You need to be logged in to your Sky Poker account above to post discussions and comments.
You might need to refresh your page afterwards.
You need to be logged in to your Sky Poker account above to post discussions and comments.
You might need to refresh your page afterwards.
Comments
The next challenge will undoubtedly be tougher after you've pressed the dreaded 'withdraw' button!
Enjoy!
Had goose bumps when opened up the forum and seen you had done it.
Brilliant effort Gary
Congrats Gary well deserved completion to a great challenge.
Final thoughts
Finishing this challenge successfully feels amazing, to say I'm happy is a big understatement. The main reason for this is all the replies posted on this thread. They are very special to me and mean more than the money, particularly those made since completion. I simply cannot thank-you all enough, you guys have made the effort more than worthwhile. The same also applies to all the opponents who wished me good luck in chatboxes during the year, many of whom I didn't recognise from the forum.
At times I felt I was running badly. Maybe I was for short periods, as I should have expected. But clearly that was just an illusion. Looking at the graphs below I can see that progress was better I possibly could have expected. The final two weeks were a non-stop heater that more than made-up for any earlier downswings. I daren't even look back at the negative diary entries I made when I found myself the wrong side of variance in September. They probably make me look like a total fool; moaning and whinging when I had absolutely no reason to do so.
So how did I do it? It was simple really; by making less mistakes than my opponents. I have no secrets, no tricks up my sleeve that nobody else knows about. I just took it hand-by-hand, street-by-street, always trying to make the best decisions, losing small pots and winning big pots whenever possible. Strict bankroll discipline and patience were also essential ingredients. Once my balance had reached the relative safety of say £30 I think the eventual outcome wasn't really in doubt just as long as I stuck rigidly to my bankroll rules. Whenever I felt things weren't going my way and I was starting to tilt I simply stopped playing. Not once did I get all hot-headed and put at risk a silly amount of my money at any one time. Had I done so I could have ruined the whole thing very quickly.
There were three main phases;
1. kick-starting a small balance in freerolls
2. growing it further in micro-stakes heads-up STT
3. switching to multi-table tournaments when sufficiently rolled
As you'll see below nearly all of the £1,089.01 profit came from the MTTs, and the best part of that from just a small number of big wins. There wasn't much strategy discussion in this thread, however I feel my overall approach to MTTs bore fruit and may be useful to others;
To make a good profit from MTTs you must have the ability to win them. All the money is at the top. A massive 81% of the profit I made in this challenge came from just the top ten wins (see below). You need have the killer instinct and gamble inside you that gives you a chance to go all the way and take down these crucial first place finishes. A min-cash should never be considered a success, nor something to aim for. It is merely a small consolation for a near miss. Don't bother checking the lobby continously looking at pay-jumps, stack sizes at other tables, or any other stuff like that. It's a bad habit, just focus as hard as you can on your own table and do your best to play for the win. There's a fine line between carefully calculated risk taking and reckless gambling, you must aim to stay just the right side of that line. When the risk/reward ratio is in your favour don't back down from big confrontations, that includes flips. I'll donk myself out of a tournament on a bubble looking like an idiot far more often than many of my opponents. However I'll also win the tournaments more often than them. I'll make more money than them in the long run too. In MTTs 'he who dares wins' definitely applies.
I'm just an average middle-aged working guy with no particular skills or qualifications. I didn't even learn how to play poker until 2007 when I was 41yo. There are probably hundreds of poker players on Sky who are far better at the game than me. If I can run up £1,000 from Poker Points then just about anybody can. That includes you.
Thanks for reading, good luck to you all at the tables.
GaryStats, graphs, trivia, etc.
(all as accurate as possible)
How the money was won; Freerolls.......................................... £18.05 (51 games)MTTs with an entry fee.................... £991.16 (584 games)HU STTs...........................................£81.11 (582 games)DYMs..............................................-£28.09 lost (96 games)Cash poker........................................£ nilRewards Bonuses................................£26.78Competition wins/freebies/giveaways......£ nil Accurate graph of daily closing balances; http://imageshack.us/a/img542/2217/kpv1.jpg
Clearly I got myself into a mental rut during that downswing. I went off poker for a while and would insta-quit sessions for silly little reasons. However I was always still determined to see this thing through to the end and never even considered quitting.
It was a temporary blip, when I talked myself out of my own irrational behaviour results quickly improved, after that I never looked back.
The hardest parts were making the first £20 (unsurprisingly). The freerolls were a minefield with very fast structures, plus I was up against opponents taking rebuys and add-ons. Also keeping motivated to making a post here every single day through thick and thin. It's hard to think of things to say when not much has happened for days on end. Most MTT diaries fall silent when the author goes on a downswing, often never to be seen again.
It's a hand I play as if it's the nuts in nearly all circumstances. It works most of the time and wins me lots of chips.
If anybody doesn't know what we're talking about see the Brags, Beats and Variance section of the forum.
Tell me what Tourney, & when, & I'll get it sorted.
Never was it more deserved.
This whole thing has been one of THE most extraordinary threads, & achievements I've ever seen on any Poker Forum or Community. I'm doing a little one of my own at present, & you've shamed me, I might just quit now!
Total respect Gary, many congratulations.