2nlismyhome: Micro MTT Grind, Satellites & Bankroll Challenge

Good luck with the goal. Nice start with the tournament win!

Thanks mate, was for sure a move in the right direction.

Bankroll challenge update.

781 runners.
Finished 3rd.
ICM chopped 4 handed for $193.19.

Honestly one of the more ridiculous poker sessions I’ve had.

Woke up at 2am and couldn’t sleep, so naturally I made the mature adult decision to fire a pile of micro MTTs like a complete tournament goblin.

At one point during the run I was down to 5 big blinds after running a bluff that honestly belonged in a court transcript.

Thought I was cooked.

Somehow managed to spin it back up, make the final table, and ended up entering the ICM deal 2nd in chips.

Biggest thing I’m learning lately:
online micro players absolutely hate folding pairs.

You can represent nuclear launch codes on the river and someone still finds a call with second pair because “you might be bluffing.”

Feels like some of the adjustments are finally starting to click though:

- less punting with one pair
- better ICM decisions
- picking better bluff spots
- preserving tournament life more

Current bankroll now:
$298.53

Current bankroll: $325

Current stats:

One thing I’m curious about now is sample size and volume.

I’m currently playing around 10-20 tournaments a day depending on schedule, but I honestly have no idea if that’s considered “real” volume for MTT grinding or still way too low to properly judge results.

I’m not trying to figure out my edge from 100 tournaments obviously I know that means basically nothing in MTTs.

Just wondering:

- at what sample size do tournament results actually start becoming meaningful?
- 1k games?
- 5k?
- 10k?

Because variance in these fields feels absolutely insane compared to cash.

That said, I do feel like the bankroll could scale fairly quickly now simply because my ABI naturally increases each time the roll moves up.

When I started, a $3.30 felt expensive.
Now they feel standard.
Eventually $5.50s probably will too if the roll keeps climbing.

Interesting thing I’ve noticed:
PKOs honestly seem to be my weakest format by far.

I seem to perform much better in:

- slower structures
- regular freezeouts
- deeper stacked fields
- non-bounty tournaments

Feels like I play much stronger when patience and postflop adjustments matter more instead of hyper aggressive bounty dynamics.

Still learning a lot though and honestly enjoying the process way more than grinding cash at the moment.

And yes, my wife is still disappointed every time I celebrate a tournament win only for the prize to be like $23.

Bankroll challenge update.

Current bankroll now sitting at $440 from the original $100 start.

Biggest result since the last update was binking a $2.20 PKO for a really solid score after another deep run session.

Had a pretty interesting heads up battle in that one.

When we got HU he had around 80bbs to my 30bbs and honestly at first I felt slightly anxious about it. But after a few hands I realized he genuinely had no idea how to play heads up.

He was:

- limp/folding buttons
- never 3betting
- overfolding to cbets
- using weird tiny stab sizings
- random check raising air

Once I noticed it I just started putting a ton of pressure on him and the momentum completely shifted.

Funny part was earlier at the FT I had lost a massive 50bb pot to him when my QQ lost to his AKo, so it was pretty satisfying getting the chance to reverse the situation and eventually win it.

Current stats for the week:

- Around 140 tournaments played
- 35 cashes
- 13 final tables
- 3 wins

Will start mixing in more $3.30s now and the occasional $5.50 if the value looks good.

One thing that has helped me massively lately is player notes.

I’ve been tagging and leaving notes on almost everyone I regularly play against. In a smaller player pool it feels incredibly valuable because people repeat the exact same mistakes over and over.

Example:
Super nitty reg 4bet me recently. His lifetime 3bet was around 3% and literally every showdown I’d seen previously was AA/KK.

Ended up folding AK to the 4bet and he showed AA.

That honestly felt like a huge moment for my development because old me would have just snapped it off knowing “AK is strong.”

Feels like I’m slowly getting much better at understanding:

- player tendencies
- population mistakes
- when aggression is real
- and when people are massively over or under bluffing

Also definitely running very hot in big flip situations lately and not pretending otherwise. My all-ins have been holding at a really good rate.

That said, the bad beat tracker still shows I’ve taken far more bad beats than given overall, and for the most part I do think I’m getting the money in ahead pretty consistently.

Plan now is just to keep plugging volume.

Honestly this week has given me enough bankroll cushion where the $1k challenge now feels genuinely realistic rather than just hopeful.

Adding for context of above

Very nice. Yeah those small wins early on don't feel like much Vs real world, but are often pretty big Vs the bankroll and moving up in stakes

I agree, they all compound and add up.

Does make me chuckle sometimes at how happy $100 can make me for this challenge.

But it's light hearted fun and i'd prefer my mistakes to cost me little then a lot.

Bankroll Challenge Update

Current bankroll: $538

Had another big morning session during the WPM series.

Final tabled the $3.30 Micro Sheriff PKO out of a 689-runner field and finished 4th for a solid score, plus another deep run in the $2.20 Value PKO.

Honestly, mixed emotions after this one.

Started the final table really well but made a few loose bounty calls early trying to collect on short stack jams. Called wider than I probably should have with hands like 33, KJ and QT because the bounties were worth 4-5 buy-ins each.

Didn’t win any of the flips and it cost me a lot of chips early.

At one point I was down around 10bbs and genuinely felt close to being out multiple times, but kept battling back and finding spots.

Eventually fought my way back into contention while the chip leader had over 200bbs and was applying insane pressure every hand.

Got into a huge AK vs JJ spot against him after battling all the way back. If that hand holds, there’s a real chance I go on to win the whole thing.

Still, hard to complain too much:

- bankroll now over $500
- 14+ final tables already
- multiple deep runs this week
- continuing to learn a lot about PKO dynamics and final table pressure

Now the bankroll is over $500 I’ll start mixing in more $5.50 events when the value is there.

Just over halfway through the $1k challenge now which honestly feels pretty good.

A little disappointed not to pick up another win, but in these 500-700 runner fields they definitely don’t come often.

Let’s hope the grind continues well.

Nice going! Are you playing from the start or late-regging?

In most cases I am playing from the start as the site offers bubble protection on some of the events which seems +ev to me.

Poker Bankroll Challenge Update

Bankroll is now sitting at $631.

Volume has been a little lower lately, but I took a couple of shots last night and ended up with a really solid result.

I registered the $5.50 Turbo and the $8.80 Thursday Asia Grind, keeping the session pretty controlled at around $13 invested total. Didn’t want to fire a huge schedule and felt like keeping things focused.

Ended up finishing 5th in the $8.80 for $134.

Busted in a massive flip for around 35bbs with AQs vs 99. He ended up flopping quads which was a rough way to go out, because if that hand holds there’s a good chance I make top 2 or potentially even win the whole thing.

That said, I definitely ran above EV in plenty of spots during the run too.

Had one crazy 3-way all in where I got it in with AJs against kings and queens and rivered a flush. Another huge spot I got all in pre with pocket 8’s against two players who both somehow had aces. Ended up winning that one as well which put me into the chip lead for most of the tournament.

That’s tournament poker though. Sometimes you’re the one getting sucked out on, sometimes the variance swings your way. Nice for once to be on the good side of it.

Overall I’m pretty happy with how things are progressing. The bankroll started at $100 and is now over $630. Final tables are coming consistently and I’m feeling much more comfortable navigating late stages, especially against different player types and stack dynamics.

Current stats:

Still a long way to go and plenty of variance ahead, but the $1k goal feels very achievable now.

Just another $370 to go

Current Bankroll: $562
Peak Bankroll: $630
Starting Bankroll: $100
A bit of a rough couple of days on the bankroll challenge.

After reaching a high of $630, I've dropped back to $562. While it stings seeing a $68 downswing, it's important to keep things in perspective. The challenge started with just $100, so we're still sitting at over 5.5 times the starting bankroll.

I've also been taking some shots recently after satelliting my way into bigger events, including a $22 and an $88 tournament. Unfortunately, both ended in brutal fashion.

The $22 Exit
This one hurt because I felt I played the hand exactly how I wanted to.

I held A2 and turned two pair on an Ace-high board. Villain ended up jamming and I called confidently, expecting to see plenty of worse two pair, top pair hands, draws, and bluffs.

Instead, he tabled pocket eights.

One of those spots where you feel great about your hand, get the money in, and then get shown the bad news.

The $88 Exit

This one was even more painful.
I was holding pocket fives.

Preflop: Standard action and we saw a flop 4 ways.

Flop: K-3-3

The flop checked through.

Turn: 5

Beautiful card. I improved to a full house and led out for around 10 big blinds.
Villain called.

At this point I'm feeling fantastic. The only realistic hands beating me are pocket kings or pocket threes, both extremely unlikely given the action.

River: 6

An absolute dream card from my perspective.

I jammed around 30 big blinds for value expecting to get looked up by kings,
stubborn pocket pairs, trips, and possibly some hero calls.

Villain snap-called.
He rolled over pocket sixes for a bigger full house.

Just like that, the tournament was over.

It's hard not to laugh at that one.

A Hand That Made Up For Some Of It
One interesting hand from the $88 that reminded me why paying attention matters.

I defended 6♥2♥ against a player whose steal percentage was sitting around 62%.
Preflop: Villain min-raised to 2BB.

I defended.

Flop: 5♦ 5♧ 2♠

I checked.

Villain bet 2.5BB.

I check-raised to 6BB.

Villain called.

Turn: 9♠

Villain fired 12BB.

I called. I dont know why but it just didnt make a lot of sense. Maybe he has 9's here or an over pair?

At this point I thought he could easily be overplaying AK, AQ, overcards with diamonds, flush draws, or simply applying pressure.

River: 7♠
Villain absolutely ripped it, jamming roughly 60 big blinds into me.

The line didn't make much sense.
I have plenty of strong hands after check-raising the flop. I have all the sets, a lot of two pair combinations, straights, and boats. The story he was telling didn't really add up.

After thinking it through, I made the call.
He turned over J♠3♦.

My pair of twos was good.

I dragged a pot worth over 120 big blinds.

Those are the spots that make all the studying, note-taking, and player profiling worthwhile.

Looking Back
If I'm being completely honest, I think some ego has crept into my game recently.

After a string of deep runs and final tables, I've caught myself taking a few spots that I probably don't need to take. Nothing disastrous, but enough that I've noticed it.

The positive is that I'm aware of it.
The goal now is to get back to doing what got the bankroll from $100 to over $600 in the first place:

Play disciplined.
Trust the process.
Take good spots.
Avoid chasing.

Let variance do whatever variance wants to do.

The bankroll has taken a hit, but the challenge is still well ahead of schedule.
The next milestone remains $1,000.

Poker Bankroll Challenge Update

A bit of a rollercoaster over the last few days, but overall we're still heading in the right direction.

The bankroll currently sits at $596, recovering nicely after dropping as low as $562 earlier in the week. That's still just $34 below my all-time peak of $630.

Volume has been a little lower lately, but I managed to put together another solid session last night with two final tables.

$6.60 Asia 6-Max Prime

This was the bigger score of the night, finishing 4th for $49.75.

The tournament was a bit frustrating towards the end. I lost a significant portion of my stack in a flush-over-flush situation, which is never fun and difficult to avoid.

After battling back, I eventually got my final 20 big blinds in with 77 against 88. Unfortunately no help arrived and my run ended in 4th place.

$2.20 Event

This tournament felt like one long battle with variance.

Every time I seemed to get my chips in ahead, the deck had other ideas.

Some of the key all-in spots included:

- 88 vs Q10
- TT vs 55
- AK vs AQ

All standard spots that you'd happily take every day of the week, but they didn't go my way this time around.

Despite that, I still managed to navigate to another final table and add another deep run to the challenge.

Current Challenge Stats

One stat I'm particularly happy with is the final table count. Reaching 21 final tables in 229 tournaments means I'm making a final table in just over 9% of all events played.

Of course, there are still leaks to work on. I've noticed I've been a little too sticky in certain spots recently, especially when facing aggression from players who simply aren't bluffing enough at these buy-ins.

The goal remains the same: keep studying, keep improving, and keep putting myself in profitable situations.

The bankroll is now nearly six times larger than where this challenge started, and while the journey to $1,000 hasn't been completely smooth, we're getting closer every week.

On to the next session.

Poker Bankroll Challenge Complete

Well, that's a wrap.

A little under a month ago I started this challenge with a bankroll of $100 and a simple goal: build it to $1,000 through a mix of micro-stakes tournaments, satellites and good bankroll management.

Today the challenge officially comes to an end.

The bankroll now sits at $1,005.

The final push came in a $15 tournament where I managed to navigate all the way to heads-up. With two players remaining, we agreed to an ICM deal and I locked up $269ish for first place.

There were also several other deep runs along the way that helped get me over the line.

Final Results
Starting Bankroll: $100
Ending Bankroll: $1,005
Profit: +$905
Return on Starting Bankroll: +905%
Final Stats
Tournaments Played: 240
Cashes: 50
Final Tables: 22
Wins: 4

Looking back, there were plenty of ups and downs.

There were stretches where every flip seemed to go against me. Times where I'd get deep and bust with the best hand. Days where it felt impossible to build a stack despite getting chips in ahead repeatedly.

There were also days where variance smiled on me and I won pots I had no business winning. That's tournament poker.

One thing this challenge reinforced is that success in tournaments isn't about avoiding bad beats. It's about consistently putting yourself in profitable situations and allowing volume and variance to do their thing over time.

I made mistakes too. loads

At times I was too sticky against aggression. Occasionally I let recent success influence decisions and took lines I normally wouldn't. There were definitely lessons learned throughout the journey.

What I'm most proud of isn't reaching $1,000.

It's that the challenge was completed without adding additional funds, without moving the goalposts, and while continuing to study, review hands and improve along the way.

For now, I'll be cashing out and taking a break.

The bankroll will stay in my wallet, and maybe one day I'll take on another challenge and see how far I can push it.

Until then, thanks to everyone who followed along.

Challenge complete.