Nolimit on a short bankroll?

[Atropos]

Hey folks,
I currently have 170$ in my Party Account, I worked my way up from 50$ to this amount last week playing 0.50/1 Limit, but I hate Limit, only play it to be able to move up. ATM the high variance of Limit is killing me, I cant win with TPTK anymore because I always get sucked out, and now the beats get worse, eg Full House beaten by Quads, 3ofakind beaten by bd straights/flushes...
So in short, do you think the Party 25$ Max Buyin NL Games are playable with only 170$???
I always read that about 20 Buy-Ins would be needed for NL Games, so should I then enter the games with less than Max-Buyin?? Which amount would be a reasonable amount to do this?

[Wayfare]

My initial PP bankroll was $200 and I have worked it up to $400 more than ten times and withdrawn the $200 profit each time. Only once did I ever dip below $100. The games are that soft for me. I might just be lucky, or playing way below my level, but I do not see any problem with starting the $25 NL tables with $170. Just make sure you have NL down before you do it. I was playing in deep stacks, tough games for a year and a half before I started party.

[JrJordan]

Eh, you're close but you've still got a pretty high risk of ruin going on. Most suggest AT LEAST 10 buy ins if you play one table at a time, 20 for multi table. Keep fighting through the limit game until you hit $250. Then you can start messing around with the NL. Don't forget it may take some time to adjust to the NL games, during that time you'll most likely lose a buy in or two.

[SpiderMnkE]

Do we really advocate a minimum of 10 buyins for this level. Seems like you could survive on 5 easy at this limit... they practically hand you money. Dropping his entire roll in these games would take a pretty bad streak. However I'm new to NL as well... so what do I know

[JrJordan]

I'm recommending 10 because first of all he's a new NL player. During the adjustment period, he will most likely lose a buy in or two on a bad all in call (I know I did). Second, I've only played around 15,000 hands, but I have certainly seen large swings that could take out a 5 buy in bankroll. Just recovered from a 6x buy in downswing, my biggest so far, at the $50 NL tables. The good news is that I have around 40 buy ins, so I can remain confident that my luck would turn around. When you lose half your bankroll to variance, it's hard to maintain your A game and turn it back around. Imagine how hard it is to play optimally when you're on your last buy in of a 5 buy in bankroll.

[Atropos]

@JrJordan:
Well I'm not totally new to NL, when I was playing Play Money I only played NL /images/graemlins/wink.gif OK that doesnt count, but I played some 3k Hands of 0.01/0.02 NL + have read Reubens Pot-and Nolimit Book. But of course thats not nearly enough experience to tell if I am an ok NL player.
The point with the Buyins, if I would buy in with 15$ I had around 11 Buy-Ins which would seem to be more safe, or is that nothing you would recommend, and I should always buy-in with the max?

[Chazbot2000]

What about playing sit & gos instead? You get the no limit structure, can protect your hands, etc, but it's not nearly as hard on your bankroll.

Generally you have pretty close to enough buy ins, but I get a little worried when someone says "I keep getting sucked out on so I need to play higher stakes." I'm sure you're a good player but a $20 sit and go might be a good experience builder.

[kyro]

Chazbot wins.

I much prefer NL to Limit, but I have an incredibly small bankroll. So while I grind away at limit, I play NL SNG. All the excitement of NL at a fraction of the price!

Play a bunch of those. It should, if you're a decent player, build your bankroll up to an amount at which you're comfortable playing ring games.

[aces_full]

Some possible suggestions to help you out:

Play more .01/.02 NL-seroiusly I was able to grind out about $60/month on there during the three months I played at those stakes, and I was new to NL then too. Poker Stars has a .01/.02 NL game with a $5 max buy-in. I also like the 2 table SNGs at Stars. For a $5+.50 tournament first place pays $36, and I beleive 2nd is $27. Paradise Poker has .05/.10 $10 max buy-in NL tables. Probably not as soft as Party, but still very beatable.

[Paul2432]

$170 is probably OK. I'd say playing 0.5/1 limit with $50 is probably more risky.

One thing to consider. Is this money all the money you can devote to poker for say the next month, or is it just the amount you happen to have in your Party account? My point is that I think some people get too caught up in bank roll considerations when the money can be easily replaced. If you have an edge play. If you go broke make a deposit.

If you absolutely cannot lose this money, then cashout and buy-in at Pokerstars and play the $0.01/0.02 blind NL game until you have 300 or so. Then give the $25 max games a go.

Paul

[unagi]

i agree with all that they've said - you might be risking failure (and it really does depend if you have a deeper bankroll, or your party poker account is all you wanna make available). i've been playing the 25$ games for awhile now (although definitely not as long as most people, with maybe only 7/8 months under my belt as i played mostly SNGs before that).. i would definitely say it depends on your playing style. if you're a rock, you can probably bear it with $170.. but again, if this is ALL you have, it's probably not worth risking partypoker 'bankruptcy'

[umdpoker]

dude, i dropped 5 buy-ins last night in about an hour. all suckouts, nothing i could do. this includes 1 aa where i got allin preflop and 78 hit 2 pr to beat me! variance sucks. these games are awesome, but the variance is still high enough to kill 5 buyins quick. anyways, i would recommend 10 buyins, as runs like i had last night don't happen very often. after about 40k hands, that was by far the worst luck i have had. also, if you wanna buy in short, just make it $20 instead of 25. this shouldn't kill your ability to play too much, as most people won't raise enough preflop to kill odds for small pocket pairs. also, just leave table anytime you double up, so the most you can lose on any hand is $20. this will reduce your profitability, but might help you get up to $300 or so without busting. good luck.

[MasterShakes]

I know that when I consider my bankroll, I'm considering my comfort level more than anything. Given that I now have over 30K hands of experience at $25 NL, I know that I can play with 10 buy-ins with no worries. Will your short bankroll effect your play? If it will, don't play with a short bankroll. Maybe it's just the practical side of me, but is there no way you could get $300-$400 total together to play this more comfortably. That you're even asking the question says to me that you're not ready to play with that little. If you know yourself to be a winning player in this particular game, I think 10 buy-ins is enough, but from what I gather, you can't be certain that you're a winner here yet.