Anyone have bankroll progress that makes any sense?

[gulebjorn]

I've been playing online poker (real money) for about three months now. In the first 6 weeks, i took my BR from 10$ to 1100$. The next 6 weeks, i was breaking even and losing until today, when i started the day with 700$. And made 500$ in 8 hrs...

Before i started this, i imagined a bankroll steadily increasing, with some variance, sure, but steadily upward. I suppose everybody deals with these periods of breaking even or losing, so here's a question:

how do you deal with those times? do you start questioning your play? should you change your way of playing? What's your weirdest bankroll fluctuation or stagnation?

What bankroll size would you recommend for acceptable variance (let's say +- 30% of BR)? I play 0.50-1$ NL at interpoker because of the monthly bonus and that's their lowest limit, so i can't drop down... I know 300-500 x BB is recommended for limit... u guys use the same rule for NL?

[sawseech]

steadily upwards over infinite time
when i run hot i win a stack/hour on the hour
think about what's going on the rest of the time

[BiggieH68]

Hi BearHustler,

I did a search the other day in regards to you question
regarding the size of ones bankroll to play at a given
nl level.

I'm not sure that the 300-500x the BB can apply to NL
as it does limit. The post I found suggested having
20-30x the max buyin for the game your playing. This
seems to make alot more sense in that you have greater
fluctuations in a nl game.

I currently play the $25nl tables on Empire and started
with $125 three weeks ago. I have now gotten that up
to over $500 playing the 6max games. After investing
in pokertracker (tremendous help!) I am finding that
I am experiencing more winning then losing sessions.

I've been playing online for just over a year now and
one of the more important lessons I have learned is that by
realizing I will win again, keeping my cool, and sticking
to the manner in which I play, I am able to overcome the
deficit created by a losing session. I'm no expert,
never claimed to be... but I hope that this helps you
some.

Best of luck,
Keith.

[flyingmoose]

Long periods of breaking even suck, but everyone goes through them. When it happens to me, I do start questioning my play, but not my potential. I try to look through my hand histories and figure out where I could have played better.

My weirdest fluctuation is winning 1100 over three days (about 3 hours a day), then losing 275 shortly after. Then, I broke even or lost a little for the next week. Up 800 (8-16 buy-ins for me) in a week and a half is generally a good score for me, but it sure didn't feel like it.

30X the max buy-in is recommended, but that would be (I believe) 3000 given the stakes you're playing. If your stack starts you dwindle you may want to consider cashing out and moving to a server with smaller limits.

[redsoxsox]

Just in the last 24 hours I have a wierd influx and decrease in my bankroll. I made over 1000 yesterday playing NL25 50 100, but then today Ive lost 200 playing NL 200. SO my bankroll is always moving up and down but over the long run it steadily goes up.

[bkholdem]

Right now I have less than 7 buy ins for the limit I play. I could replace this or add to it from money I make at my job/have in savings if necessary.

I used to play four levels below this and played four tables at a time. I have won several thousand and removed that and spent it so it is not in my bankroll. I had 40-80 buy in's on the site I play when I was at this smaller level.

I moved up one level and played one, then two tables and lost so I moved back down. I made some corrections and then moved back up past that level to one 4 levels above that which I was four tabling. I play 1-2 tables at a time and have been playing here for about a week. I started with less than 5 buy ins and now have 6 1/2 buy ins. I am confident I can beat this level and will add more tables at a time as I increase my bankroll. If I loose a few buy ins I will drop down but I'm playing pretty conservatively at this point. I would have 8 1/2 buy ins but had my full house cracked on the river in a 3 way all in pot today.

[gulebjorn]

i've been playing with 3 buyins at IP, that's 300xBB, and haven't had too much trouble with it yet...

[Jazza]

I've had similar experiences, starting from .01-.02 NL working NL my way all the way up to 1-2 NL, and I recomend have 10 full buy-ins at games where you are a huge favourite and 20 full buy-ins at games where you are not quite a huge favourite (by huge i mean >30 big blinds/100 hands)

and yes just about every time I hit a big down swing I go through the illogical thoughts of "maybe I can't beat this limit, maybe I have just been lucky up to now and I should just drop down to my old limit"

I think I'm slowly getting better at not doing this

[zaxx19]

Ive lost 200 playing NL 200....

Hmm, if you comment on losing 1 buyin you might be a lil over your roll...just a thought. /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[Yeknom58]

variance can be huge...don't ever forget it.