Building a bankroll from nothing

[Alon Ipser]

As I stated in a post last week, I was going to start trying to build a bankroll from nothing. I started last weekend with some freerolls at Absolute, Party and FullTilt and the forum freeroll wednesday at Titan. The only one I did any good at was at Party. Players have to sign up hours in advance at Party which leads to more sit outs than you would normally find at other sites. I managed to place 76 out of 2500 which earned me 85 cents. Now here's the ridiculous part, there is absolutely nothing a person can do with 85 cents at Party. Their min. buy in at a table is $5 and the cheapest tourny is $1. That freeroll payed to 220th place but from 61st to 220th was under a $1.

On Tuesday I received a letter from Noble saying that they had put $20 in my account to get me to come back. I thought that if I used this it might not be in the spirit of this challenge but decided to count it. I am currently at $25+ but was up to almost $60. I've been playing some higher limit PLO8 tables that I would not normally play with a small bankroll but Noble told me I had only 30 days to build up enough points to be able to cash out this bonus and PLO8 is the quickest way to build up points I believe.

I have also downloaded Crazy Vegas for the free $10 download bonus and it is there whenever I decide to register a credit card to get the bonus.

So this is where I currently stand;
Party .85
Noble $25+

 

[tenbob]

Nice thread Alon. Similar to the challenge that im at myself, on going. Not as challenging as going from nothing but i went from 2/4 limit to building a N/L game at the 1c 2c tables with $5

My challenge was to make 2000BB at each level, starting at $5MAX, so make $20 at the first level, $200 at the second level, and im now playing $25MAX and bankrolled according to PT at over $450.

This has taken since last December, now tourneys and sit and go's dont count, im still hitting the odd $50 single table (i have the BR for it) but in reality its a fantastic way to build a quality game.

Best of luck Alon, if i remember correctly StackemUP tried this a while back, by attempting to turn a free $25 into $1000, he left the site half way through

 

[zinzan1000]

Interesting stuff alon, yes lol use that $20 ( i think it was ) as part of your war chest.
It arrived at an opportune moment so allow it to be part of the bigger picture.
Good judgment may enter your mindset as to what game you may want to play from this point on, but it is part of the process of making good decisions, and can only be of benefit in the long run.
With limited options it is bound to be a big test.
Look forward to any updates.

zinzan1000

 

[ChuckTs]

My $11 from a CC freeroll was going strictly upwards for a while there; had it up to just under $750, but have taken some bad runs recently.
It's now down to about 200 less than that, but evening out now; hopefully the wins will be coming back to me.

Good luck AI and TB on the bankroll challenges; i know i'm gonna need mine back...

 

[joosebuck]

i keep trying to start w/ 1 dollar and seeing what i can do. its insane how bad the play is at micro tables. it's impossible.

 

[Tammy]

My problem is, I get too impatient. Then I start playing limits/games too big for my BR to absorb (which is pretty small anyway--usually only the minimum deposit). But, I really haven't buckled down and challenged myself yet. I think I may try this technique out...see where it takes me.

 

[starfall]

I've had a bankroll built up a bit, and then played the wrong stakes for my bankroll (7 card stud requiring a rather larger bankroll I suspect for the same stakes because of the extra round of big betting)... then I cashed out all the money I'd deposited, and I'm trying to buld up money from this limited amount... and it's going OK...
On Pacific things seem to be most steady - playing Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, the $9 I'd had left on there is now $17 (from a few hours or so playing $0.05/$0.10 stakes)... once it's at about $30 I'm going to start playing on their $0.25/$0.50 stakes if there's a suitably loose game going, and try to work up from there...

My biggest boost to my poker-related earnings recently came from InterPoker inviting me to participate in market research, and paying me £75 for 2 hours of my time, which I thought was quite reasonable... although I'm pondering whether to mentally include that as poker earnings or not (since it's only because I play poker online that I got the offer).

 

[titans4ever]

I have taken my $1 and change to about $10 on stars playing PL Omaha hi/lo. I have found the glass ceiling though. I will get to over $10 and then have a couple bad sessions in a row and have to build back up to ten, then have a couple bad sessions.... you get the point.

Anyone else find they have that ceiling that they can't seem to break through?

 

[Cardsharp]

I sold 100k play chips on stars a while back so i could do their .10 micro limit tournys. I was down to 40cents and i gave it to my brother to see what he could do with it. He's up to $40 now. Not bad for 40cents. I started my bankroll from a free $10 that I got from one of the prima sites. Currently at about $100. I'm just pully out of a week long cold streak...

 

[JessieBear15331]

Alon, I definitely know what you're talking about with winning FR winnings lower than the site minimum. It's frustrating, it makes me think, "what the hell am I supposed to do with this?" That's why I like Absolute. The lowest FR win amount they offer is $1, which is the site minimum. Their FRs are not easy to win, and take 5 + hours to finish. The donks are weeded out within the first hour and a half, then the skilled players take about 4 hours to finish it. Try Absolute, it's not that bad.

 

[spacespacer]

How did noble poker contacted you to tell you that they funded your account?

 

[starfall]

If you want freerolls, try 32red or one of the other skins for that network (Prima?) - they have regular $1,000 freerolls 3x a day, with 260 places paid, so it's easier to place in the money on those than most others which only pay 18 or so places. Even the lowest payout is $1.50, which you can at least play on the lowest stakes tables with, and first place is an impressive $134.
Some have over 10,000 competitors, but others have only a few thousand or so, which then means they're almost paying out to the top 10%, which makes it not that different to most MTTs payout structures, except that the payouts are then flatter until much further in.

 

[CYP05]

Im in the same boat, the wife really doesnt want me to deposit any money so I'm just trying to create a BR from freerolls. Not really any luck yet. I was first trying the freerolls on pokerstars and they are a waste. I placed 15th in a freeroll and all that did was qualify me for the actualy money freeroll so in order to cash there I would basically have to outlast about 10000 entrants over two different tournaments just a waste if you ask me. Since then I have found this site woowhoooo and hope to place in the CC freerolls to at least get a initial BR started. I really just want to use that to play in the wsop qualifying tournaments to see how far I can get which I am sure will not be far LOL

 

[Alon Ipser]

Well I'm about 3 months into this. I haven't posted my progress for a while because of all the other BR threads and quite frankly I haven't been getting very far but figured I should update occassionally. Also I wanted to document my tilt play last night. I had been updating in a different thread each time but decided that was hard to follow and it polluted the forum so I will update in this one every once in a while. Last time I updated, about 6 weeks ago, I had a total of about $111 since then I have been up over $300 and now down, down, down to $35.65, blowing $110 in 5 straight SnGs last night. I lost 2 $5 SnGs then 2 $20 SnGs then a $50. Feel free to call me a dumb ass, I been calling myself one all day.

This is where I'm at now
Stars $35.65

 

[poettic1]

well you are up thats what matters

one year ago i got 25$ from Pacific (had bank conflicts so they gave it to me) i don't play anywhere else and have never put any more money in. to this day i have amassed just over 10k playing sngs. i only play sngs i can afford to play 20 or more times, and has done very well for me

good luck in the future man take your time play small any money is sunificant.


p.s. starfall you still have a standing pacific acc? if so whats your name and do still play micro stud?

 

[BKrywko1]

There are numerous affiliates out there (I ain't mentioning them here out of courtesy to the board owners, who are also most likely affiliates of many of these sites) who offer the "free bankroll" deals. Off the top of my head, you can get at least $20 n/d at these sites through certain affiliates:

CD Poker, Titan Poker, party poker, Poker.com, Carlos Poker.

Without having to go through affiliates, these sites after n/d deals for new players: Crazy Vegas, PokerTime & Dream Poker (all Prima skins), as well as Pitbull Poker & Victor Chandler offer $10 n/d to new players, Purple Lounge offers $3 n/d, Stetson Poker offers $25 (but almost no players), i4poker.com offers 5 Euro....and I'm sure I'm missing a few out there.

Playing freerolls is fine, but here's another alternative...plus you get to try out some new sites, in the process

 

[starfall]

I have a Pacific account, but not with much in it, and I don't play Stud on there, just Omaha H/L (because the standard of play on the Omaha H/L tables on Pacific is amongst the worst I've seen - far too many people seeing every flop). I'll log onto there occasionally, but I'm not on there often any more... I've mainly been playing on Stars recently, although I'll be playing on Poker Heaven (BOSS network) a little with the free $20 and rakeback deal they gave me...