September Challenge Results

I've reached the end of September and it's not a huge surprise that I haven't managed to hit the targets I set myself for my challenge. It's been pretty obvious for the last week or so that I was struggling to get enough games in and the bad run early in the challenge certainly didn't help things. I did finsh on a high though, check out the nice upward direction on the graph below.

Final Results: Played 133 Games / ITM 41% / ROI 16% / Profit $184.40

I am not disheartened though, the challenge has been good for me. I feel my game is a lot more disciplined now and because I am sticking predominantly to one game type and level on just one site I have been able to get into a consistant playing style and therefore get more of a feel for my own style, strategy and that of my opponenets. Happy Days.

I have learnt that it's difficult to grind out a high volume of games if only single tabling and only playing after a day at work which means I can't get started until the kids are in bed, usually about 9:30pm. I'm rearing to try multi-tabling again and I'll definatley give it a tentative shot again in the next few days, but if I'm not achieving > 30% ITM & > 10% ROI I will revert to single tabling again.

I certainly finished the challenge with a great run at the $11 x 10 player games on Party Poker and go forward feeling really comfortable at this level. I achieved 62% ITM / 93% ROI / $164 Profit in that last run of 16 games and am delighted, it certainly makes up for the frustration earlier in the month.

At the start of my challenge I said I was going to get stuck into the books and training videos but in truth I've found myself only really doing that when things haven't been going so well. I think they help to restore my confidence when it takes a dent and re-affirm things I already know. When things are going well the pressure to get more games in means I fire up another SNG rather than taking some time to study. I am aware that there are books I still want to read, books I want to go back over and a ton of great videos I want to watch so I need to try and put aside a bit more time to study even when things are going well.

I mentioned in an earlier post that there could be an argument for playing on until the 6th October as I didn't start my challenge right at the beginning of September. I am going to freeze my results there in my bankroll spreadsheet for September and start a new page to record October to keep my records consistent with previous months, however I am going to take a copy of the sheet and continue to update it, so I guess the challenge isn't strictly over. My challenge was inspired by an article by Alex Martin in Inside Poker magazine which suggested two months to grow to $600 bankroll in $10 games, so I'm going to keep going and follow the goals in the magazine. To be honest I was pushing it a bit by trying to do the whole challenge in one month, but you know what they say, shoot for the stars and all that.

So, onwards an upwards. How long will it take me to reach $400 profit? Can I do it by the 6th?