How much do you think you lost playing SNGs before you became a winner

[Karak567]

How much cash in straight losses did you sink into SNGs (or other types of poker for that matter) before you became a winning player?

[DasLeben]

I dunno, but I'm still working on my HU game. I'm the only player in the world with a 40% ITM showing a net loss. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

/pityme

[pergesu]

100 bucks, so just ten buyins. I don't think that counts.

[tomdemaine]

I put $10 into VC poker two years ago, cashed it out a week later and I've been up and playing off my profits ever since. However I still suck and after a long time in the wilderness I have found my way to party where after a brief and profitable time at the 11's I have an awe insiring -0.5% ROI at the 20's though I've only been playing them 20 days and have only clocked a measly 180 so who knows what my real numbers are??

[Sykes]

[ QUOTE ]
I dunno, but I'm still working on my HU game. I'm the only player in the world with a 40% ITM showing a net loss. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

/pityme

[/ QUOTE ]

Just go all-in every hand.

[DasLeben]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I dunno, but I'm still working on my HU game. I'm the only player in the world with a 40% ITM showing a net loss. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

/pityme

[/ QUOTE ]
Just go all-in every hand.

[/ QUOTE ]

I do! Maybe variance hates me. My sample size is small, afterall.

[pergesu]

That's basically what he does.

Dumbass.

[DasLeben]

[ QUOTE ]
That's basically what he does.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's what you do too. You're just a...what's the term...a luckbox? Yeah, that's it. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Mr_J]

None. I read the guide here before playing and would've been break even at worst. I've always been in the black with poker (yes I won my first sng /images/graemlins/smirk.gif).

[raptor517]

umm.. zero dollars? ive always been +ev in sngs. so many terrible people. if you have any sense at all you can beat the 55s. holla

[pergesu]

That was my nickname at all the Seattle clubs. Luckbox. They called me Kid too, holla

[Apathy]

A long long time ago... I won a 500 person freeroll on a little site called jetset, and $75 bucks with it. I ran that up to around 2k fairly quickly and then went broke playing 3-6NL and 100 dollar HU tournaments. Then I learned what a BR was and how to manage it, improved my game, deposited some money on party, cleared some bonus, cashed out the deposit amount and away I went.

[DasLeben]

[ QUOTE ]
That was my nickname at all the Seattle clubs. Luckbox. They called me Kid too, holla

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't see how that's not true. I sat there across from you live and watched you get aces and kings constantly for the first couple hours while I blinded down. Asshat.

[pergesu]

That's the Pat Maddox way to play. Get aces and win, holla

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
I put $10 into VC poker two years ago, cashed it out a week later and I've been up and playing off my profits ever since. However I still suck and after a long time in the wilderness I have found my way to party where after a brief and profitable time at the 11's I have an awe insiring -0.5% ROI at the 20's though I've only been playing them 20 days and have only clocked a measly 180 so who knows what my real numbers are??

[/ QUOTE ]

Did you go right to the 20's and skip the lower ones?

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
umm.. zero dollars? ive always been +ev in sngs. so many terrible people. if you have any sense at all you can beat the 55s. holla

[/ QUOTE ]

Knowledgeable and/or smart people define sense differently than the ignorant or not quite so smart, is the only problem. I agree that a knowledgeable and/or smart person would have to be foolish not to be a winner, though at what particular level I couldn't say because I have all of a month's experience in SNG's.

Which I hope is more tied into my being ignorant than dumb. I'm working on the one of those that I am capable of working on. /images/graemlins/smile.gif And am turning a profit at my lowly 11's so far.

[Blarg]

I was down upwards of $150 when I started last month at the 5's. Then I switched to the 10's and made that back and a good bit more. I've only been playing these things for a month, so my sample size is ridiculous as to days, but I have gotten in almost 400 10+1's. My stats could be better, but I'm in the black and they seem to be rising slowly and steadily, which is all I could really ask for at this early point. I'm hoping my next 500 is much better than this 500, since it won't have the figures mixed in it from when I just started.

[Scuba Chuck]

Well, if you're asking this questioin, I can assume you're worried about losing money. Therefore, you need to learn to become a bonus whore.

FWIW, after I found this site, I lost $zero$. Before this site, Scuba was a huge fish. Luckily, I lost little of my own money.

[Freudian]

[ QUOTE ]
How much cash in straight losses did you sink into SNGs (or other types of poker for that matter) before you became a winning player?

[/ QUOTE ]

None. I won right away. But I have had 30-40 buyin drops a few times. Always ended up winning it back and more though.

[vindikation]

[ QUOTE ]
How much cash in straight losses did you sink into SNGs (or other types of poker for that matter) before you became a winning player?

[/ QUOTE ]

I basically lost $1000 my first 6 months playing online poker. After playing 11 months now, I've won $2200 so I am up $1200. I cashed out my initial $1000 and only play online now with my profit.

My play has gotten better, but biggest thing that killed me was playing outside of my bankroll. Now I'm sticking to 50 buy-ins (and will drop a level if I crash and burn) so hopefully I will never have to redeposit again.

[willie]

around 400 bucks, 50 at a time for buyins.

i needed to learn to tighten up, since then i've been alright.

[Misfire]

I started at the play tables until I could consistently beat those. Then I dropped $25 into UB and started with the $.01/.02 limit tables. I think I lost $3 my first two days, but got it back very quickly. I also got some free money on party and was winning consistently at the $.50/1.00 tables. After about a month I cashed out my initial deposit plus another $25, and still had about $150 left. I've been playing on profits ever since.

As far as SNG's, I rarely played them and usually lost until I started reading here. Since I found 2+2 and started tracking my play, I've been in the black since game 7. I'm not making a ton of money, but more importantly I'm not losing any.

Edit: I've also decided that I will never deposit again. If I'm irresponsible enough (or suck bad enough) to lose every penny I have in BR, I'll play freerolls until I win some back.

[reubenf]

I won money before I became a winning player.

[Sam T.]

Never been in the red.

I started playing .50/$1.00 ring games, but before I even created an account on Party, I read Sklansky and Jones many times, and lurked here until my eye-balls bled.

Built up my bank roll at ring games (50% of profits go to my wife), then made the transition to SnGs, just becasue they are less mechanical. I tried my hand at MTTs, but found them to be too time-consuming, and frustrating. When you can only play a few hours per week, a $25 pay-out after five hours is pretty depressing. So I'm back here for now.

Sam

[Pokerscott]

None.

Won at the 20s right away and moved to 50s and 100s in a week or so. I had a mentor who was a solid winner at the 100s and that helped tremedously.

Pokerscott

[Degen]

not much, maybe a couple hundred at most

but i lost probably 15k playing live limit before i found NL


Andre

[Degen]

[ QUOTE ]
I started at the play tables until I could consistently beat those

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/grin.gif /images/graemlins/cool.gif Thats so funny. I didn't want to every admit that but now I will. I used to be a massive fish and whenever i'd bust out and not have any money, I'd 3-table (you coudn't four table then) the play money NL SNG's. It didn't take long to realize that i should fold for the first two rounds and then i'd be 4-handed and could play some hands. i learned the basics of how to win for free.


Andre

[SuitedSixes]

[ QUOTE ]
umm.. zero dollars? ive always been +ev in sngs. so many terrible people. if you have any sense at all you can beat the 55s. holla

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope that I am still here when you take your first bite of the reality burrito (stuffed with insanity peppers).

[The Yugoslavian]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
umm.. zero dollars? ive always been +ev in sngs. so many terrible people. if you have any sense at all you can beat the 55s. holla

[/ QUOTE ]

I hope that I am still here when you take your first bite of the reality burrito (stuffed with insanity peppers).

[/ QUOTE ]

Mmmmm, reality burrito.

Yugoslav
Who rode a heater after first depositing $$ to play online...

[Apathy]

[ QUOTE ]
Yugoslav
Who rode a heater after first depositing $$ to play online...

[/ QUOTE ]

The reverse cashout curse (a.k.a. "The 'silent' deposit bonus") in full effect.

[Slim Pickens]

September 2004: $210 into 2/4, $50 more at 0.5/1, $100 at NL SnG's
October 2004: another $50 at 0.5/1, somehow made +$300 playing limit SnG's
November 2004: reality hits, lose $450 playing SnG's like a fish, get within $100 of busting my original $500 bankroll.
December 2004: find 2+2, pull head out of butt, haven't had a losing month since

Slim

[Newt_Buggs]

same as almost everyone else- I deposted $50 into party poker and, beginning with the 10s then moving up, built it into several thousand.

I find it interesting that almost everyone here started off winning. Given that variation is so strong it would seem like 30-50% of us would have started off losing. I bet that the only reason we are in SNGs is because we didn't start off cold. There are probably many players that are or would have been very good at SnGs that started off in a cold streak and stoped playing because they got discouraged. If I had lost the original $50 i put into Party Poker (very easy to do) I probably would have never come back simply because I was starting out and didn't realize the high variance involved.

[The Yugoslavian]

[ QUOTE ]

I find it interesting that almost everyone here started off winning.

[/ QUOTE ]

You shouldn't.

2+2 is a self selecting % of the poker playing community. Most are experiencing the lighter side of variance for long, extended periods of time. I'd actually expect most posters to have ridden heaters early on in their poker career at some point.

What's interesting is that very few posters realize they are riding heaters and/or on an extended run of good variance. Players who don't experience these things don't find their way to 2+2....they quit.

Yugoslav

[Pokerscott]

[ QUOTE ]
I find it interesting that almost everyone here started off winning.

[/ QUOTE ]

Or at least almost everyone here willing to post on this thread

/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Pokerscott

[Slim Pickens]

I am proud of my initial losing period. Wear your downswings like scars. Chicks dig scars.

[Freudian]

[ QUOTE ]

I find it interesting that almost everyone here started off winning.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't start off playing SnG. So I had my growing pains playing ring tables.

[GtrHtr]

[ QUOTE ]
September 2004: $210 into 2/4, $50 more at 0.5/1, $100 at NL SnG's
October 2004: another $50 at 0.5/1, somehow made +$300 playing limit SnG's
November 2004: reality hits, lose $450 playing SnG's like a fish, get within $100 of busting my original $500 bankroll.
December 2004: find 2+2, pull head out of butt, haven't had a losing month since

Slim

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the honest reply Slim. I don't feel so bad but then again, my pockets aren't as deep.

I got schooled at limit losing half my BR my first several months. Found SnG and made it all back in like a week with what I call the beginners run (doesn't it seem like all new SnG players have a run??). Began losing in the SnG arena, found 2+2 and leveled off. Still not back to my original $ level and have been card dead for like 3 weeks. Still at 1/2 my original BR and moving back to Limit for a while while the SnG gods sort themselves out. No sample size but never had a losing session in limit the past 4 days after going back to the books and studying a lot. I have no idea what is going on with my SnG game.

[ThorGoT]

(1) Lost $1000 playing various games.
(2) Won $3500 playing SNGs, mostly $50 & $100 games, over about 2 weeks.
(3) Lost $3415 playing SNGs. Give or take a few dollars.
(4) Won some money.
(5) Stopped playing.

[Misfire]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

I find it interesting that almost everyone here started off winning.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't start off playing SnG. So I had my growing pains playing ring tables.

[/ QUOTE ]

I started off pretty much break-even in ring games, which eventually started winning, but not without a few up and down bumps. For SNG's I was losing pretty stinkin' bad (and thus avoiding them for the most part) until a few months ago when a friend of mine (a very good MTT player) showed me some of his strategies that he had also been applying with fairly good success to STTs. That led me to give SNG's another shot and to start reading this forum. Since then I've been winning more consistently than I ever did in the ring games.

[barry111]

[ QUOTE ]
around 400 bucks, 50 at a time for buyins.

i needed to learn to tighten up, since then i've been alright.

[/ QUOTE ]

DITTO

[Big Limpin']

[ QUOTE ]
How much do you think you lost playing SNGs before you became a winner


[/ QUOTE ]

First, my social life went. THen i lost my physique. Now i am clinging to whats left of my sanity.

[marcz908]

I lost my first 4 $5+.50 SnG's in a row on UB, lost almost my entire deposit, so I decided to tighten up and practice with my ultimate points, lost the first one, and then won 4 in a row quadrupling my ultimate points. At that point I felt confident enough to redeposit and play the cash again. I tripled my money in a few days, but I've been frustrated and feel weak towards all the maniacs at that level that are constantly over betting the pot, so I've been changing my strategy trying to learn how to play these guys, and I've been loosing more often, but I'm still up pretty good because whenever I loose a few, next one I'll get 1st place and be right back up there.

Heres a question, do you find a lot of maniacs at the bigger levels? $20? $30? $50? $100? I'd love to be playing those $200's at party at some point.

[Newt_Buggs]

If you don't understand that you should be really happy when your table is full of maniacs then it will be a long time before you are ready for $200s

[skipperbob]

$8 Million; But it is a statistical aberration in that the sample size is only 46 years....Now that I can beat the SnG's, I should get back to even in 2051 (at age 108) /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Misfire]

You should love the maniacs. Their poor play = you make $$.

Annie Duke has a good column on her site about how to take advantage of the maniacs. It was written for limit games, but a lot of it applies to poker in general.

[tech]

Zero. But the funny thing is that even though I was winning right away, I was terrible. I was a straight-up rock, and the online low-limit games were nutty enough that you could easily weak-tight your way to a decent winrate.

[teamdonkey]

[ QUOTE ]
There are probably many players that are or would have been very good at SnGs that started off in a cold streak and stoped playing because they got discouraged.

[/ QUOTE ]

absolutely. Of the long term winners playing right now, i'd guess only a small percentage were able to break even or beat the game when they started. Most winners either experienced enough positive variance early that they had time to learn the game, or just kept pumping money in until they learned. A little of both for me... i dropped $250 to start out with, and if not for placing in a satellite at the tail end of that my poker career woulda ended 8 months ago.

[FatalError]

i used to play 10$ SnG's back in the day when i was playing casually, then i moved up through big NL games and big limit games (up to 1000$ NL and 20-40 limit) before i took some shots at 109's, i had a 50% ROI for my 1st 100 and the rest was history... so i guess i never really lost at SnG's because i played weak players at low limits and somehow naturally fell into the aggressive blind stealing 109's

[FieryJustice]

I've played a million and I am still not a winner

Jcardshark

[stupidsucker]

I can honestly say I didnt lose anything.

First SnG I played in I won. (A 2table SnG at Stars)

I had a great run at them as a beginner, not knowing that at the time I was a losing player..... but... SnGS were not as popular then, and I am not so sure that perfect strat had beem mastered yet, nor was it used at the low limit tables.

It wasnt till I had spent hundreds of $$ on rent and the like last year while moving and jobless that I went on the ride of life.. I must have lost like I dunno 15 buy ins... I thought the world had ended, and I yelled at my girlfriend on the phone. I cried.... I even quit playing them for a while to work a /gasp real job. Till July when I picked up where I left off. No job, no money, no skill.

But this time I had AMs guide and I followed it to a near letter while posting my first posts in the STT fourm. "SNG marathon" I grew in skill, BR knowledge and then found out brutily that 15 buy ins was a joke, 500 SnGs was a small??!! sample size.

The money you lose learning SnGs is hardly considered or remembered compared to the first bad swing you have. And when you get the second bad swing that is twice as bad as the first bad swing then you are on the path to learning something valuable.... If you last this that long. I pitty the winning player that starts out on a bad swing.

[stupidsucker]

[ QUOTE ]
What's interesting is that very few posters realize they are riding heaters and/or on an extended run of good variance. Players who don't experience these things don't find their way to 2+2....they quit.


[/ QUOTE ]

If what I am experiancing now is GOOD variance then someone please just shoot me know.

[stupidsucker]

[ QUOTE ]
I've played a million and I am still not a winner

Jcardshark

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh Brother /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

[AceRat138]

I actually don't know why I even play sit n' goes...I win consistantly playing up to the 6-12 limit games and I also do very well in multi-table NL tournies.

Since I have been playing sit n' goes (Six months) I have lost about 1k at the 10+1 level. I read these forums constantly and any other strategy I can get my hands on but no matter what I do I can't seem to beat them. I guess that is what keeps me coming back, I refuse to admit that there is any form of Texas Hold 'Em that I can't win consistantly. I make a good living playing live and multi-table.

As far as what others have said about any old idiot being able to beat the sit n' goes, I disagree entirely. I have an IQ of over 160, I know my odds, I am constantly studying the game, and I lose. Maybe I am a victim of an extended run of bad cards? I hear people say that if you follow the aleomagus guide you can't lose. Well, I'm -26% ROI (200 game sampling).

Anybody that wants to watch me play a game and tell me what it is I am doing wrong, please feel free to private message me. It would be much appreciated! LOL!

[Voltron87]

[ QUOTE ]
I have an IQ of over 160,

[/ QUOTE ]

I will bet more money than you can imagine that this is untrue.

[AceRat138]

Yeah? Put up your money. I will send you my test results.

[Voltron87]

Stanford Binet or Wechsler?

[1C5]

Just post them on here in this thread instead below your post that says you lost $1000 in $10 SnGs.

[stupidsucker]

[ QUOTE ]
I have an IQ of over 160, I know my odds, I am constantly studying the game, and I lose. Maybe I am a victim of an extended run of bad cards?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know Alex... you tell us...

I mean....How can you possibly put these two sentences together and expect anything but laughter.

If your IQ is 160 then its all directed into your funnybone, cause sire, you are indeed a comic genius.

[stupidsucker]

[ QUOTE ]
Stanford Binet or Wechsler?

[/ QUOTE ]

How does one take an IQ test ?(if this shows how dumb I am)

[AceRat138]

I just looked at the results. My combined score on the Weschler Intelligence Test is 164. I skipped two years of high school and I can't beat 10+1 SNG's /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Voltron87]

Go to MHNL and look for the IQ thread. There are a couple links. In general internet IQ tests are juiced upwards though, so use a grain of salt.

[Voltron87]

You realize you're saying that only one person out of every 100,730 is smarter than you?

I graduated slightly over two years of high school. When I graduated I was younger than a significant number of sophmores, none of whom were held back.

[stupidsucker]

[ QUOTE ]
Go to MHNL and look for the IQ thread. There are a couple links. In general internet IQ tests are juiced upwards though, so use a grain of salt.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ya, I took one when I was in 2nd grade. Not sure of the validity of the test, but it seemed real offical at the time.

I took one online here not long ago and the resluts were flattering. This is why I asked, I very much questioned the validity of the test I took online.(It was followed by an invitation to ITT Tech)

To be honest I dont even know what IQ means. I know what it is, sort of... but what does it really mean???

[syphlix]

my first deposit was $50 into partypoker a while ago... was just dickin around playin $25 NL cash games...

got REALLY lucky and somehow actually made about $100 then proceeded to lose it all in about 4 hands /images/graemlins/blush.gif

then i started an affiliate page (getting signups) for a poker site and made a couple grand doing that...

took that bankroll and started playing random games... cash games, tourneys, MTT's, pretty much break even just dickin around...

then one day i was playing a .25/50 on pacific poker... was getting raped down about $40... was bitching like a little girl /images/graemlins/smile.gif... then someone mentioned to me that i should check out "small stakes hold-em"... since then i decided i was gonna take this game really seriously and make some money... that book totally turned my poker game around... i played limit at .5/1 while bonuswhoring about 20 party accounts... worked my way up to 2/4... then got totally burned out...

then i found the STT forum... and i'm finally having fun playing again...

i must say though... i just stepped it to the 30's a week or so ago... and was absolutely killing them... when i went on a 30-buyin slide... and now all of a sudden i feel like i can't dig out of this hole...

well... hopefully i do... and i keep posting here... cuz man STT's are SOOOO much more fun than limit games /images/graemlins/blush.gif

[Voltron87]

I don't know too much about it, but IQ is a relative ranking of your intelligence (what kind exactly, i dunno) to others. IQ is relative though, not absolute.

Anyone above 130 is in the top decile (meaning 10%). Anyone above 160 is a genius. I heard somewhere that they are meant for younger people, not adults, but I'm not sure. The internet tests are no doubt exaggerated. I didn't mean to call that other guy a liar or anything, maybe I came down a little hard but a 164 IQ is truly special, and not even close to common.

That said this is somewhat 2nd hand info but it is generally on the right lines.

[brad the fish]

1200 in the course of 1 year in 3 deposits playing for fun. Then I got serious and started studying it - now I've made that back + a little more.

[Freudian]

[ QUOTE ]

Maybe I am a victim of an extended run of bad cards? I hear people say that if you follow the aleomagus guide you can't lose. Well, I'm -26% ROI (200 game sampling).

[/ QUOTE ]

I once dropped 40 buyins in less than 100 SnGs, which was directly followed by a 20 buyin profit in 50 games.

In the short run results can swing quite madly even in low variance games like SnGs.

[shayneon]

[ QUOTE ]
around 400 bucks, 50 at a time for buyins.

i needed to learn to tighten up, since then i've been alright.

[/ QUOTE ]

Same Here - I played for a year and lost about $400, then I took 2nd place in a Sunday afternoon 5+1 MTT on Party. Paid $1060. (I won like 10 coinflips in row, it was awesome) I paid myself back for the deposits, spent a couple hundred on books, PokerTracker etc, and have not had to redoposit since.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
same as almost everyone else- I deposted $50 into party poker and, beginning with the 10s then moving up, built it into several thousand.

I find it interesting that almost everyone here started off winning. Given that variation is so strong it would seem like 30-50% of us would have started off losing. I bet that the only reason we are in SNGs is because we didn't start off cold. There are probably many players that are or would have been very good at SnGs that started off in a cold streak and stoped playing because they got discouraged. If I had lost the original $50 i put into Party Poker (very easy to do) I probably would have never come back simply because I was starting out and didn't realize the high variance involved.

[/ QUOTE ]

Considering how strong the impetus is to post that you started off winning compared to losing, you shouldn't be surprised at the skewed self-reporting here. 2+2 has always attracted bragging like flies to poop, so a thread like this is just another iteration of a natural pattern.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

I find it interesting that almost everyone here started off winning.

[/ QUOTE ]

You shouldn't.

2+2 is a self selecting % of the poker playing community. Most are experiencing the lighter side of variance for long, extended periods of time. I'd actually expect most posters to have ridden heaters early on in their poker career at some point.

What's interesting is that very few posters realize they are riding heaters and/or on an extended run of good variance. Players who don't experience these things don't find their way to 2+2....they quit.

Yugoslav

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup. I agree that a lot of people who continue to play poker started off on hot streaks, too. Some of them stay on their hot streaks long enough to actually learn how to win reliably.

This is reinforced by how constantly I see even experienced players asking questions that could only conceivably answered by Sample Size Man. Variance is easier to understand academically than it is in real life. People who don't start off on the good side of it often quit before they have a chance to see the good side of it, or improve their game. Or show up posting on 2+2 asking for an analysis of their last 200 hands.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know too much about it, but IQ is a relative ranking of your intelligence (what kind exactly, i dunno) to others. IQ is relative though, not absolute.

Anyone above 130 is in the top decile (meaning 10%). Anyone above 160 is a genius. I heard somewhere that they are meant for younger people, not adults, but I'm not sure. The internet tests are no doubt exaggerated. I didn't mean to call that other guy a liar or anything, maybe I came down a little hard but a 164 IQ is truly special, and not even close to common.

That said this is somewhat 2nd hand info but it is generally on the right lines.

[/ QUOTE ]

You guys did come down pretty hard on him. An I.Q. over 160 isn't common, but you have no reason to suppose he couldn't have one.

Don't be a playah-hatah!

[vindikation]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree that a lot of people who continue to play poker started off on hot streaks, too. Some of them stay on their hot streaks long enough to actually learn how to win reliably.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm the exact opposite, I started off losing and it bugged the phuck out of me. I don't have an IQ of 160, but I do have an engineering degree and I could not get over the fact that there was a proven +EV math based gambling game that I was losing money at.

I was down $1000 and gave myself $1000 more to win back that money. If I couldn't do that, then I knew I was a REAL loser that couldn't control my gambling habits. Basically my problem revolved around playing outside my bankroll, once I stuck with basic money management that I've learned here (as well as reading about 10 poker books) I've been in the black ever since.

[Jbrochu]

Back in January, I placed out of the money in my first 8 STTs at the Party $5/1. That to date is still my longest streak of OOM finishes for STTs, though I have since been down more dollar wise than that initial $48. The most I've been down is $130, but I have also been playing MTTs and have been steadily trying to push my way up into higher levels.

After about 4 months, I'm now playing at the 22's at Stars, and have built a stable bankroll from my initial deposit. My ROI is about 10%, but I'm positive it would be higher if I stayed at the 5 and 10 tables longer, and stayed away from MTTs. However, my main goal is to improve my game fast while slowly growing my roll enough to keep moving up. I'll worry about making money when I'm good enough to put a sufficient amount of cake at risk per hour to make 20% ROI mean something to my wallet.

[ilya]

Only $10,000 BUT
I am *really* smart, AND I jumped straight into the $11s (not the $5s).
Don't worry if you lose more than that, I think it's pretty normal!