Belgium 
Canada 
China 
Germany 
Denmark 
Spain 
France 
United Kingdom 
Croatia 
Ireland 
Italy 
Japan 
Korea 
Netherlands 
Poland 
Romania 
Serbia 
Russian Federation 
Sweden 
Thailand 
United States 
Vietnam 
Life, like poker, is a funny old game.
When I set myself this challenge some 6 months or so ago, I knew it would be a grind.
$5k by the end of the year doesn't seem a lot in the poker world, but only playing local £15-£30 buy-in comps once or twice a week, it was always going to be hard work, and if I'm honest, I didn't think I would do it, especially only being at $1.5k halfway through the challenge!
To recap what I wrote in my opening post of this challenge:
and it was those comps which made this challenge / journey a success!
And just a reminder of my stats from just before this started
The majority of that came from the beginning of 2016 with that biggest cash being in January and myself only taking live poker seriously 18 months or so ago and not having the roll to play bigger competitions, having previously been a primarily online player which is where my biggest successes lie.
-------------------
So fast forward to last week, and the last couple of days of this challenge. I had pretty much 1 competition left in which a min-cash would have took me over the $5k mark to complete the challenge.
I satellite'd into the Dusk Till Dawn 6-Max Championship on Party Poker for around £15. The tournament was on Friday and a £165 buy-in. Guaranteed at £25k, and as a "Championship" event, there was a trophy to go with it!
I sat down with the 30k starting stack and nothing more than the intention to have a good game of poker, in the best card room in the UK, meet up with a few people such as
@Abzisaledge and 
@CGPoker and enjoy myself, and also play a live variation I hadn't before (6-Max - comfy tables!)
As you'd expect there are good players in these comps, including none other than The Flying Dutchman himself, Marcel Luske who was sat on the table behind me! Sam Trickett was also there, but playing roulette instead, didn't stop me getting starstruck though!
The back of his head but can tell it's him!
On the table, I had a decent run of cards early on (Except the very first hand, when I flopped the nut straight, but the board ran out 4clubs and had to fold the river). I cracked aces and then won a nice pot with AA against KK on a AK3 flop!
At every 2 hour break I seemed to always be playing a decent amount above the average stack
In total the guarantee was just broken with 178 entries and 19 were to be paid. Min-cash of £350, which I'd have been pretty happy with having paid just £15 to play!
Nice amounts up top though
Play slowed down as it does with around 22 players left, I was playing around average which at this point was about 250k. I didn't let the bubble affect me too much, during the time it took my stack was up and down from 300k, to 150k, back up to 300k I had kings and queens both cracked (ace on flop both times, and aggressor shown the Ace both times) before finally the bubble burst.
Knockouts started to come then as short stacks shoved, including myself but got a full double up with 1010 against AK, all-in on a K104 flop!
I was now a bit above average again but went pretty card dead so tightened up as the 7-handed final table bubble was upon us. This soon burst and I had just below the 740k final table average
Play REALLY tightened up now as there were decent pay jumps involved. It took a while for the first knock-out but I inflicted this, shoving small blind on big blind with 1010. He called with AJ and my 10's held!
So now it was the "Official" 6-Max Final Table.
It took 2 hours for the next knockout!
I had built my stack up a bit and was just chip leader I think with 5 left.
I had 1.6million of the 5.4million total chips and now eyeing up at least 4th place, as the £2000 would guarantee myself my biggest ever live cash!
Play now opened up, with two of us knocking out the other 3 shorter stacks to take it up heads-up! (I got lucky calling the short stacks button shove 3-handed with A5. He had AQ but I caught a 5!)
So now there was just 1 person between me and the £7,250 top prize, the £550 seat and the trophy!
Could I do it??
Unfortunately, that isn't my winners photo
Richard was a very worth winner (With a cameo from Abz!)
I did have a decent chip lead heads up at one point after making a big call with 4th pair, but lost the advantage after rivering a straight and he had the flush! Don't think I'm ever folding the hand heads-up.
Was pretty gutted to be so close but still very happy with the £4,500!
------------------
Like I said at the start of this post, Life can be a funny old game.
I completed my $5k challenge, in effect, in one tournament.
Grinded for 6 months to then more than double the amount in one night, the last night of the year!
I
Poker!
Big thanks to Corey (@CGPoker for railing until the very early hours and being a soundboard for me to bounce my thoughts off during the latter stages of the comp.
------------------
So that's the challenge completed! £4,500 is $5,500.
Crazy!
------------------
Thanks to everyone who has read and posted and given support during the past 6 months!
Now to set myself a new one for 2017!
When I set myself this challenge some 6 months or so ago, I knew it would be a grind.
$5k by the end of the year doesn't seem a lot in the poker world, but only playing local £15-£30 buy-in comps once or twice a week, it was always going to be hard work, and if I'm honest, I didn't think I would do it, especially only being at $1.5k halfway through the challenge!
To recap what I wrote in my opening post of this challenge:
and it was those comps which made this challenge / journey a success!
And just a reminder of my stats from just before this started
The majority of that came from the beginning of 2016 with that biggest cash being in January and myself only taking live poker seriously 18 months or so ago and not having the roll to play bigger competitions, having previously been a primarily online player which is where my biggest successes lie.
-------------------
So fast forward to last week, and the last couple of days of this challenge. I had pretty much 1 competition left in which a min-cash would have took me over the $5k mark to complete the challenge.
I satellite'd into the Dusk Till Dawn 6-Max Championship on Party Poker for around £15. The tournament was on Friday and a £165 buy-in. Guaranteed at £25k, and as a "Championship" event, there was a trophy to go with it!
I sat down with the 30k starting stack and nothing more than the intention to have a good game of poker, in the best card room in the UK, meet up with a few people such as
@Abzisaledge and @CGPoker and enjoy myself, and also play a live variation I hadn't before (6-Max - comfy tables!)As you'd expect there are good players in these comps, including none other than The Flying Dutchman himself, Marcel Luske who was sat on the table behind me! Sam Trickett was also there, but playing roulette instead, didn't stop me getting starstruck though!
The back of his head but can tell it's him!
On the table, I had a decent run of cards early on (Except the very first hand, when I flopped the nut straight, but the board ran out 4clubs and had to fold the river). I cracked aces and then won a nice pot with AA against KK on a AK3 flop!
At every 2 hour break I seemed to always be playing a decent amount above the average stack
In total the guarantee was just broken with 178 entries and 19 were to be paid. Min-cash of £350, which I'd have been pretty happy with having paid just £15 to play!
Nice amounts up top though
Play slowed down as it does with around 22 players left, I was playing around average which at this point was about 250k. I didn't let the bubble affect me too much, during the time it took my stack was up and down from 300k, to 150k, back up to 300k I had kings and queens both cracked (ace on flop both times, and aggressor shown the Ace both times) before finally the bubble burst.
Knockouts started to come then as short stacks shoved, including myself but got a full double up with 1010 against AK, all-in on a K104 flop!
I was now a bit above average again but went pretty card dead so tightened up as the 7-handed final table bubble was upon us. This soon burst and I had just below the 740k final table average
Play REALLY tightened up now as there were decent pay jumps involved. It took a while for the first knock-out but I inflicted this, shoving small blind on big blind with 1010. He called with AJ and my 10's held!
So now it was the "Official" 6-Max Final Table.
It took 2 hours for the next knockout!
I had built my stack up a bit and was just chip leader I think with 5 left.
I had 1.6million of the 5.4million total chips and now eyeing up at least 4th place, as the £2000 would guarantee myself my biggest ever live cash!
Play now opened up, with two of us knocking out the other 3 shorter stacks to take it up heads-up! (I got lucky calling the short stacks button shove 3-handed with A5. He had AQ but I caught a 5!)
So now there was just 1 person between me and the £7,250 top prize, the £550 seat and the trophy!
Could I do it??
Unfortunately, that isn't my winners photo
Richard was a very worth winner (With a cameo from Abz!)
I did have a decent chip lead heads up at one point after making a big call with 4th pair, but lost the advantage after rivering a straight and he had the flush! Don't think I'm ever folding the hand heads-up.
Was pretty gutted to be so close but still very happy with the £4,500!
------------------
Like I said at the start of this post, Life can be a funny old game.
I completed my $5k challenge, in effect, in one tournament.
Grinded for 6 months to then more than double the amount in one night, the last night of the year!
I
Poker!Big thanks to Corey (
@CGPoker for railing until the very early hours and being a soundboard for me to bounce my thoughts off during the latter stages of the comp.------------------
So that's the challenge completed! £4,500 is $5,500.
Crazy!
------------------
Thanks to everyone who has read and posted and given support during the past 6 months!
Now to set myself a new one for 2017!
