I've done it! I'm at $1,000! Attached is a picture of my cashier.




I wouldn't call this a challenge because it's my bankroll and im trying to grind it up. About a month ago I deposited $50 on Pokerstars and as of right now it's at $128.41. I've been playing 4 tables of .02/.05 NL, buy in for $5 for about 2 hours a day. Once I have 10% of my bankroll in play I leave that table and switch to another. I dont do much/any tournaments. When I get 70 FPP I use those and enter a 10 player satelite to the 200k guarentee. I've played 3 of those so far and ive took 2nd, 2nd, 1st. I just cashed out my T$. I need 290 more FPP and I get a $50 bonus. So it's looking pretty good so far. When I get $150 I'm going to up my stakes to .05/.10. Until then 5nl I go!


I'll try to update you as I go.
Update: Sorry I havent been paying much attention to this, I will now continue with it. Let me catch you up.
I've jumped stakes to .05/.10 because I've hit $150, 6 tables. I've found that I can make great profit at 6 tables.
Because I cant post my number of hands, I didnt record them, I will just continue it at my current bankroll.
I just had a big session, $16 in about 1 hour of playing.
**Old news is italicized
Look below for updates
The BOLD number below is my current bankroll


Ring Game Results
.05/.10

+$6.80
+$0.80 (Was up $5 on the session, then my KK ran into AA preflop.)
-$3.65 (My aces got cracked twice, played them cautiously too. I lost minimum)
-$9.31 (Running really badly lately...)
-$1.85
-$2.60
-$6.95
+$4.55
+$3.45
-$6.45
+$5.65
+$17.20
-$7.64
+$5.61
+$12.90
-$17.60
+$7.80
+$6.35
-$5.40
+$12.90
-$5.00
+$9.15
+$16.45
+$6.90
-$6.60
+$6.20
+$15.95
-$2.80
-$13.70
+$5.25
+$3.65
+$5.80
-$9.70
+$8.55
+$3.80
-$12.20
+$4.40
-$5.41
=============
$337.28 +$15.57= $352.85

.02/.05

-$3.50
+$5.71
+$5.85
+$10.29
+$4.86
+$5.65
+$12.94
-$4.40
+$2.95
+$4.78
+$12.45
-$1.17
+$50 bonus
=============

.10/.25

+$1.90
=============



Tournaments
Buy in- Number of Players- Result

$5 Double or Nothing- 10- +$4.60
$5 Double or Nothing- 10- +$4.60
$3 Single Table- 9- +$7.60
$2 MTT- 90 - -$2.20
$5 Double or Nothing- 10- +$4.60
$5 Double or Nothing- 10- +$4.60
$5 Double or Nothing- 10- -$5.40
$3 Single Table- 9- +$4.70
$5 Single Table- 9- +$8.00
$1 MTT- 18- +$6.00
$1 MTT- 45- +$3.80
$1 MTT- 2000+- -$1.10
$1 MTT- 2000+- -$1.10
+$2.52 <<<To update bankroll
$2.20 MTT- 2700- -$2.20
$2.75 MTT-5000- -$2.75
$1.20- 2-7 NL Single Draw- 7 - +$1.25
$2.20-MTT-2000-+$1.50
$2.75-MTT-6000-+$3.33
$5.50-MTT-20000--$5.50
4x $3.30 ST- 9--$13.20
$11-MTT-1200--$11.00
$2-HU NLHE-2- +$1.80
$2-HU NLHE-2- +$1.80
$2-HU NLHE-2- +$1.80
$2-HU NLHE-2- +$1.80
$5-SNG-9-+$8.00
$5-MTT-4000-+$24.52
2x $5-SNG-9--$11.00
$5-SNG-9-+$3.50
$5-SNG-9-+$3.50
$2-HU NLHE-2- +$1.80
5x $5-SNG-9--$27.50
$5-SNG-9-+$17.00
2x $5-SNG-9--$11.00
$3-SNG-9--$3.40
2x $5-SNG-9--$11.00
==============
$15.57

GOGOGO!! GL

Good Luck. Avoid Tilt because it can be a real killer when you are tryng to grind. Also, stay patient and try not to get bored.

Excellent approach - you've got a plan thought out, unlike most. Good luck!

Good luck. I started out similarly. Don't give in to temptation or the urgings of others to jump stakes!

UPDATE:
Bankroll is at $176.76
Points to go for $50 bonus: 231

I've been playing great poker lately. Havent been sucked out too bad recently.
Havent tilted too badly either. I've made $48.35 since I originally posted this.

QFT

Good luck! I approve of your approach

I dont feel very good today, I played for about an hour and posted the session.

I recently put in $20, was up to $35 yesterday, but majorly failed today and slipped so much...trying to grind my way back up now.
Gl mate, i reckon you'll make the $1,000 easily!

Played for about half an hour today, was up $5 but right before I left the session KK ran into AA... I hate that.

Dude I totally know what you are talking about. You know when you click ''sit out next hand'' then you have your LAST hand and you find out a nice A-K suited , K-K, Q-Q ... Then you raise and a player reraise you. Then the flop is total garbage and you end up losing what you worked on for the past hours...Worst than being stabbed in the back or similar..
One advice, get over it real quick before it start smelling like TILT because thats your real enemy.
PeAcE !

I know what you mean lol. I hate it.

Been playing a few tournaments lately, and finding success with them. I've cashed in everyone one so far.

TheDonk how are you finding this challenge ? I will follow your progress. May I offer some advice.. If your a good tournament player its worth sticking to imo.For a small percentage of your Bankroll you could hit a big final table win.
Ive found the low stakes 6max cash tables very tight,and more bad players in tournaments recently.
How are the cash tables these days? Ive done $50 to $1000 about 10 times from no deposit websites.But i just feel the players are getting better.
NL holdem is all about finding bad players and trying to have low variance!

Goodluck with your challenge your do it.

I've been pretty card dead recently. I'll raise, get a caller, completely miss the flop and put in a continuation bet and they will call. I'll just play it passively after they call. Played for about a half hour and lost about $3 just now. I'm gonna try another $3 9 player

So, what is going on now where are you up to ? any noticable progress ? keep updating!

I've been playing more tournaments lately. I try to do 1 tournament everyday on the weekdays and I'll do a few hours of .05/.10 on the weekends.
I update it after every tournament. I've cashed 4 straight. I'm in a $1 2k player today. Don't feel like risking much right now.
Observe me if you like, I'll chat with you.

If you look at the original post you'll see that I have a cash game total and a tournament total. The number in bold is my current bankroll.

I plan on playing some more MTT's today and probably some 10nl

.05/.10 hasn't been as good as .02/.05 to me. I find that players are MUCH worse than players at 5nl.
I like bad players, dont get me wrong, but when you have 5 callers and you have AA or KK or AKs your profit goes WAAAAY down.

I've been playing 6 tables of 10nl and this is pretty much how i've been running:

I'll have like AKs or AQs and I'll raise 4x, and if theres a few limpers ill make it 5x. I'll get 2-3 callers and COMPLETELY miss.
I'll throw a continuation bet of half pot and they will call me with any draw or any pair. I dont always make a continuation bet when I miss but I rarely hit the flop and losing .40 or .50 here and there has started to take a toll on my bankroll.

I'll try again tomorrow and hopefully I can hit a flop with AK or AQ.

Long time lurker here, and wanted to share my current experience

I've been trying to grind up a bankroll as well starting with a $25 deposit, I was able to grind up to in about a month and a half to $160 or so playing full ring $.02/$.05 NLHE -> Then I got bored, and I started plateau about two weeks ago. So, to take a break, I gave $.02/$.05 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-max a try. I think I hit a massive heater or something (Or micro PLO players really, really suck), because within a few days I zoomed past $200, decided to give $.15/$25 a shot and quickly I was pushing $300. I'm still playing $.15/$.25 6-max PLO and closing in on $400 fast.

In other words, Is anyone else trying to grind a bankroll playing PLO?

UPDATE:

I was running badly at cash games, I went down to .02/.05. I dipped down to about $170.
Now I'm playing the big $2 and $1 tournaments. Most the time I make the money, and if I dont do that
I'll bust out right before the money. Very rarely do I finish early.

My best place was 20th out of 2718.
My best cash, which was yesterday, was $21.77 when I finished 75th of 6219.

I've found that I can cash most the time in these tournaments and I can make deep runs.
Eventually I will make a final table, and boost my bankroll.

UPDATE: UPDATE:

I'll try to play a 2000+ tournament every day. If there is none I'll play some .02/.05 ring games.

I'm currently 2 hours into a $2 tournament, under average. Ranked 436 of 599, It's gonna be a close one. Top 396 cash.

Finished out of the money for that tournament. Raised preflop with AKs and flopped nut flush draw, hit my king on the turn, and pushed all in after someone bet.
He turned up K6s for two pair. I missed the flush draw. Made a good run at it though.

The K6 was brutal vs. Ah Kh... i might have shoved flop with FD and 2 overs. A push there might have gotten him to lay down bottom pair also.

Yeah now that I see that he had K 6 I shouldve pushed on the flop. But I just wanted to draw and see if I couldnt hit my nut flush and double up, I was pushing after I hit my K for top pair.

I'm gonna be in the 5K guarentee in about 10 minutes. Message me if your watching!

Just achieved this goal last night, $27 to $1,000 in a month's time GL!

Great! Hopefully that can be me too.

I tried 2-7 NL single draw, I got 2nd... shouldve been 1st. It was one of the first times ive played that.
I might throw that in there every now and then.

Tonight im gonna be in the following tournaments:

-2.20 buy in 2k guarentee
-3.30 buy in 3k guarentee

if you watch me, give me a message.

Two words:

Bankroll Management.


Everything else is just background music.


JMO

I'm following strict bankroll management.

~Thanks for the reply

Watch out, PLO can erase everything you've gained quicker than you gained it. It's such a high variance game that nobody plays it as a roll builder.

I tried something new today and it worked. I played 9 tables of .02/.05 and won $5.71 after about 700 hands.
I stopped the session to get something to eat and now I'm gonna wait for some micro guarentee's to join.

It's about time I post a winning cash game session.

Played for about 20 min today and made almost $6.
Playing 9 tables has been really good for me lately.

Played for another hour, about 700 hands. I almost made $11.
I've been making the right plays and not getting into any marginal situations.

FWIW the way I did it was 4-tabling 45 man SNGs. I started around $20 and took my shot like I usually do with two 6.50s. Won 1 5th in another to be over $100 there, continued grinding the 6.50 45 mans till I had 50 buyins for the $12 level. Now currently 4 tabling regularly, each set is 3 45 man SNGs (all turbos if that isn't apparent) and 1 $12 180 turbo for each set. It works well, and one cooler doesn't do huge damage like the cash games do.

Just sharing a success story that is possible could work out well for someone else as well.

Played for about an hour. I'm taking a break. Playing 9 tables constantly for an hour kinda wears me out.
Made about $5, I havent had a losing session since switching to 9 tables. I'm going to lay off the big tournaments and go right back to cash games.
I'm feeling good and making the right plays, I'm "in the zone."

You started with $20 and entered two 45 man sngs that were $6.50? So you put more than half of your bankroll on the line.
Not exactly good bankroll management. When you were at $100 and entered a $6.50 45 player that wouldnt be good bankroll management either.
Puting 6.5% of your bankroll into a MTT isn't good. You should do 2% of your bankroll for MTT's and 5% for single table SNGs.

But it's an amazing feat what you did. $20 to $1,000.

To be quite honest here, the play at any level below 6.50 was so ridiculously bad in my eyes that I couldn't/refused to dumb my own game down enough to play them. Also, like I said in the post, taking $20 and taking a shot is what I was doing, not grinding it up using BR management techniques on $20. I did not even have enough to buy into the lowest level SNG using the BR management technique you described.

Once the roll was stable, I utilized BR management techniques quite well. I've been able to survive 30 buyin downswings and come storming back from them. I'm nearing enough to move up to the next level ($27 turbo 45s and $36 turbo 180s) using correct BR management, I just keep setting myself back a little by cashing out from time to time - which actually gives me more time to improve my game and analyze more before moving up.

Just my opinion that a roll needs to be healthy in order for BR management to be realistic, just because of the typical skill level of the super-microlimit players.

Just read through it all right now OP, great read, glad to see you doing well, AND it is great to see you sticking to GREAT br manangment all the way from Februaury to now. Ive got 2 questions what is your screenname on stars so i can rail when playing, and what is your br at now?

My screenname is TheDonk1989 and my bankroll is at $224.52.
Watch one of my tables and message me, hopefully I'll see your text.
Just keep trying if i dont respond

Nice read. Better than most of the rubbish posted.

Gl man, I wish u the best.

Best of luck.. I'm in a similar situation. Started with $25 on Pstars currently at $460. Started at $15 on Full Tilt, currently at $248.

Thanks, hopefully I can do the same. At the rate im going I'll get there eventually.
I'm gonna step up to .05/.10 again when im at $300.

Thanks, keep reading tho!

Played 1000+ hand session today. Gonna try a break and try one more session later.
I started the session pretty bad I was down $7 at one point. I remained patient and
managed to climb my way back up and make almost $6.

I still havent had a losing session since switching to 9 tables.

Not to try to hijack the thread, but I'm trying the same thing with the $5 I got free from Pokerstars this month...

Started March 1st playing .01/.02 nl. Just playing at a single table mind you, trying to stay in the correct bankroll management mode, if there even is one when you only have 5 bucks to play with. lol. But you wanna talk about BORING.....

I've played an hour or two 3 or 4 days a week and I'm at about 3200 hands.

I'm up to a whopping $12.75!!!



Not sure what my real goal is. Just to try to get the bankroll as high as I can get while learning as much as I can along the way I guess.

Wish me luck!

Good luck!

Im running hot right now.
Played 65 hands and im up $9

6 straight winning sessions. I've won $45.30 in 5 days. Which is how long ive been playing 9 tables.
It seems that 9 tables really work for me.

About to play for a bit before my home game.
I've decided once I reach about $300 I'm gonna try .05/.10 again. This time I'll try 9 tables.
If I lose money at that level I'll go back to .02/.05 and slowly grind it to $375 or $400 and try .10/.25.