ITH Poker Forum

[Piscivorous]

I'm starting my project on October 1st, as outlined below. I will make weekly posts here [probably Sundays] showing my progress in one form or another. I hope you follow me on this Project and here is to hoping I have a great result.

Piscivorous’ Project Colombianitos

Overview:

My goal is to take $10.46 [couldn't cash out the cents] as far as I can at Ultimate Bet, while practicing good bankroll management. It is based on Chris Ferguson’s quest at Full Tilt Poker, but unlike Mr. Ferguson, I won’t be starting with nothing and trying to free roll into money. I will start on October 1st, 2007 and conclude it the Monday prior to the ITH Convention of 2008. Half of all the money I generate will go to Colombianitos, to be dispersed by ITH, Matthew and Diana Hilger.

Guidelines:

If I go bust, I can start over again, only if busting occurs before the beginning of 2008. After the New Year, I can do so only by free rolling myself back into the project, either by straight up free rolls or by UP-cost tournaments. I have almost $2800 in bonuses stacked at UB, so as I clear bonus it will go directly into my bankroll. I cannot reload for more bonuses.

I must play at least 10 hours weekly for the project. Any time after that, I can spend on other sites pursuing whatever poker pleasure I prefer.

Bankroll Management:

• I must have 300BB [limit] or 12 buy-ins [NL] to play in cash games, except I can always play in the lowest UB cash games offered. I can multi-table as long as my bankroll is sufficiently ahead of the 300BB or 12-buy-in rule by the margin of the added table[s]. Ie., if I have 15 buy-ins for NL, I can play up to 3 extra tables. If I have 325BB for limit, I can add another table.
• I must have 20x the SnG cost in order play an SnG, except I can always play a $.50+$0.05 SnG.
• I must have 50x the MTT cost in order to play an MTT, except I can always play a $1.00+0.10 MTT once I get 20 buy-ins. I cannot surpass the 50x rule if I play in rebuys.
• I can play in any freerolls and anything I want that costs UPs, as long as I have UPs to use. I am currently at a little more than 9,700 UPs.
Following decent bankroll management, I must move down according to my results in order to fulfill the obligations of maintaining my bankroll.

Poker Tracker/PAHUD:

I’ll start a new PT database specifically for the project and use PAHUD to help track results.

Caveat:
I may consider doing a joint-effort at Stars, but am, as of now, undecided. If I manage to get to $500 on UB before New Years, I will start a parallel project at Stars using the same guidelines set forth here. However, if I do go bust at UB, I may take up the torch at Stars.

At Start:
Cash: $10.46
Ultimate Points:9392.85

Running Total:
Cash: $46.34
Ultimate Points:1149.65

[mchilger]

Dave, great idea and thanks for thinking of Colombianitos. It will be interesting to see how you do.

Tx! Matthew

[Willem]

Good luck.

If you managed to go bust for whatever reason, I'm sure there are enough people here willing to contribute a few $ to get you started again.

[krazytxan]

Awesome Idea!!

GL Pi

[janeg]

Great idea Pi, good luck

[Piscivorous]

Awesome Idea!!

GL Pi

Great idea Pi, good luck

Thanks. I'm going to have fun!

[Piscivorous]

Week Ending 10/7/07.

$0.02/$0.04 FL: -$2.91
NL2: +$2.29
MTTs: +$49.30
Bonus: +$2.17

[Piscivorous]

Week Ending 10/14/07.

I was able to move up after the 4th place finish on 10/7 [1375 Ultimate Point buy-in] netted me $49.30. But play is still atrocious.

$0.05/$0.10 FL: -$7.13
MTTs: $0.00
Bonus: +$2.26

An unfortunate backdoor flush with opponent on A4s vs my 2 pair AK crushed my stack and I bubbled 32nd with payouts at 30.

Not a good week.

[Piscivorous]

Week Ending 10/21/07.

Only managed a bit under 4 hours this week. Was a very busy work week and I've had some health issues get in the way.

$0.05/$0.10 FL: -$2.76
MTTs: $0.00
SnG: -$1.10
Bonus: +$0.56

I haven't managed to win at the $0.05/$0.10 level yet. I'm still making adjustments. Will probably intersperse with NL2. Finished 4th in my single SnG. Despite good starts in both MTTs [I bought in with UPs], both went south after some egregious beats. Especially the one where A5o called my all-in for 1/3 of his chip preflop...I had JJ.

Let's turn this around!

[Piscivorous]

11/23/07. Day after Thanksgiving here in the States.

Haven't been playing much at UB lately, unfortunately. Everything I touch in my personal poker play world has turned to dust. I'm in the middle of a 5-month long slump, so I decided after I got the Colombianitos/UB Project roll to $60+ that I would take it easy, hoping to re-start when my luck turned. I'm still waiting.

MTTs and SnGs have all been losers. I can't fathom how bad my luck has been. It seems 90% of the time I get the money in with the best hand I lose.

NL2 [and two shots at NL10] have seen consistent losses. I lost a ~$20 pot a few weeks back holding on a board when 33 hit the case 3 on the river.

I just lost another NL10 stack when I got more than enough odds to call off my shortstack holding on a board and failed to convert agianst

FL $0.05/$0.10 has done the same.

Bonus is the difference of being even at ~$10 and being ahead.

That's where I am at right now. I'll keep plugging away.

If I go bust, I will reload my quest. I'm not going to sacrifice this Project and it's potential due to the most horrendous run I've ever been on.

[mchilger]

Pisc, i will try and post some Colombianitos pictures of the Medellin inauguration in the next couple of weeks - should give some extra incentive in that all of this frustration is worthwhile.

I must admit, as a board member, you are presented with a lot of problems/discussions which you sometimes wish were left to others to resolve, and then we visit the children and know that all of our efforts are worthwhile. it's the effort that counts - keep it up!

Matthew

[Piscivorous]

Bonuses are keeping me on the rise. Compared to the $0.02/$0.04 stake the bonus pays off quite nicely. Also bought into a $2 bounty, but failed to money, but did pick up $1 there from a bounty. Ultimate Points are on the decline, unfortunately. I need to win/clear another $7 to move up to the next limit, $0.05/$0.10.

[Piscivorous]

12/30/07 - Not doing too badly overall. From a starting point of $10.46 I have managed to bring it up to $46.34, nearly $30. This despite two idiotic excursions of mine to NL10.

I'm getting beaten up at $0.05/$0.10 FL FR Cash. I am however, breaking nearly even due to bonus earnings. However, two major points of good news:

I have done reasonably well in Ultimate Points buy-in for $2 MTTs. I finished 10th on a FT for $12.93 on 12/9 and recently monied another for $2.86.

I also took a shot at $0.25/$0.50 FL FR Cash today and profited by $7.75 as well as $1.02 in bonus cleared.

I only have one reservation: UB doesn't have any limit between $0.05/$0.10 and $0.25/$0.50, meaning I'll need to earn another $100+ before I can move up there with 300 BB.

One remedy will be taking occasional shots at $0.25/$0.50 in hopes of grabbing some extra cash. Another is that I have ~$9 at AP. What I propose to do is play at AP and if I can get that up to $50, transfer it to UB.

I'll keep you posted.

[Piscivorous]

Well this was my goal for 2008 and it didn't work out so well for a lot of reasons outside of my control. I had selected UB as my site to work on a Colombianitos project because of the enormous bonus I have stored there. I was going to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I was going to clear as much bonus as I could and split the profits [including bonus money earned] with Colombianitos. However, I ran into some unexpected roadblocks.

First, and as most of us know, UB was involved in a cheating scandal. Although at my limits I didn't feel threatened, I wasn't really in a mood to do anything but the casual MTT there because I really didn't know how deep the cheating went, whether they would still be around by year's end and whether I really wanted to support them any longer.

Second, they changed there bonus program. This is due to the influence of Absolute, without a doubt. UB never was a great bonus earner in the mold of where Party, PokerStars or the Cryptos were in days or lore, but it had its own unique style and was good on three levels: It never expired [still doesn't], it was released to your account as you left cash game tables or tourneys and it was very good in terms of BBs on earn rates despite whatever limit or buy-in you played. Leave a $0.02/$0.04 table with $0.46 in bonus after 2 hours and you'd know what I mean. All that changed when AP got their hooks in. What you got was a new bonus scheme as horrible as APs. You get plenty of reloads but the earnrates are ridiculous and damn difficult at the micro limits.

Finally, I found myself playing elsewhere for better value. Whether it was rakeback at Cake, a few reloads at PokerStar, or the $1200 no deposit bonus-chase-from-hell at Poker Host, I found myself playing less and less at UB.

However, I feel like I let Colombianitos down. So......

I've asked Matthew to donate $200 of my December paycheck to Colombianitos.

Now on to designing a Project Colombianitos for 2009!