starting on a bankroll

Hey there,

this is my first ever post on FTR. I have been reading the forums for about a month though. I read HoH1 and I am currently reading Part 2.

I am playing poker for a couple of months, but mostly in play money games and free rolls. Now I really want to start playing for real money, as I see why play money games might be ok to get one started, but actually are a waste of time, as they dont teach you real poker.

I had however one failed try to start a bankroll. I found a site where you'd have to master a quiz to get credited 50$ at Party. At first I used this money just to experiment a little with the variety of formats (MTTs, SnGs, Cash Games). I lost almost all of it within 3 days in cash games (I played really crappy poker, even for my beginner standards). I was down to 7$ when I started playing SnGs and with a bit of luck was able to win it all back. I figured that SnGs might match my style best. (When playing play money games I always played in SnGs too) So I rebuilt my bankroll from 7$ to 58$. But then it happend and I ran into a losing streak of 8 SnGs. I ran into a fairly long run of weak cards and bad beats. So while I know that I played crappy poker to lose the original 50$, this time I didnt play that weak at all (although I surely made some mistakes down the road). After all my bankroll wasnt able to compensate the losses in Partys 5+1$ SnGs.

Now I am thinking about how to go on from here. I dont have that much money to start with a proper bankroll for 5+1$ SnGs and I am thining to deposit some money on Stars to play the 1+0,10 SnGs with 45 players to slowly build a bankroll. I have played a lot of 45 player SnGs for play moey at Stars and I really enjoy the format.

So my question basically is, if this seems to be a good way to build a bankroll (variance should be pretty high in Sngs with this amount of players involved) or if someone has a better idea to start a bankroll for a beginner who cant afford to deposit hundreds of Dollars in the first place.

this will be a good place to start. i havent played the $1 45 man sngs, but i would suspect that if you played tight in the beginning, that 2-3 of the field will donk out pretty fast. get a few FT's and wins under your belt and you will be rolled for the $5+50's and some low limit cash games.

bye the way, welcome to FTR

welcome to FTR. Do what bode-ist said

I myself started with a $100 deposit into pokerstars and played the 0.01/0.02 blind no limit cash games buying in for $2 at first and then $5 once i got better. that worked pretty well.

Since I also had to start with an extremely small bankroll (40$) and love SNGs, I went over to Pacific Poker. I built my bankroll playing 5 man 3$ SNGs. The SNG formats have changed lately. I suggest you play the 6 man 2.80$ SNGs to start (Top 3 in the money). If you play solid poker, you will be able to build a small bankroll and move up to the same game at 5.40$. The great thing about this place IMHO is that this same game is also available at 10.80$ afterwards and so forth ... when you're bankroll is ready. Good luck !

Start veyr low, so as you mentioned the $1 will be ideal. Even if you build your bankroll fast at this level, and have enough to move up, I suggest that you stay with it until you've played at least 100 tournaments. And thats the very least I'd say.

250 is probably a better amount to look at, so track your progress and find where your leaks are, ie by posting hand histories here and asking for advice.

Once you think you're ready, then move up and repeat the process.
It is slow but I think it's the best way at the micro limits to build your confidence before rushing ahead too quickly.

The $1 is where I started.

The $1.50 and $3 turbos are also extremely soft, a little more variance, but will be higher $/hr.

Originally Posted by topsoyale

Even if you build your bankroll fast at this level, and have enough to move up, I suggest that you stay with it until you've played at least 100 tournaments.

Why? I disagree and think that at such low buyins, one should move up as soon as he has the bankroll. I'd say do this until the $33 buyin.

I've been playing SnGs on Stars for a week now. I played about 40 SnGs and unfortunately I am 9 Dollars below of what I started with. The day before yesterday was a terrible day as I played too long on tilt. Probably wasted 4 or 5 Sngs. I think my biggest leak so far is that I choose bad situations to make moves. I play pretty tight, but sometimes when I see people calling raises preflop and then folding postflop to rather smallish bets and stuff like that, I get the feeling that I have to get involved at some point. So basically I am finding really bad spots to bluff.

don't bluff