Happy Thanksgiving Week(US Only =) )

Whats up all. So poker has once again been pretty slow lately, but I think once it gets colder it will get a lot more prevalent for me. I haven't played any poker at all on a weekend in about 3 months I don't think because I have had all kinds of things from weddings to parties to going out of town, etc. that has kept me from playing at all. I have been playing at night during the week, but there isn't much progress that can be made when I only have about 4 hours of total free time from the time that I get home until the time I feel I should be in bed(that 4 hours also includes showering and eating dinner). It doesn't help that I have about an hour commute each way, so if I could get rid of that, I would have an extra hour after work and another possible hour of sleep(so maybe I could stay up an hour later). Need to figure some stuff out. I've been thinking of trying to get a new job and I have a friend in Nashville that I gave my resume to, so hopefully that works out. Other than that, nothing with that part of my life is really changing.

On to poker. There have been some more big jumps this update. On UltimateBet I got 2nd place in CardsChat's $5.50 tourney that had $100 added and I took home $51 for that, so that bumped my UB account over the $200 mark. I was kind of disappointed with myself in that tourney because when we went to HeadsUp, it was down to Snowmobiler(a CardsChat regular) and I and we were about even in chips, and stayed that way for about 10 minutes, and then I just made a dump play with King high and lost. I need to work on my HeadsUp game a little more. I have a Heads Up book by Colin Moshman that is supposed to be great that I just haven't gotten around to reading yet.

On Bodog I played in one of the BPOIV(Bodog Poker Open IV) events and I didn't realize that it was a rebuy tournament, which I hate, and I ended up bubbling out of that one, and also spent $20 on the $5.50 tournament(which is why I don't like them). Now I know that with rebuys, you should be expecting to rebuy about 10-15 times, but that is just dumb to me, especially in my challenge situation where I don't have an unlimited bankroll to support all of the rebuys, but whatever. I built my winnings up around another $150 on here by playing the $8.80 tournaments at night, they have been working great for me, and I'm not going to stop until they stop bringin in the money.

On FullTilt, I have pretty much been doing the same, playing cash games here and there, but I have also started playing some of the Matrix tournaments, and I have had nothing but success with them. Actually, every single one that I have played in the past month or so I have at least won my buy-in back, with one of them I won all 4, so I was the "Dominatrix". Haven't really improved much here, but it's still +EV. And with Carbon, I was just messing around one day with an All-In or Fold tournament, and I won .75.

That is all for now. Like I said, hopefully once the weather gets cooler there won't be as many events that I need to be at so I will be able to play more so I have something to update. Also, I will be fixing the VPIP Hand Range Calculator because the math is wrong on it, but I just need to find a way to do it is JavaScript. I know I could do it in Visual Basic or PHP, but JS isn't my forte, so just be on the lookout for that as well.

Here Comes The BOOM...

So I guess this has turned into a monthly update, which I wish it wouldn't be, but between being busy with work and being busy playing poker, there haven't been too many times to update. Also, I think the summer has to do a lot with it, as when I am not at work or playing poker, I am out doing something, I mean, I have a life. So once the cold air starts hitting, there might be some more updates.

Now, on to the big update today! EVERY SITE HAS HAD A DECENT INCREASE!!! I will start off with the biggest first. Bodog....wow. This is something that I should have posted about the night that it happened, but I was too lazy and it got pushed off until now, almost 3 weeks later, so I don't have any specific hands, but I won $160 by winning a $8 Bounty tournament, which has been my biggest increase during the entire challenge! I have also played a couple smaller SnGs and cashed in them, but not for very much.

UltimateBet hadn't changed very much at all until Thursday night, where I got 4th place in the CardsChat.com Freeroll, adding $12 to the roll. I have started employing a more tight aggresive approach in my tourney game that has really been helping a lot. In this tournament I ended up busting out with K8s to someone holding pocket QQ that ended up improving to a set on the flop. Other than that, I really haven't been playing on UltimateBet too much lately. I played a couple Step Tourneys two weeks ago, but those are really just to kill time, because the amount of luck and time that goes into making it all the way up to Step 10 is immense.

Now on to PokerStars, which really got it's boost over a couple of different ways. First, I just started playing cash games, just 2NL, one night just to kill some time and see if I could raise it up a little. Just playing one table, I brought that $2 up to $9 in just over an hour before I quit. A couple days later I was playing two tables at 2NL and made another $12 in a couple hours, bringing my total up to $21. Then the next day I decided to just play a $1+.10 tourney and I ended up cashing in that for $5, bringing it up to $25.

Carbon finally got a boost! The last time it had any change on my graph was the first week of the challenge when I won $.07 in a new player freeroll. This was just yesterday that this happened, playing the CardsChat.com $100 Freeroll. I ended up getting 2nd place, and the tournament pays out 5 spots. I am not sure what hand I went out on because I didn't see it. What happened was right when it got to heads up, a 5 minute break came, so I went to the bathroom and took my break, whatever...came back to my computer about 4 minutes later, and the tournament was over and I got 2nd place. I think what happened was I pushed the "I'm Ready" button before I went to the bathroom and that ends the break early....I didn't know that, so it's my fault. We were at just about even stacks, so I could have taken it down for sure, but I learned a lesson, never hit that button.

Well, I need to run, but I am going to come back later to finish up about FullTilt. Cya!

Card Dead

So since the last time I posted, I have been playing absolutely terrible. Actually, I think it is in part my playing bad, and partly getting completely sucked out on time after time, which is in turn my fault on earlier play... My Aces have been getting cracked, I have flopped straights, only to get beaten by backdoor flush draws that go all-in on the flop, driving me crazy. I have not won a penny in a single tournament since last post, which was...July 17th, so a little over 2 weeks ago. And it hasn't just been on one site, it has been on just about all of them.

Starting off, I bubbled on Carbon, which would have given me at least $5(a lot considering .07c has been in there since the first week I had it). On UltimateBet, I played a like 5 $1 SnGs, to be of no help to me at all, I think I got 4th in 3 or 4 of them, which almost makes it worse. On Bodog, I played one of their $3.30 SnGs(which is higher than my bankroll allows, but it is the lowest they really have that isn't a 90-person) and bubbled on that one too!

Where I really screwed up was at FullTilt, playing the Daily Dollar tournament... I am mad at myself for this, because it could have been avoided. First of all, I won my seat into the tournament through winning a little 50 FPPs SnG satellite, which was easier than hell. So I am playing the tournament and build up a good stack, probably about 4 times the size of the average stack, and then like 4 hands in a row, I get the following: KK, AKs, AKo, JJ. Could I have any better cards consecutively? That's what I thought too, but I LOST WITH EVERY FUCKING ONE OF THEM!!! Why? Because it is a rebuy! So Joe Dumbfuck over there will go all-in with jack shit and suck out on me with my great hands, and if he loses, he will just rebuy again, and again, and again. So after those consecutive beats, I was pissed, and did a rebuy, then a double rebuy, and then a double addon when the break came. So I ended up spending like $7 on a stupid $1 tournament. I ended up getting pushed around after that, because I was moved to a table where everyone else had at least double my stack, and ended up getting out when I pushed with KQs and ran into KK and never held up. This is just one of the reasons that I usually never play Rebuys, because I hate how people play them... the damn game isn't played with skill, but how deep your pockets are, and that's stupid. Oh well.

I have brought my FullTilt back up about $2 by playing ring games though, and I think I might start to do this a little more often now, as I am pretty sure I have a good strategy that someone over at CardsChat helped me learn. So I have just been playing NL2(.01/.02) on FT just to try out my strategy, and I have doubled my buyins 3 times in just the past 2 days, so I think I am going to master it a little bit more at NL2, and hopefully will build the roll up a little bit to be able to get to NL5 soon(and on up), because it's kind of hard to take things seriously when you are playing for pennies, but I have to start somewhere, and it is more consistent than tournaments have been going for me lately, so I'll stick with it for now.

Also, I am thinking about possibly buying Hold'em Manager with some of my UltimateBet winnings. I have been doing trials on it for a long time now and it is a pain in the ass having to get rid of all of the tracks every two weeks when the trial is up(whoops, did I say that), and I love the program, just couldn't see spending $55 on it, but it will definitely be worth it over the long run. I just need to have a little bit more motivation to make that push. Well, hopefully next time I post, I will have some better news for you, this post was more of a rant I feel. Until next time, good luck at the felt(for me!!)

Another Bump

So I added a little more to UltimateBet yesterday, adding $5 to bring it just under $150. I won the $5 in the CardsChat U/B Freeroll, which I have already talked about a dozen times. I placed 12th in it, but the money wasn't the only good part about the game, I also won my 2nd Last Person Standing Challenge title, which doesn't earn me anything extra, just bragging rights for a day, lol, but it adds a little extra challenge to it to make it fun.

I also started using some of my Bodog winnings to try to turn a profit, as I haven't played with any of my roll there except for one time in a cash game, which I ended up losing $0.50, so I just played a 10-man SNG for $2.20 and I ended up winning it, making $6, but really only 3.80 after the buyin. I am kind of mad at myself for it though, I didn't realize it was listed as a Beginner SNG, so the top 5 out of 10 got paid, which just cut my winnings by about $4, but oh well, still won.

I think I am played a tournament on Carbon later on today, but I'm not sure how much poker I will be playing this weekend, but if anything happens, here will be the first place you'll be able to find out about it. Take it easy guys

Full Tilt Is Growing

The past couple days have been pretty successful for me. First I will start with Friday, which really wasn't a success, but that was out of my own stupidity. I was playing the CardsChat Carbon Freeroll, in which 5 places pay out, well, I made it down to the final six and I'm sure I could have made it into the money, because there was one other player that was below my chipstack by quite a bit, but I was also fairly low and needed to make a move to move up in spots. My problem came in that I wasn't just playing for the money, but also a CardsChat Challenge called Last Person Standing, or LPS, which really doesn't get you much but your name on a leaderboard and some bragging rights. In the challenge it was down to me and one other person, who had about double my stack and I needed to catch up to him in order to make any kind of a run on him. So I was in early position with AJs and pushed(only had about 6BBs left anyway). and I got called by the Small Blind who had AQo, I caught my Jack on the flop, but then on the river he improved to an Ace high straight, and I was out on the bubble. Had I not been trying to catch up to him I'm not sure I would have made this move right here, but possibly just tried to eke my way into the money, but oh well.

On to Full Tilt, where there was actually some progress... On Saterday, I played about 15 of these Sit-N-Learn freerolls, which I won tickets to through the Full Tilt Academy, and with them, the top 100 get a ticket to a $5000 freeroll on Sunday, so through playing the 15 or so, I ended up getting tickets to the Sunday in 7 of them(which I found out later didn't matter because you can't redeem anything from them by unregistering =/, I just made it so the field was a little smaller). So Sunday, I got to play in this one, which I ended up making $12, but I should have been higher, here is how I went out. So a player in early position with a stack just above mine raised pre-flop to about 5XBB and I look down at AKo, so I just flat called, not wanting to get into a huge pot with an unmade hand preflop, everyone else folded. Flop comes Axx, GREAT! He raises the pot, so I reraisedthe new pot and he pushes allin, I call and he shows me the AQo, perfect, only 3 outs for him. Turn comes a 9 and of course the river is a Q, so I was out. I felt like I played the hand great, just got screwed by the river. Nothing that I did was going to make him put that hand down.

I also won $2.50 in the Fantasy Freeroll for Limit Stud Hi Lo, which I got about 95th place out of 800 or so, which I find pretty good since I usually suck at Hi-Lo games, just because I am so used to Holdem, but I am getting a lot better at recognizing the low without problems. So now I'm up to about $22.50 in my FullTilt account, which is obviously the highest I have had it for the challenge. Hopefully this week will be as good as last, talk to ya later!

Problems...

So, I realize I have not posted since like September or something, but my job had been killing me. I was waking up early and by the time I got home, I was drained and the absolute last thing that I wanted to do was sit back down to the computer again. But there is good news, I was promoted and now I have my own office and my hours are not as long(not to mention I get paid tons more), so I will be playing poker a lot more, but some things are changing.

Walker is OUT!!! They have been really sketchy with my winnings lately...my funds have been disappearing and reappearing, and no one can seem to give me a real answer, so I completely withdrew everything from there(that is another story, worst withdrawal experience of my life!) So now I am going to be playing on UltimateBet, Carbon(not much though, same network as Walker), FullTilt and PokerStars. I understand that it is kind of crazy trying to do the 0-10,000 on 4 difference sites, but there are certain things that I like about each site, so all of them have started with $0 bankrolls. From now on I will try to keep everyone a little more updated.

Peace out everyone,
AbsolutHamm

Meltdown Evaded

So adding on to last night, I started the morning out losing a couple more Bounty SNGs....I couldn't even manage to pick off one damn bounty for some reason, I was just playing terrible. Then I decided to play one last one before I go to my buddy's bachelor party tonight and I won it. I knocked out 5 of the 9 other players, so it netted me $10, bringing me back to what I was the other day.

That is all I am going to play today as I am busy, but I have a freeroll tomorrow that might add a little on to my Carbon account, $500 PokerSpace Freeroll, wish me luck. Til then, take it easy.

Recent Addition

So I have a bit of news. I am adding a poker client to my conquest. The reason I am assuming that this is ok is because it is on the same network, Merge. The client that I am going to add in Walker Poker. Because it is on the same network, I am not allowed to be on both of them at the same time, I just wanted to be able to have a little range of events and tourneys.

Anyway, I just decided to do that earlier today and I never blogged about it because....well I completely forgot. But anyway, I played my New Player Freeroll on Walker today instead of Carbon and I got 62nd place, earning me another .07 cents, Woo-Hoo! About half way through that one, I played the PokerSpace freeroll after that, and I got 5th for $15! During the game I got Quads two times, Quad 2s and Quad 9s, so that is pretty awesome. It is a pretty good start to the bankroll. These PokerSpace freerolls are the answer for sure when it comes to building the bankroll. The New Player Freerolls are good, but you have to make it through all of the donks to get a possible $12.51 if you get first, otherwise you don't even break a dollar unless you get 7th.

Well tomorrow I will try some more of the freerolls and might even play some low limit SNGs and see what I can do. Til then take it easy fellas.

Ha, so today I have finally cashed in one of the New Player Freerolls on Carbon....for a total of .07 cents! Big money, I know. But I think that I have figured out how to play against the All-In monkeys that are playing there all the time, I will have to use this week to see if I can use it to my advantage. Well here is a picture of my Carbon bank account with only the .07 cents in it. I think there are two more freerolls tonight, so maybe I can add a little more to that later. Short post right now, I will update you all if I end up cashing later on. Take it easy!

And It Begins

Hey everyone.

So if you couldn't tell from the title of the blog, my goal with this blog is to make it from a empty account on a poker site and turn it into 10 Grand within 24 months, starting through freerolls and eventually playing the bigger games. This is widely known as the Chris Ferguson Challenge, because he did this on FullTilt. I know that there are a bunch of other people who gave themselves a lot less time, but I have a job and a life and can't spend all day online playing poker(not putting down anyone that does, but it's true, I've got shit to do).

So I have just signed up for a new account on Carbon on Tuesday and have not deposited any money into it. It is nice on Carbon because they have New Player Freerolls for the first 14 days(I think) that your account has been opened and only those players are allowed to register. So maybe those will help get the ball rolling. I have played two already today and I swear, players with their All-Ins are 10x worse than on sites like UB or AP....terrible. You never know what they are holding.

Now hopefully I will try to update everyone(I say that like a ton of people are reading this, lol) as much as possible, so maybe everyday that I play I will try to post some update about how I did and what my current roll is. I am also going to try to stick fairly close to these rules:

• Never buy into a cash game or a Sit & Go for more than 5% of my total bankroll; the only exception is at the lowest limits: allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less
• Can’t buy into any multi-table tournaments for more than 2% of my total bankroll; the only exception was $1 MTTs
• If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represented more than 10% of my total bankroll, he had to leave the game when the blinds reached him

Oh yea, I will probably be posting some of my updates on my blog at PokerSpace as well. You all should sign up there, I signed up about 3 months ago and I go there everyday. It's like Facebook for poker players. Anyway, good luck on the felt guys!