Live poker and my bankroll

This probably belongs in General Poker, but I think you guys in here will have better advice.

Anyway, sup guys.

So, with university starting to wrap up for me, I've been wanting to start playing a lot more again, and I figure I'd give a shot at live poker (obv since there aren't many other options). There's a few casinos near me that I could go to - the one closest to me has decent tournaments and SNG's, which is what I've always played, but tbh I think I'd rather play $1/$2 ring if I'm going to play live, it just seems more fun.

My main question is about a bankroll, or rather, my lack of bankroll. I'm still a relatively poor college student, and don't have a few thousand dollars to set aside for poker, so should I really be entertaining the thought of trying to build a roll this way? Do I have a shot at bringing 2 buy-ins and actually slowly making a profit? Are there other things I could try? Or should I really just wait?

I feel like I know the answer to this question, but I miss playing, and wanna see if you guys have any ideas.

Happy holidays.

from what I know of you here CJ, which is little, you're a good poker player, right? You know what to do, etc. I think you should take shots at live with a couple of BIs BR, but only if you are prepared to lose a BI in one hand, if it came to it. Dont play with scared money.
I have limited experience at live, but what I have seen is that people love to limp to see a flop, and look at you as if you're crazy when you raise PF, and they play a lot more junk than you see online.
200nl live is the same as 10nl online or is it 25nl, one of those 2 I think, so if you can beat them, then you'll be ok.
GL

Yeah, I don't think I'd have a problem playing my normal game, or setting a stop-loss (or at least I'd hope so). I'm just afraid that if I hit a bad run of cards to start off that those shots were basically wasted, and I have no way to get that back, like if I had a real bankroll. I assume live would have the same amount of variance?

I really wanna play, lol, but I'm just trying to think of what I can do to be safer with my money. I'm sure I will end up doing what you said, and just bringing a few BI's and rolling with it. I appreciate your feedback

Any other suggestions please?

well, not sure what expereince you have with live. Ive played a few times, and altho its obvious, you dont multi-table live like you can online. you also dont watch tv/check email/visit cardschat/browse porn etc etc whilst live like we do online, the only thing you do is play your cards and the players. This is a brag, but my last live mtt, I was fully focussed on the game, was watching the players when I wasnt in the hand, and making lots of mental notes for each player for reference. These guys played maybe 100 hands a week(they didnt play online) whilst I was at the time playing 10k hands a week, so i felt like i had a big edge on them, and played accordingly. I was aggressive, but only till they fired back, then if I was bluffing I knew to fold. In the end I came 2nd after the winner sucked-out, but I still scored £900($1400) for a £20($28) buy in(it was a rebuy, and they all loved rebuying), so real nice payday. ok end of brag, but what Im saying is, go there, play your A game, and focus on the other players, act like its online and you're making notes on them, TAG/LAP/LAG whatever, it will benefit you. If variance hits you, so be it, we cant help that, but if it helps only get it all-in with the absolute nuts or near, that way the suckouts will be less, if it all. good luck.

You are young, I know you are half decent so take that 2 BI shot. If it goes bad, just be prepared to eat ramen noodles for a few weeks. If it goes good, it is still going to be a long struggle to get to a comfortable place but if you are going to play live, you are not really going to find a smaller game, so just have to be a bit uncomfortable BR wise, choose good spots and hope for the best.

And Ramen Noodles.

IMHO take the 2BI shot. You are a good enough player to be able to figure out if the hand has the potential to develop into a stack sized contest and whether you really need to be involved or not.

There are also other venues to find live games in. Check sites like meetup.com for local poker meetups. There are probably a few near you that meet like once or twice a week and have lower entries than what you find at a casino. Obviously, for safety reasons, you'd want to be very qualify the group thoroughly before you ever go.

Up[dates are a must CJ

If you are relatively poor, I would suggest staying away from the casino. Are the two buy-ins all you have to your name, or do you also have some kind of separate emergency fund to hold you over.

If you're in college there should be plenty of other students/new grads that are interested in playing some poker. Try setting up a weekly game, get some beer, set the blinds at .10/.20 (or .25, whatever everyone feels comfortable doing), and proceed to take their money.

sell starcraft2 and dominate live CJ

its ez

Thanks for the input and support, everyone. I likely will take a shot and wish for the best. I'm definitely not putting my rent or anything like that at risk, this will just be my fun money. I'll definitely look into other home games, too (I think there's one near the Buffalo Wild Wings near me ).

Good luck. From what I have seen you might be able to play poker so you could do well.

Like you said it should be fun money. with you coming out of school you should be used to low income. Get a job, get a stable income and when you get a day job you will hopefully be able to save some of your income and use it to fund your initial BR so that you can increase it (along with your initial winnings) for bigger games and sustain variance.

Stay connected to your school if possible. Home games in school in my experience were generally loose, had fish that did not care about the money, and were relativity friendly. Casinos are great however the rake is killer at the lower buy-ins which makes it more difficult to build a bankroll but you can still play them.

Good luck and keep us all posted.

Sounds like I'm going this weekend. I'll be hitting up Delaware Park in Newark, DE. I'm pretty pumped

Nice. Delaware Park is awesome, but I've only gone there to bet on horses since I'm not old enough for live poker.

GL

Okay so I had to take a rain check on Delaware Park - the folks I was gonna go with wanted a rain check, so they could watch the Broncos-Pats game. Maybe this weekend?

Good Luck buddy, biggest thing playing without a roll is not to play with "Scared Money" as someone stated earlier...You don't want to be afraid of getting it in on one hand it'll affect a lot of your play in certain spots if you are. Also, people will play differently against you if you show you are not afraid to get your money in. Which you want people to play differently against you because that is where they will make their most mistakes. Just play your normal game and you should be good..Let us know how it goes

Here's the thing..I played a ton of 1/2 in casino's, mostly Foxwoods but I don't anymore, I play 2/5. I was taking the most brutal bad beats at the 1/2 tables that you could imagine. Its a friggin wild west show..if there are 10 players at the table rest assured that 5 or 6 are just awful a couple really awful . They will call right to the river with middle or bottom pair or chase straight or flush draws without pot odds. Position means nothing, they will play any ace (especially if its suited) and have really no idea of what being "priced in " means. Now I know what your thinking, "thats sounds great" and it might but when you have so many bad players playing like that the suck outs are just horrendous. Get pocket jacks, queens or kings and make a raise of $15 to get out the shoppers and they automatically suspect those hands and will call with any ace, and when the ace hits as it does so often does your cooked. Do these guys lose in the long run ? no doubt but in the short run they kick your balls into orbit, and the short run is longer than you think. The play at the 2/5 tables even though its not a big jump in money is a huge leap in ability, you will get your fish that swim in no doubt but there is real poker players there. I was break even 1/2 player but have been a consistant winning 2/5 player and I keep very accurate records. I'm not a very fancy player at all but my game is solid and the play is not that sophisticated so solid works. My humble advice for a new 1/2 player live is..don't play with scared money, don't expect good play, expect the unexpected, expect to play with drunks on the weekends which I know sounds good but its very dicey, two buy ins is the minimum to sit down with, expect to see flops with 8 or 9 players in the hand, trying to put someone on a hand is almost immposible. Sit down and go slow at first , get a feel for the table and resist the urge to play bad poker, do not expect anybody to do anything that makes sense. They tend to employ level one thinking, they only play thier cards without regard for what you might have...THEY CAN RARELY BE BLUFFED OFF A HAND, YOU CAN'T BLUFF A SUCKER. I actually started playing 2/5 at the advice of a dealer she took me aside one day and told me that I was wasting my time and I should move up and I was reluctant because I'm thinking if I can't beat these guys I have no business moving up but it was the best poker advice I ever got. And before I forget, 1/2 tables in Vegas might be the craziest, people don't go to Vegas to fold hand after hand and wait for playable cards...1/2 tables in Vegas are for the criminally insane. Ok I've bored you long enough..play solid poker, use your head and you should be fine ...good luck my friend.

do it cjjj