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Congrats Gary!!!!!
Either that or he's finally done his tax return.
If the former is the case then can I say a massive well done Gary. A very very impressive feat indeed.
If the latter is the case... well this is certainly some sort of twisted rubdown and I blame Maxally entirely
Big news fo follow
Well done sir!
Closing Balance £1,089.01
Up £200.86 today
Challenge completed
Boom!!!!
First game for me today was the 10-45am £3.30 Bounty Hunter. I was drawn at a wild table with several players who just wanted to gamble for stacks. There were multiple pre-flop all-in shoves right from the start. As early as level 1 I saw J5s win a 3-way pre-flop all-in hand to bust two other players and win a 250BB pot, both of them were light too. I survived an hour before leaving empty-handed. Getting uncomfortably low I got my stack in with Aqs on the button but managed to run into AK in the blinds, based on previous hands the villain probably would have called with any ace.
Scanning the lobby I could see the next Bounty Hunters due to run were a £5.25 Speed game or a £22 game with the standard structure, both starting at midday. I'm not too keen on the speed games as skill edges get blunted. Also the rake is more expensive at 15%. So decided to enter the £22 game. This was the first (and last) MTT I've bought into for more than £11 during this challenge. With £885 in my account at the time I just about had enough to register without breaking my 40 buy-in rule.
To cut a long story short it went like a dream. I was already chipleader with 3K chips after only two hands. Then I stayed there almost continously all the way to the end.
In the early stages I picked up premium hands several times; AA twice (no action), KK twice (no action), AK several times (tons of action, AK was my friend today). My first head came when based on my notes I three-bet over-shoved AKs over a very loose opener who also likes to gamble light for stacks. My play was questioned by others in the chatbox, admittedly it was high variance, but my read paid off when the villain called-off with AQo. I had more than double his stack, so had I lost a flip or been sucked-out on it wasn't the end of the world. My second head followed when my 88 clashed with AK on an 28K two-tone flop. Stacks went in on the turn with the villain drawing dead.
It carried on pretty much like that through the mid-stages. I continued to pick up more than my fair share of strong hole-cards and was connecting well with flops far more often than usual and managing to cooler my opponents. I knew a win would finish this thing, but I kept that and the higher than usual buy-in out of my mind and just played my cards to the best of my ability.
At final table I went card-dead and tightened up for quite a while. I stayed in front through this period, though my lead decreased and a couple of stacks weren't far behind come the bubble.
Then I went on another heater and took out the last three opponents. First I burst the bubble (three spots paid) when I raised Q9s on the button. The 5BB shortie shoved from the SB with pocket 22, I was never folding to him and managed to win the flip with a rivered straight. For a while I lost chips during three-handed play and fell to second place temporarily due a strong player to my direct left playing very well and putting me in awkward spots. I opened a decent gap at the top again when I induced then snapped off his river bluff with my turned second pair. Soon after he was unlucky to bust in third. After defending my BB with a suited king I check/shoved on the flop with my second-nut flush draw and an overcard to the flop. I'd run into the top end of his range, top pair with top kicker, however I had a ton of equity and caught one of my 12(?) outs to bust him.
After a short heads-up battle victory was mine when my short opponent failed to convince me my top pair was no good when bluffing at the river with a load of busted draws on the board.
I've gotta be honest here; the £22 Bounty Hunter today totally had my name on it. I ran like a dream all the way through, coolering people from beginning to end. It would have been very hard not to win no matter how I played my cards, I probably would have won it even if I was blindfolded. I don't remember card-racking so much in any other tournament during this entire challenge.
So that's it, it's all over. I've answered the question in the OP with a resounding 'yes'. Sure, there were highs and lows on the way. But looking at the bigger picture I can be nothing but absolutely thrilled with how this challenge has gone.
I'll return to make another post later today or tomorrow with my final thoughts, plus some facts and figures that will show how it was done.
November Poker Points 297 (£2.97)
Today’s results;
8561471 H NL B £400 Bounty Hunter 2.0 GBP SkyPoker 12/11/2013 12:00 NL Hold'em £20 + £2 1/26 £204 8561708 H NL B £150 Bounty Hunter 0.3 GBP SkyPoker 12/11/2013 10:45 NL Hold'em £3 + £0.3 40/92 -£3.3How it all ended, a screen recording of the final 5 minutes of the £22 Bounty Hunter, see how I luckboxed my way to victory;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnD8mc1ae5k&feature=youtu.be
But in all seriousness... most ambitious challenge (that ive seen) on the forum... completed. It took 11 months but its some achievement - one to be very proud of.
Many congratulations.
Well done, fantastic achievement.
Shove all in with A4... shove all in with QJ. Min raise with AK.
Don't mean to be a downer but having bet sizing leaks is something to be looked at for the future.
Either way. Well done again.
the result was never in doubt but you completed it in style
well done Sir
Oh mi god will be upset
or maybe he thinks your success was due to taking his advice!
Thanks for this diary
it has been fun living through your challenge
take some time off but then do come back with another one
congrats
Brilliant result, great effort very well done.
Now you know how we all felt when you finished yours!
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Incredible effort Gary.
Lots of plaudits for your discipline, patience, commitment, dedication etc.
Above all it else takes a lot of skill/talent to beat those micro stakes games with the rake you have to contend with.
Once you got up to £30 it felt like it was only a matter of when rather than if you'd complete it.
Have some ideas for future challenges that I'll post at a later date
4 now, Gr8 stuff. vwp!
GL in TOTP
ohhhhhh so its your fault this 0 point freeroll has been changed to 50 point as of today
Oooops, maybe it is lol.
Looks like I can scrap the 0 poker points to £x challenge idea already
Thank-you so much to all of you who've posted messages here this afternoon, I'm overwhelmed by the response!
I'm mid-way through composing a long post with a load of stats, graphs, trivia, etc. I'm too tired to finish it now so I'll post it tomorrow.