Building up that Bankroll

[jaeh00d]

How was it that the majority of you build up your bankroll originally?

was it from placing in tournaments or did you just play countless hours of cash games?

I'm findingeasier through cash games

[Hawt]

I am a total donkey in cash games, so I find it easier in tournaments. Especially if you are just starting out, the 1.20 tournaments are pretty easy. As long as you play tight and don't take too many risks cashing is pretty easy. I managed to get that 6.50 from the freeroll up to about $30 through those tourny's.

[jaeh00d]

Nice, so youre still doing good, you havent busted yet?

I know this might sound hilarious but i looked in my account today at around 5pm and i had $0.25 left in it from when i last busted. I put the rest of that in a micro mini and in those hours have worked it up to 13 dollars...lol

[PShabi]

Pretty much begged my way to a $5000 bankroll and then started playing 5/10 where I am today.

So, yes, you're on the right track.

[Hawt]

With Cash games, (for me at least) at the lower limits, you get a lot more bad beats just because even though you may wait and only play solid hands, chances are that the fish you are playing with aren't, and aren't going to take notice that you are a tight player, so your big hands like AK and QQ, etc are going to end up getting busted by 94os.

Also, one thing TP told me when I went broke was to "never sit with more than 5% of your bankroll" which with a lower bankroll (mine was $30), 5% ends up being like 1.50 which is about what you buy in for at the 1cent/2cent tables. and it isn't fun to grind out like 80 cents an hour. If you play the 1.20 tournaments though, you are only "sitting" with about 4% of your bankroll (again, a $30 bankroll, I don't know what yours is at right now.)

So yeah, I busted out already. I was trying to build my bankroll by playing cash games (mixing it up) but was only making like $1 an hour, so I sat with my whole bankroll to play a higher limit, lost a few hands, and went bust playing catch up.

[jaeh00d]

i dont get what you mean by begged your way? you begged for 5k?

[JDMcNugent7]

wut do u mean beggged ur way?

and isn't 5000 way low to be playing 5/10 ?

[BDMK]

with the caveat that i only play recreationally, only NLHE tourneys, and only real money buck tourneys and sats to big events on stars:

i started by playing playchips tourneys which both gave me some experience and enabled me to sell the accumulated playchips for cash.

nowadays, almost a yr since i started playing, i only occasionally play the playchips tourneys, as i cash more than sufficiently from the buck tourneys to keep my bankroll ok for what i need (ie, sats to various big events).

[ChipFish]

To build your bankroll... You should rely solely on Deposit and reload bonuses...
It's that simple.

[Talking Poker]

This is very good advice (bonus whoring), but this can be done in addition to some of the other suggestions floating around this thread. Well, except for pshabi's, which was a joke for those who couldn't tell.

When I very first started playing online, I was palying 1/2 cash games, just to see what online poker was all about. I did pretty well with it, but eventually discovered and fell in love with SNGs. I played those almost exclusively for a while - $30 and $50 ones - and did really well with them (at one point, I cashed in 11 in a row). This was fortunate for me, as I was playing well above my bankroll. I hit a bad streak not long after that, but still didn't really care about bankroll management because I knew I could redeposit if I needed to.

I will admit to you though that the bad streak was bad enough at one point, that I made myself take an entire month off from online poker (this was back in 2003). Why? Because I was afraid I MIGHT be addicted, and I wanted to make sure I could stop if I wanted to. After a few days off, I didn't miss it, but I promised myself I wouldn't play for a month, and I didn't. It ended up being 5 or 6 weeks, I think. I came back and played here and there, but I didn't get REALLY serious about poker until bdawg convinced me to give the 5/10 6 max tables a try. I had played them before, but not exclusively, as I always had more fun with the SNGs.

Anyway, one month and $4k later, I was sold. Two month and another $5k after that, and I was hooked. This was my game. And that's what I used to build my bankroll.

These days, I enjoy the big MTTs, but I am a much better tourney player now than I used to be. I do still enjoy killing the 6 max games from time to time, but I mostly play 10/20 and 15/30 now, with the occasional 30/60 game mixed in when I'm feeling frisky. The swings there are still more than I am comfortable with though, so I don't do it often.

Anyway, hopefully that bit of a success story will inspire you. While I skipped a LOT of levels early on (and was fortunate enough to not get broke), I don't recommend that for most people. Keep in mind, if I busted, I was ok with making another deposit (which is what I did when I'd start to play at a new site). If my entire bankroll was online and I never wanted to deposit another dime, this would be a horrible idea though.

If you never want to lose your bankroll:
1. Make sure you have 300 BBs (big bets) for limit poker.
2. Never sit with more than 5% of your roll in NL or any single SNG or MTT.

Do that, and play fundamentally sound poker, and you won't go broke.

[jaeh00d]

exacxtly the type of input i was looking for thank you sir...lol

[JDMcNugent7]

5% is SO scary - i hate hearing that lol
i only consider what i have online as my bankroll tho - not overall - so $750 instead of $4,300 - bcuz i Never want to deposit again.

[Hawt]

I have really thought about this, just saving up like a grand and depositing into different sites, clearing the bonuses, and cashing out. But I am afraid that with my tendency to act like a retard in cash games that I would lose my money before I could clear the bonuses. Plus, bonuses are kind of hard to clear because tournaments don't count that much towards clearing bonuses (if at all) which is the only thing I am really any good at.

[JDMcNugent7]

I already cleared the Stars Bonus - took me all of 4 days lol - i love clearing bonuses - it just gives me that extra incentive to play and its freakin free money - has ANYONE cleared the FULL TILT Bonus yet ? cuz thats my next challenge - but i hear its a big one.

[nflchad]

I got a free $50 by signing up on Party, parlayed it into $250 despite my poor play, then got second in a tournament on PokerRoom, then got first in a tournament on PokerRoom which brought my roll up to around 1500, where I played 25NL for 25K hands and with deposit and reload bonuses built my roll up to 4K.

[Penguinfan]

If your going to use SNG's to build a bankroll you better be ready to go backwards some days along the way.

I have been playing $10 3-table games where first is $100. I didn't cash in 6 in a row Wednesday due to some poor play and cold decks so minus $66 for the day look pretty bad on a bankroll that I play poker with. First game I played Friday I finally managed a first place and was up $33 for those 7 games. That's peanuts I know, but my point is after a Very frustrating run I was still in the black for those 7 games and thats what building a bankroll is all about.

It's often frustrating and not so much fun, but it is what it is.

[PShabi]

Not all at once. Who the hell would just give away 5k? lol.

I just hit all the forums repeatedly, under multiple screennames. Got a dollar here, if I was lucky, $5 there.

4 1/2 years of hard work.

[PShabi]

$5,000 / $10(bbs)

= 500 BB which is a fat, chunky, bankroll for 5/10 limit hold em.

[PShabi]

I'm in the middle of the Full Tilt bonus right now. About 1/3 through.

It's a hefty bonus, but you get 4 months. It's released in $20 chunks. It's not been that bad so far. I can be patient, knowing that I'm getting 27% of my rake back all the while. God damn, I love rakeback.

Keep in mind, I'm playing LHE 5/10, shorthanded. 2-3 tables at a time and that let's me crank out 200+ hands / hour. It will probably take a little longer at smaller stakes, but like you said, 'FREE FREAKIN' MONEY'.

[nflchad]

What's your BB/100?

[PShabi]

I don't have enough of a sample size to make that even a statistic right now. I will tell you I am actually an overall loser at 5/10. I've taken multiple shots from back in May until now. I first played for a bout a week and just got crushed. I lost $150 in 10 hands at the end of it and was like, nope.

I came back in September and got crushed for about a week. Went back and recooped at 3/6. Then, at the first of October I tried to come back and absolute disaster hit.

I had a $5k bankroll when it started around Oct. 4. I came in and had a couple good sessions and got up a few hundred bucks. I was on Lou with AIM talking shit like, "Do me a favor." He's like, "What?" I'm like, "don't ever mention 3/6 again when we talk because I'm pwn!n9 5/10 like TP!!!!!!!"

Then, I go on a streak of unbelievable misfortune. I know I misplayed a lot, folded some winners when I shouldn't have, but I was also getting killed. Every 5 out hand hit against me. People were hitting 3 outers to beat my kicker when i had them dominated. Anyway, I dropped half my fucking roll!!!

$2500 of hard earned roll down the tubes. I ended up saving my ass the last week of October by blowing up for 300BBs moving back to 3/6. Again, talking with AEQ, I'm like, "how can I lose 1/2 my roll at 5/10 and just dominate 3/6 like this?" I was so frustrated. I ended up having my first losing month in over a year, down $800 after October.

The beginning of last monthd I came back to 5/10, because I was confident I could win. Again, I dropped another 1k to start the month. So, net, I'm down 3500 in this game. Actually, more, from the sessions in May. WTF? If not for rakeback my roll would be ruins!

Anyway, I was studying my ass off. Really working hard and thinking a lot about my game. I knew I was getting cold-decked and rivered a lot (stats to back it up), but I also knew I had some leaks (stats supported this as well).

My agg factor was too high. Mainly because I was playing raise or fold too much and giving people way too much respect when they raise. I protected my hands well and raised for value, but I needed to drop that #. I also was playing way too tight. I was around 21% VPIP but lately I had been seeing sessions at 20 or even 19.

I had to get that up. I started stealing a little bit more and defending my blind a lot more. What do you know? By calling down a bit mroe and by stealing and loosening up in the blinds a bit, I finally had tuned my game into what I felt was a winner.

Results for the rest of November have been quite staggering. I obviously have run very well, but I can tell you, I just KNOW that I have finally "figured it out" and progressed in my game. I toppped it off with my best week ever to close down the month of November. Actually, that week was better than most of my months, lol.

$400 freeroll (4th place)
$200 donking around with the guys from the forum. (Don't ask me how)
+
$1900 at 5/10 6-max!!!! This was banging out at over 6BB/100!!!!!!!

So, taking into account all the shots I've taken and the MASSIVE 50% BANKROLL DOWNSWING, I'm still an overall loser at 5/10 .

But I've never been more confident in my game and I am very excited about the future.

[kmb13592]

Cash games are where the easy money is if your not a really big stake player. I play nl holdem and the cash games with stakes of $1/$2 or $2/$4 are very easy. They can get you a lot of money and the quality of play is still not that high. Also sit and go's are good ways to make money if your not a fan of cash games.

[Reel Deal]

Cash tables and bonus chasing has worked for me (grew $25 to $1200 in 3 months).