CHALLENGE STATUS

For those of you who have been following this blog and my progress, thanks a lot for your interest and support. For anyone just coming into this blog, I thought it might be a good idea to briefly re-cap my goals, rules and progress thus far. As stated, I’ll keep the re-cap short and focus more on stats & profit.

It’s been approximately 2 months since my first blog and from the rather detailed excel spreadsheet that I use to keep score, I can see that I – in that time - have entered a total of 198 MTT & STTs. Time to see whether I’m even semi-decent at this poker-thing. First a bullet-point-look at the challenge and the rules:


CHALLENGE DETAILS + PROGRESS

a) Overall Goal: Win enough money to buy into Aussie Millions (main event, obviously – but prelims as well)

b) Starting bankroll: USD 5K (this is my ‘own’ money – i.e. not money won playing poker)

c) Game selection: Only MTTs and STTs. No turbo tourneys though. No cash games.

d) Bankroll Mngt: “100 BUY-IN RULE”. This refers to overall investment, i.e. 5K bankroll does not permit $50+5 tourneys, nor does it allow for $20 rebuys (I don’t NOT rebuy/addon). Strict adherence hereto.

e) Focus: No more than 3 tables at a time

f) Writing: Twice-a-week blog report



I’ve been pretty happy with the way things have gone so far. I’ve stuck to all of my rules with one exception – the focus part. I admit that I have at times played more than 3 tables simultaneously and fortunately, so far, with just as much success as 3 tables. 5 is however my limit. I don’t have double-monitors set up in my office, so all my play is on a laptop screen and that sets a natural limit.

The frequency of my blog-reports has been fairly unstable, but the overall number (once I post this) stands at 15 in this – my 8th week of the challenge, so I’m pretty happy with that. Sometimes there’s just nothing interesting to blog about.


RESULTS

$4.40-180’s played: 21
Result: $-7.44
ITM finish: 3/21 = 14%
Final tables: 2/21 = 10%

- I wrote in a previous blog, that I’d never played these 180-person tourneys and a kind reader alerted me to the fact that the opposition is a lot better than the buy-in amount points to. I still think some of the plays I’ve seen were pretty atrocious, but it is true that the later stage of these tournaments has a very high percentage of good players, considering the stakes. I’m not exactly getting crushed over this puny sample size, but maybe I don’t need to prove myself in these tourneys? Think I’ll have to try a few more, before I throw in the towel.


STTs played: 82
Average buy-in: $15.89
Result: $+136.70
ITM finish: 26/82 = 32%

- So, I play quite a few STTs, as I don’t always have the time to commit to a full-length MTT. I will probably be playing more from now on, but will move to the higher buy-in ones, preferably the $20 and $30 tourneys. I definitely feel like my profitability should be more than a buck-sixty per game.


Double-stack STTs played: 6
Average buy-in: $11.67
Result: $+63.00
ITM finish: 4/6 = 66%

- I feel there’s a huge difference between a sitngo with a normal starting stack and the ones that start you off with double, so much that I’m not including the double-stacks in the STT stats. This is no sample size obviously, but I feel like my edge in these is pretty good. Unfortunately, not too many of them around.


MTTs played: 89
Average buy-in: $21.64 (includes rebuys+addons)
Result: $+1,360.87
ITM finish: 29/89 = 32%
Final tables: 11/89 = 12%

- I have been crushing. That’s what it feels like anyway. Especially in the last couple of weeks. I think my ITM-finish percentage is just about as good as anyone’s and my final table presence is obviously rock-fucking-solid. Yep, I’m bragging, but hell – I’ve deserved it! The next step will be to cover myself in run-good-lotion for the next final table and actually get another win soon.


OVERALL PROFIT: $1,553.13


Boys and girls, that’s it for me this time – hopefully more successful shenanigans and efficacious escapades to report about, next time I see you.

Till then – thanks for reading.


Bankroll: USD 6,553.13
Days left until Aussie Millions 2010: 239