Nick is a cash game player, content creator and part of 888poker’s Stream Team. Each week he shares his thoughts and experiences as a player dedicated to the daily grind. This week he reflects on the end of a bankroll challenge he’s spent almost three years pursuing…
It’s over.
After almost three years of torture, I’ve achieved what I always just assumed would never happen. On August 9, 2021 I set myself the challenge of winning $1,000 at 10NL cash games and, last week, on May 31, 2024, I got over the line.
I’ve spoken in detail in previous articles about my struggles over the duration of the challenge, and my feelings leading up to last week’s potential finale. One thing I was very clear on was that, while I was preparing for the fact that this might be the end, I wasn’t allowing myself to think about how it was going to feel for it all to be over. I knew all too well how easy it would be to drop a few buy-ins and for the finish line to fade away into the distance once more.
And that’s even more true in my case than many of you might realise. See, I set myself this challenge thinking that it would be interesting to test my abilities in the same ecosystem as every other player and show that it’s possible to battle your way out of the micro stakes. My thought was that, although this would be extremely difficult and would take a lot of patience and mental fortitude (of which I famously possess very little), I’d be good enough to finish it in the end.
The reality is that I faced very few of the same daily obstacles that any normal micro stakes grinder might face. From the early stages, it became clear that the direction of this challenge would be very different to what I expected, and it’s maybe something I should have foreseen. After all, as mentioned, I am one of the most mentally fragile poker players you’re likely to find, and giving my following a cheap and effective way to push my buttons was only going to end one way.
You’re not paranoid if they’re really out to get you
Enter the affectionately named ‘bumhunter’, a label (colored blue) I gave to those players whose only desire was to see me in the most pain possible. I lost countless hands to the most unimaginable holdings in the most absurd of situations, and tied myself in knots trying to work out who was out to get me. The answer, in the end, was pretty much everybody.
And it was never as true as for the grand finale, where a fast-fold pool of usually 50 or so players transformed into the motherland of bumhunters. Peaking at over 110 participants, the pool swelled into an unplayable monstrosity of players looking to beat me in the funniest and most brutal ways possible. Every table had at least three others I knew full well were 3-betting their entire range if I opened.
Of course the natural counter would be to only play the most premium holdings, and take only the best spots. Well after only 20 mins, I’d lost two stacks, one inexplicably to a bumhunter holding kings when I had AQs (about as unfair as it gets), and the other in a manner that everyone had tuned in for.
Flushed away… almost
After I opened the cut off with 
, a blue tag in the small blind made a standard 3-bet jam of 100bb with 
. The flop brought two more clovers, and I knew what was coming before the turn was even dealt. The flush hit, the wheels were officially coming off, and the audience could hardly have been happier.
But patience is a virtue I have learned over the course of this challenge, and as the rest of the bumhunters sought the same dopamine hit that our friend with had managed previously, opportunities presented themselves.
I got queens in for 150bb against KQs preflop, and managed an almighty hold to put myself back in touching distance of glory. A few small pots here and there and I was only one stack away, and that’s when it happened.
Aces.
After some predictable preflop nonsense, 200-odd big blinds were being rammed into the middle, and all I had to do was call… and hold. A notorious and legendary bumhunter by the name of ‘SneakyTucky’ was lurking behind, watching it all unfold. He described it as ‘watching his life flash before his eyes’, and in a last desperate attempt to thwart me, he called off 
. My other opponent had 
, and while they flopped a jack, no further help arrived, and it was over.
I’d won $1,000 at 10NL after the most arduous and painstaking of journeys, and suddenly, everything I’d been through had been worth it.
I can honestly say that the level of relief and ecstasy I experienced in that moment is unlikely to be eclipsed in my lifetime. I basked in the endless glory of my accomplishment, and the bumhunters began to applaud. They knew what they’d put me through, and even they could sympathize that my suffering had finally come to an end.
So I did get my open top bus parade after all, and savored every morsel of my Indian cuisine, and indeed, my freedom.
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