I can’t start this journey without a destination in mind. So below I list the two short term goals I have in poker. I’d like to achieve both goals within the next three months.

1. Have a winning record in $10 HU sngs over a 50 game sample size.

Purpose of this goal: to take myself out of my MTT comfort zone. Due to focusing on MTTs and 9 man sngs, I’ve grown accustomed to playing a tight and mostly preflop based style. As a result, my post flop skills are nearly non existent. By setting a HU sng goal, I hope to put myself into the uncomfortable position of having to play hands, and maybe seeing a turn and river for a change, oh my the terror! This will challenge me in many ways, and it will help me improve as a poker player.

Plan to achieve this goal: watch all of the HU videos on TPE, while jumping into the games and starting to play. I will begin at the $1 level.

2. Final table Bovada’s $22 buyin $4k GTD 10K chip starting stack tournament. This tournament usually gets between 250 – 300 players with first place receiving around $1.1K.

Purpose of this goal: practice playing in MTTs that allow for post flop play. The goal of getting deep in the tournament is not about winning a certain amount of money. Instead, it is about learning to play my best when the pressure begins to build and the impact of each decision is magnified.

Plan to achieve this goal: watch all of Andrew Broko’s TPE videos, and review the hands I play in my MTT sessions. I’ve always connected with the way Andrew teaches so that is why I’m going to start out by focusing just on his videos. In terms of reviewing hands, I will download the tournament hand histories and go over them to see how I can improve and also to see what my opponents were doing that made things difficult at the tables.

Bankroll management for each goal:

1. Have at least 20 buyins for each stake in HU sngs. Drop down in stakes at the 15 buyin mark.

This is a very aggressive management strategy that I will only use for my short term HU sng goal. It is designed to allow me to move up quickly while also teaching me to move down in stakes as needed.

2. Make a profit of $66 in HU games before playing the $22 MTT.

For every three MTT buyins of profit I make while pursuing the HU goal, I will take a shot at the MTT goal. This will be my form of satelliting into the tournaments.

Starting bankroll: $50

In my next few posts I’ll provide progress updates and give some feedback on the experience.

It has been about a month since my last post. That time has been filled with an unexpected mix of both excitement and boredom. The excitement came from the unbelievable amount of luck I’ve had during the start of this challenge, and the boredom was due to being without a functional computer for about 3 weeks.

I began playing $3 SNGS without much expectation for how things would go. My guess was that they would play very similarly to the $1 games. I did switch to regular speed games, so I felt this might change the game dynamics a bit, but overall I didn’t foresee any dramatic differences in play. My plan was to play at least 20 games and then move up if possible.

Things started off pretty well results wise, but I still didn’t feel 100% comfortable at the tables. Sometimes I’d play a match and not really know what to do. It felt like I was clicking buttons a lot. I tried my best to figure out how my opponents were playing (too tight, too loose, too much of a calling station) and then adapt in game, but I found it was easier to analyze the play afterward when I had more time to consider my options for future games against similar villains.

By far the hardest opponent to play against was a smart aggressive player. Frequent button raises, small blind 3 bets, check raises, bluffs, etc made for very tough opposition. I only encountered 2 or 3 players like this, but I could instantly tell they were doing some things really well. I tried to think about plays they made that put me in difficult spots. Anytime I felt confused or unsure of what to do, I took a mental note on what they were doing to me. I hope that over time I can not only figure out the best way to counteract these aggressive and intelligent players, but I also want to try to incorporate some of their plays into my own game. With that said, onto my results…

As far as I know, Bovada games are not tracked on any SNG sites so I will try to attach a picture of my Bovada account showing the games I played, the results, and my current bankroll. After 20 games, I finished with a 19 – 1 record. The screenshot below shows a 16 – 0 stretch. It also shows the long period of downtime I had when having to wait for my new laptop to arrive. Needless to say it was pretty laughable how hot I ran in these games. I got lucky to win almost every flip, to get pair over pair, flush over flush, and so on in game after game. I think there were also times I outplayed my opponents, but I’m confident the poker gods were simply on my side for the majority of the SNGS. No point in arguing with good old fashion positive variance though.

Since I now have more than 20 buy ins, I will be moving up to the $5 SNGS. If I drop back to $75 (15 buy ins) I’ll move back down to the $3 games, but if things go well I’ll move up to the $10 games once my bankroll gets to $200.

I did manage to mix in a $22 MTT, finishing 47^th out of 285 entrants for a whopping $0. Before playing my next MTT, I plan on reviewing the hand history to improve on my still developing game.

Training videos watched: hand reading series and getting paid series (by foucault82).

Current balance: $118

Starting balance: $50

Mini update: slight change of plans, I’m going to the WSOP!

I will be spending the next two weeks preparing for a five day trip out to Vegas with a few of my friends. We will be playing the Colossus II flight E and also some Rio / Aria daily tournaments. It feels somewhat surreal to be going out there to play in my first WSOP event. Hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with a few TPE pros/members. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

In order to prepare I’m going to be focusing on MTTs only and watching MTT theory/game play videos. My $22 Bovada shot ended with a deep run but no cash. I felt I played pretty well and learned a lot, so it was a big success. A couple days later I fired up 4 micro MTTs after work. I busted two, min cashed the third, and won the $4 beginner tournament. It was a tiny cash but a fun experience:

Keep on grinding!

Current bankroll: $181.76

Starting bankroll: $50.00