BR managment - from 0 to hero

Here is my BR.

Minimum buy ins in PS:

Cash tables - 0,80 $ - .01/.02 $
SnG - 9 seaters starts with 0,50 $
MTT - .02 $

I won't be playing tournaments where you can buy in with points. But I'll be playing freerolls too.
As you can see, atm I don't have enough money to play at cash tables or SnG, cause 0,8 * 10 > 8 $ and 0,5 * 50 > 25 $. So right now I'm playing freerolls and MTT. I was down to less than 1 $, so started with 0,02 $ hyper turbos, and got up till 4 $. Cause I have more than 100 Buy ins for the 2 cents, I moved my MTT buy in to next lvl 0,10-0,11 $.

My strategy of playing - keep it tight until you become big stack. Then make pressure on your opponents. Folding a lot of week aces and suited connectors when SS and MS mostly, cause of in lowest levels there are a lot of bad beats. Short stack 10-20 BB, mid - 20-50 BB's. This strategy keeps you untill payouts. And with a little more luck, you can reach FT easily.

Please, please, don't sit at a cash table with less than the maximum buy-in (100BB in 0.01/0.02 and 0.02/0.05). You are just putting yourself to a disdvantage, since you can't make draws expensive enought to a deepstack guy in some spots, and also you'll be pot-commited much more often - not a great spot to be in. Plus, regular - good - players are much more keen to bluff and play against a short-stacked player (I know I am, and I'm not even semi-decent), which will cause lots of unnecessary trouble.

That said, you can play cash and win with a really really tight strategy, and if you are lucky, you might build a solid bankroll. I built my small bankroll from a 2€ win at a free-ticket spin and go. I don't recommend this though, if you are doing fine in MTTs

Good luck

Originally posted by kerith
Please, please, don't sit at a cash table with less than the maximum buy-in (100BB in 0.01/0.02 and 0.02/0.05). You are just putting yourself to a disdvantage, since you can't make draws expensive enought to a deepstack guy in some spots, and also you'll be pot-commited much more often - not a great spot to be in. Plus, regular - good - players are much more keen to bluff and play against a short-stacked player (I know I am, and I'm not even semi-decent), which will cause lots of unnecessary trouble.

That said, you can play cash and win with a really really tight strategy, and if you are lucky, you might build a solid bankroll. I built my small bankroll from a 2€ win at a free-ticket spin and go. I don't recommend this though, if you are doing fine in MTTs

Good luck

Thanks, Kerith,

For advice, but I'm attempted to keep playing with 40 bigs at cash tables most of those reasons that you mentioned. Big stacks are more doing pressure on smaller stacks, and I count that as my advantage, cause I'm getting action I am not playing draws at this level, unless its cheap. With 10 Buy ins, I can grow my BR very fast, and if it has downswing, just move to lower blinds. That's the main reason, why I choose 10 buy ins. I do not recommend it for starting players do that, cause of lack of experience. But I feel confident with my game.

I do not recommend to use this strategy, that I wrote above to use at cash tables.

Hey forexas11,

Welcome to the 'Get Rich or Die Tryin' bankroll challenge. we will be looking forward to your first update which you should post by Monday of each week in Get Rich or Die Tryin' - The Bankroll Challenge - Reporting thread.

All the best and hope to see some good results.

Have fun

Laz

My first Monday:

MTT's: 62
-0,05 $
Two days

I was up to more than 5 $, but had bad run yesterday

A little highlight.
Happy morning for me. Finished 8th in 100k freeroll. + about 16$, so I have more than 100 buy ins for 0,1 $ tournaments, so I move to a next level - 0,25-0,27$ and I can play some cash tables already.
I'm pretty happy about my finish - 8th from 6769 players, means that I'm big fish now

I don't know how about you guys, buy I'm noticing that I am playing my A game, when I watching WSOP series

Week 2:

MTT's: 133
+10,82 this week
And my current bankroll:

Week 3:

MTT's: 104
+2,51 $

Week 4:

MTT's: 86
Hands: 456
-6,95 $

Week 5:
MTT's: 73
Cash game hands: 502
+15,73 $

My downswing finally ended!! And I moved above 0,25-0,27 $ level to a new one 0,50-0,55 $. I did not include 2,40 $, at the moment this sum is paid for the tournaments today, variable buy in from 0,11 to 0,55 $. So actually my profit is higher 2,40 $ more

He Forexas,

how is it going?
The downswing ended, but how did it continue?
How often do you usually play per week?

Give us a shout about your weekly update here: https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=2154241#post2154241

Thx,SvenBe

Here is my Week 6:

MTT's: 53
Cash game hands: 0
-4,6 $

And my BR at the moment:

Thank you, Sven, for asking!
So, I played this week less than usually. A little bad luck with 0,50-0,55 $ level in tournaments and I'm down a bit back to level 0,25-0,27 $. I started to play satellites too. It was really tough week. I wasn't in the gambling mood, my BR started to get down slowly, so I realized, that main goal of last week is not to make profit, but not to loose any more money and to rest from poker. I was playing poker for five weeks every day and simple was tired from it. But I didn't lost much, and now I'm feeling great again! With new powers, i'm getting back to grinding low levels
P.S. I think I should mention that I have daily job too.

I moved to the lowest rank in Pokerstars to Bronze star. I'm missing my Chrome

He forexas,

I am pretty sure most members here have a full time job, are students, parents etc. too.
There was a time when Poker was only considered "you either do it good and become pro or you don't do it". But in the end it is the same as with football: you have chances to become a decent player in a low league team (=you don't loose money, can once in a while afford a nice present for your girlfriend), play it totally recreational (you invest a bit like you do for going to the cinema, going kart racing - with the added chance of winning something) and of course a few guys will really make it.
So much for me... random SvenBe dropping in :-)

Hey, Sven,

Thanks for dropping by

I really wanna be one of those guys. I never took poker seriously, just loved the game. It was like you said: once in a while you can afford something. But now I wanna change my daily job to a poker. And I think this blog will help me do it. If I get down to 0, then I think it will be good sign, that poker is not for me, if I reach 1000 $ and then 10 000 $ and then 100 000 $, well, there will be a serious point of being a poker player and to leave my current job we will see that later.

Week 7:

MTT's: 96
Cash game hands: 0
+0,51 $

I was moving around this week. I was down to 17$, up to 24$, back down to 22$, up again till 24$ and down again to 22$ :) funny week, not easy. Profitable, but didn't reached my goal - to enter again 0,50-0,55 $ level. My top tournament reach was 0,27 $ 750$ guaranteed, finished in 16th out of 4600 players. It was very painful bad beat, lost KK vs A5o. My stack was about 600k and got KK in big blind, blinds 40k/80k with 10k ante. And player on the button shoved with A5o, his stack was about 500k. Decision was easy, outcome crushing. Flop came 23x turn 4 and I was dying in that moment, couple hands later I was all in with 22 vs 66 and out. It was really sad, cause from top45 to top20 I was tournament shortstack and managed to raise my stack to top6-8 size, but then followed bad beat and I'm out.
So, I have a question: how do you managing bad beats? How to get over them? Especially when they are in such important moment. I would be very grateful, if someone could share his/her thoughts.
And another question: what do you guys think about calling in big blind with KK? I'm trying to think right answer for not calling KK, but can't find any logic answer. Maybe you can share your thoughts in this situation too?

Week 8:

MTT's: 71
Cash game hands: 0
+ 0,83 $

Week 9:

MTT's: 65
Cash game hands: 0
+5,01 $

I reached my goal to enter 0,50-0,55 level again. I was up to almost 35 $, but a little lack of luck in the end of the week. Didn't get to any big tournament final tables with 0,55 buy in. But I was very close in 3-4 tournaments (finished in top 10-20). So couldn't get spike to my bankroll. I experienced, that my strategy isn't working in 0,50-0,55 $ level. There are literally a massacre! I adopted my game tho, and now I'm feeling pretty comfortable. Main thing - you need to gamble more and try to pick up spots as much as you can, more play in position and big pressure on small stacks. More 3 betting. My next goal is to get over 30 $ again, or even more. Let's see, how it goes.

One more thing - I realized that if I enter new buy in level, I shouldn't play anymore in lower levels, unless my bankroll will move down. Main reason of that - not to waste time. In 0,27 tournament payouts are growing about 0,05 cents per level, in 0,55 payouts are growing about 0,10-0,15 cents each level. So sitting in 0,55 $ instead of sitting in 0,27 will earn you more. This will help to raise bankroll faster. Cause my money is working for me full time, and if I play in 0,27 $ when I'm capable to play in 0,50-0,55 $, my money will be working only half time. I met one guy at the tables who's multi tabling. He was playing at more than 10 tables at moment, biggest buy in 162$ and he was playing in my 0.55 $ tournament too. What a waste of time, in my opinion. Instead of concentrating more on expensive tournaments, he's getting distracted with 0,55 $.

I agree for the guy with the 162$ BI. But actually many players mix two Buyins next to each other to have a smoother way of grinding up the limits. So instead of having one point where you move up, with growing BR you take on 1 and one more ...and one more table until you replaced all of them.

At the end it is up to you & how you feel comfortable...