The Beginning... Well almost

About 6 months ago I had about $80 in my Full Tilt acct. Here's some history on me. I was playing live NL poker for a living for over a year until I accepted an actual job after some family issues had subsided. I needed the flexibility of the poker lifestyle to take care of some things for that time but everything was ok again so I felt the need to "go back to work." My live playing days would be significantly limited.

After entering $100 into a Party Poker account a few years ago to try out the site I built up that account to around $3000. I started with the $10 Sit-N-Go's (SNG's) and set a goal and a bankroll strategy. My inital goal was to get to the $20 SNG's but I needed $400 before I would take my shots at them... If my bankroll dipped below $300 (or 15 buy-ins) I was back to the 10's until I built back up to $400. I played 99 $10 SNG's and won $271 and had an ROI (Return on Investment) of 24.8%. To make a long story short I continued to move up in stakes until I reached the $50 buy-ins. Once I had over $2000 I was able to play in some $5-10 Stud H/L as well as the SNG's until the government's ruling that forced Party Poker to shut down. I cashed out my $3000 and was wondering what to do next.

I continued to play live and did well. I started my actual job around March and hadn't played any online poker. A close friend of mine who I played live with many times and was one of the best live NL players I had ever been around had told me that they were tearing up the MTT's on Full Tilt. I had opened a Full Tilt account around the same time that I started my Party account but never really liked the software or the games for that matter. They were slow and not enough to choose from. Back to my opening of "About 6 months ago I had about $80 in my Full Tilt acct." Since so many online sites shut down to American players, it seems that everyone migrated to either Full Tilt or PokerStars. I knew with my job I wouldn't be able to make the 1 1/4 hour trip back and forth to AC on a regular basis so I figured online was the way to go. To make any significant money I knew I'd have to rebuild my online bankroll. I decided to go about it the same way I did on Party with a little twist. I decided to really work on my Multi-Table Tournament (MTT's) game. Along with my SNG bankroll standards, I added a MTT standard. I'd play any MTT that I had at least 50 buy-ins for. SLOWLY i built from $100 to $300... started playing $5 MTT's. I made three final tables with no wins... got to $500... added the $10 MTT's. Then I started to see some real success. I made 3 final tables with two wins out of 36 entered. My profit there was over $1700. I've made some small cash outs and transfers so my account is a little over 2k.

Lately I've found that the speed SNG's are a little better for me as they force the action and many players don't know how to play them properly. I've moved up to the $55+5 level. I've played 36 and made a little over $300 and have an ROI of 14.5%. There are a few more quality players at this level and need a bigger sample size to judge success. Also I have enough in my bankroll to play the big $24 guarantees on a daily basis with some 1st prizes in excess of 5k.

That being said I have 3 new goals:
1) Make the Full Tilt High Limit SNG leaderboard
2) Build up to the $110+9 SNG's (I'll start here when i have 25 buy-ins for this level which is around $3000)
3) Finish the year with a bankroll of $20,000

Now I know there are only 3 months left in the year so to win $18k is going to be difficult. I believe it's entirely possible with the $24 MTT's and building up to the $110 SNG's. I've always felt if you aim small, you get small. Throughout this blog I'll update you all on stats and different hands. Feedback will always be appreciated. Most importantly, I'd like to thank Rex55 and RivRunsDeep for all of their help and support. TT!