Tips on building a solid bankroll?

[lethycia10]

I've just started playing online poker (PKS) a few weeks ago, mostly freerolls. I'm still searching for my strongest type of game to play. I have been following the pokerstars Twitter account and got in a freeroll last saturday and it went really well. Finished 7th place out of 443 players, but unfortunately it didn't pay anything which got me really down after almost 3 hours playing, since I only have the weekends to play.

My question is:
Do you guys have any tips to improve my game since I'm a begginer? Or maybe know any freerolls that are available on a weekends? or any events that giveaway tickets? should I try playing on other sites or stick to Pokertars?
I really don't want to make a deposit on my account 'cause I've just got into an university and been saving some money for that only.

My pokerstars Id is lethycia10 and I'll leave a screenshot of the last freeroll I played.

 

[fundiver199]

For improving your game CC has a great 30 day course for beginners, which you can find under "poker strategy". As for building a bankroll, in order to win money in poker, you do typically need to invest both time and.. well.. money. It does not need to be a huge amount, but a starting bankroll of like 100$ is typically required, and eventually you will need to invest in some software also. If you really dont want to risk any money, the best option is to become eglegible for the CC platinum freerolls and then grind these a lot.

 

[Jon Poker]

Bankroll building takes alot of discipline and overall just a bit of thinking.

For anyone looking to take poker seriously and earn something from it you will first off need to invest in yourself with a tracker program - like Poker Tracker 4. Why do you need a HUD program? You don't, you need the ability to log your tournaments, your hand histories, and your results so that you may study and grow your game. The HUD may be useful down the road, but I advise you to first concentrate on getting down a solid basis for game play - make time to study a few nights a week, and work on solidifying that aspect of your game first.

For MTTs it is absolutely necessary to have 100-150 buy ins to help you fade normal variance - it is not uncommon to go 100+ games without a significant cash so navigating the rough waters will test you to your limits for sure. Stick to the rules of bankroll management, move down in stakes when necessary, and play good poker.

Good game selection is another key factor. I see tons of players buying into the cheapest tournaments with the largest guarantees and the fact of the matter is the larger the tournament field the more variance involved in such an event. For instance, the ACR $2.75 - 2500 GTD always has 800+ entries with a top payout of about $350. Yet there are multiple tournaments in the $3.30 buy in range with lower GTDs that offer a very similar payout for winning the tournament AND the fields are usually less than 400 players. People get blinded by GTD numbers and they don't use their heads by checking things like this out. In lamence terms, it's much harder to beat 800 dummies than it is to beat 350 dummies.

Next is the volume requirements for serious MTT poker. This all depends how quickly you want to grow a roll. To play profitably monthly, you will need to play 100-125 games MINIMUM per month. This isn't my rule, it's just math. Can you grow a roll not putting in that kind of volume? Yes, it's just going to take much longer. Going back to what I said earlier about variance and it not being uncommon to not cash well for 100+ games - well this means if you're only playing 30 games per month, then you could have 3+ months of losing poker and its going to be totally normal -- you just have to realize what it takes to overcome variance in tournament poker and this is the reality of it.

So in summary growing a bankroll (in my opinion) consists of making time to work on and study your game play -- good bankroll management and discipline -- good game selection -- and lastly, understanding and applying volume requirements that suit your wants.

 

[Luvepoker]

Jon's post says it all and I agree with my friend here. I want to add something from a different point to reiterate his comments.

Jon and I have lives that are different I one big way. With my kids and family I cant put in the same volume as him.. This sometimes makes my variance look worse and feel worse than it is. On a really good month I can get in about 50 to 60 games in. Many are in the 40 range. I have literately gone 3 and 4 months without being in positive territory. But when you have say 30-40 games played as I do in the summer this should be expected. I have actually one gone an entire month without a cash.. This of that an entire month. Sick right. Now this was during my longest no cash run many years ago and I played less then but imagine the feeling of a month on no cashed in one confidence. If you cant put in the volume you need to realize this type of things can happen. It wont make you a bad played but it could get you to question yourself. Volume and game selection are very inportant.

 

[viacheslavtezikov]

Choose the main poker discipline where you will play. Play many freerolls and preferably more than one poker room. Don't miss out on various promotions from poker rooms.

 

[mina271]

Building a bankroll without investing money isn't impossible, but it's harder. you can win small money through freerols and then try to increase this in tournaments or sngs but even if you deposit money it always depends on how disciplined you are while playing and then you have to expect that you will lose very often. But if you keep a goal in mind and follow it then you will achieve your goal. Most freerols only have very small cash prizes, but there are exceptions and it is definitely a good thing to try there if you say you don't want to deposit anything. I wish you every success in any case

 

[lethycia10]

Wow, thank you all for these replys. I'll try and invest more time on the game from now on!!

 

[Psyanide14]

Best advice is to be very active here on forum and get access to the platinum level freerolls. Especially on PokerStars they have a lot of great dollar freerolls. I myself have built a nice bankroll this way. I’ve never deposited and currently have about a $100 bankroll, even after withdrawing $150. Once you’ve got a nice bankroll you can start playing the $1 tournaments. They recommend about a 100x bankroll but if you’re playing $1 tournaments you can get away with lower if you keep playing the CardsChat freerolls as that can supplement your bankroll.

And as others mentioned do the 30 day course offered here. Even though I’ve been playing on and off for years, I just started it a few weeks ago and have learned a lot.

Best of luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[Jon Poker]

It all depends what you are looking for from the game. If you dont mind grinding freerolls for small scores and trying to build up a roll from nothing - thats fine. Just realize that freerolls are going to be higher variance because of their nature and their structures - what this means is you will not win many of them, so again, it's all about finding enough of them to meet your volume.

If you are looking to generate some extra money from poker - then I advise you invest in yourself - buy PT4, icmizer, and give yourself a small bankroll. The way I look at it, your time is worth something - so if you are going to spend 5-7 hours grinding a tournament, at least your grind is for a decent prize. I'd rather spend $1.50 to try and win $300+ than spend nothing and grind away for $20.

 

[deputat777]

Look for freerolls that pay real money. Gradually build a bankroll, and then start with micro stakes.

 

[fundiver199]

If you want to "build a bankroll" in the true meaning of the word, you cant actually do that with freerolls. The reason is, that a bankroll is supposed to be an amount of money dedicated for poker, which protects a winning player from going broke due to variance. Or at least reduce the risk to something acceptable like 1%.

But if you are not a winning player, its not possible to have a bankroll, and money won from freerolls will eventually be lost, if you start to play regular games. So before you can even begin to talk about "building a bankroll", you must first be a winning player. And the only way to prove that to yourself, is to play a significant amount of regular games and show a positive net result.

Freerolls cant really be part of that process, except maybe for allowing you to move up a bit faster, if you start with a small deposit. But if you are serious about online poker you really dont want to play only freerolls, because you are simply not getting enough practice that way. There is only one daily 100$ CC freerolls on PokerStars, while you can easily play 10 or more 45 man SnGs every day after work, and this will give you a ton more practice than just playing a single freeroll.

 

[Jason Bralli]

Hello lethycia, welcome!

everything you are looking for you will find here on cardchat!

to improve your game, there is a lot of content for studies, courses, postings and endless discussions.

If you do not intend to make a deposit, and intend to play only freerolls for fun, my advice is to play in all possible rooms: pokerstars, ACR, 888poker, Natural8, Intertop, GGpoker and how many more you find free tournaments.

But do this, only if your goal is to "play for fun".

Cardchat offers tournaments on practically all of these platforms daily and especially on weekends, which you mentioned is when you can play.

GL

 

[nuttea]

I've just started playing online poker (PKS) a few weeks ago, mostly freerolls. I'm still searching for my strongest type of game to play. I have been following the Pokerstars Twitter account and got in a freeroll last saturday and it went really well. Finished 7th place out of 443 players, but unfortunately it didn't pay anything which got me really down after almost 3 hours playing, since I only have the weekends to play.

My question is:
Do you guys have any tips to improve my game since I'm a begginer? Or maybe know any freerolls that are available on a weekends? or any events that giveaway tickets? should I try playing on other sites or stick to Pokertars?
I really don't want to make a deposit on my account 'cause I've just got into an university and been saving some money for that only.

My pokerstars Id is lethycia10 and I'll leave a screenshot of the last freeroll I played.

First of all, you need to figure out which games you need to play: cash, sit-and-go, or tournaments. While game selection will go a long way towards your bankroll, it shouldn't be the only factor in your decision. When thinking about which format to play, you should choose the one on which you will concentrate for a long time. By choosing one format and practicing it daily, you really have the opportunity to become a good player in a particular discipline. And if you mix too much, you will probably make a good player in all of these formats, but you will not become a pro in any one.Of course, if you are just a beginner, then you may not know which format to choose for your poker career. This is why it is recommended that you first consult your poker game selection guide to get a fuller understanding of the pros and cons of each game. It's perfectly okay to experiment. If you are just a beginner, then you need to try cash games, sit-n-gos and tournaments. To be successful in building your bankroll

 

[mariale_1990]

888poker always has free tournaments where you can put what you know into practice a little, americas card room is also a good site, some of the recommendations I can make is that you have a lot of patience, read, watch videos, analyze your tournaments

 

[Zapahlohotrona]

You can increase your bankroll, just any beginner player should understand that no matter how ready he is theoretically, most often he will lose part of this money due to the fact that he will simply lack what is called the word Skill on all forums. This is a gaming experience that includes thousands of hands. Understanding the game does not come overnight. In general, I think that if you start from BankrollManagement and not from trying to build a bankroll from scratch or from a small amount, then micro-limits should be considered not as an opportunity to build a bankroll, but as a way to buy a skill cheaply.