step tournaments v.s. depositing

I have been playing Carbons step tournaments for about a month or two now and have not been able to make it to step three very much at all much less win it.

Am I being fair to myself by saying if I can't build a bankroll playing these I probably should not deposit money on the site, or I am I being too hard on myself and deposit money anyways?

curly said:

I have been playing Carbons step tournaments for about a month or two now and have not been able to make it to step three very much at all much less win it.

Am I being fair to myself by saying if I can't build a bankroll playing these I probably should not deposit money on the site, or I am I being too hard on myself and deposit money anyways?

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Those are pretty wild, but if you do not partake in the blast all in melee that takes place and you are patient you should have no problem making it to step 3. Once in step 3 that would be a more accurate gauge of how well you play.

I think some people concern themselves too much with not depositing so as to eliminate the possibility of losing any money from their pockets. It's not very difficult to become at least a breakeven player at the lowest stakes. Sure, lots of people never do (thankfully), but in many cases, it's because they undermine themselves. There's plenty of info in this forum and elsewhere about how they do this, and with a reasonable amount of effort, it doesn't take much time to address enough of them sufficiently to be a BE player.

Figure out how much you're willing to put up to fund yourself, whether a one-time lump sum, $x per week or month, or whatever. And make sure you're actually willing to put some work into your game. If so, the money will be back in your pocket soon enough, with plenty more to follow.

with trying to balance my full time job and my family, trying to squeeze poker into my lifestyle is still enjoyable and fun as long as I only play one or two of these a day.

after looking at my pt3 I guess I don't have a big enough sample of these tournaments to really go by, I guess it felt like more tournaments then it actually was, I counted 25 step tournaments total, I didn't consider the times I made it to step 2, but out of those 25 times I made it step 3 three different times, once placed 3rd, second one was a 6th place finish, and the third one was a 4th place finish.

What would be a good number of tournaments to play before I start analyzing my finishing spots?

curly said:

with trying to balance my full time job and my family, trying to squeeze poker into my lifestyle is still enjoyable and fun as long as I only play one or two of these a day.

after looking at my pt3 I guess I don't have a big enough sample of these tournaments to really go by, I guess it felt like more tournaments then it actually was, I counted 25 step tournaments total, I didn't consider the times I made it to step 2, but out of those 25 times I made it step 3 three different times, once placed 3rd, second one was a 6th place finish, and the third one was a 4th place finish.

What would be a good number of tournaments to play before I start analyzing my finishing spots?

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I really have no mathematics advice as far as analyzing your play goes. But you might want to try this. Never play a step game along with another step game that is not in the same step. In other words if you play multi table. Do not play a step 2 while you are playing a step 1. I personally will play all the step 1's then move on from there after a break. The step 1's are more like bingo than poker. The step 2's get a little better but still really lose. the step 3's play more like an actual game. For me it is hard to play a serious game and a donkfest at the same time.So I play step 1's step 2's then step 3's all after breaks

yeah I understand that completely, I don't multi table at all, I like to focus on the table I'm at I guess, just personal preference.

Also to make a correction I only made it to step 3 twice out of the 25 times I have played them. I'll keep trying them I guess, but when I played at pokerstars I did make a small profit when I played there, and doing steps for real money was never an option there, so really getting into these is all new to me. I usually just deposit and see how it goes.

I just want some feedback on what would you guys and gals would do in my situation I guess. Thank You for your feedback btw...

step tournaments is not worth it, I rather deposit than waste a few weeks trying to win 1 dollar.

put a little wd40 on your wallet and deposit. Think yoiu have a much better chance of winning $ if you put money up. Even if you win a buck on steps what are you going to make with a dollar...have the same donkey that was playing in the steps suck out on you on the river and take your over worked for dollar. Just
deposit look for a good rakeback deal and play the first depositors freerolls for two weeks that should give you several tickets for tourneys and just play what u would if you won money on steps...guess it all boils down to what you think ur time or entertainment is worth..people will drop 20 bux going to the movies so not much different here even if you dont win think you would get a lot longer entertainment value than a 90 minute movie...Either way good luck

Make a small deposit and play low cost S&Goes and low buyin MTT. You'll find these much different. I think you'll do much better.

Like sCat say, if you deposit $25 and lose it, consider the experience. Just as long as you're not constantly depositing in a level over your head its a way to enjoy a few mintues or hours.

I definitely think making a small deposit is worth it. However, I don't think the free roll steps are completely worthless. I've played around 20 step 1's and have made 2 bucks in a couple days. I was lucky enough to get the cards to win but if u play patiently and let everyone knock each other out, it's not too difficult to make it to step 3. I have actually made it to step 2 without playing a single hand in step 1. That being said, if you can make a deposit I think it's well worth it.

hey there,

i definitely don't think the steps are worthless.. building a bankroll from $0 is a good way to build good bankroll management. the way i approached the step tournaments was to play all the step1's, then play all the step2's. At this point i would pool up my step3's until i had at least 10 of them. Giving myself 10 straight swings at a step3 almost guarenteed at least one dollar. With a good chance of making a couple dollars. You will find it way more effective than trying to tackle the entire step structure all in one day. The more you pool up the better chance you have of getting real money, and the larger real money bankroll you will have to start with. Happy grinding!

Saw someone else post this idea a couple days ago and really made since.
"You can try to build from zero, but why not go ahead and deposit unless you absolutely cant afford to. You may not be losing money, but how much is your time worth to you. How many hours are you spending to see your BR sit at zero?"
Losing $20 or $25 wont really hurt you. And you give yourself a way better shot to build a BR playing actual money games.

i totally understand what you are saying. To me the step tournament thing wasn't an attempt to not deposit money. it was just a new experiment. And i really believe building from zero helps discipline bankroll management. Ok, so you spend an extra week or two getting to $25 dollars instead of depositing. But your much less likely to tilt off and buy into an over sized tournament for your bankroll. Which is valuable practice even after building to $1,000 and more.