Sunday, August 27, 2017

Weekly Bankroll Update 8/20-8/26

Well, this week was a relatively slow one as far as earnings. I was on a staycation from work, and chose to focus on my play money balance to keep my game sharp. Having all this extra time I felt could be dangerous for the roll where it is right now, so I played six $.11 tourneys this week and cashed in one. The play money roll was up quite a bit and it was nice to be able to play without a sweat. Here's where I'm at:

Play Money: 726k Up 214k for the week.

Real Money: $134.15 Up $1.14 for the week.

Target for next MTT level: $165 ($3.30)

Target for next cash game level: $200 ($10)

Target for next SnG level: $220 ($11)

This week should be a bit more eventful, but I'm still going to be rather conservative until I get to $200. The closer I get, the more active I'll be to try and take shots to get there, but for now, slow and steady wins the race.

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Back in the Saddle

  Hello again readers. It has been quite some time since I've written to you and for that, I apologize. This has been a crazy year so far. My daughter turned three years old last month, both of my parents turned 70, my stepmom turns 60 this week, my girlfriend's parents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary next month, I have a family reunion in New Jersey next month, and my girlfriend herself turns 40 in November. Not to mention I'm beginning the pursuit of my Master's degree in the fall. Yup. That's 2017 in a nutshell. "Milestone Year."

  Despite all these big events taking place, I have somehow been able to carve out some time to play online poker. Back on May 2nd, I set up an account at a site called Global Poker. It's a legal site for U.S. players, and they use a sweepstakes model that they've patented in order to exist in an environment that outlaws online poker. I won't go into specifics about exactly how it works (you can visit their website at globalpoker.com for details), but you can cash out through PayPal. Global gives you 10,000 Gold Coins (aka "play money"), and $2 cash for signing up. I took the 10,000 Gold Coins and the $2 and as of the date of this post, my bankroll currently sits at over 500,000 Gold Coins, and $133.01 in cash without me putting in any of my own money. Just three and a half months in, and suddenly I've found myself grinding it out again nearly every night with a bankroll that is growing at a rate of $40/month. I'd be lying if I said I saw this coming.

  So now that I'm back to playing online poker again, it's become apparent that I better start setting some goals for myself. I never expected to have over $130 in my roll this quickly. When Chris "Jesus" Ferguson started his $0 to $10,000 challenge back in 2006, it took him nine months to break $100. Nine months after that he cracked $10,000 adhering to strict bankroll management rules. In the spirit of Ferguson's accomplishment, I have hereby decided to start my own challenge. I'm calling it the $2 to $40,000 challenge. The reason I'm setting the bar at $40,000 as opposed to $10,000 is because the highest cash game limit on Global Poker at the moment is $10/$20. That means you can buy in for a max of $2,000. Following the same bankroll rules Ferguson set for himself would mean I would need $40,000 in my bankroll in order to play those stakes. I will be tracking my progress on a weekly basis and will be posting my results on this blog. I am not giving myself a time limit as I believe it's unrealistic to do so. I am confident it will happen, and it doesn't really matter to me how long it takes.

  Here are the bankroll management rules I will follow (please note: they are basically the same ones as Ferguson's).

1. No more than 5% of the bankroll will be used for cash games or SnGs (single table tournaments).

2. No more than 2% of the bankroll will be used for MTTs (multi table tournaments). If it's a re-buy tourney, I'll re-buy as many times as is necessary as long as the total amount spent is 2% of the bankroll or less.

3. If my winnings in a cash game ever exceed 10% of the bankroll, I must leave the table before the blinds reach me.

4. Satellite tournaments are currently not offered on Global Poker so no worries there.

  Since my bankroll currently sits at $133 and change, I can play cash games at the $.02/$.04 level buying in for the maximum of $4. The next level up from that is $.05/$.10 for $10. I need $200 or more for that. Until I get to $200, I am going to be extremely cautious because there is no level for me to drop down to if I run bad.

Short-term goals are as follows:

Current bankroll: $133.01

Target for next MTT level: $165 ($3.30)

Target for the next cash game level: $200 ($10)

Target for the next SnG level: $220 ($11)

Again, please stay tuned to this blog for my progress updates which will be posted every Sunday.