Simply put $50-$100 is just not enough money to really do anything with. For those of us who did manages to never redeposit they had to have run good initially to build up some BR. They then had the money to make a few mistakes, learn from them, and grind it back up. This isn't true for everyone, I do know people who bought in for $50 and grinded $2NLHE for months on end, but I think they are the exception.

EDIT: It took me several deposits before I was any good at this game. You learn better from your mistakes than you ever will from your successes.

Honestly, I think it's good to have to redeposit. For those that "got lucky" or just grinded it up, they don't know the experience of going broke and I learned lessons i wouldn't have learned if I hadn't gone broke. I lost 800 bucks before I learned how to play. I deposited about a year ago, never deposited since. I tilted off 2k I had won in a tilting tournament with my last $27.50. Played 100/200 FL heads up and lost it in 5 minutes.

I've never tilted since...and never will. I've managed to earn it all back and then some. I learned my lesson, and I'm glad it happened. For me, losing that 2k might be the thing that makes me so profitable now.

Find grapsfan's article about being a 'Bankroll Nit' in the archives. He gives some great bankroll advice, which is the first guideline you need to follow. I deposited only one time on Noble (gone now), Full Tilt, pokerstars, and Cake and still have good rolls on all of them. That includes cashing out $2k from Tilt.

If you're trying to be a 'balla', maybe you'll need a different strategy, but if you're just trying to have some fun and make some $$ in the process, the tight bankroll approach, plus some poker skills, will get the job done! Good luck.

 

Originally Posted by Marcus5

*all caps removed from thread title*

There are some of you who say that they put in $50 or $100 and never looked back. For those who were successful,

- How did you keep from going broke ( was bankroll management easy for you )
- Did it take a few years to grind up to where you are now?
- What stakes did you play when you first started/ what stakes are you at now?
- If you are pro, when did you decide to go full time with no other job
- If pro, about how much did you have in your poker account when turning pro
- Did you hit a nice MTT early on in your career to make it alot easier?

I am just curious, because i'd like to put in some money and NEVER deposit again. I am tired of depositing. Its soooo frustrating. Like millions of others, my biggest problem in poker is bank roll management.

How do you stay patient enough to where you don't have this conversation with yourself.... " Dang, I'm down $100, I can just go up to 1-2nl or 2-4nl and get that back with a few hands....." and then most of the time about 15-30 minutes later, you've gone broke and are staring a $0 in your account. What do you tell yourself when you are having a bad session and are down?

thank you for your input, and suggestions or thoughts would be helpful.

I can speak as someone who has built two separate bankrolls, One 4 years ago when the games were super easy and one earlier this Summer. Between the two I took about two years of barely playing (maybe I'd play a couple of MTTs a month)

4 years ago I played on party poker. I probably deposited and lost like $100 2 or 3 times before finally depositing $100 maybe my 3rd time and running well. From what I remember I basically found a game that I could master and crush (for me it was 30 or 50 man sit n gos, at $20 - $30 buy ins). I played those almost exclusively for a few months( the competition was a joke) and build my roll to around $3000. I also would take the occasional shot at regular tournaments, I think I finally got lucky and won a small ($1000??)tournament to get my roll to around $4000. Then I took a shot at a 250 max $100 buy in tournament and got lucky again and won that to get my roll to around $11000 (basically got lucky as hell and got my roll from $3000 to $11000 in a matter of a few weeks). From there I started just playing Cash games immediatly. I played only one or two tables (hard to believe that now) and started right out of the gate playing nl200 and NL400 6 max games (also hard to fathom that now). Again, the competition was so horrendous back then that I actually ran my roll up over $20k (over maybe 8 or 9 months) playing only two tables at a time and with no prior cash game experience. I can honestly say looking back though that I had no clue what I was doing compared to what I know now,its just that the competition was a joke back then. Its pretty funny looking back that I thought that I was a really good poker player back then, I really sucked, it was just that there were so many people playing back then who werent even really trying to win, they were just on there gambling like it was blackjack or roulette. After Party Poker was closed to the US I just cashed out my account and decided that I was spending too much time playing poker and was getting too affected by the emotional swings (ie. Lost $1500 in one hand once and felt like crap for about 3 days) and stopped playing

I didnt really play much the past few years until I got laid off from my job early this Summer and started playing again. I tried to start a roll on Full Tilt at first, I deposited $600, getting the $600 deposit bonus along with whatever I could win at the tables. I played way out of bankroll at NL100 playing 4 tables, got to $2000, thought I was the man, Then had one rough day of coolers, went on tilt, busted all the way down to about $250 in about a week. I didnt play after that for a few weeks, still have that $250 sitting on FTP.

I decided then to go to stars, deposit another $600, getting the $600 deposit bonus, and started right out playing 4 tables of NL50. This was still out of proper bankroll but I started out impatient. Luckily I didnt run terrible early and over the past few months I've run my roll up to over $4000 which was the benchmark that I set for myself to move up stakes and have moved to NL100. Even though I started out playing beyond bankroll I now see how important bankroll management and patience is for me so going forward I plan to wait until I have between 40 - 50 buy ins before moving up levels. I feel that for me this is very important in order to avoid the kinds of emotional swings that you were talking about in your post. I never lose so much in one day or one week that I would feel a temptation to move up stakes and gamble.

So, I know that was long ramble but what I was trying to illustrate was that most of the people who just deposit one time and never look back fall into 4 groups:

1. People who deposited and started playing 3 or 4 years ago when the game was a joke, and thus could afford to play badly and out of bankroll and still crush games.

2. People who deposited, played out of bankroll, and just got lucky and ran well or had one nice multitable sng or tourney win early on and THEN started playing within bankroll.

3. People who deposited $50 and spent months and months and months playing within a $50 bankroll, penny cash games or $1 sngs etc before they reached bankroll that allowed them to play decent stakes.

4. Durrrrrrr, or maybe some other geniuses who are just outliers who break the rules of wht you should realistically expect

So IMO it comes down to a time versus money tradeoff. Do you want to spend the next 6 months playing 15 - 20 hrs a week trying to build $50 into $1000 so that you can finally start playing non micro stakes? Or can you afford to deposit $500 or so right away (stick to playing NL10 - NL25 or $10 -$15 buy in tournaments) and be able to handle the possibillity of having to buy back in for another $500 and starting over if you lose initially?

One thing that I will add to this long post is that if you find yourself actually moving up and gambling at high stake games to try to win back losses at the low stakes you will probably always go broke. You need to decide whether you are going to be a poker player? or just a gambler?

 

Originally Posted by Marcus5

- How did you keep from going broke ( was bankroll management easy for you )
This one's retardedly easy. Anyone who uses good game selection and good bankroll management will never go broke. There are no shortcuts.
- Did it take a few years to grind up to where you are now?
Yes. Hell yes. It was a long road, especially because multitabling wasn't easy to learn for me, but it was well worth it.
- What stakes did you play when you first started/ what stakes are you at now?
Play money when I first started, and $11-500 games today.
- If you are pro, when did you decide to go full time with no other job
Aug 2007, when it became obvious that going to work was very -EV.
- If pro, about how much did you have in your poker account when turning pro
I'm not going to say, but I recommend at least $20k for this, with 6 months MINIMUM worth of expenses saved offline.
- Did you hit a nice MTT early on in your career to make it alot easier?
I didn't. It took me forever to hit a nice MTT score, but I was grinding SNGs so I'm not a great example for this.

Thank you all for ya'lls responses, it really gives me some motivation and helps me stay positive.

I am just horrible with bank roll management. DAY1 back in 2008, in april, I had $2 in my pokerstars account. I played in a 2 dollar tournament, got 2nd for $350. Took that 350 and played 2 tables of 200NL. One table had a full buy in of 200 and the other table had 150 on it. built that up to $600. Then , took that 600 ( this is all in one night ) and played in a 100 rebuy, 150 nightly 100k, and 50 freezeout. well:

- got 6th in 100 rebuy ( didnt rebuy once ) for $4,700
- got 25th in the nightly 100k for about 450 ish
- got 27th in the 50 freezout for 180 ish

in one day my account went from $2 to over $5,000

DAY 2

- played for 1 hour in the morning 25-50 no limit and made $17,000
- played for 2 hours that night 25-50 no limit, made $4500

DAY 3

- played for 30 minutes in the morning 25-50 made $13,000

so, in 3 days, made over 40k

I quit my job, cashed out 5000 and bought a car from my parents......

used very bad bank roll management and was broke with a few months

I remember one of the worst feeling was losing over 10k in a day ( actually an hour ). I lost 5000 in one hand and then another 5000 within the rest of the hour. Going broke is a horrible feeling and I never want to do that again.

thank you guys for the encouragement. I plan on being one of the best in the world at the game and hopefully in a few years, I will be one of the recognizable ones who is crushing and most importantly staying within a proper bankroll.

 

Originally Posted by Marcus5

Thank you all for ya'lls responses, it really gives me some motivation and helps me stay positive.

I am just horrible with bank roll management. DAY1 back in 2008, in april, I had $2 in my pokerstars account. I played in a 2 dollar tournament, got 2nd for $350. Took that 350 and played 2 tables of 200NL. One table had a full buy in of 200 and the other table had 150 on it. built that up to $600. Then , took that 600 ( this is all in one night ) and played in a 100 rebuy, 150 nightly 100k, and 50 freezeout. well:

- got 6th in 100 rebuy ( didnt rebuy once ) for $4,700
- got 25th in the nightly 100k for about 450 ish
- got 27th in the 50 freezout for 180 ish

in one day my account went from $2 to over $5,000

DAY 2

- played for 1 hour in the morning 25-50 no limit and made $17,000
- played for 2 hours that night 25-50 no limit, made $4500

DAY 3

- played for 30 minutes in the morning 25-50 made $13,000

so, in 3 days, made over 40k

I quit my job, cashed out 5000 and bought a car from my parents......

used very bad bank roll management and was broke with a few months

I remember one of the worst feeling was losing over 10k in a day ( actually an hour ). I lost 5000 in one hand and then another 5000 within the rest of the hour. Going broke is a horrible feeling and I never want to do that again.

thank you guys for the encouragement. I plan on being one of the best in the world at the game and hopefully in a few years, I will be one of the recognizable ones who is crushing and most importantly staying within a proper bankroll.

WOW DUDE!! I didnt realize how extreme you were talking about the bankroll management.

You basically took you bankroll and sat at a NL50 game, actually were lucky enough to run it up to $17k and blew through all of that?

Thats waaay beyond anything I've experinced with gambling out of stakes.

I hope that that stuff is truly behind you, you should really be careful and possibly take a good look at yourself to decide for sure that you dont have a real gambling problem in general. Do you gamble on sports? or blackjack? non poker related games?

Its hard for me to relate to the hard core gambling mentality, I have never had any interest in gambling before playing poker ( I would pretty much sit and watch freinds gamble when I went to casinos lol), and even with poker I dont really get a huge rush or anything like that from winning on a day to day basis. I used to sometimes feel the emotional swings when I played NL400 and if I can feel that bad after a big loss I cant imagine how low someone who has a real gambling mentality can get.

I hope that you take a very careful approach if you decide to keep playing not only so that you can improve and move up as a poker player but so that you dont end up having a serious gambling problem.

Best advice that I could give you would be to not think about anything goal wise beyond your next immediate goal. If you are a cash player playing NL25, just focus on the long range goal of getting to NL50, if you get to NL50 focus on the long range goal of making it to NL100. Dont start playing NL25 with visions of making $250k a year at NL1000, if you are thinking that way you are just daydreaming and not really focusing on real goals.

 

Originally Posted by Marcus5

*all caps removed from thread title*

There are some of you who say that they put in $50 or $100 and never looked back. For those who were successful,

- How did you keep from going broke ( was bankroll management easy for you )
yes, i deposited $250 on bodog and won my first tourney for $750, but then did used bankroll management and rarely played over a $20 tourney...occasionally took shots at their $50 main tourney, won that and then played everything
- Did it take a few years to grind up to where you are now?
I've been playing for a year and a half...it took some serious grinding in the first 6 months...and "luckily" i was living somewhere i didnt like, so i just stayed in a lot and shipped donkaments all day.
- What stakes did you play when you first started/ what stakes are you at now?
$5-$20 MTTs, $20-$200 MTTs...i'd be higher but WSOP is a bitch!
- If you are pro, when did you decide to go full time with no other job
3 months after i won my first tourney...made 5k, 12k, 4k, in feb, mar, apr...told my boss i was quiting...my job was paying me pennies...
- If pro, about how much did you have in your poker account when turning pro
~5k i think...and a few K in the bank...
- Did you hit a nice MTT early on in your career to make it alot easier?
my 2nd month made things much easier...i hit a 6k score after i was already having a great month...but honestly most of my scores have always been between 1k - 4k...but i was doing it on a very consistant basis...also bodog was giving out a shitload of free money from overlays, TLB bonuses, re-deposit bonuses etc...it was amazing how much they gave away...1/3 of the money i made was in bonuses...

I am just curious, because i'd like to put in some money and NEVER deposit again. I am tired of depositing. Its soooo frustrating. Like millions of others, my biggest problem in poker is bank roll management.
I'd recommend taking a few months off and save up a roll...then say "this is it"...i got $(this much money) for poker and this is it...if i bust, im done for a long time...this is what i did...
How do you stay patient enough to where you don't have this conversation with yourself.... " Dang, I'm down $100, I can just go up to 1-2nl or 2-4nl and get that back with a few hands....." and then most of the time about 15-30 minutes later, you've gone broke and are staring a $0 in your account. What do you tell yourself when you are having a bad session and are down?
I usually go for a run...i definitely stay away from cash games as much as possible...MTTs are where i do best...and my roll is everything, i cant afford to go play 5/10 and get stacked 4 times because i was trying to make up for a 2k down day on a sunday...otherwise ill be joining careerbuilder.com

thank you for your input, and suggestions or thoughts would be helpful.
glgl

you can still do it now. just get lucky. deposit 100 into ftp, win a 6.50 ko. then win a daily double event. then try to catch up to your roll on stars

My buddy started with $50.00 on January 8, 2009. Signed up for rakeback at FTP last year.

Started with a coach to learn the correct way to play SNGs. Played with a push fold chart while playing $1.25 SNGs to build up to $80.00 and move up to $2.25 SNGs (because 20% rake at $1.25). Moved to $5.50 in June with 70 buy-ins, plateaued during summer. Played tight early and played to win.

Read everything Jennifear wrote about SNGs.

Here's the solution:

1. Good bankroll management.

2. When bankroll was at $600.00 the last week of September, took a lesson from Jennifear on refining his game plan and started Multi-tabling SNGs with TableNinjaFT.

3. Played Jennifears strategy $6.50 SNG-T.

Here is sharkscope today, no re-loads (+rakeback):

<table id="t1" border="1" bordercolor="black"><tbody id="tablerows"><tr id="BARKINGSTORK1#fulltilt&null"><td align="center">4,233</td><td title="The Av. Profit is the Average Profit Per Game after rake has been subtracted." align="right">$0 </td><td title="The Av. Stake is the average tournament buy-in amount." align="right">$5 </td><td title="The Av. ROI is the Average of each game's Return On Investment. It is the average of each (Payout-(Stake+Rake))/(Stake+Rake). This is not the same as total ROI which is (Total Payouts-(Total Rake+Total Stakes))/(Total Stakes+Total Rake)." align="center">5%</td><td title="The Total Profit is the net profit for this player (and includes rake)." align="right">$880 </td></tr></tbody></table><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">