T.B.D.'s $300.00 PS3 Challenge

So here's what happened. Just recently my PS2 took a s***, so I was talking to my wife about getting a PS3 and a nice violent, bloody game like Call of Duty World at War or the new GTA or something like that. Anyhow, with the start-up of a new business venture, our outgoing cash flow went through the roof for a bit, and I tossed the idea of a new game system to the back burner. But now we're starting to see some profits on the newest business, and cost/profit is heading back to black.

Recently I met a guy who sells electronics. He said he could hook me up with a new PlayStation for about $250. The new game'll be about another $50, so that's about $300 out the door.

Now my wife and I share bank accounts, and always consult eachother on all purchases, big, small, Carl's Jr., everything.

So she offered me a challenge. She challenged me to build up the money for the PS3 playing poker. I said okay. But of course there's a catch. The challenge is to pick a site and start from $0. I contested. "I'm already running a "from $0" challenge and have been hung up around $100 for months now, and I don't want to wait until the PS3 is as old as the Atari 2600 before I get one." So I counter with this. I'll withdraw my Reefer Poker account down to $300, and then when I build that up to $600, I get my PS3 + a new violent game.

She accepted my counter-challenge, and now the sprint to make another $300 on Reefer Poker begins.

Stipulations:
If I bust out, I'll have to freeroll my way back up. OUCH! I'll need to stick to a strict bankroll management strategy to avoid a disaster.
I can make 1 minimum deposit per month so that I qualify for the depositors freerolls including the monthly $1,000.00 freeroll. YES!

So here is where I set forth on my mission to not only overcome a challenge, but walk away with a new PS3.

If you'd like to rail me in any of the games, my Reefer Poker name is DonkHard.

Site: Reefer Poker
Username: DonkHard
Goal: $600
Current Bankroll: $300
Amount to go: $300

tbd i'm not too familiar with the merge sites but i see that i have people that request to be my friend, a little guy in a yellow shirt. if you were to request me as a friend there would i be able to click on you to track you? if so my user name is illphill. i looked on tonight but didn't know where to start looking for you.

illphillllllll wrote:tbd i'm not too familiar with the merge sites but i see that i have people that request to be my friend, a little guy in a yellow shirt. if you were to request me as a friend there would i be able to click on you to track you? if so my user name is illphill. i looked on tonight but didn't know where to start looking for you.

I'm actually just logging in to Reefer right now for my 1st game in the challenge. I've never actually tried searching for or adding anyone, so I'm attempting to figure it out right now. You'll be my 1st buddy on my list.

{musical hold}

Okay I added you to my buddy list ( I hope ). Was a little tricky to figure out, but I'll jot it down here for all to see in case anyone else would like to add me to their buddy list:

If you click once on one of the cash tables in the Reefer Poker main lobby, you'll see a "Join Table" button in the bottom right corner of the lobby. A half inch or so above that you'll see 2 light gray tabs. One's labeled "My Games," and the other is labeled "Friends." Click the "Friends" tab. Now a "Edit Contacts" button will appear; click that. That will open a new window. Click the "Add" button in the bottom left corner of that window. Then type in the nickname of your "buddy," choose a tag, and click "Add."

If I did it right, that's all there is to it.

Okay so now I will enter my 1st game in the challenge. I will stick to my usual bankroll management strategy. A quick recap of the BRM strategy I use is:

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.

So with my $300 starting bankroll, I can bring up to $15.00 to any ring game or SNG and up to $6 to any MTT.

I'm starting off with a $5 + $0.50 SNG. I'm also on the waiting list for a $0.25 ring game.

Here we go!

Okay TBD! I'll look for you when I see your online sometime. I like the war games myself. My grandson has an XBOX and an XBOX 360. I got a Wii for the grandkids when they come to my house... which is a lot lol! Okay... Okay... I play it some too... and I got Call of Duty 3 for it(I think) Vanguard and a couple other war ones.

Pretty neat deal you settin' up a poker challenge to get a new game system. Hope to catch your act sometime. May the flops be with you and hope you'll be knockin' 'em dead soon!

good luck on your challenge BD, i'll be looking for you on line. and as for ps3, i wouldn t go with that, i would go with the x box 360. you can connect right to the net and play call of duty against other people from all over the world. waiting for them to come out with an online poker game for x box. i'm sure it will come in time. they got every other game out there. the nascar is the best, racing with headset on, you can talk to the other drvers and b%tch them out for stupid moves....great graphics. see you on the tables and good luck my friend

Site: Reefer Poker
Username: DonkHard
Goal: $600

Well, first things first, I bombed in the SNG last night.

My 1st hand or 2nd hand I was dealt 5d 7d. A player from early position raised about 3 or 4 blinds, and got a few callers. So I also made the call for a good sized pot. The flop came down 77A. Raiser bet the pot, everyone folded, I called. Turn came a Jack. Raiser bet pot again, I raised most of my stack. He went all in and I quickly called. He showed AQ, I showed my 5 7. A blank hit the river and I was the first to double up.

Later on in the game with 4 of us left, my the blinds had reached a point where things got pretty hectic.I stole blinds when I could, but I was getting bullied off of my own blinds quite a bit. I decided to make a play against one of the 2 guys who kept jacking my blinds by shoving all-in over his raise... turns out he had AA.

I finished in 4th place.

Anyhow, new day, so I'll try again. Same game. $5 Single table SNG on Reefer Poker.

datsme53 wrote:Okay TBD! I'll look for you when I see your online sometime. I like the war games myself. My grandson has an XBOX and an XBOX 360. I got a Wii for the grandkids when they come to my house... which is a lot lol! Okay... Okay... I play it some too... and I got Call of Duty 3 for it(I think) Vanguard and a couple other war ones.

Pretty neat deal you settin' up a poker challenge to get a new game system. Hope to catch your act sometime. May the flops be with you and hope you'll be knockin' 'em dead soon!

I was looking into an XBox 360 myself, but the store clerks were telling me that they have a nasty reputation for breaking down. That scared me off a little. The wife and kids want a Wii, so maybe I can raise enough for one of those, too. They've got some pretty fun looking games on there for a competitive family.

slyone66 wrote:good luck on your challenge BD, i'll be looking for you on line. and as for ps3, i wouldn t go with that, i would go with the x box 360. you can connect right to the net and play call of duty against other people from all over the world. waiting for them to come out with an online poker game for x box. i'm sure it will come in time. they got every other game out there. the nascar is the best, racing with headset on, you can talk to the other drvers and b%tch them out for stupid moves....great graphics. see you on the tables and good luck my friend

I actually got to play Call of Duty online at a buddy's house a while back. That was alot of fun. Talking crap to the other players was probably my favorite part of it.

Alright. I'm going to go concentrate on my SNG. Thank you guys for the well-wishes. I'll be on for a bit. After this game I've got to go mow the lawn and fix the power steering pump on my wife's truck, then I'll be coming back online later this evening for some more PS3 Challenge. Feel free to look me up and add me to your buddy lists, all.

Site: Reefer Poker
Username: DonkHard
Goal: $600
Current Bankroll: $294.50
Amount to go: $305.50

Site: Reefer Poker
Username: DonkHard
Goal: $600

I managed to bomb out of that SNG in 4th place... again. Being back-to-back bubble-boy is pretty harsh. Last night I jumped into another SNG, which turned out to be a Bounty game. Would have been alot funner if I could have collected some bounties, but in the end, I walked away empty-handed. Yet another 4th place finish. Now being back-to-back bubble-boy is harsh, but popping 3 bubbles in a row just plain sucks. Poor me!

While I was playing the Bounty SNG, I also had a dime ring game running on the side. No luck there, but no major disasters. I don't know about you, but I'll take a wash over a big loss all day. Still, after all was said and done, I'd lost well over $15 playing Texas Hold'em.

So there's certainly a problem here. When I can't see a profit out of a single game after playing many, I take it as a sign. TBD's running cold. Running cold = STOP. But I'm not real big on just stopping poker altogether. I've got to be running ice-cold, I'm talking sub-zero freezing, to take a break from poker altogether.

I've got a more efficient strategy. If I'm running cold in a certain game, in this case Texas Hold'em, I take a break from that game. Usually I'll walk away for an hour or 2, or maybe for the night if it's late, and then come back and jump right into a different format of poker, such as Omaha, Omaha H/L, a mixed game, or a stud game.

Here's the reason I do this. More often than not, when our game takes one of those downward dips, it's actually because of us. More often than we even realize, there are, (albeit sometimes microscopic and almost unnoticeable) changes to how we approach and play the game. Because each different type of poker has it's own rules and strategies, switching games forces you to totally restructure your approach to the game. Your mindstate changes. Your strategy changes. Changing to a different game can even change your mood or take you off tilt.

There are so many things that can change how we play: good moods, bad moods, boredom, tilt, distractions, desperation, comfort, discomfort, stress, confidence or the lack thereof, and the list goes on and on. Often these different scenarios that alter our perceptions cause us to play (just a little) different. We loosen up a tad, or start playing tighter than usual. We become more passive, or get more aggressive than we typically play when we're winning. But those changes don't have to be a bad thing that makes you throw your hands up and walk away from a fun past-time that can actually afford you a better lifestyle than a typical 9 to 5.

Those little nuances, those sways between how we play winning poker and how we play losing poker can actually always be used to play winning poker. For example, I've been crashing and burning in my PS3 Challenge. Why? Because I've been getting my chips in bad. I mean, let's just be f***ing real here. I have not been getting sucked out on. No, that's not the problem. I've been getting in with A6 or A9 against AQ. 55 against AA. I caught myself limping in UTG with 2 3 suited! That's an easy muck for crying out loud! Even from the button I'll muck that most of the time, unless there are alot of limpers in front of me, the blinds typically play passively preflop, and my stack is in good shape. And half the time I'll even muck them in that scenario to maintain my tight table image.

So most of us would say "I'm playing bad poker. I need to take a break." But I'm not playing bad poker. I'm playing bad Texas Holdem. So what I say is, "I'm playing bad Texas Hold 'em. I need to take a break... from Texas Hold 'em."

What game rewards loose play more than any other? PL or NL Omaha H/L. So that's my new venue. That's where my profits are.

So guess what. I left my Hold 'em ring game and headed over to a PLO8 table, bought in for $10, took a few pots, slaughtered a big-stack for his entire pile of chips, and walked away with almost $30.

Now I'm out of the red and seeing black again!. PS3, here I come!

Site: Reefer Poker
Username: DonkHard
Goal: $600
Current Bankroll: $301.64
Amount to go: $298.36

i,m in awe..i dont even have time for poker anymore...losing my posting status here...life has taken a turn...but i,ll roll with the punches and give a huge best of luck to ya on the ps3 challenge TDB

Site: Reefer Poker
Username: DonkHard
Goal: $600

Almost forgot about this one until I went and checked the mail this morning. So here's what happened:

A few days ago a buddy of mine I haven't hung out with in probably a good year or so gave me a call. With my wife being out of state, we decided to get together, do some work on my truck, and have a few beers. Well, a few turned into a couple of cases or so.

Later that evening, with the work done on the truck and way too many beers in me, I decided I'd like to show off my drunken poker skills to my buddy.

That's always a good idea.

I decided to play some $1/$2 NL on Reefer Poker. Of course, since I was drunk, I decided that bringing 2/3 of my entire Reefer bankroll seemed like a great bankroll management strategy.

I actually managed to pilfer a few pots and chip up about an extra hundred before catching AsKs. The flop came rag, rag, King. Oh yeah. Was feeling pretty good about myself until we got them all in and he turned over Aces. Turn dropped a blank. I scream "King! King!" Over and over. Felt like it took forever for the river to fall. But when it finally showed up, it turned out to be a King, and I was rakin' in the chips.

Lucky me.

I stuck around the table for a short while, and ended up leaving with my total Reefer bankroll being at 604.38.

I cashed out that night, and this morning my check arrived.

So by not only utilizing a horrible bankroll management strategy, but also getting all my chips in bad, I managed to wrangle up enough coin for my PlayStation 3.

Lucky me!

Of course, now that I got my PS2 working again, I'm not even sure if I want the PS3 right now. I might end up waiting until the deuce breaks again before picking up the new system. But I met my goal. Even though I donled my way there, I guess it's still something to be proud of. A little.

Site: Reefer Poker
Username: DonkHard
Goal: $600 - GOAL REACHED!

Well hey... it's just like you said...you achieved your goal... enough for the PS3 deal! I think we should put this down as a "Donkhard Moment"! .... What do you think?

i would rather donk and achieve to reach my goal then to play great and fail. congrats on reaching your mark.

hey any way u gotta do it tbd never look back if u got ur money in ur pocket thats a great goal u just surpassed it gives us all inspiration to go out and play good poker and win $$$$$$$