Please help with my bankroll ignorance!!!

[ChaseYourFlush]

you say you love to play poker, but you can't play anything below $50 limit or you're in effect bored. sounds to me like you love to gamble, not love to play poker.

Telling him to quit is horrible advice. Many, lifelong poker players go bust. Stu Ungar(not saying you are anywhere in that realm or anything) was broke through great portions of his life, however, would you people on here give him the advice "quit playing poker," I doubt it.

Many successful, well-known professionals took shots way above their BR limits to reach the spots they are today. For example, Negreanu takes a couple bad beats early in his coming up and his career could be set back years.

It is very important to realize that you are young and have a life of poker that awaits you if you want it. You don't have to make 20k by December to be a "success." Picture what your bank statement is going to look like in December....of 2035.

Continue playing. I think you have the ability to be a winning player(I think most compotent people do). The hard part is understanding that this is within you but it is up to you to bring it out. This ivolves much more than playing the right cards, bankroll management is very important.

I would say I am a year and half removed from a story very simlar to yours. I started with $50 and turned that into thousands upon thousands. I bought a car, I was playing 80/160, I was spending $300 in a night out. It was whatever, I was pumped up to over 30g. It was great, I thought I couldn't lose. Of course, the second you think you can't lose...you do.

That lifestyle is well beyond me now. Of course I lost %95 of my bankroll due to playing too high, spending way too much money and a smidgey pidgey of tilt. Now days, I am happy to play $30+3 all day and all night. I'm still fortunate enough that I never had to get a job in the two or three years I've been doing this, as that for me would feel like the ultimate defeat, but I was very close(and in fact I probably should have). These days all my bills get paid, I have money in the bank, I can do fun things like go to baseball games and buy stupid [censored]. But most importantly I build my roll. I vowed to never go broke again, as should you. After that, its up to you to make it happen.

[Rickyroodido]

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you say you love to play poker, but you can't play anything below $50 limit or you're in effect bored. sounds to me like you love to gamble, not love to play poker.

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Your bankroll ignorance is natural since you are an ignorant player.
Do u se why?

[Rickyroodido]

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Telling him to quit is horrible advice. Many, lifelong poker players go bust. Stu Ungar(not saying you are anywhere in that realm or anything) was broke through great portions of his life, however, would you people on here give him the advice "quit playing poker," I doubt it.

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I would. Unger is the Tony Mantana of poker, a [censored] tragedy.
To call the realistic advice given (that he should quit) horrible is wrong. On the contrary it is brutal to encourage him.

Well, not to go too far defending someone I don't know...I disagree. "Gambling" problems can be overcome if one truely has the heart and desire to be a winning poker player.

There isn't anything wrong with losing poker players and it doesn't mean you necessarily have a 'gambling' problem (OP excepted) if it's done in moderation. Someone has to do it [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[Slim Pickens]

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I havnt lost any money as of yet playing poker as i have said i just win i then lose it or the little stint i had where i would lose it then have to win it back.

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A lot of your OP makes this seem like selective financial memory loss. This "I'm just going to deposit one more time" crap isn't going to help you either because you won't stick to it. It's natural for a large fraction of players (maybe 50%) to believe they're in the top 10% of players who win money, or the top 2% who make a lot of money. Buying a little self-delusion in this arena can make for great recreation, but only if you can afford it. It sounds like you can't, and you're addicted to the high you get when you win. You need to quit and the withdrawl will probably be a bitch, but it's better than where this is going.

For those who think quitting is a bad idea because so many pros play above their bankroll, I submit this. A lot of pros are also hopelessly-addicted gamblers whose lives would be much better if they gave up gambling and got a regular job. TJ Cloutier would be a multi-millionaire like Doyle Brunson is if he didn't blow it all at the craps table. The worst thing for an addicted gambler is to be good at gambling. It just lets his addictive behavior ruin him at a higher level.

SlimP

[HeroInBlack]

Hey, man, a lot of folks on here want to be condescending to you when you're asking for advice, and I think that's pretty sad.

Here are the facts, in a respectful way:
You have exhibited compulsive behavior. You have to stop that. You MUST have structure to what you do. Make a deposit of some money you can afford to lose. Then, play only tournaments for which you have 30 times the buy-in in your account. It will be a little boring, but you MUST do it this way or you are going to drive yourself to ruin.

You're a good player if what you're saying is true. You can make a $100 bankroll into $300 playing $5 SNG's within a month or two. Then move up to $10 SNG's. Turn that into $600. Then move up to $20 SNG's. Every time you drop below 30 times the buy-in, drop down to a buy-in level where you have 30 times it.

Your personality doesn't like structure like this, but it needs it.

If you try to do this, but fail and can't keep from trying the higher buy-ins and go broke again, you really do need to stop playing, and maybe seek professional help. For real. Being obsessive about poker and gambling is likely a pattern that will repeat in other areas of your life and cause you all kinds of trouble.

Just my 2 cents.