Have you succeeded or failed in building a bankroll?

[DeadManJay]

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it's pretty damn good for a hobby that I would be doing anyway.


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My thoughts exactly.

[TripleH68]

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The number one piece of advice I can give you if you're serious about becoming a winning player (and ultimately that is the only way you grow a bankroll) is to read/post/think about hands here and in Small Stakes. Period.

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Ditto. I played break even poker for eight months. Have since been making close to $1,000 a month. But you must really devote a large amount of time and energy. I hope to keep climbing the ladder until I run out of ambition...

[waynethetrain]

I agree that it's a fun hobby, but I think he was more interested in the economics of building a bankroll. Personally, I don't multi-table. Even if I could make more on a dollar per hour basis, the game gets hectic and loses it's appeal to me as a method of relaxing and enjoying myself. It turns into a way of making money (work) - at a not so appealing rate per hour.

[jrz1972]

That's completely understandable and I used to be the same way. Eventually, though, I got to the point where playing one table got boring, so I moved up to two. It was hectic at first but was also fun since I was "in action" more, so I stuck with it. Then I found that two tables were kind of boring since I often folded hands simultaneously and then had to wait for both tables to play the hand out before I got to make another decision. So I moved up to three. Again, it was kind of hectic at first, but now I still go through spells where it's rather dull.

(I've tried four-tabling, but my monitor is small and the constant pop-ups from previously inactive tables gets to be too much for me here. Maybe that will change someday).

I truly find multi-tabling more enjoyable than one-tabling now that I'm used to it. I'm not saying you'd necessarily have the same experience as I've had, but you might want to keep the possibility in mind for down the road.

[KingOtter]

I succeeded.

Deposited $50 in Pacific in October of last year. Built it up to about $250 playing sit-n-go tournaments, so started reading/learning about ring games. Started playing .10/.25 but then figured I had the bankroll for .25/.50 so played that for a while.

Juggled some money around and moved some over to Paradise so I could use PokerTracker, and did very well there for 5000 hands so moved up to .50/1. Juggled some money around and started up on Party, and my experience there is pretty well documented here in the forum.

I've taken some money out, and about 20% of my bankroll comes from bonuses, but I could play 1/2 right now if I wanted. I want to play at least 20k hands at .50/1 first, though. Just the past 3000 hands I feel like I learned so much. I'm right at 10k now.

And as to the 'not bad for a hobby I'd be doing anyway...' ditto ditto ditto

KO

[Isura]

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i have always been an advocate of not doing the $1/$2 bonuses straight up. You are reducing the value of the bonus (relatively speaking) plus $1/$2 is decidedly harder to crack than .50/1.

My suggestion would be to go to .25/.50 pokerstars, forget bonuses for now, this is a VERY soft game. Play here until you have $200. Then deposit at paradise using the GRANNY code and the link found on this site which is 50% up to $100. This should (theoretically) give you $300 where you go from there is up to you, but in all honesty I think there are better options than jumping straight to $1/$2 without an adequate bankroll or experience.

Good luck.

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I couldn't agree with this plan more. THis is the route I wished I had taken initially. I started at Part 5./1, and offcourse busted out pretty soon with my $50. Then played at Paradise .05/.10 for a bit, got over-confident and went back to party where I played break-even poker for while. Then I dropped to .25/.5 Stars and played a ton of hands while getting my basic game together. The Crypto 1/2 bonuses are definitely risky for the beginner. THe games are quite tight and you'll run into a fair share of decent/good bonus whores. Plus, initially you have to wait 2 weeks to cash out, which sucks if you are moving your whole bankroll from site to site.

[kenberman]

I deposited $50 into Party about a year and a half ago.

Bust.

I then deposited $50 into Pacific.

Bust.

Then I went back to Party, with another $50.

Bust.

Then I decided to stop going on tilt [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img], starting posting, and started seriously bonus whoring. From a 4th $50 deposit, I now have a nice bankroll for 5/10. Maybe 1/2 my roll actually comes from poker winrate; the rest is from bonuses.

I've signed up for every Party skin and every Crypto skin, and I've done the signup bonuses at a few other sites. With the monthly bonuses and reloads that come along (for being an "absentee" member of many of those sites) I do most of my playing while bonus clearing.

At 1/2 6 max, a "monetary" win rate of 8bb/100 is achievable. This will build up your roll pretty quickly, and give you some cash to do some casino bonuses.

If I can do it, so can you!

[mmbt0ne]

I started playing online in early August. I put $50 into Paradise, and played some SNGs. A little later I got WLLH, found this site, and started playing limit. I have a bankroll around $3k right now, but don't play higher than 2/4 right now. I'm not good yet, I just have a much bigger bankroll than when I started.

[jar]

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My suggestion would be to go to .25/.50 pokerstars, forget bonuses for now, this is a VERY soft game. Play here until you have $200. Then deposit at paradise using the GRANNY code and the link found on this site which is 50% up to $100.

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This is what my girlfriend is doing. Once she finishes the paradise bonus, she plans to add $200 of outside money and start hitting the party .50/1 games. (The 200 is to max the bonuses, she's not planning to play with it. Also, to need more than $300 at .50/1 would be insanely unlucky.)

[droolie]

I started playing last summer by depositing $50 at pokerstars. I quickly won $50 and withdrew my original deposit so I could tell my wife I was playing on house money only. After playing through pokerstars .25/.50 to build my BR to $500 I moved to Party. I won approximatey $2500 playing .50/1 over the course of three months. In late December I began bonus whoring. Since that time I have hardly played at all that wasn't bonus clearing. I four table and usually average about $20/hr clearing bonuses playing micros. Serious money is now rolling in and my poker skills will have me playing small stakes when the bonuses dry up (I dabble at 2/4 now and feel very comfortable there). I prefer to clear bonuses at the lowest limits possible because I usually do marathon sessions and I like to have virtually gauranteed winning runs while bonus clearing. I expect to make between $20K and $30K this year through bonuses alone (including casino whoring).