Loading...Building a Bankroll from Scratch
By PokerListings.com
I'm a prime example that with enough drive a poker player can turn as little as $50 into a fortune playing poker.That's what I started with five years ago, and since then I've bought a truck, a boat, a laptop and more with my poker earnings, and I've never had to re-deposit any money.
It took me about six months to make my first $10,000 playing Hold'em, and I realize now that I could have cut that time down considerably had I made a larger initial deposit.
Some people would rather just deposit more money and play the higher limits right away, but as an inexperienced player, as I once was, I felt it was safer starting small and building up a bankroll so I could learn and grow as a player.
Building up a bankroll from scratch isn't easy - it takes patience and determination. You will spend a long time building up a bankroll when starting from a small deposit, and you must have the patience to ride out the ups and downs of consistent poker play to attain that profit.
Determination comes into play because you have to set your goal and make it your highest priority. Everything else in life will become secondary as you begin playing poker as much as possible to meet that goal.
Get in the zone before every session and treat it as if it were your last. That way, you'll always be playing your best poker while working towards your goal.
The first and easiest way to meet your bankroll goals is through tournaments. I started out playing $10 sit-and-go tournaments with 10 people in them until I'd made about $300, then I graduated to $30 buy-ins.
When I had about $700 in my bankroll, I moved up to $50 buy-ins and the rest is history as I made my first $1,000 and advanced to the cash tables.
You can also go the cash game route to build your roll. This route is harder because you have to start with playing extremely low and boring limits at first.
Plus, the swings can be horrible since many inexperienced players will try to draw out on you. If you do decide to follow the cash game path, the best way is to play only premium hands - "push and pray," as the motto goes.
The beauty of building a large bankroll is that you can play weaker holdings in hopes of flopping a monster, and when you do hit that big hand in No-Limit, you'll get paid handsomely.
Just remember that Rome wasn't built in a day, and your bankroll won't be either. Give it some time, and I'm sure you'll eventually be sitting with the big dogs.
See you at the tables.
Comment(s) on this article
Yvonne Sep 8, 2009
I really enjoyed reading this article. Thanks
Adrian Sep 28, 2009
Good article, although the idea of building a bank roll through s and g's / tournaments is great, especially when u start with 50 dollars and work it up to 1000. However u say once u had that 1000 u then had enough or decided to hit the cash tables. I cant see how this is good advice, after all if u built ur roll playing tournaments i would assume that is what one is use to playing these particular formats and structures suited for tournaments and develops the skill of making consistent money through learning, practice and applying past tournament experience. How r u suppose to make the adjustment right of the bat when the two games even though they r essentially the same game ie nl holdem but yet r totally different in straregy and the way u should play each of them. If one takes that advice they could seriously put them selves in a lot of trouble and loose everything they have worked for bc they dont have a clue as how to play the cash game and haven't played enough to acquire the experience to consistently make money at the cash game. Not only that but when u have a 1000, i assume u wont being playing 1 cent 2 cent or even 5 cent 10 cent, so now u got a bigger problem bc u skipped the whole learning curve of working ur way up through the stake levels and skipped to a stake level that a 1000 dollar bank roll is suitable for but with out the experience the other player s will have over u bc they worked there way up there from a much lower bank roll. And no disrespect, but playing 30 dollar tournaments with a 300 dollar bankroll seems like suicide, if u take five bad beats in a row which can happen u would be left with only half ur bank roll left, even if u reduced the stake levels after a loss it is still like loosing bc even if u win at the lower limit, u would make as near as much by playing the same levels consistently if u would have given ur self enough buy ins to sustain 5 beats in a row but keep playing at the same limit so when u do win u will have made a good portion of what u lost back. No disrespect to ur money management skills but i think 40 to 50 buy ins is needed for each stake level to play comfortably. It sounds like u took a run at it and had some smooth sailing, and all the power to u for that, but i just think some thing s were left outta consideration for everyone to take this advice.
Sean Lind Sep 28, 2009
I just want to note that this is a very old article written by... actually I have no idea who wrote it.. it's that old.
This article is probably not a good article for anyone to read really as it advertises very lax bankroll management.
To be safe, you should typically have no more than 5% of your entire roll in play at one time, and you should have over 100 buy-in's for MTT's.
$50 for a $700 roll is 14 buy-in's, or 7%, which is more risk than you should ever have for a single table SNG. I'd say you should drop the % down closer to 2%.
If you have $700 in your roll, stick to $14 single table SNG's, and if you're wanting to play multiple table, drop down to $7 buy-ins. It's not unrealistic to think that you'll go on losing streaks losing 10-80 tournaments in a row. It happens to even the best players. If you don't have the roll to cover it, you'll end up broke before you ever get a chance to bounce back.
nexgen Oct 24, 2009
I agree that this seems like terrible bankroll mgmt. for poker. Poker should be played very conservatively when it comes to money. dont overreach or you will be broke before you start.
bennie88 Nov 5, 2009
Wow 80 sit n go without a cash or without winning? I can see 80 without winning but without a cash seems highly unlikely unless you are playing very high buy ins. My most without cashing so far is 11, but I've gone 13 in a row cashing before.
Ali Nov 12, 2009
bennie, this is relevant for MTT Sit n gos, it is much more difficult to win/cash in a MTT due to the vast number of players involved and so even if your a winning player you still need a bit of luck to cash.
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