$2.88 not enough ?

Yesterday I played my first ever real money online games. I had accumulated 300k in chips on Poker Stars and decided if this site really came up with the goods. So I added LAN7X7 and after some talking on msn I transfered him 250k on PS and within 5 minutes I got the $2.50 in return. Together with my 2 freeroll cashes early last month I had $2.88.

So my first cash ring games where on the lowest limit I could find being 0.01/0.02 6max. My second table was already profitable as I doubled up my BR for about $5. Then I started reading some BR management posts and I figured out I needed 10$ to play comfortably on this limit. Unfortunately the next hour or so at the 9 handed tables i was completely card dead and probably playing TOO tight. So I blew most of my BR on overplaying aces up and middle pair. Until i had $0.70 left and shoved it to double up. This happened but wasn't enough to get me back to my $5 and I lost it all on the next 6 max table I tried.

So after this long story my question to you: Was $2.50 too low a BR to start with ? Should I therefor play another month or 2 on PS playmoney to gather 1 mil? (=$10)

how can u transform play money into real money? well i think 2.50 is fine, but if your gonna build that, you should play limit hold em. Yea limit sucks and all but you have less of a chance to blow all of your bankroll. I was down to 7 bucks on PS and played the low limit Limit hold em and was able to get back up to around 12 bucks.

It can be done with management. I won $2.00 in a Freeroll on PS about two weeks ago and still have it plus. I ran it up to $6.75, but had a rough few sessions on the 1st. But since then I've had a cash in a SNG that put me back above $6.00. I've been mainly playing the .25 MTT and 1.20 SNG with cashes in about 50% and an ROI of 42.37%. I've only played one cash game(.02/.04 limit) and left in the minus. I've played more tournament games than cash and really need to work on my cash game.

I am utilizing Chris Ferguson's approached he did on FT. If you are not familiar go to Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker - All Promotions: Chris Ferguson Challenge and read about it. At such low limits it seems a bit boring but hopefully after awhile of good playing it will pick up. I created a spreadsheet based off his model to help me track my play. If anyone would like to see it I'd be happy to upload for review, comments, and sharing of the spreadsheet. I also use an on-line site - Free Poker Tracking Software - PokerDominator.com to track all of my sessions.

Good luck and hang in there.

eNTy, do you have a job?

Not trying to be offensive, but it'd be a million times easier if you just deposited $50 and went from there. With $2.50 it's pretty much impossible to play with proper BR management and you're most probably going to go broke with $10 too.

Not that it's not possible (I made my BR from a freeroll cash), but it's hard. Starting with $50 or $100 will make that first jump a lot easier.

I know it's hard I'm playing all the freerolls again so hopefully will make $10 somewhere. And the reason I can't deposit is cause I'm underage but shhs don't tell anyone .

I've always wondered if that site was legit. Good to hear that he's trustworthy.

do what CT says. if not then take every penny to a 10nl table, wait for a monster hand and push it all in.

Well now i've got to work on getting some pennies as I blew my $2.88 BR (which i raised to $5) in about 2 hours, granted being card dead

I just thought about something: I pay so much money for useless and unprofitable things while it would most likely be more profitable using it as a poker BR. For instance a $5 fine for keeping my books to long at the library and the $12 I spend pretty much weekly on cigarettes. Food for thought or an idiotic remark ?

You're underaged and you smoke ? Why again ? Just put that 12$ a week into the bank and buy yourself nice at the end of the year.

But nice one on not making a deposit while being underage, we see to much of that.

It's legal to smoke and drink from the age of 16 in Belgium, I'm 17.
If I would make some kind of bankroll I wouldn't immediately cash it, maybe if I was able to next year..
Obviously I have been playing play money 99% of the time.

It can be done as long as your careful, don't put everything on 1 table at a time. I'm playing mostly on Stars anymore. Can't deposit due to where I live so my bankroll started from 70 cents i won in a CC freeroll. Cashed again 2 weeks later for 4.50 when i finished 6th. Current bankroll is in the $45 neighborhood, has been up near $60 but went on a bad swing. I know its tougher on FTP due to the fact that it doesnt have the lower level buy in tables like stars, AKA .02/.04 limit with a minimum of .01 buyin. Good Luck.

2.50 is too less to start with off..defintely too less

Since the only thing cheaper, and lower than than the penny tables are the .10cent tourneys, the theory of BR management forgives your choice.

Man I was such a balla..
$10 is obv proper BRM for 2nl 6max.

Just can't figure out why the hell I would start at 6max. I suck at it, hugely..
And Chuck rocks at giving advice, always has apparently

2.50 has to be too small to follow brm...

because when i made a thread about what to do with my $7 on FT...

everybody shut me down lol

heh, I know
someone just linked me this thread and its pretty funny to see how i thought when i first started

I would say that nothing's impossible if you're a decent card player, have discipline, and don't get a real freezout of a cold card streak. I was randomly given $2 by Pokerstars, and with the support of the good folks here at CardsChat managed to work it up to over $9 running exclusively 0.25 45man SnGs. I'm down to just over $7, but pluggin' away. I'm hoping I can get to the point where actually playing this level is within BR, and can start playing the aforementioned .01/.02 NL cash games and start diversifying my poker repertoire. Good luck to you as well, hope to run into you at one of those 45 SnGs!

Best,
T.

$2 is much to little to survive variations at this level. In order to play any NL ring game, you should have at least 20 full buy-ins, which in .01/.02 would be around $40.

That said, if you only have a couple of bucks, sometimes you have to throw bankroll management out the window, and go for it. If you can get on board with limit, you could probably play .01/.02 with about 6-10 bucks in your bankroll without risk of ruin unless you are a -EV player.