‘Shots’ Paying Off – Bankroll Challenge Day 7
Day 6 of Doug Polk’s bankroll challenge was a gnawing grind. After being ‘in the red’ from the start to around the 4 hour mark, even the most optimistic estimates had him breaking even at the end of the day.
However, in an impressive comeback, the last 20 minutes of the Twitch stream saw Doug catch surge to win 4 buy ins at NL4 going from $120 to $136. Now, Doug looks to keep that momentum going into his seventh day.
Let the Good Times Roll
Doug welcomed us to Day 7 by announcing that he finished recording a new Polker News, which will be released on his YouTube channel later this week. He reflected on his past session, now being comfortably rolled for NL4 and having forty five buy-ins for $3 tournaments.
‘’We need to bang off a tournament for $100’’, he said, realizing he just used the term ‘bang off’ to refer to a $100 win. ‘‘If we bang off like $150, we can play some $0.05/$0.10, then we can finally get our roll together.’’
Doug acknowledged that the end goal may seem far away, but reminded his audience that this was a 36% bankroll increase in just a week and a half.
‘‘If we increase 100% every week, it will take us 7 weeks.’’ he calculated, ‘‘If we increase just 50% every week it would take us 3 months. So if we go from $85 to $160 this week, which it looks like it will be the case, then we can finish this challenge in 2 months, no problem.’’
After that pep talk, he jumped into the action. He registred into 7 tournaments for a total $9, ranging from freerolls to $3. While he waited for his first tournament to begin, he hopped into 3 tables of $0.02/$0.04.
After about an hour of three tabling NL4 and adding the first tournament of the day to the mix, the session was on the right track, up about $8.
This allowed Doug to take a quick break just before the Twitter Strategy Q&A segment. But first it was time to…
Twitter Strategy Q&A
As always, featured Upswing Poker coach Doug Polk put some stream time aside to answer some of your strategy questions on Twitter. Here are some highlights:
@DougPolkPoker Doug Do u think that HU and regular cashgame tables are more profitable than zoom tables?in general u can exploit more leaks?
— Jack Leaff (@LeaffJack) 17 de agosto de 2016
Summary of Doug’s answer: Regular tables are almost always going to be better than Zoom for good players. Because of the following reasons:
- You get to pick your opponent and be able to get an edge on them more accurately.
- In regular tables you can have a lot more hands against the weaker opponents.
- You get to study and prepare for certain opponents to develop a strategy that beats theirs.
@DougPolkPoker Hi Doug, whats your thought on open minraising at any position versus 2.5/3x ? I feel like you are losing value preflop NL2
— Khánh Lê (@kkhanh92) 17 de agosto de 2016
Summary of Doug’s answer: At micro stakes, the rake is pretty bad, it’s 5%. That 5% will have a drastic impact on your winrate. In order to beat the rake, you need to raise to sizes that are less likely to be raked.
In this example we are talking about NL2. There is rake at $0.20, meaning that for every raise of over $0.20 one gets raked 5% of the pot. In NL2, one needs 5% more equity with a hand to justify a raise of over $0.20. So creating pots of $0.20 is certainly a mistake unless one wants to play a lot tighter.
Doug could play tighter and raise bigger, the equity would be about the same. However that would mean not allowing himself the opportunity to exploit his opponent’s playstyle post flop. He is trying to play a style that minimizes rake, while at the same time playing as many hands as he possibly can.
You shouldn’t play a strict preflop value strategy in the micro stakes. For a couple of reasons:
- You can still bluff people, despite what many people say
- You want to have more board coverage and thus maneuverability with your range postflop
When the rake is this huge, pick a size that allows you to take advantage of those two things.
Remember to send in your questions to @DougPolkPoker as soon as as the Q&A is announced for the best chance to get an answer.
The Great $5 Sit and Go Debate
An hour and a half into the stream, Doug Polk decided to test the waters with some 9-handed sit and gos, starting with $1 buy-ins. Eventually, a $5 caught his eye.
Noting that most sit and gos lack regs, he started to consider that this may be the way to go, but $5 was quite the leap with where the roll currently stood ($139).
After some low stakes SNG success, Doug decided to gamble and register.
The $5 dollar sit and go decision was a controversial one in the Twitch chat. Some saw it as a betrayal of Doug’s own bankroll management rules, while others wanting to see some ‘‘high stakes’’.
Soon after the decision, regs from Twitch flocked to register to have a chance to play against Doug. He decided to unregister last minute, much to the chagrin of the Twitch regs.
Pictured: Twitch regs having to endure a sad, Doug-less existance
Just half an hour later though, Doug decided to punk all of those poor suckers and enter a random $5 Sit and Go, one with only one reg. The shot proved to be a well timed one.
In Doug’s own words: ‘‘$5 sit and goes are the nuts’’. He won $21, his bankroll now stood at $152. The nuts indeed.
Soon, it was clear that the debate was settled and $5 Sit and Goes were the way to go. Doug decided to two table $5 SnGs for the remaining of the stream.
By two tabling, rather than his typical four, he minimized the risk of going busto without sacrificing ROI or entertainment value for the Twitch audience.
During the stream, Hearthstone pro David Caero AKA HsDog from Team Liquid gave Doug a shout out and a host on his channel. The two card game pros have faced each other before in Poker, Hearthstone and Pacman.
The $5 Sit and Go continued strong, with Doug feeling confident enough to add NL4 and NL2 tables along the way. The $5 Madness even spread to a 6 max PLO8 SnG and multi-table SNGs.
The shots paid off big. At the end of a nearly eight hour session, the bankroll stood at an impressive $178.
Get daily updates from the challenge here!
(Serious about improving your poker game? Check out the Upswing Lab! Doug Polk and Ryan Fee collaborated on this A to Z poker training course and the great reviews keep rolling in!)
