Mystery Battle Royale Challenge: How long will it take to make $10,000 profit?

Update #1: Printing money at $0.25 and dealing with PC issues

Hey everyone! I’ll be trying to post my updates right after the daily leaderboard cuts off, so I can immediately factor those rewards into my bankroll.

Since yesterday, I’ve managed to push my bankroll up to $191.40, grinding out a total of 324 games over the last 24 hours.

To be completely honest, I have a tendency to tilt and make some incredibly stupid plays, even while knowing exactly how bad they are in the moment. Because of that, I’m actually surprised by how solid my profits are. Even though I’m far from playing my A game standard, frequently dropping down to my C or D game, I’m still printing money. These $0.25 games are a literal goldmine. If anyone is just starting their poker journey, these micro-stakes are absolutely perfect for building a bankroll from scratch, provided you can handle a decent multi-tabling volume.

However, it’s not all smooth sailing. I’ve been dealing with some frustrating PC issues lately. My computer randomly shuts down about once every two hours. Having to sit out for a minute or two while it reboots definitely hurts my win rate and costs me money.

If everything goes according to plan, today will likely be my final day at the lowest stakes before making the jump up to the $1 games. I’ll probably scale down the number of tables initially to get a proper feel for the field and start color-coding the pool.

Are there any Mystery Battle Royale regs hanging around here who might have some tips or advice for the transition?

edit : Quick correction regarding my previous post: there was a typo in my starting bankroll. It was actually $164.14.

Update #2:

Day 2 is in the books. This is going to be a quick update because I am completely exhausted. I stayed up all night watching the NBA finals and got zero sleep.

The current bankroll stands at 233.30 dollars. However, from now on I will just be reporting my net profit since the ultimate goal of this challenge is profit rather than bankroll size. After two days of grinding, my total profit is 72.16 dollars. That is absolutely insane for the 25 cent games. It means I managed to win 288 buy ins in just two days (including leaderboard rewards, of course).

I barely played yesterday but I made up for some volume today after the basketball game. I am still not happy with the numbers though. According to PokerCraft, I only put in 273 games total.

I am going to try and catch a quick nap now, though I took in so much caffeine that I am not even sure if I can fall asleep.

Set a minimum volume to complete per day (manageable without the stress) and commit to it. Give yourself 10 minutes before session mediated or game plan, do same once sessions is over). Hardest part is when life has other plans, therefore journey will never be smooth sailing. Besides focusing on gain or loses. Write interesting hands you wish done differently and thought process. Good luck buddy

Day 3. Unfortunately, it was another pretty weak day in terms of volume. After that completely sleepless night, even a three-hour nap could not get me feeling right, so I decided to play a shorter session.

At first, I thought the downswing was finally hitting me because the field was hitting absolutely everything against me. Thankfully, things turned around during this morning's session, and the good run just kept going.

I only managed to put in 195 games today. That brings my total profit after three days to 96.45 dollars.

Technically, based on my bankroll rules, I should already be shotshelling the 1 dollar games, but I just cannot seem to find the courage to start. I absolutely hate losing, and even though going broke is statistically barely real with my thresholds, I am still terrified that I will fire them up and just end up looking at a massive red number at the end of the session.

I know it sounds stupid, but I think I am going to stick to the lowest stakes for at least another day.

Thanks for the advice

Couldn't you start slowly mixing in the $1s? If 195 games in a shorter session is a low amount for you, you must be playing a ton of tables, couldn't you keep playing your 25c games and then just throw in a table at $1? Like nobody says you have to jump entirely into $1s 😀

It has been 9 days since I launched this challenge. My total profit currently stands at $152.85, almost entirely built on the 25-cent games.

I did shot-take the 1 dollar games for a brief moment, but including the leaderboard rewards, I only broke even. To be honest, I just did not feel comfortable continuing there. My laptop is still randomly shutting down mid-session, which only adds to the overall discomfort and tilt.

There is definitely a noticeable gap between the 25-cent and 1 dollar stakes. You see way more 3-bets, far fewer absolute donkeys playing any two cards, and people actually play with some caution on the final tables instead of turning it into a complete carnival. The stakes are definitely beatable, but I am just not sure what kind of win rate I can sustain there yet.

�� Battle with Motivation
On top of that, I was sick for a few days, so my motivation to play was pretty miserable. I even stopped posting my daily updates, which only made my motivation tank even further. It was honestly a struggle just to sit down and write this post.

However, I refuse to be that guy who starts a challenge and vanishes into thin air a week later. I am going to keep fighting.

On an interesting note, I noticed someone else just started a new blog and challenge in this exact same format. I will definitely be following their journey with interest! I would say that I want to race them to 10k, but staying at the 25-cent games means it might literally take me a few years, haha.

�� Today's Goal: The Accountability Test
Over these 9 days, I have only managed to put in 1,980 games. That is weak incredibly weak volume. I really hope I can turn things around and pick up the pace from here on out.

To wrap things up, I am setting a mini-challenge for myself today to see if I can stay motivated and actually keep my word:

⚡ TODAY'S MISSION: Put in exactly 400 games before the day is over (keep in mind the poker day ends when the leaderboard race closes).

Let's see if I can execute.

Until next time!

Hey everyone, welcome back!

Things are moving slower than I expected. As you can see from the updated graphic, my volume is pretty tragic compared to my original goals. I’m done making promises about what my grind is going to look like or how many games I’ll play, because let's face it I clearly can't keep my word 😉

�� Technical & Software Issues
The main reason I'm still grinding the micro stakes is that my computer issues are dragging on. The laptop keeps freezing, and I suspect it's because the graphics card isn't getting proper cooling. I finally ordered a new internal fan, so once I replace it, we'll see. Worst case scenario, I’ll just take it to a repair shop.

I also planned to download all my tournament data from PokerCraft and post a nice graph for you guys. Turns out you can’t download everything at once, and the tracking software I use can’t handle massive file sizes anyway due to its upload limits. So, unfortunately, this update is graphless.

�� Results & Key Takeaways
Despite the low volume, the profit actually looks solid for these stakes. As for the past few days, not a single one was in the red. The daily profits varied but stayed consistent, ranging from a minimum of $4 to a maximum of $33. To give you a rough breakdown, about $80 of my total profit comes directly from leaderboard rewards.

Just as a heads-up for anyone wondering: you can easily pull around $700 a month playing the lowest stakes of MBR on GGPoker if you treat it as a full-time job. I definitely didn't play as much as I should have, and I wasn't always locking up a top 3 spot on the leaderboard. I wonder how much you could make playing full-time at the $1 or $3 stakes? Let's say your ROI drops by half would that be around $1,400 for the $1 games? And maybe around $3,000 for the $3 ones?

I also thought about including a hand history or two in this update to share some of my game analysis, but let's be real I'm still way too lazy. I keep telling myself I'll start doing proper hand reviews once I move up stakes, which is probably when consistently winning will actually become a challenge.

⚽ World Cup Break
Aside from the computer issues, I’ve been a bit sucked into the World Cup lately. I’m watching almost every single match.

How about you guys? Are you tuning in? Who are you rooting for, and who do you think will be the dark horse of the tournament? Personally, I’m backing Japan, Norway, and the USA. I’ve always been a fan of the underdogs, so I'm really hoping one of them goes on a deep run!

Good luck at the tables!

edit. wtf, cant upload photo ? ok, will stay at reddit.