The terms: Start with $500 and build your poker bankroll over a period of one year into a substantial bankroll. You may only play live games in casinos and poker rooms; no online or home games.
 
The goal: The goal of this challenge is to reproduce the conditions faced in brick-and-mortar casinos and poker rooms by road gamblers long before the days of online poker. The casinos offered—and still do—a safe environment free of worries about cheaters, thieves, and the law.
 
The background: The inspiration for the “$500 Poker Challenge” is “My Story” from the beginning of Doyle Brunson’s SuperSystem, where he tells us, “I’ve been so broke early in my marriage that I couldn’t afford bus fare from Las Vegas to my home in Fort Worth. And there were times I could barely scrape up a dime to call my wife and ask her to send me money for the ticket ... I finally got to the point where I got my bankroll up to one-hundred-thousand dollars, and I haven’t looked back since.”
 
Today I would like to share and comment on the responses I have received from readers.
 
A few readers asked about the final dollar goal.
 
I am not specifying an exact dollar amount. Make as much as you can in one year so you can play higher stakes. While setting a specific goal for yourself can be good discipline, each person taking the challenge will be playing in a different environment. Not all of us can live in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Reno, or Atlantic City.
 
One reader, Patrick, makes two points: (1) accepting a stake skews the experiment and (2) this particular challenge is designed for novices and amateurs, not pros.
 
(1) If the point is purely to measure a player’s prowess, then Patrick is right in asserting that accepting a stake skews the result. But the skewing is only very minor, since the stake is start-up capital that must be repaid, usually with an additional percentage of winnings. Furthermore this is not a laboratory experiment, but about real-life poker as it is played in casinos and poker rooms all over the world. Staking is and has always been part of that.
 
(2) The challenge is designed for novices and amateurs. Because poker is the poor man’s stock market, this challenge is for players without a large bankroll, or who have lost their bankroll.
 
The $500 Poker Challenge is also designed to help and inspire long-time poker players and railbirds who need to reassess their skill or the lack of skill that busted them out.
 
Some readers have already started the challenge with interesting and inspiring results. To name a few, Mike, Alex, Tom, and Serge are taking the challenge and will be sending updates on their progress.
 
Chris plays primarily at Foxwoods in the $1-$2 and $2-$5 no-limit hold’em games, with sessions lasting no more the four hours. According to his most recent update, he has doubled his initial stake and is up $541. Employed full-time, Chris, like most poker players, will be playing when he has the time and can get to the casino.
 
Tom, on the other hand, is grinding it out in $2-$4 and $3-$6 limit hold’em games.
 
My next column, entitled “Location, Location, Location,” will be about where to play.
 
You may post your challenge results and comments two weeks after print publication by going to www.pokerplayernewspaper.com, sign up for a FREE online subscription and add your comments at the end of each article.
 
I invite you to take the $500 Poker Challenge with me and report your results!
 
John “The Scientist” Hayes hosts Ask the Scientist, a live call-in poker instruction show on www.hpstv.tv at the Hollywood Poker School in Hollywood Park Casino. Contact scientist@hpstv.tv.