JACK WELCH - BR Building For Beginners

BR Building For Beginners

By JACK WELCH - Nov 08 2009, 05:24 PM

First of all, free multi-table tournaments (aka freerolls) are where you need to start. No news there.

Every poker site offers freerolls, which will allow you to get actual cash into your account. Annette "Annette_15" Obrestad is the best example of this method of bankrolling. Without investing a single penny, she amassed an online fortune of $1,000,000, probably more. Meanwhile, gaining the skill which led to a WSOPE championship and a purse of $2+ million. A day before she turned 19 years of age.

Pro Chris "Jesus" Ferguson challenged himself to go from zero to $10,000 on Full Tilt Poker. Took more than a year, but he got it done.

Don't sneer at the opportunity presented by freerolls.

Many of today's more successful players got their start playing single table tournaments, aka sit-and-go's or SNGs. Bodog offers single-tableSNGs for beginners - as low as $2.20 - which pay half of the field. Sometimes you can make the money without playing more than few checked-around big blinds.

Perhaps you have heard of Chris "Money800" Moneymaker. The 2003 WSOP ME champion kick-started the poker boom by parlaying a $40satellite into a $2.5 million cash.

Satellites are designed for those players who lack the necessary funds to pay the full price of entry.

First of all, learn where you have to finish to get the prize. Not playing is probably the key to success in satellites. When you do enter a hand, raise, don't call. Never risk your entire stack. Play small ball if you are in a pot until you get the nuts on the river, then bet for value. You want to grow your chip stack in concert with the blind increases.

Do NOT - I repeat, DO NOT - try to win. You do not try to win because you do not have to win to win. You simply have to finish in front of the last player to lose.

Don't try to get fancy.

Finally, Frequent Player Points offer the opportunity to qualify for tournaments which pay actual cash. An FPP on FTP is worth $0.06. And you really don't need a ball cap with somebody's logo on it.

My favorite satellite for micro-grinders is the $2.20 into the Sunday Quarter-Million Dollar on PokerStars. An entry is awarded for every $11 in the prize pool. So, the payout is close to 20%.

These MTTs run approximately three times an hour, most of the day, most of the week. Heck, you can multi-table them

I am not the strongest player, but I manage to "win" 40% of these particular satellites.

This from PokerStars: "You finished the tournament in 1st place. ....If you choose to unregister from this tournament your account will be credited with T$11.00. Tournament Dollars can be used to buy into any tournament."

So, win one and you can afford to play 5 more. Win four out of ten, as I tend to do, you have doubled your money. I think that's right - I am truly a math bonehead.

NOTE: I have never played the Sunday Quarter-Million. I heart my weekends.

What I do is sell my T$ for cash. While there are doubtlessly a number of sites which buy tournament dollars, I have used - more than a few times - Liquid Poker.

"You can sell your pokerstars T$ tournament dollars for 97% and your W$ for 91%(WPT, WCOOP, WSOP dollars). These are the best rates publicly available anywhere."

Bottom line is this: for every $22.00 invested in satellite entries, a 40% win rate equals $42.68 in cash.

I know, I know. That's no recipe for riches. But my goal, like Annette_15's, is not to deposit ever.

Well, never again.

Comments

danloulou said:

Where did you get the idea that 1 FTP fpp= $0.06 ???

November 11, 2009 10:47 AM

About JACK WELCH

Retired after a decades-long writing career. Erstwhile Director of Public Relations for NIKE. Co-founder of Running magazine. Prize-winning poet. Senior Editor, Track & Field News. Ran many marathons. Undefeated racer of elephants (3-0 lifetime.) Czechoslovakian Linguist USAF/NSA. Married. 2 step-children, 3 grandsons.

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Comments

danloulou said:

About JACK WELCH