Fortune favours the brave

James “HullJimi” Greenwood finds buying in for the max instead of short stacking has improved his Bankroll Challenge performance.

I made a brave decision this week. Well, it turned out to be brave – but it could have ended in tears.

I’d been buying in short, sticking rigidly to the 5% rule of this challenge. So with $50 I’d buy in short for $2.50. The problem with this was my big hands weren’t getting paid off as much as they should and I think other players played at me more. I can’t prove this, it’s just a feeling I had. I’d face lots of raises which put me all in and playing a TAG game meant that I could call in very few situations.

But then I also thought that reading about this challenge had gotten stale – I was floundering around between $40 and $50 and not getting anywhere.

So I decided to buy in with a full stack and if this went wrong, there was a real risk of this finishing the challenge for good!

To cut a long story short, it went well and I’m now up at $73 from my original $25. I think three things happened:

1. I hit some hands this week and being fully stacked meant I got paid off to the max.

2. I was unable to be re-raised all in – and actually used that same tactic to my advantage!

The next one is the big one, I think….

3. The real risk of going busto concentrated the mind. I went from six-tabling back to four and was aware of the need for TAG poker.

I’m on a mission now to get the roll up – I want to have enough to start playing some SNGs!

I’ve asked this question on a few forums this week – does anyone use video coaching? If so, which one? Are any of them relevant for the micro limits? Let me know in the comments.

Starting roll this week: $51.09
Ending roll this week: $73.38