My $20 > $1k run.

On the 21st I had an account balance of $22 after letting some friends trash my funds. Instead of making another deposit I figured I'd give a go at one of those Chris Ferguson-esq X to X runs. My first goal is $1k.
I haven't given myself a deadline for this run. If anyone from the board has a similar BR and wants to race to an amount for the challenge, I'm in! I think that would probably help motivate both parties more.


I started off on the 21st playing some PL Omaha and every time I got up $5 I would enter into a $5/45, after a few duds and a 6th place for $11 I finally got a 1st for a nice $80 boost. At that time, after PL O and the 5/45 win my BR was about $100.
From ~$100 I started playing $5 'regular' SnGs pretty exclusively. I grinded my way up to $211.
Yesterday I got to see the dark side of variance and bubbled >50% of the tournaments I played to a LOT of 70/30's or better.
I ended up being down a ton, BR @ $109.

I started off 4-tabling, moved up to 6-tabling, and am currently 9-tabling. I am positive that this has nothing to do with my downswing - perhaps it amplified the results, but yesterday was just pure running bad.

Today's results;
Two sessions so far, first was a 6table session for a $7 profit. Second was a 9table session for a $22 profit. Both sessions had a lot of flips, 60/40, 70/30, and better, go the other way, so I still feel that I am running a little bad, but I'm not too upset with the outcome, and I'm sure it will turn around.

So..

Current BR; $138.

Ran another session for a small profit. BR @ 143.

On a side note, a friend of mine put $100 on her account today and decided to play some games that cost >1/10th of her stack. She quickly turned that $100 into $1,300 (5 hours?) on a sick run and now I feel like grinding this dusty little BR of mine is just a waste. Anyone have a noose?

dont worry about others. I dont know how she turned it into 1300 from playing with 10dollars but if she built it that fast she will lose it that fast if she doesnt go to Bankroll Managment when her hot streaks gets cold.

GL with this. You've just reminded me why i stopped playing sng's, those bubble runs are really soul destroying.

Im in... I have 132 dollar at bodog. ( but I do not play there that often... And I play NL 10 NLHE at bodog...

Which poker-site was it your friend turned $100 into $1,300 (5 hours?) ? and what games was your friend playing?

In the past 2 days, I turned $0 into $105 playing strictly Limit cash tables.

lolz at "turned" x into y... no long term winning player thinks like this.

In The Poker Mindset the authors point out that having a monetary goal is actually detrimental to your game, as you have little control over the success or failure of such a goal due to the nature of the game of poker (highly subject to variance).

Instead, make it your goal to make the best (highest +ev) decisions possible at all times.
This is a goal that you can have direct control over the success/failure of. Let the money take care of itself.

I'm sure that's true, but it's a lot harder to quantify or measure, and how can you actually be sure that you are making the best (highest +EV) decisions at all times?

One of the things I find really frustrating about poker is when you ask about a specific situation and are told "it depends". I know that is the correct answer, but it's still not a very constructive answer, and it's hard to put into practice

You can't really blame people if they use their bankroll as a gauge of how well they're playing - even though we have to accept that it's fundamentally flawed

Maybe you aren't asking specific enough questions?

Personally I disagree with that way of thinking. Setting a monetary goal is a way of forcing yourself into playing better longer. When I have a goal to reach I find it much easier to avoid tilt, and -EV actions. It gives me that little voice in my head that says "you can't do that, we have a goal to be met".
It's like a person trying to get healthy/in shape. You know that it's really about changing your lifestyle and using proper techniques to do that, but you give yourself goals for motivation "I want to lose 40lbs", "I want to press 350lbs", a smart person knows that doing any balls-to-the-wall approach will most likely have a negative effect, so they keep their goal in mind as fuel to keep going the proper way and not give up.

I can see how some players can set a monetary goal and go about it the wrong way, leaving a bad impression on having them, but if you know the proper way to achieve your goal then it can be a very powerful tool.

While going forth with this goal I know that this is a game of great variance, and losing is inevitable, so I try not to let the downswings affect me, I'm not chasing my money going "damnit, I had it as high as "X", and now it's down to "Y"... I need to get that money back". I just keep going from my goal.

The problem with comparing it to something like weight loss or fitness is that in those endeavors you actually have a lot of control over your progress toward the goal, and that progress is relatively linear.

(Un)fortunately poker isn't like that:
1. poker is a game of small edges
2. poker is a game of high variance
consequently:
3. you should be playing for the long term

Taylor's three reasons (p. 60-61) why you shouldn't make your goals monetary:

1. You have limited power to achieve monetary goals due to variance in the short term.

2. Conclusions are difficult to draw when you miss your monetary goal. Again, due to the nature of poker your potential failure may have little to do with your play, resulting in unnecessary disappointment at not meeting the goal.

3. Monetary targets can actually detract from what your real goal should be: making good (+ev) decisions. The examples he gives: perhaps you have a goal of x big bets by a certain date, but are short: you might be tempted to make some marginal calls on long shot draws just to make your goal. Or conversely, if you are ahead of your target you might begin (subconsciously?) to play tighter and pass up small edges to protect your winnings.

When setting goals you want to have control over the ability to achieve them. It's foolish to have a goal of winning the lottery. Again, due to the nature of poker YOU DON'T HAVE CONTROL OVER WINNING MONEY IN THE SHORT TERM.

fwiw I already finished this run months ago.

The new goal is just living off of poker

You must set spending goals for sure,or you ll lose it all.Plus bankroll management goal too.I figured it I get to $100,id cashout,I done this and cashed out about 4-5 hundred.,now i feel ok about moving up.So,if i lose a little money now,im still ahead because of my cashouts.By the way,its all freeroll money to boot!..now i can set higher goals

It's posisble to go on a sick run like this. I did it on Carbon a couple months ago. Deposited $50 ran it up to $1,000 over a weekend. Strictly cash game and was in the complete zone. The pokerstars just have to align.

good luck with yourre 1000K running

I didn't do anything sick or crazy, just grinded sngs like I'm still doing.