Patience

So last Friday, I techinically started my climb towards a $2k bankroll. A slow, steep climb. I basically broke even, with a cash in one SNG and a bad showing in the other. My girlfriend came through for me though, playing a couple SNGs while I went to see Transformers, taking 1st place in both.

I have no problem admitting my girlfriend made more money in online poker this weekend than I did.

Anyways, although I considered Friday to be the unofficial start of my bankroll challenge, I'm considering today as the official start. To kick things off, this week, I'm going to do a series of posts on the 5 things I believe I need to have to make this bankroll challenge a success. Today's post: Patience.

In a SNG, patience isn't necessarily a virtue. The blinds escalate pretty quickly, and as the table gets short-handed, waiting for a premium hand is almost certain death. There is value in being patient early on, as it's possible to sit out through the first 2-3 levels before you need to play a hand. But when I say that patience is something that I need, I don't necessarily mean it refers to poker strategy.

When I say that I need patience, I'm talking about it in a bigger sense. I'm very aware that one problem to this challenge will be that itch to move up in stakes faster than I've outlined. Or, not sticking to my plan should I have to drop down in stakes, and instead trying to play at a level my bankroll can't afford anymore.

Trying to work up to $2k is most likely going to be a long & slow process, especially starting out. Even if were to take 1st in every SNG I play, I would still need to win 24 SNGs at the $5.50 level to move up in my plan, stakes-wise. As good of a run as I've been recently, I doubt I'll see that much success. Considering I'm only playing a couple of hours a week, it's very much possible that I won't crack the $500 barrier by the end of August. So, if this challenge is gong to be successful, I need to have the patience to stick to the plan the entire way through. I need to avoid the urges to move up to soon, or to cash out when it seems like things are going bad.

I do need to have patience in the actual games as well, but honestly, I feel like my ability to be patient is one of my stronger suits, and I do believe it gives me an advantage in these games, especially heads up. At these limits, heads up play can be pretty weak, but I've learned that patience will go a long way, and I can outplay most of them headsup. So, while having something like A4 or K6 may have someone dominated heads up, I'll fold hands like these if our stacks are close in size and either continue to chip away at their stacks or pick a better spot to put my chips in.

I think it will be easy for to be to stay patient because I'm generally a very patient person in all aspects of life. Of course, there will be times when I get impatient and lose sight of the main goal, and that's where this blog comes in. I'l post my results and update my progress towards my goal pretty regularly on here. When it starts to look like I'm becoming impatient and trying to force the progress, I'm sure I'll hear about it from many of you, reminding me to stay patient. Hopefully, though, it won't be very often.

Tomorrow, I'll talk about aggressiveness.