What would you do?

You are a winning micro stakes tournament player who mainly players STTs but also knows their way around MTTs. You have been offered a $500 staking opportunity. Any loss is the backers, profit is split 50/50. The stake ends either when the money is lost or your bankroll reaches $2500.

My question is, by sticking within the rules of bankroll management, do you continue to grind the STTs that you know you can beat, or do you look for bigger cashes by playing only MTTs?

Anyone here had an experience when it comes to staking? Would be interested to hear people's views on the matter.

why not both?

Keep separate BR's for both or track it all in one...

At least try it imo

LennyPigeon said:

You are a winning micro stakes tournament player who mainly players STTs but also knows their way around MTTs. You have been offered a $500 staking opportunity. Any loss is the backers, profit is split 50/50. The stake ends either when the money is lost or your bankroll reaches $2500.

My question is, by sticking within the rules of bankroll management, do you continue to grind the STTs that you know you can beat, or do you look for bigger cashes by playing only MTTs?

Anyone here had an experience when it comes to staking? Would be interested to hear people's views on the matter.

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I would definitely take the person up on their offer. I'm going to assume that since somebody is staking you, you have an impressive ROI% (though I wonder why you haven't made $500 on your own yourself yet, but anyways...). Here's what I would do:

Move up to the "low" stakes. Which is what I play. If your on pokerstars, it would be the $6.50 turbos. If your on Full tilt or somewhere else, find a similar buy-in level. This way, you have close to 100 buy ins, and you can still make a decent chunk of change. Start here. See how you perform. There are enough bad players mixed in that if you are indeed a good player, you'll be fine. If you make a few hundred and feel confident, try the $16 turbos (again, if your not on 'stars, just move up to the next level). With patience and skill, you will be able to turn this into a very profitable business deal.

I would avoid big tourneys. They are high variance, and if you have had consistent success with STT, why change things? There is big money in sng's, if you know how to play them effectively.

Good luck!

LennyPigeon said:

You are a winning micro stakes tournament player who mainly players STTs but also knows their way around MTTs. You have been offered a $500 staking opportunity. Any loss is the backers, profit is split 50/50. The stake ends either when the money is lost or your bankroll reaches $2500.

My question is, by sticking within the rules of bankroll management, do you continue to grind the STTs that you know you can beat, or do you look for bigger cashes by playing only MTTs?

Anyone here had an experience when it comes to staking? Would be interested to hear people's views on the matter.

Click to expand...

I just realized that you never actually said you play turbos. If you don't, then just play the $5 regular speed sng's. I don't play them because I like the speed of the turbos, but I would imagine there are plenty of fish at those too (in fact, I don't need to imagine)

If you have an opportunity to get staked at a limit higher than you can afford to play yourself then definitely take the offer. As far as what level to play at, you for sure should go above the micros but not so far as to leave yourself with a minimal BR to work with. I think the $6.50 sngs suggested above sound like a good starting point and if you find them to be easy then by all means move up in stakes until you reach a point where you are comfortably reaching a winning ROI but not losing too much.

This is a great opportunity for you to build a good sized BR on someone elses's dime, take full advantage of the situation.

agree with the above post...if the br will stake you to play higher limits and your share will be more than you are currently making, go for it!

Grind the STT's. Whatever you profit from at end of stake... invest some towards MTT..... but maybe put in some grinding sessions at something you can use to assist bankroll.

Sounds like a fairly lax stake.... like maybe from a friend or something? Most stakes have pretty specific guidelines to follow (games played, buyin levels, volume requirements, etc.). Most are set for a certain period of time as well.

Thanks for the advice guys. Have been grinding the $5/10 STTs but it hasn't been very profitable so far (although I am running well below EV).

Last night managed to cash $700 for 2nd place in a 4.5k guaranteed! So I now stand at $1170.

Poker Orifice said:

Grind the STT's. Whatever you profit from at end of stake... invest some towards MTT..... but maybe put in some grinding sessions at something you can use to assist bankroll.

Sounds like a fairly lax stake.... like maybe from a friend or something? Most stakes have pretty specific guidelines to follow (games played, buyin levels, volume requirements, etc.). Most are set for a certain period of time as well.

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It is fairly relaxed.. the backers are some guys running a student poker championship this year that I have been doing particularly well in. I do have to stick below $10 buy ins and update my progress but that's about it.

LennyPigeon said:

Thanks for the advice guys. Have been grinding the $5/10 STTs but it hasn't been very profitable so far (although I am running well below EV).

Last night managed to cash $700 for 2nd place in a 4.5k guaranteed! So I now stand at $1170.

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So why do you need the $500 backing?

Stu_Ungar said:

So why do you need the $500 backing?

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Well before I received the backing I had only played at the micro levels, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to see how I fair at the next level.

I still dont get it.

You have over 1K in your BR but elect to borrow $500.

I had nothing in my BR when I received the stake. I now have over 1k..

LennyPigeon said:

I had nothing in my BR when I received the stake. I now have over 1k..

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Im really confused now.

Your first post begins "You are a winning micro stakes...."

How can you be a winning microstakes player and have no BR?

I didn't have a bankroll at the site where the stake was offered. Basically I'm a pussy and didn't want to move up in stakes and therefore the idea of using someone elses money to do so was appealing to me..

LennyPigeon said:

I didn't have a bankroll at the site where the stake was offered. Basically I'm a pussy and didn't want to move up in stakes and therefore the idea of using someone elses money to do so was appealing to me..

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This is making less and less sense as we go on.

You found someone prepared to stake you in games which you had no experience in?

I have played loads of micro stakes on sites such as Aced and FT. Now, while I was participating in a free student championship on a different which is set up as a monthly leaderboard i was offered this stake. I sent in a couple of graphs and they gave me the money.

Tell me you understand please

LennyPigeon said:

I have played loads of micro stakes on sites such as Aced and FT. Now, while I was participating in a free student championship on a different which is set up as a monthly leaderboard i was offered this stake. I sent in a couple of graphs and they gave me the money.

Tell me you understand please

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By that logic they should have entered you into the wsop main event or online 10kNL

You havent played those stakes either.

I was thinking of taking up Omaha, can I get staked?

Now that doesn't make sense.

Moving up from $1-2 to $5-10 is not the same as moving up to WSOP buy ins.

Come on.