Finding feet

That profit on Day3 made a significant difference to my mindset, even though it ended up being quite a very small profit in the end - $40 at 6% ROI..... but a profit is a profit, and it's wayyyy better than a loss!!

Importantly, it reminded me that I can play, and that I shouldn't play scared of losing someone else's money.

• Day4: 21 STTs, profit of $296, ROI 67%
• Day5: 8 STTs, profit of $146, ROI 121%

Total for first 5 days:

• STTs played - 120
• Buy in - $1,881
• Payout - $2,122
• Profit - $241
• ROI - 13%

So, feeling a little better, and looking to try and maximise profit for what's left of July. Am away for most of August, so again will looking to maximise ROI over a small number of games. September's target though will be to break even over a much larger set of games and to earn a volume based bonus - need to get in 1500 tourneys in the month for a $2k bonus on top of any profit.

Just wish I could do this on PokerStars instead of iPoker - the traffic volume on iPoker really is poor, even at peak times. That's my biggest challenge to getting through the significant volume requirements.

Sponsored losses!

So with nerves and trepidation in abundance, I got through my first two days of sponsored play.

Day1: Squeezed out 20 SNG tournaments at a cost of $286, with a return of $174 - a negative ROI of -39%. In summary, played ok, but ran real bad.

Day2: 29 tourneys at a cost of $396, with a return of $266 - a negative ROI of -32%. Bigger cash loss, but slightly improved negative ROI. Ran worse than day 1.

Start of Day3: Wrote email to mentor - worried about how these early resultswould be viewed, but apparently everyone loses in the first few days until they get used to the concept of playing with someone else's money, and find their feet with their standard game

Day 3 so far: 13 tourneys up to 14:30 today, cashed in 7, total buy in $187, with a return of $282 - positive ROI of 51%.

I like Day3 best.

Am playing a mix of $11 and $22 Single Table Tournaments, some 6 handed and some 10 handed, some standard clock and some turbo...... seem to be settling on the 6 handed turbos though as a means of getting through more volume (they also give me my best ROI at present at +18% for 37 tourneys)

Overall so far - 62 tourneys played, $869 buy in, $722 return, $147 loss, negative ROI -17%.

Summary - must do better.

Onwards and upwards?

Mildly excited, having just secured a sponsorship deal to play online poker!!

So, for the next few months I will become a "SNG Grinder" looking to achieve significant volume commitments (ideally need to get through 1500 tournaments per month - gulp) to qualify for volume based bonuses on top of any profit which is paid at 60%.

Have long dreamt about giving up work to play poker full time - that's still a thousand miles away, but 12 months ago it was at least a million miles away - this feels like progression to a desired goal.

Aside from this latest development, I have made the firm decision to get my ass to Vegas next year, and the savings account is filling up nicely from a decent winning streak over the past month (cashed the same tournament on Betfair for 7 nights in a row).

This poker feel good factor comes at a time when I'm winning the league at the Black Country Poker Club, and have just made my way to the top of the all time rankings for the club.

There that's it - I've probably just bokked myself beyond all reason, and the downturn to poorer times will return...... but until it does, I'm loving this rich run of form. Everything in poker is so good right now!