Should I keep playing this game

[LeFou]

I have a live game going that is fun and (so far) profitable, but might be out of my league in terms of bankroll.

Each night (Fri,Sat,Sun) starts with a $20 freezeout. This draws 18-25 people. I was fortunate enough to win it the first two times I played. I am fine with this part.

When enough people are knocked out of the tourney, a NL cash game starts up. It's .25-50 but most pots are raised PF, so it smells more like a 1-2.

The reason this post is here instead of in the "home games" forum is that it's a money management issue: my allowance for home games is only about $50/mo, and though there are some tasty fish at this game there are also some guys with no problem rebuying for $50 three or four times in a night if they need to.

I must admit I've got bummed a couple times when I drop 20 in the tourney and fail to place, then drop 20 in the cash game and I'm more or less out of commission for the month.

Bummed is not good; I think I'm a favorite to profit from this game based on player quality, but the variance makes it so that I can only do the game once or twice a month.

By the way, if any Dallasians want to join the game, I'll get you the details...

[xbones]

You say $50 a month - perhaps you should wait til you win then use the profit from that to fund your future games, eliminating the need to set yourself a budget. Yuo would be $50 better off a month, and would end up playing with only the profits (eliminating(ish) the bad feeling). If you are good enough to beat the game there, you should have a win soon enough, and be able to progress from there.

I would treat it like online poker, and keep your poker cash seperate from your normal cash. Then, when you have built your winnings up enough, you can start taking money out of your bankroll.

[Les_Worm]

I think you already know the answer to your question. You should never play a game that your bankroll can't support. Even if you are profitable sometimes, all it takes is one night to lose big.

[maxxscam]

win money online , then use that as a bankroll for the cash game, thats what i have done, i woulda never dreamed of playin 10/20 kill, a month ago, especially caue i had never played limit, but i cashed out a large amount of my online winnings took 500$ and played the 10/20 game figured if i win then i will play with that money and skim the 500 off and just use the money i won with, luckily my first night i finished with 3300$, havent had a night that good since in fact i dropped 800 the other night, it just takes one good night

i would just take some of he online winnings cash it out say about 400 or so and use that as your live game bankroll, if the ffish are there, i guarentee your bankroll will incrase, you are a very solid player from what i have seen, but you need the large bankroll to handle a few bad beats.

[DavSimon]

What Les_Worm said....LeFou you are really a top notch player, so I have no doubt that you can beat that game. But if your bankroll does not allow it - you will be playing with scared money and it will effect your game. Taken to the extreme....I know of a local chiropractor and dentist game twice a month. My best friend plays in it and wins regularly (he is not very good at holdem) I feel that I could do very well at this game, but the $500 buy-in every other week is above what I can afford...so I just stay away. All it would take is one or two bad nights and I can't play holden for a couple months.

[LeFou]

I think you already know the answer to your question. You should never play a game that your bankroll can't support.

Yeah...I think I kinda realized that partway through typing up the post.

Trouble is the only convenient live games I have found (Dallas) are this one and the F**ing APL.

I suppose I'll put some work into assembling my own game according to my specs. RD Olivaw, you wanna help?

[RD Olivaw]

Hey LeFou,
Just happend upon this post.. What did you have in mind?

[LeFou]

Man, I definitely typed up a reply to this yesterday but must've lost it.

The ideal game for me (and a couple of my friends) is .10-.20, primarily NLHE but we'd like to fiddle with other games from time to time. 7CS HiLo is my current Non-HE fave. Buyin $15 or $20 at a time.

And...

...this is important...

mostly but not necessarily only people who are kinda serious about poker. Not pistoff serious, but interested in strategy and willing to read a book or two.

For an example of Way Too Serious, see "worst. APL game. ever" in Tales of Poker

[RD Olivaw]

So are you talking about a non-raked home game? Where would we play?

[LeFou]

We've played a few times at my friend's apartment in Irving, but I'm open to suggestions. My house is in Grapevine.

And yeah, non-raked.

You ever play APL games? We could meet up at one of those someday and talk it over?

[RD Olivaw]

Never played an APL.. We could hook up at one though. PM me the details.

[Humphrind]

We have APL in Kansas City. It's really off the wall.

The recently got sponsered by Empire poker. So now you go in to Empire Poker chips, cards and tabe tops. It's odd. But still, it's poker.

I did the APL thing for a while. But I lost my taste for it. When I go play for money I will alwasy spend money, but I have the possibility of making it back. When I play APL. I just spend money and never make any back.

A friend of mine started Party League Poker, just like APL. Right now it's only in the St Louis area. but he hopes to expand it to Kansas City and further. It's just like the APL, but it has a better commitment structure to the bar and he uses better equipt. He has 11.5g clay chips instead of the 9g plastic chips.

[RD Olivaw]

That's why I never really checked it out before.. I figure that I could be doing the same thing at home, but making money

Though I've heard that some of these events have big prizes like buy-ins to WPT tournaments.

[LeFou]

Hehe. Prizes. Yeah, but to have a shot at 'em you pretty much need to play 5+ tourneys a week. Because:

In Dallas area there are a couple thousand players, and only the top 300 point earners go to the (monthly?) prize tourney. If you only play a couple a week, you pretty much need to be in the top 4 every time to keep up with the guys who are playing 9 or 10 tourneys a week.

Big waste of time if you're trying to profit. But fun if you're trying to fun.

If you think making the top 4 every time is pretty feasible, wait 'til you see the blind structure.

[Humphrind]

In Kansas City the APL asks the bar to put up prizes for 1st and 2nd place of each tournament. I've seen a helmet shaped ashtray and $20 gift certificates.

Then the top points from the month play a tournament of champions for a Vegas Vacation.

It's a time share. You go to Vegas for 3 days, and for one full day you are stuck listening to a high-pressure time share sales pitch.

Not the dream vacation you expected.

[LeFou]

Oh My God that's hilarious.

We have the gift certificates and bottles of sample restaurant-quality hot sauce too. Somehow I forgot about those.

The time share pitch is priceless. I've never been to the big tourney in Dallas, so I don't know if that's how they do it here too. Yuck. Seems like with this many people in on it and this many bars pouring this many beers you could get a classier act together. Tell your friend to bring his idea to DFW and I'll help launch it.