Published on January 30th, 2008 1:06 am EST
Reading Ed's blog is like witnessing a nine car pile-up on the freeway with multiple fatalities. You don't want to look, but you end up looking anyways.
For those of you who don't know Ed Hollis, he writes a blog called "88% Concentration" (link below for the curious). The blog is about two years old, and chronicles his numerous highs and lows as he builds up a roll and tries to take on some of the best high-limit cash game players in the world.
Hollis has had almost 300k visitors to his blog over the past few years. He takes incredible risks (such as playing in a 250/500 No Limit Hold'em game with a 70k pound bankroll) and will often either bust or increase his bankroll multiple times over the course of one evening.
His heaters and subsequent busts are the stuff of legend. He started his blog in February of '06 and had a 1k bankroll and was playing in 25/50 No Limit Hold'em games. He went on a heater, qualified for the '06 Irish Poker Open, built his roll up to 50k pounds and busted within a month.
Then he deposited a few hundred pounds, built up to 11k pounds, lost this the next day and then "rebuilt" playing 0.15/0.25 and 0.50/1.00 using borrowing money from his parents (I'm not making this up).
A few weeks later he was back up to a 14k bankroll and had repaid his parents. By September of '06, Hollis had built up a bankroll of 19k pounds. Things continued to go well and he played in the '06 EPT Barcelona and '06 EPT London. By the end of September, he had a bankroll of 88k pounds and eventually broke 6 figures by mid October. At the end of October '06, Hollis played in the EPT Dublin.
At the beginning of November he started playing 250/500 NLHE and hit a high of 170k pounds before dropping 120k pounds in three days playing 250/500 No Limit Hold'em. At the end of November he was down to a bankroll of 30k pounds, back up to 80k pounds in early December, down to 10k pounds and then busted by the New Year. On January 5th, 2007, he reported that he was playing 0.15/0.25 with a 400 pound bankroll.
Mid Jan '07 he ran back up to 8k pounds then "quit" his blog in frustration after "running bad."
In March he makes a triumphant comeback, reporting that he is back on track with a bankroll of 18k pounds. By the end of April he is back up to a bankroll of over 100k pounds of which he takes out a large chunk to finance the purchase of a house.
May '07 he busts his online roll and deposits a significant amount of "offline savings". By June of '07, Hollis has broken the six figure barrier once again, reporting a total bankroll of 125k pounds. By early July he has busted once again, and starts using money from his "house fund" to deposit.
From July '07 to Sept '07 he busts a couple of more times, this time busting using "borrowed" money. In Nov of '07, he reports having borrowed 12k pounds to get into the games. In Dec of '07, he reports rolling his bankroll back up to 72k, paying back his debts in the process.
By mid Jan '08, Hollis reports that he had borrowed 15k pounds and was depositing the majority of this into four different sites. I'm not sure who he borrowed 15k pounds from, but it sounded kind of ominous. Over the past couple of days, from what I have seen and read, he had gotten back up to 40-50k pounds, withdrew 10k and then lost the rest playing 250/500 No Limit Hold'em on Betfair. This is where his blog leaves off, with a title of "Depressed".
A couple of positives out of all of this is the fact that Hollis was able to buy a home with proceeds from poker and buy into numerous EPT events.
However, you have to wonder how long he can keep up these massive swings if he keeps playing against some of the top players in the world, including Ram Vaswani and Erik Sagstrom. Not the best game selection in the world.
Hollis seems hell-bent on playing the biggest online games in the world rather than grinding it out at lower stakes. Any player who can build up a bankroll of at least 100k pounds three times in two years must have some talent, however it just gets wasted with poor bankroll management. If you are short-stacking a 250/500 No Limit Hold'em game with 20% of your bankroll on the table against some of the best players in the world, things are probably not going to end up too good for you.
Hollis mainly plays on Crypto as "_Goku_" and Betfair as "Supagrass".
Ed seems like a nice enough guy, so I can only hope that he learns a bit of bankroll management. Actually, more than just a "bit". Link to his blog is below:
Source: 88% Concentration
--
Filed Under: Players In The News
Reading Ed's blog is like witnessing a nine car pile-up on the freeway with multiple fatalities. You don't want to look, but you end up looking anyways. For those of you who don't know Ed Hollis, he writes a blog called "88% Concentration" (link below for the curious). The blog is about two years old, and chronicles his numerous highs and lows as he builds up a roll and tries to take on some of the best high-limit cash game players in the world.
Hollis has had almost 300k visitors to his blog over the past few years. He takes incredible risks (such as playing in a 250/500 No Limit Hold'em game with a 70k pound bankroll) and will often either bust or increase his bankroll multiple times over the course of one evening.
His heaters and subsequent busts are the stuff of legend. He started his blog in February of '06 and had a 1k bankroll and was playing in 25/50 No Limit Hold'em games. He went on a heater, qualified for the '06 Irish Poker Open, built his roll up to 50k pounds and busted within a month.
Then he deposited a few hundred pounds, built up to 11k pounds, lost this the next day and then "rebuilt" playing 0.15/0.25 and 0.50/1.00 using borrowing money from his parents (I'm not making this up).
A few weeks later he was back up to a 14k bankroll and had repaid his parents. By September of '06, Hollis had built up a bankroll of 19k pounds. Things continued to go well and he played in the '06 EPT Barcelona and '06 EPT London. By the end of September, he had a bankroll of 88k pounds and eventually broke 6 figures by mid October. At the end of October '06, Hollis played in the EPT Dublin.
At the beginning of November he started playing 250/500 NLHE and hit a high of 170k pounds before dropping 120k pounds in three days playing 250/500 No Limit Hold'em. At the end of November he was down to a bankroll of 30k pounds, back up to 80k pounds in early December, down to 10k pounds and then busted by the New Year. On January 5th, 2007, he reported that he was playing 0.15/0.25 with a 400 pound bankroll.
Mid Jan '07 he ran back up to 8k pounds then "quit" his blog in frustration after "running bad."
In March he makes a triumphant comeback, reporting that he is back on track with a bankroll of 18k pounds. By the end of April he is back up to a bankroll of over 100k pounds of which he takes out a large chunk to finance the purchase of a house.
May '07 he busts his online roll and deposits a significant amount of "offline savings". By June of '07, Hollis has broken the six figure barrier once again, reporting a total bankroll of 125k pounds. By early July he has busted once again, and starts using money from his "house fund" to deposit.
From July '07 to Sept '07 he busts a couple of more times, this time busting using "borrowed" money. In Nov of '07, he reports having borrowed 12k pounds to get into the games. In Dec of '07, he reports rolling his bankroll back up to 72k, paying back his debts in the process.
By mid Jan '08, Hollis reports that he had borrowed 15k pounds and was depositing the majority of this into four different sites. I'm not sure who he borrowed 15k pounds from, but it sounded kind of ominous. Over the past couple of days, from what I have seen and read, he had gotten back up to 40-50k pounds, withdrew 10k and then lost the rest playing 250/500 No Limit Hold'em on Betfair. This is where his blog leaves off, with a title of "Depressed".
A couple of positives out of all of this is the fact that Hollis was able to buy a home with proceeds from poker and buy into numerous EPT events.
However, you have to wonder how long he can keep up these massive swings if he keeps playing against some of the top players in the world, including Ram Vaswani and Erik Sagstrom. Not the best game selection in the world.
Hollis seems hell-bent on playing the biggest online games in the world rather than grinding it out at lower stakes. Any player who can build up a bankroll of at least 100k pounds three times in two years must have some talent, however it just gets wasted with poor bankroll management. If you are short-stacking a 250/500 No Limit Hold'em game with 20% of your bankroll on the table against some of the best players in the world, things are probably not going to end up too good for you.
Hollis mainly plays on Crypto as "_Goku_" and Betfair as "Supagrass".
Ed seems like a nice enough guy, so I can only hope that he learns a bit of bankroll management. Actually, more than just a "bit". Link to his blog is below:
Source: 88% Concentration
--
Filed Under: Players In The News
