Boku87: An Internet Poker Legend

Internet poker is played by millions of people. Not many people have the abilities or the inclination to approach the game the way Boku87 has done. This player first came to fame with the publicising on a famous poker forum of a challenge he set himself. The challenge was to earn $10,000 from a $100 starting bankroll in fifteen days playing only SNG tournaments. He set himself the limits of only playing SNGs up to $16 entry fee during this challenge. Boku gave 3/1 that he would not complete the bet and if at any time his bankroll went to zero the bet was lost. Boku87 was already well-known as a heavy multi table player, but having decided he would need to play around 8 hours per day at around 40 tables at a time many experts felt this was beyond any player’s capabilities.

In the first day, his bankroll rose from $100 to $422 playing only $1 45 man and 18 man SNG’s. This was an amazing return but he did not stop there. Not only was his profit excellent but the fact that if you searched for Boku87 in pokerstars you found that he was often playing anywhere from 45-50 tables at any one time. This is truly incredible. He announced midway through his challenge that he was scaling back to 30 tables maximum which was still unthinkable for the majority of poker players. This improved his win rate to the point where it was optimal for him not to play the massive fifty tables. This proved to be the turning point of the challenge. On the 14th day of the challenge he announced to the poker world that he had won the bet and sharkscope graphs proved this was the case. It took him just over 7000 games to earn this money which was an average of 500 SNG’s per day. To profit from that also shows amazing skills. It was averaged that he made three decisions per second for over ten hours. He is truly an online poker phenomenon.

In a post bet interview he stated that he had only been playing poker for three years and could not tell how he can keep so focused for such an extended period of time without mental fatigue setting in. Pokerstars immediately saw the potential in this player and another challenge was announced recently. The online poker site made sure that his challenge was carefully set out from a bankroll perspective so that it did not look reckless.

Boku87, now with his own section of the website in which he regularly blogs, has to turn $5 into $100,000 in just twelve months. On July 20th 2009 his quest began to win the challenge. He started out playing 2 cent 4 cent fixed limit Holdem and 10 cent SNG’s. As of August 19th his profit after steadily moving through the limits is already at an amazing $18,700 and he expects to be up to $30,000 before the end of the month. A quick check yesterday for his username saw him playing on 46 tables, which staggers me who started to get twitchy playing a mere six tables!

Pokerstars are keen to show players that with the correct bankroll management approach you can move through the levels and win. There is the small matter of the skills required but a player could achieve the same profit but over a longer time scale playing less tables at once. Boku87 is showing us that it is possible. It is rumoured (and in my opinion almost a sure thing) that Boku87 will soon be a fully fledged pokerstars team pro. With his internet exposure at an all time high, should he complete the task he will be championed throughout the whole of poker both live and online. With his previous achievements and current profits it looks like a case of when rather than if.

Keep an eye out for further Boku87 and other poker challenge updates. For now, just sit back, watch and admire this great player as he makes Internet poker history.

By Malcolm Clarke