Completed my 2nd ft challenge…”Mastering the Bubble” April 17, 2009

This challenge was actually much harder for me than the first one.  The first one I completed in 28 sngs and this one took me 51 sngs to complete it.  This one was comprised of 5 tasks with some of the tasks needing to be completed multiple times.

They were:

1) Pre flop fold A X (where the “X” is 8 or lower) while 4 handed in a 9 handed NLHE sng that pays 3 spots.

This one took me a while.  I’d get down to 4 players and then not get dealt Ax haha, this was the 2nd to last task I completed.  I only had to complete this task once so thank goodness for small blessings lol.

2) Move or call all in pre flop with Kx or Qx (where the “x” is 9 or lower) while 3 handed in a 9 handed NLHE sng that pays 3 spots.

This was actually the first task I completed.  I moved in with Q4 and won the blinds…very easy task.

3) Play 4 heads up NLHE sngs.

This was the 2nd task I completed.  I played 4 of them in a row.  I chose to do one at a time as you definitely need complete concentration when playing heads up.  I won 3 out of the 4 heads up matches so I was very happy with how this task went.

4) Cash in five 9-handed NLHE sngs that pay 3 spots.

This took me 18 sngs to do.  I went on a really bad run of cards and lost 6 in a row without a single cash and then each of the other cashes had a few non-cashes in between.  This task and the next task is what took me so long to finish this challenge.

5) The Pro Play:  Win three 9 handed NLHE sngs.

This one took me a total of 51 sngs (minus the 4 heads up matches) to finish since this challenge is obviously the challenge that you are working towards from the beginning.  I won a sng within the first 4 I played towards this challenge and then I didn’t win another one for 25 sngs, it was very frustrating.  In all my sngs I had six 2nd place finishes where I could have won and completed the task but I was running so horrible heads up.

All in all I am glad I completed the challenge but it definitely was a very frustrating one to me.  What I continue to love most about these challenges is the pro’s reasoning behind each task in the challenge.  It leaves me coming away from each session with something learned even if that day wasn’t a winning one.  I only had 15 cashes out of the 51 sngs which was disappointing for me and unusual as well.  I’m normally about a 50/50 when it comes to cashing in sngs.  I had 9 bubble finishes during the 47 nine-handed sngs I played which is a better average for me so I guess I learned something about “mastering the bubble” after all.