Building a bankroll

[hockeygoon]

I'm trying to pay for a vacation with winnings from poker stars.  I started by playing free rolls and won $2 in a Negreanu Bahama free roll.  I lost $1 when someone sucked out and cracked my pocket aces with 10-8 off on an 8 person table, then played in some cheap $.10 and $.25 buy-in tournaments.  I placed in the money in the $.25 buy-in one after I lost some of the $.10 ones and was at $.82.  I played in another $.10, with $50 added to the prize pool and blinds going up every 5 minutes, and finished 13th out of around 5200.  I turned my $.10 into $2.98, so my bank is at $3.80 right now.

I'm going to try and build it up to $10 playing in the $.10 and $.25 buy-ins, then move onto the $1 buy-in,s and keep building up.

There aren't as many donks in these tournaments as there are in the freerolls, but there are a few.  Blinds were 300-600, I had around 11,000 in the BB with suited AQ, UTG had around 1200 and pushed all-in.  Everybody else folded, so I called.  She had pocket 7s.  I hit a Q on the turn and she got pissed and bitched about me "sucking out."  I saw a couple other people push all-in with rag-rag or a small off color ace, but that was mostly in the first half hour and then later after the blinds got huge after the money cut-off.  I played for a little over 2 hours and when I got knocked out the blinds were  20K-40K with 4k antes.  If you managed to steal the blinds you got almost 100k right there.

[NotFadeAway]

I would suggest the 4 and 8 cent stud high low games and the 2 and 4 cent limit hold em games for building a bankroll.  That's how mine got started (from $1.75), so I know it can work.  If you a bad session it can end your bankroll, obviously, but then you'll just have to win money in another freeroll.  Anyway, good luck.

[hockeygoon]

How are the low limit games on PS?  The couple times I've played 3-6 limit in the casino nobody ever folded so you had a high amount of suck outs, almost as bad as the NL free rolls, only without the ability to win a huge pot as easily with a good betting strategy. 

I'd have to get better at Stud before I tried playing for money.  I should try a few free rolls and play money games to get my strategy down.

[NotFadeAway]

The micro limit games are hideous, which is why they're so good for building a bankroll.  The low limit games in general are full of bad players, but the really tiny ones are absolutely golden for a decent player.

[hockeygoon]

I had a couple of rough hands last night, and a couple stupid plays.

Rough hand #1:

Early in a $0.25 buy-in tournament, blinds at $10 and $20.  Pocket Ks, early position, raised 4X BB, got one caller.  Flop was K-10-9.  I put out a small bet, I think it was $100 and he called.  Turn card was low, something like a 4.  I bet $600, wanting to scare him off a straight draw, and he called again.  River was another low card, no possible flushes on the board, so I feel pretty safe that I have the best hand, so I put out a $300 bet, hoping he'll call a relatively small bet.  He does, then turns over Q-J.  Bastard flopped the straight and let me hang myself.

That crippled me, and I went card dead.  20 minutes later I caught big slick and lost a race for the rest of my money.

Rough hand #2:

$1 + .10 45 seat sit n go.  I got caught trying to steal a pot early and took me down to $1100, then had to fold when a caller looked like he hit the nut flush on the turn (he did hit it, so it was a good read).  $800 left, someone slow played AA and I lost another $400 with My pair of Qs, taking me to $400.  A few hands later I got pocket Q's again and pushed all-in, 2 callers, one of them pushed all-in over the top and the other guy called with both of the all-ins covered.  I was up against AK and pocket 7s.  There was a K on the flop and a 7 on the tirn, anmd I was gone.

Douchebag hand:

I decided what the hell, I'm not playing badly, just a couple rough beats.  I'll play in a cash game.  Big mistake.  I lost my $1 buy-in in like 6 hands.  I pushed too hard with a set of 10s when there was a K on the board.  Turns out the guy who called me had KK.  I never should have pushed all-in with 2nd set.

So my $3.80 turned into $1.45 in a hurry.

DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NotFadeAway]

The kings hand is certainly not a mistake, as a set of kings there is plenty strong enough to get stacked on.  Same with a set of tens, especially after a $1 buy in.  If you buy in that short, you definitely don't have enough chips to drop a set (unless you know for sure that he has pocket kings, and you can't know that for sure.)  In the sng the only mistake is probably trying to steal a pot early (I've noticed that this almost never works in a $1 sng.)  I would also suggest getting stacked with those queens instead of losing half your very small stack.  If I'm that short I'm looking to double up and will gladly risk being against aces or kings (as opposed to the many other hands that he could have that I beat) instead of going halfway.  Anyway, if you know how to play limit games, those are probably the best for building a bankroll.  Also, if you're going to play nl ring tables, try to avoid buying in for $1, as this effectively puts a limit on what you can do at the table (due to your lack of chips behind.)  You're better off buying in deep and waiting for a monster against top pair or something.

[Martini]

I had a couple of rough hands last night, and a couple stupid plays.

Rough hand #1:

Early in a $0.25 buy-in tournament, blinds at $10 and $20.  Pocket Ks, early position, raised 4X BB, got one caller.  Flop was K-10-9.  I put out a small bet, I think it was $100 and he called.  Turn card was low, something like a 4.  I bet $600, wanting to scare him off a straight draw, and he called again.  River was another low card, no possible flushes on the board, so I feel pretty safe that I have the best hand, so I put out a $300 bet, hoping he'll call a relatively small bet.  He does, then turns over Q-J.  Bastard flopped the straight and let me hang myself.

He has the nut straight on an unpaired, no flush possible board and he flat calls you with the best possible hand? You're lucky you didn't lose your stack right there with a raise.

QQ vs well slow played AA is going to cost a lot each time.

You are going to have to have the most incredible read and extensive history with a specific player and both be extremely deep stacked to ever fold a set on a dry flop. In a dollar buy in that's an insta-shove.

[Jambine]

How are the low limit games on PS?  The couple times I've played 3-6 limit in the casino nobody ever folded so you had a high amount of suck outs, almost as bad as the NL free rolls, only without the ability to win a huge pot as easily with a good betting strategy......

The low stakes limit games on P* are pretty ripe.  I started with some free roll mony a couple of months ago, and have run it up quite nicely.  I occasionally run into a player that knows limit poker (no problem, there are plenty of games).

[hockeygoon]

I was tilting pretty bad the other night when I lost those hands, I just didn't realize it at the time.  I've taken a few days off from poker.  I have my home dealer's choice game tonight.  Last 2 weeks I've brought home $22 and $17 with $10 buy-ins.  Last week I played one hand of screw your neighbor (I hate it, but there are about 3 guys who like it and call it when it's their deal), a couple games of THE, and a game of between the sheets.  I won syn and bts and made $7 in 4 hands.  Then 6 of us played a $5 buy-in mini tournament where 2nd gets their money back and the winner takes the rest.  I knocked the first 4 guys out of the tournament.  When we got down to heads-up I had about 80% of the chips at the table and couldn't get anything from the other guy.  We played heads-up for almost 2 hours and were close to even in chips.  I had a run of cold cards and the only time I got a decent hand, he wouldn't play with me, and his mediocre hands outdrew my mediocre hands.  We finally both got decent hands and he called my big suited A with a big suited K.  He hit a pair, I didn't, and he had me covered by about 50 cents.  SO I walked out with $7 more than I walked in with on a $10 buy-in.

[hockeygoon]

After taking a few days off, I'm playing in another .10 turbo on PS.  Right now I'm #5 in the tournament, 539 left out of 4979 that started.  I was #1 for awhile, but some people caught some big pots and overtook me. 

My key hand was I call an all-in with KK vs. 88, had the other person covered by only $75, about $22k in the pot and flopped quad Ks.  Then later I won a $25 pot when someone bluffed at it by going all-in in front of me with rag-rag against my ladies.  I almost folded with an A on the board, but there was only $3800 left to call and I was pretty sure she didn't have an A or pocket Ks.

One German douchebag on an early table had me covered by a few hundred, both of us over $10k.  He was pushing all-in almost every hand and got called a few times.  He had J-3, 6-2, 8-5, and 7-7 the 4 hands I saw before being moved.  I REALLY wanted his money, but never got a decent hand to call him.  A couple of his German rail bird buddies were trying to get me to call him.

[hockeygoon]

Blinds at 4k and 8k with $800 antes, I'm 12th with a little over $50k in chips.  I get rockets UTG, double the BB and get one caller.  Flop is Q-10-4 rainbow, and I push all in to try and take the $25k pot right there.  The other guy calls with 8-6 off and the %@$^$E%#$% donk hit runner 8-8 on the turn and river.  Somehow he had built up a big enough stack so that he had me covered and I got taken out in 248th place.  I turned my 10 cents into 41, but given the circumstances I'm PISSED.  I thought for sure I'd finish in the top 27 at least, and that would have given me over $1 for the tournament.  I'm up to $1.46 in my account right now.

I had played virtually perfectly in the tournament, and it really hurts to be sucked out on that badly.

[hockeygoon]

I played in a 25 cent buy-in later last night and finished 52nd, winning $1.44.

I was down to under $500 about 40 minutes into it, completely card dead and the one had I did have got beaten.  I went on a small run to get my stack up to $2500 at the first break.  I built my stack up to the top 15 in the tournament, then my cowboys went up against rockets and I lost 2/3 of my stack.  A few hands later I lost with JJ to AA, a couple hands later I tried to buy a pot with a semi-bluff with an open ended straight flush draw and got called and couldn't hit either draw because the blinds were getting big and I figured I needed to make a move.  That took me down to about $20k with the blinds at 4k and 8k with 800 antes.  I got dealt suited KJ, figured I was only going to get one more time around the board before I was blinded out, so I pushed all in and ran into AA AGAIN, for the third time in a span of 10 or 12 hands.

But I'm happy with the way I played overall, and I figure anytime you can win 6x your buy-in, it's not a bad tournament.

My bankroll right now is $2.65.  I think I'm going to try a .50 buy-in tournament next.  My strategy is to move up a level once I have 5X the buy-in amount of the next level, at least until I get up into the bigger buy-in ones.

[Midnight Rose]

Hockeygoon, except for the last paragraph of your last post, this is sounding less like a thread on building a bankroll, and a whole lot more like a series of bad beat stories.  I'm more than happy to move it to the appropriate forum, unless you're actually trying to get advice on the best way to build a bankroll.