Bank rolling yourself...
How much did you bankroll yourself with when you started out playing poker seriously and what stakes stt or mtt did you start out on(dont need to be exact just want some ideas in where i draw the line).
And how long before you moved up to the next stake level (if you did) persuming you done well at where you started.
i started with $100 on party p and played 10 +1 mtt's and $5 stt's
soon realised the mtt's were full of fish which you would think is a good thing but works against ya for the first hour cos they seem to wanna go all in with rubbish to build a stack and i found i was losing with a-a k-k and a-k to 5-6s or something equally annoying, considering a lot of the mtt's had 2000 entrants and half were out in the first hour then half again in the next hour it seemed a lot of work to play 2 hours just to find yaself up against roughly 4-500 reasonable players
eventually i stuck to stt's because i found that for an hours work you get a better return and less ppl to beat than any mtt, the only mtt i entered after realising this was the 40000 guaranteed due to the good payouts .....220th put you on a profit and took roughly 3-4 hours, also i seemed to have a bit of luck in those and consistently managed to finish in the top 100, most i made was $198 for i think 28th, not really a lot for such a long time playing but the 'what if/final table' always was in the back of my mind especially as that site has a final table deal making scheme which most ppl use.....the only problem was that the mtt starts at 3.30 uk time every night so by 9.00 the next day you dunno where you are!
as for the stt's i found the $5 ones pretty loose and quite easy to win or at least get 2nd due to what seemed a lot of beginners thinking 'its only 5 bucks' and going all in with rubbish so i moved up to the 10's and for some reason found them to be a lot tighter 'no surprise' your thinking but i mean tighter than the 20's and the 30's, i'd say on a par with the 50's!? the only explanation i can think of is theres 2 or 3 diferent levels of player on that site....
band 1 .... $5 affordable
$10 worth a try
$20 too much
band 2 .... $20 affordable but fun
$30 average
$50 risky but worth playing very defensively
band 3 .... people who can play well and generally dont bother in less than $50 stt's
thats not to say band 1 and 2 dont have good players amongst them, they just dont have either the bankroll or the confidence to risk that kinda money
i found the $20 stt's to be the easiest way to make money on the net....you generally get a cpl of strong players and 7 randoms usually flash bigmouths who can afford 20 very easily and i found myself in the last 4 within 2-3 rounds of blinds on many occasions
personally i use the 3 up way of playing stt's...when ya win 3 in a row move up to the next level.... if ya lose 3 in a row move back down, if ya make the placings then that will bankroll ya on the level you have reached
i played the $5 stt's for about a month or 2 then started using my 3 up system and moved up to the 20's in about a month and have found them to be so profitable that i rarely play anything else....
everything above relates only to party poker as every site has different levels of player, also the time difference on an american site compared to a uk site can be very advantageous.....countless times i've logged on at 10 or 11am and played against some very drunk opponents!
I'd go for something like 20x the buyin for whatever level you start at and move up when you feel comfortable doing so, also consider dropping down a level if you go below 10 buyins to avoid going broke.Originally Posted by cuyber
Don't feel you have to keep moving up, it's a mistake I made and it ends up with you not making any money from poker because all of your winnings are going towards increasing your bankroll to be able to play higher. If you consistently beat the games at one level then stay there for a while and cash out your profits occasionally. The problem with moving up at every opportunity is that you can go on a huge positive variance rush and find yourself playing way above yourself, then you go on a bad run and go broke much more quickly.
Good post Prowler, and an experience I would quote almost word for word as my own.
I first played on Betfair on the £2.00 MTT's
When I started they had a limit of 200 entrants (Last time I looked it was 400) and even though it was such a low entry fee, I found the standard quite good and tough and a pretty decent learning experience. I dont play them now though as the thought of playing for 3 hours or so, only to finish in about 40th place and win about $3.00 isnt quite as appealing as it used to be....
Then they started having really good value tournaments which had a pretty low field, but a guaranteed prize. This did attract a lower number, but I found, a higher quality of player, and I dont think I ever got close to winning one of these. (I forget the stakes, as almost as soon as I discovered them, they stopped them and replaced them with a couple of shite Euro MTT's which were just no value at all)
I cant actually remember the last MTT I played!
As for STT's I also started off on the $5.00 and $10.00 levels and would pretty much agree that both of them are good games to learn how to play against people who (most of the time) play a pretty decent standard, though you do obviously get the maniacs and complete fish.
As for moving up and down levels, well I found that it would usually depend on how I was feeling, playing, and my bank roll. If I won a couple of games, and was feeling like I had won with good play rather than just fluking them, I would move up and try higher stakes. If I was feeling tired, jaded, or just felt like playing in a more relaxed mindset, making looser calls etc, I would move down.
Well i think i will start out on the £5 stt, seems to be a level i can cope with already.As for bank roll 20x the buy in is ok but for cash games $50/$1 the buy in is short$20 max$100 now 20x $20 is good but 20x $100 seems a little much for a bankroll $2000????. Im wanting to take poker serious but $2000 seems a little much.
[QUOTE=Top Pair Ace Kicker]Good post Prowler, and an experience I would quote almost word for word as my own.
I first played on Betfair on the £2.00 MTT's
When I started they had a limit of 200 entrants (Last time I looked it was 400) and even though it was such a low entry fee, I found the standard quite good and tough and a pretty decent learning experience. I dont play them now though as the thought of playing for 3 hours or so, only to finish in about 40th place and win about $3.00 isnt quite as appealing as it used to be....
You are right there, jumped in a £5 mtt (same software as betfair) 2 hours in and on 2nd break, positive things is only 11 left from 204 and im sitting in 9th.
As for STT's I also started off on the $5.00 and $10.00 levels and would pretty much agree that both of them are good games to learn how to play against people who (most of the time) play a pretty decent standard, though you do obviously get the maniacs and complete fish.
This is where i am to start.
If you're going to play $0.50/$1 NL cash games you need a big enough bankroll to handle the swings. Depending on how you play you could get away with $1000 but $2000-3000 would be better. I'd recommend always buying in for the maximum amount, you need to be able to maximize the value of your big hands. If it's $0.50/$1 limit then $300-500 would probably suffice.
Saying this playing a combination of $5 stt's and $0.50/$1 NL cash games is an odd mix, you might be better off playing smaller cash games to start with. Just be aware of the differences between tournament and cash game play.
In the past when i have played cash games i have always opted for the $0.50/$1.00 tables and always bought in short with the minimum.I have done this just to capitalise on willhills £5 per hour for 1st 5 hours a month and i currently have a few accounts on hills.When i played 5 hours 1 account i used another account and played for another 5 hours.
Now i know i have took poker as fun in the past and now opting to play more serious and learn the game properly, but for me at the time i done very well at times buying in at this level and after 5 hours play at the same table i have left with over $400 not always but usually more than trebling up and getting £25 for my troubles.Also i see it as a way of cutting my loses before i started.Sit with $20 3 or 4 times and lose it rather than sit with the $100 and for it all to go bad in 1 hand.
When I signed up I put £100 in my Ladbrokes account and lost most of it in a couple of weeks playing cash games, took a break, learnt more about the game and went back in using the bonus that I got for reaching the raked hands target and putting up a profile with a picture. Played $2 stts for a month or so. Moved up to $5 & $10 stts and started playing $1mtts and freerolls to get used to the differences in tournament play. Shortly after that I won my first $1 mtt and a freeroll with 3000+ players which feed into a weekly final which I won also and won the buy in to a live tournament, finished in the money in this also. Then I tried to move up the buy ins to big money ones and wasnt as succesful and it started eating into the bankroll that i had built up. Took the summer off poker and then went back at it in september. I have a pattern of play now that works and has been profitable, I play a couple of $10 + $20 stts in the evening to cover the buy in of mtts and work from there. The most I will play for an mtt is $15, I've been winning consistantly at this level so I dont see the point of moving for another year or so.
I am going to try and get into cash games this year though, I sure Im missing out on money by staying away from them. I was trying to fit is some poker before I went to London for xmas and sat at a cash game while running a bath and left ten minutes later $160 up. A trick that i have found on cash games is to bring in a small amount, I will sit at a 0.25/0.50 nl game with an odd number like 17.38, make people think its all the money you have and they seem to call and double you up quite quickly. There is no shame in taking the money and running!
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