My revalation: WoW, what was I thinking.

I started playing online poker at the beginning of the year and pretty much played low limit the entire time, after three months I had 100 bucks in winnings and deposited it and had my original money left in my account. Tonight I decided that if I play $1/$2 in real life why cant I at least play .25/.50 in online, after one night my bankroll started at 70 and is up to $250. Why didnt I start playing higher stakes games a long time ago

At some point you will hit a bad streak and loose all your money, because you should have a much bigger bankroll. I suggest you drop down to .10/.25 and play there.

ETA: 1 week to busto.

Variance will kill your BR fast, even at the minimum buy-in for the table($40), your rolled for 6 buy-ins and with an average pot of $18 per hand you could lose your BR fast on a short downswing, take the advice and move down to the lower limits or your next few posts might be seen in the "vents" section.
Lower level buy-in to increase your BR then move up limits, using proper BRM should have you increasing your BR at a steady pace while having a cushion for the downswing(which will happen).

yea in all actuality .10/.25 sounds like a joke online and u probably wouldnt play it live, but theres reasons people play those levels, and it definitely has a lot to do with variance...stick to the lower levels, until you build your br, and dont withdraw all the time lol.

In my (granted limited) experience, I have found that playing lower limits like that online is perfectly fine. This is because I can play more than one table. So 4 tables $.25 online is like $1 in real life. I do know that I dont win as much in each pot because it is split up, BUT I dont lose as much in each pot either! =p

At my local card club the $1/$2 cash game has the same play as an online $.05/$.10 FR table. That's why I'm playing there again tonight!!

Thats exactly how mine is!!

Just a little info to all the people that said id go broke in a week,

Deposited $70.00 on 4/9 and at the moment I have $525.

Variance is a myth imo.

That is the stupidest thing I have heard someone say on here in a while. You still only have 10 buy ins if you buy in for the max, you're just on a hot streak now. Wait until the bad beats start coming, you'll go broke pretty quickly.

Move up to 500NL imo. From there your bankroll can increase exponentially.

(If there is such a thing).

^^^ Me too

Oh anddd

[X] Thought this was going to be about World of Warcraft (look at title)

You mean like "Great Power-Leveling deals at www.somespamsite.com" ?

WoW is the world of warcraft abbreviation.
WoW was used in the title.

If you play good poker you nullify your bad beats because your free rolling with money you have won.

omg omg omg pleaseeeeee someone say something.
(I would, but I cannot seem to put it into words at the moment)

I'll take the under.

If you get lots of bad beats or a run of bad cards, then you have nothing to be 'free rolling' with.

You really expect me to lose 11 buy-ins in 2 days

You are very naive. You must use proper bankroll management, because even the most skilled players can lose said 11 buy-ins in 2 days, even when they play perfect poker.
I highly doubt you are playing perfect poker.
Variance is not a myth, and you will go busto sooner or later, no matter how well you are playing, or think you are playing.

Maybe your right but I just dont see it happening, ive learned that about 85% of the time your hole cards really dont matter, what you represent and how you bet is everything. Besides huge pots and all-in's how you bet your cards is alot more important than your actual cards.

Catching cards and getting hot are myths, 72 can be just as good as AK if you play it right.

Do what you like, but don't come complaining to us when you have lost half of it, or maybe even all of it.

If you play 25/50c ($50 max) and have a BR of $255, that would be 5 BIs. I'll stick with the under (a week from my post) if you're playing $50max with a $255 BR.

I have gone broke playing too high even though I had a great advatage over most of the players. You might be able to hold it for a while, but variance will eat you alive at some point. You've been warned.

I would also like to add something here.
Do you think we are making this bankroll management thing up?
Do you think the Chris Ferguson Challenge was only a FTP publicity stunt?
Why do you think we are warning you about this?

OP you are dumb.

TRUTH.

If you want to go busto, keep it up.

That's irrelevant. What happens when your top set gets called by a gut shot all-in and they hit? What are you going to do, start folding top set? What happens when you have a set and run into a bigger set? Two-pair vs. higher 2-pair or set. KK vs. AA preflop. AA vs. KK preflop and the KK sucks out on you. What do you do then? You may not go busto, and of course if you did you'd never post it here after all the talk before, but you are capable of going on a downswing even if you are an extremely good poker player.

This guy is playing at 50NL. So am I.

Please let him carry on.

Moved from $70 on 4/9 to $500 on 4/12 and now $800 on 4/14.

When will I have enough to legitamently play 50NL in your guys opinions?

I used to have this same mindset until I discovered this website. For example I had a huge run in January. Sent about 350 to my friends in exchange for cash and then lost my bankroll playing 100NL buying in short. Played my fpps and actually got lucky again and brought my bankroll back up to ~300 area but I did not learn the first time. Broke again. Since the beginning of April I have been using BRM. Its the best thing that could of ever happened to me. Now I am consistently building a bankroll and moving up the ladder playing .02/.05. Now I am amble to just say it happens when I get a bad beat instead of just tilting the rest of my BR away.

Haven't chuckled at a thread like this in a while. Cashin, it would be wise to listen to the YEARS of experience of CC members. But I love your bravado man, and there is SOME credence to the theory that if the 1/2 games are weak and easy to win during local poker room trips (like mine!) that you can compete competently at online games of .50/1 or even 1/2.

The problem is bankroll management ... when you go to the casino you'll take 100 or 200 or more with you, right? But you can always get more money from the ATM, or come back when you get paid. So your "actual live poker bankroll" is some unknown number that you can guess.

No matter who you are, or how good you are, you will have downswings. It happens to the top pros, and the online pros, and superplayers here on CC. How do we know? We track all their damn stats and analyze them! It happens, so prepare for it.

Now the question as to "how many buyins?" , you can find MANY threads on that topic. It matters how many tables you play at once too. But if you continue to see your BR go up and up you are definitely playing at the right level.

Beating $25NL for a decent BB/100 after 20k hands or so would be a good place to start.

I hate to brag, maybe someone should move it to another thread but just to show everyone what I have been doing.

50NL - one table, no multitabling


4/9/08 - $70.00 deposit - Total Bankroll = $70.00
4/22/08 - Current Bankroll = $1,035.11

$965.11 in less than 2 weeks, am I really having this big of an upswing and am I just a few hands away from having a huge downswing or can I expect to have profits like this all the time?

I almost made as much as my mom these past two weeks! haha