My first exposure to poker was watching the WSOP on TV in Vegas back in 2004. Obviously I was 13 at the time so I couldn’t play in the casino (they wouldn’t even allow me watch any action for any game on the casino floor, I had to be moved along almost immediately) but the game fascinated me and I would play 5 card draw for matchsticks any chance I got. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but it captivated me. Eventually, my interest in the game petered out as I found other things to do with my time. Fast forward 4 years and late one night I watched an episode of the EPT and my fascination with the game came back. When I was 18 I took the plunge and deposited a small amount online. Now let me just say I did not become one of those players who deposited $50 and went on to win millions almost instantly, it was 2008. That era of the online game had gone. I was essentially a flat-lining player, break even, but losing to the rake. I then started to concentrate on the game, and over the years I slowly got better and better.
Fast forward to April this year. I’m beating the $25 cash games and beginning to dip my feet in the $50 limits. But I had to take time off to finish my dissertation and revise for my final exams. Poker wise, I was feeling great and playing great. Things were going so well that I felt that after I finished university I could work hard over the summer on my game, and potentially play it for a living, or at the very least open up the possibility of playing for a living.
So the time came, I had finished my exams, celebrated the end of university with the uni summer ball, enjoyed the last few weeks I would spend with my flatmates in Bournemouth, (playing COD, going to the cinema and the beach) and just generally chilled and enjoyed a few weeks of doing nothing.
At the same time I managed to qualify for a small poker tournament in Brighton (the Poker Player UK Tour, for those who don’t like mystery). Needless to say I was pretty excited for this and saw it as a great opportunity. When the day of the tournament came, I wandered into the G Casino, made sure my name was on the starting list (no problem there), sat down at one of the tournament tables and found a complimentary copy of PokerPlayer magazine; the same issue I had bought the week before (the start of my downswing). Then I surveyed the room and saw two stalwarts of the UK professional scene: Simon Hemsworth and Ross Jarvis. Naturally, this had the same impact on me as an 8 year old England fan meeting Wayne Rooney, I got extremely excited/nervous and just kept out of the way.
About an hour later, the tournament began. 75 runners in total, and over £2000 for first. Hours passed, I was slowly chipping up, but always came second best in big hands meaning I never really managed to attack the leaderboard, but I was making solid reads, and my timing was perfect, so things were going fine. I was above average chips, which is the best one can hope. If you’re always above the average stack, then you are guaranteed to win (in theory – don’t hold me to that).
Eventually, it got down to 27 players. I picked up QT. I bet, and an opponent in the blinds called. The flop came QQ9. Trips, very nice. The opponent checked, I bet and the opponent called. The turn brings a 9. Bingo. A full house! Not just any full house, the nut full house! The opponent checks again and I bet. The opponent then shoves, putting me all in. FINALLY! When I call this I’m going to be in the top 5 chip counts at least. Then I can really make a play for the final table and begin to dominate. So I snap call…
You know when you have a near death experience, and everything goes in slow motion? The following occurrence was not too dissimilar to that. It turns out that the opponent called preflop with a pair of nines. Meaning that he had quad nines, and that was me out of the tournament.
Considering I had booked the train back home on the Monday, it meant that I had the following day to explore Brighton, and after I had spent the day mooching around, I decided to spend the evening playing a £10 turbo back at the casino. I got off to a great start, doubled up in the first level and stayed within contention of winning the entire tournament throughout. It then got to the bubble, which seemed to last an age. The bubble lasted so long that in the end, everyone was very evenly stacked, and would you believe it, I lost a flip to bust out as the bubble boy.
Despite the obvious disappointment I thoroughly enjoyed that weekend, and it cemented the idea that this is something I would love to try to do for a living, especially considering the job market is terrible at the moment, with no one being able to find a job.
When I got home, I shrugged off the bad luck that had befallen me, thinking that there is a high amount of variance in tournament play, and that two tournaments is nowhere near a big enough sample size to rely on a profit. Besides, I’m a cash game player, that’s where all the real money is. Allegedly.
So I got back, started playing 8 tables for 8 hours a day, reviewing each and every session, posting in forums, watching training videos, exercising, doing everything I could to try and make it work. But annoyingly, in the short term, variance can produce wildly different results in the bankrolls of similarly skilled players, and it was my turn for the doomswitch, and this time, it was a severe doomswitch.
After 65,000 hands, despite being outdrawn and coolered time and time again, I had only lost about $40, which isn’t even two buy ins, so naturally I was feeling pretty good about myself. But then something clicked. Even though I didn’t feel any differently at first, subconsciously I began to tilt, I didn’t even know I was tilting until about the 82,000 hand mark. Then things got bad. I had been on downswings before, but never like this, and when I realised I was beginning to tilt things just got worse. I should have taken time off, but I didn’t want to feel like I was doing nothing with my time. I started playing limits I shouldn’t have, and getting annoyed extremely easily. Inevitably, I went bust.
Obviously I couldn’t keep playing with no money (I had spent everything I earned online at university, I supposed I could have saved up, but then you only go to university once in your life – unless you decide to get a second degree, you fool) so I had to stop playing and take a break (which is what I needed anyway, you can’t exactly play profitably when on life tilt) and try to find a job. Obviously I have been unable to secure a job which uses my degree, but I’ve managed to get a part time job which has given me a little bit of cash to tide me over for the time being.
Obviously now I have a bit of money, I can start to play poker again, and all the tilt has definitely gone from my system. It feels good to play without any tension again.
This brings me on nicely to the $44 to $1000 dollar challenge. The main reason I decided to undertake this is because I want to get back to the level I was playing at before the downswing, and by taking this challenge it will force me to play seriously without me whittling away any money needlessly.
Previously I would use a 20BI strategy for each level and obviously 20BI was a very aggressive bankroll strategy, which probably helps to explain why the downswing busted my previous roll. Clearly I can’t afford to keep using the same strategy, as eventually I will suffer a downswing as severe as the one I had over the summer, but then saying that I don’t want to stay at the 2NL-16NL levels for longer than necessary, so I have implemented a unique strategy to get me through the lower levels as quickly and as safely as possible:
I am going to use a progressive strategy which I will change over time, depending on what my bankroll is. Below is the first level of the strategy:
5NL – 15BI
10NL – 15BI
16NL – 20BI
25NL – 20BI
50NL – 25BI
100NL – 30BI
200NL – 40BI
My thinking behind this strategy is that each level will get tougher, so I will need a bigger bankroll to sustain the better play, but then once I move up to the new level, I will increase the buy ins required for the previous level in the following pattern:
15BI / 20BI / 25BI / 30BI / 40BI / 50BI etc
So for instance, to play at 5NL I will need an original bankroll of $75, and to move up to 10NL I will need a bankroll of $150. Once I’ve moved up to 10NL I will increase the buy in required for 5NL to 20BI, so if I then happen to go on a downswing and move down to $95 I will be required to move back down to 2NL. This is to help move my bankroll up to a minimum of 50BI for each limit over time, which will ensure that I never go bust again.
So that’s my history in the game, and the requirements of the challenge. Each day I will update my results, including a graph and key hands. As it stands I have completed 5 days of this challenge and as it stands I have a bankroll of $66.30.
Time to see how this challenge pans out. I am expecting it to take an optimistic 70 days. Anyone willing to take an over or under on this? There may be a cash prize for those who get it right* and follow me**
*Do not hold me to this.
**Please follow my blog.
Note to self: Think of a witty, original title. 