SnG Challenge Update

Just a short update on my little SnG Challenge. I'm finding it a little hard at the moment to stay focused on it, playing $0.10 sit n go's is doing my head in, it's just like play money tables. I was in a strong position in 2 games today only to find myself rivered several time over 5 or 6 hands to go from chip lead to out in both. Having said that I'm still winning some and with a small win tonight on a freeroll my initial $0.55 is now $1.97 which on the games played so far is an ROI of 90% if only I could keep that up.

I was tempted today to make a deposit so I could move up a few buy in levels but that's cheating. It wouldn't be a challenge if it was easy. So I'll keep grinding away.

Job Interview

I had some good news yesterday, I got a phone call asking me to go for an interview for a job I applied for last week. I was very hopeful at getting the interview because it is a job I have 20 odd years experience in doing so I now have to impress and hope for a bit of luck. After being unemployed for just over a year it's about time something went right.

My little sit n go challenge moved on slowly yesterday. Played 3 x sit n go and 1 x freeroll. Managed to win 1 sit n go, but it's hard work the first important lesson I am learning in $0.10 sng's is patience, I have been seriously card dead over the 2 days I have played so far which is not good. Players seem to play any 2 cards if they pair any one they will take it to a showdown. So bad beats a common as they get improbable trips, straights, flushes and full houses on the river. It's a case of playing good solid ABC poker being very cautious with anything but the nuts. Prime example was raising 5x BB with AQ on the Button and getting called by the BB. I hit an Ace on the flop and continuation bet 3/4 of the pot which he called. I started to think he may have trips so I checked and he checked. So re-thinking that he may be chasing a flush I made a half pot bet when the river didn't complete the flush which he called again. He then turns over 56 the 5 had paired on the flop and the 6 paired on the river they were suited and the type of player he was I think he would have called even if I went all in pre flop.

The freeroll was a $300 Cash Crazy Freeroll, with 1000 players and top 20 paying. As I said above I have been card dead so the first hour was hard, but after the first break I got a couple of decent hands and built a big enough stack to make it to the second break. After the second break I got lucky the big stack next to me was an "interesting" player and he and I had about 4 hands in a row where I got cards and he decided he wanted to play me with nothing. He helped increase my stack from 4000 to 30,000 which was very kind. At this point I should have been cruising into the money no problem, until I got KJ on the BB and the player on the button put in a big raise, the little devil voice in my head start shouting "he's stealing" so I re-raised and he went all in. I had to fold and he showed AK so I made the right choice to fold but I had blown over half my stack. 2 hands later I got AK went all in and was called by 66 I didn't get any help and was out. So I went from a certain cash to out in 43rd only 23 places from the money. So as I said near the start I need to learn patience.

Sit n Go Challenge

Just recently my poker has lost any form of focus, I have money on probably 15 different sites and can't seem to settle on any. I can't find a game I really want to play and when I do play a tournament I get frustrated and end up playing badly. So I am down to playing 6 forum tournaments at 4kingpoker, a few sit and go tournaments and cash tables and apart from the 4kingpoker games I'm not really happy with any of it. So I need to do something to regain focus and find some enjoyment in poker again or give it up cash in and buy a PS3.

What I think I'll do for a start is set myself a challenge, I was checking through some of my poker accounts at the weekend and found a massive $0.55 in my CelebPoker account. So with that I'm setting myself a challenge of building it in to a working bankroll on Celeb by the end of March. I'm going to do this by playing Sit n Go Tournaments, any sort, and freerolls to try and speed things up a bit. CelebPoker is on the iPoker network and has a great range of sit n go's with games starting at $0.10 + $0.02 and with their Cash Crazy freerolls a good selection of daily freerolls. Once I get past the early stages I'm sticking to rigid bankroll management. Tournament buy in's will be no more than 2% of my bankroll, so I'm grinding my way at $0.10 tables till I get to $11 then I'll move up to $0.20 tables. If I take a hit and go below $10 I'll move back down. One of the first things I'll need to master is multi tabling effectively. I've done this on cash table but never bothered on sit n go's.

Sunday was my first day and got off to a slow start, I wasn't really in the mood to play much so I started slowly. I played 3 x 10 seat Sit n Go's and 2 x freerolls and the only success I had was a first in one sit n go which has increased the bankroll to $0.69. Hoping for a better day today.