T.B.D.'s $10,000 Challenge

$55 - Bankroll
finished 5th in $1000 Freeroll in Eurolinx

got caught stealing with a-5s to AK for my final hand...
but overall i am happy.

10Zav01 wrote:$55 - Bankroll
finished 5th in $1000 Freeroll in Eurolinx

got caught stealing with a-5s to AK for my final hand...
but overall i am happy.

I got $6 out of that tourney yesterday, was abit peezed but life goes on.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 4th, 2008

Hello all. It's been a while since I've checked in on the Challenge, but I'm happy to report that the tourney cold streak has finally broken and the bankroll has grown some more. Things went well early in the tournament, and before I knew it I was sitting on over 18,000 chips with the blinds at only 30/60. From there it was pretty easy sailing into the money. I have also played a couple of ring games and managed to grind out a little more icing for the cake, and we're now up over $16.

So for those of you who don't already know, I'm still in Vegas, getting our house out here ready to sell. I've played a little bit of poker here and there when I've found the time, but for the most part it's been work and sweat. My wife stayed back in California. I find myself getting homesick, not for home or for California, but for my wife. I miss her terribly and have found that each day that passes makes me work harder and faster the next. If I don't get this work done soon, I'll likely call a contractor and jump on the next plane out of here.

In the meantime, I've got some work to bust out here. I'll be back online after it gets dark. You'll find me at the reliable old nickel table, hopefully adding more chips to the bankroll.

Oh that's right, almost forgot. I'll actually be back in about 6 hours for the Donkhard Dollar on Pitbull. If you haven't already done so, sign up at Pitbull Poker and use the bonus code DONKHARD to get a free $10, that way you can play the Donkhard Dollar on the house. Good luck to all who play in that one.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 4th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $16.21

well done t.b.d. ... keep up the progress.

poker on a rooftop ... not a bad idea. might have to try that one weekend before it gets very cold here. maybe even pictures to post ...

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 5th, 2008

Today is Football Day. I'll be spending most of the day doing the indoor chores I've been putting off intentionally, the painting, cabinet & counter installs, etc., so that I'll be able to watch the games while I work.

I did manage to squeeze in a couple of tournaments: the Welcome to Doyle's Room Freeroll and the Quickdraw Freeroll, and cashed in both of them!

This morning when I woke up I played a little ring game action while I was posting and managed to grind up the roll even further. Turned out I was playing a game for "Euros" rather than "American $", which was a nice surprise when I left the table and ended up with more than I thought due to the nice exchange rate.

I'm signed up for the Quickdraw today, but may not have the time to play it with the list of chores I've got in front of me.

So here's where we're at now:

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 5th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $18.66

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 6th, 2008

Now please don't get upset, but I've got to let you know that somehow things went spiraling out of control with the bankroll today.

I woke up this morning earlier than I usually like to, but in a fine mood. I was very much looking forward to the day. I have almost completed the construction of our new kitchen cabinets, which is a huge relief to see the finish line of a very difficult project. As of right now, I am only a few nails away from finishing.

Plus it's Monday. I love, love, Mondays. We've got Monday Night Football on ESPN, followed by The Sarah Connor Chronicles on FOX, featuring the gorgeous Summer Glau. Oh yeah, I look forward to Mondays all week long!

So I wake up too early, but ready for my favorite day of the week. I decided to play a on Doyle's Room for a little bit before getting ready for the day. The busiest times on Doyle's Room are the early mornings my time, probably due to the heavy European player base. I got into the old $0.02/$0.05 NL Hold 'em table.

While I was waiting I decided to sign up for a 20-seat SNG that was beginning to fill. The sit-and-go soon started, and since I was in an action-junky type of mood, decided to sign up for another 20-seat SNG and see if it gets started before I'm done playing.

The other SNG also filled up and began.

Now with 3 games going, I decided I should bail out on the ring game so I could concentrate effectively on my opponents, but I had just paid my blinds, so decided to take one last round. Of course I get AA.

Now I said earlier that our bankroll spiraled out of control. But we didn't crash and burn. The out-of-control spiral was an upward spiral.

AA held up in a 3 way pot. The very next hand in the ring game I get AA again. One of the players I had beaten in the previous hand tilted and shoved all-in. I made the easy call and the Aces hold again.

Now according to the rules of the bankroll management strategy I am using, I must now leave the table the next time the blinds reach me. But the next hand I get dealt Jh 9h, and flop an open ended straight and flush draw. The draw came through, and I got paid some more.

So the next hand I get 9 3 off. Normally, I don't play "the rush" as many players do, but I remember reading in Doyle's Books that he does play the rush. Since I was playing on his site, I decided to "play the rush." I flopped a boat and got paid. When I had J7 the next hand I continued to play the rush. I flopped three 7's and turned Quad 7's and got paid again.

Meanwhile, the cards were falling my way in the SNGs just as well as they were landing in the ring game.

When the blinds got to me, I left the ring game... up substantially.

The added attention given to the SNGs seemed to help turn good into better. I ended up ITM in the first game. It wasn't long until I ended up at the final table. After a long final table, I found myself in a short heads-up battle for 1st place, which I won.

I followed that win up with yet another 1st place finish, marking my 1st back-to-back SNG win on Doyle's Room.

I'm still a little shocked as I sit here and watch MNF.

Here's the total finishing amounts:

Left the ring game up------> $6.73
1st place SNG finish--------> $25.00
Next 1st place SNG finish --> $25.00

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 6th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $75.39

Wow, that incredible!! Glad to hear you're going so well and congrats on steamrolling through the competition. Keep it up!

Well thank you very much, ryo.

Just popping in to let everyone know that I'll be playing the 3 for 1. For those who aren't familiar with it, it's a series of 3 tournaments for just one $1 buy-in. The games included are the $100 added, the $250 winner take all, and the $1,000 monthly.

Wish me luck!

Congrats Big Donk

Looks very good on you for all do for us. I hope my new avatar comes through he is our retired Greyhound. Again congrats

Guy

OMG WTG TBD! lol 4 real tho keep it up man....i had a couple of questons reqarding your strategy.... are u taking Q&A on here to? btw gl in your 3-4-1

glad to hear your doing good BD. have your game on in the donkhard freeroll. see you there slyone66

slyone66 wrote:glad to hear your doing good BD. have your game on in the donkhard freeroll. see you there slyone66

Ty slyone. I will be there for tonight's game.

DizzyDog wrote:OMG WTG TBD! lol 4 real tho keep it up man....i had a couple of questons reqarding your strategy.... are u taking Q&A on here to? btw gl in your 3-4-1

Q&A is certainly acceptable here. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone may have regarding this challenge. What're your questions DizzyDog?

K9ofspades wrote:Congrats Big Donk

Looks very good on you for all do for us. I hope my new avatar comes through he is our retired Greyhound. Again congrats

Guy

The avatar shows up. Good looking dog there.

And on to the latest update

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 6th, 2008

Bought in for the 3 For 1 events which costed $1.10. I had no luck cashing in the 1st event, although I did come heartbreakingly close. Stopped by and played in the ring a couple of times as well, but pretty much broke even, nothing real significant to report there.

Tomorrow's the $250 Winner Take All; that would be a nice addition to the bankroll. Then we've still got the $1,000 freeroll coming at the end of the month. I smell an ITM finish coming on Doyle's Room!

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 6th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $74.11

Unbelievable bankroll management!! Keep up the great play!!!

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 16th, 2008

So-o-o-o-o-o-o-o, over the last 10 days I've managed to boost the old bankroll by a whopping $1.82! That's not quite the whole story, but it summarizes it all up fine. If I went into a little more detail you'd know that I actually managed to knock the bankroll down to about $65.00 over the last 9 days. Then today I did some more work on the house, played with the horses, watched Firefly on the computer (have I ever mentioned how attractive Summer Glau is ), took a shower, then logged onto Doyle's Room and made about a dollar a minute at a $0.02/$0.05 table and a $0.05/$0.10. 10 minutes later I'm logging off of DR and logging onto DH to check in with you good folks.

So I see 10Zav01 is beating my a$$ pretty bad in the challenge (congrats btw 10Z, excellent work ). At this rate I'll be choking on 10Z's dust for quite some time on my slow trek to the finish line, but I'll get there eventually. Anyhow, keep up the good work 10Z.

For now it's off to the freezer for a gigantic bowl of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream and a couple more episodes of Firefly before bedtime.

Good luck at the tables, all.

'Til next time!

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 16th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $75.93

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 17th, 2008

I'm playing the Quickdraw Freeroll right now. We just got into the money a few minutes ago. I'm holding down 61st place with 370 remaining. I'll let you know how it ends.

Had some good luck in the ring earlier and made some money at the nickel table and a dime Euro table.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 17th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $83.97

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 17th, 2008

With about a blind and a half left, I got 'em all in with AT against A9 and went out when a 9 flopped. $0.39 for nothing ain't a bad deal.

Curious, though. Bankroll is still at $83.97, meaning I wasn't credited the $0.39 to my account. Not the 1st time this has happened either. This time I'll live chat support and see what they can do.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: October 17th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $83.97

keep that bankroll heading North!!!

Two weeks have passed. Anything new happened?

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 6th, 2008

It's been a long time, and I thought by now I'd have a larger bankroll to report, but I don't. At the risk of sounding Helmuthesque, I can't seem to win a hand. I get them in when I flop the nuts, board flushes and I lose. I turn a flush, the river pairs the board to give my opponent the boat. Of course I haven't always gotten them in best the last couple of weeks. Once I flopped top set of Jacks, turned top boat (JJ in the hole, 3 J 4 4 on board), and then once we turned over our cards, realized that I was drawing to 1 out (which never came) to Quad 4's.

It hasn't been all downhill. There have been ups and downs, but it's definitely been one of those runs where the downs have outweighed the ups.

However, thanks to a strict adherence to a pre-determined bankroll management strategy, the cold run of cards has not had a major negative impact on the bankroll. It's dropped down about $6.00 to $77.34, but the bulk of the roll is still intact.

Playing solid poker only goes so far. Getting outdrawn like it or not, is a part of the game. Even the weakest draws are going to get me 2% to 8% of the time, while stronger draws will get me better than 30% of the time. But by sticking to the initial bankroll strategy, I've managed to avoid tilt and losing substantial amounts of money to bad decisions, and instead have watched this particular bankroll grow steadily through the ups and downs by putting my money on the good odds...

...And that's how we'll keep doing it all the way up to $10,000!

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 6th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $77.34

im not even gonna update my own section...

i been playing terrible and running bad at the sametime

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 7th, 2008

Last night I had watched an episode of this year's WSOP Main Event, the episode where the "new" Mike Matusow was talking about the power of positive thinking. He was explaining to another player at the table, who he had just beat in a pot, that as long as he thought he was going to hit a winning hand, he would hit the winning hand. Of course it was alot of table talk, but there's likely some truth to the talk. Even though the cards don't likely actually have minds that hear and respond to our thoughts, as Matusow implied, I just thought "what the hell." Figured with the way I've been running, what's it going to hurt?

So I got a fire burning in the fireplace and settled into a Pot-Limit Omaha Hi Lo ring game on Doyle's Room.

After a long grind at the table while watching Rob Zombie's rendition of the Michael Myers classic Halloween, my chipstack had grown to a healthy $7.40. According to the strategy, which states that once my chipstack represents 10% of my total bankroll I must leave the table, I was only a few more chips from taking the walk for the day.

Then came my hole cards: Jd Ad Js 9d. I limped in from early position. A player from middle position raised the pot. 2 other players called, so with that much action in the pot, I made the call. The board comes 7d Kh Td, giving me the nut flush draw and qutshot straight draw, or 11 outs, or a roughly 44% chance of scooping the whole pot. The preflop raiser had a habit of raising the pot with 3 or 4 low cards, A23x, A24x, A25x, types of hand. With only 1 low card on the flop and the chances he had raised preflop on a low draw, I figured that my folding equity against that opponent was good. The board texture showed no straight or flush, though the draws for such were present. The probability that the other 2 players would fold to a large bet was high, as they were strong and tight players. On that board, many players will even throw away 2 pairs and small sets. A player with and open-ender with the flush draw or a large set, KK or TT, would probably make an easy call, but that leaves only a small handful of possibilities. Even against any of those hands, I was drawing livelier than they. The fold equity combine with the drawing odds compelled me to bet right out, first to act, the size of the pot.

The original raiser called, and the other 2 players folded. The turn came a Qs, giving me the nut straight with the nut flush draw, and that's where all of our chips went in. Interestingly, my opponent also turned over the nut straight. He had Jh Ah 2c 3h, but he was done drawing. The river came Kd, giving me the nut flush. I scooped the pot and wondered at how a player could call such a large bet on a gutshot and backdoor low draw in a game like Omaha where one can hit real, massive draws. Granted, I was pushing chips into the pot with no made hand other than middle pair, but there are 2 ways to win a pot; with the best hand, or by getting everyone else to fold. By just passively calling, a player takes away from him or herself half of those options to win.

After that hand, my chipstack had now reached an obscene $15.54. Now I have to leave the next time the Big Blind reaches me.

But the very next hand I get dealt 8d Th Ad 4c. I know, not exactly the Omaha Hi Lo nuts, but I'm on Doyle's Room and so I play by Doyle's advice: "Play the rush." I flop 2 pair, (Aces and Tens), and turn a boat (Tens Full). The board also comes equipped with 2 other low cards, and me and a player with a low hand chop the pot. Chipstack now at $16.48.

Next hand, blinds are almost to me now, and I get dealt 4d 3s Qs Jh. I know, I know, not a great starting Omaha hand by any means, but Doyle says "Play the rush," so The Big Donk plays the rush! BANG! Board lands Js 5c Jd 6c 8s. My opponent has 2 5 6 8 and pays me off. In all fairness, 3 pair really should beat 3 of a kind, but that's not the way the rules are written.

My chipstack improves to $20.26, and here we are now.

Thanks for following along. Til next time. Best of luck to you at the tables.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 7th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $89.34

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 8th, 2008

Played a little Omaha again this morning. Nothing huge to report there.

But I did play one of those "Carnage" tournies. This is a pretty cool s$#!s-and giggles deal: 10-man SNG, everybody's all-in preflop on the first hand. 3 places paid. The board is dealt out nice and slow, good dealys between flop, turn, and river to give you time to analyze the situation a little. Well I get 69 offsuit, flop 2 pair, and it holds in a 10 way all-in. WOOHOOOO! 1st place in the Carnage match, baby!

Add a little more to the bankroll.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 8th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $92.71

Yes, it's true. I do get bored sometimes. Then I do strange things like make nifty little charts, such as this one plotting our progress in the $10,000 Challenge:



Is it cool? Or is The Big Donk a Big Dork?

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 8th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $92.71

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 9th, 2008

Omaha Hi Lo seems to be my game right now. I delivered another shellacking at the table and moved the bankroll up into the triple digits for the first time since we began this journey.

Piece of advice for those playing along:

Dependent on your time-zone. You'll have to do the math and figure out the times based on where you play. When I refer to the times here, I'm referring to Pacific Time. Let me tell you, the busiest times on Doyle's Room are the early mornings through early afternoons (about 2:00 PM my time at the latest). Doyle's Room operates on the Microgaming Network, which has a heavy European player base. These are very profitable times to play a very tight game and push hard when your hand is strong. When I say tight, I'm not necessarily referring to preflop (although it helps to keep the chipstack intact for the double-up). Because of the high-levels of loose and wild play I've observed, a player isn't likely to bully anyone around at these times. Big starting hands such as AA, KK, QQ, and AK run a good chance of getting cracked in the low stakes games. But if a player were to play strong drawing hands, play good pot odds, and to bet very aggressively when nailing a powerhouse hand on the flop, turn, or river, this player could see his or her chipstack take large upward leaps.

Hmmm... that's about all I have to say about that.

I am now going to go try a little evening poker. We'll see how that goes.

Good luck at the tables.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 9th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $102.11

Wow,
Very well done TBD we're all routing for you.
Keep up the good work.