Do people really build Bankrolls with $50 -$100

How is it possible to build a bankroll with $50 -$100
with all the donks on the micro and the suckouts and the swings?
like tom dwan jason mercier Or any online pro am i missing somthing.

I just droped $20 playing .2.5 and some $2 HU and wanna shot my last $55.
I understand bankroll management but Cmon siting for hours and maybe making $5 $10 bucks i mean it beats playing Wow.Am i missing something here
dont play crappy hands out of position, Continuation bet, raise rather than call. Anyone please point me right or give me some sort of motivation.

Thanks for reading

I went from $26 to over $700 in the past two weeks with safe BRM. So yes it is possible.

I mean, that's obviously like 1/1000th of what Tom Dwan is capable of, but still.

What did u play?

Well admittedly I've been running very well, but I've been playing $2.25 and $6.50 turbo STT's on Tilt, with some Rush OD's mixed in.

It seems to me that tornaments are the real way to turn a small bank roll into big cash. I am fed up with poker. Ive invested too much time and although im up if you include casino's Im down online so **** it. Im gona play in tornaments now. Ill remain focused but if I lose my BR then so be it.

Idk maybe I'm doing somthing wrong need advice any thread I missed?
Or somthing I should try with $55

Well if you're playing cash you need to stay at 2NL, and if you're playing SNG's you should stick with $2.25's. MTT's are fun but not really a good way to grind a bankroll imo.

In either case, to get better you should take hands from your hand history and post them here for cash and here for tournaments. This way you can get feedback on spots you have questions on. You should also reply to other people's questions, it's good practice and will improve your critical thinking.

Whichever game you go with should be the one you enjoy most. So what do you like to play?

My poker bankroll is a far, far cry from the likes of Dwan's or Mercier's multi-million dollar fortune, but it's self-sustaining for micro-stakes, and built up from just a single $25 deposit.

STT SnGs were my bread and butter when I started out. They're relatively low-variance and not hard to beat at the low levels. I'm focusing more on cash games these days, and can't say I've had much consistent success with them (yet), but the SnGs helped me build a roll large enough to pad my learner's mistakes.

It can seem silly/frustrating, if making money right off the bat is your main incentive for playing poker, to grind out a few cents per hour, but it becomes less so if you enjoy engaging in the thought processes intrinsic to the game. If, over time, you become good enough to earn meaningful amounts of money by playing, that would just be a bonus.

I hear ya guys guess I got no patience for such poop money
I wanna make a living doing this I know I can just gotta figure out what dwan and mercier did

No offense, but that's just not gonna happen. Those guys are unbelievably talented and put in an incredible amount of work/studying and volume. That's not to say that you're not talented, but all things considered, if you're here trying to figure out a way to make a quick buck, then you're probably not the next Tom Dwan.

Welcome to the forums.

As others have said,it can be done. I have turned 20 bucks into enough of a roll that I can play the micros with no stress while I learn enough to move up in stakes. Frankly I'm not a particularly good player yet but practice and patience are beginning to pay off .

The best advice that I have read on this forum about building a bankroll is in this thread.

Building from a baby bankroll

There is no magic bullet. You just have to work at it and have patience and get better.

Good luck

FWIW, I know of several people who have turned $10 or $20 (and also $0) into four figure, five figure BRs and more. It can be a hard road and obviously difficult, but if you can develop into a player, or just get a nice luckbox run, it is definitely not impossible. Then, as you grow the bankroll, you can waive goodbye to those lower donk buy-ins while moving up to the Donks with money.

While my experience may not count since I had extensive Live Play before starting online, I myself started with an online $0 BR in 2001 or so, took a Free $10 that a site named Royal Vegas Poker gave away to new players, and turned it into what I still play with today. I think my experiece counts as a luckbox though

[quote=jaystun00;1704621]I hear ya guys guess I got no patience for such poop money
I wanna make a living doing this I know I can just gotta figure blah blah blah./quote]

I am not trying to be insulting by inserting the blahs here, its just that this sentence always starts the same and is completed with so many variables.

I said similar stuff hundreds of hours and 1000's upon 1000's of hands ago. I now know so much more then I did then. One of the things I know is making a living at poker is very hard, not for most people who want to do it, unsuccessful for many who try, and only possible if you are:

A. A one in a million (ok, I better say Billion before I get a "FYP" here lol) luck box.

or

B. Able to put the time in on and off the tables, combined with knowing how to get better. (An extreme over-simplification, you either know what it involves or you are doomed anyway)

I also know that making a living at poker may NOT be possible, and the only way to find out is to try, so accepting that you may be over estimating your tolerance to "Poker idiosyncrasies" and being able to accept this is paramount to keeping your house.

Other than that, what cjatud2012 said!!!
But good luck in any case.

It might help if you started looking at buy-ins not $.

It is possible to build up a small BR ~1000$ starting from zilch but it's a long and winding road as said.

I'm not uber good but I did it....but it was a lot of work and sometimes frustrating.

Jumping into the pool after just having learnt to swim and hoping to win the olympics next week isn't going to happen - same applies for poker.

If you're not patient enough for large Mtts and micro Stts don't seem to be rewarding enough I'd try a mix:

The 2.25$ 27man NLHE Sngs on FT (turbo or non turbo) pay 5 places, first getting 21.xx$ (9 buy-ins) and take about an hour until HU (1.5h non turbo).

This ^^. Also remember that Mercier and Dwan etc did a lot of grinding to get where they are today. The clue is in the name - grinding. Build your bankroll up from base principles as unless you get very lucky there are no shortcuts. If you want to make any kind of money (let alone a living) out of poker be prepared to put in a lot of graft.

It seems to me everyone is trying to turn or do what what Tom Dwan did and think everyone is capable of turning $50.00 into millions..

I don't mean any disrespect when I say this but people starting out and grinding 2nl or $1.00 tournaments tend to expect far to much then getting frustrated because their money isn't turning into 1000's or more.. It isn't a realistic goal to start with, you should be just looking at not losing money and breaking even to start with. Don't expect micracles, some people it takes years just to start beating the micros, tom Dwan etc took massive aggressive BR management and will of had to run like god to quickly go up in the limits.. Don't get down beat at your losses, try and work out why you lost rather than saying it's because of the donks and suckouts all the time - don't make the mistakes they are doing. To lose $50.00 playing 2nl seems to me you might have more leaks than you want to believe because let's face it - players only get better as you move up to the biggest limits. The donks are exactly the people you need at your table to build a BR, not good players.

You have to understand that you can't expect to just deposit small amounts and expect to win instantly, these other people are just a very select few who have done it. Just because you know position, c-bets and all the very basics doesn't mean it's going to cut it - you're going to have to invest a lot of time into studying and not playing and eventually it will all fall in place. It could take months or many years - just try not to look at it as money and more of a learning curve and let the results do the talking.

I find the $2.20 1/4 Million satellites on PokerStars fairly easy. I try and build up some tourney dollars by qualifying and then unregistering from the larger tourney and then use the tourney dollars to enter MTTs and SNGs. If you don't cash, your bankroll doesn't change and if you do cash, your bankroll only increases. I find it a good way of protecting what you've already won in your bankroll.

its possible to get from a small bankroll to a big bankroll but it requires a lot dicipline and time to get there

i started in 2004 with $100 at 4 sites $25 on each site .
poker.com on merge, pokerstars, partypoker and titanpoker at ip-network.
joined 3 forums mainly for their freerolls and money added games they offered
the first year i played 2 and 5 nl ring loads of freerolls and lots of $1 mtts

after 1 year i had joined 6 other sites that offered or free cash to start or an instant bonus with a small deposit and invested another $100 in total.
had around $800 bankroll after that first year most was money won in freerolls and bonusses cleared .
most of it at merge and ip-network.

still playing 2-5 nl at all sites but at poker.com .
played 10nl at merge because their bonus system was great in that time
at merge you got fpp for just sitting at tables and got dealt in a hand !
with those points you could get in a daily 1K freeroll a weekly 10K freeroll and a whopping 50K freeroll each month
did the same for another 2 years and had a bankroll of $2100 at start 2008
without putting any more money in.

started to bonushunting in 2008 !
i withdrew most cash before the end of the month and redeposited at start of new month that amouth of cash to get a bonus that i could clear in that month ! and repeated that every month mostly on merge and ip-network and cake that offered montly new bonusses in that time
dropped party poker and pokerstars because there where to big fields in their freerolls and played mostly at merge-ip-cake !

2008 was my best year until now
played 5-10 nl ring - freerolls and mtt up to $5 buyin most freezeouts or bounty games .
won a 10K freeroll at merge for $1500 and severall big cashes in mtts and
had over 6K bankroll at start 2009

From there until now i make a steady $200+ profit each month and have past the 5 figures bankroll last year !
still play mostly 10nl on most sites and some 20-25 nl .
play also a lot mtt between $1 to $10 buyins most freezeouts and bounty games .
withdrew over 5K and still got a 5 figure bankroll.

i could easy play higher limits ringgames or mtt but tried that and not felt comfortable in those so stayed at the low limits.
i play mostly for fun and am happy with the $200+ each months at levels i like to play at, maybe i could get more profit by playing 1 level higher at 25nl or 50nl but chose to not play there.
most cash is reserved for my retirement fund that i intend to use for emigrating to thailand in about 3-4 years

my advice to players that want to increase their bankroll is patience and not move up to quickly !
not move up in levels to quickly ! even if bankroll allowes it !
play those games that you are comfortable with and make profit on is better than trying to moveup and play even or loose at !
make use of bonus offers as much as possible thats the most easy way to get cash
if playing a day and start loosing stop playing that day and play another day ! no use in getting frustrated and trying to makeup losses it will let you make mistakes and lets you loose more !
if got a good start on a day increase the play and even might try 1 table at a bit higher level to make use of your good run.
never play to many tables/games at the same time than you can handle on a relkexed way.
not play wen not feel good or rested enough !
take regulair breaks on a playing day to be fresh at the tables !

good luck leo

Playing for hours and only winning $5 may seem like a lot of work for not much return BUT if you play the game to learn it, and not to make the big bucks (at least straight away), its just icing on the cake.

I agree with this. Poker, like anything, must be something you enjoy doing if you hope to have any success. I am currently playing a 10$ BR that I had on Pokerstars. Because I enjoy the game and want to improve, I'm more than willing to sit through three hours of a .25 90-man for the chance to make a dollar or two. Those minor wins add up, and eventually - if I choose - I should be able to move to higher stakes, having established a solid foundation from which to build.

I made about 5$ in the last week. Not enough to pay the bills, but more than enough to keep me going. Let go of trying to be one of the "Miracle Boys" and be yourself. If you look at poker as a get-rich-quick scheme, you are doomed to failure 99.9% of the time. There's more to learn about this game than even the above average player can manage in years of work.

Back when I was playing cash I started with $120 odd on Full Tilt when I started learning. I played purely 2NL 6max and moved up the levels following BRM.

Around 5 months later (quite a long time but I was learning the game at the same time) I cashed out around $1.3k

I have done it with as little as $5 more than once. ~$25 more than 15 times. So yeah it can be done. This was playing STT's at FT mainly.

You are cash game player, but it can still be done. If you can't figure out how to PWN the micro's, you will be stuck there for a while or move up too soon and possibly lose everything.

I'm not gonna make a huge post about this cause I think it' been covered and proven more than enough that it is possible. The main thing is unless you are counting on luck, you have to be a winning player and use proper bank roll management. Sounds like a broken record, right?

For your time and consideration and for bringing me back to earth.
Everything takes time and it is a grind.

Any post you guys recommend me looking over?

as great as they are

clearly they had to use player statistics and they had to study, study, study

we all say, play the player, well what if you could hand pick the player and then play him

it would have to be your full time job, which kinda goes against the $50-$100 bankroll ... if that's your bankroll, then you need a full time job and then u dont have the time to devote

now, if you are young enough and living at home, maybe you can do what they did or you are receiving severance, etc.

but, clearly they hand-picked tables and tournaments that gave them the best chance to win based on the statisical average skill level of the other players signed up

they couldnt have been that good when they started ... now, well, u have to say they that good, cause how else would you define it

It is definitely possible. I have done it myself starting from nothing. It is critical you have a bankroll management rule and follow it. The hardest part is getting your bankroll to a point where you can get that big win or cash. Good luck building your bankroll.

To the OP:

After years of being a losing player, I took the month of October of last year to do some major study. In November, I decided to start from scratch and deposited $50 on FTP and started grinding $2 SNG and some $2 MTT, with some decent results. In December I deposited $40 on Stars purely for small stakes MTT play.

After hundreds of tournaments I wound up with a total profit of just over $1200 by the middle of February. It could have been more, but I stuck to strict BRM of playing with no less than 50 buy-ins for whatever tournament or SNG I was playing, sometimes 75 if I wasn't in good shape that session. The only time I took shots at higher levels is if I was staked by another player.

I didn't do this by play alone. For every two or three hours I spent playing, I would spend at least twice that on study and thorough review of my past hands and sessions. Since I am laid off in the winters I have lots of time to devote to this. I am by no means a great player, in fact, after playing and studying all these hours I still consider myself a pretty shitty player. That just goes to show you how many levels of suck there are in this game.

It can be done, but it won't be done easily.

Absolutely. I usually play maybe only a couple hours a night...just play one or two $1.20 9-person SNGs. Might play longer if I feel like playing some freerolls or if I'm running well on SNGs. Bottom line: BR has more than doubled in about two months.

OP, seems you need one thing most of all to get anywhere at poker: patience...
To practise this, buy a 5000 pieces puzzle and get started..., complete it, if possible without getting mad, then return to the tables..., just my 2 cent...
GL
aC

Before the US cracked down on money transfers, I turned my single original $50 buyin into $350 playing $1 multi-table tourneys and $1 sit-n-gos on Full Tilt. The plan was to transition to bigger buyin games and see how things went.

If smaller stakes games are boring to you, then you've just got to have a bigger bankroll than $50. For me, I'm not comfortable with anything less than 100 buyins in my bankroll. But even at only 25-50 buyins, you've got to have a $250-$500 bankroll to play 10NL.

When you play, don't think of absolute cash. Think of percentages in relation to your bankroll. So if your roll is $50, then an increase to $60 is a 20% gain. If your roll is $5000, then an increase to $6000 is also a 20% gain. That's why one guy can be as happy as winning $10 as another guy can be with winning $1000. It all comes down to bankroll, and if you don't play within those limits, then you're going to feel the pain.

Now, if you can only afford a $50 bankroll but won't be happy unless you win $1000 every time you play, then you're just setting yourself up to be unhappy. So if you want bigger stakes, save the bankroll, then play within that bankroll and have fun!

Oh, also, what is the rake on a $2 HU game? In my opinion, when you take the rake into account, those HU games are just -EV and not a good way to build a bankroll.

Good luck to you. And welcome!

Enjoyed reading that wolfie, congratulations on your success. I hope to emulate something like in the future, time will tell.

Actually from what I know, It might be hard but it's not impossible.
The only thing stopping me and many others is the fact that we have a life!And by that I mean we have to go to university, work, go see our family members, take care of the house, watch movies, read books, chase chicks etc ...

HOWEVER!If we didn't have to do half of those things we could truly focus on poker without having to deal with the grandma calling at an all-in situation and with the threat of not having so much cash by the end of the month if I don't treat my poker like a business (as dusty did ). This would give the fuel A.K.A patience we need to truly work on our game, Improve, and move up to higher stakes.

Everything that can make you money needs years of studying and work, that's why we go to colleges and universities and workshops. Why should poker be different?I just hope I'll have the time I need in my life to truly focus on my game...

Start w/$0 imo. best way always ahead of the game

Alas, that was a different time I guess. For sure doable, but not easy w/o perfect brm and some run good.

I think way too many 1st time depositers under estimate variance.

Takes time and if you have time its possible to start with zero. Takes alot of patience too!

For me it's 1-3 table SNG tournaments and cash tables. When you don't have much of a bankroll the large tourney payouts are enticing but it's tougher to cash in as you're learning. Play within you BR and you can step up as it grows. I've cashed in for $500 and $1000 starting from $50 but it takes a lot of patience. Going on a nice run or two doesn't hurt

It is possible...i started with $20 from a private freeroll and now i have cashed more than $2K in almost 2 years. I am still playing on low buy-ins tournaments ($5 max) because i don´t have the bankroll to play higher than that.