Yappy Dave's 10k Challenge

[Yappy Dave]

(All edits are in italics)

As some of you might already know, I am going to be arriving back in Las Vegas June 6th from a month long vacation in Indiana. Upon my return, I'll have one month to achieve my goal of netting $10k to pay for my buy-in to the main event of the WSOP. I will use a combination of cash game and tournament play to achieve this. I plan on playing a tournament on most days and will play cash games during the evenings of misfortunate early exits. I feel that running a hardcore tournament schedule will prepare me for the grind it will take to last in the main event. I plan on playing in the Binion's tourneys and the Venetian tourneys, while cash gaming at Treasure Island. Cash games are now 2/5 at the Rio

I have outlined my tournament schedule here and will post daily results.
June 5 - Lost $780 at cash game at TI
June 6 - Possible short session at TI (jet-lag will determine length) Lost $400 in afternoon session at TI and $900 in evening session at TI. Down $2080
June 7 - If I net $500 on June 6th, I'll play the Venetian $540. If not, TI. Down $900 at cash game at TI. Down $2980
June 8 - $250 HORSE at Binions Finished 203 of 225. Lost $250 buy in. Lost $200 in 1/2 NL at Binions. Netted $80 at Rio 2/5. Lost $370 today. Down $3350
June 9 - $540 NLHE at Venetian (CANCELED for bankroll reasons) Netted $520 at Rio 2/5. Down $2830
June 10 - $200 Stud/8 at Binions Finished 70th of 193. Lost $200 buy in. Netted $480 at Rio 2/5. Net $280 for day. Down $2550
June 11 - Cash game evening only Down 1400 at Rio 2/5. Down $3950.
June 12 - $500 NLHE at Binions T-18th of 221. Netted $255. Down $3695
June 13 - $150 PLO at Binions 100 out of 240. Down $150. Win Rio cash games of $492 and $544, then TI win of $554. Days net of $1440. Down $2255.
June 14 - $200 NLHE at Binions 5-way chop out of 310 players. Net 6.5k. Up $4245!
June 15 - $150 NLHE at Binions 15-way chop out of 377 players. Net $2.5k. Up $6745.
June 16 - $150 Razz at Binions OR $540 NLHE at Venetian 79 of 206. Loss of $150. Lost of two $200 buy-ins into Binion's 1-2 NL game. Loss of $550 for day. Up $6195.
June 17 - OFF $200 6-handed NLHE at Binions. 8th of 234. Net $850. Up $7045.
June 18 - OFF $200 Stud at Binions. 53rd of 85. Loss of $200. Net $222 at TI 1/3 NL. Net of $22 for day. Up $7067.
June 19 - $540 NLHE at Venetian OFF
June 20 - $150 NLHE at Binions 185 of 337. Lost $150. Lost $116 at TI. Loss of $266. Up $6801
June 21 - Cash game double session Net $144 and $270 at TI 1/3. Net $414. Up $7214.
June 22 - $100 NLHE at Binions Cash game instead. TI 1/3 Net $605 and loss of $89. Total net of $516. Up $7730.
June 23 - $540 NLHE at Venetian TI cash game instead. Net $160 1/3, Net $426 mix 3/6 limit. Net $586. Up $8316.
June 24 - $150 PLO/8 at Binions Originally thought this was PLO high only; likely will just cash game. TI 1/3 net $513. Up $8829.
June 25 - OFF
June 26 - $330 PLO at Venetian Noon starting time too early for my schedule as of late. Will TI cash instead. TI 1/3 loss $250. Up $8579.
June 27 - $100 Stud/8 at Binions 50th of 292. Loss of $100. TI 1/3 loss of $216. Total loss of $316. Up $8263.
June 28 - $100 2-7 Triple Draw at Binions Removed for structure reasons. Took off for mental reasons.
June 29 - $150 NLHE at Binions 454 out of 488. Loss of $150. Net of $240 at TI 1/3, then loss of $500. Loss of $410 for day. Up $7853.
June 30 - $1k PLO at Binions 23rd of 123. Loss of $1k. Up $6853.
July 1 - $100 NLHE (w/ rebuys) at Binions Removed
July 2 - OFF
July 3 - $500 NLHE at Binions 103 of 261. Loss of $500. Up $6353
July 4 - $500 NLHE at Binions Changed to WSOP $1060 Super Satellite. Ousted in 2nd level. Loss of $1060. Up $5293
July 5 - OFF/Final sessions (if necessary) WSOP $1060 Super Satellite if July 4th unsuccessful. 200th of 563. Loss of $1010. Net 542 at TI 1/3. Loss of $468. Challenge ends with a net of $4825
July 6 - Net $130 at Rio 2/5. Up $4955.
July 7 - Net $522 at Rio 2/5. Net $496 at TI 2/5. Net of $1,018 for day. Up $5973.
July 8 - Loss of $118 at TI 1/3. Net of $902 at TI 1/3. Net $784 for day. Up $6757.
July 9 - WSOP Main Event Day D - D is for Yappy Dave

[AlaskaGal]

Looks like a challenge for sure! Any reason you have opted against playing the satellites at the Rio? Most people say they are incredibly soft.

I am getting to Vegas on June 28th and I have been contemplating playing MTT's at The V or Binions vs. playing the satellites at the Rio. So I am interested to hear your input.

[LasVegasMichael]

This has the early makings of a phenomenal AVP thread.

Best of luck to you on your goal, Dave. Please do post your daily results here. As this thread grows, it will probably become a sticky, as I really love the idea of running personal blogs/journals and your thought processes and advanced poker insights, being a professional grinder, will benefit us all greatly. Probably amongst the most interesting of TRs, knowing your unique style of play.

Topic moved to the TR forum. See you at the tables!

[ChadK]

I will be in Vegas June10-13 and plan on playing the Binions $500 on the 12th. Hopefully we can own the final table.

[redright88]

Hey Dave,

I would imagine from your plan that you specialize in tournaments. It seems like you would have a larger edge over the field, though, if you played low and medium cash games.

Do you just feel that much more confident in your tournament ability or are you trying to use this stretch to fine tune your tournament strategy or is there some other reason that you've decided to put the bulk of your time in on tournaments?

I'm looking forward to reading about your progress. Thanks for posting.

[dxbear]

I added up just your tournaments, costs and it almost what you need to enter the WSOP.. $6700 plus your cash games...

It will interesting to see the tally sheet at the end of the line and see how much you earn on this money investment....

Good luck and see you at the tables..I have some plans to enter some of the same tournaments when I am there...

[Yappy Dave]

To answer some of the questions...

Rio satellites vs. Binions/Venetian from Alaska Girl

I played in several satellites in the past few years at the WSOP and felt the structure was downright terrible. One needed to pick up actual hands to place due to the low chip counts and fast moving blinds. I'm using the Binions/Venetian tourneys as my satellites, due to the great structure and allowance of poker to be played (compared to just card catching.) Even if the opponents at the table are garbage, a good structure will at least triple the EV for a good player.

General Thoughts from LV Mike

Thank you for the positive words. If there's a good response to my tourney reports, then I'll go ahead and due a full analysis of the tournaments. I too, am curious to see how much of this goes since I have about 5 gears that I can utilize. As long as I can use the right one at the right time, this should work out well.

The Binions 500 from ChadK

Please introduce yourself at the tourney. My pic is the one with Bud Light cardboard box on my head. Look forward to meeting you!

Tourney vs. Cash Game Variance from redtight88

Some great questions here! I actually specialize in cash games. I play with an erratic style that mirrors Daniel Negraunu and Patrik Antonius. Most of my tournaments are huge finishes or early bustouts. I don't like to waste 8 hours and bubble, so I like to build up a stack early and drive the stack right through the tournament field. With this method, I find many more obsticles in my path than I do in cash games. For this reason, I prefer cash games. I do agree that my edge is bigger in cash than tourney. Part of the reason for the strict tourney schedule is to get my mindset prepared for a massively deep and lengthy tournament. I don't get the short stack pressure in cash games, and have somewhat forgot about chip value and their how it changes during a tournament. For this reason, I need to get back into a tournament mindset. In fact, just tonight I hosted a deep stack tourney (same structure as this year's main event) and found myself down to just 3k an hour into it. This was due to me forgetting that there are no rebuys and I must carefully consider each move and how it will effect me in future levels. After changing my play, I went on to win it. While the competition wasn't overly difficult, I had to be very patient (which is something I lost due to my overdrive gear in cash games). These are lessons I need to relearn to be successful in July.

Money Calculations by dxbear

I hadn't realized what a high amount of money the buy-ins totalled up to! Luckily, that's not a lump sum, but a gradual decline that I can continually add to with cashings and cash game winnings. I agree that watching the value and how it is likely to be very inconsistant will be entertaining.

Other Thoughts by Yappy Dave

While the tournament structure does seem very heavy, I will use cash games to reload some of my losses in tournaments. The cash games will be very critical to my success (and honestly might be the only thing that gets me to the $10k.) I figure if I can hit 3 big scores in June, I'll have the buy-in covered. I figure 3 out of 25-30 shouldn't be overly difficult, due to the higher talent being spread out at the WSOP, Bellagio Cup III, and Venetian tourneys (when I'm at Binions).

A lot of the side game tournies at Binions are for me to relax my mind from NLHE. While NLHE is my biggest cash cow now, my first talent was Stud/8 and PLO. The Razz and 2-7 Triple Draw are likely donk-days for me, as I am frankly terrible at both.

Thanks for all the thoughts, suggestions, and positive comments so far!

[LasVegasMichael]

Thanks for getting back to all of us.

Couple more questions.

Concerning the larger buy in tournies (speaking specifically of the V $540). Should you possibly win or top three one of those fairly early on, hypothetically, you could win over 10K right there (God willing).

At that point would your mission be "accomplished" and you would forego your schedule to concentrate back on the cash games for the remainder of the month, or would you continue on the schedule to keep your tournament mind going?

Also, once again, concerning the V, are you considering doing their $130 sats to attempt to win a seat at all, or are you only direct buying for the bigger ones?

[redright88]

To follow up on LVM's question, it seems like it might to be tough to cope with early success. If you score big in one of the early tourneys that you plan to play in, it seems like you would still want to keep playing to tune up your tournament game. However, you also don't want to fritter away $3K or $4k if you hit a big score early on and then run into tough luck later in the month and put yourself back below your goal. It seems like that could be a tough balance to strike.

I am really interested in following how the month and the WSOP goes for you. Good luck.

[Mrs. Lederer]

Good luck Yappy! I will be in town July 10-16 to watch -- certainly not play -- the WSOP action and hope to see you sitting there with the Bud Light box on your head. (I said hi to you at TI last month when I recognized you solely from that pic!)

[Yappy Dave]

Hypothetical big win early from LV Mike and redtight88

I've thought about this as a possibility. The entire goal is to get the $10k. If I were to hit that early on, then I'd very likely withdraw my V540 tournies (excluding PLO, which is just 330 anyway.) I'd still continue the low buy in tournies at Binions, as they provide the solid structure as well.

I will try to satellite into the V540, as for some reason my success rate is about 60% in these one table sats. If I don't make it, I'll likely just buy in anyway.

As far as would I continue the tournies vs. just playing cash games, I could very easily lose more in the cash games than in these tournies, so the tournaments are actually providing less variance for me there. Granted the only likelihood of that is that I go on a cold streak, but it's happened to us all and could spell out in June.

General Hello from Mrs. Lederer

I certainly do recall you coming up to me and introducing yourself (or more just stating you recognized me from the goofy hat.) Please say Hello again in July, as my head will probably be swirling from the many hundreds of people that I'll recognize at the WSOP.

[LasVegasMichael]

Far reaching hypothetical:

Three big assumptions made before asking my question:

1. You make your goal.

2. You draw a televised table at the main event.

3. You are not thrown oodles of money from an internet poker site.

Assuming all of the above: Will you wear some AVP swag at the table?

[AlaskaGal]

To answer some of the questions...

Rio satellites vs. Binions/Venetian from Alaska Girl

I played in several satellites in the past few years at the WSOP and felt the structure was downright terrible. One needed to pick up actual hands to place due to the low chip counts and fast moving blinds. I'm using the Binions/Venetian tourneys as my satellites, due to the great structure and allowance of poker to be played (compared to just card catching.) Even if the opponents at the table are garbage, a good structure will at least triple the EV for a good player.

Thanks for the insight. I figured your deciding factor would be the difference in structure. I think the other advantage to playing the MTT's instead of STT's is that the strategy is different so you have to change your mindset when you switch between the two. I have been playing a TON of STT's w/T1500 online then last Sunday I sat down to play a live 150 person MTT w/T5000 and I found myself struggling a little to get my strategy and focus where it should have been. By playing the MTT's you will be preparing yourself for the ME without having to adjust strategy all that much.

Good luck to you Dave! I hope to see you at the tables!!!

[Yappy Dave]

Far reaching hypothetical:

Three big assumptions made before asking my question:

1. You make your goal.

2. You draw a televised table at the main event.

3. You are not thrown oodles of money from an internet poker site.

Assuming all of the above: Will you wear some AVP swag at the table?

I will likely be a sellout, but if nobody throws any bones my way, I'll gladly wear some AVP stuff. There is the possibility it would have to be altered to fit the advertisement rules, but we'll have that info when it's released.

[grrouchie]

Good luck Yappy!

It will be nice to have you playing tournies while I'm playing cashgames during June!

Wish you all the luck in accomplishing your goal.

Right now it looks as though I might end up playing in the 1k rebuy on June 4th (event 8 I think).... as I got free entry.

Disadvantage is i can't rebuy like everyone else... advantage is it's free entry and who cares, I can try for a big score from nothing.

[LasVegasMichael]

No worries, I was just pulling your chain. At this point, we don't even have any AVP swag to give!

However, I know I have given you an AVP chip, and you could use a card capper!

[STH826]

Hey Yappy,

Good luck on the goal, cannot wait to see how it goes. I will be in town from June 15 - 22. I had already planned to play the 150 at Binions on June 15th. So I will see you there. Maybe we could get a bunch of AVP'ers to play that one...

[hughesj63]

well it looks like to me you would have it almost if you didnt play in any of the events you listed.i added all them up and came to 8604.00.gl anyway though

[Samjake]

Best of luck Yappy! My wife and I will be staying at the TI early in June. Hope to see you to wish you well in person. Hopefully, I will not donate too much to you at the tables...

[Yappy Dave]

Hey Yappy,

Good luck on the goal, cannot wait to see how it goes. I will be in town from June 15 - 22. I had already planned to play the 150 at Binions on June 15th. So I will see you there. Maybe we could get a bunch of AVP'ers to play that one...

That seems like a very reasonable buy-in tourney for an avp meeting. I have no idea how many AVPers will be in town then, but I'm sure LV Mike has a better idea for the possibilities.

well it looks like to me you would have it almost if you didnt play in any of the events you listed.i added all them up and came to 8604.00.gl anyway though

You are correct about the amount in buy-ins being quite huge. The actual goal of this, isn't to buy in for the 10k that I currently could invest here, but to GAIN the $10k, as to make it feel as if I earned the seat, while building my tournament endurance over a month's time. To go along with all of this, it is also possible that I could win much more than the $10 with a few big scores.

Best of luck Yappy! My wife and I will be staying at the TI early in June. Hope to see you to wish you well in person. Hopefully, I will not donate too much to you at the tables...

Thank you Samjake! Hopefully I'll get to meet you on the 6th/7th.