Thanks Bluff...I need all the support I can get!
I will certainly provide any support I can, as will many other wonderful members of community regarding analysis and suggestions etc.
So what about .05/.10 limit hold'em? From what I hear, the swings aren't as brutal to you BR.
SOrry hadn't noticed you specified Limit for the .05.1. You would be correct the limit games are less swingy than NL, however I would still suspect on the brm side they would follow similar rules as it is still possible to lose bi's especially if not careful because you are usually almost always getting priced to chase (or at least this I find in many occassions, and again I havn't looked particularly into limit strategies as they are different than the NL variety).
If you are going to stick with cash, then perhaps limit game would be a good place to begin, as it is very much about ABC poker IMO which is a fundamental. Is 10Limit the lowest level of limit games they have?
So do I need to add another $50 to my starting BR to give myself a little bit more cushion? And stay away from the SnGs for the time being?
Here is the thing regarding this, you could certainly put in another 50$ to bring you to 100$ for a 20bi brm in the 5nl cash games, however at the same time know you are able to redeposit if you go on a bad streak and bust the 10bi's it is also ok to leave it at 50$ for now. This would make for a good hard stop loss to take some time out from the tables, review hand histories and analyze your play to see if you have been playing bad or taking a lot of bad beats. Just my thoughts, but having the entire 20bi in your online br could put you more at ease as well if you say come out of the window and lose 2bi's for example then instead of only 8 bi you had 18 bi and so it depends on how you choose to view the situation and which would possibly tilt you or not.
I would certainly choose either cash or sng's to focus on, rather than mixing them if looking for a focused grind. Mixing meaning per/session, if you have the br to following standard bi rules for either then no reason you could grind cash for a week and then sng for a week, however in point of focusing and improving the game I'd take each seperately as they are certainly two different beasts.
Ok...so 2 tables maxium..gotcha
As someone else already indicated, as many tables as you are profitable on but for starting out obviously start with only 1 if you havn't really multi-tabled before and see how that goes over a sample, even if just a small sample and add a 2nd table and so on if you are profitable on the 1st. Its all about preference on number of tables but as long as you are profitable you could play 20+ if desired. (Personally when I am able to grind cash I have a comfort with 6 -8 tables, 1-2 tables tilt me however on bovada because of resizing limits on the tables 2 would probably suffice with a tourny running somewhere else lol)
DON = Double or Nothing, so half the field wins double the buy-in (minus the rake fee). Its essentially the lowest varience you will find in poker, should be played very tight but also taking advantage of the true nits and widening up closer to bubble when the blinds are getting higher to maintain/increas your stack. Its essentially a game of survival, not always a fun form of poker lol.
With my BR being very small right now, I don't have alot of room to switch up the type of games I play. Looks like I'm either going to pluck down another $50 to give me cushion I need to handle the inevitable downswings that are going to occur or play like this is my last bullet with no chance of re-buying.
You don't want to play with scared money either, re the no chance of re-buying remark. Being too cautious (playing with scared money) is a very exploitable style that will likely get picked up on eventually. As I mentioned earlier you could do the 50 and know you have an additional ability to deposit more, or for the comfort and cushion deposit and bring the br up to 100. You are correct, it would be best to focus on a single game type for now either cash or sng etc, this will depend on your comfort/knowledge of either and of course which you enjoy more.
I will definitely keep everyone posted on this as I would suggest every beginning poker player start their journey like this. The plan is twofold, one is to gain knowledge and strategies about the game that I hope will transfer to the live games I play. And second, build up a sizeable BR that can (1) be separated into a BR for cash games and tournaments/SnGs and (2) can be a second income stream.
Like the saying goes, "A dream without a plan is a wish"
Look forward to seeing how it all goes.
Last question, is there a poker tracker or some kind of journal I can use out there that works for Bovada? I downloaded a trial version of Poker Tracker 4 but it does not work with Bovada.
You can download the handhistories from bovada, believe 24hr's after the session and there are converters which exist that you could convert and import them into PT4 if I recall correctly. There is also a HUD available specific to bovada, but it is relevent only to the table at which you sit for that session. Again someone will surely correct me on these two points if I am wrong, these are just my thought as believe I have seen other posts regarding in various threads.