A Poker Odyssey

Busted!

2010-12-08T20:05:00.001-05:00

Well that was fast.

I placed barely out of the money in four (4) tournaments in a row.   Leaving me with a mere $0.21.      With only $8 to start the month I knew that I was taking a huge risk by playing the $2.00+.25 SNG's rather than the $1.00+.20 buy-in's.     I simply couldn't justify the larger rake they take from the $1 games - 20% vs 12.5%.

Now I'm effectively busted.     $0.21 isn't enough to buy into any SNG at Full Tilt, nor is it enough to buy into a cash game; even the smallest.    They require $0.70.

There are still a few options, though none of them are particularly attractive.     It looks like I'll have to start playing freerolls.    Large mutli-table tournaments that have no buy-in, but still pay cash prizes to the lucky few.     They are long and difficult.

Nobody said the path to $1,000,000 would be easy.

Here goes...

November 2010 - Summary

2010-12-05T12:36:00.001-05:00

November was the month immediately preceding the creation of this blog. This is the month in which my goal to become a millionaire playing poker was hatched.

Click image to enlarge

Tournaments Played: 39
Net Won: -$4.35
$/Tournament: -$0.11
Days Played: 7
$/Day: -$0.62
ROI: -8.66%

I played exclusively SNG's (Sit-N-Go's) with buy-in's ranging between $1 and $2. As you can clearly see, my first month playing poker was not a winning one. In fact I moved further from my goal.

Now I'm backed into a corner. I don't have a bankroll big enough to practice proper bankroll management, I've shown no progress toward my goal, there is no evidence at all that I'm a winning poker player and even if I was, the size of my bankroll means that due to variance, I have a very high probability of going completely bust. In fact it's a near certainty.

If I can get a little lucky in December, I might be able to grow my bankroll into an amount that gives me a little breathing room while I practice my game and attempt to become a winning poker player.

Fingers crossed.

The Goal

2010-12-03T18:13:00.001-05:00

My goal is really quite simple.

To grow my 'bankroll' to $1,000,000 and
To do it without ever adding new money.

This means that I'll need to build my entire bankroll from the scant winnings I have left in my online poker accounts from my original $100 deposit in 2005. As I type this my bankroll is $5.81

Ha! A tall order indeed.

Hello World

2010-12-03T17:50:00.002-05:00

I wish I could start this blog from the beginning.    I can't.

The beginning for me was sometime in 2005.     Online poker was all the rage. I had probably just finished watching the film Rounders, and on a whim, deposited $100 to Full Tilt Poker; played obsessively for a week or two and managed to build my bankroll to $128.96 before becoming distracted, or maybe bored, then promptly leaving my account to languish, forgotten, for nearly 5 years.

Fast forward to April 2010.   To fend off another bout of boredom, I rediscovered my account. Did a whole bunch of reading about the game.   Withdrew my original $100. Then proceeded to lose $18.80 of the winnings that were left over in the account.    At least this time I was more organized; I used the original deposit to purchase Poker Tracker software.   See below:


April 2010 - Tournaments Played: 27 Money Lost: -$18.80

Of course losing $18 is no fun, so I left the game again until November of this year (2010). I'm back and willing to practice proper 'Bankroll Management' and also keep a journal of my progress. With this shiny new blog. I'm on a path toward certain riches. I can't lose.