Pudding's $50 to $5k Challenge

For too long I've fucked about, jumping from cash games to SnG's to MTT's with no real focus, just the hope of a big score so I can play decent stakes for decent money and have the remote possibility that I can use poker to fund a better lifestyle or ideally play full time for a living. The problem is it doesn't work like that for most players. It's a known fact the vast majority of players are losing players and fall by the way side. In fact a lot of seemingly winning players are actually losing players long term but are riding a good spell of variance. It's time to prove to myself I can do this and time to get serious about my game and make poker start to pay.

I have great belief in my game. I'd probably get killed at NL200 and above, currently, but I know I can beat the micro stakes for a decent score on a regular basis. I have the knowledge, know the theory and have the balls to make plays and read games but I have a few leaks that I need to plug in order to succeed. One downfall is strange because it is down to patience. When I'm playing I can easily sit there for an eternity and wait for the right situation to arise which is a good thing but I am very impatient when it feels like a challenge isn't progressing as quickly or smoothly as I would like and I often start playing more tables etc rather than focussing on the end goal which is often months away. I guess I become kind of blinkered. Readers of my old blog know I like a drink, and poker and drink don't really mix too well. I hate to think how much money I've left at the table due to drinking the amber nectar so that is one leak I need to plug right away if I am to become profitable. There is a very fine line between being ok to play and having alcohol cloud your judgement and I cross that line with an alarming regularity. I don't think living in a pub helps but that situation should be changing when I get back from holiday on the 11th September. Those are my main two problems really. I could include over thinking hands but I can adapt that quickly to my table and adjust the way I think to suit the donks or the tougher players.

So I have set myself a challenge which will start on Saturday 1st September 2007 and will run until Saturday 19th April 2008, which incidentally is my 27th birthday. I am going to start with a bankroll of $50, or as close to that as I can, and grind my way through the 6 max micro NLHE cash games until I reach a bankroll of $5k. From start to finish is exactly 34 weeks which means I'd have to earn an average of $21 per day from day one. Obviously starting at NL2 this isn't going to happen but once I hit NL50 it should, in theory, be a piece of piss! Two reasons I've set a challenge of this length are firstly because I have a lot of shit going on at the minute and could be without the net to play poker for anything between 6-10 weeks in the not too distant future and also so that I can try to learn to stay focussed on something long term rather than get caught up with what's happened in a singular session.

I'm going to start off by playing a singular table of NL2 on Ultimate Bet. I have some outstanding bonus dollars on there that clear at very slow but steady rate and I also get 30% of my rakeback which should help a great deal. I want to learn to walk again before I start running and iron out any bad habits and become more positional and make notes on players rather than rely on 10-12 stats displayed above them by my HUD. Once I am comfortable fully with one table I will add more as it is obvious your hourly rate goes up if you're a winning player. I will be following a semi solid bankroll management plan albeit a pretty aggressive one which I'll explain later but it's going to allow me to take the occasional shot at the levels above without putting too much at risk.

I will be applying the following rules:

1.) Always be true to myself. If I am being outplayed accept it because it happens. Find another table.
2.) If I don't feel like playing then I won't. Simple as that. Too often I play for the sake of it which is -EV.
3.) If I feel like I'm going to tilt then I'll sit out and make myself a coffee or have a fag or something until the feeling passes.
4.) Accept bad beats happen to good players more often than bad.
5.) Don't be results orientated, just make plays that I believe will maximise expectation over time.
6.) If I go bust I stay bust.
7.) When I hit $5k, brag like fuck and treat myself to something nice!

I'm really looking forward to this because it's going to make or break me as a poker player. If I can't do this then I'm going to need to make some sort of other plans to finance some of the things I want to buy and places I want to see. If I can do this then I'll be as chuffed as a puff with two arseholes and the sky is the limit from there. It'd be a great birthday present on the 19th April 2008 if I can look at my online poker worth and see a nice shiny $5k looking back at me. I need something to distract me from the real world right now, I'll post about the goings on soon but Pud's real life world has fallen apart a little so I'm wrapping myself up in my online one until everything goes away!

Only time will tell if I can do this. Wish me luck and keep coming back for updates and rants from yours truly.