As I mentioned in a previous blog, I have been utilizing the FT Poker Academy and decided to try to complete each of the challenges they are offering. In return for completing challenges you get a set amount of points that you can spend in the soon to be opening academy store.
I started with the “Sit & Go by the Numbers” challenge put on by Aaron Bartley which offered 200 points for completing all the tasks. There were 5 tasks in the challenge and some of the tasks were multiples meaning you had to finish that certain task a set amount of times. Since part of the challenge was to play five sng’s with the buy-in not being more than 2% of your bankroll, this left me needing to play $1 stts to be sure not to dip below that 2% mark. This made it an equally hard task as the $1 stts can be very trying at times to me with their wild nature.
It took me 28 sng’s to complete the whole challenge with the last 10-15 stts only needing to finish the “pro play challenge” part which was to win 2 9-handed sngs. I won one within the first 7 sng’s and then it took me until the 28th sng to win another one. Very frustrating but absolutely rewarding when I did win it.
I found my stats for the $1 stts quite improved during this process. I normally don’t cash well in these and I cashed in 13 out of 28 sngs with a small loss of $4.40 which were attributed to a number of bubble finishes, 9 to be exact. This brings me to the next challenge on the ft poker academy…”Mastering the Bubble” by Howard Lederer. I had planned on going with “Bankroll Management” by Chris Ferguson next but after looking over my statistics and seeing the number of bubble finishes that I had I decided that Howard’s challenge was the next logical choice.
I really encourage anyone looking to improve their game to look in to trying these challenges. I found the first one to be informative and I feel as if I’ve taken a positive step in my game with me from completing it.
Just to give a little sample of some of the tasks I had to complete for the sng one…
-don’t finish in the bottom 3 of four 9-handed sngs that pay 3 spots.
-Fold A-J, A-T, A-9, K-Q, or K-J in early position 2 times while there are 7 players left in a 9-handed sng.
-Go all-in with A-Q, A-J, or A-T while five or six players remain in a 9-handed sng.
-Play five sngs; your buy-in for each can be no more than 2% of your ft bankroll.
-”pro play”…finish in first place in two 9-handed sngs.
Love this advice and am going to check it out. Brother would love this as well….thx for taking the time to write about this and tell us all about it.
Keep rockin’!
See you on the tables!
This sounds great. Just wondering, do you need to have $ on full tilt to do this? Right now I have no money there. I play money at PS.
Yes you do as some of the tasks have to do with utilizing a certain percentage of your bankroll.
Fabu way to go what an accomplishment that’s great.
Great blog and detail about the challenge, I’m definitely going to check it out, thanks Punky!!!