Bankroll Mangagement

I have been slowly building my bankroll (from nothing to $11.65 and some buy-in tickets) for a few months now and I am looking for advice on bankroll management. I typically only play freerolls or very small buyins. I don't play ring games currently because I don't feel that my bankroll can justify it. I would mention that my meager bankroll is not because I don't have money to deposit...I do...but, my goal is to build a solid bankroll from nothing to something somehat impressive without putting in my own money.

So, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

xOneCoolHandx said:

... I typically only play freerolls or very small buyins. I don't play ring games currently because I don't feel that my bankroll can justify it...So, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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Your basic strategy seems to be pretty good: Play games with less meta-variance* (single buy-in) and play games with no variance (freerolls). I would image you also play in a specific type of game and probably against a similar players over a long period so you can devise strategies and tactics to beat these games and players.


From what I have read on similar threads, from poker books and my own experiences, bankroll management is a key indicator of one's relative success or failure at playing and understanding poker. However, all too often players become focused, laser-like, on whether their bankroll is growing or diminishing; thinking that a growing bankroll is proof of their strategic thinking and a diminishing one indicating some sort of failure Like all things in poker, building your bankroll is a long term process. If your bankroll is following a trajectory something like this over a year or more, than you are on the right track:

........../ \___/
../\__/
/

As far as I know, after this, you need to increase your variance (put more into any given game) in order to increase your bankroll. Simultaneously, you need to increase your skill level and devise new strategies and attendant tactics when moving up in stakes or taking on new games.

*freeroll play is high variance within any given game due the type of players that inhabit freerolls (myself included!) but since one is not putting money in the pot, your bankroll variance = zero. In other words, it's really tough to overcome the variance in any single game in order to win money but your bankroll never experiences variance by losing money.

Nothing wrong with building from 0 i remember Chris Ferguson doing a 0-10k challenge many years ago. And i think many others have tried similar challenges. You can possibly find what kind of BR management he had,if i recall correctly it was pretty strict.

xOneCoolHandx said:

I have been slowly building my bankroll (from nothing to $11.65 and some buy-in tickets) for a few months now and I am looking for advice on bankroll management. I typically only play freerolls or very small buyins. I don't play ring games currently because I don't feel that my bankroll can justify it. I would mention that my meager bankroll is not because I don't have money to deposit...I do...but, my goal is to build a solid bankroll from nothing to something somehat impressive without putting in my own money.

So, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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Nice, man. I would recommend to play freerolls like you've play since now , and some micro sng/mtts like 0.1-027$. If you play on Stars you can find them there.
Best of luck in your building the roll

xOneCoolHandx said:

I have been slowly building my bankroll (from nothing to $11.65 and some buy-in tickets) for a few months now and I am looking for advice on bankroll management. I typically only play freerolls or very small buyins. I don't play ring games currently because I don't feel that my bankroll can justify it. I would mention that my meager bankroll is not because I don't have money to deposit...I do...but, my goal is to build a solid bankroll from nothing to something somehat impressive without putting in my own money.

So, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

Hi, you are doing everything right to achieve your great goals, I also started with freelolls, to study + you do not waste anything ... I learn a lot and go to my goal too)):sheep:

I can't give you advice on MTT's, but I can tell you that it is possible to get a lot of bad beats in a row so you are right that you can't justify the lowest ring games yet. Last week I lost 20 buy-ins while still having +EV. Three AA vs KK's lost. Some KK vs AK. Every coinflip. The craziest bad beats run in my life. You wouldn't believe me even if I showed you the stats. I won it all back and then some, but I'm saying if you're going on a bad bad streak in the lowest micro ring games, you'd loose your bankroll.
So keep risk at a minimum and make sure that you are comfortable with the stakes you are playing it. Have some leeway. But it's different for everyone. One talks about playing at stakes that is 1/100 of their bankroll (Doyle Brunson) and some say 1/20 or 1/30. It's personal and you have to decide what is best for you and stick to that. I've set mine on having a minimum of 1/30. So I need atleast $60, to play 0.01$/0.02$. If I'd go below that, I'd only play freerolls.
The bankroll management is entirely up to you and you have to stick to it so you never go broke.

I manage mine strongly, trying not to deposit once again..

Bankroll / 100 = max buy-in for MTTs and multi S&Gs (and I heard for PLO cash games, but I don't play PLO so...)
Bankroll / 40 = max buy-in for cash games and single S&Gs

when I can't pay a buy-in with these calculations, well it's freeroll time.. or deposit time.. which I try not to do..

However, in case of a special event.. like.. I don't know.. a 10,300$ pass at wsop or NA Millions, then maybe I'll risk more, maybe 2-3%, max 5% of my bankroll for these special MTTs. Trying to play a higher stake to skip a step or hoping to play with more serious players that don't shove all-in at first hand, but gently slow play their pocket aces, giving a chance to crack them anyways

Hope it help!

-TRP-

xOneCoolHandx said:

I have been slowly building my bankroll (from nothing to $11.65 and some buy-in tickets) for a few months now and I am looking for advice on bankroll management. I typically only play freerolls or very small buyins. I don't play ring games currently because I don't feel that my bankroll can justify it. I would mention that my meager bankroll is not because I don't have money to deposit...I do...but, my goal is to build a solid bankroll from nothing to something somehat impressive without putting in my own money.

So, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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I think that is remarkable.
Just keep focused and stay disciplined. Sad part about poker is you can take hours, days months even years building your Bankroll & in 1 bad decision lose everything you worked so hard for.

Def, stay away from the cash games. They are brutal man. What site do you play at?

how to avoid over-eposure and fight variance

one of the most important things i never to over-estimate your bankroll and your chances against higher level players:
in my example, i made ~20$, playing freerolls and 10 cent rebuy/addon tournaments [buy-in+2X rebuy+ addon makes it 40 cents], but then i tried to risk it in a 10 dollar buy-in game - i lost, because players on that level were far more advanced than the usual freeroll/10 cent player pool;
but, since i had started to beat them, i thought - hey, i must be good, but this was not the case, apparently;
my advice is, keep building bankroll, until you have ~50+ buy-ins for the next level, only then try out the deeper end of the swimmingpool or you risk to bust!

proper bankroll is a must have against variance or stronger opponents of the next level!

for the moment if you are on poker star. you do not really have to use them thanks to the new spin of the day promotion. personally, I always try to grind my banckroll playing the NL2 and NL5 cash game. it is risky but it is the fastest way to move forward if you have the chance to hit the right cards.

You should try to keep at least 1:50 average buyins while you're growing your roll. Then once you decide if you want to move up stakes I'd move up to 1:100 buyins, and if you're playing mostly bounties/turbos I'd consider moving up to 1:200 buyins.

Dchoyt82 said:

I think that is remarkable.
Just keep focused and stay disciplined. Sad part about poker is you can take hours, days months even years building your Bankroll & in 1 bad decision lose everything you worked so hard for.

Def, stay away from the cash games. They are brutal man. What site do you play at?

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I plsy ACR. BGP and BOL. I have a pokerstars account but it won't let me play for real money.

Thank you all for your responses. I really appreciate the advice and I have done some reading into the subject and it seems you all are right on track with that research/ When I used to play semi-professionally at the casino (I also bartended to "pay the bills"). there was not a lot of advice about bankroll manage,ent out there. I would usually just show up with a couple hundred and see what I could turn it into. I didn't build it really, I just spent whatever and tried to make sure I had a couple hundred for the next day, or if there was a big tpurnament coming up, then save enough to play a satellite to get into it...lol. Of course, this was back before the internet boom, actually right before, I remeber when I started playing full tilt poker and few others. I remember thinking how horrible the poker is on those sites, and I really have seen that spill over into live play. But, that's the game.

i did the same at the beginning, pennies, a dollar, lost it all on a "downswing" or "Badbeats"
LMFAO, go for it honey, take the little money and make it big! Once you have a 1000$ BANKROLL, you can start playing poker, or keep getting lucky with some cents up and down, IMHO, it's not worth the time playing for cents. Poker is the same in any level... can you afford to fold????:damnmate:

Mister Pillow said:

one of the most important things i never to over-estimate your bankroll and your chances against higher level players:
in my example, i made ~20$, playing freerolls and 10 cent rebuy/addon tournaments [buy-in+2X rebuy+ addon makes it 40 cents], but then i tried to risk it in a 10 dollar buy-in game - i lost, because players on that level were far more advanced than the usual freeroll/10 cent player pool;
but, since i had started to beat them, i thought - hey, i must be good, but this was not the case, apparently;
my advice is, keep building bankroll, until you have ~50+ buy-ins for the next level, only then try out the deeper end of the swimmingpool or you risk to bust!

proper bankroll is a must have against variance or stronger opponents of the next level!

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They were not more advanced, they had a bigger BANKROLL, and bullied you out in every hand smelling your sweat! That is, what BANKROLL really means! Play if it was a Penny!!!:damnmate::hmmmm2:
Sorry for double posting, I thought he oughtta know!

xOneCoolHandx said:

I plsy ACR. BGP and BOL. I have a POkerstars account but it won't let me play for real money.

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Nice
ImI hoping acr adds like a buddy list where u can find ppl easier. I sent in the suggestion.

What's your handle on acr

xOneCoolHandx said:

I have been slowly building my bankroll (from nothing to $11.65 and some buy-in tickets) for a few months now and I am looking for advice on bankroll management. I typically only play freerolls or very small buyins. I don't play ring games currently because I don't feel that my bankroll can justify it. I would mention that my meager bankroll is not because I don't have money to deposit...I do...but, my goal is to build a solid bankroll from nothing to something somehat impressive without putting in my own money.

So, any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

Acr Starter Kit

1.Cash Game - .01/.02

2.MTT - .50c Buy in

3.Venom- Opportunity to play for $5 million, entry is free. ( Bubble gets cash step 2/6 and above)

4. Freerolls

Peppinotom said:

They were not more advanced, they had a bigger BANKROLL, and bullied you out in every hand smelling your sweat! That is, what BANKROLL really means! Play if it was a Penny!!!:damnmate::hmmmm2:
Sorry for double posting, I thought he oughtta know!

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That's alright, you double post away. And you are right, the sharks can smell when you are playing tight and will move on you.

A year ago I went broke playing with my whole bankroll on the table. I've been grinding up from $0 since then and my bankroll is now $1000. All from tournaments. Started with the .10 rebuys on ACR, then .50c, then $1, and now i'm playing $5 tournaments.
You've got this, keep learning and youll be better off than most people at any table you play at online.
As for cash games, idk cuz I suck at them so far but i'm starting to learn.

don't play freeroll with a lot of people they will never teach you how to play poker play tournaments for 25 cents to increase the bankroll

I hold the same policy. I want to raise from scratch. but so far it’s bad

Having done what you are trying to do, a good rule of thumb is 2.5% max of your bankroll in a mtt, and 5% on a sng. That can be tough at the level you are at, but these #'s pretty much take care of a run of bad beats for a good player.