Help me get on track (Long)

[Shandrax]

[ QUOTE ]
I had a big gift certificate to a local bookstore that I recieved for graduation. I used it to get Theory of Poker, Poker Essasys, HOH 1 and 2, Small Stakes Hold 'em, and Hold 'em Poker for Advanced Players. I've read a little bit of all of them.

[/ QUOTE ]

You read just "a little bit"?

[ianlippert]

Buy pokertracker and log 50K hands at the microstakes (NL or limit, whichever you prefer), this way you will know how good you are. Once you are beating the microstakes move up to whatever your bankroll can handle. For $150 that would .25/.50 limit or .05/.10 NL. There is no reason to go broke playing poker.

Like another poster said, make sure school comes first. Poker is like anything, it can pull you away from your studies. I know ppl that have failed terms because of games like counter strike, poker is much more addictive.

You also need to realise that it takes a long time to grind out of microstakes. I started getting serious about poker in February. I started at .01/.02 at UB, and I am just now playing 1/2 and feel like I have been moving up at a solid clip. The only people that build bankrolls in a short period of time are people who are already pro.

Dear Poster,

Boy I am sure glad I didn't have the same world you have when I went to college more than about 20 years ago. No internet no Casino down the street.

I started playing cards with my grandparents when I was about 5. Multiple different games because when we visited them there was virtually no TV in their remote area. My earliest poker memories are of playing with my halloween candy after trick-or-treating when I was about 8. I continued to play in home games until I was 14 when I went to a large high school in IL which had a very competitive chess team.

I spent my high school years playing competitve chess (we eventually won two 2nd place team awards in the state championship event). I went to college and continued to get a very good job and make very good money as an IT consultant.

When my job required me to move to the West coast I moved to Vegas. Great housing market low taxes/etc. While my wife changed her career and took grad class I started playing poker more and more poker with the whole idea of getting experience. I wanted to make money playing POKER so bad I played low limit just for experience. I did this WHILE I worked fulltime making more than 100K per year.

I started reading all the same books you have plus about a dozen others. After playing live games 20-30 hours per week(1/2&2/4&3/6&4/8) I slowly got better, but in general I was down playing live. Then I switched over to online. The lower rake. Worse play and no tips really helped. I played mostly 3/6 with some success I was up about $1000. I moved up to 5/10 and busted out. I repeated. I repeated. I repeated. Finally I had 5/10 success and ran my bankroll to 2K and moved up to 15/30. I busted out. I repeated the 3-5-15. I busted out. Finally I had success at 15 and ran my bankroll to 10K. Played there for 3 months and busted out again. I dropped back to 1/2&3/6. Eventually I built it up to 1K. Then I went to 5/10 and worked up to about 2K and moved up to 15/30 and ran it to 10K and busted out again. I repeated the whole process and finally stuck at 15.

Over the last 18 months I have pocketed more than 15K above all my small buyin (several thousand dollars) and have a bankroll of more than 25K. I have won my way into 2 10K events. I have mostly resisted moving up to 30/60 because I am having plenty of success at 15 and I am not anxious to bust out again.

I went to college found professional success that allows me to consult for 80-100 p/hr. I play poker to suppliment my income and challenge myself in a different way. Life balance is extremely important. I have a wife and a family. I play poker when it works for everyone in the family. I play after kids go to bed etc. Eventually it is that balance that will help me win a significant amount of money in a big event or move up to serious limit levels.

For now I would suggest you read everything you have. There is also an Internet poker book by Hilger that is good. The middle level TH book by Chaffiano(sp) is one of my favs. Play the lowest level you can find for experience. Forget about money. No offenese but at your current level you are not going to make money and if you do it is short term money. I prefer PP to PS bc I find the games weaker but in general the online game is so weak compared to what the game was 5 years ago any game is pretty good. GET LOTS OF CHEAP EXPERIENCE. After busting at 15/30 with 10K bankrolls I had to drop to 1/2. This was painful. BUT YOU HAVE TO WANT THIS SO BAD it really doesn't matter what level you play. I have gambler friends who consistently lose and refuse to back off of playing about their bankrolls. Now they are always broke.

Get a good job. Work your way up.

Good luck.

Brett

[subzero]

You are not properly bankrolled for 1/2 NL. You need to have a big enough bankroll to sustain the swings that are common in NL holdem. For 1/2 NL, you should have at least $2,000.

My suggestions...
1. Take a month and live in the SSNL forums. Read everything (start here: url=http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=3268411&page= 0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=14&fpart =1]SSNL FAQ v3.0 [/url]).

2. While reading/learning, save money for a bankroll.

3. Start at .10/.25 NL with $300-400 to get your feet wet. There are plenty of beginners at that level. Don't move up to .25/.50 NL until you've built your bankroll to $700.

4. Go to class. Poker will always be there. This will probably be your only chance at a college education. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Thanks for all the help guys. To the poster who asked why I only read a little bit of the books: I got them all at the same time. I've glanced through each of them but havn't decided which one I should read through thoroughly first and study. I'm gonna go with SSHE, I read about 40 pages of it today and learned a lot.

This may be a dumb question to you guys, but its something that has me a little bit confused. When you guys refer to building up a bankroll, do you mean when your winnings are that high? For example, if I start with $150 and decided thats efficient for .10/.20 NL. Then somehow, I win $850. So now my account is at $1000. Is that my bankroll? Or is my bankroll whatever I have left after I take out what I want? I figure that all the people who live off online poker cash out their winnings very often.

I don't intend on devoting a hazardous amount of time to poker. I plan on getting good grades and attending class. With all the free time in college however, I know I could become a great player if i really tried and studied at it.

Thanks again guys.

[lil feller]

As others have already said, focus on college. Not only is making a living as poker player not all its cracked up to be (from a guy that does it), its difficult to succeed at. Go to school, get an education and play for fun/profit on the side when time allows. First and foremost, make your education your first priority.

Second, on the BR issue. I'm surprised that I didn't see anybody mention bonus whoring. Thats an easy way to build a $600 or so bankroll. Just go from site to site, deposit, play microlimit limit HE (you aren't near ready for cash NL yet) develop patience and play off your bonus. when your done, cash out and change sites. not only will this help you get started it will get you some much needed experience. You probably aren't nearly as good as you think you are, thats the case with most beginners.

good luck,

lf

Bob,

From the bankroll standpoint. What we are saying is you need to be successful at a particular limit. When you have success over a long period and long is very long 30-70K hands you will see a profit. What we are recommending is leaving the winnings in your account and move up.

You mention cashing out. In general I wouldn't cash out anything until you are playing the limit you want to stay at for a while with a min of 300 BB at that level. Then if you win extra cash out the extra. The math would look like this...

You want to be playing 5/10. You need 300X the BB or 3000 in your account. IF you have a good week/session and win an extra 1000. You could take that out. IF you want to be playing 15/30 you'd want 9000 bankroll. So if you keep cashing out at 510 you will never get the bankroll to move up.

Hope this makes sense.

Brett

[vexvelour]

I think SNG's are a great roll-builder. Good luck.