The First Few Days of My 4,000 SNG Challange

In the first 4 days of my quest to play 4,000 SNG's by the end of the year I've managed to play 210 tournaments, with sub par results. I started out as badly as I possibly could have, turned around spectacularly and then went down the toilet again.

One major positive aspect of starting a new day, a new month and a new long term project is it's easier to think long term. Knowing that no matter how bad your start is there's still plenty of time to turn it around can allow you to brush off some early losses. But there is a limit to how far you can go with that attitude.

I started off day on Monday with 12 straight out of the money finishes, then one first, and then another 11 straight out of the money. This is arguably the worst run I've ever had (I had a run of 23 tournaments out of the money in 2004, but those were 10 player tournaments so it was marginally less likely for me to make they money and they were $55 buy in instead of $60) I won a pot here and there, but whenever all my chips went in I lost. I dropped about $1,200 in the first 3 hours of my day and was not looking forward to playing anymore.

But I trudged on and my results improved drastically. After a few thirds and a few more duds, I had a run where I had 5 first and 2 seconds in a span of 8 tournaments. In fact (including those) I won 8 tournaments outright in a stretch of 18 tries. That is one of my best runs ever and I actually ended up winning about $200 for the day!

The next two days were both solid. I won about $900 on Tuesday and after losing all day a little rush at the end left me a $400 winner on Wednesday.

Then I flushed it all today. I had a run that was EVEN WORSE than the run I had on Monday! Over 27 tournaments I only had two money finishes and they were both 3rds. That streak cost me a little over $1,400. What a load of shit! This time there wasn't a monster run of first place finishes to get me back in the black.

The optimist in me is thrilled that I had what I think are the two worst runs of SNG luck that I've ever had (In 4 years of online poker!) in a four day span and still managed to win about $100. I also picked up a few hundred dollars in FPPs and of course I'm a little more than 5% of the way to earning what I need to pick up that $3,000 year end bonus.

The pessimist in me is pissed that I was on my way to a great week and am now pretty much even. My confidence which was building nicely took a major blow and even though I played 210 tournaments I had been planning on playing at least 30 or 40 more during these past four days. With Thanksgiving and Christmas looming large at the end of the year I'm going to have to dig deep and find some mental strength somewhere in order to collect the points I need.

Luckily, after kicking ass in September (my best month since February 2006 and my third best month ever) the reserves have been replenished so barring a massive collapse I shouldn't be feeling any money pressure for at least a few months.