An October Challenge (Extended)

[PizzaByNight]

For the entire month of October, I am not going to play above my bankroll. Period.

I signed up at UB 19 months ago and have had at least a measure of discipline to my play since then. But every now and then the bad breaks would come in bunches, and I would throw up my hands in righteous indignation and storm off to higher stakes to “make things right”. It got to be more of a habit over time. Usually these little adventures would end happily, but there have been a handful of times that I have dug a deep hole for myself. And killed my progress, washing away an upswing that might have taken weeks to build.

I’ve finally come to terms with this and it’s showing up in the numbers. When the bad breaks start to swirl now, I’m quick to leave the table and find another one or log out for an hour or two. In September I sat down to 164 tables and only 11 of those were for stakes that were above my planned limit. That’s 93% compliance and I have not been in the 90s all year.

But I’m not going to stop there. I want to go for the gusto here in October and shoot for 100% compliance, something I’ve never done before. Anyone that wants to join me in this quest is welcome. I think that many ITHers have already achieved this level of discipline, but if you feel such a commitment would be beneficial to you, pile on !

I will provide a progress report or two along the way and will fess up immediately in the event that I succumb to indignation.

I pledge to play within my bankroll for the month of October.

[Nutjob]

Wow, what is this forum? Bankroll management? Don't think I've ever been in here before......

What is this bankroll management you speak of?

Can't say that I'll join you as I don't really have a defined poker BR (can hear the screams of "FOOL" from the disciplined crowd) .... but I haven't ever really, really gambled it up or "taken a shot" at stakes that were way out of my league.....

So why am I here? Well, to wish you luck and let you know that someone is watching.

So, update? We're 10 days into the month of All Hallows Eve .... have you strayed?

[PizzaByNight]

This is too funny as I actually had planned on updating on the 10th and 20th. We’ve still got two and a half hours to go…I’ll submit my first report sometime in the wee morning hours.

[PizzaByNight]

I’ve sat down to 70 tables so far this month and all of them have been at my planned limit. So far, so good.

It wouldn’t mean anything though if I had been running so good that I never became frustrated. There have indeed been a handful of times that I have been put to the test. On Oct. 2nd, I encountered a run of being outdrawn that was so bad that I got all set to storm off to higher limits again to wreak some quick vengeance. Oh $#!*, I said to myself, I can’t do that because I laid down this gauntlet for myself in the Bankroll Forum. So I just “walked off” the pain instead. And on the 9th and 10th, I’d been Turned and Rivered so many times (I was a magnet for two outers) that I was positively fuming. But in this case, stomping off to a higher limit didn’t even occur to me.

That was the whole point of this October Challenge…. to condition myself to naturally have the right response during times of frustration. There’ve been four little ugly stretches so far, any of which would have had the potential for disaster to occur if I’d encountered a bad run of cards at a limit I wasn’t bankrolled for. But because I stayed at home each time, the gains that I’ve made so far this month have not been put in jeopardy.

[San]

I wish I could condition myself to play higher limits. In theory I've been bankrolled for 5/10 for a very long time, but my regular home is 2/4, I'm often found bonus chasing at 1/2 and I rarely visit 3/6.

I've told you before I'm the anti-pizza.

[PizzaByNight]

I will concede that I am significantly, perhaps even ridiculously, over-rolled for the stakes that I am referring to as my “planned limit”. But I am stubborn and dangit, I want to conquer this level by earning XXX amount of BBs before I move on to the next. I want to feel that I have truly earned my way up. At Stars actually, I’m pretty close. If things continue like they have been lately, I could be moving up within another month.

A change of avatar for Mr. San. If I had not already stolen a peek, I’d expect to find that some magic mushrooms were featured. Or that the guy you’ve stuck in the picture would have at least been clothed in a gecko shade of blue.

[Nutjob]

[San]

I tried to make it baron greenback but the photos were all way too big, and I was curiously quite-anti taking 2 minutes to reduce and upload this morning.

I'm rpetty sure I had this avatar when I first registered....Either I don't think much of the teletubbies; I'm calling Adolf cuddly, or I'm just my usual high self. You Decide!

[Nutjob]

OK, I'll go with

A. anti-teletubby guy

OR

E. all of the above

I've never seen any of this Danger Mouse stuff, but thanks to Wikipedia, I now am an expert....

sorry for the thread jack Pizza, keep the updates coming when necessary. .... plus this is the BR forum .. no one's really paying attention anyway.

[toronexti]

I consider this forum my home!


It's a beautiful 1room cardboard box

[PizzaByNight]

It’s time for a two-thirds-of-the-way-through progress report. I’ve sat at 138 tables now and all have been at my planned limit. There were still periods of frustration along the way but they have been milder – or at least my reaction to them has been milder - than the first part of the month.

I did have a particularly excruciating session yesterday in which every time I finally had a situation that was worth playing strongly, I would be overtaken by a far-behind hand on the Turn or River. What is it with me and my opponents’ two-outers ? I could feel a little of the old fury rising within me but its pull was weakish compared to what I’ve felt in the past. I went ahead and finished the session with a loss that wasn’t too bad actually and “got my satisfy” by changing gears and playing an SnG – but one that was at my planned limit. The adrenaline rush was good and I remember what the great Geormiet once said about SnGs being good tilt therapy.

A few days ago I was starting to feel giddy about poker. Things have been going well for awhile, I’m playing with more discipline, and I could be set to move up to the next limit very soon. Then I did a little scouting and sobered up fast. I’ve been spoiled at the Stars .25-.50 tables. Any time I want to sit, I have a choice of at least a half dozen full tables with one seat open and it is quite common to see tables with flop-seen %’s in the 60s, 50s or at least mid 40s.

What a change just looking at the .50-1.00’s. I’ll often see nothing but full tables with waiting lists and the flop-seen %’s begin to drop significantly. One’s expectation for an earn rate will have to drop correspondingly as well. This is particularly significant for me since neither my state nor my local taxing authorities allow me to net my poker losses against my poker winnings. For the past two months, my ratio of dollars gained per table to dollars lost per table at .25-.50 has been running at about 1.50 to 1.00. What if the move up to higher limits (and tighter tables) causes this ratio to drop to 1.20 to 1.00 ? If I assume a combined state and local tax rate of 8%, that means that these goons will unfairly walk away with 40% of the gravy. It kinda squelches one’s enthusiasm for the dream of moving up the limits. [Playing without rake at WPEX might be one way to widen these numbers back in my favor. And I define my sessions a little more broadly than just table by table, which helps too.]

But enough looking ahead for now, it’s time to get busy with the last third of the October Challenge.

[Nutjob]

Keep it going Pizza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

looking forward to an All Hallow's Eve post that you were successful!!!!!!!!!

(please don't look at the Nut's recent posts! btw, won a $100 6-person SNG tonight against someone who spent the whole tourney telling everyone about the $100K he won online, HAHAHAHLOLOLOL, maybe he did, but why would he say so the whole tourney ... ty Mr. 100K!)


anywho, DOUBLE CHEESE!

[PizzaByNight]

It's going to take considerably more discipline for me not to look at those posts than it has been for me to navigate this Challenge thus far.

While the stakes of that SnG have me raising an eyebrow, the results have me raising a fist skyward in triumph. Congrats, Nut !

[PizzaByNight]

Flash Bulletin:

I’m moving up !

I had wanted to have 1000 BBs as a base and another 100 BB as a cushion against an initial downswing before I moved to the next limit at Stars and I’ve just hit that level here in the wee morning hours. .50-1.00 will now be my planned limit.

Gonna take a few hours off and there’s some good football on tomorrow, including Indy at Denver. So won’t be testing the waters of my new limit until sometime Sunday night.

[Muttly]

Congrats, so close to the end of the month and a new limit. Should be able to conquer your challenge for sure.