Building bankroll vs. Maintaining bankroll which is harder?

Which is harder to do?


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Sivraj

Sivraj

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I'm curious to what everybody's answer is and what poll results are when it comes to building a bankroll vs maintaining. I been practicing poker with fake money apps and I've built millions and now I'm trying to do this in the real life realm of things. If I had to pick it would definitely be building a bankroll from scratch. I think building a roll from scratch is much harder because you are much closer to running out of money compared to having so much room for error with lots of money. Also on free fake money apps everyday at midnight you're rewarded money to keep playing over and over whereas in real life you need to either deposit money from your paycheck, credit card, or past time freerolls and really really put in work of your own money to grow a bankroll.

However you can make an argument that when you build your bankroll to mid to high roller stakes into the 6 figures and beyond, trouble can come your way such as temptations, personal addictions, reckless behavior.


What do y'all think?
 
D

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I am an advocate for using play chips to establish your game. My entire poker learning was online with play chips, the game itself is simply the game so to speak.

But, that is where that marriage ends. Equating play chips and how you can build a 'bankroll' in any way shape or form with a real bankroll is a complete mistake.

Sometime ago, an experienced member asked people to post their play chip bankrolls and many of us showed we had accumulated tens of millions of chips. Unfortunately, so what? The only positives were I was learning the game and improving. I also kept good records so I could work out the best methods to play (tourneys rather than cash etc.) But that is where it all ended.

As soon as I started playing free rolls in an effort to establish a bankroll everything changed. I do not mean within my records but within my head. I thought I took building a play chip bank roll seriously (well, I did at the time) but is has nothing to do with real world bank roll building, let alone bank roll management.

All I can tell you is if learning the game with play chips was phase 1 of your poker journey then building and maintaining a bank roll is a very distinct phase 2. Any thoughts or pride at what you accomplished in amassing play chips needs to be thrown out the window.

You should now set a clear goal with a real money bankroll. Personally - mine was to establish an absolute target amount before I started 'buying in' and naturally that can come from either deposits themselves or deposits with free roll earnings. But even there it pays to be prudent and perhaps exercise some patience.

If you cannot afford to deposit too much, deposit a little on your chosen poker site and let it sit a while without playing it. A month later, add some more ...do so until you feel comfortable enough with playing a percentage (and percentage only) of that bankroll. As noted, exercise patience and use a month or two (whatever it takes) to play free rolls and build the funds at your disposal.

More importantly, understand that you are already exhibiting bankroll management before even playing a hand!

But to underscore - learning the game with play chips is one thing, but any idea a play chip bankroll relates to a real world bankroll needs to be tossed already.
 
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DonkArmyFish

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If you can't afford to deposit to start "building a roll" then you shouldn't be playing, I understand its all well and good to set a challenge and try to build up $0 into something but its just time that could be going towards improving your income at your job.

Take it from someone who spent nearly all of his free time from ages of 13-19 trying to build up from basically nothing ($10-$20 deposits).

The problem is variance hits you so much harder and then you feel worse off because you never established parameters for a decent bankroll management plan in the first place.
 
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caracaski220

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caracaski220

building a bankroll from zero or small amout is deffinetly harder. If you have a bankroll it is easier to maintain because you have more flexibiity, more to work with. You can take bigger risks and go for bigger prizes.
 
Leeyonah96

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I have tried to build my bankroll for over 3 months. My results are break even. I think I played like 50 tourneys if you are curious about it. So maybe I still have more grinding to do.
 
lcid86

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It takes money to make money. Hard to build a bankroll without a stake.
 
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77ecos

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There is no discussion that without foundations you cannot have anything, but it is a good question, I think it is more difficult to maintain the bankroll correctly, I see this story repeated over and over again, achieving a good bankroll with time and effort is easier I think, neither of these two things should be difficult if you are a good player:jd4::jd4::jd4::jd4:
 
Claudiunm

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I'm curious to what everybody's answer is and what poll results are when it comes to building a bankroll vs maintaining. I been practicing poker with fake money apps and I've built millions and now I'm trying to do this in the real life realm of things. If I had to pick it would definitely be building a bankroll from scratch. I think building a roll from scratch is much harder because you are much closer to running out of money compared to having so much room for error with lots of money. Also on free fake money apps everyday at midnight you're rewarded money to keep playing over and over whereas in real life you need to either deposit money from your paycheck, credit card, or past time freerolls and really really put in work of your own money to grow a bankroll.

However you can make an argument that when you build your bankroll to mid to high roller stakes into the 6 figures and beyond, trouble can come your way such as temptations, personal addictions, reckless behavior.


What do y'all think?

You said you built a bankroll playing with fake money and now you want to bring your game to real money.
My advice is; go slow.
Playing with fake money you learned the concrete rules of the game. In the real money game you will now learn the abstract rules. Now you will learn things like A6s is not a good hand and as good as your flush is, it loses to a full house. Things like. And that fake money nobody has anything to lose so there's a lot more recklessness there. Study the game. Read CardsChat courses and look for other sources. Try to rethink the key hands you played. Use and abuse the freerolls here on the Forum. They are a great school, because the people here play at a high level. Good luck! See you at the tables.
 
Poker Orifice

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However you can make an argument that when you build your bankroll to mid to high roller stakes into the 6 figures and beyond, trouble can come your way such as temptations, personal addictions, reckless behavior.


What do y'all think?


I believe the trouble that can come your way once reaching even Low stakes is that the games become MUCH MUCH TOUGHER!!!

And fwiw, even if you're absolutely CRUSHING playchip games, this doesn't even guarantee you'd even be able to beat the absolute lowest stakes online.. 1c/2c blind cash game ('2nl').
If beating mid-stakes meant just needing to be bankrolled for it... 'as if' all buyin levels play the same (as if playchip plays the same as say a $5 MTT), then I'm pretty sure I would currently be smashing the mid-stakes. I'm rolled for it. I've played literally MILLIONS of hands but I also know I would suck.
 
Alex70793

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I think creating a bankroll is more difficult, especially from scratch.
It's easy to maintain a ready-made bankroll, just play the types of poker that you play best and stick to bankroll management, this is important, I know by myself how easy a good bankroll is played without sticking to bankroll management.
 
marvinsytan

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there's no such thing as maintaining a roll

everyone wants to build a roll and not just maintain a roll
 
Sivraj

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I think creating a bankroll is more difficult, especially from scratch.
It's easy to maintain a ready-made bankroll, just play the types of poker that you play best and stick to bankroll management, this is important, I know by myself how easy a good bankroll is played without sticking to bankroll management.


This
 
Maxmustdie

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I have lost my bankroll at least 3 times
microlimits are strong dispersion
 
Sivraj

Sivraj

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I have lost my bankroll at least 3 times
microlimits are strong dispersion


Sorry about that try to be as discipline as best as you can such as try to not play poker everyday giving you time to get paid from work and deposit some money here and there. You can do it!! 👍
 
makisaa

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More difficult is to buid a bankroll, which is the main economic target in poker!
 
Mati532

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I think it is more difficult to get Bankrol than to maintain it. Without a bank to start it is difficult, because already with a bank one can play his style of game that suits him best and more profits can be obtained from it.
In my case at the moment I am a cash table player, currently I play in NL2 .. but for example I would love to be able to improve and learn to play the lathes better.
 
infonazar

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I created a bankroll from scratch, playing in freerolls. All it takes is patience and time. And I do not see any difficulty in creating a bankroll or in increasing it. The only thing that is really hard is to stay patient.
 
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denis_og79

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I think maintaining a bankroll is more difficult
 
akmost

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Nice question! I haven't seen such a good questions for months and it's a great topic for discussion in my opinion.

Creating a bankroll from scratch by playing only freerolls for example? Everyone can do it , even someone blind. You can be lucky or a good player and gather for example $100 in 1 month , 6 month , 3 years? You will eventually make it .Embrace variance even the worst players will win something at some point.

On the other hand maintaining a bankroll? Hmmm who tells me that I can't play with 500 , 1000 , 5000 buy ins? No one. If I have a big roll and I want to risk a fraction of it I can surely do it. I will never bust it.

I didn't answer the question I know but the main ''challenge'' for me is to be a strong opponent , you should adapt to your stakes , understand the dynamics , recognize very quickly the types of your opponents and know your table image.

I won't pick one over the other option , sorry , I will tell you that studying and discipline is the key to success , not only for poker but in everything in life :)
 
0546474

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I think that maintaining a bank is much more difficult and directly depends on your level of play, unless of course you plan to support it with constant deposits !!! If you are only building your bankroll by playing only freerolls, then in fact you risk nothing and cannot lose, but when you formed your bankroll and started playing for money, then the result depends on your level of play !!!
 
Sschafell

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in my opinion is to build banking.
 
Herkstwin

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Lots of good advice from some experienced members of this forum. Not much for me to add except that bankroll management, in my opinion, includes BUILDING and MAINTAINING. In fact, the whole idea of playing should be to BUILD your bankroll continuously. Otherwise you are just treading water. It is like a retirement fund - you want to keep the fund growing.
Good luck with the real money game - welcome to the big leagues - even if you are just playing 1 cent / 2 cent games.
 
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Avanti3

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Maintaing bankroll is much hard!
 
Bankroll Building - Bankroll Management
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