Quick Challenge update

My bankroll for the challenge is up to $1401.  I'm going to put in some extra time this week where I can to get this challenge jump started again.  Although I think I'll be hard pressed to make the 5K goal I'm pretty sure I can get to the 2500 donation mark.  I need more hours in the day.

1/4 of the way throgh the poker challenge

With my bankroll at $1262, I'm officially 1/4 of the way through the poker challenge. I'm starting to shake this run of bad cards and almost did so in a big way this week.  I had my top tournament cash of the challenge this week, a third place finish for $353.  If I won the hand that I got into (where I was favorite) I had a good chance to win this one for nearly $1K but that race didn't quite go my way.  Next time it will, I'm sure.  I'm updating my main graph on the challenge page and will update the chip-graph next week.  Until then...Challenge yourself to challenge the need.

Something old and something new

I've taken a bit of a break from the blog because I've been sick and on travel a bit.  Here's the new news with the challenge.  Progress= NONE....I'm just staying at the same level and can't quite get ahead the past couple of weeks.  That's getting old.

Now for something new, I've developed a new way to chart my progress on a week to week basis.  Below is my new chip graph.  I'll post this with my posts from time to time.  Every chip there is worth $200 (25 total chips).  The greens show my progress and the whites show how much further till I hit my goal.  Man this looks daunting given the timeline and the way I've been running lately but it can be done.

More updates to come. Until then Challenge yourself to challenge the need.

Passing another mini-milestone in the charity challenge

This week I've passed another small milestone in my poker charity challenge.  I've turned my starting amount of $27.59 into $1006 dollars.  Yes, I've passed the $1000 mark, so I'm 20% complete.  Although this is great, I really need to pick up the pace in order to hit my end of year deadline for $5K.  As it stands, I've got to make a bit under $1K each month to meet this goal.  Up to this point I expected that once I got to $1000 that it would be pretty easy sailings.  That has proven to not be the case.  I've run into a streak of bad luck.  I'm sure once it passes I'll get the earnings back up to a mark that I want to be at.

More updates to come. Until then Challenge yourself to challenge the need.

Charity Challenge Update- Frustrations and Opportunities

This weeks update is slightly bittersweet.  I'm beginning to get slightly frustrated with this challenge.  Did I continue making progress this week? Yes.  Did I play up to my ability? Yes.  Did I make time to play more? Yes.  Did I see the return that I was looking for? No way.  This, ladies and gentlemen is what we in the poker call running bad.  I've been getting beat on hands that I should win 80% of the time...all the time and I've been losing what seems like every critical all-in that I get into.  Does this put me on tilt (tilt = when you let your emotions clod your judgment at a poker table and begin to play badly...vicious vicious cycle)?  No, no tilt for me but it is VERY VERY frustrating.  I'll pull through though.

As for when I want to stop running bad and begin running good...45 minutes from now would be a good time. And you may be asking why 45 minutes from now.   If you are, I'll tell you why, because that's when the tournament starts where I could win a seat to the World Series of Poker Main Event for next year worth $12,000.  With only 45 people to beat in this tournament...I like my chances.  So, think good thoughts for me over the next 3-4 hours because I will be playing my hardest and hoping for some of these coinflips to go my way.  I'll be updating this blog every hour on my progress until I'm out if you want to follow.  My first update should be at 8:30, after 1 hour of play.  Keep checking back for my status.

Correction..the game starts at 8:30 so the first update will be at 9:30.

---------------------------------------------------------

Hour 1 Update:  No really big hands to speak of.  I'm slightly above the starting chip count but not too much.   47 of the starting 54 players left.  Lets hope for something big the next hour.

The end.  Out in 33rd.  The guy had 2 cards to catch and he made his hand.  Oh well, I played perfect...back to the challenge.  No world series seat this time.

More updates to come. Until then Challenge yourself to challenge the need.

Charity Challenge update and bank error update

When we last left off I was accidentally rewarded $12,000.  Perhaps I should be more optimistic and say, I was awarded that amount too early.  That issue was resolved with some swiftness and the poker site was kind enough to reschedule the tournament with the players that were remaining for this Friday evening.  That's great, now all I have to do is beat 55 or so players for my seat at next years World Series of Poker.  What's more, for the inconvenience, we were all given a free pass to play in Bodog's big Sunday event.  This game guarantees $100K of prize money and it pays $25K for first place.  Once I find a good weekend to play in it maybe I can wrap this challenge up.  Regardless, as usual, the site dealt with an issue that came up very well in my opinion.

As for the challenge, I am sooooo close to another mini-goal, the $1000 mark.  My bankroll sits at $984.22 right now so the hope is that the next update will be over that 1K mark.  As I said before you will likely see some ups and downs as I move forward from this point and try to wrap this thing up.  Check the dedicated challenge page out for an updated graph.

A new update will follow at the end of the week, until then Challenge yourself to challenge the need.

$12,000 Bank Error in Your Favor, What Do You Do?

As I'm trying to complete the Charity Poker Challenge, I've been involved in a 13 game series that Bodog has going on.  It's called the Mini Series of Poker and we were required to win our way into the final tourney of the series.  You could do this three ways: 1) play every event in the series 2) win one event in the series 3) complete the series top 10 in points (I think I was 23rd or so) or 3) finish in the top 18 in a qualifying event that was held on Tuesday night.  I final tabled one of these events but couldn't quite finish it out and because of my work I couldn't play in all 13 events so I had to depend on qualifying in Tuesday's game..which I did. 

First place in this tournament won a fully paid seat to next years World Series Main Event and some spending money ($12,000) package.  Second and third got what equates to a $2000 package and 4-9 got a ticket to Bodog's big weekly $100,000 guarantee prizepool game.  At the end of hour 1 the game abruptly ended with about 50 or so people in it and we were all paid the $12,000 first place tournament credits!!!! What to do, what to do?  It's obviously an error soooooo... what did I do, I e-mailed and called and let them know so they could take it out of all of the players accounts that the error paid out (prior to them losing it)...and yes, that included my account.  Minutes later...12K back out of my account.  I'm certain they will reschedule.  What would you have done.  By the way, that would have definitely completed the challenge :-).

This is one of the rare cases where I've had an issue with their software and their staff are working quickly to clear it up.  Good people over there.  I'll keep posted on what's going to happen w/ it.  I would like a litle feedback though...what would you have done in this spot?