1 to 1000

[MJ4H]

I can't seem to keep a dynasty going. This one may suffer the same fate, but what the heck, I'm going to start it anyway.

I have actually done this before, successfully, so I have little doubt I can do this again, but it is not an easy task.

My task is to take a gift of $1 and turn it into $1000. The method? Online poker.

As I said, I've done this before, successfully. I had a guy give me $1 on Poker Stars and in about 3 months of casual play I had over $1000.

The rules? Well, none really. Bonuses are fair game, I am allowed to take stabs at higher levels before I really should, etc. I will, however, be very cautious because losing it all will be the end of the challenge.

I started last night on Ultimate Bet. I played about 1 hour of 1c/2c limit hold em and 1c/2c omaha hi/lo. I came out 30c ahead. I had so many stupid brutal beats it was slightly unreal, but still came out ahead 30c.

Current total: $1.30

[MJ4H]

I played a bit more this evening at various games. About 15 minutes of stud8, 15 minutes of omaha hi/lo, and 45 minutes of hold 'em.

Playing with such a small bankroll forces me to stick strictly to fixed limit games for now.
My plan for now is to stick to 1c/2c games until I build up to about $4. At that point I will most likely move to 2c/4c games. My transition point will probably be 100 BB for the smaller levels. If I run into trouble, I am fine with dropping down a level or two. I will be very cautious. I will be fighting hard against tilt, since I think it provides the biggest danger to this mission.

Some more bad beats during this session, but nothing crippling. I did get quite the cooler in my first hand as I got AJ 3 handed and raised. By the time the flop hit J8J I was in THIRD PLACE in the hand. Yes I was against J8 and 88. I spent most of the time recovering from that pounding (as I did not really let off the gas pedal on that hand, being it was 3 handed) but finished with a decent profit.

Current total: $1.61

[MJ4H]

About 30 more minutes of 1c/2c HE and played pretty well while only getting rivered a couple of times.

Current total: $1.83

[MJ4H]

An awful half hour of shorthanded 1c/2c hold em followed by an ok 15 minutes of 7 card stud and I have dropped back down to

Current total: $1.62

[MJ4H]

Played for about an hour after work today. 30 minutes of shorthanded hold em and 30 minutes of heads-up omaha hi/lo. The latter was a lot of fun because I got one of those opponents that plays aggressively but has no idea how to do it properly. Basically I just sat back and jammed my scoops and 3/4s and made a little bit of profit before having to stop to take care of my son.

The hold em session was pretty miserable with me missing every draw and getting drawn out on again. I crawled back near even at the end but quit down about 10c when someone finally sat down at the o8 table for me.

Current total: $1.96

[RPI-Fan]

Look forward to reading!

[MJ4H]

Well a bit of an unexpected twist last night. My wife brought in the mail when she came home and I had an offer for a free $20 from Absolute Poker (where I have played a lot in the past) with no strings attached. I took it.

I've played several micro-sngs, and just about every game absolute has (including Razz) and I'm up about $14 on that since last night. I know this seems a little cheap since the original concept was 1 to 1000, but it is hard to play 1c/2c games on UB (which I strongly dislike) when I can play bigger games and SNGs on Absolute Poker (which I only dislike a little).

Therefore, as of now, this is the 20 to 1000 challenge! Or...something.

Current total: $35.92

[MJ4H]

Well I think I found my game. I played several hours of 5c/10c Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo at absolute and did quite well. The players are horrible and so far I am capitalizing.

Current total: $58.98

[MJ4H]

Another solid evening of pot limit omaha hi/lo. I usually have to get the table started. For some reason at this level people will play no limit omaha hi/lo instead of pot limit. Yeah, uh, yuck. Sometimes I will play that with them while sitting and waiting for someone to play PLO8 with me.

I think I know why they like NL. I have seen many people just suddenly stick all their chips in preflop, kind of out of the blue. It seems that what is causing this is that they have no idea what to do when they are dealt a pair of aces in PLO8. What they have found, is in NLO8, they can just go all-in preflop and if they get called, they can console themselves with "well at least I got my money in with aces!" I really think that is most of it.

I started a table tonight heads-up with some dude that got hit in the head with the deck. He took about 3-4 bucks off of me and bolted when someone else sat down. Shortly after, another player sat down, and 5 minutes later I was back out of the red and on my way. Couple of hours later I left up another 15 bucks or so. This really is the easiest poker I've ever played. I should be over 100 in a day or two. I no longer have any guidelines for when to step up, but I figure at 200 bucks I'll set up to 10c/25c PLO8.

Current total: $83.76

[MJ4H]

I played some more when I got home from work today. I played horribly. I couldn't fold when I needed to, I played way too passively most of the time. I even got all my money in really bad once, and got lucky to get out with a split. I am ashamed of the first hour or so that I played. I was down only three bucks or so after this awful play (should've been down about 13), so I told myself to straighten up and get back in this thing.

After I finally got my brain right, I stacked a few guys (the guys that sit down with $4 are usually pretty easy to stack) and before long I found myself up about $10. Much better.

However, the reason I was playing poorly earlier was mindset. For some reason I wanted to play a different sort of game than I was playing, so I talked a friend of mine into playing a SNG with me. We sat down for a $6 NLHE SNG and went to work.

Early on I won a couple of small pots, then a decent sized pot, and was up to about 1800 (starting stack is 1500, blinds 10/20). Two early pots I was in late position and caught decent flops and then made a pretty large bluff when my opponent was fairly clearly weak. I don't usually like to get involved early, but these plays seemed to make themselves.

Still pretty early, I picked up Aces and raised one limper to 120 (15/30 blinds). I'm called in one place. Flop came Qxx rainbow pretty safe and I bet about 150 after he checks to me. He called fairly quickly. At this point I had put him on top pair. He checked, I bet about 180 or 210 on the turn which was a pretty safe looking card. He again called fairly quickly (not so quick it was obvious he was drawing, more like a I'm pretty sure I have the best hand but not enough to raise kind of call). The river was a Q and he checked to me again. I checked behind basically knowing I was doomed, and I was. He turned over KQ.


I got whittled down to around 600 after a little bit more play and the blinds were up to 25/50. Finally, I re-raise all-in from the big blind with KTo to what looked like a late position steal from the CO. He called (this was, my friend I was playing with, by the way) with nines and I flopped top two and won the hand. He yelled at me because it was the first hand he'd played, but tough. I mostly made the play cause it was him and I know he would do that there, first hand he'd played or not.

He went out a few hands later. Around the 50/100 level is when people start dropping like flies, and soon we were on the bubble and I'd stolen my way up to about 2900. The players left were fairly competent and had whittled me down to about 2100 when I pushed from the button with T9s. I got called by AK and lost after flopping all kinds of draws and missing. Oh well. It was fun. I played ok, but not great and lost most of the profits I made on micro PLO8, but I didn't care.

Current Total: $87.55

[MJ4H]

Haven't updated in awhile, but I've been busy. Played a lot of O8 with a little Hold 'em sprinkled in. I ran very bad for a couple of days and dropped below $60. Then today I have been playing lights out and have had really bad opponents. Today I have ran my bankroll up to over $100 (still playing the lowest PL and NL games possible on Absolute Poker).

Current total: $103.89

[MJ4H]

I continued to play O8 last night tearing it up. I ended the night last with around $125.

Today I played more O8 and briefly poked my nose above $140 before suffering for about 4 hours and ending my O8 session at around $123.

I was frustrated at my lack of cards and poor play so I moved over to an equivalent Hold'em game (10c NL) and crushed that for awhile. I ended the day at:

Current total: $154.64

[MJ4H]

A very up and down week this week. I played mostly Hold'em ring games and peeked my head above $190 for a bit. Then I hit a rough patch and got knocked down to about $160.

That's when I discovered Heads-up sit and gos. To this point I've played 19 of them and won 16. I don't know if I can keep up that win rate, but I certainly got very unlucky on all 3 losses. I do feel I was somewhat fortunate on a few of the wins, so the % might be about right. I will probably play a lot of these now.

Current total: $204.01

[MJ4H]

Another up and down week. Played mostly heads up sit and goes and worked my way up to $250. Then I decided to take a break and play ring games again. Well. I caught a tilt-monkey when I had 2 pair and he had just a flush draw and we got all in on the flop. But he hit his flush. He ran me down 2 other times that session (same guy) when I was even further ahead and I lost all the way back down to $202.

I played a few more heads-up sngs and worked my way to $220 and then hit the PLO8 full table ring games. Thank goodness for the fishies there. After just a couple of hours two-tabling I have darted back into the black.

Current total: $284.85

[MJ4H]

Update: I bailed on this cause I wanted a digital camera. I bought a Canon Powershot 5 MP with my poker money. I'm rebuilding from the $25 I left in my account. Currently its at about 55.