New Challenge is a challenge

My new challenge has turned out to be a real challenge. So far I am am a little ahead in my attempt to make $10 dollars a day at $25 No Limit Holdem at PokerStars and Full Tilt. I went through a stretch where variance was kicking my butt and I literally lost 4 sets over sets in 3 days. What a bummer. And these were true sets where me and the villain both had pocket pairs and completed our set with one of the cards on the board, usually on the flop. Lately variance has changed in my favor and last night I won with a set of Aces against a set of Jacks.

It seems like if I win at Full Tilt, I lose at PokerStars and vice-versa. Overall, I am slowly moving my bankroll in a positive direction but I won't be moving up to $15 and $20 dollar challenges anytime soon. I will need at least a week of good solid play to finish off the $10 dollar challenge.

I tend to win more than just $10 when I win and have been losing a little more than a buy in ($25) when I lose. This is because I am multitabling and I may have wins on several tables and then make a nice pot to clear the challenge for the day and that puts me over the $10. Most of the time I am at $20 in wins when I quit. The opposite is true when I lose a buy in. I may be down a few dollars at a couple of tables then drop a big pot and that makes me lose more than just one buy in.

My discipline has come into question, too, as I oftentimes will win a buy in after only about 15 - 30 minutes of play and I am hesitant to quit as I feel I can win even more money. One night that bit me in the butt as I continued to play and lost a buy in with one of the aforementioned Set over Set hands.

A New Challenge

My PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker bankrolls took quite a hit this past week. It was just one of those weeks where variance had to rear its ugly head and make a big loser out of me. Twice I lost huge pots to set over set and I lost numerous pots to flush and straight draws.

Unlucky me.

I really like the way I was playing the past week so I am not too upset that my bankrolls took such a hit. I was getting it all in with the best hand most of the time. I was folding to 3 bets and to the large river bet after the scare card hit the board. I was raising with good hands and getting the most value out of the hands I did win. I didn't lose every hand I played, just a few of the big ones. If I had won the set over set hands I would have been up for the week instead of down 6 buy ins.

So today I am starting a new challenge on Full Tilt and PokerStars. I am going to play until I win $10 a day and then quit. If I drop one buy-in, I will quit playing that day. I am going to do this for 10 days in an attempt to win $100. $10 dollars a day for 10 days - on both sites (so it is realy $20 a day for 10 days). I am reserving the right to deviate from this challenge by playing more if I feel the tables I am at are beatable. Its my challenge so I can make the rules as I go.

My goal as a poker player was to win enough money to pay for my golf and family vacations. $10 dollars a day would achieve that goal. I have fallen short of that goal lately so now I am going to try a new strategy and see if I can't kick it up a notch and try and get to the next level of my play.

If I can complete this challenge successfully, the next step may be $15 for 7 days which would be $95 dollars. Then $20 for 5 days for another $100 dollars. I may have a final goal of winning $300 by September 1st. These are realistic goals to have and hopefully will help me get back to playing some good Tight Aggressive poker and start back on the winning track.

I'll keep you posted on how I do.

Grinder School Videos helping me restore my Bankroll

I am continuing to watch the videos at Grinder School and they are helping me to restore my PokerStars bankroll that took a hit the other night. I learn something new every time I watch a training video and am trying to apply that knowledge to my game. I have been able to make back almost two of the 4 buy-ins I dropped the other night with very limited play. I just haven't had the time to sit down at the tables lately. Winter is the best time for me to put in some marathon sessions. Summers in Michigan are too precious to be sitting in front of the computer.

Take today for instance. I worked my 12 hour shift overnight (7PM to 7AM), got home went to bed and woke up about 5 hours later. Two cups of coffe and some raisen bran and then I am off to Prairie Creek to play 9 holes of golf. I shoot a 42 for nine holes (1 over for the last 5 holes) and then I head home to play tennis with my daughter. We are using tennis to help us lose weight. My daughter doesn't like to exercise as it is boring to her but tennis is an activity that she likes to do. Niether one of us will be challening Nadal but we are outdoors, running around, sweating and burning calories so "good" is a relative term. We are much better than when we started 3 months ago and our goal of losing weight is working as we have both lost close to 10 pounds.

After Tennis I cook out on the grill and then it is back to work for another 12 hour shift. No time to play poker today because I was too busy being outdoors and enjoying a wonderful Michigan summer. There will be plenty of time to play poker when the gales of November come early.