Starting over online...

[PokerSlut]

Is that per table/hour? I'm talking about online play, after all.

[cagedman]

Usually per/100.

[Justin A]

I don't know of any places with such a small blind structure. On Party a .50/1 game will have a $50 buy-in, and on Stars and UB it will have a $100 buy in.

I think dogmeat meant per table per hour. So at the $25 table with .10/.25 blinds, you can expect about $10 an hour if you're playing four tables, or about $2.50 per table.

Justin A

[PokerSlut]

Today I ended with my online bankroll a little under $38, or roughly $3 up from day 3. I only played for about an hour, total this morning as I had plenty of other stuff to do, and knew I was going to be playing in Limon's game later.

According to PokerTracker I'm right around 15BB/hour/table so far, and have a little over 1300 hands recorded. Since I have so few hands recorded it's hard to say if that has any meaning or not. However given my current win rate I'll probably be moving up in stakes before I have a significant enough sample size at this level.

[QuadsOverQuads]

Some people may call this crazy, given the stakes you're playing in live games, but I actually kind of like this [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I completely busted out after my first year playing (yeah, I was an idiot and got in waaaaaay to far over my head), but after that nasty experience I felt that I still was capable of beating the game, if I could just hone my play well enough. So, I did what you're doing. Paradise offered a one-time freebie of $2 "just to get you started", so I took them up on it. I played penny poker until I'd built that up to about $12. It didn't take more than a week or so, but it really helped my confidence.

Right about this time, I landed a pretty decent job, and money became less of an issue. The result was I started screwing around again, and my results went south very shortly thereafter. I knew better, but the ability to just rebuy made losses somehow less painful, and made it easier for me to let my discipline slip. This continued for the duration of that job (which wasn't long ... although that's another story).

Anyway, after leaving that job, I thought things through and bought back in "one last time" at party for $76 (yes, $76.00 -- the exact amount I could spare at the time, no more no less). I then started working my way up playing $5 SNGs first, then $10s, then $20s, then a few hands of $1/$2, then $2/$4, and now I'm actually testing my skills at some NL25 and NL50 tables.

Long story short: I've already cashed out just shy of $2500 via that original $76 buy-in, and I've got another $400+ still sitting there for my day-to-day bankroll [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] When my discipline slips, there's no "safety net" waiting there to catch the fall, and so it doesn't slip very long. What I have in that account is what I have, and if I lose that, I'm off the site. That simple. It forces me to keep my eye on the ball, and it's helped the quality of my play immensely.

OTOH, it sounds like your play isn't nearly as susceptible to "operator error" as mine is, so maybe you could stand a larger buyin (unless it's just a matter of the challenge of it, in which case have a blast [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ).

Anyway, just wanted to toss in my two cents on this. Take it for whatever you think it's worth. I'm sure you'll make a killing whichever way you go [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]


q/q

[Centrist]

I tend to agree with the majority view that $25 NL is plenty "small" to be an online starting place -- with lots of bad players -- and that going to the microlimits might actually distort the game to an extent that makes building your skills more difficult. The microlimits are pretty close to "play money" tables -- there's virtually nothing at stake, and people are largely just entertaining themselves.

There's lots of "entertainment" play at the $25s, too, but you'll get more of a mix of players.

In my experience, the $25s, and sometimes the $50s, give you a lot of bad play pretty much all the time. On the weekend, the $100s become like the $25s on a weekday -- wild, crazy stuff. Curiously, the $50s don't get as wild. There's something about that $100 number that brings out the guys who want to play "big poker" on a Friday or Saturday night.

It seems to me that building from the $25 would be pretty meaningful for you. You won't find the $50 or $100 that challenging, once you move up to them. The $200 may be the first stage where you find any sort of significant challenge. I haven't played them myself, but they look a good bit tigher.

[GimmeDaWatch]

Hey Slut (and I say that with the most awkward cordiality).
Just a couple things on what others have said. The stats in PokerTracker are BB/100 hands (BB on this software means "Big Bets" in Limit Holdem terms i.e. twice the Big Blind). Therefore, contrary to what others have said, if you were making 10BB/100 hands at the Stars $25 NL game with blind of .1/.25, that would be $5/100 hands. Most people here seem to be harping on your choice of the most minute game possible, but since there is a $10 game on Stars as well I dont think it'll quite take you the 200 hours "if youre running good" predicted to make it to $25, so whatever floats your boat. The number I've seen people most often throw around in terms of NL bankrolls is 20 buy-ins to be safe. This number I think applies much more strictly to the Party Poker games which are 50BB buy-in and far looser, crazier, and more aggressive than the Stars ring games. There's more to be made there, but the swings are more severe to be sure. I dont think Ive ever gone down 5 buy-ins playing 25 NL on Stars, whereas Ive lost that much on Party in the space of a few hours during a bad run. Anyway, good luck on your "journey of self-discovery" or whatever you called it, and keep posting some weekly updates, Im curious to see how long it takes you.

[TerraUbrett]

[ QUOTE ]
Because my idea is for this to be a journey of discovery, of sorts.



[/ QUOTE ]

When i want to go on journey's of discovery i go to the museum. When i want to make money, i deposit 10xbb in Party Poker and stay in my room for 3 days. Maybe i'm just weird, but i honestly cannot relate to your post at all.

[schwza]

[ QUOTE ]
When i want to make money, i deposit 10xbb in Party Poker and stay in my room for 3 days.

[/ QUOTE ]

?

[PokerSlut]

In case anyone's wondering about the inconsitency between the date and my "day" count, I'm only counting days I actually play online.

Yesterday evening I played about an hour online as I was watching TV. Not a lot of playable hands, but I eeked out a ~$1 win so now my bankroll stands at just over a whopping $39.

Tonight I went back to the casino for my first live game since Sunday night. Again, not too many playable hands, especially considering the amount of raising preflop that people were doing, but I managed to win exactly two pots for just over a $200 win over my two-hour session.