One of the more impressive feats in online poker history was accomplished yesterday when PokerStars pro Boku87 completed his $5 to $100k challenge.

German poker player Thomas “Boku87” Boekhoff started the challenge back in July of 2009. The Team PokerStars online member started the challenge with $5 and 0 FPPs, and set a goal of making 100k within 12 months.

Several months short of the deadline, at 5:24 on May 19th, Boku87 posted the following on 2+2:

challenge successfully completed

Will post screenshot of bankroll and graphs tomorrow

When asked, Boekhoff broke down the 100k profit as roughly 54% winnings from play and 46% from cash bonuses earned via the PokerStars VIP Program.

For many observers, it wasn’t a matter of if so much as when Boekhoff would complete the challenge. This is the mega-grinder who first really made a name for himself by taking on all comers in one of the more famous prop bets in history when he successfully turned $100 into $10,000 in just 14 days.

For successfully winning that first challenge, Boekhoff earned not only the $9,900 from playing, but an additional $32,000 from the prop bet from a variety of opponents willing to offer him 3-1 odds.

Ironically, when Boekhoff was asked following his successful completion of that challenge if he’d ever try another, he had this to say: “Maybe,” he said, “but certainly not during summer. If I come up with another bet I will do it in October or November.”

For both challenges, Boekhoff had to play by very strict bankroll guidelines – he couldn’t just keep leapfrogging limits and taking quick shots to inflate his bankroll. Instead, the challenges were conquered the old fashioned way – by long days of sick volume.

How sick? Reference this now-famous video of Boekhoff mutli-tabling 51 SNGs – without Table Ninja.

Full screen shots of bankrolls and graphs will be added when Boekhoff posts them.

The second challenge didn’t generate quite as much attention as the first, and there’s a good argument to be made that it wasn’t much of a challenge at all – certainly not a feat that anyone would be willing to lay 3-1 against as so many were for the first challenge. The lesson for aspiring prop bet creators: keep your challenges short, succinct, and difficult enough that people will follow along simply to see whether or not you fail.

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