.
$2000 - $5000 = $3.50 180r, MTTs: $3-$11
$5000 - $15,000 = $3.50 180r, MTTs: $5 - $20


Hope you all enjoy.. lets do this!

Day 1

Bankroll:



Finding the 45s really soft, if they stay this soft the moving up process should go really smooth! been watching some training videos on tournament poker edge from some crushing 180 players specifically "I GRIND THIS" whos a beast. I also reviewed my session and I`m happy how I`m playing. At the moment I`m planning to get a few coaching sessions as soon as i reach the $3.50 45mans maybe even the $4.50s depends on how im finding the differences between stakes.

GL will be following

Good luck

Thanks both

Good luck!!

Day 2:

Bankroll:



Been quite a slow day havent put in much volume and had a few big hands cracked on final tables but its whatever I suppose. Tomorrow I plan to play 8-10 tables for 8-10 hours. At the moment I`m finding that the 90man 0.50 turbos fill up ridiculously slow! You can probably be playing 10 45 mans before you are in 2 90s.

As far as the bankroll management goes and how slow the 90s fill up I am probably going to be mixing in the 45s and maybe some $1 reg 45s but unsure yet. Adding in some 1.50 45s or something might be an option but dont want to risk too much of the bankroll when I could possibly get to $150 and the $1.50 45 man turbos just playing the 0.50 45s.

I have been reading up on ICM today and implementing it more into my game, Even at these tiny stakes I think its still crucial in long term profit to implement it into my game.

Hopefully all is going well for everybody else

thanks bud

Good start.Good luck!

Day 3:

Bankroll:



Review:

Another slow day unfortunately. I planned to get above $100 today but couldnt get in much 90s volume because they take forever to fill!

A few final tables but mainly 3rd and 4th place finishes. Continuously getting on final tables and everyone having 8ish bb.

Tomorrow daytime I`m going to try put in some volume and get a good push forward. I see my girlfriend of the evening and probably Sunday too. The aim Monday is to get maximum volume in and I aim to be on $300-400 by Friday if all goes to plan

Life:

Probably going to go cinema tomorrow with the girlfriend to watch the bad neighbors 2! Hopefully its better than the first one. Sunday if I can get away it will probably be a day of golf and a short or long evening of poker depending how I`m feeling...

Today sitting at my computer desk I had visions of winning the lottery, then it came down to winning a tonne in poker. Looking at my bed I imagined a pile of money £200k+... Weird imagination, but money has always been my drive for everything! I remember a few years ago just before I went and bought my 2nd car and I had £8,000 on my bed and thought I was rich ha...

ANYWAY! Catch up on sunday!

Day 4:

Bankroll:



Review:

So I have only decided to blog the days I actually play the challenge thats why Day 3 was Friday and day 4 is today (Monday). Yesterday I played a short session but fell asleep at the computer desk because I was running off 2 hours sleep. I have been kind of breaking even at the $0.50 45s and 90s for the past 150 games. Getting 4-7th place payouts on final tables to win buy ins back can wear you down, but the key is to keep grinding through it . I managed to win a $0.50 90 man today and $0.50 180 man! which gave the bankroll a nice boost!

Today I got icmizer 2 and the SNG quiz things on there are really good when it comes to helping in different spots. I have also used it for a couple of spots myself and found it to be great use



I have also played like 3 1.50 45 mans unsuccessfully and a $1 180 man which i punted off pretty badly!

Bankroll management:

I have decided to play a ratio of 3/1 with $0.50 90s/$0.50 180s. I feel the games are really soft and very easy to beat. If I drop below 100$ I will stop the 180s and play the 45s in their place to rebuild.

Life:

Lifes good! weekend was pretty chill with girlfriend, kind of nice to have a break from poker. I dont mind playing poker every day but when you do have the day or 2 off you see the mentality benefit.

As some of you may already know the new call of duty is going to be cod4 which I`m absolutely buzzing about! I haven`t played xbox in like 2-3 years because how bad they have ruined call of duty! I used to spend like 10 hours a day playing black ops 1 when I was in college, which they have also made playable on xbox one now too!

A lot to look forward too!


Goals:

I`m planning to be playing the $2.50 180s by wednesday if all goes well! If not definitely friday!

Liking the sound of this. Seems like you doing well hope you keep it up mate, GL.

glgl mate. I am doing something similar on less of a scale though as i work full time. I am playing NZ evenings so the games are even slower to load up! haha

All the best.

Thanks bud, Will do

Haha, yeah the games can be a nightmare to load up sometimes! and as long as you can play like 8 tables for 3ish hours a few nights a week you`ll be ok volume wise and theres enough free content online to improve your strategy to beat these games and move up faster.. Good luck

Day 5:

Bankroll:



Review:

Posting this early update as my sleep schedule is messed up. I have been awake since I posted last night at 9pm and its 4pm here now so going to sleep and try wake up at a normal decent time for once..

Bankroll management:

I have been playing the $1.50 45 mans and have been finding them as soft as the $0.50s. Tomorrow I think I`m going to mainly target the 45s and the $0.50 180s/360s. As far as the $2.50 90man reg speeds go I think I`m probably going to skip those and take the occasional shot at the 2.50 180s from 200-250 roll.

I went and lay in bed watching tv for a short while and found myself in an $7 18man sng on my phone busting in 5th and bubbling (stupid idea on my part). I have emailed stars for the hh to import to my database so nothing is off and everything matches up to the roll properly (ocd).

Strategy:

I have started adjusting to players a bit more in game who I have okish sample sizes on 300 hands+. Hud stats are super useful in sngs when it comes to youre calling ranges, shoving ranges, incorporating limps etc.

Today I also watched some training videos on TPE on turbo sngs which is always good to freshen up your game and see things from different perspectives.

My final table strategy has improved alot since the start of the challenge. I find myself playing a 10-20bb stack a lot better than I was! Constantly trying to find the right 3b shove spots where I think I have a considerable amount of FE.
My one problem I`m finding though is when 4 handed ICM I have 40-50% of the chips in play (22ish bb) $ev I`m looking at 2nd if I tighten up or taking spots like being on the button with Q9 with 7/8bb in the sb and 10ish bb... I should probably run this through icmizer but similar spots like this are coming up in game where I need to get used to knowing my ranges better in a vacuum.

Day 6

Bankroll:



Graph:



Review:

So today I went on like a 50 buy in avg downswing. Most tilted I have been in a while getting sucked out on by 2 outters, flopping top set losing to 4 card back door flushes. But all in all grinded the day out and my play started to improve later on when I started having some deeper runs and a few small cashes. I ended up binking 2x $1 90man turbos.. and then finished 4th in a $0.50 360 man turbo for like $13 with $33 for 1st 99<AT standard.. Stacks were like 6bb short 4 handed it was ridiculous lol

Bankroll management:

Going to switch up my approach a little and see how it goes! My plan is to play 8 tables at a time:
3x $1 90 turbo
3x $1.50 45 turbo
1x $0.50 180 turbo
1x $2.50 180 turbo

I dont want to put much risk to the bankroll so as far as the $2.50s go I will be looking to reg one of those every 2 hours.

Tomorrow I`m going to really push to get to 250-300!

Subbed and gl

gl man will be following

Thanks both (means less talking to myself)

Day 7

Bankroll:



Review:

Really disappointing day to be honest. I need to develop some kind of routine before i play because I seem to be playing my C game at the start of sessions and then dropping like 30$ with most of it being not focused on making correct decisions. The longer I play the more focused I get and better I play.

As long as the bankroll is moving in the right direction! Have to keep positive! A week of play in the challenge and iv already 4x my investment which is something to be happy about

Strategy:

I have been playing with a good regular alot lately and have 700 hands on him and he plays like 8/6 with a tot steal of 19. SN timmybwee. I don`t know how profitable this style is in turbo sngs, but I find more fts and less wasted buy ins when implementing it myself. My stats over 20k hands are 18/16 btn steal: 53 CO steal: 31. Hmmm.

Day 8:

Bankroll:



Review:

Havent been able to play since friday night. Today all went well, had a good session got a toone of FT`s but had biggest finish 3rd and a few 4ths,5ths etc. If I could have won some results would have been much better!

Bankroll management:

Now the roll is going up I`m going to start playing some reg 2.50 90s if they fill up decently and the occasional $1 MTT.

Grind schedule will consist of 10-12 tables at a time until I feel comfortable playing more. Games I`ll be playing till I get to 250-300.

- $1.50 - 45 man turbos. (Fill up really fast and can get 10 tables loaded up fairly easily.
- $1 90 - 90 man turbos. (Fill up quite slow but very easy to beat like the 45s)
- $0.50 - 180 man turbos. (Keeps me in flow with 180s and stack sizes late on etc)
- $1 - 180 regs. (nice to have a table up as they`re really soft and will be nice to ship)
- $2 - 90 regs. (See how we do with these
- freeroll - $1.10 MTTS )

I have played the $2 90man reg speeds. Not sure if they load up when i'm grinding.

Where are you based, wonder if i see you at the tables?

Yeah not confident in them being too popular either... and UK mate

Yeah not confident in them being too popular either... and UK mate

Ahh nice. Yeah i might catch you at the end of of one your sessions possibly. Used to play a lot with Skadooosh from the UK and that was always the case. Given we are playing pretty much the same games could be good to share hands/ thoughts if your keen. Send me a PM and can add each other on skype.