Received $2 from PokerStars, now what?

I was on PokerStars a few minutes ago, reading the CC forums and brushing up on strategy, when I decided to peek at how many playchips I had just for kicks. Looks like I'm running at 96K, but what was even more surprising was the two dollars that had magically appeared in my account.

What I now want to ask is what should I do with it? According to proper bankroll management I shouldn't be able to yet play in anything but the $0.01 turbo and hyper turbo freerolls, but are they even worth it? Until now I've been playing the astronomers freerolls, working on my game and hoping to get some semblance of a bankroll started. I've made it to the bubble, within the top 100 out of a field of 2700, but haven't made ITM yet, and am not quite ready to deposit my own money at this point in my poker career.

Should I save my two dollars as part of a future starting bankroll of lets say $50, or should I try my hand at the $0.01 freerolls? Any ideas from y'all or from people who have been in a similar situation with similar goals would be very much appreciated!

Peace.

i dont think Bankroll Management really applies at this point, i would personally leave it for now and continue with the freerolls, i qualified last week from an omaha one and managed to get 60c in the second round(not bad for around 8 hours of playing im sure youll agree) but somewhere i read that you have to use your free money within a certain amount of days. if this is so i would either play some of the 0.25 SnG's or try your hand at a $1.20 Single table if you think you know you could deffinately cash.

Hope this helps

I was in exactly the same position. I played the $0.25 45 player sng NLHE and placed first on my first go. Obviously this was a big help as it put me on $5+ which meant I could play the $0.25s with a semi regard to BRM.

Anyway now I'm just up to $8.00 playing the $0.25 45 SNG mentioned above. I plan to keep playing these till I build up to ~$50.00 and then start on the $1.00+0.20s.

Good luck!

Well you now have $5 which will make it slightly easier.

Play some micro sngs or take it to a $5 cash table. I would think the .25 sng's would be the best way to start.

Let us know how you do.

I read your post and was like "wait, I only had two dollars..." then I checked back to my PS cashier and voila, $5 dollars. Do me a favor: next time you reply to one of my posts, start with "Well you now have $100..." see if it works then too!

Seriously though, how did you know that after getting 2 I'd get another 3 out of nowhere?

Regarding the advice, thanks for the encouragement! I've decided to try my hand at the .25 sng's, since I've been playing exclusively large field freerolls up until this point and think I have a better feel for the tourney environment than the cash game one.

I'll let you know how it goes when I either win, or run out of my "hard earned" money. Thanks again everyone. Hopefully I can use this to get my poker bankroll off the ground. My current goal is to get a small $50 roll going within 4 months, playing around 10 hours a week, playing mostly sngs and following slightly conservative bankroll management, since I'm just starting out (and will be away from my computer for the next three weeks or so). Does that sound reasonable?

lol check the history in pokerstars cashier and i suspect you'll see how she knew.

.25 sngs sound good (assuming they're 1-table), $5 is 20 buyins which still leaves a non-negligible risk of ruin, but the play is most likely so bad at them that you can multiply your roll relatively swifly with a bit of luck.

when i withdrew for the first time years ago i rebuilt starting at $1 45-player SNGs with 50 bucks or so and if/when you build your roll up past around 30-40 bucks they're most likely still a good bet.

Standard bankroll management does not apply here. Bankroll management is deciding how much you are willing to invest/deposit in a certain period, and then playing a buy-in level that will allow you to keep playing should you encounter a downswing.

You have $5 now. Even if you decide to deposit, that $5 will make almost no difference as to proper bankroll management.

There is no reason to save that $5 until you have a $50 bankroll.

1) There is *no* difference between losing $5 now or losing $5 when you have $50 from grinding freerolls. You'll either have to grind to get freeroll money to play again, or you have already spent hours grinding. Either way grinding freerolls is your investment.

2) There *is* a big difference between winning with that $5 now and only grinding freerolls. It's easier/quicker to make money with money so if you turn $5 into that $50 you wanted you'll save yourself countless hours of freeroll grinding.

Again, you either lose what you would have lost anyway, or you win and make more money in less time.

I did indeed check, and yes indeed I did see how she knew. She's apparently not actually human, but rather some sort of omnipotent poker fairy who can magically make mystical mystery money.

Thanks for the advice on the tourneys. Having 5 makes my decision much simpler since now I can play at least 20 tourneys as opposed to 8, and see how it goes. In any case, I'm starting my first ever real cash online poker tourney right now. I'll let you all know how it goes And thanks again for hosting the best flippin' poker forum on the internet.

Lol - that is so funny!

Good luck!

The is *the* omnipotent poker fairy.

Well THE Omnipotent poker fairy would be happy to know that her faith in Tublecain is paying off as he's final tabled his first real money event.

And now he's ITM.

Ship it!

PokerStars Game #28866718750: Tournament #168358833, $0.25+$0.00 Hold'em No Limit - Level VII (100/200) - 2009/06/01 12:19:11 ET
Table '168358833 5' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Nandee1975 (6285 in chips)
Seat 3: bulebarpub (7430 in chips)
Seat 4: NATORE (14770 in chips)
Seat 5: marcusdickey (9180 in chips)
Seat 7: ketyi01 (6890 in chips)
Seat 8: Tublecain (3660 in chips)
Seat 9: sisklaya (19285 in chips)
Nandee1975: posts the ante 25
bulebarpub: posts the ante 25
NATORE: posts the ante 25
marcusdickey: posts the ante 25
ketyi01: posts the ante 25
Tublecain: posts the ante 25
sisklaya: posts the ante 25
Tublecain: posts small blind 100
sisklaya: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Nandee1975: folds
bulebarpub: raises 200 to 400
NATORE: folds
marcusdickey: folds
ketyi01: folds
Tublecain: raises 600 to 1000
sisklaya: folds
bulebarpub: calls 600
*** FLOP *** [Ts 3s 7h]
Tublecain: bets 2635 and is all-in
bulebarpub: calls 2635
*** TURN *** [Ts 3s 7h] 7♣
*** RIVER *** [Ts 3s 7h 7c] Q♦
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Tublecain: shows [Kh Kd] (two pair, Kings and Sevens)
bulebarpub: shows [8s 8h] (two pair, Eights and Sevens)
Tublecain collected 7645 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7645 | Rake 0
Board [Ts 3s 7h 7c Qd]
Seat 1: Nandee1975 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: bulebarpub showed [8s 8h] and lost with two pair, Eights and Sevens
Seat 4: NATORE folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: marcusdickey folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: ketyi01 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: Tublecain (small blind) showed [Kh Kd] and won (7645) with two pair, Kings and Sevens
Seat 9: sisklaya (big blind) folded before Flop

THE poker fairy beat me to the HH!

i've been able to make a small bankroll from nothing. i waited until i got atleast $40 before i started the 2nl at fulltilt. it took me months to get over $40 from freerolls. anyway i tried 2nl and never looked back i'm now rolled to try 5nl. but my point is i could of taken a shot so much earlier than i did. in this case all i needed was maybe 4 dollars. if you do decide to take a shot with $2 i would got to 2NL pick a table with the longest waiting list and watch while you wait. that way well you do start playing you should have an idea as to how the others play. IMO this is you best shot. although the s+g's maybe good for you i'm just not good at them. but i hear s+g's are the best way to build a BR because they have a low variance.

Good job making it to 4th in your first try! Now I definitely think playing these .25 sng's might be the thing for you to do.

... I placed 4th in my first money SnG. Not quite 'conquered', but all things considered I think I did ok for my maiden voyage. I can tell already that among other things I need to be more aggressive once I'm at the final table; The blinds and the antes start eating at the 'ole stack mighty fast.

I was getting mostly rags (paint/x offsuit, low non-suited connectors, etc.) and just couldn't bring myself to steal with such unpromising cards, much less call the consistent raises and shoves from the rest of the table. Any suggestions on how to make any adjustments to this shortcoming would be greatly appreciated! I made a couple of shoves with KQo and AJo, resulting in blind steals (was hoping for a bite), and my final hand was a 44 shove, called by pocket 9s.

Still, I'm on my way up instead of down, and that's fine by me for the time being! Sweetest $1.41 I've ever made! Thanks to smd173 for rail-birding and cheering me on, and of course to the magical poker fairies out there who have my back. And most of all, thanks to all the folks who make this awesome forum possible. I wouldn't have even played today if it hadn't been for CardsChat.

Now its time to get some rest, because it is currently 1:49am Japan Standard Time and I have to be up rather early tomorrow. Thanks again everyone. See you later.

Best,

T.

How many people were in the tourney?

It was a 45 person sng.

I want to go to Japan!

Congrats on your first cash! First cash is always a sweet one, no matter how much! Enjoy!!

Not to go too off topic, but how's the poker situation in Japan? I'll be going there next week for about 10 days or so.

HA HA im loving the enthusiasm. Good to see. you last post reminded me of an oscars speach or infact a post tournament speach after winning the WSOP Main Event.

I actually have no idea. I've only played online for the past couple of months since none of my japanese friends either play nor have shown any real interest in it . Japan is awesome though, especially away from Tokyo and Kyoto and the bigger cities; where I'm living is pretty much the sticks, but it's awesome because the people are so unbelievably friendly and open. It's been an awesome ride. I'm actually heading home in 5 days for the first time after a year and three months of being abroad. It's all coming together...

Didn't quite mean for it to come of like that, but yes there's certainly enthusiasm. I figure that if I'm not at least enthused about the games I'm playing (no matter how lowly the stakes) I won't take it seriously, and thus won't play my A game. Of course I know I shouldn't take it THAT seriously but hey, it was my first real-money win after all .

Hehe, pokerstars gave me $5 before too and I blew it on a $4.40 tourney. Bubbled >

Then I blew my deposit too cuz I'm too cool for BRM.