More On My Personal Poker Challenge

I'm just going to talk more about how to set up my goals for my poker challenge. Now I have scoured the internet for various ideas on how people have set a challenge up for themselves, and a lot of people have got some great concepts and mostly all centered on money.

I'm not saying money is a bad thing to focus on, as that’s how most people measure poker success is with the size of your bank roll and how you built it up. What my main concern is that sometimes the monetary goal is the end result that people are looking for, some people have goals to be financially free, some seek fame and fortune by becoming a poker celebrity, what ever the goal is, it must be backed with a strong enough desire for to want login to your account every day to achieve it rather than donking off your bank roll.

I have already defined what my goals are in the last blog, I just wanted to discuss that there always has to be more than just the money.

Now for the rules I have set up for myself.

RULES:

- I must have 20 buy-ins for each level I play at in a ring cash game i.e. (This is so I don't quickly go bust by buying in to a table that can send me broke with one hand)

- I must always buy in at the highest amount and never play at a table if I am the short stack. i.e. (this is so I am not displaying myself as an easy target and use the stack more)

- I must play more of a solid consistent game rather than try big time bluffs i.e. (Keep it simple in the lower limits and build the skill up slowly)

- I must buy into sit n go tourneys only for less than 5% of my total bank roll i.e. (Once again to sustain the bank roll)

And that’s all the basic rules I have set up for myself. I think that should be enough to keep me going for now and i can always adjust where necessary if things aren't working out.

As I plan to go along this journey there are a number of things I will talk about as minor goals to help me along the path. For instance I don't even have rake back like most sensible online players do, so I will have to investigate this further, to get a good return.

I also want to find decent software online that I can use along with my play, as long as it is legal, I don't even use a heads up display! That’s where I look more like a live player, so I plan to get with the program and get one.

Plus there is also Shark Scope that I want try that gives you all the stats on your play, I first want to read how to interpret the stats I'm seeing of myself and then learn how to improve them.

I have a long way to go, but I know the journey and the learning process will be worth while.

Matt
Somethingaboutpoker.com

Setting up My Poker Challenge!

Last time I talked about how poker professional Chris "Jesus" Ferguson set up his own personal challenge online to turn $1 into $10,000 and how he managed to do it within 16 months. Well now I have already created my own version of this challenge and have had minimal success due to a number of things the main cause has been DAM laziness!

Recently I have moved my poker challenge over to blogger here away from my website blog at Somethingaboutpoker.com the reason for this is because I wanted to focus the website more on poker business issues such as, poker resources, websites reviews, professional players and tournament results etc.

This way I can use this blog for my own outburst of bad beats raves, slick move rants and much more. I must have set up my own challenge about 6 months ago and have done hardly anything with it, life got in the way and I took a break from the game.

I couldn't play at the local casino anymore because I got a job there as a Black Jack Dealer, and I had to play pub poker tourneys and online poker only. This was very hard because I was so used to playing live and am still struggling with the transition of online play as my live table reads were pretty good in my biased opinion.

So anyway here are my challenge specifics, the goal is to make $10,000 (Nothing exciting like a million dollars) Plus Qualify in time for the Main Event WSOP 2008 all to be done online through one account playing at Pokerstars.com

I have approximately 5 months left and the bank roll balance which I started on $100 USD is now on $142.29 as of this very minute, yikes I checked. So I better get my A into G and start banking some money!

I'm a bit tired at the mo as I have been working on parts of my website and played a bit of 1c-2c NL Holdem (Frustrating playing at those levels), I will do another post tomorrow to talk more about the rules that I have set for myself, Statistics to aim for, secondary goals etc

Matt
Somethingaboutpoker.com

Chris Ferguson's Personal Poker Challenge And Everybody Else

Here is a story that has been circulating around the web for a while now, and every poker room you step into play poker live or online, you hear the legendary story of how Fulltiltpoker.net poker pro Chris "Jesus" Ferguson turned $1, yes you read that correct $1 into $10,000 by building his bank roll up slowly starting at the micro limits.

Now you would probably wonder why anyone would even attempt such a crazy goal like this especially if you are already an established poker pro on the regular poker circuit taking down WSOP events that have 6 figure money prizes to be won. Was it a publicity stunt for Fulltiltpoker.net? Did Chris just want to prove he can do it? Was it a divine poker awakening?

Chris Ferguson has stated that he did it to show people that you don't need much of a bank roll to start with at all to be able to progress forward to make money out of the online game, he also said that all it requires is discipline on your part in staying within the rules you set your self, i.e. not playing beyond your bank roll and risking it all on one hand, but grinding it out to the final goal. Read More About Chris Ferguson's Money Management.

Well after Chris achieved his Goal of turning $1 into $10,000, he quickly made another goal for himself of starting from nothing and turning it into another huge bankroll. A lot of people on the net playing online poker have tried to duplicate this and started there various own blogs putting time limits on themselves and blogging about it to the rest of the world.

The question is how many will succeed and what will hold most people back, I want to look further into this because what Chris Ferguson did has also sparked my imagination and aspiration of achieving something similar online as well. But the first step I want to do is investigate further to see what people are doing out there online and what holds people back whilst pro's like Chris strive forward and build those bank rolls.

I will spend some time reflecting on these questions then post my own personal challenge to myself to starting posting on this blog right here!

Matt
Somethingaboutpoker.com

Psychic Poker Powers?

Are top poker players psychic with there abilities? I mean is it totally possible to predict what cards will come on the flop, turn or the river by mathematics? Science? Or the supernatural, I know I have heard that poker pro Phil Laak has studied what is called Lucid Dreaming which is some really weird stuff of getting into your opponents head space...

But what about total predictions of the way hands fall on the felt? Have you ever played online and just know that the flush card is going to come? Or that a board is going to pair?

Anyway I was looking on You Tube and found this clip of Daniel Negreanu calling his running cards during a National Headsup match in 2006, watch below and see Daniel's PSYCHIC POWERS in action!

Enjoy the clip and tell me what you think.

Matt
somethingaboutpoker.com

The First Post Of A Long Poker Journey

Well I guess this is where all good things come to start, from absolutely nothing but an idea to moving forward through a series of goals and the all important climactic high and so forth...

Forgive me for my general ramblings as this will be one of many rants and raves that I will be having on my very own poker blog, There are thousands if not millions of websites on the subject of poker that have been put up by people wanting to get into the game as well as wanting to earn commission from having links and reviews on there blogs or websites...

So why should I miss out on the opportunity, well very quickly I have made this blog using the Google resource of Blogger.com (very useful and FREE!) plus I have already created my own website which took longer than I bloody thought it would, you can find it here at somethingaboutpoker.com.

I guess I will be using the Blogger site more so to discuss my own personal game and to get those DAM BAD BEATS off my chest, got to complain to someone when I lose a huge pot don't I! It might as well be the world!

And I will use the somethingaboutpoker.com website for more of commercial endeavours etc.

Well I am looking forward to communicating with all of my readers and hopefully get something going with my poker blog, Ok off to win the WSOP...

Lets Go!

Matt
somethingaboutpoker.com