News / John Tabatabai / 03 January 2009 / 6

About two months ago I struck a bet (while a little intoxicated) with Annette, a Portuguese friend of mine and a very good player called Diego that I couldn't turn $1000 into $100,000 in a couple of months. They all gave me 4/1 (or 5.0 in Betfair odds) with an unnamed penalty should I have lost my original stake.

I took on the challenge because at the time I wasn't playing great, not running particularly well and just needed a poker MOT and this challenge provided just that.

Going back to basics, literally, and playing tens of thousands of hands at the various limits was an eye opener. Combining this with hours of self analysis and analyzing hands afterwards and getting other good players perspective has helped me improve a lot.

Since coming 2nd in WSOPE I haven't taken online cash games as seriously as I should have and it resulted in a years worth of average results. The last couple of months has reminded me how much work is required to beat the online games nowadays, they are incredibly tougher than they use to be.

Challenge Result

Anyway I am sure you guys probably want to know did I manage to complete the challenge or not. Well, the start was incredibly tough and frustrating. I started off playing 0.5-1 multitabling with a 2 buyin loss limit, soon as I hit $800 the plan was to move down to 0.25-0.5nl and play there until I got back to 1k to take a 2 buyin shot at 0.5-1.

My plan was to try to move up quickly but with very small shot stakes so my bankroll would NEVER be in danger. This skill alone has been very worthwhile to not have my whole bankroll at risk. There were some very frustrating days and unfortunately a ghost from the past came to visit me throughout this challenge, namely Mr Life Tilt.

I don't believe I adjusted anywhere near as well as I should have for the lower limits, I think I tried to be too creative and tried to DESTROY the competition instead of winning easy money, as a result this hurt my profits big time combined with the ghost visiting me every now and then. I managed to get some small tournament results early which helped booster my bankroll around 2-4k a time. I started entering the evening tournaments when my BR reached $2k .

This grueling process continued day in, day out until after five weeks, I reached the elusive $50,000 mark. What a relief, $50,000 with three weeks to go, should be a brisk walk in the park. Unfortunately this was not the case to be. The next three weeks I endured some sick swings which I haven't experienced for about a year or so as I haven't been playing this high (10-20, 25-50nl) for a while. The problems that arose were that the last three weeks were during the Christmas period which was an incredibly busy time for me and turned out to be quite stressful which reflected in my poker these last couple of weeks and the pressure of the challenge just got to me.

Bottom line is the last three weeks I made literally no progress dropping back to 30k a couple of times before pulling it back. I eventually took a shot at 25-50nl, managed to get $30k before giving it all back. Then today I took another shot and similarly went up around $20k and managed to give it back. Some interesting hands though which I shall post later on in the blog.

The thing I have come to realize that is most important after doing this challenge I believe is emotional control and the ability to not see losing AA v KK or nut fl dr v lower fl dr as what they are but merely as numbers, percentages and not let it bother me.

Unfortunately I have yet to learn this. I found it very tough and tilted very hard a few days which is the primary reason I didn't complete this challenge. As much effort as I put into this, it's a shame I couldn't do it but have learnt a lot and hope to help / coach others to do similarly but more successfully.

Tilting 22 buyins at 5-10 also didn't help in one day. Soon I will find the antidote and get rid of Mr Life Tilt. Not a friendly ghost...but bloody expensive!

Anyway, onto the fun stuff....

My funniest hand that I can remember was winning a $7k pot at 10-20 with 9 high..

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 460153196 *****

NL $10/$20 Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, December 30, 18:43:16 GMT 2008

Table Amsterdam 58 2-max (Real Money)

Seat 1 is the button

Total number of active players : 2

Seat 1: MintSodas ( $5,978 )

Seat 2: kunku wap ( $3,862 )

MintSodas posts small blind [$10]

kunku wap posts big blind [$20]

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to kunku wap [ 9h, 8h ]

MintSodas raises to [$60]

kunku wap raises to [$222]

MintSodas calls [$162]

** Dealing Flop ** [ 7s, Td, 5h ]

kunku wap bets [$355]

MintSodas calls [$355]

** Dealing Turn ** [ Qs ]

kunku wap checks

MintSodas bets [$800]

kunku wap goes all-in

kunku wap raises to [$3,285]

MintSodas calls [$2,485]

** Showdown **

MintSodas shows [ 6s, 8s ]

kunku wap shows [ 9h, 8h ]

** Dealing River ** [ 7h ]

** Hand Conclusion **

kunku wap wins $7,723 from main pot with a pair of Sevens

************ Game 460153196 ends ************

My biggest winning hand was..

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 459909426 *****

NL $100/$200 Texas Hold'em - Tuesday, December 30, 03:14:13 GMT 2008

Table Helium 04 6-max (Real Money)

Seat 4 is the button

Total number of active players : 5

Seat 1: kunku wap ( $7,422 )

Seat 2: lolnuinac ( $19,900 )

Seat 3: hamalainen ( $3,000 )

Seat 4: PussInBoots ( $50,263.50 )

Seat 5: roflcoptert ( $15,375 )

Seat 6: cmp262 ( $26,181.50 )

cmp262 posts small blind [$100]

kunku wap posts big blind [$200]

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to kunku wap [ Jh, Ad ]

lolnuinac folds

hamalainen folds

PussInBoots raises to [$700]

cmp262 folds

kunku wap calls [$500]

** Dealing Flop ** [ Tc, 8c, Jc ]

kunku wap checks

PussInBoots bets [$1,000]

kunku wap calls [$1,000]

** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]

kunku wap goes all-in

kunku wap bets [$5,722]

PussInBoots calls [$5,722]

** Showdown **

kunku wap shows [ Jh, Ad ]

PussInBoots shows [ 9d, Js ]

** Dealing River ** [ 5d ]

** Hand Conclusion **

kunku wap wins $14,941 from main pot with two pair, Jacks and Fives

************ Game 459909426 ends ************

Pretty standard.
My biggest losing hand was a beautiful example of how retarded I play 60% of the time.

***** Betfair Poker Hand History for Game 462033174 *****

NL $25/$50 Texas Hold'em - Saturday, January 03, 21:15:22 GMT 2009

Table Beryllium 06 6-max (Real Money)

Seat 1 is the button

Total number of active players : 6

Seat 1: orpheee ( $9,493 )

Seat 2: kinaEGIL ( $2,156.25 )

Seat 3: kunku wap ( $7,008 )

Seat 4: Barbapapa ( $6,309.50 )

Seat 5: Bullitoss ( $7,652 )

Seat 6: MrBarolo59 ( $5,000 )

kinaEGIL posts small blind [$25]

kunku wap posts big blind [$50]

** Dealing down cards **

Dealt to kunku wap [ 2s, 2d ]

Barbapapa folds

Bullitoss folds

MrBarolo59 folds

orpheee raises to [$131.25]

kinaEGIL folds

kunku wap calls [$81.25]

** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, 5d, Td ]

kunku wap checks

orpheee bets [$215.62]

kunku wap raises to [$755]

orpheee calls [$539.38]

** Dealing Turn ** [ 6s ]

kunku wap bets [$1,155]

orpheee calls [$1,155]

** Dealing River ** [ As ]

kunku wap goes all-in

kunku wap bets [$4,966.75]

orpheee calls [$4,966.75]

** Showdown **

orpheee shows [ Ah, 5c ] full house, Fives full of Aces

kunku wap shows [ 2s, 2d ] two pair, Fives and Deuces

** Hand Conclusion **

orpheee wins $14,038 from main pot with full house, Fives full of Aces

************ Game 462033174 ends ************
Obv...well played kunku donk.

I do have a few more days left of the challenge, however I am flying tomorrow to Australia for the Aussie Millions and can't play whilst there so will be cutting the challenge short and waving my white flag today. The account finally finished on $58,000. I did hit the $80,000 mark earlier today but unfortunately managed to donk it back.

Thinking about the last 2 months really makes me realise how much further I still have to go in my education of poker, hopefully I can take these lessons, gain better emotional control primarily, not play a 33vpip /28 style at 25-50 and not overbluff into the nuts in the future. I think these should definitely help me!

I would like to do another challenge but less taxing, I may do one on winrates, I think that would be pretty cool. Still upset that I tilted so hard on these last few days, would have completed it if I had better control!!!

Hopefully you guys can learn from my costly mistakes and make yourselves better players.

Good luck all

Kunku

John Tabatabai

Challenge John at the Betfair cash tables or knock him out his weekly tournament every Monday

Recent Entries

Changing a password on 888.com
Mystery of the missing poker client
Cash challenge - less than a month to make it!
Betfair, rakeback and the GUKPT
Monkey grinding and some MTTs
Cash Challenge Update

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(6)

1. amatay | 04 January 2009

   ul John, still a sick profit imo.
   Keep up with the blog, it cracks me up

2. Tianer | 04 January 2009

   wow.. 9 high - nice :) gl, kunku!

3. jbong | 10 January 2009

   Your blogs are wicked JT .. Some great tips for us all .. Unlucky with the challenge bro .. Keep up the good work :0)

   jb

4. Joao Costa | 22 January 2009

   congratulations John, we got the news here in Portugal, great win. Like we say here on our portuguese forum " that´s the way to start the year".

   John Tabatabai vence Campeonato de Heads Up no Aussie Millions
   22 Janeiro 2009 por Xika Comentarios 0
   
   E John Tabatabai, jogador patrocinado da Betfair, começou o ano com o pé direito, acabou de vencer o Campeonato de Heads Up no Aussie Millions. Pelo seu primeiro lugar John arrecadou 100.000$AUD, cerca de 50.555€.

   Depois de uma confusão inicial com as stacks, em que John aceitou recomeçar o Heads Up apesar de estar em vantagem e acabou mesmo por vencer contra Alec Torelli.

   
   Torelli residente em Orange County,foi um excelente adversário, com experiência nestas andanças, uma vez que ficou em 2º lugar no 10.000$ Heads Up Championship das WSOP.

   John venceu o confronto por 2-0, pressionando Torelli durante o segundo jogo até triunfar quando o seu A7 fez trio no flop.

   John Tabatai poderá agora apoiar os seus colegas de equipa que ainda estão em prova: Annica Ivert, Annette Obrestad e Sorel Mizzi.

   
   Parabéns John!

   
   hope to see you again this year at th BPPT.

   congratz and good luck for the rset of the year.

   Luidgi

5. Segrob | 22 January 2009

   Shipppp itttttt :D

6. john tabatabai | 05 February 2009

   Thanks for all the kind remarks guys, sorry i've been lazy and not updated in long time, will do so very shortly.

   thanks once again!

   john

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