Tourney or Ring Games for beginner?

Hi! I'm a beginner is online poker. What I read from this forum is all of the discussion about building a bankroll is by playing tournament, and so many of you that told us beginners to stay out of ring games. For me its not possible to play tournament, because of the time. I can only play ring games in my spare times (about 2 or 3 hours a day).

So I have some newbie questions :
1. Can I succeed in building bankroll just by playing ring games?
2. Is there any bankroll building management strategy by playing only ring games?
3. Or should I just quit playing online poker now before I lose more?
4. What the differences between ring games strategy and tourney strategy?

1) Yes, you can build your roll from just ring games. I have, and so have many others. Ring games are generally more profitable than tournaments. If you want some examples of people building their roll playing ring games, check out this thread. Most of those players are playing ring games.

2) Yes, you should have at least 20-30 times the maximum buy-in in your bankroll to play ring games. So if you're playing $0.01-$0.02 No Limit, then you'd need at least 40 dollars in your bankroll.

3) Don't quit, learn & get smarter. Poker is just like scrabble. With scrabble, you learn more words to get better. With poker, you learn more plays to get better. Study more, and the money will come.

4) Um, the difference is huge, but the main idea is that in a ring game you're usually playing deep stacked (if you're playing no limit), where as in a tourney, you're short stacked relative to the blinds.

5) Consider playing sit & go's if you are short on time. Ultra Turbo 6-man sit & go's can take as little as 15 minutes. Plus, I think sit & go strategy is much easier to learn than the strategy for ring games, and its a great place for a beginner to start.

Losses in tournaments are limited compared to ring games because in tournaments, you will have lots of small losses and some occasional big gains compared to a more normal distribution of equal sized gains and losses. The time a tournament takes is really just a matter of the format and how many people are in it.

c9h13no3 said:

5) Consider playing sit & go's if you are short on time. Ultra Turbo 6-man sit & go's can take as little as 15 minutes. Plus, I think sit & go strategy is much easier to learn than the strategy for ring games, and its a great place for a beginner to start.

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I agree. I think this is your best move if you're short on time and bankroll. The ROI is pretty good if you learn proper strategy. And once you get comfortable with SNGs you can start multitabling and build your bankroll quicker.

for number 1

YEs you can just wait for the cards and read people at the table by there table image that you pick up on

If you are an absolute beginner, play the play money games until you can win chips consistently in a one or two hour session.

Make your first deposit around 100.00 if you can afford it but no less than 50.00

Play the lowest ring games on the site for fixed limit holdem. See if you can build your bankroll up to 150.00

I would then try to mulittable. Play 2 tables until your reading skills improve so you can handle 3 or 4.

Then just go up in limits with your bankroll or drop back down if losing.

You won't be able to make much money very quickly if you only play 1 table for two hours.