Around one month ago, I posted my intro to the $100 bankroll challenge. I expected to have more frequent updates, but as it turns out, there’s not really a lot to say about the day to day outcomes. This journey was more about the process than the results, so I decided to wait until I had a month of data before I gave everyone the recap. Spoiler alert: nothing interesting has happened. I did make one major change, though. Below you will find the table of my results through Feb. 26.
Through 22 days of play, I am currently +$2.41 (+1.1%). Please try to contain your excitement. The graphic above is split into cash/GPP, along with a small section for the weekend I played PGA, which went poorly. NBA, on the other hand, is a tale of two stories.
When I first started, I planned on playing 50% cash and 50% GPP. I was treating cash as a safety blanket and using the Quarter Jukebox as my chance for a big score. I realized quickly that I didn’t like the split. This largely came down to game selection. I focused on 50/50s and double-ups, which carry a large amount of variance on results. The reason for that is the all-or-nothing nature of those games. In a head-to-head, you can have a bad night and still beat a single individual. In 50/50s and double ups, if you have a bad night, you simply lose. With such a small bankroll, those swings could be difficult for people to overcome, both from a financial standpoint and from a confidence perspective. In hindsight, I would have played strictly head-to-heads in order to limit my cash variance. My recommendation for anyone playing with a small bankroll would be to look for matchups against less experienced players. Playing in five $1 head-to-heads should help limit the major cash game swings that the other game types bring.
The GPP side, however, has gone quite well. I am up $19.01 (+10.2%). This is the spot where I am putting all my focus, and the reasoning is simple: I believe I can build my bankroll better through low-dollar GPPs. I start each day off by putting 20 entries into the Quarter Jukebox on DraftKings. Now, instead of playing the other $5 in cash games, I enter a second 20-lineup set into the smaller Quarter Jukebox which is created in the late afternoon. This tournament is roughly 25% of the size of the big tournament. This allows me to treat the second tournament as my cash proxy. Having 40 unique lineups gives me the best of both worlds. I have additional opportunities to hit a top-10 lineup, which would greatly transform my bankroll, while also diversifying my daily portfolio to limit major bankroll swings.
Instead of going month-by-month in the future, I’ll look to recap everything weekly. As the bankroll (hopefully) grows, I will look to reintroduce cash games into the nightly portfolio, but for now, outside of head-to-heads, I don’t believe they’re as helpful to my quest. This clearly flies in the face of the classic 80/20 cash to GPP split that has been recommended in this industry for years. Since cash games are more difficult than ever due to the amount of readily available information, I would rather lower my nightly variance by playing more lineups. Check back next week to see how well it’s working. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out via Twitter or email.
