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DYM challenge: £2.5k profit over 5k games
Viking25
Member Posts: 46
in Poker Chat
Happy new year all!
Some of you may remember a challenge I set myself about 18 months ago, which was to profit £5k over 1k MTTs. In hindsight, getting this much volume in playing MTTs was always ambitious, given that I had just become a Dad for the first time and was training to become a Maths teacher. Let's just say that getting 8 hours sleep gave me greater satisfaction that binking an MTT during that period of time. As of today, I have only played 117 MTTs since starting the challenge with a profit of £939.39.
Fast forward to today and my situation has changed slightly. I completed my Maths teaching course, however decided not to go into the profession for a variety of reasons. I am now back working with my previous employers, a football stats company, where my work/life balance is much improved. This has given me the opportunity to start enjoying some hobbies again (playing football, running, reading), however poker is certainly the one I have missed most. Coupling this with the turn of the new year, I wanted to set some poker goals for the year and starting a blog seemed a good idea to keep me accountable throughout.
As the title suggests, my goal in 2022 will be to play 5k DYMs with the aim of profiting £2.5k. Money earned via rakeback/bonuses etc. will not be included in the overall total. Now, if I haven't lost most of you after reading 'DYMs' then I am already eternally grateful as I am aware that they are not the most enthralling form of poker to say the least. However, I actually think that they're an underrated way to learn the fundamentals of MTT poker, specifically the idea of ICM, and is where I started my poker journey about 10 years ago. The main reason I have chosen to start a DYM challenge rather than my preferred format of MTTs though, is purely the sit-and-go nature of the former. In my old age, I value sleep, routine and spending time with family far too much to commit to playing long sessions/staying up until the early hours so, although I may still play the odd MTT during some DYM sessions, setting an MTT challenge made little sense.
When it came to choosing a realistic target for the challenge, I looked some of the OGs of the DYM world to get an idea about a decent win rate, which seems to be about the 5% mark. I will start by playing a mix of £5.50/£11 DYMs, so in order to meet the requirements of the challenge my ROI will likely have to be closer to 8%. Time will tell if this is achievable or not.
I will aim to update this thread every Monday with an overview of how the challenge is progressing, as well as posting at least one interesting ICM spot in the hope of instilling some DYM enthusiasm into the community!
All the best at the tables.
Some of you may remember a challenge I set myself about 18 months ago, which was to profit £5k over 1k MTTs. In hindsight, getting this much volume in playing MTTs was always ambitious, given that I had just become a Dad for the first time and was training to become a Maths teacher. Let's just say that getting 8 hours sleep gave me greater satisfaction that binking an MTT during that period of time. As of today, I have only played 117 MTTs since starting the challenge with a profit of £939.39.
Fast forward to today and my situation has changed slightly. I completed my Maths teaching course, however decided not to go into the profession for a variety of reasons. I am now back working with my previous employers, a football stats company, where my work/life balance is much improved. This has given me the opportunity to start enjoying some hobbies again (playing football, running, reading), however poker is certainly the one I have missed most. Coupling this with the turn of the new year, I wanted to set some poker goals for the year and starting a blog seemed a good idea to keep me accountable throughout.
As the title suggests, my goal in 2022 will be to play 5k DYMs with the aim of profiting £2.5k. Money earned via rakeback/bonuses etc. will not be included in the overall total. Now, if I haven't lost most of you after reading 'DYMs' then I am already eternally grateful as I am aware that they are not the most enthralling form of poker to say the least. However, I actually think that they're an underrated way to learn the fundamentals of MTT poker, specifically the idea of ICM, and is where I started my poker journey about 10 years ago. The main reason I have chosen to start a DYM challenge rather than my preferred format of MTTs though, is purely the sit-and-go nature of the former. In my old age, I value sleep, routine and spending time with family far too much to commit to playing long sessions/staying up until the early hours so, although I may still play the odd MTT during some DYM sessions, setting an MTT challenge made little sense.
When it came to choosing a realistic target for the challenge, I looked some of the OGs of the DYM world to get an idea about a decent win rate, which seems to be about the 5% mark. I will start by playing a mix of £5.50/£11 DYMs, so in order to meet the requirements of the challenge my ROI will likely have to be closer to 8%. Time will tell if this is achievable or not.
I will aim to update this thread every Monday with an overview of how the challenge is progressing, as well as posting at least one interesting ICM spot in the hope of instilling some DYM enthusiasm into the community!
All the best at the tables.
Comments
@Viking25
So many players are almost defensive about playing DYM's, but they are roughly as popular as MTT's & there's no reason to be embarrassed about enjoying them. Each to their own & all that, & I certainly used to adore playing them. The "highs" are lower & the "lows" higher, & whereas many MTT players cuss & curse every night, DYM-ers tend to play more volume & suffer less angst. If I ever resumed online Poker - & I'd love to, but can't right now - DYM's would be my destination for sure.
Why are you excluding money earned by rakeback & bonuses? In my view, they are part of the return we should expect in that format & should be included. Over a period of time I run £100 up to £4,000 playing DYM's (around 4 years), and over half of it was from Rewards Payments & various Promos. I think you should include it.
Finally, I'm fascinated by your day job, working for a football stats business. If it's not too personal, I'd love to hear more about that. e.g., is it for an OPTA type business, or are the stats intended for Sports Betting purposes? I happened to know Tony Bloom quite well back in the day, & of course he was very very big into football stats. I knew Martin de Kniff very well too, ditto.
Anyway, VBOL with it.
How often are you intending to update your posts?
Thanks for your reply. The relative variance-free nature of DYMs that you describe is actually another reason for choosing them over MTTs for this challenge.
I intend to record money earned through rakeback/bonuses in my weekly overview but wanted to achieve the target without including it, if that makes sense. If I'm a few quid short of the £2.5k target towards the end of the 5k games I can always add it in anyway
It's the latter. I work for a company called Football Radar as an odds compiler, so very much in the same industry as Tony Bloom. Very envious that you knew him well back in the day, he's quite the impressive individual and someone that I've looked up to over the years.
I intend to update the thread every Monday
Played more than I expected as it was a relatively quiet week at work with some leagues still off for their winter break/games postponed due to COVID. Here's an overview of progress so far, which includes the two days before the start of the first full week of the year.
The 'total profit/loss' figure is simply just profit/loss from games + rakeback.
I think the plan for next week will be to continue to grind the £5.50/11s, however I may start adding in some £16.50/22s if the games are running.
Hope everyone has a great week!
Great start!
Yup, solid. Keep it up.
Got a decent amount of volume in again this week. As you can see, results not as pretty as the previous week but still in the green and winning at a decent rate (small sample of course).
Reading a really good book at the moment called 'Atomic Habits'. Basically highlights the idea that instead of making bold, grandiose and perhaps unrealistic goals (think typical NY resolutions), we should instead focus on creating simple, attainable and repeatable processes. Would highly recommend, especially if you're the sort of person that struggles to keep to goals you set yourself, which is likely the majority of us!
Lastly, a little shout out to Sky for the Stack Builder promotion they're currently running. Think it's a really nice concept and a very generous prize pool; win-win all round really.
Have a great week!
Good stuff @Viking25 & I'll pass your comments on about Stack Builder.
Didn't get chance to provide an update yesterday, so here's the first (and probably not last) Tuesday edition.
Another solid enough week as you can see below.
I must say that the relative variance-free nature of DYMs is appealing to me more and more as this challenge goes on. There's no doubt in my mind that MTTs are much more exciting (as per a couple of really good posts in the forum last week) and the thought processes involved much more complex and nuanced. However, from a mental perspective I find it much easier to just concentrate on getting a decent amount of DYM volume in and being confident that my edge will lead to a steady, if unspectacular, return.
Of course poker should be played for enjoyment first and foremost, which is why MTTs are so popular. However, I think the roller-coaster nature of MTTs can linger in the mind when you're away from the tables ("if I'd have just done this", "how did they call with that", "if I'd have won that flip I'd have been chip leader" etc.) and spill over into one's everyday life. If I'm completely honest, there's certainly been times when I've not been completely 'present' when conversing with my wife/friends/family members because I've been thinking about a spot from the previous day's MTT session. It has a lot of parallels with single-player sport in my opinion, where if you don't win the tournament/competition you are never fully satisfied. This is particularly relevant for part-time poker players, where MTT wins will be very infrequent due to the relatively low volume played.
Anyway, enough rambling for now. On that cheery note, have a great week!