Online Poker Bankroll Challenge

My name is Sky Matsuhashi and I’m here to help you become the poker player you’ve always wanted to be. Can you imagine moving up in buy-ins and playing for bigger stakes, or bringing home some extra income every month?

1. Poker Bankroll Tracker
2. Poker Bankroll Requirements

Two Plus Two Poker Forums Poker News & Discussion Twitch - Watch and Discuss Live Online Poker: 2020 Bankroll Challenge on Twitch @ 7PM Mtn Time.

I’ve dedicated my life to improving my poker game and I have a lot to teach you. I’m an educator at heart and I love helping others achieve their goals.

Even with this considerable drain on my bankroll, my net profit since I began to play live games for money in July '05 is $1,580.00. Knowing all of this, playing very well recently, and the long break from playing in cash games online has really been good for my attitude concerning the $10,000 Bankroll Challenge. Poker Bankroll Challenge Building up a Poker Bankroll – From $10 to $1,000 Building up a poker bankroll from scratch can be quite a test, but it’s far easier than most players assume. So why not start your own personal poker challenge and build up a proper bankroll that will allow you to play for higher stakes?

I’m not going to tell you that poker mastery is easy… far from it. It’s a tough game and will take dedication, hard work and tons of playing to get to where you want to be.

If you’re feeling like your skills are inadequate or you need to start with a solid foundation, this page will help you.

Starting an Online Poker Journey

You may be intimidated by playing online, or you’re ready and raring to begin an online journey. Either way, I created this humungous page with everything you need to know to start an enjoyable, profitable and rewarding online poker journey. On this page, you’ll learn:

• The benefits of playing online poker versus LIVE poker
• The 5 crucial steps to start your online journey with (site selection, bonuses, rakeback, etc.)
• The 3 critical pieces of poker software and how to get started with them
• How it’s possible to make $$$ everyday with online poker
• The simplest ways to study your online poker hands
• And so much more

Get Your Poker Study On

I’m all about studying in order to improve your skills, but if you’ve been out of school for a while (or never enjoyed it), starting a study routine can be tough. This video is going to help you study the smart and easy way with a simple 4-step process:

If you’re looking for more detailed study guidance, here’s Your Poker Strategy Guide for 2020.

For those relatively new to taking your poker journey seriously, episode #205: 5 Key Concepts for Poker Study Noobies will help you focus on the 5 key concepts every poker study beginner must nail down.

Progressively Build Foundational Poker Skills

This series of podcast episodes (along with the super helpful show notes pages) worked to help you progressively build your poker skills starting with preflop ranges, taking you through post-flop math and plays, hand reading then ultimately the mental game. This series inspired my 3rd book called Preflop Online Poker and my upcoming 4th book, Post-flop Online Poker.

Start with this episode, then work your way through the rest of the series as you study and put into action the skills I teach you. The show notes for episode 87 contains links to every episode in the series.

Here’s my epic post about the most important skill in poker: Hand Reading. This post has 3 podcasts (#250, #251 and #252 below) and multiple videos all geared to turning you into an effective hand reader. All of the best players use their hand reading skills to maximize the effectiveness of their study time and their profitability when on-the-felt.

Poker Bankroll Tracker

A critical topic I discuss almost all the time is exploiting your opponents. But, the first step to this is understanding the 4 basic player types. You’ve got to know what each is, the characteristics of each, indications that someone is one or the other, and their general approach to pre-flop and post-flop poker. With this episode I also made available a Poker Player Types PDF listing many ways to exploit each type.

Poker Resources

We can all use a hand with our studies and poker play, and there are many things I use daily to help me improve my game. I’ll continue to add anything here that I think you’ll find valuable and that will aid you in your poker development. These are the items that make my poker studies and poker play as simple yet efficient as possible. I recommend these to others time and time again.

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.

Tracking Software Recommendation: PokerTracker 4

PokerTracker 4 is the premier poker tracking software on the market today. I’ve been using it since 2006 and it’s helped me to improve my game tremendously. With its awesome and easily adaptable HUD, I’m able to find multiple ways to exploit my opponent’s tendencies. Quick and easy hand history reviews with a great player and real-time stats make studying my plays and my opponents very effective. Click here to learn more.

Bonus for supporting me by purchasing PokerTracker 4 thru the link above:

Send me a screen shot or forward me your emailed purchase receipt and I’ll send you a full copy of my Smart HUD! All you have to do is import it, set it as your table default, then you’re off to the races. Forward your PT4 purchase confirmation to sky@smartpokerstudy.com.

Range Analysis Software Recommendation: Flopzilla

Flopzilla is the most incredible range analysis software available. It’s designed to let you quickly and easily figure out how a range hits a board. Just enter a preflop range and a board and Flopzilla will work out for you how often that range hits hands like top pair, middle pair, a flush draw, a gutshot, etc. The interface is designed to be quick, easy to use and intuitive. This is the perfect software for analyzing hands and improving your hand reading skills.

Screen Capture Software Recommendations: OBS

Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is a free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Download and start streaming quickly and easily on Windows, Mac or Linux. This is the program the pros, Twitch streamers and I use to record for streams, training videos and for game tape.

Smart Poker Study Resources

I created each of these items to help me track my studies and improve my play.

This Poker Goals PDF gives you all the criteria you need to set SMART Poker Goals. Making better goals will lead to greater poker success.

This Break-even Math Cheat Sheet gives you all the break-even %’s for the different pre-flop plays you’re going to make. Know how often you need your opens, call and bets to work in order to be break-even.

Poker Quantifiables Tracking Sheet – A worksheet to help you keep track of important stats as your studies progress.

Range Review Tracker – A worksheet to help you track the ranging success in your poker studies.

Poker Bankroll Requirements

30-Day Challenge Tracker – A tracker to help you incorporate positive poker habits in your life (or any other aspect of life for that matter).

This Leak Plugging PDF contains descriptions of the most common and painful leaks, ways to spot them, steps to fixing and tips on exploiting opponents with this same leak.

This 7 Steps to Poker Book Learning PDF shows you how to get the most from every poker book you read.

Please let me know if there is any other way I can help you improve your game! Just send me an email at sky@smartpokerstudy.com.

I could not answer you if you asked me why I love following professional poker players as they embark on bankroll challenges, yet I follow them closely. Maybe it’s because they temporarily come into my zone of trying to run up a small bankroll, perhaps that’s it, but I know that if I see a “bankroll challenge” announcement, I always read it. Maybe that’s why you’re here too!

I imagine you are, like me, currently following Doug Polk’s latest bankroll challenge, which he is playing exclusively in Nevada on WSOP.com and live streaming via his popular Twitch channel, Upswing Poker. His self-imposed task is to turn an initial $100 into a much larger $10,000 and the poker world has been speculating on how long this will take him, with estimates ranging from a few days to a few months. Polk could even fail the challenge if he busts the $100...

I think part of the reason I am so interested in the challenge is because, like so many others, I can copy the challenge right now and I would love to turn that amount into a life-changing bankroll. I’ve marked time for years, never quite breaking through. Also, we hear so much about the online games being so tough to beat and that the poker boom is long gone that we know we can win but maybe we struggle to really believe it sometimes. Perhaps it takes a pro like Doug Polk to demonstrate to us that opportunities do still exist and it is more about us than the games as to why we remain at the lower stakes.

Polk was asked why he was doing the challenge and said this:

Where I give Polk huge praise is his conservative approach to bankroll management as he embarks on this challenge. He will maintain 50 to 100 times his buy-in for tournaments and 30 to 40 buy-ins for cash games. You can copy the “Polk Challenge” and use this strategy with your own $100 and give yourself a good chance of success. This is not a reckless “run it up or die” challenge. Polk is doing it properly.

Polk will be playing micro-stakes games like $1 SNGs, $1 MTTs, small cash games, and even a bit of Pot Limit Omaha thrown in for good measure to begin with as he tries to reach $10,000. Only when he has won money will he be able to play in larger tournaments and cash games.

Progress has been slow so far and in the early sessions his bankroll fluctuated wildly, at one point falling under $50 before a comeback saw him end the fourth day of play at around $110. Without using a conservative bankroll management strategy he would have busted by now, which shows the power of being careful. It has kept him in the game and he has returned to his starting bankroll where he can now hopefully kick on towards his goal. There’s a lesson straight away for us all to note and emulate.

A bankroll challenge offers you a number of advantages from standard play. I struggle to find purpose when I play other than the obvious enjoyment of making tough decisions and (wherever possible) winning, so having a bankroll target helps me play with a goal in mind and gives my poker play structure.

In reality we are all constantly in a “bankroll challenge” because who does not start with a smaller amount of money seeking to run it up without busting? However, I think the “game” element to a challenge makes it fun and interesting and I think that is why I enjoy watching professional players embark on these challenges. I can also relate better to a player playing with a smaller bankroll. As fun as it is to watch a pro multi-table with a combined buy-in amount of $500 in play at a time, I cannot personally relate to this sort of risk. Seeing a player run up a small roll reminds me that I can or should be able to do that and there is no excuses if I fail to do it.

Follow Polk’s challenge on his Upswing Poker Twitch Channel and see what you can learn before you embark on a similar challenge yourself. Check out the various PokerTube offers on our deals page as depending on which offer you take up, you can increase your starting stack before you even start.