08.06.09

Starting account balance: £10

14.06.09

Closing account balance: £13.67

Word of the week is grind…

A good start to the challenge where I have managed a 36% increase to my micro roll.

Things we learnt this week:

Tight, solid ABC poker is what wins the money at these low levels.

Value bet your opponents to death.

When someone donk-bets into you and you have it, re-raise you WILL get paid.

Lots of micro-grinding makes you go stir crazy…

It will be a couple of months (hopefully) before I will be playing
any ‘proper’ poker at these levels; and by proper poker I mean six-max
cash.

As I am playing within strict bankroll management parameters and
quite frankly can’t bring myself to grind it out in the $0.01/$0.02
cash games (I just don’t have it in me, I’d rather watch endless Big
Brother re-runs while strapped into the Clockwork Orange social
rehabilitation chair…) I have been playing a shed-load of $1.20 SNG’s.
Some six-max, some full ten-handed, some of the Double or Nothings just
to mix it up a little and have a little variety.

Now while the Double or Nothings don’t offer you a great return on your money (as you are paying 1/5 of your profits in rake ) they are great for growing a roll with minimum risk and play slightly
differently to your standard SNG, being more like an online
qualifier/satellite.

As I’m in the middle of writing a feature on this very topic I’m not
going to go into too much detail here but will let you guys know when
and where the feature will be published so you can see for yourselves.

I won’t be playing cash until I have $200 (around £120 at current
exchange rates) in my account, then I can start playing the $0.05/$0.10
six-max games. Now while this might not be the giddy high-rolling
heights that some players enjoy I am quite looking forward to it as I’m
sure by the time I have earned enough to play these stakes I will be
thoroughly sick of SNG’s.

After a week I have played 26 SNG’s broken down into:

6 Turbo six-max Double or Nothings for 0 profit

I tried these out and found that they get too crap-shooty on the money
bubble with the fast escalating blinds and probably won’t be playing
any more of these.

1 20-man $1.20 SNG for a loss of $1.20

See below.

2 30-man $1.20 SNG’s for a loss of $2.40

While I came close I bubbled both of these but was just taking a
bankroll boosting shot with the profits from my six-max SNG’s. I would
imagine I will take a shot with one or two of these a week depending on
how I run as you have a slightly greater variance against more players.
The return of $12 for first place makes them worthwhile I think.

1 ten-handed SNG for a profit of $3.80

The only reason I didn’t bother with more of these is that the six-max
versions are quicker and you have to fight through less players to make
the money, though I might mix it up and play a couple more this week.

16 six-max SNG’s some Double or Nothings, some standard SNG’s for a profit of $6.20

I found these the easiest to play and they gave me the best return. Now
while my ROI for the whole week was only 17% (this will need to improve
drastically) I am happy that I have finished up after the first week. I
had to change my game up from my usual aggressive cash style and lost a
couple of key hands at bubble time by not adapting to the micro-stakes
styles (i.e. don’t bluff, you will get called…).

Hopefully now I have changed my game up we should see some better results next week.

Until then poker fans…