Regular readers of the blog or at least readers who have been following me for quite some time will know that I started a challenge on the 1st April 2010 to try and turn $100 into $10,000. The first levels that I played were $2 NL Texas Hold Em games because I wanted to get a feel for very low stakes poker and also if I could maintain discipline. I moved up to $4 games after about a week or so but it took me about a month to make $100 and double my bankroll. As soon as I hit $10 games then the whole process started to move quite rapidly and I eventually made the $10k mark on the 30th December last year.
I like to give myself challenges and have done so periodically in all areas of Texas Hold Em down the years. So I decided to take the challenge onto $100,000 but I don’t really think that this is challenge at all because I know that I can beat NL50 and NL100 full ring. Also this is where I am going to stay as well as NL200 is a tougher level and while I know I could beat that level with good game selection……I prefer the easier levels because you can beat them with less work.
I don’t think that this is a challenge anymore because I am merely playing for wages now. Let’s face it, if you made $50 per hour and played 40 hours per week then you are going to make $1 million in ten years. So you could have a $1000-$1 million challenge but how much of a challenge is that when all you have to do to make $1 million dollars is to play long enough? I had another idea though and making money no longer motivates me in poker and I think the main reason for that is because I have found my optimal level at cash games.
I go through phases where I play a lot and then suddenly I stop again. The challenge has just gone through the $40k mark and so I have made $30k this year at NL100 playing 6-8 tables. I don’t use tracking software as I have a very good game selection process and I have different game strategies for fish and regs that work quite well in a sort of algorithmic way. I was looking on www.pokerstars.co.uk the other night and the traffic on that site is staggering.
I don’t know if I will reach $100k this year and time is/has run out for that. But the other day I started messing around trying to spin up $1 and got it up to $31 before I got all in with A-Ks and flopped top two pair against pocket nines. I got hit on the river with a nine for a $60+ pot but the idea to spin up $1 into $10,000 suddenly zoomed into view. I could have used bankroll control after I hit $60 and if I can make $10k from $100 then I can make it from $60. I have always been interested in spinning up (don’t know why).
You can contact Carl at Sharkpooldean@yahoo.co.uk for his new V.I.P.E.R poker system and to get the first lesson FREE.
