If Chris Ferguson can do it, so can I.

A while back, poker pro Chris "Jesus" Ferguson challenged himself to turn $0 into $10,000. You can read all the details of his story on Full Tilt Poker.

Well here's where my own story begins.

First off I want to thank you for taking this journey with me. I must warn you though, it is going to be a long and often heartbreaking one, but in the end, I will have turned $0 into $10,000.

But what to do with my winnings? I've got it! I'm going to buy one kick-ass TV. No I'm not.

So what's really going to happen with the money?

$2,500 will go into a donkhard freeroll. Another $2,500 will be added to the prizepool of a buy-in tournament in which the proceeds will go to the Bad Beat on Cancer. The other $5,000 will go directly to the Bad Beat on Cancer, supporter of the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
You can find the Bad Beat on Cancer on the web at http://www.myspace.com/badbeatoncancer
The Prevent Cancer Foundation can also be found on the web at http://www.preventcancer.org/

Please help these charitable in any way you can. Pledge a portion of your poker winnings, donate what you can afford now, or even help by spreading the word about these organizations to raise awareness. You'll be making a significant positive impact on the lives of millions.

Let the jouney begin...

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: September 4th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $0.00

The account has been cleaned out to $0 and is ready to go. I'll be playing 2 freerolls today, one with my raked hands points which have a 24 hour window, and the Quickdraw Freeroll, which requires no points to enter.

Let's roll.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: September 4th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $4.20

In a very surprising turn of events, I managed to finish ITM in both tournaments today!

I cashed in one for $3.20, and the other for $1.00 even for a total of $4.20 in winnings for the day.

I will continue to freeroll as much as possible to add more the bankroll.

I really didn't expect to already have enough to play with so quickly, but I'm glad to see it work out that way. Now it's time to implement a bankroll management strategy and stick to it like crazy glue.

I will be using the exact bankroll management strategy recommended and used by Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. The strategy is as such:

Cash game and buy-ins must not exceed more than 5 percent of my total bankroll.
Exception for the lowest limits: I'm allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less.

If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of my total bankroll, I must leave the game when the blinds reach me.

Sit & Go buy-ins must not exceed more than 5 percent of my total bankroll.
Exception for the lowest limits: I'm allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less.

Multi-table tournament buy-ins must not exceed more than 2 percent of my total bankroll.
Exception for the lowest limits: I'm allowed to buy into any multi-table tournament that costs $1.

I will now go to work at a ring game with $0.02/$0.05 blinds. I'll update again when I leave the game.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: September 4th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $4.43

Day 1 turned out to be a successful day. Starting out at $0, I built up to $4.20 through 2 freerolls. I then took a portion of my bankroll to the lowest end ring game available. There I managed to grind up another $0.23 to finish the day up $4.43.

I must emphasize that these are not typical results. I usually cash < 30% of the time in MTTs. Even in ring games, I expect to lose money 1 out of 3 games. Today's run was a hot one. Of course there's a cold run coming eventually, but I've been on a whopper of a cold streak lately, so hopefully this marks the end of that era until the next one.

At the rate things are going, we'd hit $10K in no time. But poker is a game of ups and downs. Winning money is the fun part of the game, but the work is in controlling the losses. And when it comes to losses, there will be plenty. So this venture will not be a quick bang, but a long test of skill at the table, a battle against luck, and the discipline to maintain the key to this whole show; proper bankroll management.

Tomorrow's a new day.

Goodnight all, and good luck to you at the tables.

WTG! You are off to a good start. I like the bankroll management strategy.

Keep at it and have fun.

Thank you Aintryte.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: September 5th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $4.56

I had a little free time earlier so I found another $0.02/$0.05 ring game to get into. Just as I started to get into my groove, seats started clearing out and the table went dead.

Still, I managed to add another $0.13 to the bankroll, bringing us to a total of $4.56.

Rolling right along.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: September 5th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $8.77

After a wonderful date with a beautiful woman, I came home and took my seat in the usual $0.02/$0.05 game. There were 5 big stacks at the table with more than the max buy-in, while the rest were very low on chips. The action was furious and loose, and I sat quietly, attempting to blend in with the background as I grinded out some Texas Fold 'em.

After I while I looked down at AhKh in the Big Blind. A late action player let off a huge 20BB raise. Normally, this is a fairly easy fold in a ring game. However, over the last dozen hands or so, I had watched as this player went all in twice preflop and let off three similarly huge raises. Two times he had shown down KQ offsuit. I figured it was likely, given the value he had been putting on previous hands, that I had him dominated and made the call. I was certain that he wouldn't fold if I went all-in preflop, but figured I would have a little folding equity on the flop if the right cards fell. My intentions when I made the call were to shove the rest on the flop regardless of what hit. The flop came down 10 7 5, and I shoved. I made the call without hesitation. An 8 hit the turn, and a King hit the river. I showed AhKh for a pair of Kings, he showed KQ offsuit. Again. And I took the pot.

The very next hand I looked down at AcQc from the small blind. I suspected that the player I had just crushed would tilt with any 2 cards on this hand. If he did, I would make the call. Sure enough, he shoved all in. I called and flopped a Queen. The board ran blanks. He showed A5 off for Ace high, I showed my pair of queens and took the rest of his chips.

So the next time the blinds came around, I left the table. I really didn't want to mind you, as this was a beautiful table for a player willing to sit tight, and in the short amount of time I was there, I had most everyone's number. But as the bankroll management rule states:

"If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of my total bankroll, I must leave the game when the blinds reach me." And like I said before, if we are going to make it to $10,000, I've got to adhere to this bankroll management strategy like crazy glue.

In the end, I ended up another $4.21 from that game and up $4.34 for the day for a total bankroll of $8.77.

So far so good. Thanks for the support. Good luck to you at the tables.

Looking good so far TBD! I'm impressed you were able to walk away from that table per Ferguson's bankroll strategy says. I've been working my way from 0 as well and it's quite tough. I look forward to following your progress!

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: September 5th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $8.22

Well I was beginning to wonder when it was going to happen. In fact, I was beginning to get a little worried. If things kept going that well for too long, by the time the fever broke I might never have won another hand of poker again!

So that time has come and we have finally taken our first hit to the bankroll. After going down $0.50, I took the walk so I may live to fight another day. The bankroll has fallen to $8.22. I wasn't able to pump it up any further through the Quickdraw Freeroll.

Tomorrow is the Donkhard Freeroll on Doyle's Room, so tomorrow should be a fun and busy day. Good luck to all who play in tomorrow's freeroll.

I'll be back here to post another update the next time I play.

Thanks for the support ryo. Good luck to you on your own journey. If you'd like to open up a topic here covering your own "From $0", I would love to follow your progress.

Thanks TBD, but I think it's probably not worthwhile for me to not start a thread since I can't devote much time to poker. I mentioned this in another post, but I'm a grad student and have limited playing time so my updates will be several weeks apart!

Anyway, good luck & keep us posted on how things go!

Donk...keep up the hard grind, I know it's not easy, and you want to "go for it" and play, but your perserverance will end up paying off. I blew it on my quest this morning, and my bank roll of 13.83 I had acquired over the past 2 weeks on Rosso Poker went the way of a tired gambler on a stupid call. Do not do what I did. Don't play tired, and if youy feel the tilt coming on...don't be the donkey I was and you will make your mark. I now have to start all over again on that site, but I am still going strong on Full Tilt and have that roll up to over 19.00. Way to go! I hope you can help those cancer patients!!!

Good Luck on your Mission 0 to 10,000. When you get there we get a BIG FREEROLL right?

I'm really impressed with what your doing, especially, with the charities, i really hope you manage it, have you done any more since September the 6th? i'm intregued to know.

The Jee

Thank you for the support all. I don't know if you guys know it, but it really means alot to me. It makes me feel good and inspires me to go play solid poker when I see that you guys are behind me. I take your comments with me to the table and they keep me in a positive mindframe.

So:

KEVINfromHB wrote:Donk...keep up the hard grind, I know it's not easy, and you want to "go for it" and play, but your perserverance will end up paying off. I blew it on my quest this morning, and my bank roll of 13.83 I had acquired over the past 2 weeks on Rosso Poker went the way of a tired gambler on a stupid call. Do not do what I did. Don't play tired, and if youy feel the tilt coming on...don't be the donkey I was and you will make your mark. I now have to start all over again on that site, but I am still going strong on Full Tilt and have that roll up to over 19.00. Way to go! I hope you can help those cancer patients!!!

Avoiding Tilt is always a major obstacle. The big problem with it is that it comes in so many forms: A bad beat, a cold run of cards, hunger, being tired, boredom, watching others win big pots while yours stay small, getting your blinds jacked consistently, insufficient progress, personal issues, a phone call, distractions, time constraints, and the list still goes on! There are plenty of ways to overcome tilt after a bad beat, but that one jumps out and screams at you, "YOU"RE GOING TO TILT NOW," so you can spot it and stop it. Many other forms are harder to see. I've gone on runs where I spend all day and night building up a stack just to dump it all in a few hands at 5 AM.
I'll just do my best to stick to the script and run like I'm scared from the tilt monster.
P.S. Your picture is very gross. Love it. Nice work on FT, keep it up!

konawajim wrote:Good Luck on your Mission 0 to 10,000. When you get there we get a BIG FREEROLL right?

YES!! A $2,500 donkhard freeroll, in fact. I plan to put another $2,500 into a fundraiser game for the Bad Beat on Cancer. It'll be maybe a $10 buy in, $5 + $5 juice for the charity, and then I'm swinging the other 5K directly to the Bad Beat on Cancer.

Jeester wrote:I'm really impressed with what your doing, especially, with the charities, i really hope you manage it, have you done any more since September the 6th? i'm intregued to know.

The Jee

Thanks! It was nice chatting with you, btw.
What I have done since the 6th:

I've lived up to my name, The Big Donk.

I played a little bit of cash and a SNG and managed to inflict damage to the bankroll. The sickest part had to be the SNG, where I spent most of the time in 1st place with over 6K in chips, just to dump them all in 1 bad play and 2 bad suckouts to finish 4th, just OTM.

So here's the latest update:

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: September 11th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $5.69

Now I did find a tourney with a $1 + $0.10 buy-in called the 3 for 1. For a buck I'm getting entry into a $100 Added, a $1,000 Freeroll, and a $250 winner take all. The equity's too high to pass up, so I'll have to give it a whirl. Let's just hope that luck is not still working against me. With the 3 chances though, I'm bound to hit something. I'll let you know the end result once all the dust has settled.

Thanks again to everyone for your support and kind words.

Oh s#!%. This just in. I missed the sign up for the 3 for 1. I'll keep my eyes peeled for the next one.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: September 12th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $7.61

It didn't take me more than a few minutes to go out of the Quickdraw Freeroll. Got my chips in with the best hand and lost to the river.

So I moved on over to the old $0.02/$0.05 table and took my seat. It didn't take long before I caught a pair of deuces in the hole. I limped in, and the big blind (who had Kd Qd) raised it to 18 cents. I made the call and watch the flop come down Q 4 2. YES! And the chips started flying.

In the end, I left up another $1.92, bringing our current bankroll back up a bit to $7.61.

I also found another 3 for 1 game in the tourney lobby. The 1st game, a $100 added game, will be on September 18th at 00:00 Doyle's Room time. Game 2 will be a $250 winner take all game on September 21st at 00:00. Game 3 will be the $1,000 monthly on September 27th at 23:00. All that for $1.10. I haven't bought in yet, but I have already set my reminder on my phone, so I will not miss this one.

Rolling rolling on.

I'm about to go out and play some live poker. Good luck me!