No Graphics This Time!

When the remnants of Hurricane Ike came through and we lost power, I lost my PC. It never woke up from the power being off. Since then, I have resorted to keeping records old school, hard copy style. So......no graphics.

According to my records, it looks like I was at about $22.00 when my computer crashed. Now I'm playing on Seth's PC; he and his laptop are at UC.

My plan was to get my bankroll to around $50 and then concentrate on the $1.00 huge tournaments. That is pretty much what happened, but with no significant wins, my bankroll began to melt. Careless play and bad luck followed, and I actually went to under $20 at one point. I implemented an emergency scheme to buy in for only $1 until my bankroll got back up to $30, which I stuck to all the way up to $39. The scheme also called for me to leave the table immediately after a $0.50 profit, which I did not follow all of the time. In fact, once over $30, I made a couple of huge wins, always certain to abide by Ferguson's 10% rule which I've never violated. Today I stand at $34.91 after being up to $39 last night and staying up too late. Except for last night, I am generally pleased with my bedtime.......in bed by 11:00 was the third and final rule of the emergency scheme. Violating it last night did cost me some dough. Maybe balancing a few tournaments a week with the regular ring games is the better option.... I just realize that I'll probably need a huge win to leverage my bankroll and the more big tourneys I play the better chance I'll have to do it.

I'm up about $12 in two weeks, so I might continue to buy in for only $1 for a while; it certainly minimizes my risk, and I think it might make me more careful to not risk too much of the dollar too early. An interesting note, I've always decided to buy in to the tables with the highest possible average pots since the $1 scheme began. I actually like that environment better because it more closely resembles live play at the casino, and it has more promise of bigger wins.

One Year In....

It is Labor Day, 2008. Last year on Labor Day, September 3, I began this experiment. I bought in for $10 and that lasted until October 6. I went bust and bought back in a third time December 4. I basically went broke May 8 with only $0.10 and clawed my way back with FPP freerolls until I hit big June 27 in a freeroll finishing in 2nd place for $41.50. Since then I've been as high as $61.41 and as low as $30.36, but mostly in the $30's. Today my bankroll stands at $47.80. My first buy-in lasted 4 weeks, my second 9 weeks, and my third continues 9 months and running, freerolls notwithstanding. At one point about half way through, I mentioned that if I didn't have $100 at one year I'd have to seriously consider whether I could do this. I am still determined to make it to $10,000 but it is likely to take a lot longer than Chris Ferguson did it. He got to $10,000 in less than 2 years. My time frame is looking more like Seth's college career, which is scheduled will be four more years from now as UC has a 5 year Bachelor's program. I don't know what would make me more happy; me making it to $10,000 in that time, or Seth graduating college on time!
I have learned a lot during this experiment. One important thing I learned is that I spent too much time playing poker at the computer. I learned a lot more, too; maybe as much about how to approach this experiment as how to play poker. Nothing has helped my poker over the past year more than reading Harrington. In the Spring I read and completed the Tournament Workbook - very revealing about my play - and early summer I devoured his Cash Games books.
As Ferguson's bankroll rules imply, much of poker is discipline. In future posts I'll outline what I think I've learned about discipline and how I should approach this experiment - sort of a list of Do's and Don't's and other considerations regarding this pursuit. For now, I'm logging off while it is still a decent hour to spend time with Mai before bedtime. She convinced me to accept the challenge of a running Monopoly game, which we will start tonight and play a little at a time.