[Poker] Repeating Chris Ferguson's Achievement
A while back, I was reading the Full Tilt blog where Chris Ferguson was talking about This (MP3) challenge for himself. He turned $1 into over $20,000 in a few months through careful bankroll management (and skill at poker, naturally). I've heard from the forums on FTP that he's working on making $1,000 out of $0 by playing freerolls to win his initial bankroll.
My budget being what it is, I opted not to rebuild my $100 bankroll like I usually do when it runs out (between every 1 and 5 years). So I figured I'd give the $0 bankroll challenge a try. It took me most of the year, though I wasn't exactly playing every day (or even every week) but I did finally land forty cents in a freeroll on Pokerstars. That forty cents bought into a ten-cent tournament where I won another twenty seven cents. Then I bought into a fifty cent tournament and won $2.17. From there I stagnated as I tried to play 2/4 cent Limit Omaha H/L. It took a while, but I finally broke through a 2nd round freeroll and came out with just over $25 - the game was afoot.
I played off again, on again, comfortable that I had created a bankroll from nothing and very satisfied with the effect. I managed to get up to $30 before I crashed down to $15 and stopped playing for a while.
This past week I played in a $1.20 Sit-n-Go tournament with 9 people and won $4.50 - I'd done this before. In fact, such tournaments used to be the bulk of my income when I played on Full Tilt. The email I got that confirmed the win for me also talked about my having earned some points for that weeks leader board, including a promotion they are running which involves playing in blocks of twenty tournaments. I decided to take advantage of the holiday time off and grind out some tournament play, gathering data while I went.
I ended considerably up. I will now see if 237 points is enough for the leaderboard's top 100 in my division.
I completed three blocks and got 75% complete with a fourth. I can complete a block in a day if I really bust my ass at it. How on earth I'm supposed to do the 100-tournament blocks is beyond me, but I guess a lot of pros play 5-6 tournaments at a time while I can only coherently follow 2-3.
W-C-L = Wins-Cashes-Losses. Wins means I took down 1st. Cashes means an in-the-money finish that wasn't first place. Losses is any result that doesn't pay out.
Block 1: 224 Points. W-C-L = 2-4-14
Total Spent: $24
Total Won: $24.40
Net: $.40
Block 2: 224 Points. W-C-L = 2-3-15
Total Spent: $24
Total Won: $25.60
Net: $1.60
Block 3: 237 Points. W-C-L = 0-7-13 - (This is the score that went in, it's the highest of my blocks)
Total Spent: $24
Total Won: $28.20
Net: $4.20
Block 4: INCOMPLETE 146 Points. W-C-L 2-3-10
Total Spent: $18
Total Won: $15.40
Net: ($2.60)
Overall Net for Qualifying Tournaments: $3.60
I also tracked some non-qualifying tournaments (a couple of 45-seat, the limit to qualify is 40, and a few double-or-nothing tourneys as well as a $3.30 HORSE tourney which was a treat to myself, though I didn't do as well as I would have hoped) my total Win-Cash-Loss record for the week was 8-32-52. Out of 92 tournaments this week I got money back for 43% of them. I should calculate my average payout in terms of buy-in to determine if 43% is acceptable. It was this week, anyway.
Final Stats for the Week (Including non-leaderboard tournaments, cash games, and regular tourneys):
Spent: $108.20
Won: $133.82
Net: $25.62
Original Bankroll: $15.72
Return on Investment: 162%
My new goal is $100 by the end of December.
My budget being what it is, I opted not to rebuild my $100 bankroll like I usually do when it runs out (between every 1 and 5 years). So I figured I'd give the $0 bankroll challenge a try. It took me most of the year, though I wasn't exactly playing every day (or even every week) but I did finally land forty cents in a freeroll on Pokerstars. That forty cents bought into a ten-cent tournament where I won another twenty seven cents. Then I bought into a fifty cent tournament and won $2.17. From there I stagnated as I tried to play 2/4 cent Limit Omaha H/L. It took a while, but I finally broke through a 2nd round freeroll and came out with just over $25 - the game was afoot.
I played off again, on again, comfortable that I had created a bankroll from nothing and very satisfied with the effect. I managed to get up to $30 before I crashed down to $15 and stopped playing for a while.
This past week I played in a $1.20 Sit-n-Go tournament with 9 people and won $4.50 - I'd done this before. In fact, such tournaments used to be the bulk of my income when I played on Full Tilt. The email I got that confirmed the win for me also talked about my having earned some points for that weeks leader board, including a promotion they are running which involves playing in blocks of twenty tournaments. I decided to take advantage of the holiday time off and grind out some tournament play, gathering data while I went.
I ended considerably up. I will now see if 237 points is enough for the leaderboard's top 100 in my division.
I completed three blocks and got 75% complete with a fourth. I can complete a block in a day if I really bust my ass at it. How on earth I'm supposed to do the 100-tournament blocks is beyond me, but I guess a lot of pros play 5-6 tournaments at a time while I can only coherently follow 2-3.
W-C-L = Wins-Cashes-Losses. Wins means I took down 1st. Cashes means an in-the-money finish that wasn't first place. Losses is any result that doesn't pay out.
Block 1: 224 Points. W-C-L = 2-4-14
Total Spent: $24
Total Won: $24.40
Net: $.40
Block 2: 224 Points. W-C-L = 2-3-15
Total Spent: $24
Total Won: $25.60
Net: $1.60
Block 3: 237 Points. W-C-L = 0-7-13 - (This is the score that went in, it's the highest of my blocks)
Total Spent: $24
Total Won: $28.20
Net: $4.20
Block 4: INCOMPLETE 146 Points. W-C-L 2-3-10
Total Spent: $18
Total Won: $15.40
Net: ($2.60)
Overall Net for Qualifying Tournaments: $3.60
I also tracked some non-qualifying tournaments (a couple of 45-seat, the limit to qualify is 40, and a few double-or-nothing tourneys as well as a $3.30 HORSE tourney which was a treat to myself, though I didn't do as well as I would have hoped) my total Win-Cash-Loss record for the week was 8-32-52. Out of 92 tournaments this week I got money back for 43% of them. I should calculate my average payout in terms of buy-in to determine if 43% is acceptable. It was this week, anyway.
Final Stats for the Week (Including non-leaderboard tournaments, cash games, and regular tourneys):
Spent: $108.20
Won: $133.82
Net: $25.62
Original Bankroll: $15.72
Return on Investment: 162%
My new goal is $100 by the end of December.