Value All Around – Bankroll Challenge Day 8

Day 7 of Doug Polk’s 10k Bankroll challenge was a great session for those watching learn a thing or two from the pro poker coach. It was too much for this brief intro to handle, but the two particular lessons spring to mind.

First, we learned the importance of bet sizing in highly raked games. When the pot reaches $0.20 the pot is raked a massive 5%. Doug sizes small preflop in micro stakes to make it less likely the pot reaches that $0.20 threshold.

This concept blew the Twitch audience’s mind, as evident by the chat/twitter feed blowing up as Doug finished his explanation.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, we got an answer to Doug’s question from day 6. ‘‘Is it better to play something you are not completely rolled up for with a big edge, or something you are completely rolled up for with a smaller edge?’’

Doug decided on the former and made a few aggressive bankroll decisions. After two tabling $5 Sit and goes and mixing it up with some NL4, the bankroll reached a new peak at $178. 

Sadly, technical difficulties affected the twitch stream schedule, leaving Doug out of commission for two days. Luckily, he decided to give his audience a treat with a surprise Friday stream.

A Crash and Some Cash

Doug started the session hoping to break the $200 ceiling by playing cash games and sit and goes. ‘‘If the Sit and goes are as soft in general as the last time we played,’’ he said with hope in his heart, ‘‘then frankly I want to keep that going.’’

He then announced that there might be some technical difficulties as he has a new set up for the surprise session. Moments later, the stream suddenly crashed.

Luckily, he was back soon after, however, with action already on it’s way.

The session started with NL2 and NL4 tables while he waited for the sit and go seats to fill up. The cash game session was profitable, even if filled with regs, with some good hands and a couple coolers going Doug’s way.

When asked how long the challenge would take, the two time WSOP bracelet winner said: ‘‘I don’t know, I originally said two months but it’s been a couple of weeks and we are not even 2X of the roll, so I’m going to say somewhere around three months, I think’’.

Challenge FAQ

For the sake of his own sanity, Doug uploaded an FAQ about the challenge to YouTube. Check it out before asking why he’s minraising for the 100th time.

 

The $5 Sit and Go Madness Continues!

Twenty minutes into the stream, it was finally time for some more $5 Sit and Go action, with two SnGs popping up, not too long after the other. The first one was a bust, with Doug finishing sixth out of nine. But the session was young, and there was another SnG table running, with more in the pipeline.

At the one hour mark, he answered some questions from the chat.

He had a piece of advice for someone about to play the EPT Barcelona main event. ‘‘Poker is not one of those games where you change your play depending on the stakes,’’ Doug, himself a two time WSOP bracelet winner, said ‘‘you should always play your A-game.’’

He also added that he will probably resume the streaming of high stake tournaments, at least temporarily. He will play and possibly stream the WCOOP (World Championship Of Online Poker) which starts in September.

In the short term, the session wasn’t going as well as last time. However, the $5 sit and goes still showed their value, by having no shortage of players sitting out, and general bad plays that sometimes win the pots. Doug reminded optimistic, despite cashing only a few times. At the hour and thirty minutes mark, the bankroll was up by $4.

His optimism proved successful. Despite playing one more table than what he would be comfortable with, he soon had the commanding lead in two sit and goes while heads up. He took both down back to back, adding $42 to his bankroll, which was now at $204, finally doubling.

‘Value All Around’

Adding to the good news, Twitch user Cory000005 posted the following in the chat.

‘‘Cory000005: @upswingpoker hey Doug now that you are playing sit and go’s keep an eye on the sit and go leaderboard promotion. You are currently in 16th place. Top 30 get paid. It runs Tuesday thru Tuesday.’’

Doug investigated the legitimacy of this promotion, as he had never heard of it before. He was able to confirm it during the Twitch stream:

After only two days playing Low stakes Sit and Goes, Upswing Poker’s Featured Coach now is almost half of the way to first place. Which means that soon, if he keeps it playing like he always has, he will win the lion’s share of $500. Questions about the payout structure remain, what’s certain, however, is that the bankroll will get a boost at the end of the week.

‘‘Rakeback, leaderboards, people sitting out’’ Doug mused, ‘‘there is value all around guys, you just have to go and take it.’’

Thanks to Twitch subscriber Cory000005 for bringing it up to Doug’s attention!

Old Friends and Breaking Even

Just before the end of the stream, Doug Polk recounted how he met Chicago Joey.

They met in the Full ring forum of 2+2, eight or nine years ago. Doug backed him for NL50 and NL100 and they’ve been friends since. It’s hard to think of Chicago Joe Ingram, host of HSPLO and the Poker Life Podcasts, as a No Limit Hold’em player, but this was back in the day after all.

Sadly, during the last half an hour of the stream, Doug busted all his SNGs with no cashes. The bankroll did not take a hit, however, with Doug breaking even to the dollar for the day.

The Twitch Poker stream was done, but Doug decided to boot up some Overwatch (first person shooter video game) for a few hours to wind down. He broke even in Overwatch as well.

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!)