"Bankroll" Management question microstakes...

Hi me again,

Thanks to minding my P's and Q's I got help with my ring game + an open ended invitation to play in a private tournament with $5 buy-in, and made some friends/acquaintances at Ultimatebet. I'm not up to it yet, but it's good to know when I am, it's there, and I've watched/cheered for friends in it and have a good handle on how the tournament tends to go.

So to my main question. When I hit my $55 target. Do I just take $5 to 5c/10c table? That's about 10% of my "bankroll"(Hard to call it that, but what I have is what I have). But I don't multi-table and I try to wait/watch and learn b4 jumping in.

Also, when do you know it's good to fall back a level? I keep seeing how to know when it's good to go up a level, but can't find how to know when to drop back down.

Is it as simple as dropping back down when you fall so far that you have to? Or is it better to drop back down when say 1/2 way down to the next level down?

I wouldn't ask, but I'm very-very close to hitting $50. Plus I think I really have a decent grasp of ring games strategy + how to get as much as I can out of a hand. I'm not delusional. I know I'm far from being a pro, or even a very good player. But realistically I do believe I can hit my current goal of $55 by sometime next week(that is, if I don't run into an unbelievably bad losing streak -- hey it happens).

Sorry for the long-winded post. It's just that I want to use sound bankroll management but at the same time, I don't want to have to wait forever to even try to move up a level.

At the very minumum, you should reach $40 and buy-in for $2. That's what I'm trying to do. Chris Ferguson's BRM says you should only go in for 5%.

Oh yeah, sorry leave at 10%.

Oh I'm over $40 but not quite at $50. But trying to get there. Hmmm, 1c/2c + occasional foray for hopefully a month more. It's still better than play money .

It won't let me edit my earlier post. Sorry about any confusion I caused with my post. I got confused myself a bit. Somehow I managed to confuse Full Tilt's microstakes levels with Ultimate Bet's and it was a mad jumble.

Next level up for me at Ultimatebet would be 2c/4c.

Happy, hit $50 which was what I originally had. Haven't seen $50 in a long time.

So hoping to hit the $55 by the end of the week. Anything over $55 by Saturday's gravy. So, hmmm, I'll have to treat myself. I like my odds better in ring games, but the money looks good in tournaments. At any rate, if I can get to over $55 will treat myself to a better table than usual .

It's your money, use it how you want to. You can read all the bankroll management information and pick the ranges where you are comfortable. Deside where you are going to move up and down so that there is at least a little overlap. For example, say you are going to move up when your buy-in is 5%, e.g., to $4 buy-in when you reach $80. Set for yourself where you are going to move down, say at $70 or at $60. This would work for all levels.

Personally, I consider any bankroll under $100 to be educational/entertainment expences.

I just got my FT BR above that point and will now have to force myself to practice good BR management with it.

I found a game at Ultimatebet last night that I might do well in. The 6 seat, super turbo .50 + .05 SnG's.

They are fast, satisfying my inner action junkie, they fill pretty fast, and at least for me last night, were profitable. Not big time, my br there is weak. But I would chose these over a ring game. There is a limited risk in these, I don't have to concern myself with going on tilt and loosing my whole br, which I always fear I could do at a ring table.

They also are games I consider myself fairly capable at, which in my case are STT's or MTT's.

You might want to consider that since you mentioned tourney up front, that it might be better to stay with tourneys as you tune into just exactly how your gonna clean up from your friends.

These turbo sng's don't last long. I think I did 5 of em in a bit over 2 hours, and had a net gain of about a buck +. They also show that Ultimatebet can be a good table to sit at, and believe me, I used to hate Ultimatebet so much so that I would have rather had all my teeth pulled than do another Ultimatebet MTT.

Glad to see the change there.

Okay so I broke my personal rule(for the $55), after having a bit of bad luck(I hate nice guys who think they're donating). I was bummed and didn't want anybody being nice to me.

Sat at a 5c/10c table but they were playing it like was 1c/2c and I felt irked. Okay so I very nearly tilted. But then I worked up a bit of chutzpah and went to the 10c/25c table. I know a bunch of it's luck, but...

Climbed back up to about $44 last night b4 finally calling it quits for the night.

Sat at a 6 seat NL Hold Em(shoulda specified this is all NL Hold Em for the last bit) table tonight with min buy in of $5. I messed up. I forgot a cardinal rule(based on all that darned penny play at full 10 seat tables). Never show weakness. Forgot to be strong. Bad move. But rebought(cuz at that point I was veering towards tilt again).

I'm an idiot.

Anyway, I doubled up my initial buy in + rebuy and there's a bit extra. So now I'm sitting pretty with a little over my goal of $55! I then left, so many hands went to show down. I didn't want them reading me too well. Also two of the folks I well, I kinda sorta, accidentally, punished them. They left and didn't see any sense or courtesy in handing what I won to the other players at the table.

I'm still an idiot.

Well, admitting you have a problem is the first step. You know what to do.

Ummm turn $1.50 into $5.something? That's what I pulled this time.

I know I should read and study more. I tried to read some book on low stakes poker by someone named Sklansky. It had calculus. Or was it trigonometry? It was really hard math! I can't do really hard math .

I better go to the strategy section with some hand histories. I'm not very good at analyzing what I should have done vs. what I shouldn't have. Most folks just ask "Did you win? Yeah? Then you did the right thing." But that can't be the real answer.

that is one thing you are not likely to hear on this forum.
and you are right, it is not the real answer.
unfortunately for you, most of poker is strongly based on math (not that i know it, but i will get there one day). fortunately though, you can actually learn it easily if you find someone to explain it in a good way and without too many formulae.... good luck!

Perhaps you DON'T know what to do like I assumed. You were playing well out of your bankroll limit. I thought calling yourself an idiot was admitting that you knew this and would never do this again, but maybe it was not. The fact that you won this time does NOT show that you did the right thing. Read the articles on bankroll management before you lose what you have. Here is a start - An exercise in Proper Bankroll Management

That Sklansky guy does know what he is talking about since in a preface it says "...is generally considered the number one authority on gambling in the world today". But, that was in a book he co-wrote, so take it with a grain of salt. Perhaps you got the wrong book if you started with "The Theory of Poker". Try "Small Stakes Hold'em" by Miller, Sklansky and Malmuth.

No I knew I was playing out of my limits. I also knew I was doing it out of frustration. I was just trying to make a little light of my doofness. Hey if I can't laugh at myself right?

The $1.50 was cuz I had 50c over a round number. I sat with that. Goal was to double it, but someone called reasonable bets and raises to make their hand. It happens. But theirs was one of those hands I can't fathom. Face card + anything you know? Cuz I didn't play those when I hadn't even read a single article or anything, figuring a face card with a nothing kicker(only didn't know it was called a kicker) was a sure way to lose.

So I rebought with a buck and played how I normally play, and on top of that got lucky. But the $1.50 was less than 5% of all my money at a 1c/2c table.

read chris ferguson's bankroll management on full tilt poker... then to go pocket five and read fox's article in the archives about bankroll management.. after reading these you should get a much better grasp of bankroll management and how important it is in getting your bank roll started on an upwards swing