I finally take down a big tournament. And win $15.7k And the victory shots are on.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
I finally take down a big tournament. And win $15.7k And the victory shots are on.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Day 4: Challenge Complete! Time for a Victory Brew
Total Profit: +$296
Hours Played : 7
Around 1am last night I took down another $4.40 180person tournament on PokerStars that put me over the $1k mark. I Immediately cracked a victory brew (Note to my roommate: sorry for takin' your last beer dude) and began to look back on the past few days. I got incredibly lucky to go on a heater like this right when I decided to start this challenge. To put it in context, the week before this, I did not have one winning day, and was down like -$150 or so for the week. So I feel pretty lucky to have 4 really good days of profit and reach my one thousand dollar mark so quickly.
I'm really glad I was able to complete the challenge last night because I have a ton of homework to do right now. I'll have a more detailed post up tomorrow as I look back on the challenge, talk about my history as an online poker player, and share some thoughts on the online poker scene in general.
Total after 4 days: +$1008
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Hours Played : 7
Around 1am last night I took down another $4.40 180person tournament on PokerStars that put me over the $1k mark. I Immediately cracked a victory brew (Note to my roommate: sorry for takin' your last beer dude) and began to look back on the past few days. I got incredibly lucky to go on a heater like this right when I decided to start this challenge. To put it in context, the week before this, I did not have one winning day, and was down like -$150 or so for the week. So I feel pretty lucky to have 4 really good days of profit and reach my one thousand dollar mark so quickly.
I'm really glad I was able to complete the challenge last night because I have a ton of homework to do right now. I'll have a more detailed post up tomorrow as I look back on the challenge, talk about my history as an online poker player, and share some thoughts on the online poker scene in general.
Total after 4 days: +$1008
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Day 3 Report: Best Day Yet
Profit: +$316
Hours Played: 9
Saturday's have always been one of my most profitable days of the week, and last night was no exception. I made about $128 in five hours playing cash games on Full Tilt. Saturday nights are prime time for cash games, because that's when you can make easy money off all the drunk asses and part-time players who just play for fun(and are almost always losing players). I didn't really have any interesting hands that are worth talking about, pretty much just got paid off with pocket aces and pocket kings a bunch of times. Sometimes its as easy as that.
I've really been playing some of my best poker the past few days. First of all I've been highly motivated because I want to complete my challenge and not look like a dumbass after making this blog public. And I also really don't wanna have to make a post about how how I lost a bunch of money one day. So when I've started playing and things don't go my way I've stuck with it when I normally might have just said "today's not my day" and quit playing.
My cash game sessions have been helping my tournament game enormously in terms of reading what other people have. I've been sniffing out the bluffs and making some sick re-raises with nothing when I sense weakness. My good play was rewarded last night when I took first in a $4.40 180person tournament on pokerstars for $216.
Poker is just about the funnest game in the world when you're making money, and the dumbest game in the world when you're not. I wouldn't even wanna guess how many times I've thought to myself "why do I play this stupid F***ing game?!!??!". When you're on a heater like this though, it's pretty damn fun.
Stats for pokerstars the past 3 days:
Total after 3 days: +$712
Hours Played: 9
Saturday's have always been one of my most profitable days of the week, and last night was no exception. I made about $128 in five hours playing cash games on Full Tilt. Saturday nights are prime time for cash games, because that's when you can make easy money off all the drunk asses and part-time players who just play for fun(and are almost always losing players). I didn't really have any interesting hands that are worth talking about, pretty much just got paid off with pocket aces and pocket kings a bunch of times. Sometimes its as easy as that.
I've really been playing some of my best poker the past few days. First of all I've been highly motivated because I want to complete my challenge and not look like a dumbass after making this blog public. And I also really don't wanna have to make a post about how how I lost a bunch of money one day. So when I've started playing and things don't go my way I've stuck with it when I normally might have just said "today's not my day" and quit playing.
My cash game sessions have been helping my tournament game enormously in terms of reading what other people have. I've been sniffing out the bluffs and making some sick re-raises with nothing when I sense weakness. My good play was rewarded last night when I took first in a $4.40 180person tournament on pokerstars for $216.
Poker is just about the funnest game in the world when you're making money, and the dumbest game in the world when you're not. I wouldn't even wanna guess how many times I've thought to myself "why do I play this stupid F***ing game?!!??!". When you're on a heater like this though, it's pretty damn fun.
Stats for pokerstars the past 3 days:
Total after 3 days: +$712
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Day 2 Progress Report
Total Profit: $192
Hours Played : 8
Another pretty good day, but I could have won 135$ more if I didn't get unlucky in 2 big hands. The first hand was from my cash game session I played on Full Tilt Poker, where I played for about 4hours and made 38$, which isn't too shabby. (For what its worth though any day that you play a lot poker and don't end up in the red is a good day, even if that means you just break even.) Here's the hand history and breakdown of that hand:
Full Tilt Poker Game #11007398163: Table Slice (deep) - $0.10/$0.25 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:08:22 ET - 2009/03/07
Seat 1: Gangstachic ($47.32)
Seat 2: whwood77 ($33.35)
Seat 3: LoveShy ($48.08)
Seat 4: jwesbro ($60.66)
Seat 5: the---WiRE1 ($59.05)
Seat 6: VBTFOOY ($37.07)
Seat 7: millionaire40 ($12.12)
Seat 8: JHONY CASH ($12.37)
Seat 9: mzperx77 ($61.80)
whwood77 posts the small blind of $0.10
LoveShy posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to the---WiRE1 [As Kh]
jwesbro folds
the---WiRE1 raises to $0.85 <----Standard preflop raise
jwesbro stands up
VBTFOOY folds
millionaire40 folds
Delfin33 adds $25
JHONY CASH folds
Delfin33 stands up
mzperx77 has 15 seconds left to act
mzperx77 folds
Gangstachic folds
whwood77 calls $0.75
LoveShy folds
*** FLOP *** [Kd Jh 4d]
Tompras stands up
whwood77 has 15 seconds left to act
whwood77 bets $1
the---WiRE1 raises to $3
whwood77 raises to $5
the---WiRE1 calls $2
I have top pair top kicker, which figures to be the best hand but their a lot of draws on this board so I raise his bet. He re-raises me, but this guy is a really bad player so it could mean anything. I decide to just call and see what he does on the turn and then proceed from there.
*** TURN *** [Kd Jh 4d] [6h]
whwood77 bets $11.95
He bets the size of the pot on the turn and my gut reaction is that he he has a weak hand and wants me to fold. I think my top pair top kicker is good so I raise enough to put him all in.
the---WiRE1 raises to $53.20
whwood77 calls $15.55, and is all in
the---WiRE1 shows [As Kh]
whwood77 shows [Jd 5d]
He calls with a pair and a flush draw so I was right, but he can still win the hand by hitting any of the 9 diamond cards, 2 jacks, or 3 fives. So he has 14 cards out of 44 he can win with, or about a 30% chance to make his hand.
*** RIVER *** [Kd Jh 4d 6h] [Ad]
the---WiRE1 shows two pair, Aces and Kings
whwood77 shows a flush, Ace high whwood77 wins the pot ($63.95) with a flush, Ace high
I got all my money in being a 70% favorite to win the hand with one card to come, but I got outdrawn. Pretty unlucky for me but I'm glad with how I played it so theirs nothing for me to get upset about, that's just the way the game is.
The other big hand I got unlucky in happened when I was heads up in a 180 man $4.40 tournament on Pokerstars. The difference between first and second was $72, but.....Shit happens and I ended up getting 2nd in the tournament for $144:
Profit chart for the sit and go tournaments I've played on pokerstars the past 2 days:
So after two days I'm +$396, which is pretty good considering I havent played as much as I planned on. When I came up with the idea to try and make $1k in 5 days, I planned on playing a loooooot of sit and go tournaments, anywhere from 75-150 a day. The reason being when you are only playing 3 to 6 dollar buyins, its very hard to make a high amount of money in a short amount of time, unless you are playing a shit ton of them. But two days in I've played 40 of them and made $208, so that's damn good, and doesn't happen very often.
The thing about this challenge is their's very little room for error. If I have just one day with a negative profit margin then the chances of me completing it are slim to none. But shit if it were easy then it wouldn't exactly be a challenge would it?
Hours Played : 8
Another pretty good day, but I could have won 135$ more if I didn't get unlucky in 2 big hands. The first hand was from my cash game session I played on Full Tilt Poker, where I played for about 4hours and made 38$, which isn't too shabby. (For what its worth though any day that you play a lot poker and don't end up in the red is a good day, even if that means you just break even.) Here's the hand history and breakdown of that hand:
Full Tilt Poker Game #11007398163: Table Slice (deep) - $0.10/$0.25 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:08:22 ET - 2009/03/07
Seat 1: Gangstachic ($47.32)
Seat 2: whwood77 ($33.35)
Seat 3: LoveShy ($48.08)
Seat 4: jwesbro ($60.66)
Seat 5: the---WiRE1 ($59.05)
Seat 6: VBTFOOY ($37.07)
Seat 7: millionaire40 ($12.12)
Seat 8: JHONY CASH ($12.37)
Seat 9: mzperx77 ($61.80)
whwood77 posts the small blind of $0.10
LoveShy posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to the---WiRE1 [As Kh]
jwesbro folds
the---WiRE1 raises to $0.85 <----Standard preflop raise
jwesbro stands up
VBTFOOY folds
millionaire40 folds
Delfin33 adds $25
JHONY CASH folds
Delfin33 stands up
mzperx77 has 15 seconds left to act
mzperx77 folds
Gangstachic folds
whwood77 calls $0.75
LoveShy folds
*** FLOP *** [Kd Jh 4d]
Tompras stands up
whwood77 has 15 seconds left to act
whwood77 bets $1
the---WiRE1 raises to $3
whwood77 raises to $5
the---WiRE1 calls $2
I have top pair top kicker, which figures to be the best hand but their a lot of draws on this board so I raise his bet. He re-raises me, but this guy is a really bad player so it could mean anything. I decide to just call and see what he does on the turn and then proceed from there.
*** TURN *** [Kd Jh 4d] [6h]
whwood77 bets $11.95
He bets the size of the pot on the turn and my gut reaction is that he he has a weak hand and wants me to fold. I think my top pair top kicker is good so I raise enough to put him all in.
the---WiRE1 raises to $53.20
whwood77 calls $15.55, and is all in
the---WiRE1 shows [As Kh]
whwood77 shows [Jd 5d]
He calls with a pair and a flush draw so I was right, but he can still win the hand by hitting any of the 9 diamond cards, 2 jacks, or 3 fives. So he has 14 cards out of 44 he can win with, or about a 30% chance to make his hand.
*** RIVER *** [Kd Jh 4d 6h] [Ad]
the---WiRE1 shows two pair, Aces and Kings
whwood77 shows a flush, Ace high whwood77 wins the pot ($63.95) with a flush, Ace high
I got all my money in being a 70% favorite to win the hand with one card to come, but I got outdrawn. Pretty unlucky for me but I'm glad with how I played it so theirs nothing for me to get upset about, that's just the way the game is.
The other big hand I got unlucky in happened when I was heads up in a 180 man $4.40 tournament on Pokerstars. The difference between first and second was $72, but.....Shit happens and I ended up getting 2nd in the tournament for $144:
Profit chart for the sit and go tournaments I've played on pokerstars the past 2 days:
So after two days I'm +$396, which is pretty good considering I havent played as much as I planned on. When I came up with the idea to try and make $1k in 5 days, I planned on playing a loooooot of sit and go tournaments, anywhere from 75-150 a day. The reason being when you are only playing 3 to 6 dollar buyins, its very hard to make a high amount of money in a short amount of time, unless you are playing a shit ton of them. But two days in I've played 40 of them and made $208, so that's damn good, and doesn't happen very often.
The thing about this challenge is their's very little room for error. If I have just one day with a negative profit margin then the chances of me completing it are slim to none. But shit if it were easy then it wouldn't exactly be a challenge would it?
Friday, March 6, 2009
Day 1 Progress Report
Total Profit: 204$
Hours Played: 6
I played from about 8pm to 2am and I ran hot in everything I played. I played a cash game session at full tilt and made 135$ playing 8 tables of .10/.25 No Limit Holdem. Heres a screenshot of me 8 tabling(I have 2 monitors)
In the biggest pot of the night, I got incredibly lucky to win it. With one card to go I had a 1/45 chance to win the hand by hitting the last 5 in the deck. I hit it and scooped the $80 pot. This is why poker is one of the most mentally challenging and frustrating games, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
Another interesting hand occurred when I picked up pocket Aces and faced a raiser from middle position. This same player had just raised the previous hand and I had reraised with JJ, and he thought for awhile before folding. So when he raises this hand I know he may be steaming a little from the previous hand, because no one likes having to fold to a reraise. Knowing this, I reraise with the aces exactly like I did with JJ the previous hand. He calls and the flop comes:
He checks to me and I make a small bet of 3$ into the 7$ pot. I know he might be upset at me over the last hand, so I want to make a small weak looking bet hoping that he releases some of that anger with a re-raise. My plan works and he reraises me to 9$. At this point I know I have the best hand. The only hands that beat me on this board are pocket tens, pocket fives, or a hand with a 5 in it like A5, but thats very unlikely. If he has has a full house with pocket tens I dont think he re-raises me here on the flop because he'd most likely slowplay them. Ditto with pocket fives. I'm puttin him on 66-99 and possibly JJ. Never QQ or KK because with those hands he would have put in another re-raise preflop. Since I think he is drawing to 2 cards in the deck, I decide to just call his reraise. Many players make the mistake of coming over the top here and making another raise. By just calling I give my opponent the opportunity to put the rest of his chips in on the turn with the worst hand, at which point I insta-call. Sure enough he bets the rest of his money on the turn and I call. He shows 88 and misses his two outs. I scoop the 63$ pot.
I ended my cash game session early because I was up over 5 buyins and didn't really want to push my luck. I then played a bunch of turbo sit and go's on pokerstars and ran pretty well in those as well. I played around 20 in a few hours and made about 65$. Here are the results:
Overall it was a great start to the challenge. I made enough to keep me on pace for $1k in 5 days without even playing that much.
Hours Played: 6
I played from about 8pm to 2am and I ran hot in everything I played. I played a cash game session at full tilt and made 135$ playing 8 tables of .10/.25 No Limit Holdem. Heres a screenshot of me 8 tabling(I have 2 monitors)
In the biggest pot of the night, I got incredibly lucky to win it. With one card to go I had a 1/45 chance to win the hand by hitting the last 5 in the deck. I hit it and scooped the $80 pot. This is why poker is one of the most mentally challenging and frustrating games, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
Another interesting hand occurred when I picked up pocket Aces and faced a raiser from middle position. This same player had just raised the previous hand and I had reraised with JJ, and he thought for awhile before folding. So when he raises this hand I know he may be steaming a little from the previous hand, because no one likes having to fold to a reraise. Knowing this, I reraise with the aces exactly like I did with JJ the previous hand. He calls and the flop comes:
He checks to me and I make a small bet of 3$ into the 7$ pot. I know he might be upset at me over the last hand, so I want to make a small weak looking bet hoping that he releases some of that anger with a re-raise. My plan works and he reraises me to 9$. At this point I know I have the best hand. The only hands that beat me on this board are pocket tens, pocket fives, or a hand with a 5 in it like A5, but thats very unlikely. If he has has a full house with pocket tens I dont think he re-raises me here on the flop because he'd most likely slowplay them. Ditto with pocket fives. I'm puttin him on 66-99 and possibly JJ. Never QQ or KK because with those hands he would have put in another re-raise preflop. Since I think he is drawing to 2 cards in the deck, I decide to just call his reraise. Many players make the mistake of coming over the top here and making another raise. By just calling I give my opponent the opportunity to put the rest of his chips in on the turn with the worst hand, at which point I insta-call. Sure enough he bets the rest of his money on the turn and I call. He shows 88 and misses his two outs. I scoop the 63$ pot.
I ended my cash game session early because I was up over 5 buyins and didn't really want to push my luck. I then played a bunch of turbo sit and go's on pokerstars and ran pretty well in those as well. I played around 20 in a few hours and made about 65$. Here are the results:
Overall it was a great start to the challenge. I made enough to keep me on pace for $1k in 5 days without even playing that much.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
The Challenge : $1000 in Five Days
In an attempt to fully motivate myself (and make some rent money along the way), I am challenging myself to win $1k in 5 days by playing online poker. I plan on doing this by playing various tournaments, cash games, and sit and go tournaments on Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars.
Here's a screenshot of the bankroll I'm starting with. 1327$ total on both sites will hopefully be 2327$ by next Tuesday at 8pm. I'll be updating my daily progress with screen shots of anything big I win, as well as write ups of anything interesting that happened during the daily grind. This challenge will be hindered by the amount of homework I have due on Monday, but helped by the lack of a social life I'll have this weekend.
Day 1 progress report will be up tomorrow.
Here's a screenshot of the bankroll I'm starting with. 1327$ total on both sites will hopefully be 2327$ by next Tuesday at 8pm. I'll be updating my daily progress with screen shots of anything big I win, as well as write ups of anything interesting that happened during the daily grind. This challenge will be hindered by the amount of homework I have due on Monday, but helped by the lack of a social life I'll have this weekend.
Day 1 progress report will be up tomorrow.
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