Ragingbullj's Zero to Hero Grind

About Me: I started taking notice of Poker After Dark and other shows like WPT and WSOP coverage. Made my first trip to Casino Niagara where I got to try poker first hand. I sat at a $1/$2 table with $80 (The minimum was a $100 but they still let me play). The first hand of my poker career was pocket K's. I raised. Got re-raised all-in by a guy with a lot of chips. He had AQs. He ended up rivering the A. One and done but the adrenaline rush had me hooked.

I lived in Hamilton at the time so a trip to Niagara Falls every time I wanted to play was not in the cards. As a fellow Canadian Dnegs got a lot of coverage in Canada and was the face of Pokerstars for many years so I watched some videos and jumped in. A few dollars here and there. I probably played 1000 .10 360 man tournaments as I worked to learn the basics. I'd occasionally play 2.50 180 mans when I had a few $'s. My BR was not matching the amount of free time and energy I had back then so I ended up applying for stakes before I really had a grasp of the game.

3000 tournaments later I was still not good. I took a couple years off. Moved back home to the eastern part of Ontario. I now had live tables a 10 minute drive away. I started playing again. Actually began to study and see results. I was breaking even or winning most of my trips to the poker room. Won my first tournament for just over $1k US and thought I finally made it. I realized I had an edge so I made the trip every weekend and it became a nice supplement to my work income. Between work and poker I burnt out and stopped playing again. Won a few hundred here and there with a $2.3k score being my biggest hit.

Fast forward to today. The poker room closed a couple years back. I'm an 1hr 20 to my closest live game. I stopped playing entirely. Focusing on my work until last month when I picked up an injury that has me out of work for a couple months.

Enter the grind. I was bored so I fired up some old accounts. Stars, GG, 888. Everything's geolocked to Ontario now (not a fan but whatever). Bills are paid but I didn't have a lot of wiggle room to play around so I said screw it I'll freeroll it and see if I can make something happen.

My notes are a little random and lacking a steady format early on so I apologize in advance

Freeroll to $1k bankroll starting challenge
Day 1: 6/26/2025
+$1c(Cash game dollar) Top 25/288 BiggerBetter Freeroll on GGPoker

Session 1: .01/.02
+2.75. After around 2.5 hrs and 300 hands. I was up nearly $6 but suffered some bad run outs
Total bankroll:$3.75

Session 2: +$1.31 over 150 hands
Total 5.06

6/28
Session 3:
Won Table 1 $2 buy in +15.84,
Won Table 2 $1 buy in +14.49,
Won Table 3 $2 buy in +14.86
+$44.75
BR 49.75
Plat rewards +$1.85
BR 51.60
+1cad Freeroll winner
Running in god mode for this session

Session 4: -$2 -.91 top up 2+1c
Lost table 1 - 2.91
Won table 2 $11.74
BR $61.64

Session 5
Lost table 1
Won table 2
Lost Table 3
+$2 cash bet from daily leader board
$1 daily turbo shot = miss
BR 55.20

Session 6
BR $45.46

6/29/25
Session7
5/36 Fifty Stack +11.47
Lucky 7's +$22
888 BR .22

BR 68.01 (down to $28 at one point today)
+4.92 rakeback
$72.93

6/30/25
Switched to MTT's.

7/7
Multiple MTT wins the last few days.
888 30.26
Pokerstars 89.18
Raked 2.17 0n GG
=124.81

7/16 update
Multiple wins. Crushing
GG 234
888 186
PS 83
Total $503

7/24 update
Some big swings. I was down under $200 total at one point from the last update and switched to cash to run it up a bit. Plan to update more frequently. Running $5-11 buy-ins mainly. Drop down/play cash if on downswing.
$423 on 888 mix between Tournaments and cash.
$100 on Stars (Withdrew $50 for GG)
$50 on GG (blew up a $200 roll chasing glory)

Some key stats for July
888 5x1st 2x 3rd 13%ITM (skewed by hyper turbo freerolls)
Stars 5x1st, 6x2nd 24% ITM
GG 3x1st, 1x2nd 13% ITM

BR $573 (at days start)

Reply if you have questions, or just want to say what's up? Subscribe if you're interested in the challenge. Message if interested in staking.

I'm going to update at least weekly and get back to more detailed logs. Up to now it's just my scribbles in notepad being copy and pasted here. Stats to come Buy-ins vs winnings etc. If there's any stats you're interested in let me know. Cheers