Penny Tournaments

Is playing penny tournaments a waste of time? The most I've won out of a penny tournament was about $130 when i beat a field of 3000 players in a $0.25 tournament. 7 Hours of playing and $130 payout. When I started playing micro poker tournaments, freerolls, $0.01, $0.10, $0.25 was all I played and the amount of hours I`ve put in was crazy, even now I woun't put in so much time playing for more money. With a full time job I was putting in over 40 hours of poker play every week just to win a $1 there or $3 there. After about 6 months of intense playing I collected a balance of about $280.00. 960 hours of play to get $280.00 , that's about $.30 per hour... LOL I look back at those days and I really feel like it was a waste of time..Today when I look at it and think about it, I kind of feel like it was all a waste of time. Yes, maybe if you want to learn some poker and maybe if you really have a micro budget you may not agree with me, but to me I feel like I`ve wasted a lot of time. I should have just deposited more money and started playing tournaments with at least a $1 buy in, then the payouts would have been worth my time and effort. To anyone who wants to become a millionare without depositing money , prepare for years of some serious grinding...

The best way to go is definately depositing at least $50 and if tournies are your game then $1 are worth playing. Pokerstars has some good ones with good guarantees that are worth playing.

The answer is different for everybody. Some guys cant afford to deposit and have to rely on playing freerolls, winning a few cents and then playing the very low stake tourneys.Other guys can afofrd to deposit in which case they are probably going to jump to the higher buy ins. Sometimes winning a poker game is not just about monietary return. Try and take satisfaction from winning into account.

the main thing to get into this game is for winning money or jus fun. mayb both. but u've gotta start at the bottom sometime and learn. I feel like im good enough to play in higher stake tournies ($5-$50) but i mostly stick to BRM bcos no1 wants to bust ur BR and deposit more.

I call it practice,practice,practice.

Played the Full Tilt Daily Dollar last Friday and out of 9200 players I finished 11th and won $80.00. Great ROI for a Dollar but it took me 5 hours to get to the 2nd last table. Finished at 2.30a.m.( I wont do it again)

I probably could have made more playing Ring Games,but I enjoy the MTTS,

Practice,Practice,Practice

I guess it's different for me . . . playing poker is more of a hobby than a x$/hr job, so winning $.30 per hour of play to me would be pretty awesome, because I'd play for free (of course, I do play for more than a penny, so I guess it's hard for me to say). Also, that way, you're really not putting yourself in too much danger of going bankrupt. Hehe.

I say play in the dollar multi tables,,, at least if you do good the payoff is better,,, of course you can go down hill as fast,,,
Take care

to me any positive dollar amount on bankroll is a good thing

I don't see the point when you can deposit $50 and play for real money. When you can win $1000 for a dollar it seems much more worthwhile. I know its not just about the money but it would sure feel better winning some extra spends.
$50 isn't an impossible amount to find.

i believe every poker player should start somewher and thats the best place to start
sorry u feel that way but to some of us new players who dont wanna deposit thats a nice online bankroll

I can remember playing in my first forum free-rolls on FTP...I,ld play for four hours ...worrying about the bubble the last half hour or so ...just to find out that the first 50 people out after ITM all got .05 cents! But those were exciting days to finish in the MONEY !!

These months may have been worth more than you think. If you can realize that losing less is a form of winning. You got your feet wet, learned solid bankroll management practices, and some valuable poker lessons. All with minimal investment. These could of been expensive lessons if you would of jumped right in and started dumping money in. These micro stake games are a very good way to start off your poker playing career!!!

I think for the majority of micro stakes players it starts as somewhat of a hobby so the $aren't important.

Your hours and hours of play would have taught you some great lessons. you may have found that you would have gone through many $50 deposits without that practice!

Also I look at it this way - playing hours on end for micro amounts has stopped me spending a FORTUNE in pubs and clubs!! - it keeps me home!

Also I can't compare it to an hourly wage rate cos I would never be working during those hours - this is my off time which I assign no expectation of profitability.

sounds to me like u got the poker bug lol,,,weve all bine there playin micros for hours on end,,,,thing is if u feel like uve impruved start playin 5 and 10 dllr tournies see how u get on

I agree with Hambone, in that, sure you were really grinding it out to make that $280, but you learned a lot in that time, in more than one way. First, you must have employed some good bankroll management skills, because when your roll is down in the <$10-20 range, it is very easy to get bored one day and decide you're going to play a $10 buyin and not cash in it, crippling your BR. Another thing that was very beneficial was the amount of hands that you must have played against some really terrible players, and you were able to circumvent their bad play and pull through.

Put it this way, you were able to go from $0-280 in 6 months, playing at the micro stakes, so a 280% return. If you would have deposited $50 and had that same luck getting the 280% return, you would be up to $14,000. The catch with that is though that you realistically wouldn't be up to that, because you would want to go up in stakes, probably when you weren't ready to and you would be playing better players who would stack you, and you would be down in the dumps. Staying at the lower limits for a while isn't a bad thing, especially when you're making money. Once you get to the point where your bankroll can support a move up in limits, go ahead, just make sure to move back down if you're having a hard time.

its pretty much a massive waste of time

I too have a low-budget bankroll, and when I started playing online I blew my 1st $30 deposit, playing SnG's that were simply out of my league. (I have since learned about good bankroll management). I then turned to the freerolls (for free practice against live competition) and have been playing one or two every day since. To date my only major cash in a freeroll was the $15 UK freeroll I won after 5 hours of play.

I have come to realise that in MTT's I can play quite well in the early stages, amassing between 70-100K in chips. However as soon as I get near the bubble my game changes and I become over-cautious, not wanting to lose my stack or tourney position, eventually getting blinded out, or calling with AA,AK,AQ etc to an all-in of 8-15K and losing to a 2,3s... a familiar story all round I'm guessing!

Now, thanks to Full-tilt and their Take 2 promotion, I have turned my MTT experience into cash. Granted, I am still only playing the 1c/2c micro stakes, but over the last 8 days of playing 2 tables at once with a $1 buy-in on each, my bankroll is slowly increasing!! (Not including the promotion cash that is due!!)

I figured that at least in a cash game you can quit while ahead, in a tourney you have to be there for the long haul if you want to cash in at all. My suggestion to you is take all that MTT experience and use it on the cash tables. The only daunting prospect you have to face is that you are playing with your own money as opposed to tournament chips, but play the cash tables as you would an MTT and I'm guessing you'll come out with profit.