Reader's Digest - Rghy2 edition

I've been running a personal challenge since April 2013, and I think it's time to start a thread to explain where I've been and give me one place to consolidate all of my thoughts and brags. I didn't start a thread before because I expected to either have mediocre results where I wasn't making much progress, or even worse, have absolutely no success and I don't really want to broadcast my failures. Poker is a competitive game, and poker players can be very judgmental of each other. If I have a bad run, I probably won't share much until I start to recover from it. If I win, then I get to celebrate with my fellow POers!! And I'm starting this thread because I've had a very good run the last couple of weeks...

I found PO September 2012 and messed around with the site off and on for a few months. Then I wound up moving from Missouri to California in April 2013. Missouri has a ban on online gaming, so most sites block Missouri players, I of course ignored those bans but wasn't very confident in my ability to cashout if the time ever came. California is poker friendly, and will hopefully at least get some state poker soon. So when I found out I was moving I started cranking out the crowdflower to save up points so that when I got to Cali I could hit the ground running with some legit accounts I could get BR boost with.

This is when I started my personal zero to hero challenge. The rules are simple. Even with the smallest amount of money, I follow my BRM rules. A BI can't be more than 5% of my BR. Re-buys get multiplied by 5 and re-entries get multiplied by 3 for the 5% rule. An example would be a $1 re-buy would count as a total of $5 buy in as far as BRM goes, so I would need a BR of $100 to play instead of a BR of $20. I won't play in MTTs/SNGs where first is less than 5% of my BR. I also decided I would cashout 10% of all winnings, therefore I need to have more than a 10% ROI to move up in stakes.

I was floundering around for a a few months until someone told me to check out the Gripsed's tournament series on YouTube. That pushed me into the +ROI% and I've had a +ROI each month since September (knock on wood and hope I don't jinx myself now). I made my first min cashout on Carbon in December.

In January I finally read Harrington on Holdem, and I've had a crazy run the last couple of weeks on Carbon. My BR went from $100 to $285. I've had multiple first and second place wins in MTTs. I've become much looser with my short stack shoving range, which works well with the re-entry structures on Carbon. I may have to re-enter a few times, but I can go on a run and build up a decent stack that can get me deep.

I haven't been able to build anything up on Bovada, and I usually miss the freerolls because of the short registration time.

SWC I built a BR up from freerolls back when btc was much cheaper, so I've got about 500 chips there. As soon as I cash, I'll sell off 10% of the win for points and sell the points for amazon. I will also put aside 10% of my LLB wins for amazon. I made $175 amazon last year on top of the Carbon check.

After I made my cashout, I went ahead and made a min deposit on Carbon on Bovada to take advantage of the deposit bonuses. I only have a BR of $20 on Bovada right now, so I'm not playing anything there right now and haven't checked on the bonus. Carbon's bonus takes a ridiculous amount of VIP points to clear. I made a $25 deposit and am trying to clear a $50 bonus from it. It will take 7500 VIP points ($750 in rake) to clear the bonus. They will release it in $10 increments, and I believe I have 90 days to clear as much of it as I can. It's 13% cleared right now at around 45 days in. Once the bonus is cleared or expires I will request my next check, since a withdrawal cancels the bonus.

I'm starting this thread now, because I've tripled my BR in the last month. I want to brag!!! At the same time, I want one place where I can come to celebrate any more progress I make. My BR is growing enough that I am having larger wins then I'm used to, and whenever I have a new "biggest win" I'll post it here. I'll also post here if I have any more major milestones. Updating will be sporadic, but hopefully I'll continue to have wins to brag about!

tl;dr
Can i get cliff notes?

EDIT* That was a joke, you write with with perfect grammar so I actually read it and usually do read most of your things. BTW not sure who was in chat the other night when i was drunk and blabbing about it, but you *win* 150 po points for me making my 777th post in your thread. Set it up in market place! and keep the run good up!

Wish you the best!!!! Glad that you are a member here.



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Great read!!!

I don't like to post my bad runs either but after I do I think it helps motivate me.

good luck buddy. try to avoid those steep declines! gotta manage it well.

Well, I definitely had a bad run afterwards. Lost half my BR and wound up at $150, and I've pulled it back up to $200. I think it's stabilized, and I'm taking things a little slower right now.

Update: My Bovada bonus expired and I didn't rake anything worth mentioning, so I went ahead and cashed out my 10% winning of $23.52 which left me a whole .64 in my account!! Bovada then gave me a bonus $5, so I have $5.64. I'm disappointed, because I had deposited $20, so I didn't really make anything. Time to grind my BR back up. Most of the time $1.10 is the cheapest BI on Bovada, so I'll have to get my BR back up to $22 before I'll play anything but the freerolls. I was just accepted to CC FR club, so now I won't just have to rely on PO freerolls.

Merge is right at $200 and I have a $22 coupon sitting on my account. I made this thread right after an unbelievable run, so I knew there would a downswing. It was disappointing, but things seem to have stabilized and I'm back to my normal results. SWC is sitting at 373. However, I've sold some swc, so it's not a total loss there. I've used points from SWC, BR Boost, and LLB to buy $95 in amazon so far this year.

My only tough decision is regarding live play. With the exception of one private tournament in May, I was not going to play live again until I paid off my credit card. I'm nowhere close to paying off my credit card, but there's a ladies tournament about an hour away from me this Saturday, and I've really wanted to play more ladies tournaments. I think they could be very lucrative with the soft play. I played in my first ladies tournament a couple of months ago and got taken out set over set before I could get something going. I have until Saturday to decide, the smart move would be stay home and work on building my online rolls.

Funny because I recently discovered the gripsed poker training on youtube alsoand I have to say that it has helped my game. Hope you win the 22$ merge tourney that you play :)

good luck solid play and consistence and dicipline stick to it man

I just received my first Bovada check today!! Request date was 2/28, but they had to verify my address, so it was confirmed 3/1. I got my FIRST check in less than a week!!! Nice work Bovada!!

Had a good run the last few days. I used the $22 coupon in a DON and cashed. I've had a good run on SWC too. SWC is up to 484 and Carbon is up to $290. I also cleared the first $10 of me depositors bonus, which took just over 2 months.

I played live last weekend. I only meant to play the ladies tournament, but just couldn't call it a night afterwards. I outlast about 2/3s of the field, but didn't come close to cashing. There were 10 tables and the final table got paid. I played some limit PLO8 for the first time live. It was weird though, because it was 5 card omaha, so you got got 5 cards instead of 4. Broke even at that table. That was fun, but I decided to check out another casino in the area that had a tournament starting. The structure was ridiculous on that one, it was basically a live hyper-turbo. 10 min blinds and they were NOT gradual increases. I didn't cash in that one either. I stayed and played some limit 3/6 and then jumped to the NL 1/2 game when that broke up. I was doing pretty good and made about $100, but the game broke up pretty quickly. I lost some on video poker too, so I was down for the day, but I had fun. The cool thing was that even though it was a losing session, it made me realize how much I've developed my skill and that I could honestly say I was better than 80% of my opponents. It makes me want to play live more even though I really don't have the extra money.

Got 4th in the mission freeroll for $33 to bring my Carbon BR to a new high of $327!

Yesterday's grind wasn't so hot for the BR, down to $280, however my points balance got a nice boost. B2B and Grinder champ WOOHOO!!!! Time to supplement my poker winnings with some decent sized LLBs!! Not tonight though, got a TOOL concert tonight!

keep up the good work and you will cash in almost every time just play the same way everytime if your on a winning streak

My 0 to hero approach has been here w BC. I went through a zillion surveys and videos and spent the money on cash cards. I've been playing .01/.02 cash games and have $13.22 now. I plan on an Agg BI strategy and plan to move up to 2/5 once I hit $50.00 plus. I am playing micro with ACR, Carbon and Bovada, and am using 50BI as my move up numbers. My WR are 10bb+/100 and I am grinding and learning. Good luck to you!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rghy2

I just received my first Bovada check today!! Request date was 2/28, but they had to verify my address, so it was confirmed 3/1. I got my FIRST check in less than a week!!! Nice work Bovada!!

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thatz badazz, nice werk.

Carbon - I made the mistake of trying to play a bunch of Micro OPS games at work which was killing my BR. I lost about $50 this week on games I was sitting out of most of the time. Stupid, I know. But I turned it around and won the CC $100 added game for $122. That's my biggest win yet!!! I also have a $22 and a $33 coupon I may use this weekend. Normally, I would just use the coupons in DONs, but I'm starting to get this urge to take a shot at a larger buy-in MTT. Even worse, I really want to qualify for the VIP freeroll promotion next month, but the days to qualify for the first one will all be while I'm working!! Let the bad habits continue...

Bovada - I'm slowly building back a roll. I've had several PO cashes in the dollar range. I hope to make some CC cashes as well.

SWC - I've noticed traffic is dying off here and it's taking longer to sell chips. I still play in the occasional MTT, and I'm making cashes and slowly selling off chips. However, my roll there is slowly dwindling away and I can't bring myself to care. SWC produces the most immediate gains since I can sell off 10% of my cashes as soon as I cash, so even though the BR is going down, in a way it's really my consistent money maker.

Carbon - 344
Bovada - 12.68
SWC - 365

I have been really off my game this week, and it's costing me money. I normally play all weekend, but realized this Saturday this I should stop, and I did cut way back. I'm still not feeling motivated to get back in the game yet. I get burnt out every once in awhile and it usually lasts a few days and I come back refreshed playing a better game.

Now, for the exciting part. My Carbon bonus expired, so it's time to request a check!! I just put my request in for $225. That leaves $75 in my account. Once I receive the check I'll make another min deposit for a bonus. The April reload bonus is 75% and gives an $11 ticket to the Big Ticket Qualifier. That'll be another $25 in my account. I will also use my VIPs for SNG entries to build my BR back up and I currently have 2791 VIPs which equals $27.91 worth of entries. I also still have the $33 coupon that I'll probably use on a DON once I'm back on my game.

Now that my BR is dropping back down, I'll be dropping stakes as well while I try and build it back up. I know the levels I'll be starting back at I can easily beat, and I'm actually looking forward to taking it easy for a few weeks.

I screwed up SWC - I accidentally registered for a 50 chip tourney instead of a 5 and didn't cash. The traffic has gone way down there, and it's harder to find people to sell chips to here at PO. Tourney structure isn't very good, and I am concerned about all of the collusion I've heard about, especially with the traffic down. Basically, SWC had it's place and made up most of my profit last year, but it's run it's course. I'll still play there occasionally, but not worth much of my time anymore.

Carbon - $75
SWC - 260
Bovada - $13.08

Won a 10 chip SWC tourney and got 2nd in another. Got 1st in the 1.10 night owl on Merge and won an $11 ticket. Bankrolls are making a comeback, and I'm getting back into the flow.

Carbon - $101
SWC - 347
Bovada - $13.08

rghy2 #1!!!

Looks like you are doing good. Keep it up

Whoa, you get 150 points for your 777th post? That's news to me, kinda gives me a little more incentive to be active on the boards. lol

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CTAnon

Whoa, you get 150 points for your 777th post? That's news to me, kinda gives me a little more incentive to be active on the boards. lol

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Lol, no, I got 150 points for it being Doc's 777th post cause he's just a nice guy like that.


So, I finally used my $33 coupon and an $11 coupon in DONs tonight and won both!! I'm still waiting on the check I requested 4/3 to be processed. I'm not being very patient since my first check came so quick. Done ok on swc and sold off a few chips. Placed in another PO Bovada freeroll so I'm slowly creeping my way to the $22 mark when I can take a shot at a MTT or a SNG.

Carbon - $206
Bovada - $14.68
SWC - 274

I haven't felt like playing much the last couple of weeks, but finally put in a session tonight. I won 2 Carbon MTTs, a $2 NLHE and $2 PLO for just over $50 each. I also had an $11 coupon that I won a DON with. Got 3rd in Bovada, so I just need one more 9th place or higher finish and I will finally be able to give a $1 buy-in a try. Got second in a 5 chip swc tourney. Not a bad night at all, now if only I would stop losing all my LLBs.

Carbon - $255
Bovada - $20.48
SWC - 240

I have been doing absolutely horrible. Lost half my BR, but made another Carbon min cashout. Starting over again.

Here's a rough estimate of my BRs

Carbon - $75
Bovada- $20
SWC - 200

It's been awhile since I've updated. I've had a lot going on in my personal life transitioning to a new job, so haven't had much time to play over the summer. I've just been getting back into the swing of things the last couple of weeks. I got a little rusty, and it hurt not having the PO freerolls to boost my bankrolls. Carbon was down around $30-40 most of that time, but had a great run the last couple weeks and have started getting back in the swing of things. My roll on Bovada looks really good, but I've honestly been doing pretty horrible there. A couple of months ago I had gotten a free $15 casino bonus with a 300x rollover. I got damn lucky and hit a royal flush on video poker that gave me a huge boost. My BR on SWC dropped awhile ago, but has been staying pretty stable.

Carbon - $107
Bovada - $236
SWC - 105

Doubt anyone is still reading this thread, but I like having it for myself to track my progress. Been on a major heater the last month. I've had more time than I ever expected to have to put into poker. I'm also broke off my ass and would like to finally have just a little bit of extra money from poker. I'm slowly creeping in that direction.

A couple of goals have changed for me.

1. Any cashouts will now be put towards building a live BR where I follow the same rules as I do online. I will need roughly $900 saved up to start playing the cheapest local tournaments.

2. Because of Carbon's new cashout policy of 1 free check a year, I will try to build my BR enough over the next year to make a max withdrawal of $2500. I know it's only a 3% fee for additional checks, but I believe poker is about building small edges. If I don't hit that mark, I will withdraw however close I am next September as a birthday present to myself =) (if Carbon doesn't change their policies again).

So I did just deposit a $50 check from Bovada today. That will be the start of my live BR!

SWC - 96
Bovada - $279
Carbon - $365

Good luck with your poker rghy2, you seem to have it nailed!

Had my downswing, it sucked like all downswings. I lost about half my br on Bovada and down a little bit on Carbon. But, I just won a $2 buy-in on Bovada for $259!! It's my biggest online win to date. I went ahead and requested a min cashout.

SWC - 112
Carbon - $322
Bovada - $438