Bankroll Challenge - Introduction

I have tried this in the past with fairly good results and I figure that I might as well try it again now.

Somewhere, and I currently do not care to look up the source at 2 am with a possible migraine brewing, I read an article about the $500 bankroll challenge.  Now that I think about it, it was in Poker Player Newspaper and written by a chubby bald guy.

I happened to go over to the Planet Hollywood to play some poker with a buddy one evening and got on the 1/2 wait list.  While waiting I noticed a magazine and decided to thumb through it and came across the article I referenced above and being that my entire poker lively hood has been built around a similar principal multiple times over the course of my stay in Vegas I decided to adopt it.

The "challenge" is very simple. You start with $500 ($500 is a very arbitrary number, you could start with $60 and a fake dog turd if you wanted) and play poker to see how high you can build your roll.  Depending on the game you choose to play $500 might be very little or a reasonable amount.  Playing 1/2 NL $500 really ends up being a paltry sum.  However, you just have to catch a good run of cards and get ahead of the game and in theory you are set for life.

So why is all this coming up currently you may ask yourself?  Well, I'm glad you said it out loud so I could overhear you.  The answer is two fold.

1 - This was originally intended to be a poker blog of sorts but turned into a life blog. Yes, I know that there are some who like to read more about poker and those who like to read less about poker.  However, I rarely write about poker at this point.  Doing this challenge, much like with my weight loss, will force me to write about my sessions after they occur (or maybe sum up a weeks worth at a time or whatever) and keep better track of my money and how I am doing.  Normally I set aside poker money and once I get so much I just kind of dump it into some debt or some bills or whatever and then have to start over.  This is not ideal for a guy who would like to play more often.

2 - Now that I've developed a #bromance (per Alaskagal1 on twitter) with Stump and actually have someone in town with whom I can actually hook up with and play some poker consistently my want and desire to play the game has increased a lot. My feeling is that by constantly playing with someone and having someone to talk over hands with my game can improve and develop and I'll be less of a Local Fish and more of a consistent player.

So, The other day when I headed out to the casino I had $500 in disposable income that I have been using to play poker with for the last few months (and buy shit for myself when I win, go out to eat, attend concerts, get a rub and tug - the usual) I decided it was high time I tried to actually grow my bankroll into a real, functional bankroll instead of just playing and blowing money and then stopping for a few months when I run out.  Now, I do have $500 but some of that money I'm hoping stays untouchable.  You see, I have my collection of "stripper money" that I try to avoid ever dipping into if necessary.  However, for this purpose I will use it if the need arises.   I currently have $400 in my wallet (I hope none of my readers see this information and try to mug me on my way to a poker room or when I'm leaving to go home) and my reserve is at least $100 - thus $500 total.  The one caveat is that once I reach $500 in my sock fund I will no longer count the stripper money and will not dip into it.  That is supposed to be Xmas money for the children and I'd hate to tell them that Christmas is cancelled because daddy's a degenerate!

This was just the introduction, after I sleep on everything I'm hoping to type up the rules that I plan on following (but probably won't) in order to help me succeed.