Bonus'

Got a $1.5k RB bonus the other day. A few thous VPPS off the 3.4k bonus too. I've been playing a number of regulars lately, for better or worse. Am confident, but going to lead to more variance/more wasted time. Am trying to be nicer in general when I play. I'm more rational, polite, and play better as a result. I've learned I could probably grind easy money at $110s and sit $220s first, so that's what I'm going to do this month - hoping to hit a 10k minimum month, probably closer to 12-15$k this moth with poker. Very excited. If I'm short the last few days of the month, I'm going to play less. I tend to lose a lot of money in the last 2-3 days of months, "trying" too hard.

Played some really high stakes last night. Found a decent spot at $500 reg speed, went 2-2 then played him later and lost a 345 and won a 500, so finished up a small amount after rake. Lost one game where he was down to 40 chips... but I didn't get tilted. Re-matched and won the next 500 before he quit. Sat a $1k and lost with 2 over +gutter to mid-set. Didn't play that well in it. Developed a new strategy to when I wanna sit high stakes, cash that buy-in out instead. Don't have regret after the fact.

Hope to hit the $25k mark pretty soon. I'm collecting a ton of VPPs as well (5.5 k VPPS already), might have a chance after all at 300k, but that's not my focus. Money is. GL.

41 Day Total: $11,200

1/3 Point Update

33 days in:

Hit some variance, surged up a bit before some variance and been a bit more choppy lately. This was mainly down to the fact of running bad at 345 and as a result playing a C/B- game vs Hustlastylez. Games vs him are profitable, but there is a lot of variance in these games. He is one of those players where if you hit top pair about 3 times all game you'll win, as he doesn't have a fold button and will stack on any pair 75 bb deep, so bluffing is reckless. He plays big pot poker and it can present some challenges. I have a several games I plan on reviewing and finding an optimal strategy. In the past he has quickly declined or let the time run out, but now he is accepting a few rematches before quiting. He even asked me to play 50 games at the $345 turbo and 50 games $330 reg speed. I won't oblige for now, but at least he wants to play.

I decided to quit the 300k vpp quest. I'll be getting a ton of RB next month so that's fine. I think I was trying for too much volume and as a result played a worse form of poker. Next month I should be getting nearly $5k worth of RB, and I believe my coaching salary for the year will be coming in either October or November giving a window at a ... $20k month? omgz

33 day total: $7.6k

- Brian

Things are going well

Not much to report. Things are goin' well, up around 5k on the month and 7k in total. Still on the vpp hunt. Gonna be tough, but we'll see.

22 day total: $7,300

Playing well and enjoying the game

It has been going really well. I'm enjoying poker and I'm not getting stressed out. I'm continuing on with my game selection and bankroll management process of playing anywhere from $55-$345. I of course have only played a very small minority at the high buy-ins and feel comfortable playing the main population at $55's and $110's. If lobbies seemed jammed I think its dumb to sit around and wait so I get other stuff done or play the free money at $55s.

18 day total: $5,900

Update

It hasn't been going great but at least I've made some money. Need to turn it on and really get this going

+$6600

-BCM11

Getting better with volume

My previous post focused mainly on achieving volume. I've been doing better with that. In general, the more I play, the more I smooth out variance. There is of course the negative aspect of playing so much that you become numb to individual decisions and scenarios and you, thus, forget to think. In an effort to get volume, I've been multi-tabling versus several solid 110 players. For the most part it has been nothing malicious and good spirited, just an effort to get vpps. Of course if someone tries to start a verbal war, I'm not afraid to respond in whichever way I think will help me extract the most money from them - then and in the future.

15 day total: $4,800

Volume = progress

I used to be someone who would just spend all day (and night) playing poker, but that's really not the case these days. So I'm now in that bind of getting enough volume in at good times when games are optimal. I've been putting forth more of an effort to get volume in lately as I'd still like to hit 300k vpps, but I'm a bit of a realist and understand it's going to be near impossible to achieve.

If I put in a TON of volume in this month I'll still need 100k vpp the last 3 months. Really disappointing since I'll be missing out on that $3.6k bonus. My basic approach for now is to put in volume as much as I can and maybe something will happen. I think that if I'm close going down the stretch I'll be able to get it, but a 50k vpps December isn't all that reasonable so it'll need to be <45k vpps at least. 11 day total: $4,000

1st week in the books

The first week is in the books, and I'm ahead of pace. There's not a whole let else to say. I've been playing mainly a mix of 55s and 110s. I haven't put in a serious session yet where I've been multitabling over 3 games, but I'm sure I will soon. I'll need to start grinding a bit harder to reach 300k vpps, however.

7 day total: +$3,000

5 days in

$55's are making me love poker all over again. This is by far the easiest level at stars. The lobbies move quick, there's very few good regulars and so many fish. I've even been running solo 4 man's to a pretty decent tune. They're definitely profitable. I'm pretty close to right on pace. Now if only I was a touch more disciplined and continued here instead of moving up too fast I'd be far ahead. I'm considering if 4-5 tabling these would be a more profitable move than moving up to $110's.

These are just so juicy.

2nd hand of the game. No reads on me:

PokerStars Game #48760586635: Tournament #305402912, $55.00+$2.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2010/08/27 18:12:29 ET
Table '305402912 1' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: bpmst2 (1490 in chips)
Seat 2: WAPDEGO18 (1510 in chips)
WAPDEGO18: posts small blind 10
bpmst2: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bpmst2 [As 6s]
WAPDEGO18: raises 20 to 40
bpmst2: raises 100 to 140
WAPDEGO18: calls 100
*** FLOP *** [9s 9h 6d]
bpmst2: bets 220
WAPDEGO18: calls 220
*** TURN *** [9s 9h 6d] [4s]
bpmst2: bets 315
WAPDEGO18: calls 315
*** RIVER *** [9s 9h 6d 4s] [Jc]
bpmst2: bets 815 and is all-in
WAPDEGO18: calls 815
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bpmst2: shows [As 6s] (two pair, Nines and Sixes)
WAPDEGO18: shows [2c 6c] (two pair, Nines and Sixes - lower kicker)
bpmst2 collected 2980 from pot


5 days in: +1,450.

- Brian/bpmst2

Days 1 2 and 3

Good start so far, ahead of pace. Grinding the $330 and $550 heads up sit and gos.
-Brendan/BCM11

+$5266

Brian's introduction

Even though I'm getting pretty busy in a lot of my day to day activities, I feel like I'm neglecting good habits in poker and lost some of my grind.  I'm around 160k vpps on the year and want to reach 300k.  Hopefully this will help push me to it.  I decided to go along with brendan in this challenge to channel my focus on having a strong 3 months of poker and hopefully motivate one another.   So for the next 100 days I'll be starting at the $55 level and will climb from there towards the goal of $25k.  I'll update every few days with random musings, progress, and challenges along the way.

Starting bankroll: $600

$55’s til I reach $2,000.

$110’s til I reach $4,000.

$220 til I reach $7,000.

 - Brian

$100k in 100 days

Since I decided to not take classes this fall I am going to do a poker goal of $100k over the next 100 days.  I've been pretty lazy with poker the last few months so setting a goal will hopefully help me have extra focus and motivation.  I'm going to start out playing lower stakes heads up sit and gos and progress to the $1100s and possibly $2200s or $5500s as it goes.  However, the idea of this goal is to just grind out $1k a day so I don't need to be playing too high of stakes to do so.