Shallow stack or full?

Hey guys, I'm trying to build a bankroll from virtually nothing since it's been shown before to be possible. I had about 12 dollars before, got up to 19 and tilted it all away. I then received 2.25 in rakeback and took it up to 3.24 so that's where I am now. I've been playing a lot of freerolls and some play chips (for the 500k PC free roll). However I want to know should I play 1 cent 2 cent by buying in with half a stack or full stack in a normal 2NL game. Or play in a shallow stack (max buy in 80 cent) ring game. From what I have seen the play at the shallow stack tables is very poor, most people are either super super tight or super super loose and profiling a person seems easy. However I'm not sure if maybe I should still play in the 2NL instead, thanks for the help.

u should be playin any game for 1/10 of ur bankroll the buy-in i'm speakin of

I don't understand what you are trying to say.

1 table sng's are going to be your best option on most sites.

Isn't the rake (20%) pretty heavy on you though at the micro limits for SNGs?

3.25 $ isn't enough for any sort of BRM...So yeah go on the shallow tables with all or half of your bankroll and play your best poker and try to double-up each time you have the nuts.

Either you keep winning and avoiding bad beats until you get to 15$ and start envisionning the prospect of a future bankroll from nothing (Which would be great !). Or you lose early on and avoid a troublesome part of playing for pennies with a BRM simulation--> least pain possible.

Alternatively I always advise depositing 30$ to 50$ and trying out BRM on the 0.05 tables cuz u at least have a chance of playing some sort of identifiable poker that u wont find on the 0.02 tables. Gd luck m8 !

I suppose you could say the way I look at it is, if I can't manage to beat the .01. .02 tables how am I going to beat anything higher?

Yes, but its beatable. Beatable High Rake SnG's > 2NL where bankroll management is impossible.

Oh, and depositing is pro.

Deposit $60 (arbitrary number that's safer than $40), download the trial version of Poker Tracker 3 or Holdem Manager, grind 1c/2c.

The SNG path is better if you wont deposit, but if you're protective of your tiny bankroll then you really need to do some study away from the table, get a solid strategy down (the guys in the tournament section of this forum can help you a lot with this)... and hope bad variance doesn't get you.


FWIW, I like the starting at the micro's approach to cash games, just not the playing under-rolled approach.
Freerolls are actually fun for the first 2-3 of them, the next few dozen.. not so much. Depositing is easier, faster and more profitable.

Oh and... the half stack full stack thing, regardless of bankroll just don't buy in for less than 100bb, ever.

Buying in short means you need to play a higher variance style to stay profitable and it's not going to reduce your variance overall, just your winrate.

You said you get rakeback, so why you worried about rake, you will find it often at full ring .02c NL that by the time it gets to you to put cash into the pot it will be atleast .10c that your gonna have to pay to see a flop
Play at 25nl is not much better than 2nl just the ppl there have more to lose.
+1

Perhaps the shallow stack play is the difference then because I see people call down every bet to the river with bottom pair and no draw. The problem seems to be a personal fault though. I keep forgetting when I get a good hand to just value bet it instead of trying to play it "smart" and to fold any hand where I don't hit or get a good draw for a good price on the flop.

I'm guessing this a problem many new players have though. Am ii correct?

Yup, but the more you play the more you'll learn

I deposited $200 at first and started out at $2NL - I wasn't a great player but I wasn't bad enough to lose 100BIs so it was almost like it was still in the bank. I played 25k hands at 2NL and after making a decent profit and learning a lot I've just moved up to 5NL.

The benefit of deposting a decent, but not huge amount of money, is I'm bankrolled all the way up to 10NL without really having to worry about it too much