$0 to $1M
Background
Just another dreamer here. I actually genuinely love the game though so let's see. I have put a lot of thought into this and am very happy to hear any advice. Here goes:
- Introduced to the game in 2009 about a year after my father passed away
- Quickly became obsessed and spent every free waking moment watching poker content (note the age of this 2P2 account)
- Soon realised that the dynamic nature of large field MTTs perfectly meshed with many of my cognitive centres
- Deposited $50 on Pokerstars in 2010. By 2012 I had $5k profit (sharkscope below)
This is where it gets a bit weird (sorry). So I never knew what I wanted to do for a career after high school and actually ended up getting into a bit of trouble with drugs as a teenager and being told to leave high school early. A couple of years of working yet another dead-end job I was introduced to poker and soon became obsessed. Of course I was rubbish to begin with but soon started to get the hang of it. Seeing myself succeed like in that graph above gave me a good boost of self-belief. It was only natural that I would soon be traveling the world playing poker for a living because I had the passion for the game and singlemindedness required to do that... or so I thought.
That new found self-belief took me down a path of self-betterment. I took my last drink of alcohol and last puff of weed after abusing them for years. I started working out for the first time in my life, got my first post-high school girlfriend and then started seeking spiritual enlightenment, which opened up a completely foreign part of the universe to me. Suddenly sitting down playing on a computer for 14 hours a day didn't fit with the direction life was taking me. Even though playing poker professionally was the only dream or goal that I had, I decided to give it up to try and keep bettering myself which I felt poker was not doing.
Fast forward to today, many years later. I have a business degree, post-graduate qualifications, wife and family, steady job etc. So how did I end up back here? All those years I never forgot about poker, the allure of sitting down to play never left. And I say that as someone who hates gambling! It is simply down to the love of the game that I have (I hope I am not sounding too much like Tony G ).
Coming back hasn't been without it's challenges though. Why now you might ask. It is almost like starting anew all over again! Late last year I started to get a bit frustrated about how hard it is to grind out a living in the business world. Seeing my family still struggle despite me working my ass off for years hurts me.
I had heard about a $1k in June at a casino around the same time as my birthday with a favorable structure. I spent months getting my head around GTO (and still am but every day a principle behind GTO seems to become a shade clearer to me). I framed it to my family as a birthday present for myself/holiday for them and they loved it! Turns out they want to do it more! The bad news was that out of the 97 entries I busted in 11th, which was the stone money AND final table bubble! Nevertheless I had fun, made mistakes and learned a lot. I was shortest stack at my table and shoved 15bb from BTN with A9o and SB covers calls with KK.
- at least I made ten over people very happy!
Now the hardest part about this is because I have an ordered life it is extremely difficult to fit in enough hours to play MTTs so I will be playing some crazy hours. I acknowledge that this is not ideal but I have organised a schedule for myself to make this work..
Yes, I learned a ton about life while I was gone but now I am back and ready to play! $1M sounds crazy I know but if this works out I will be there.
The Challenge
I tried a few different sites to begin with but tried to avoid GG for some reason. PokerStars wouldn't let me have my account back after so many years of inactivity, so that account is dead. Plus where I am it somehow has all these internet connection problems with PokerStars so I looked elsewhere.
However, it soon became clear that GG is the MTT capital of the world and that was where I needed to go. Games certainly seem a lot less juicy nowadays but all these bounty games seem to allow for a lot more steady bankroll growth. Then once I found the daily freebies, I knew that I had found my perfect pathway back into the game!
The Rules
I will open a GGPoker account. I will never make a deposit on GGPoker.
The Method
I will grind daily freebies until I have a balance of $40-$50. I will then begin entering large field MTTs according to what is appropriate for my bankroll. I will continue playing daily freebies to supplement my balance.
22 Replies
I should add that the next couple of May-July posts below were made retrospectively so a) the most boring part, grinding freebies, can be easily skipped, and b) so that I know that this is something that I can actually do (spoiler: it is!)
10 May 2024
Account created. I spent time playing play money, checking out game offerings and getting a feel for the UI, types of games etc with GG having not existed back when I used to play.
22 June 2024
Daily freebie grind begins
24 June 2024
First cash- $0.25 Spin & Gold (10x) - 2nd place - $0.75
30 June 2024 - End of Month Report
Balance: $0.03
Month on month movement: +$0.03
Comment: I thought that I was good so kept buying into games instead of just accumulating freebie winnings and lost all profits - lesson learned!
31 July 2024 - End of Month Report
Balance: $10.16
Month on month movement: +$10.13
Comment: grinding freebies works!
31 July 2024 - End of Month Report
Balance: $10.16
Month on month movement: +$10.13
Comment: grinding freebies works!
You are playing the same games as I do. I started my challenge on 27th July. I did add T$ Builder $0.25 tournaments to The mix as soon as I passes $10 Mark. These tournies are kinda soft but I had problems adjusting at the beginning as the format is really Hyper turbo. These run for 2.5 hours on average. At $25 I did add T$ Builder $0.5 tournies to the mix.
I did add a new rule to my challenge last saturday which I call as the "Curtain call". Because these T$ builders run every second hour my volume is gonna stay low before I hit $60 and unlock $1 tournaments. So my curtain call rule let's me start a tournament 1 step higher that I currently am at If there isn't any tournament on my level available. I can't start any games that starts afrer 9.30pm local time as I need to wake up early during week for my job
I have a blog here too and I call my blog as "0 to WSOP main event". I've had my share of ups and downs and my roll sits at $52.57 now.
I was thinking about creating some content for YouTube from my challenge to YouTube but I deciced to drop that idea as I just don't have time for that.
See you at tables and GL to you and your project ��
in, following!
You are playing the same games as I do. I started my challenge on 27th July. I did add T$ Builder $0.25 tournaments to The mix as soon as I passes $10 Mark. These tournies are kinda soft but I had problems adjusting at the beginning as the format is really Hyper turbo. These run for 2.5 hours on average. At $25 I did add T$ Builder $0.5 tournies to the mix.I did add a new rule
Hey! I was reading your one yesterday actually and was like wow same idea as me! I will be following your one with interest, no doubt!
5 August 2024
First MTT cash - $2.50 Bounty Hunters Mini Big Game - 13th place (7,757) - $37.02 + $6.69 bounties - $43.71
An opportunity came along and I was feeling it, so I went for it. See I only have one rule in this and that is not to make a deposit, ever (still unsure how that will effect my ability to withdraw but that is not something I need to worry about right now!). So I will be taking the odd shot and relying on instinct in doing this by evaluating whether my head is in the right place before I play - eg am I well enough rested, are there any external stresses which may negatively impact me etc.
I had mentioned what I am doing on a reddit sub and another user had suggested bounty tournaments to me as a possible next step. I spent some time looking into them (another format that wasn't around when I used to play) and they seemed to offer a way to lower the bankroll variance associated with big field MTTs which is useful for this challenge. What more there are a lot of juicy bounty guarantee MTTs on GG.
Ngl this feels like a bink of the highest order. My first large field MTT and I make a super deep run?! Note that I have a TERRIBLE bounty score for such a deep run. Truth is I did run well and somehow just kept hanging in there by holding in my flips. So I couldn't be too disappointed in my bustout hand when my AKs succumbed to AQo all in preflop. Obviously winning that hand would have meant a good shot at a MUCH larger cash but it was important that I retained perspective. Before the game started would I have been happy with $43 on top of my $10 roll? Yes! Plus my end goal is not to ship some $2 MTT!
This win means a lot because I now finally have the freedom to play large field MTTs and not be so reliant on the daily freebies (which I will still continue to play to pad my roll).
20 August 2024
I have been experimenting with a few different games and my bankroll is heading in the wrong direction. I tried some satellites to games and also tried a $5.40 MTT both yesterday and today which I failed to cash in. After busting the last one I felt like this buyin was too high and was a mistake. I needed to stick to the $2 MTTs for now.
Last game of the day I tried the $2.20 mini heater. In a field of 2,798 I came 2,797th. That is because I went out on the very first hand! 247ss and I have 44. Villain 3b the flop in position with A7s and we lose. Today was certainly not our day so we count our losses and will return another day with bankroll $45.53.
21 August 2024
22 August 2024
26 August 2024
Comment
3x consecutive cashes in the same tournament! I didn't even play any MTTs between these. I seem to have found a good game to play at a time that suits me so will keep grinding this game as occasion permits.
On the 20th place finish, yes I got coolered but I made a mistake preflop by raising the button with 53s. Both blinds called and SB made a larger flush while BB was leading out large on the turn and river with air so gg. I only had a couple of blinds left when I shoved J8s in LP to bust.
I have been trying to play snug so will need to tighten up even moreso especially at these later stages.
Oh and I also coolered the absolute crap out of a guy when I shoved the turn here.
Roll is sitting pretty at $148.11
Good job OP!
Following the journey!
Would love to get more insight, I'm currently doing a bankroll challenge as well if you're interested 😀
31 August 2024 - End of Month Report
Balance: $139.69
Month on month movement: +$129.56
Comments
Ran super hot with some very deep runs in the $2.50 Mini Big Game which looks to be my game of choice. To get both a 13th and a 20th place finish in an ~8,000 player field in the same month with such low volume was quite surreal. Obviously it would have been nice to finish the job in at least one but I cannot complain as it has given my bankroll life.
Towards the end of the month I did feel my motivation start to wane however - to play felt more like a chore rather than excitement. This likely had something to do with some personal stuff I had going on. I realised that I needed to step back when feeling like this and that it was important that I only played when the prospect of playing filled me with excitement. While poker is important to me many other things also are and I believe that maintaining a balance is critical to success, happiness and longevity.
Looks like Max fixed you up. Did he tell you what happened? Welcome back, lol.
30 September 2024 - End of Month Report
Balance: $166.15 (started playing with $0 on 22nd June 2024)
Month on month movement: +$26.46
A modest month as I had some personal stuff go on which effected volume. Throughout almost the entire month I also suffered from waning levels of motivation. Being someone who loves the game so much, if I ever feel like I am playing as a chore then I know that is when I need to stop playing. So I am being much more careful to pay attention to when I am feeling like this.
I only had one deep run coming 280th/8,000 in the $2.50 mini big game tournament. I also was lucky enough to scoop a $10 bounty in a $1 mystery battle royale.
One other thing that happened is that my son had seen me playing and finds the GGPoker animations hilarious so enjoys watching me play. So that has resulted in more mystery battle royale's which is fine as it turns out that I am actually beating them, for now anyway but not quite when discounting the $10 bounty. My research on these indicates that they are likely a breakeven venture at best, which leaves me very hesitant when contemplating a move to the $3 games. For now the $1 games keep me playing when time is restricted.
In lieu of much else happening this month I also created a profitability analysis in excel, which you can see below. This is a little misleading as it assumes that I actually "paid" for all of the daily freebies that I played, so keep that in mind when reading it. I also realised that I never posted how I actually got my roll going up from $0 so I have included a picture of the $0 - $4 transactions as well as my most recent transactions.
Barring a huge score, I will be back again at the end of next month to report ��
31 October 2024 - End of Month Report
Balance: $181.70 (started playing with $0 on 22nd June 2024 and have never made a deposit)
Month on month movement: +$15.55
Another steady month in terms of profitability but where I (once again) really struggled with MTT volume.
- I only played 3x MTTs this month
- I still cashed in one coming 280th out of 7,000 runners
- I played 81x Mystery Battle Royales after identifying them as potentially profitable last month
Following my monthly profitability analysis the data indicates that I am actually only breaking even at Mystery Battle Royales meaning that I would do well to stop playing them. I didn't strike any good bounties this month which would have skewed the data but my short time windows where I want to pad my roll should instead be used to play Spin and Golds. I may also begin to dabble in $3 games.
Of course my primary focus in this journey in MTTs so I will be looking to increase the volume there as well.
30 November 2024 - End of Month Report
Balance: $231.42 (started playing with $0 on 22nd June 2024 and have never made a deposit)
Month on month movement: +$49.72
It has been an action packed month! Following the previous quiet months, I made a concerted effort to step up my volume. In my analysis at the end of last month, I identified Spin & Golds as a potentially profitable format for me to play. Despite my main focus being MTTs, I want something to pad my bankroll during those periods when other commitments mean that I can only commit to 1-2 hours of play at a time. So at the beginning of November I begun playing $3 Spin & Golds and pretty much lost game after game. I had read warnings about the variance of these but still it was wild how bad I ran!. At its worst, on November 7 my bankroll hit a low of $136. So, I naturally did what any smart and reasonable poker player would do - started playing cash!
Despite the above being true, the rationale was a little more nuanced than that. I have long held that my edge over MTT fields exponentially increases when playing 150bb+ stacks as this is where real poker is played! I did hear that the rake is terrible on GG but still gave it a go shot. Before that I first decided to play some rush PLO and after a while moved into NL5 200bb 9-max. Overall there were both bad and good points to come from playing cash:
BAD: had an overall negative effect on my MTT game
GOOD: sunrun in NL5
As you can see below, I did run WELL above EV in NLHE cash (graph below for brag 😃) while slightly under EV in rush PLO. Screenshots of biggest pots won and lost also below. My MTT highlights were pretty much limited to a 3rd place finish in a small field PLO MTT along with some nice ThanksGG binks!
Looking ahead, I will be able to increase my MTT volume a lot more in December in January as I have a lot of time off work. I am going to keep playing NLHE cash for now but with that will try and be more cognisant of how playing cash is effecting my tournament strategy. I am also going to do a bit of hand analysis on my cash game to try and plug some of my many leaks.
satties gotta be -ev.
Hey, I just wanted to round off this since I have neglected it for four months. With my GGPoker balance down to $1.50 it seemed like the right time too 
In November I promised more volume in December/January which did happen but I also didn't run great and at times I didn't play well either.
What has struck me coming back into online poker is just how much tougher MTT fields are. To sum it up best I can, back when I used to play I would ask "who are the regs" at the tables and now it is "who are the fish". I guess that means that I am the fish and while I do concede that there is certainly a lot for me to learn and plenty that I can improve on, the fields are undoubtedly far more difficult to navigate.
Of course I didn't help myself in this challenge by taking shots and playing cash. I have a propensity to switch between MTTs and cash which didn't do me any favours. Recently I tried to be disciplined and specialise in PLO MTTs but the roll was a bit low at that point with the wild variance involved. I do want to continue to explore that avenue though as I feel that there is a bit of money to be made.
I have still never made a deposit on GGPoker. My balance hit a high of $368 in December 2024.
Look below at the hours of entertainment and learning I have been able to enjoy for $0 - I consider that a win. I continue to work on my game and find ways to improve. I will probably keep trying to spin this up but lets see. Thanks to everyone for your support.
MTT stats from Pokercraft including best scores and recent cash rates
Holdem, MBR, PLO, RushnCash, SNG stats
Still definitely super impressive that you spun it up that much from truly $0, you don't see that even attempted often! Best of luck, hope you keep at it
Still definitely super impressive that you spun it up that much from truly $0, you don't see that even attempted often! Best of luck, hope you keep at it
Thanks. Yeah I just didn't quite get that one decent score to keep my roll going despite getting close a number of times.
I will keep at it and have begun studying with a training site. I also want to put a bit more effort into live MTTs.
After spinning $0 up to $370 and back down to $0 again this challenge was supposed to be over but somehow it is not just yet - although it could very well be soon.
The GGPoker NLHE microstakes MTTs are just such minefields. Knowing that there are bots playing is also a little disconcerting. These two reasons combined is why I decided to focus on PLO MTTs. The fields seemed much weaker but of course you need to be prepared to play for less up top. However, this also makes for shorter games which fits in well with my lifestyle.
I also was feeling really confident with my PLO game and was putting in a bit of extra study. I had managed to grind my roll back up to an even $2 through spin & golds and entered the $2 omaholic where I finished 28th.
With this deep run my confidence in my PLO MTT game was still high so, later that evening I entered a $1 omaholic that I final tabled
By now my roll was back up to $20. A few days later I planned to play more micro PLO MTTs beginning in the morning. I played two $2 games and busted out of both of them for nothing. It was frustrating because I felt that I had played well.
Despite the losses, my confidence in my game was still sky high. I was not on tilt when I read the following words which I do not believe I had ever seen before "Omaholic Deepstack Bounty". The tournament was $10.80 but it had bounties which could reduce some of the variance. My roll was only $16.27 but if I was feeling so good about my game then I might as well give it a shot, so I did. I already knew what it felt like to wipe of hundreds of hours of grinding so I felt like I had nothing to lose.
I played well and got in spots where I was able to pick up some bounties to leave me almost freerolling. Then I lost the below100bb pot which left me absolutely crippled and ended up out in 108th, short of the money.
Undeterred and still happy with my play, I entered the PLO 10bb speed racer bounty. I got off to an unbelievable start but on the sixth hand of the tournament I got AAxx allin preflop against AQQx against a covering stack and lost!
I continued to enter $1 and $2 tournaments and kept busting. As it got later in the day I could feel that my play was slowly getting worse. By this stage my roll had almost disappeared again.
Over the weekend I did some reflection. Out of this came two things -
1) I can afford to play midstakes games so there is no point in wasting my time on microstakes when I have finally developed strong fundamentals of play. I need to finally make my first deposit on GGPoker and start playing for proper money.
2) I need a schedule. I usually just check what is going when I am ready to play and then play it - that needs to stop. I need to plan my tournament schedule ahead of time so I am mentally and physically prepared to win online tournaments.
I then mapped out the next three months with a pen and a paper. I searched through different sites to see where the best PLO MTT offerings. Next week I saw the GGPoker Omaholic series beginning with daily $15 games. I am able play 4x of these so I will need to deposit $60 on GGPoker. There are also 2x SCOOP $11 PLO MTTs on Pokerstars that I can play so I need $22 on there.
Yesterday I went to make my first deposit on GGPoker. However, I had first transferred the funds from another account and it hadn't come in to my m,ain account yet so I was unable to make the deposit. This morning I went to try again but the funds had still not cleared to my account.
I still had $0.68 on my GGPoker account
so I played a $0.25 spin & gold
I won $1 in this game
with this $1 I decided to enter a $1 Omaholic
somehow I won this too
So, to summarise, the no deposit challenge is still alive! I will play the GGPoker $15 Omaholic games. If I happen to be busto before one starts that I am feeling ready to play then I will make my first deposit and end this challenge.
I do hope that the challenge keeps going but poker feels like it has become more to me now than a fun little challenge. It has become something that I want to continue to improve at and get better at and try to make something of.
I should also add though that through all of this challenge I have been able to identify one big flaw in my online game which has probably been part of the reason for my lack of deep runs - my ICM play has been horrifically bad. This surprised me when I realised it because it is something that I have studied a lot yet have struggled to put it into practice.
I narrow it down to the fact that simply pushing a button on a phone or computer without too much thought is so easy that decisions become almost impulsive without giving the full warranted thought to that specific situation. This means that I have made some careless moves. This is an inherent flaw in my thinking process which is going to take me some work to iron out.
Awesome job keeping it going [emoji122]
Sent from my SM-X210 using Tapatalk
