[BullChip]

Quest X started on: September 11, 2004
Quest X ended on: October 16, 2004
Quest X starting BR: $30
Quest X ending BR: $3049.93 officially (Scroll to bottom for more details)

I started this project with $30 playing low stakes NLHE at PokerRoom.com. To my surprise I received a $6 bonus, increasing my BR by 20%. On September 12, I cashed out $50. Then, another $200 on September 21. I don’t have much else to report regarding PokerRoom.com besides the fact that their low stakes NLHE is very beatable playing an aggressive, patient game. I basically waited for my hands, picking my spots, and let my opponents bet my big hands for me while I trapped them. I also played some SnGs, which helped me build my roll. In 10 days, I made $220, not including the $6 bonus and a previous $30 deposit I made about a week earlier. This averaged to $22/day, which I wasn’t too unhappy about considering all the factors. I had a small BR, limited hours, small stakes game selection, and cheap buy-ins. I knew from the start that I had to be patient and willing to swallow some pride in order to build my roll slowly but surely. Sometimes it was frustrating buying in for $15 at a low stakes NLHE table only to double up a couple times and be up $30. Still, I completed my first mission, which was to make $200 so that I can transfer the money to PartyPoker and start getting a little more serious…

I deposited $200 into my PartyPoker account on September 26. I didn’t want to start by playing NL $25, so I jumped right into NL $100 buying in for about $50 each time. My first tournament was a single table $20 + $2 SnG, which I won and got back $100. After a successful first day, I ended my sessions with $414.73. WOW! I more than doubled my roll on day 1! I was happy. However, I transferred $55 into my friends account because I owed him some money. So my ending day 1 was $359.73. +$159.73, after counting money transferred.

During my next session, I was able to buy in for the max at the NL $100, which made me feel more comfortable. I wasn’t forced to pick a hand and go with it but rather play a more aggressive game. I played a number of tables and ended 9/29 with $906.83. I played a lot on 9/28 and 9/29. It seemed like I was running good so I took advantage of this psychologically and hoped to carry this winning streak as far as I could. On one table I took $100 and turned it into $600 in 4 hours. However, I lost $100 on another table and $33 on a 3 - Table tournament. I kept playing every chance I got and now that I look back, I realize I played from 9/28 7:40PM until 5:30AM the next day! WOW! I guess I was feeling it or something because I rarely do that without losing a big chunk of money. Things were looking good; after all, I was up over $700 in 3 days! I ended week 1 at $1366.38. I was playing a lot of NL $100 and although I didn’t keep records at PT, Excel, or anything of that nature, my account summary shows that I either lost small or won pretty big in relation to my buy-in. I usually tried to double up once and break small stacks after that. I was cautious to other big stacks and played my game. When I lost, I would lose 1 buy-in and either go to another table or quit for the day. I had a good week mixed with good cards and got really lucky. There’s no way that this could be consistent I thought but was happy with my week 1 profits.
Week 2 was continued rapid success as I ended with $2676.36 in my account for a healthy +$1309.98. At this rate, I was considering going pro. LOL! However, I think I was playing as a semi-pro, right? I have no other means of income besides Financial Aid and Grants from school but that doesn’t really count as income although it helps me live. I couldn’t really believe the success I had, especially at the rate I was going. I thought making $500 a week was going to be plausible but $1300? This was insane and I didn’t know how to handle it. I knew I was running good and couldn’t imagine the swings. I stuck to my game plan and continued to work the games I was playing, mostly NL $100 and small buy-in single table SnGs. One thing I want to report is I played a quick session of 15-30. I played for 45 min. and bought in for $500. I turned that into $971. I think I played a total of 2 hands or something, excluding my BB. I sat at a table where a raise was standard PF and hardly got a chance to limp in with suited connectors or small-medium pocket pairs. Something I wasn’t use to but had to adjust rather quickly. I got some good cards which held up and I felt good about my little run. I lost $32 in 30 min. at my other 15-30 game and left rather quickly because I wasn’t really feeling the table all too much. I know this is a small sample and I’m not saying I can beat this game for $X or $XXXXXXXXX. I’m just saying I had fun while it lasted and thankful I showed a profit.

One of my biggest wins that week came from 2 hours of work at NL $100. I showed a profit of $293.95. I also booked a nice win from a separate 2 hour session earlier where I showed a profit of $269.10. I was beginning to feel very lucky for nothing seemed this easy in my poker career. Maybe I was getting better or maybe I was getting lucky, whatever it was I liked it! My BR kept increasing by the minute and I can’t recall if I ever had a losing session since my Party project started. If I did, it was small compared to my wins so I didn’t really notice. I might have had some losing sessions but nothing compared to what I won so at the end of each day I was very, very happy with where my BR was going. I thought I was playing better than I ever was which helped me tremendously psychologically. I felt like I could beat the games whenever I sat down to play.

Well, after such a long time winning every possible way with either good cards or bad, I hit a wall. Yesterday was the WORST day since the start of my project. I tilted away a lot of money after I made some bad plays, bad bluffs, and bad cards. It was just bad. I felt like shooting myself at one time. What made it even worse was that I continued to keep playing and played some more after I decided I wasn’t going to. I’m such as idiot sometimes. I wanted to make back what I lost initially, which wasn’t even that much compared to how much I was winning. In 23 min. I lost $189.65 playing NL $100. After that it was downhill.

I managed to play in 2 single table $100 + $9 SnGs. I placed in one getting back $300. The other one I could’ve placed as well if I hadn’t gotten so much bad luck. I lost with the best hand twice, which hurt my stack and was forced to go all in and got beat again. I also played in 2 single table $200 + $15 SnG, placing 3rd in one getting back $400. I had about 5X the BB with 44 in the BB. Button, who has me covered, goes all-in for his whole stack and SB folds. He’s been raising almost every button he gets and I feel it’s a coin flip and take the chance. He has KQ spades. Q on the flop, another one on the turn, and I’m finished. Oh well, I read him right and got a little unlucky. It happens. I was so happy, party because I finished in the money in one and partly because I thought I played really well. The other one I went out with 88 all-in PF against TT and KK. I was pretty much short-stacked 5 handed and TT raises from EP and I push in LP. KK in one of the blinds goes in and I know I’m dead to at least him. Turns out I have the worst hand but things look good when a beautiful 8 falls on the turn. However, a dreadful T rivers and the best hand, KK, turns out to be the worst hand. I’m out a short time later when my KJ runs into AT and I get no help. I’m down $30 overall in these 2 high SnGs and hopefully will be able to play more of these in the future. I played these out of tilt and got lucky it worked out in one.

My peak BR was at $3747.43 on October 15 around 8:30 PM. I withdrew $500 last night as well. I money transferred a total of $155 to 2 of my friends because I owed them some money so that leaves me with $45 out of the initial $200 I have invested into my account. At the moment, my account stands at $2394.93 because I withdrew $500 last night after I lost $852.50. I should’ve limited my losses when I was down about $200 but was pissed off at the way I went bust and jumped into bigger games to recover my losses. I should’ve never played because after I ate dinner I was planning to go out with some friends but logged back on to play some more after I book a nice win earlier that day. What a bad decision. I titled away a lot of the money I lost. I lost $400 in 17 min. playing NL $200. I played so bad I deserved to lose. However, losing this much money in 17 min. really got me steaming. I should’ve quit here again but didn’t. I made $144 after that idiotic session to recover 36% of that loss but it still hurts as I type this up. I really need to control my emotions more as I’m still working on detaching my emotional involvement and increasing my mental involvement. I know I can beat the NL $100 games pretty easily if I’m patient enough. I got a little too cocky averaging over $1100/week at one point and thought I should move up. I know I was wrong but did it anyway.

One more thing about losing the $852.50 is that the money means a lot to me. So I’m not going to go any higher than NL $100 until the money is irrelevant. I need to start thinking of all this money as the number of chips/units I have. So instead of thinking I have about $2400 sitting in my Party account, I should start thinking about having 2400 units. It’s easier to deal with losses mentally, which makes 200 or 300 units not so bad compared to 853 units. I could’ve prevented that 600 unit loss by controlling myself and accepting a defeat but chose to fight back and chase bad money with good. Cardinal Sin. I knew better too. That’s what irritates me the most. Oh well, got to shrug it off if I want to continue to succeed.

I’m still happy. After calculating everything, I’m showing a profit of $2849.93. Not bad for 3 weeks worth of work (2394.93 + 500 + 155 – 200). Actually, personally, this is way more than I can ask for and I’m very, very grateful to be so lucky. I’m a starving college student in my last year graduating in June 2005 and if I can keep this up, who knows where I can go from here. Hopefully, I’m going all the way.