Summer Bankroll Challenge

Steps Challenge!

2010-05-28T09:24:00.001-04:00

Now that BBT5 is mostly behind us.... Anyone up for a mini-challenge?

I'm thinking a 1 or 2 week bout revolving around FT's new steps tourneys. The idea is to start with a set amount at step 0 (the $1 superturbos) - lets say 25 buyins or so ($27.50 @ $1.10 per step 0 - or use FTPs to buy into step 0's - the point is to start at the beginning) ... get as many step 1's as you can, work those into step 2's etc.... until you're either busto or you have a 10k seat. We could do this as a point system - with the step # the amount of points you earn. You CAN NOT buy directly into a bigger step, you have to earn it from 0 and work up. You can choose to stop at any point throughout and keep those points (and the ticket to use however you wish). Redo's count (if you do a step 2 and don't win, but get sent back to step 1 that counts as 3 points). Potentially someone could work 1 ticket up to step 6, and another not make it past step 1, but get 50 redos and take this thing down...
First person to a 10k seat is an auto-win and this thing is over.

Usual props apply - winner pot, horsie, best post, blah blah blah - you decide.

Anyone interested? Should step 0 be more/less than 25? 1 week, 2 weeks?

Who do I owe what to?

2010-03-20T22:10:00.002-04:00

Sorry, Just remember this, and I am just too much of a lazy fuck to try and figure it out for myself. If I owe you anything for the last bankroll challenge, please drop me an IM or an email.

Funniest Poster

2010-03-08T19:14:00.002-05:00

Ode to Blaargh!

You, dear alien, are a hoot.
Not the hoot who does jello shots with no hands,
The hoot with feathers on days besides Halloween.

HOOT

Interstellar graphs,
With lines,
So many lines,
That are meaningless to this
Colorblind gentleman,
Who would like to meet your Ev one day,
She sounds nice.

The post bet

2010-03-08T11:01:00.002-05:00

In honor of MHG... I bow to your skillz at teh Microsoft paint.

There once was a Mean Happy Guy,

who chose to give drawing a try.

He did it while drunk,

with the tip of his junk,

but the size of his pen made him cry.

The Horse Bet

2010-03-07T21:38:00.003-05:00

When there is no white in a painting of mine, you know that I've put some time into it. It just so happens on this part of the track there is no scenery. Why is there no scenery? Jordan bought everything in sight and has it in his mansion. In fact, there is a clearcut forest all along the next furlong of the track.

The REAL Bets

2010-03-03T11:34:00.002-05:00

Giving money to Jordan isn't fun for any of us, so let's get to the REAL bets. A few of these will need the peanut gallery's input.

4) Funniest Post
MHG: A poem ode to the victor
Blaargh!: dirty limerick
Dr. Chako: poetry
Kat: haiku/poem

I do not think we have a clearcut winner for this yet, we will need to hash this out in the comments section. Or perhaps each bettor will pick their favorite funniest post and give their writing to the victor?

5) Betting the horses
MHG: A painting of the victor
Blaargh!: painting
Dr. Chako: Some form of original art. I may write and record a song.
Kat: crafty/pokery goodness

Thanks to CK for her spreadsheet skills. Unfortunately, Blaargh, Dr. C, and Kat all ended up in a 3-way tie. With me finishing dead-last. I will create a painting of all three victors.

6) Bad Beat of the Challenge (worst bad beat of the challenge, non-monetary)
MHG: A box of Kleenex
Blaargh!: The world's smallest violin
Dr. Chako: The world's 2nd smallest violin. Apparently the smallest was already taken.

If I recall correctly, I think Blaargh had a pretty nice bad beat at some point in this challenge, but I will need to do some research. What say you, peanut gallery?

7) Most hands played during the challenge
Blaargh!: $5
MHG: $2
Aposec72: $3

The spreadsheet of my challenge has already been posted, and I didn't make it to 10k, so I'm pretty sure I lost this one. I'm not sure who between Blaargh and Aposec to give money to.

8) Best overall winrate over 10k hands
Blaargh!: $5
MHG: $2

This one could be tricky. If Blaargh was negative over 10k hands, is that better or worse than not even playing 10k hands? Sigh. I'm willing to fight to the death over this bet.

Good Game

2010-03-02T22:37:00.000-05:00

I wound up finishing the challenge down around a third of my account. I was positive up until the last day when I decided to try to take down the Sunday 80 grand and top Jordan's score. I then followed that up with a bad cash session. Oh well, go out with a bang I guess.

Congrats to Jordan on the win.

The Tax Man Cometh (i.e., how much do you owe me)

2010-03-02T17:31:00.003-05:00

Hey folks. Seeing as how I appear to be set for my three bets, I thought I'd save MHG the trouble of tallying and do it myself. Sure, 50% of the reason is I wanna get paid, but the other half is the fact that if I were MHG, the last thing I'd want to do is tally how much everyone owes the winnah.

My bets were:

$10 for % bankroll increase
$5 for biggest cash
$5 for Slayer of Donkeys

Payouts should be as follows:

MHG - $7
Blaargh! - $20
BWOP - $10
Dr. Chako - $20
Kat - $15
Aposec - $12
Shawn - $10
Heffmike - $25

You can verify the bets HERE. I did not include any bets for which I was not a part.

Payment can be made on FullTilt to HighOnPoker or on PokerStars to HighOnPokr (no E). If you want to arrange for alternative payments, please email me. Sexual favors in lieu of payment is only offered to the girls and MHG.*

On a related note, would anyone be interested in a new Heads-Up Challenge? Depending on the amount of players, it may be a round-robin tournament or a bracket tournament. This is all hypothetical until we have enough players and can settle on a "buy-in". If you are interested, feel free to leave a comment or email me (highonpokr AT yahoo DOT communist). I would like to do a buy-in of $20, ideally, but I'm open to suggestion. Start time for this challenge is likely no sooner than two weeks from today. I'll need some time to organize the brackets and get the money, which must be paid in advance of the challenge (I will pay out the winners directly).

Until next time, good game!

*By accepting this offer, you also agree that any venereal diseases or embryos obtained through the alternative payment system is the sole responsibility of the payor. After any such sexual embrace, the payor agrees not to fall in love with, stalk, or communicate with the payee, HighOnPoker. All sexual favors are subject to Germs and Positions.

Dr. Chako's results

2010-03-02T01:26:00.004-05:00

Well, I did much better this challenge than the last one, but not good enough. Basically I made enough to pay off my props.

% Bankroll Increase: 53.8% ($151.20/98.33)
Largest Score: $36.00
Slayer of Donkeys: 5.5% (1/18)

At least I had an entry for the Bad Beat.

Edit - I had 2 entries. This one was truly bad and I was actually in this hand.

-DrC

Awesomeness of FAIL

2010-03-01T21:16:00.003-05:00

I think it is safe to say I am nowhere near contention for the roll gain, or the big money win.

Best finish was my Daily Dollar play at 3% and change.

Meh.

It's over?

2010-03-01T17:20:00.002-05:00

I've played very little poker as real life has been proving to be much more interesting than sitting in front of Full Tilt. Frankly, I have fallen so out of sync with poker, that reading a book called "Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology" is actually more enticing.

Here's hoping the February Blahs end soon. And yes, I am aware that it is now March.

So let's just assume that I've lost all bets because I'm sure that I have. So sure that it's not even worth going to get a screen shot.

Who do I owe what to?

blaargh. (the sound, as well as the name)

2010-03-01T17:01:00.003-05:00

Didn't get a chance to try for a hail mary, only played the mook on wed, otherwise, been working non-stop.... so.... enjoy. I'll try to post the sickening graphs and charts later, but lets just assume I've lost every bet. At least I'm not negative this time, though I feel like I am after a high of 3700.... yeesh.

Having said that, it's been fun playing with you all, see ya at the north american summer challenge!

(oh, and FUCK YOU RUSH POKER!!!!!!!)

pfft.

2010-02-28T23:32:00.002-05:00

Ok, well, I did at least run positive for the challenge.

Couple of 90-man SnG wins finally righted the ship, but I should have done so much better than this. Just tell me what to ship where once all the side bets are settled.

% Bankroll Increase: 17% ($3839.31/3271.27)
Largest Score: $999.00
Slayer of Donkeys %: 1.11% (1/90)

I Retire

2010-02-28T23:14:00.004-05:00

The first few days of this challenge were great. I was cashing fairly deep in tournaments, making money, loving life. Then Rush Poker came. The smallest limit wasn't low enough to play with proper bankroll management, but I played anyways. It seemed like every blogger was winning big money, so I felt compelled to play. I lost. Then lost some more.

I created a spreadsheet for this challenge (which you'll have to click to read):

Date played, type of poker/buy-in, how many hands I played, win/loss, notes, and finally a 1-10 self-rating of my play. Undisciplined play and distractions place all the blame squarely on my shoulders for the loss in bankroll.

I was hoping this challenge would turn me into a stone-cold killer on the virtual felt. Instead, I've realized that I'm not cut out for it. I played a lot of home games over the past two months and I've cashed nearly every time while having a blast with friends. When I've played online over the past two months I have usually been wishing I was outside doing something else. I also didn't play a few tournaments because I wanted to be available should something more fun come along.

Looking forward to seeing others' results roll in over the next few days. I completely forgot about posting this until I saw Jordo's crappy post.

I should have all the side bets tabulated by the end of the week, assuming you all post some screen shots!

HighOnPoker's Final Bankroll

2010-02-28T21:45:00.002-05:00

My final bankroll:

% Bankroll Increase: 901% ($1,550.14/172.03 = 9.0108)
Largest Score: $1,257.79
Slayer of Donkeys %: 0.04% (1/243 = 0.004)

Hypothetically, if I were to be fortunate enough to win one or perhaps even multiple bets, all payments can be sent to HighOnPoker at FullTilt or HighOnPokr (with no E) at PokerStars. Hypothetically.

One Last Run

2010-02-28T14:55:00.000-05:00

I'm about break even now online since the challenge started. I've also been slacking on tournaments so it's time for one last run. I entered Pokerstars' 80 grand sunday special to try to take down HighOnPoker's record. Starts in 5 minutes, let's see if I can run good.

New Buy Out Offer

2010-02-23T14:38:00.002-05:00

Seeing as my domination is near-certain, I will now offer 5% discounts to anyone who wishes to pay me early. This offer is open until February 24 at 5pm. I am too kind.

Blaargh is not dead (that's just the way he looks)

2010-02-23T13:19:00.004-05:00

OK, I'm not dead, but I'm fairly certain my hunt for the gold in this challenge is... After my monster ass whooping at the hands of rush I took some time off. I played the mook last week (8th place, killed off on a flip with Heff, who I think made it to 3rd on my chips :) but other than that, I hadn't touched poker in 2 1/2 weeks. Last night I finally fired up a few 50NL tables, and felt the old fire come back. Just in time for a serious buttload of work hitting my office. I will most likely be buried for the next 2 to 3 weeks, and I doubt I'll be playing much, if any poker at all. This economy is killing my company, and I need to get things moving here again.

I played some PLO at the $10 rush tables last night. My god folks are bad at that limit. Which is fine with me, as I've never played PLO before, but it seems pretty obvious to me what good and bad starting hands are. And most of the time a simple cbet will take down any flop you miss... I can't believe how quickly people chuck their cards if they don't hit the flop. It's a fun game, but I don't know that I'm ready to trade in NL just yet.

So... my BR is down to a pathetic $2300. My plan is to grind back up to around 3k or so and give 100NL a shot, which, barring variance should be no real problem. I just need to stay away from the ~~crack~~ rush tables and 2 outers :) On the challenge front, I'm considering myself pretty much done, unless I get a few minutes to jump into a donkfest or 2 in the next few days before shit really starts piling on.

Good luck to anyone that can still catch HOP!

DrChako is Not Dead

2010-02-23T02:19:00.001-05:00

I'm still here, just grinding away...

The last bad beat

2010-02-23T00:04:00.003-05:00

The before picture: I've flopped the nut flush in a three-way pot. All the chips are in the middle after the flop comes out.

Note the odds.

Note the 5% to the right.

Now, note the "after" picture. Drumroll, please...

Oh come on, you KNEW it was coming. For what it's worth, both hands ended up besting me, as the player on the left ended up with tens full of threes.

So, why do I call it the last bad beat?

Well, after this latest flameout, my bankroll is at a paltry $0.33.

That pretty much precludes me from playing anything except the Daily Dollar for FTP points.

So, in all certainty, I'm now out of the running for any of the prop bets.

More cheddah for ya to chase.

*sigh*

It's probably for the bext anyway. I started getting wildly burned out in January and February and could use a good, long break anyway to recharge a little bit.

Meh.

FINAL WEEK!!!

2010-02-22T19:23:00.001-05:00

Time to play some poker and take down Jordan! Who's with me?!!? FREEDOM!!!

Motorcycling while playing poker and hot tubbing

2010-02-19T20:24:00.000-05:00

Live Blogging "The Daily Dollar"

2010-02-18T20:12:00.003-05:00

Alright you bastards, time to get serious. I'm taking this thing down while watching prime-time TV and hoping Georgetown takes out Syracuse (seeing how many people I can piss off with this post, CK, hard feelings).

6,000 Runners at the tip off, sure to be closer to 10,000 by the time registration closes. A one-dollar gang bang. I don't envy Lady Luck tonight.

Hand 1: Start off the night with 82o in the cut off. Intend on raising, but douche before me raises a limper 6xBB. Fold reluctantly.

Hand 2: A6o in MP, UTG raises 6xBB, fold.

Syracuse is up 49 to 33 in the second half with 16 minutes left. Rautins needs to stop hitting three pointers if Georgetown has any hope 52-33.

Hand 3: 93o, fold to 7xBB raise in front of me.

Hand 4: K7o, open fold +1UTG.

Not even a cool Guinness in a "Mother Knows Best" mug is going to save me from ranting tonight.

Hand 5: K3o UTG, fold.

I will dip below or above my starting stack on the next hand... BB special?!?!

Hand 6: J4hh, suited baby!!! UTG+1 min raises, gets one caller, hijack min-re-raises, SB calls, I call with my HEARTS, UTG+1 Min-re-re-raises and gets four callers... oh baby tonight is going to be fun. Flop is all diamonds and I fold to a continuation pot-sized bet by Mr. Min-Re-raise.

Hand 7: 84o, complete in the SB with 3 others and the BB. Flop checks around K53, turn another 3 and Late position guy bets 300 into an 80 chip pot. Fold.

Hand 8: AJo on the button! limper from EP, Min-raiser min-raises, four callers including me. K74. Some guy bets 1/2 pot and I call loose, as does Mr. Min-reraiser. We check the 7 on the turn. I bet the Ace on the river (420, just shy of the pot) and don't get a caller. Up to 3250

Hand 9: AQo in the cutoff! MP guy bets 70 (3.5BB), I raise to 220 in the Cut-off. Blinds fold and the original raiser calls. KK6 rainbow flop, he checks and I bet another 420, he calls. We check the 5 turn. 4 on the river and he bets the 1310 pot. I make a hero call with my A-hi, because I confuse this guy with Mr. Min-Re-Raise. He shows TT and I'm down to 1300.

Hand 10: 69o, fold.

Hand 11: AQ CRUBS in MP. Open-raise 3.5BB. Called in 2 places. T87 rainbow flop. Pot-sized continuation bet takes it down.

Hand 12: 57o, fold.

Hand 13: AKo, UTG+1, open-raise to 105 or 3.5BB. Called from MP. Min-re-raised by Mr. Min-ReRaise, BB calls, I go all-in for 1300. MP guy folds, Mr. Min-re-raise calls my push, BB calls as well. They both get it all in on the JT3 rainbow flop. They both have AJo and end up splitting my chips.

FML

Sweet

2010-02-17T11:28:00.000-05:00

I'm in a really good mood right now. My bankroll's taken a hit in the last few weeks. I guess I can't win every day but at least I'm still above break even since the challenge started. I'm also slacking on the tournaments only having played three so far. There was one min cash for about $20, but of course, this is all not why I'm in such a great mood.

I made the final table of event 34 in the LA Poker Classic series at Commerce. I'll be coming to the table 3rd in chips today when the action resumes. If anybody wants to follow I'll be posting @holecardsrwild on twitter. We start again 3:30 PT.

Where Was High on Poker Last Night?

2010-02-16T18:19:00.003-05:00

Although first place wouldn't have given me biggest score, a top three finish would have given me the lead in the slayer of donkeys contest.

Stupid PokerStars technical issues.

PokerStars Tournament #242039371, Pot Limit Omaha
Buy-In: $3.00/$0.30 USD
839 players
Total Prize Pool: $2517.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/02/15 14:30:00 PT [2010/02/15 17:30:00 ET]

Dear CKBWoP,

Tournament #242039371 has been cancelled due to technical reasons.

When a tournament is cancelled, and players have already reached the money, we refund each player their tournament fee, and then divide up the prize pool based on the following formula:

- each player receives the minimum prize not yet awarded at the time of cancellation
- the remainder of the award pool distributed proportionally according to the chip count

At the time of cancellation there were 34 players remaining, and your chip count was 63,155.00. Total chips in play were 2,517,000.00. The remaning prize pool was USD 2,026.82 and the minimum prize was USD 10.82.

Prize pool to be divided equally: USD 10.82 * 34 = USD 367.88
Prize pool to be divided based on chip count: USD 2,026.82 - USD 367.88 = USD 1,658.94

Your share in money equally divided: USD 10.82
Your share based on your chip count: USD 1,658.94 * (63,155.00 / 2,517,000.00) = USD 41.62
Your entry fee refunded: USD 0.30
Total money refunded to your account: USD 52.74

We apologize for the inconvenience.

The PokerStars Team

I finally do something worth posting.

2010-02-15T16:10:00.004-05:00

The last few weeks have been so so busy. Work is nutty, three feet of snow have fallen in DC, the kids have been out of school over a week and a half now, I'm sick.. and really haven't done anything worth writing about - until today.

I went from 6K in chips at 1K/2K/125 with two tables left - to winning four straight all-ins with the best of it every time to take the chip lead to the final table. I only lost two more hands after that and finally got heads up, but with only 30-odd blinds in play, we just chopped it 50-50.

I would have played it out, but I realized first wouldn't have beaten Jordan's tourney win last month. I guess I have 13 more days to try one more time and bink it out of there.

Amusingly enough, this finally puts me back in black for the Challenge after two weeks of run bad/play worse. Perhaps the worm is turning.

Matrix Sweep (almost)

2010-02-13T19:08:00.004-05:00

Now, if this had been a $100 Matrix and not a $1 Matrix, it would have gone a long way in some of these bets.

Bankroll nw sits just north of $10. Dropped to $4 from $31. Obviously nowhere close.

And yes, they have Razz Matrix tourneys. Talk about a masochistic streak...

Ugh.

2010-02-12T13:34:00.002-05:00

Been sitting out a bit lately. Carefully worked my way back up to 3400 plying 50NL 6max. Then I did it again... waaaaaay too tired - had been up for 48 hrs on a job, had a beer, dropped 600 bucks in a matter of minutes. The very next night I was feeling ok, but got coolered for another $200. Since then, I've been taking a much needed break, have barely logged on in a week.

For whatever reason, I can't seem to get the rush thing going. The variance is completely killing me, and I have to assume I'm not playing it optimally. I was doing well at 6 max, had a good system going to check my leaks, was learning a ton. Now I just feel like crap after $800 losses multiple times. I'm off Rush for now, gonna try to get back to where I was before I started playing it. Also have a few MTTs I'm gonna try out, see if I can't unseat Mr. Cocky. Not expecting much, as I haven't been playing tourneys lately, but hey, maybe I can get as lucky as Hoy :P

Yeah, I Know . . .

2010-02-09T17:55:00.002-05:00

I've been taking a bit of a break post-LAPC. When does The Challenge II finish?

Need to figure out my game plan for breaking Jordan's crusty old heart.

Know when to say no...

2010-02-04T11:30:00.002-05:00

Get home tired and crabby. Play rush 50NL while eating dinner. Getting nowhere, and feeling really tired. Fire up a 100NL table. Go up and down for a while, double up and think about quitting, as it really feels like I can't get it together. Getting re-raised a ton, missing flops, not catching anything remotely playable, folding way too easily, the usual signs that my heart just isn't in it and I should get some sleep. Fold AA to a fish that I later find out is a TOTAL fish. I lost the bare minimum there. I'm still not sure it was a bad laydown, but I definitely should have bet the flop. Get in a coin flip with another dude with AA again and lose. Drop precipitously down to -200, work some of it back and finally sit out -130. I should know better. I need to bring my A game to 100NL (or any limit for that matter).

Saw Fuel a few times during the session. Grabbed $5 from him when he got in the way of my fish from above and I rr them both out of the BB. Later I sat out (the only way you can watch a hand in progress in Rush) and watched him flop a set of 5's from the button and stack some other poor schmoe who never saw it coming. Good times.

Got home too late for the Mookie again. Dang.

Bad Beat of Donkishness

2010-02-03T21:47:00.004-05:00

All the money went in on the flop. After I had hit my set, but before the runner-runner straight.

I feel dirty.

Even if I was only a 68% favorite after hitting said set, I still feel very, very dirty.

And after getting stacked at Rush, pissed off as well. Have now dropped from $31 to $7.

Ewwwwwww.

Bad Beat Contender

2010-02-03T02:38:00.001-05:00

Well, it's not a true bad beat since the best hand won, but it still sucks.

50% Off Coupon

2010-02-02T13:08:00.003-05:00

It appears that we are halfway through the SBC. Who knows? I'm too busy racking up the big wins and making MHG cry to pay attention to such minor details.

Since I am such a magnanimous guy, I have decided to offer mercy on my fellow SBC players. I am now willing to consider 50% buy-outs of all prop bets. If you think there is no chance you will beat my amazingness, simply let me know and if agreed, I will accept a 50% payout. If I win, you don't pay. If I don't win...well, let's be honest. That isn't going to happen. BUT if I don't win, then the bet is over anyway, so you get nothing from me.

Now, some of you might be asking yourself, "Self, why would I take such an offer?" The answer is simple. You like your money. Take the discount, ladies. It's the smart economical decision.

Until next time, pay me!

All Downhill From Here

2010-02-01T22:54:00.002-05:00

No kudos for Jordan. Not now, not ever! Well, maybe when the challenge ends (and only if his tallies hold up). I regret inviting him into the challenge. I knew he'd screw things up for me.

Okay, okay, rant over.

Halfway point and my top secret scores will stay top secret. You can take that to mean I've lost half my bankroll and have no scores worthy of posting... or you can take it to mean my scores make Jordan's look like chump change. Your call.

Rush poker is bullshit. That, and FT needs a smaller buy-in Rush Poker so I don't lose my entire bankroll in the next week.

Halfway there

2010-02-01T20:11:00.002-05:00

And definitely living on a prayer...and not much else.

Starting bankroll: 13.52.

1) Current Roll: 21.11 (+56%)
2) Largest Score: Meh.
3) Slayer of Donkeys: 353/10131 (3.48%)
7) Most hands played (Ring Games): 2,749 (470 at .05/.10, 2,279 at .01/.02)

I played almost a thousand ring game hands this week, and did all right, but I lost a bit trying to take some deeper shots in a few $5 tourneys and specacularly flaming out.

Oops.

On Yer Horses

2010-02-01T15:46:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the delayed post. I didn't have regular interweb access when I was in LA.

The participants in the horsie prop challenge are BLAARGH!, Doc Chako, Katitude and Meanhappyguy.

Here's how the picks went down:

Because everyone picked me for largest score (awwwwww, that's sweet), it's going to come down to % gained and slayer of donkeys. It looks like Jordan is the man to beat in all categories, which puts Meanhappyguy at a significant disadvantage.

Week 4 update - BLAARGH

2010-02-01T11:38:00.003-05:00

1. Most gained as a % of bankroll from beginning to end of challenge

(graph - 1/25/10 -2/1/10)

starting br		date	current br	% week	$/wk
1,960.82	week 1	1/11/10	$2,506.43	27.83%	$545.61
	week 2	1/18/10	$2,782.20	11.00%	$275.77
	week 3	1/25/10	$3,482.82	25.18%	$700.62
	week 4	2/1/10	$3,036.83	(12.81%)	($445.99)
	week 5	2/8/10
	week 6	2/15/10
	week 7	2/22/10
	week 8	3/1/10

			Totals	51.20%	$1,076.01

BLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH! Dug myself a nice $800 hole early in the week, knuckled down and ground it out to almost even playing 50NL, then flushed it all away Sunday night playing 100NL again. I'm running super terrible at 100NL - I got set over set twice, rivered a bunch of times blah blah blah, whine whine whine. My BR was padded by a nice fat rakeback deposit, so I'm actually doing worse than it looks here. Just gonna keep going, concentrate on 50NL and try to grind back to where I was. On a good note, 1K is the most I've ever made in a month, and if I had been running close to EV it would have been almost 2k (yep, I'm running THAT bad for the month).

2. Largest score

date	tourney	buy in	prize	won
1/6/10	mookie	$11.00	$46.00	$35.00

3. Slayer of Donkeys (smallest fraction: finish place / # of entrants)

date	tourney	entrants	finish	%
1/6/10	mookie	23	3	13.04%
1/30/10	WBCOOP 6	1,939	210	10.83%

4. Funniest post (non-monetary)

nada

5. Betting the horses (picking the victor of bets 1-3, non-monetary)

6. Bad Beat of the Challenge (worst bad beat of the challenge, non-monetary)

where to begin????

7. Most hands played during the challenge (cash game only)

	date	hands/wk
week 1	1/11/10	4,037
week 2	1/18/10	1,725
week 3	1/25/10	8,336
week 4	2/1/10	7,836
week 5	2/8/10
week 6	2/15/10
week 7	2/22/10
week 8	3/1/10

	total	21,934

8. Best overall winrate over 10k hands

running at 6.83bb/100, 10.92bb/100 EV Adjusted (I know, doesn't mean shit, but I like to rub in how bad I'm running every chance I get!)

YOU HAVE CREATED A MONSTER!

2010-01-27T00:13:00.004-05:00

Sorry to rain on your parade, ladies, but I got bored waiting for you all to catch up to my high score and decided to sextuple it. $1257.79 for 1st place in a $27.50 NLHE big ante tournament with 234 players.

My bankroll is now at $1694.67, up 985% from my starting point of $172.03. I am open to buy-outs.

BIGGEST CASH: $1257.79

BIGGEST % INCREASE: 985%

DONKEY SLAYER: .43% (.00427)

HOLLA!

I feel violated...

2010-01-26T20:48:00.008-05:00

The AA hands within about 4 minutes of each other.... I hate this game.

*edit - I am now down $800 in EV. Did I mention I f***ing hate this f***ing game and all the f***ing 2 outers that f***ing hit every f***ing time I have a hand? F********************K.

And f*** you and your big score HOP. (ok, congrats, you bastard)

*also edited for content, in case there are sensitive viewers out there that have never played f***ing rush poker

Week 3 Update - APOSEC72

2010-01-26T08:59:00.002-05:00

Well, three weeks in, I haven't really done much of note. If anything, I've been playing less poker, not more, as of late. Work has kept me insane (such as last night, when I was up until FOUR A.M. working on some work items.

Anyway, I figured I would post some more details, since I haven't don't much in previous updates.

Starting bankroll: $13.52

Ring Games:
.01/.02 NLHE: 1,577 hands played, net loss of $1.74. -4.54BB/100.
.05/.10 NLHE: 408 hands played, net gain of $19.16. 46.96BB/100 (which will be impossible to continue).

Total: 1,985 hands, net gain of $17.42

SnG's:
Played 1 $3.30 90-man KO, got one bounty for $.50.
Played 2 $2.25 Matrix tourneys; washed out in 1, cashed $1.08 in other.
Played 1 $2.25 9-man SnG, placed 3rd for $3.60.
Played 4 $1.20 SnG's, cashed for a total of $3.72.

Total: Buyins 14.85, Cashouts 8.90, Net (-5.95)

MTT's:

$3.30 KO MTT, 421/837, $0.00
$2.50 + $.50 KO MTT, 2/25, $8.88
$1 MTT, 353/10131, $4.05
$3.30 MTT, 76/596, $0.00
$5.50 HORSE MTT, 64/189, $0.00
$1.10 BLT Satellite (1/227), Win, $5.50
$1.10 BLT Satellite (1/183), Win, $5.50

Total: Buyins 18.30, Cashouts 23.93, Net +5.63

Total Bankroll (as of 1/25/10)

Starting Roll: 13.52
Cash Games: 17.42
SNG's: (-5.95)
MTT's: 5.63

ENDING ROLL (for now): 30.62

1) Most gained as a percentage of roll: Well, I've grown it from 13.52 to 30.62, for a percentage gain of 126.48%. If recent posts are any indication, that's probably not good for much right now.

2) Largest Score: I don't have any that really qualify, as I haven't tried too many deep tourneys and have been mucking around in the shallow end of the pool.

3) Slayer of Donkeys -Sadly, this entry is still my best qualifier, and it's not even close: 353/10131 = 3.48%

7) Most Hands Played: I've played only about 2,000 hands in ring games so far. I haven't had any really long sessions yet - I think the longest I have done was one session of about 250 hands. (I'm assuming we are only counting cash games, not SNG's or MTT's, right?)

So, a less than stellar update - but at least I have enough in there to cover bets I've made with y'all if it doesn't go any higher :)

Ferguson - Razz Style

2010-01-26T02:41:00.003-05:00

This one will be interesting because I can't finish. I'm giving a lecture on adnexal masses at 7:30 tomorrow morning and I need my beauty sleep. Let's see if I finish ITM. Top 64 get paid.

-DrC

Final Table - Barely

2010-01-26T02:37:00.003-05:00

Went from massive chip leader to moron when I put my AQ up against AA and KK (AA won). Still, it was nice to make it to a final table in a 90-SNG. Haven't been there in a while.

-DrC

Week 3 Update - Blaargh

2010-01-25T11:02:00.003-05:00

1. Most gained as a % of bankroll from beginning to end of challenge

Week 3 graph above

starting br		date	current br	% week	$/wk
1,960.82	week 1	1/11/10	$2,506.43	27.83%	$545.61
	week 2	1/18/10	$2,782.20	11.00%	$275.77
	week 3	1/25/10	$3,482.82	25.18%	$700.62
	week 4	2/1/10
	week 5	2/8/10
	week 6	2/15/10
	week 7	2/22/10
	week 8	3/1/10

			Totals	64.01%	$1,522.00

Having some trouble adjusting to rush, but I *think* I have some stuff figured out. You can see from the graph that I've had an extremely swingy time at the rush tables. A lot of it was coolers, but a ton of it was me being a pay off wizard. I stopped pushing so hard and had an $800 upswing on sunday. I'm way down in EV, so I'm looking to suck out on folks a lot in the coming week (kidding of course) Last week I claimed I wasn't going to try 100NL, but I broke that promise and have 7k hands at 13bb/100. Not too shabby, but I actually think I can do better, at least until the general population learns how to beat rush.

Since 100NL was the highest you could play (200NL has rolled out recently) I ended up at tables with tons of red pros. It's hilarious to watch people fall over themselves to raise, re-raise and shove on the poor fuckers. It has got to be impossibly hard to play a decent game with that red target on your back. I took a decent pot off of one of em (I can't remember who, and can't find the hand in my DB) with a set of 9's, but otherwise stayed out of the way, as most of them played pretty snug.

Playing this many hands reminds me... where do we stand with rakeback on the challenge? I always assumed it was included in the grand total, but I want to make sure, since it's actually going to be a contributor if I keep playing this many hands. I guess I shouldn't worry, as I have no hope of winning the grand total bet with a starting roll this big....

2. Largest score

date	tourney	buy in	prize	won
1/6/10	mookie	$11.00	$46.00	$35.00

3. Slayer of Donkeys (smallest fraction: finish place / # of entrants)

date	tourney	entrants	finish	%
1/6/10	mookie	23	3	13.04%

4. Funniest post (non-monetary)

I got a boo boo

Sorry, best I can do atm.

5. Betting the horses (picking the victor of bets 1-3, non-monetary)

Will CK post the bets on this one?

6. Bad Beat of the Challenge (worst bad beat of the challenge, non-monetary)

This one is still pissing me off....

7. Most hands played during the challenge (cash game only)

	date	hands/wk
week 1	1/11/10	4,037
week 2	1/18/10	1,725
week 3	1/25/10	8,336
week 4	2/1/10
week 5	2/8/10
week 6	2/15/10
week 7	2/22/10
week 8	3/1/10

	total	14,098

Well, MHG is in love, so I'm assuming he's too busy playing kissy-face to bother getting the hands in...

8. Best overall winrate over 10k hands

For 14k hands I'm running a paltry 12bb/100. At the end of this I'll pick my best 10k run. Thanks to rush, I'll have a pretty good sample, I think....

Things I love....

2010-01-23T23:29:00.003-05:00

I love a good beer after a bad day.

I love a long hot bubble bath.

I love watching old movies, especially screwball comedies.

I love a good pedicure.

I love riding on long sweeping curves covered with smooth asphalt.

And I love the new Rush game on Full Tilt....bankroll has gone from $29 to $211 in one day.

Back to the Tables

2010-01-21T19:46:00.000-05:00

I went on a camping trip this weekend and haven't played much poker lately. I've only played 1 session after my last post for a gain of $65 bringing the bankroll to $425.50. That's a gain so far of $84.50 (25%). I also made a donation to the PokerStars Haiti Relief fund of $20 leaving me with an end balance of $405.50. Hopefully I can get some poker in this weekend and work on the challenge. I also made a new post on my blog.

Point of Clarification

2010-01-21T11:14:00.002-05:00

So, as part of this bankroll challenge, I had originally posted only my PokerStars account, since at the time, my Full Tilt account was near $0 and I did not intend on playing there. This is one helluva long challenge (as it should be) and in the interim, by the miracles of self-whoring, I was able to obtain $50 on Full Tilt in exchange for a back alley blowjob. Um, I mean advertisement. It seemed to me that most people only posted one screenshot for their bankroll. My question are these:

1. Can I now post my FT bankroll and add that to the challenge, with the understanding (and if necessary, I will find a way to prove it) that I have not played there since the beginning of the challenge?

2. I will probably give another blow - er, advertisement - next month, so my bankroll on Tilt will be artificially inflated. Therefore, can I just disclose all deposits as they come so as not to artificially inflate my bankroll/progress?

3. Are most people playing on just one site or on multiple sites? I don't recall seeing many (or any?) kick-off posts with multiple screenshots of various bankrolls.

4. Will CK ever get anywhere near my HUGE $200 score? Of course, this is rhetorical. The answer is no.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Love,

Your High Payout Leader

Jordan "High on Poker" Hiyonpoquer

Really Need To Work on My Closing Skills

2010-01-21T04:24:00.003-05:00

It's really pissing me off that Jordan has a higher score than I.

I have a contender for worst beat

2010-01-21T00:55:00.004-05:00

Break out that tiny violin....

All in on the flop for a $573 pot. Only 2 aces left can help him now.....

AAAAHAGHHJKGSDFJKL;GSJKL FGDSJKL ;GSDFJKGDFK;JLSSDFGL;K FDS; DJRL;K

I've never lost that much the entire time I've been playing, let alone at one go... This sums up my whole session tonight. I didn't have AA or KK hold up once, this was the only set I hit.... blah. I managed to lose 2 BI early on, work it slowly back up, stack a dude who couldn't let go of TPGK then lose most of it back here. I think I'm done for the night.

OK, Mookie cash...

2010-01-21T00:39:00.003-05:00

Yeah, so I managed to chip up nicely in the Mookie and final table, then make the top three to cash. I think CK gave me the anti-sweat, since this was the first time I noticed her at the table.

Nice spew, donk... :-)

Full Tilt Poker Game #17773507167: The Mookie (132518458), Table 2 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:33:21 ET - 2010/01/21
Seat 5: heffmike (13,690)
Seat 6: Mattazuma (20,515)
Seat 9: Julkeus (22,795)
heffmike antes 100
Mattazuma antes 100
Julkeus antes 100
Julkeus posts the small blind of 400
heffmike posts the big blind of 800
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to heffmike [Kh Jh]
Mattazuma folds
Julkeus calls 400
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike raises to 2,225
Julkeus has 15 seconds left to act
Julkeus raises to 6,975
ck31 (Observer): GL GL GL!
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike raises to 13,590, and is all in
Julkeus calls 6,615
heffmike shows [Kh Jh]
Julkeus shows [Ah As]
*** FLOP *** [Ad 6s 9s]
*** TURN *** [Ad 6s 9s] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [Ad 6s 9s 2d] [Ts]
heffmike shows Ace King high
Julkeus shows three of a kind, Aces
Julkeus wins the pot (27,480) with three of a kind, Aces
heffmike: boooooooo
heffmike stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 27,480 | Rake 0
Board: [Ad 6s 9s 2d Ts]
Seat 5: heffmike (big blind) showed [Kh Jh] and lost with Ace King high
Seat 6: Mattazuma (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: Julkeus (small blind) showed [Ah As] and won (27,480) with three of a kind, Aces

Awww yeah

2010-01-20T22:38:00.002-05:00

Oh, baby, it's been so long...DQB!!!

Played the RUSH tables for the first time tonight. Sat down with $4.

In 11 minutes, I played FIFTY-THREE hands and left with almost $11.

It's perfect for a crackhead with ADHD.

Rush Poker, the Blaargh review

2010-01-20T03:36:00.003-05:00

I agree with Doc.. it's crack.... I had 8 red pros in my pool... me likey

neeeed sleeeeeeeeep.

Final Table!

2010-01-20T02:15:00.003-05:00

This was a turbo O-8 tournament, which made for an uber push-fest late. Too bad this tournament didn't get the requisite 500 runners for Heffmike's $50 overlay.

Bad Beat!

2010-01-19T21:07:00.001-05:00

I know this doesn't qualify for the Worst Beat competition because I watched from the sidelines, but this is sick.

Re: Rush Poker on Full Tilt

2010-01-19T20:36:00.002-05:00

Here is my full review.

This is crack. You've been warned.

(That said, after flopping top set and running into the nuts twice in 2 minutes, I'm all done with crack.*)

*said the junkie

Someone punched me in the nose...

2010-01-19T12:53:00.004-05:00

Cut the side/tip of my finger off with an xacto knife, bled all over the place, wrapped it up with paper towel, still bled, made a rubber band tourniquet, still bled, sent a friend around the corner for some bandages, started feeling a bit lightheaded, wake up and the EMTs are there, the girls down the hall called 911 when they found me with my legs hanging out of the hallway bathroom. When the EMTs asked what was wrong, I held up my finger and said "I got a boo boo". The EMTs didn't laugh. Went to the ER later and bled all over the triage nurse. She sent me to a doc and I bled all over her. She packed it full of cellulose and wrapped it up and I didn't pass out again. I think I was sent to Super Weenie General. The guy next to me was in because a cat scratched his ankle.

I have ruined yet another date with my wife. My daughter was at a sleepover and my wife was on her way to meet me at the movie theater to see Avatar when I did this. I'm cursed.

The best part? I had printed out Small Stakes Holdem and was cutting a cover for it. My wife loved that.

Slayer of $2 Donkeys

2010-01-19T02:15:00.003-05:00

34 / 3,192 = 1.07%

I probably should have been out of the tournament early when I lost half of my stack trying to blow a guy off Q-Q on a K-8-9-K-6 board.

Heff's update - I won something.

2010-01-18T23:04:00.003-05:00

Hey, I play blogger mixed games pretty well...

Not that a taking down a 22-person tourney is anything remarkable... but I've been struggling overall with this challenge (I knew it was going to be a doomswitch for me, sigh) so I'll take what I can get...

More over here...

Week 2 Update - MHG

2010-01-18T22:03:00.000-05:00

Week 2 Update - Blaargh

2010-01-18T12:29:00.003-05:00

1. Most gained as a % of bankroll from beginning to end of challenge

(week 2 graph above)

starting br		date	current br	% week	$/wk
1,960.82	week 1	1/11/10	$2,506.43	27.83%	$545.61
	week 2	1/18/10	$2,782.20	11.00%	$275.77
	week 3	1/25/10
	week 4	2/1/10
	week 5	2/8/10
	week 6	2/15/10
	week 7	2/22/10
	week 8	3/1/10

			Totals	38.83%	$821.38

Still doing well, but from the looks of my graph I'm getting "lucky" in spots. My biggest luck moment (around hand 1000) was getting in pf 3 way with AK against a shorty and a guy that had been stealing a ton. Shorty had 9Kss and stealer had JJ. I hit 2 aces on the flop and held. I got it in twice with nut flush draw + TP vs maniacs with 2 pair and hit my flushes. Against both of those guys TP was enough to get it in, so I'm not worried about the situations where they actually hit weird 2 pairs. Those were my big "luck" moments, so I'm not worried about the luck line this week. For the most part I feel fine with my play this week, though I did tilt off a buyin to a spazz when I just couldn't believe that he hit again. He did. For the most part I'm tightening up and working on my (many) flaws. As of right now I don't feel ready for 100NL so I'm gonna keep myself in 50NL until I've addressed some of these issues.

2. Largest score

date	tourney	buy in	prize	won
1/6/10	mookie	$11.00	$46.00	$35.00

Only played the Mookie this week, tilted my stack to that douche joelpokergod in a button vs sb confrontation. There are some folks that just rub me the wrong way, and that fucker is one of em. Chat option is now off on his stupid ass.

3. Slayer of Donkeys (smallest fraction: finish place / # of entrants)

date	tourney	entrants	finish	%
1/6/10	mookie	23	3	13.04%

Again, didn't play any MTTs this week.

4. Funniest post (non-monetary)

Nope.

5. Betting the horses (picking the victor of bets 1-3, non-monetary)

Sent to CK. Interested to see who picked whom....

6. Bad Beat of the Challenge (worst bad beat of the challenge, non-monetary)

Nah, nothin out of the ordinary....

7. Most hands played during the challenge (cash game only)

	date	hands/wk
week 1	1/11/10	4,037
week 2	1/18/10	1,725
week 3	1/25/10
week 4	2/1/10
week 5	2/8/10
week 6	2/15/10
week 7	2/22/10
week 8	3/1/10

	total	5,762

Didn't play very much this week/weekend, but tried to make the best of it when I did.

8. Best overall winrate over 10k hands

So far, a very respectable 18.51bb/100 over 5,762 hands, though my EV adjusted is 10.8bb/100. Nothing to complain about either of those numbers...

Brief Update at the Quarter Pole

2010-01-18T10:13:00.003-05:00

I started with a tiny bankroll, and I still have a tiny bankroll.

I've played about 1000 hands in cash of .01/.02 NLHE, and am down about 3.5BB/100 over that time. Meh.

I've played three or four tiny MTT's, with one cash in the Daily Dollar, so that has been about breakeven. Meh.

I've played several Matrix tourneys and broken even there. I played one of the $3 90-max KO's and did nothing, and that is my entire difference from my massive starting roll of $13 and change - I'm now at about $10.50.

Mostly, when I have played, I haven't really been focused, so trying to sit down for any decent duration of time has been futile - hence, not a lot of ring game hands or any big attempts at big donkfests like the Daily Dollar.

Overall: Meh.

I have nothing interesting

2010-01-13T23:55:00.001-05:00

crossposted from here....

Bleh. Up for the month, but down about -140 in the Challenge.

Basically, when you run 4/16 in SnGs, you dig a small hole. I hope to fill it soon....

Pictionary

2010-01-13T23:38:00.004-05:00

$200 Score (Largest So Far?)

Bankroll up 225%.

Close but no cigar

2010-01-13T20:08:00.010-05:00

Picture log:

Top of the charts entering the bubble.

Second in chips with 57 left.

Bad beat taken all in preflop (5c2c was a real shorty).

Bad beat given three hands later, aipf!

If I go out, I go out in style (aipf, M<2 in the BB)

Close to winning some of the freeroll bets... but no cigar.

20/1318 = 1.52%

I Am Not the Mariano Rivera of The Challenge II

2010-01-13T04:27:00.004-05:00

This seems to be a recurring trend.

I really need to stop with the min-cashing.

First Status Update - DLMiN

2010-01-12T01:17:00.001-05:00

Things are going well since the challenge started. I think it's providing some extra motivation to stay disciplined. I don't know whether or not to list live progress, it seems nobody else is, so I'll just post my online results. I started off the year with $141 in my PokerStars account. After burning through that I reloaded $200 on the 6th.

Since then I've run it up to $360.50, for a total gain of $19.50 (6%). If anybody's tracking their results from live games I can update with that too.

Couldn't Quite Get There

2010-01-12T00:24:00.005-05:00

I played in the Daily Doubles again tonight. I didn't fare so well in the DD B, but I managed to squeak out a $21.33 cash in the DD A.

I know where my NLHE tournament leaks are, and this tourney definitely brought them into focus.

Now the real question is whether I'll make improvements or whether I'll keep repeating the same mistakes again . . .

Calling All Jockeys

2010-01-11T15:41:00.002-05:00

That means you, Kat, Dr. Chako and Blaargh!

We have some very valuable pieces of crafted art to the winner of this challenge, so get your game faces on.

We each get to pick a horse to ride for the first three bets: %bankroll increase, largest score, Slayer of Donkeys. As chairman of this here pony race, I think we should be able to choose any horse for any of the bets. So I can pick Dr. Chako for the first race, Kat for the second and myself for the supreme slayer of donkeys! We'll take the average of the three placements and have a winner.

To avoid tie-breakers and create confusion, we'll say that each horse can not be picked more than once for any of the bets, so the first jockeys to choose their horses have the advantage (not to mention the awkwardness of having two jockeys on one horse, or a jockey and a horse atop another jockey).

In the event of a tie, we will have a shared national championship, and the art will reflect the winners, and be created in duplicate to give to the winners.

Hopefully we can get our horses locked down by the end of the week. I'll wait until later in the week to make my picks, as to not have an advantage.

Week 1 Update - Blaargh

2010-01-11T13:33:00.004-05:00

So.... I'm planning a weekly recap with charts, notes and graphs starting with today as week 1. Since this was an 11 day week, the numbers will be out of whack with the other 8, but so what.

1. Most gained as a % of bankroll from beginning to end of challenge

starting br		date	current br	% week	$/wk
1,960.82	week 1	1/11/10	$2,506.43	27.83%	$545.61
	week 2	1/18/10
	week 3	1/25/10
	week 4	2/1/10
	week 5	2/8/10
	week 6	2/15/10
	week 7	2/22/10
	week 8	3/1/10

			% Total	27.83%	$545.61

Wow, for the first time ever, I'm in positive territory in an SBC. I have absolutely NO hope of winning any of these bets... my goal is to grind out as much profit as I can, and become a lean, mean cash playing machine. So far, so good, though I'm now above expectation... I seem to remember cracking AA with QQ, and I think most of my suckout hands were standard beats like that. I'm working on a bunch of leaks right now stemming from too much aggression. You can see from my red line that I'm probably playing hands way too hard, moving folks off hands that should stay around, and getting trashed by the ones I'm behind. I'm reading a ton, and watching a ton of stox vids, and going over my stats with a fine tooth comb. When I have enough 50NL hands, I'm thinking of getting a little coaching so I don't develop any weird habits as I move up... we'll see.

2. Largest score

date	tourney	buy in	prize	won
1/6/10	mookie	$11.00	$46.00	$35.00

Heh, not playing too many MTTs atm....

3. Slayer of Donkeys (smallest fraction: finish place / # of entrants)

date	tourney	entrants	finish	%
1/6/10	mookie	23	3	13.04%

4. Funniest post (non-monetary)

Ummmm.... I got nuthin.

5. Betting the horses (picking the victor of bets 1-3, non-monetary)

Hey - we all need to grab some donkies! I'll post my picks later this week when I have time...

6. Bad Beat of the Challenge (worst bad beat of the challenge, non-monetary)

I don't even know how to judge this one. They all seem bad at the time.

7. Most hands played during the challenge (cash game only)

	date	hands/wk
week 1	1/11/10	4,037
week 2	1/18/10
week 3	1/25/10
week 4	2/1/10
week 5	2/8/10
week 6	2/15/10
week 7	2/22/10
week 8	3/1/10

	total	4,037

No idea how I'm stacking up to MHG here... I'm going to guess I'm ahead, though I barely played at all this weekend...

8. Best overall winrate over 10k hands

Won't even be able to judge this one for a couple more weeks.

You Find a Treasure Map

2010-01-10T21:38:00.004-05:00

You search the room. You find a treasure map! (Treasure Map added to inventory)

Do you take an action? (*first comment, Kat)

You don your reading glasses and unroll the map. You squint and make out the LARGE FONT at the top of the page: "Island of MTT" There is an outline of an island with a large mountain on it. A large golden temple lies near the summit of the mountain. There is a long, winding road to the temple. The road begins at the fisherman's village near where you found the treasure map and winds through the forbidden forest and up the rugged mountains to the temple.

You roll back up the scroll and ponder your next move... (comment two, Dr. Chako)

You check your inventory. You find a canteen. You find a Treasure Map. You find your trusty musket. You find a coin purse with nine gold coins. You find doggy treats in your left pocket. You find your dog at your side.

You make your way back to the fishing village, when you cross paths with another traveler who also has their dog off leash. The two dogs get into a tussle.

"Swiper no swiping!!!" You yell over the commotion of the dog fight. Upon hearing your command, Swiper retreats from the dog fight that he was clearly winning to heel by your side. The other dog looks more than confused. (comment 3: Blaargh!)

"You know better than that, Swiper... but good dog for obeying me." You say as you place a doggy treat on top of Swiper's head. "Alright now, pup. You walk to that sign over yonder and back without dropping it, and you can have it." Swiper carefully walks to the sign 20ft away, turns around and walks back, then flips the treat into the air and catches it in his mouth.

'A trusty friend is always good to have on a journey' you think to yourself. Now, about this map... (comment 4)

Freebies are Goodbies

2010-01-10T03:53:00.001-05:00

1.98%

I'm in the game!

Heff's in..

2010-01-08T10:22:00.003-05:00

Ok, let's give this a shot. I feel like a balla here, because I rarely cash out anything...

Let's see if I can keep crushing SnGs, along with an occasional MTT run.

Since CK added an extra side bet, I'll do one as well:

$50 for anyone that makes a Final Table in a MTT over 500 people. One payout per person.

Good luck.

Aposec Heckling

2010-01-07T21:23:00.001-05:00

Open your chatbox, noob!

Trying to go deeper than Colt McCoy

2010-01-07T21:01:00.011-05:00

I'm playing the Daily Double while watching the Texas/Alabama game. 10,131 entrants, and already down to 6,671. Had one early double-up and played almost no other hands.

Please, please, please let McCoy return, even though Texas has an early 6-0 lead.

UPDATE: Break #2, now 300th, 18K in chips, 3600 left. Not paying much attention to chat because I'm busy tearing my hair out about the revolving door of Texas quarterbacks.

UPDATE: Break at 11, doubled up with Aces to 34K. At money bubble. Woo hoo for $1.82! Aiming for the $1500 for first, though. Around 200th right now of 1500.

UPDATE: Down to 750, I have 52K and am around 175th. Most of my big pairs have been holding up - I escaped one when my QQ got cracked by Presto, but the board made a flush and neither of us had a spade for a lucky chop.

UPDATE: Break at midnight, 247/664, 48K, average 45K.

Statistics for 198 Hands
Street Saw Saw/Total
Flop 31 16%
Turn 20 10%
River 16 8%
Showdown 11 6%
Street Won Won/Saw Won/Total
Pre-flop 5 3% 3%
Flop 3 10% 2%
Turn 1 5% 1%
River 3 19% 2%
Showdown 9 82% 5%

UPDATE: 12:08, the Texas game is over, and I am still in the Daily Double. So, even though he didn't come back into the game, I did go deeper than Colt McCoy tonight. 220/575, 53K.

UPDATE: 12:23, down to 38K when 4-4 went down to 7-7 and K-Q of two short stacks.

UPDATE: Sliding in chips to 31K, now down to 360. Payouts are now at a whopping $4.05.

UPDATE: 12:35, A-10 <>

UPDATE: Out when A-6 falls to J-10, with a 10 on the flop.

So, 353 out of 10,131, so 352 people beat me. 352/10131 = 3.47%. And a profit of three bucks and a nickel. And a really bad loss by Texas.

I think it is time for bed.

BLAARGH!

2010-01-07T00:49:00.005-05:00

OK, BDR (website is down, dammit) is the friggning awesomest mookie live internet radio show out there! (ok, it's the only one, so what?) The BDR folks spent most of the show trying to pronounce my name with their best pirate voices. BLAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGHHH. I woke my wife and daughter up 3 times laughing.

I was hoping to take some of those delicious bwop mobnies tonight, but she put a limit of 27 on mookie contestants. So where the f'ing hell were the rest of you biotches???

It maxed out at 23 donkies. I broke my poker/drinking rule to play the mook, but still ended up a reasonable 3rd. I pretty much dominated the mook from about 5 minutes in, double the 2nd place guy until the FT, but managed to lose a couple of crappy all ins (including this one to knock me out:) *note - this isn't sour grapes... he would have been an idiot to NOT call me with my mini stack there

This is about the 500th time I've FT the Mookie. I have about 7 more tries before this challenge is over. You've all been warned....

It's Official!

2010-01-06T21:37:00.000-05:00

First Blood

2010-01-06T00:16:00.017-05:00

Tonight's tournament line-up:

Full Tilt Daily Double A
Full Tilt Daily Double B
PokerStars $4.40 PLO-8

Things started off well when I doubled up on the fourth hand of the Daily Double A.

Then things went a bit backward when this guy shoved over my LP raise.

I couldn't get much going after that and ended up going busto in this blind versus blind confrontation.

So much for hitting both of the Daily Doubles.

I had a similar fast start in the Daily Double B.

Apparently presto is not gold when up against a straight draw / flush draw combo. There weren't really a lot of memorable hands after that. Just grinding, grinding, grinding away. I exited the tournament on a relatively standard flip after shoving over a MP raiser.

It wasn't all for naught, however, as I managed to make a small cash in the Daily Double B.

That's my first tournament score for The Challenge II. Sure, it's not astounding, but I'm on the board. $16.34 prize / 13.68% finish.

I managed to put together an even deeper run (3.48% finish) in the PLO $4.40 PLO-8 tournament, but for a slightly smaller prize $14.80.

My first big hand was when I nailed the flush portion of a flopped nut flush draw / OESD in a multi-way pot to take down the high half.

I had a bit of a set-back when this guy limp shoved with this gem of a hand.

The funniest part about omaha-8 is watching people betting into other players when all they really have is a low. Those antics got someone quartered in the following hand.

I got to "announce" StB's favorite words after this hand.

NUT NUT!

Things started to go a bit downhill after that hand, as I was missing flops or missing flopped draws while my stack was whittled away. A timely double, however, kept me in the game.

Although I flopped the nut flush draw and the low draw in the following hand, I ended up getting only half.

The following hand was pretty interesting because I open-shoved and got called in 4 spots. The villain in the SB potted the flop, pushing out the other two players. I will never know if one of the other two players held a 4, but if they did, thanks Itsinmyblood!

I was still relatively short at that point and finally took a stand with this hand.

I'm beginning to think the cheapie PLO-8 tournaments on PokerStars are going to be sweet spots for me as The Challenge II continues.

Back on track

2010-01-05T09:39:00.003-05:00

So.... I ended my weekend on a good note, gaining back most of my losses from sat/early sunday.

But the way I did it was pretty stupid from a bankroll management perspective. On Sunday evening, I jumped back into 25NL, trying to keep up the momentum from earlier in the day. Nothing was going right, though early on I was playing well. Until I had to fold AA. Then another big hand had to go. Then I spewed a buy in with AQ into 2 players that OBVIOUSLY had me beat (yes, I was 0% on the flop... leave me alone, I don't want to talk about it).

I took a walk at that point to collect myself. I was tilting, but not in my old "throw crap around the house and punch the pets" kind of way. Just mad at myself for playing so badly. I sat back down a little while later determined to play my best A game possible. And to make sure of that, I threw in a sink or swim scenario... I jumped into the 100NL tables.

This makes me tighten up and play my best, but good bankroll management it is NOT. I just wanted to play a few hands, break even or make a couple bucks, then jump out. Yeah, it's my "Johnny fucking Chan" moment, just to see if I can do it. The downside if I run bad is that I feel even worse for losing another 100 bucks.

Lucky for me, variance was on my side for once. I ran like a god, hitting str8s, trips and 2 pair hands at will against the fish at the table, and terrorizing the regs for their lunch money. I logged out after about an hour up close to $200, and almost breaking even from the beginning of the month.

I spent a bunch of time yesterday looking at my *many* leaks and made a game plan for 50NL. It's working so far. I played a solid, tight game, got folds where I needed them, and calls where I needed them. I got lucky on the river twice (one time as a 60/40, and one as a 70/30 dog). Both times I was done with the hand for a small loss unless it improved, both times I was able to stack the other guy because I did improve. My big hands held. I felt like I was reading the other players well, and where I couldn't figure out what was going on, I dumped my hand early. My worst loss was -13.65 to a shorty. (top 2 vs rivered flush, if you must know).

So at this point... back on track for the challenge. My goal right now is to get to 3k and start nibbling at 100NL (properly rolled at 30BI). I'm not setting any time limits, and if I feel like I'm not playing my A game I won't jump into it until I do. It's always much easier to look at goals like this when I'm running well. I may end up just setting a hand limit at 50NL since it seems to be giving me so much trouble, and spend time trying to identify leaks before I move up. I'll have to play it all by ear...

BWOP has generously added some pot sweeteners to this challenge. I hadn't planned on playing too many MTTs except the Mookie (see my greatest performance here), so now there's incentive to add Mookie title #2 to my list of things to do. Thanks CK!

First Attempt = FAIL

2010-01-05T01:43:00.006-05:00

I decided to fire up a $5.50 PLO tournament on Full Tilt to kick off my participation in The Challenge II. (Is that the "official" name now?)

234 entrants, 27 paid, $304.20 to first.

I started off well, maintaining an above-average stack until I was run down by a guy who was chasing a flush draw against my nut straight / re-draw to higher straight. I tried to grind my way back and was the beneficiary of this courtesy double up.

Action on the flop was bet by villain, pot by me, re-pot by villain putting me all in. Omadonks really crack me up sometimes.

Things went nowhere from there and I was forced to Bayne it up with this hand.

Thanks to the triple up, I was out of the Dank position but still in critical mode.

The final blow was this hand:

I limped on the button against two big stacks because I wanted to see a flop before committing the rest of my stack. Arguments can be made for potting pre, but given the relative stack sizes, it wasn't going to make much of a difference. Action on the flop was checked by the two players in the blind. I potted. Villain min-raised, driving out the BB. I was a slight underdog at 55/45, which in the world of omaha isn't that horrible. No diamond for me, and I exited the tournament in 40th place while cursing Dawn Summers.

Final results:

In case you haven't been following along in comments, I added a sweetener to The Challenge II. I will pay $5 to any participant who wins a Mookie (minimum 27 entrants) or has an online tournament cash of greater than $250. I will pay $15 to any participant who has an online tournament cash of greater than $500. Maximum payout of $25 per participant. (By participant, I mean any person who is involved in at least 2 of the first 3 monetary bets that are part of The Challenge II. You do not have to agree to make a similar bet.)

Good luck everyone!

Wheeeee!

2010-01-03T14:27:00.005-05:00

Can you say running bad? The red line above is my EV. Around hand 1400 I dropped down to 25NL and only 2-3 tables, and only playing rested and for short time periods. The times I normally play are pretty bad for my concentration, and looking over a lot of these hands, I could have avoided a bunch of the smaller losses while waiting for my all ins to hold.

Pretty sure I'm kicking MHG's ass in # of hands though.... bwahahahahaaaaa

** just noticed, I'm already close to losing more that all your bankrolls combined. jeebus.

Awesome start to the challenge!

2010-01-02T15:20:00.003-05:00

NOT!

KK into AA, KK into 45 (yes, he cold called a frigging 3bet oop, shoved the flop with 4xx and turned a 4), and AA into flopped 7's. I had the KK hands at the same time on 2 different tables. I actually rolled my eyes when I had AA...

Lots of work to do here already....

So not ready...

2010-01-01T22:23:00.002-05:00

But it won't be stopping me anyway.

Looking forward to some fun.

I'm ready....

2010-01-01T08:34:00.000-05:00

Ready for what, I don't know. But here goes anyway...

Bring It!

2010-01-01T00:22:00.002-05:00

Let the bankroll suck begin!!!!

2009-12-31T19:34:00.004-05:00

Round 2... Fight!

2009-12-31T18:55:00.003-05:00

Sitting pretty at just over $100 going into the challenge. I feel rested and ready to take down any and all. Bring it on, Kimbo Slice.

On a side note, are you the admin for this group blog, Blaargh? Can you get CK access to post?

Also, remember that revealing information prior to the end of the challenge is totally voluntary... and highly recommended.

The Challenge II, Role Call and Bets

2009-12-29T16:06:00.017-05:00

Combatants:
MHG
Dr. Chako
Blaargh!
BWoP
Kat
Aposec72
High on Poker
Shawn
Heffmike

(drop a comment if you are interested and I'll update this list)

The holidays and two week break have done a number on my poker challenge organizational skills, and I apologize for dropping the ball on this here challenge. That said, we can rush to start on Jan. 1, 2010 still, or we can push the start date back a week to drum up anticipation and business. Cast your vote in the comments--I originally was leaning towards waiting, but a shotgun wedding-style start to the second bankroll challenge sounds kind of sexy.

My rough plans for the challenge are to end on March 1, 2010. Two months seems like enough time to get plenty of poker in, but not too long that people get bored with the challenge.

Bets:

1) Most gained as a % of bankroll from beginning to end of challenge
MHG: $2
Blaargh!: $10
Dr. Chako: $10
Kat: $5
Aposec72: $5
High on Poker: $10
Shawn: $5
Heffmike: $10

2) Largest score
MHG: $2
Blaargh!: $5
BWoP: $5
Dr. Chako: $5
Kat: $5
Aposec72: $2
High on Poker: $5
Shawn: $5
Heffmike: $10

3) Slayer of Donkeys (smallest fraction: finish place / # of entrants)
MHG: $3
Blaargh!: $5
BWoP: $5
Dr. Chako: $5
Kat: $5
Aposec72: $5
High on Poker: $10
Heffmike: $10

4) Funniest post (non-monetary)
MHG: A poem ode to the victor
Blaargh!: dirty limerick
Dr. Chako: poetry
Kat: haiku/poem

5) Betting the horses (picking the victor of bets 1-3, non-monetary)
MHG: A painting of the victor
Blaargh!: painting
Dr. Chako: Some form of original art. I may write and record a song.
Kat: crafty/pokery goodness

6) Bad Beat of the Challenge (worst bad beat of the challenge, non-monetary)
MHG: A box of Kleenex
Blaargh!: The world's smallest violin
Dr. Chako: The world's 2nd smallest violin. Apparently the smallest was already taken.

7) Most hands played during the challenge
Blaargh!: $5
MHG: $2
Aposec72: $3

8) Best overall winrate over 10k hands
Blaargh!: $5
MHG: $2

(leave other betting ideas in the comments and I'll add them)

Betting is going to be a little different this year for two reasons. First, I'd like to give more people the opportunity to bet at levels they are comfortable with (mostly myself). Second, I'd like to give some importance to places other than first. I propose that as you leave a comment stating which bets you want in for, you also write down a dollar amount next to each bet that you are comfortable with to make the bet interesting for you. I've done so for myself on the first three bets, and then for the non-monetary bets I wrote down what I'm offering to the victor if I lose.

Here's an example of how I intend the betting to work:

3) Slayer of Donkeys
MHG: $3
Aposec72: $10
Blaargh!: $17.50
Dr. Chako: $20
Kat: $5
BWOPCK: $20

If we were to finish in order from top to bottom, I would get $3 from everyone. Aposec would get $7 from everyone except Kat, and he would take her last $2 (what a douche), Blaargh! would get $7.50 from Dr. Chako and BWOPCK, and Dr. Chako would take CK's last $2.50 and go buy an anti-energy drink. A simpler outcome would be if CK or Dr. Chako takes first, they just take everyone's money--pretty much like an all-in with six different people, if the person who had the biggest stack going in wins, she knocks everyone else out.

It sounds complicated, but I'll do the math and show who owes who what, after all the bets are settled once the challenge has completed.

Game on!

Summer Bankroll Challenge 2: Southern Hemisphere Time

2009-12-07T23:12:00.002-05:00

New decade, new bankroll challenge. Beginning January 1, 2010. Stay tuned.