Best way to make a small-medium BR grow?
Here's a question that I think deserves to be asked:
What is the best (most profitable) way to make a small-mediocre sized bankroll grow? and how?
On this forum we have a huge variety of poker players, people who specialize in tournament play, people who play online exclusively, and b&m grinders, so I know there will be a lot of different answers to this question. (actually that is what I'm hoping for).
Say for example someone has read a lot of poker books, has the basics, and some advanced tactics down pat, and would like to see the $500 or so they have set aside for poker grow. Where to start? Which avenue to pursue?
I've been playing both in Brick and Mortar ring games, online ring and tournaments, and home tournaments for a few years now, and in the last year have been able to make the poker hobby mildly profitable (thank GOD, otherwise I would of had to take up knitting)... so this question doesn't apply directly to me; however, I'm sure I'll find your responses useful as well.
Is grinding out a small profit on the .10/.20 NL tables online realy going help someone build the bank roll to move up in levels, will it provide sustainable profit over the long haul, or is it enough of a crapshoot, that it makes more sense to start a bit higher if you feel you have the skill (and the bankroll)?
Anyway.. I'm just trying to get this discussion started, feel free to add more questions, answer only one of them, or answer them all.
Cheers.
What is the best (most profitable) way to make a small-mediocre sized bankroll grow? and how?
On this forum we have a huge variety of poker players, people who specialize in tournament play, people who play online exclusively, and b&m grinders, so I know there will be a lot of different answers to this question. (actually that is what I'm hoping for).
Say for example someone has read a lot of poker books, has the basics, and some advanced tactics down pat, and would like to see the $500 or so they have set aside for poker grow. Where to start? Which avenue to pursue?
I've been playing both in Brick and Mortar ring games, online ring and tournaments, and home tournaments for a few years now, and in the last year have been able to make the poker hobby mildly profitable (thank GOD, otherwise I would of had to take up knitting)... so this question doesn't apply directly to me; however, I'm sure I'll find your responses useful as well.
Is grinding out a small profit on the .10/.20 NL tables online realy going help someone build the bank roll to move up in levels, will it provide sustainable profit over the long haul, or is it enough of a crapshoot, that it makes more sense to start a bit higher if you feel you have the skill (and the bankroll)?
Anyway.. I'm just trying to get this discussion started, feel free to add more questions, answer only one of them, or answer them all.
Cheers.
Comments
I'd run it up to a few thousand, then continue to bonus whore to help suppliment the downswings in the limits you'd rather be playing in. If the downswing goes too low, stop poker and continue BJ until you get back up to a comfortable level.
Of course, with neteller out of the business, it's harder to move money around as easy.
It takes a LONG time. You have to be patient. I started at $.25/.50 limit and slowly ground my way up over the years to the point where I am now comfortable playing $10/20.
But during that period I hit a sustained losing period last Dec. where at $5/10 I lost almost 50% of the roll before running it back to where it was by Jan. Since then I have been on a sustained upswing, almost tripling my b/r. But if I didn't have to roll to ride out the downswings, I would have been forced to move down levels and I probably would still be scuffling around trying to get my original roll back or worse, reloading out of my own pocket.
Several things contribute to this:
First of all find your game. Find out what you are best at and what you enjoy the most. One of the contributing factors was I did an analysis of all the sites where I play sngs and determined which site and what level was most profitable and then only played sngs at that site. It makes a difference because different sites and different levels have differing blind levels and timings. Unfortunately for me, that was Tribeca, which has since shut down their network, so I rarely play sngs anymore.
So:
1. find your best game, and make sure it is something you have time to focus on and enjoy.
2. Keep the enjoyment factor up. As soon as it becomes a grind and you are not enjoying it anymore, switch it up. Move on and play MTT's for a while or drop limits and donk it up. Learn another game like Omaha. I mostly play limit but it had become a grind and I wanted to learn the NL cash game so I switched to .25/50 nl and built my confidence up and slowly moved into 1/2 nl. However after a nice break I went back to limit and found that having to focus my mind again on the limit game made me a lot sharper and pushed my win rate back up. I still mix it up a bit, playing the odd nl ring or a horse tourney or nl MTT just to keep my mind fresh.
3. Find a site with a good player reward system and play it enough to maximize the benefits. I am a Walk of Fame member at Hollywood Poker and the benefits are great. I can trade my player points for 5 tournament entries per month, and get unlimited $500 no deposit reload bonuses plus entry into all their freerolls. I'm silver star at Pokerstars and pushing to get into gold star. If I can get there, basically those will be my two main sites, while chasing the odd bonus at other random sites.
4. Smooth out the variance in your bankroll.
a. Bonus whore. Unless, as above (3) there is a reason to give your play to a particular site, chase the bonus reloads. I have accounts at 15 sites. Some I haven't played at in many months. However, if a reload comes up, I will likely make a deposit and play it out, as long as it is not interfering with my player status at my main sites. Right now I have reload bonuses sitting at 3 sites. Clearing one of those sure helps smooth out a bad month.
b. Rakeback. You need it! I have rakeback at my main site, Hollywood. PokerStars doesn't have it. C'est la vie. But I also earn rakeback at two other sites. Again the rakeback won't make you rich but that monthly deposit into your account does help, especially during a bad month. My wife earns rakeback at 3 other sites and rotates through them, earning deposit bonuses + rakeback.
5. Affliate referrals. I used to earn a fair bit through referrals, either to Pokersourceonline.com for bonus whoring or to the two rakeback sites we use. Not so much anymore but hey, every little bit helps.
6. Track it. I have an excel spreadsheet that tells me by date, how much I have in each site, the cash outs I have made and deposits, the current reload bonuses and lifetime reloads and also monthly rakeback totals. Also I track my sngs by site, place, entry fee, ITM, ROI and date. I'm lazy on my MTT's. I probably should be tracking those as well. The spreadsheet has almost 2 years of data in it now.
This has mostly been an online poker answer, however, my spreadsheet also has a page where I track my live play. I keep my live and online rolls completely separate. I track by date, where I played, what limit, buyin, cashout and time played. Also for tourneys the # of entries and finish.
Excellent contribution
Best advice yet.... now if you'd only host weekly tournaments.