Advice

hey guys, long time reader, not very often to post. Over the last year I have made several 30-50 dollar deposits. At first i wasnt very good at poker and lost most of the time. But now i feel i am much more able. I have never had enough money to do real bankroll management but i have been saving up and im looking to deposit either 250 and play at 10 dollar tables or 500 and play at 20 dollar tables.

So i have some questions.

If i used to deposit 30 dollars and not use bankroll management but build it up to 100 or more before busting out in a 90 to 10 percent race does this mean im ready to show solid results if i play with a real bankroll and never exceed my limits?

I would win big, but then always lose, i felt like my roll wasnt big enough to handle variance. Do you think if i deposit big i can really start winning if i stay at the 20 buck tables where i do well?

Also, ive already signed up to most poker rooms, so i cant get a rakeback deal, will this make it not worth it?

any advice is welcome, no need to sugar coat, i can handle the heat.

1) Find somewhere where you can get rakeback that is at least as large as Carbon Poker.
2) If you can't, cry, and deposit at stars. No other site is worth it if you can't get rakeback, except *maybe maybe maybe* Bodog.
3) Practice really nitty bankroll management.
4) Not sure if you're a winning player, but its pretty hard to be bad at $10 tables. Follow bankroll management, and play ~20,000 hands.

thanks for your input. How would you compare carbon poker to the bigger sites in terms of level of play and tournys and bonuses? Is carbon poker for US?

do you think 250 is a big enough roll to play 10 dollar tables?

Carbon/the Merge network is as small a site as I'd play on. They have decent game selection up to $50NL last time I checked, but above that there's not much action. If you want to play something other than hold'em, there's only 2-4 tables going of non-hold'em games.

The site is really soft, however. Also, they have a lot of overlay on their guaranteed tournies. They allow US players, they offer 30% rakeback paid daily, they give 150% deposit bonus, and hold'em manager is compatible with their network.

Its not a site to stay at forever. However, its a great spot to grind $300 into ~$1000 by whoring bonus/rakeback/soft competition. Download the client and snoop around if you're interested.

Oh, and if you want to compare the traffic of different poker sites, try here:

www.pokerscout.com

I'd go with $300 at minimum, $400 would be about optimal. You're a new player, and the larger the cushion you have to work with the better. I guess you could get by with $250, but I really think that could be hard on your braincells if you have a losing month or two.

thanks for everything. I'll see how much more than 200 i can scape up.

If the competition is really soft, should i bother with advanced plays or should i multi table and only play premium hands ABC type stuff?

At 10NL the competition is always soft.

However, there is plenty of room for "advanced plays". You just have to pick which advanced plays to do. Advanced plays that require the typical 10NL villain to fold hands like top pair are pretty worthless. However, there are lots of spots at 10NL where you can value bet very very thin, and where you can 3-bet light a ton. Knowing which advanced plays you can apply is the trick.

If I had to bet, you're not a super advanced player. So I'd try to stick to playing ABC poker for now.

And you should always be playing at least 2 tables of NLHE. I play 2-3 heads up comfortably. Multi-tabling is just a more efficient way to use your time.

thanks for your input. Wasnt trying to say i was super advanced. Was trying to ask if i should do things like value bet bluff on the end, if the players would understand stuff like that and not call me.

Did you recommend carbon poker over absolute poker for any reason?