BankrollMob Poker News & Blogs

mahdrof
45-year-old poker enthusiast from Canada

Do your best. The cub scout motto, and I learned a lot about "do your best" in the three years I was a scout leader while my son was in scouting. The first year I found very tough as we had twenty-six kids, six of whom had something going on with issues like autism, severe ADHD, aspergers, and other unidentified issues requiring medication. That was aside from some kids who had obviously received very little parenting.

Truth be told, I nearly quit halfway through the first year. To work long hours at my job, take care of my family and my home, and then to try and muster up enough energy to go to the weekly meetings and occasional camps only to be greeted by turmoil and attitude from parents (I'm a volunteer lady, I don't get paid to do this), nearly did me in. The only thing that kept me going that first year was that I didn't want my son to think that when you commit to something, it's okay to quit if the going gets tough.

The following year was better, as a lot of the troublemakers moved up to the next level, and the pack as a whole was a little smaller and more manageable. I started to have real fun. In the third year I had a blast and made lasting friends and memories. Although my son did not want to continue, I wouldn't rule out returning someday - it was that good when it worked out.

What does this have to do with poker? Well, last December when Bankrollmob first announced the featured blogger idea I applied. Then I backed out before anyone was chosen. Throughout the summer my poker game rocked and rolled, and I built up nice rolls on four sites, and as September arrived and Monday night poker at the local bar became a regular possibility, I wanted to return to live poker, and why not relate my stories to my BRM friends at the same time? So I got back in touch with Sir Thomas, and he welcomed the idea but asked that I try to put out one blog article per week. I said "No problem!" So out came blog post number one.

Then just after I played live one night in late September I started to not feel very well. The cold that had been lingering for a week and seemed to be getting better, started to get worse, and I had a fever. On that Wednesday I went to the doctor and he prescribed for me some pretty strong antibiotics, and I stayed home from work for the next three days (my longest absence from work for health reasons in over twenty years of working for the same company). During that period my bankrolls on three out of the four sites crashed. I was pretty weak for a month after that, but I still played live a few more times. I had enough material for a new post and started to get that ready. My game had improved, I was making good reads and overall things were okay, but the fun I used to have playing there years ago had disappeared. The number of players was a lot less than before, the social aspect seemed to be gone, and I was beginning to feel that maybe this was not going to be what I wanted to be doing. Then my son's basketball season started and practice night was determined by the coaches to be Monday nights. No more live play at the local bar, where I had hoped to use it as a stepping stone to bigger events.

At this point poor Sir Thomas had contacted me to find out when my next blog post would come out. I hated the fact that I had let him down. When I say I am going to do something, I normally follow through unless I have an extremely good reason, and I didn't feel like I had done enough. So what to do? I have decided to change gears and make my blog about online poker, trying to rise up through the levels, play for good money and hopefully to do something fun with that. This was originally what I wanted to do back in December 2013.
So on October 28 I deposited $100 in my 888 account, which had dwindled to zero, and detail my efforts about making a comeback. My first goal is to grow the money to $625, withdraw $100 so that I am effectively playing with other people's money (such a good feeling), and hold a $25.00 Mahdrof Dollars tournament. After that I will set further goals.

Here is my graph. After growing my bankroll with some small wins at SNG and casino, I have taken a couple of small shots at rapid growth. I know that this doesn't follow sound bankroll management practices, but I feel that if I have grown my account, and will only use a certain portion at taking "shots" at higher levels, then that is okay as long as I don't squander the whole roll. I have played higher BI cash games before and am very comfortable there, so the big thing is to feel sharp, look for tables where there are weaker players, be prepared to leave if it doesn't work out, but most of the time to respect sound bankroll management and play mostly for smaller amounts. So far so good, my graph showing my profits for the past ten days is attached. 50% of that came from cash games, 30% SNG and the other 20% from casino. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will hit $625 and we can have that Mahdrof Dollars tournament. Good luck on the felt!