Freerolling - now what?
After playing online poker for about 4 months, I stopped playing about 14 months or so ago. Some time ago Absolute Poker put $20 in my account to try and get me back. Every other month or so I'd play 0.10/0.25 stud games for an hour or so. (You really can't do much with $20 even at the micro-limits). I played in a $2 NLHE MTT Friday night for shiggles and won the thing for $131. Then I played in a $3 NLHE re-buy MTT last night and went out in 7th for $275.
I've got just under $400 in my AP account now (none of it out of my pocket) so I've decided I might as well get back into online poker since it's a reasonable (very) low limit bankroll.
With Neteller not being an option, I really don't want to be moving my money around all the time but I don't know if AP is the best site for my interests (and bankroll). I really like NLHE, stud/stud-8, despise LHE and would like to try Omaha. (The stud games at AP can be really soft though ... although I have noticed that they aren't as easy as they used to be).
Also, which limits should I be playing at? On one hand I don't want to just throw away my free money, on the other hand playing for nickels and dimes doesn't appeal to me. Or should I just thank the poker gods for my recent good fortune and take my money and run?
I've got just under $400 in my AP account now (none of it out of my pocket) so I've decided I might as well get back into online poker since it's a reasonable (very) low limit bankroll.
With Neteller not being an option, I really don't want to be moving my money around all the time but I don't know if AP is the best site for my interests (and bankroll). I really like NLHE, stud/stud-8, despise LHE and would like to try Omaha. (The stud games at AP can be really soft though ... although I have noticed that they aren't as easy as they used to be).
Also, which limits should I be playing at? On one hand I don't want to just throw away my free money, on the other hand playing for nickels and dimes doesn't appeal to me. Or should I just thank the poker gods for my recent good fortune and take my money and run?
Comments
It's not that grinding it out would bore me, it's just that money has to be enough to interest me. I went out 39th in Poker Stars CFL Challenge a couple weeks ago and got $5 and a Round 2 ticket for my efforts. So I took the $5 to a 0.01/0.02 NL ring game and it sucked. I mean, you get pocket aces and you raise it to a whole dime. Wow. Same thing playing 0.10/0.25 stud-8. You play for an hour or two and come out ahead a buck or two.
Now if that's the highest limit my bankroll will allow, then yeah, I'd either blow it on MTTs or cash it out. It's not that I want to jump into 1/2 or 2/4 games with that bankroll but on the other hand when you're playing for average pots of $1, I might as well be playing for play money.
I guess the first question should've been, what's the highest limits I can safely play with that bankroll? 0.25/0.50 or 0.50/1.00? And I'm assuming I should stick to $10 NL ring games as $25 would be too risky.
I find the stud games on Absolute to be usually somewhat soft but there isn't always a game going at a particular limit, and if there is, it might be a tough game. Poker Stars has a great selection but I find the games are tougher. I guess the second question should be is there a better site other than those two if I want to play games other than hold 'em?
The standard math answer is to decide on your acceptable risk of ruin, and then calculate your win rate and standard deviation and plug that into the Kelly formula and there is your answer.
My gut answer is: You seem to be willing to tolerate a high risk of going broke so ... until you get a big enough sample size... Keep doing what's winning.
or FTP RB would be cool too, if not already
too expensive to own for 1 day
Theres no answer to this question asides from your own regard to what the value of $400 is.
If it's something that can be completely pissed away and means nothing, then hell, go for a major sunday tournament.
If it's food money, take it out and live.
No one is going to tell you "Go play 10/20 Limit HE, I guarentee you won't lose".
I've decided that even though it's free money, it would be foolish to play recklessly with it and lose it all. Since 300BB seems to be the recommended bankroll, I'm sticking with the 0.50/1.00 tables for now.
I'm recording all my sessions (not that there have been that many so far) and at some (yet undertermined) point I'll look at my results. If it appears that I'm a losing player then I'll probably cash out what's left. On the other hand, if it appears that I'm a winning player, I'll keep doing what I'm doing until proven otherwise. (Of course, if I'm a winning player I'll move up in limits as my skill and bankroll allow).