PokerStars, the largest poker site on the internet, is promoting the accomplishments of one of its regular players. Boku87 achieved the illustrious Supernova Elite level in 2007, the top level of the site’s VIP program and worth approximately $115,000 in rewards. In July of 2009, he started a new challenge where he would begin with just a $5 bankroll and attempt to turn it into $100,000 in 12 months.
This challenge is not only one of poker skill, but also bankroll management. Having just a $5 bankroll forced Boku87 to play by certain buy-in standards, otherwise he risked going bust rather quickly. Playing exclusively on PokerStars, he started out in $0.10 sit and gos as well as $0.02-$0.04 Fixed Limit cash games. As his bankroll grew, his plan was to go to $0.25 sit and gos and then $1.10. The Boku Challenge section of the PokerStars site states that Boku87 will be playing for eight hours every day to reach $100,000 as soon as possible.
The first week of the challenge went well and going into his second week, Boku87 had built his bankroll up to $217 after a session of playing $1 sit and gos. For his second session, he admittedly used “some aggressive approaches” to bankroll management and played in $3 sit and gos with a few $2 ones mixed in. He hit a serious snag and, at one point, had his entire bankroll at the tables. Clearly, at this point in the challenge, Boku87 was failing miserably, as he was losing and throwing bankroll management standards to the wind. After his second session ended, however, he had been able to get his bankroll up to $312. By playing in all of those sit and gos, Boku87 had also managed to win $5 for the Battle of the Planets, making his bankroll $317.
The next day, Boku87 hit a serious upswing and cut his session short. With his near 100% ROI, he had doubled his bankroll to $790. The next week, he wrote in that he had moved to $6.50 sit and gos and was mixing in $3.30, $7.70, and $12 multi-table sit and gos in his sessions. After the dust cleared, he finished the day up $400 and had his bankroll up to $1,300. From there, he had enough to exclusively play the $12 180-man sit and gos and won enough to get his bankroll up to $1,800.
At this point, Boku87 was playing 40 to 45 tables simultaneously with $12 180-man, $27 18-man, and $27 45-man tournaments. After the first two sessions, he had $3,600, but shortly afterward, he reported his first major downswing. After the nasty swing was over and he cut his day short, his bankroll sat at $2,800. The very next session, however, he was back at it again and was up to the $4,000 mark.
At this point in the challenge, Boku87 decided to play the $60 games and his first session allowed him to reach $7,000. Unfortunately, another downswing came once he started winning, but he regrouped to end that session with a bankroll of $7,600. The very next day was a slate of 350 sit and gos, which went well and soared his bankroll up to $9,200 just before the start of August.
Boku87’s next update didn’t come for two weeks. The first four days took his bankroll to $14,000, but between the 7th and 13th of July, things went poorly. On top of running bad, his computer experienced significant problems and even with an FPP bonus of $1,500, his balance sat at $13,750, meaning he had lost almost 10% of his bankroll.
A few days later, things picked up where they started for the challenge. In just one week, he had logged 1,200 sit and gos, which might sound like a lunatic’s pace, but was short of his 2,000 goal for the week. His bankroll swelled again, this time all the way up to $17,272.
Finally, Boku87’s last entry, dated September 4th, stated that although August didn’t go well for him, his bankroll was nearing the $25,000 mark. He has stated that he will no longer be using additional FPPs for milestone bonuses, as some have commented this is an all to easy shortcut for the challenge. Boku87 is participating in the WCOOP events, but even if he doesn’t win any of them, he is hoping to hit the $50,000 mark by the end of September. Visit PokerStars for more details.
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