What it’s like winning $1k in a FlipOut

What made you start your Bankroll Challenge blog?

Diplomatta: I’m an English teacher, but during vacation periods, my students are enjoying their time off, and I don’t have the opportunity to work, which decreases my earnings. I thought, ‘I’ll play some poker to make some extra money.’ Since I had never completed the Bankroll Challenge (and also because of the Blogger Raffle), I decided to sign up.

How does it feel to end your challenge by winning a flipout rather than by grinding the winnings out?

Diplomatta: I’m very happy! My goal was to earn some extra dollars, and I succeeded. To participate in the Flipout, I had to become a much more aggressive player. I had been grinding up until that point, and then my girlfriend said, ‘Listen to this playlist; it will attract money.’ Two days later, I won the Flipout.

“Now I have a bankroll”

Was it demotivating to complete your challenge so quickly?

Diplomatta: No, not at all! Now I have a bankroll to apply strategies. I decided to study casino games, and so far, I’ve had much more positive results with the casino than with poker (and with much less tilt). I’ve discovered that I’m much more of a gambler than a poker player.

You got paid in C$ – do you play differently with money you can’t withdraw right away? Does it make you play tighter so you can realize your winnings, or looser because it was a surprise prize?

Diplomatta: Much looser. I played like a maniac because I wanted to win the challenge as quickly as possible and withdraw the money. Of course, I incurred some losses, but I had fun in the process. I realized that I don’t have the necessary patience to be a poker player.

You moved up stakes afterwards, how has that worked out?

Diplomatta: It didn’t go very well. After taking some hits in PLO10, I decided to go back to PLO5, because otherwise, I would lose a lot of money in the process of converting C$ to $.

You also moved to Omaha, what are your thoughts on that game?

Diplomatta: I fell in love with the game. It has much more action, and there are more recreational players at the table. I had to study the game a bit and also tried playing at local poker tables in my city. I won some good money, so I am very grateful to PokerStrategy for teaching me how to play poker.

“Blogging helped me stay consistent”

Has the process of blogging and reviewing hands helped your game?

Diplomatta: Yes, a lot! It helped me maintain consistency and awareness of everything I was doing. I created a spreadsheet to track my sessions, used PokerCraft from GG to analyze the hands, and after cashing out, I acquired PokerTracker 4 to further improve my game.

What are your next goals and challenges?

Diplomatta: As I’ve discovered that I’m more of a gambler than a poker player, my next goal is to win the Bankroll Challenge also using Casino games. My new blog is ‘Beyond Luck: The Art of Winning at the Casino.’ I plan to do this on GGPoker, and if PokerStrategy.com allows, I would like to continue participating in the Blogger Raffle.

To conclude, I would like to thank God for granting me luck and PokerStrategy for teaching me how to play poker. I was only able to get this far thanks to the articles, videos, and the forum. After all, only those who are actively playing at the tables participate in Flipout.

What is the Bankroll Challenge?

In the Bankroll Challenge we encourage our members to get better by blogging about their poker journey and setting some ambitious goals.

Our members found that having a blog kept them accountable to their goals and it’s a great way to help them get to know their fellow PokerStrategists. As the saying goes ‘what gets measured, gets managed’ and simply having a blog keeps you on your A-Game.

To help you on your journey and with a little bit of luck you can win $100 that we will raffle once a month among our active bloggers, regardless of where they play, accompanied by a special badge for their forum avatar for anyone succeeding in their first Bankroll Challenge.

How to join the Bankroll Challenge

The challenge is open to all PokerStrategists and you do not need to be tracked to us to participate. All you need to do is:

• Start a blog in our forum.
• State your starting bankroll, your regular stakes/games and your poker room in the first post.
• Set a long term bankroll goal of at least $500 and/or a minimum of five times your starting bankroll.
• Sign-up to the Bankroll Challenge in our registration thread, with a link to your personal blog, your initial bankroll and your goal.
• Post at least once a week in your blog.

Once a month we will raffle $100 among all eligble PokerStrategists participating in the Bankroll Challenge regardless of where you play.

Double Dip with the Blogger Raffle

After running our community raffle in familiar fashion for years, with one or two special editions sprinkled in, we’re now switching things up permanently!

There are brand-new weekly prizes to be won that you can get your hands on and a whole range of new tasks that go along with the new Blogger Raffle.

As the name suggests, there are now way more ways available for active contributors in our forum to win one of the weekly prizes, alongside weekly StrategyPoints milestones and various other tasks. Commenting news, watching videos, or most of the other old website tasks won’t result in weekly raffle tickets any longer, though.

We’re also mixing things up when it comes to the weekly prizes, making sure all our weekly winners will be able to cash out their prize right away through our Tell-a-Friend account system, whichever way they prefer.

Check out the latest winners right away

There’s a total prize pool of $375 up for grabs every single week, with the following tasks available for you to complete every week or once as a one-time boost in order to earn tickets for the new raffle.

After the official first run of the raffle, we’ve slightly adjusted the amount of tickets collectable through earning StrategyPoints or posting in a member’s blog, with the former now bringing less and the latter more tickets than before.