Have you succeeded or failed in building a bankroll?

[IronDragon1]

I started in September of last year with a 100 deposit into Full Tilt and lost that playing 1/2 (whoops)

From then I began getting more into bonuswhoring running about 1000 into 1500 at Party before dropping that to about 750 in two months or so.

Since then I rebuilt my bankroll (~4500) mainly through bonus whoring as I wasn't what could be considered a winning player until January-when I finished in the black by play alone (the first time I had ever done that).
This improvement came mainly through lurking and checking out the strategy posts though I have begun to get a bit more interactive in these discussions myself.

I'd have to say that the best thing you can do is too just read the books/these posts/think about the game (from not just a strategic viewpoint) and you'll be light years ahead of a vast majority of the dead money.

[Shillx]

Have you succeeded or failed in building a bankroll?

I have failed many times. I've had bustouts of 100, 1k, 3k and 1.5k since I started playing about a year and a half ago. Anyone who tells you that is it easy to run your 1st deposit into a nice 5/10 or 15/30 bankroll is FOS or is very lucky. I'm trying to succeed for the 1st time.

Brad

[sunek]

Hi all

Thanks for all your great advises – I believe that you have saved me from a bad experience and from loosing money. I am going to cash out my 90 $ from InterPoker and use them to play at Paradise Poker and return to the Crypto sites when my poker skills have improved.

Best Regards

sunek

[Durs522]

I deposited a few times in poker room and played mostly sit n goes and MTT's. I busted out eventually and deposited in party. I was doing well but tried to move up too quickly and went broke. Finally I found this forum, got some good books and I've been doing better ever since. In December I decided that enough was enough. If I was going to play online I was going to win, no matter what it took. I turned my $200 that I deposited into Paradise the last week of December into $2500 as of last night. I have been bonus whoring and pretty much everytime I play I am clearing a bonus. Winning from gameplay is great, but getting a bonus while you're doing it is even better. It allows you to play break-even or better and still make money. I would definitely suggest doing as many bonuses as you possibly can. Good luck and I hope everything works out well for you.

Dave

[GrunchCan]

[ QUOTE ]
Have you succeeded or failed in building a bankroll?

I have failed many times. I've had bustouts of 100, 1k, 3k and 1.5k since I started playing about a year and a half ago. Anyone who tells you that is it easy to run your 1st deposit into a nice 5/10 or 15/30 bankroll is FOS or is very lucky. I'm trying to succeed for the 1st time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Me too. I've deposited about $1000 over my poker career out of pocket, becasue I kept burning through my roll. The reason for that was simple - I sucked at poker.

I suck less now, and I've now won as twice much $ at poker as I've spent, which means I'm actually showing a career-long profit.

My advice to you is this: Assume that you suck at poker, and go from there. This makes you humble enough to look for faults in your play everywhere, including the places you think you don't have any faults.

Edit: And BTW, I haven't had to redeposit since I read SSH and found 2+2.

[fire_fly]

Ok, read all these posts and I've got a question for everyone. Seems like the agreed upon way to make good money then is to bonus whore.

My question is then is it worth it to get a rakeback deal at all of these bonus whoring sites? I have a feeling ppl are going to say "No, because you will pretty much only play there when you are bonus whoring, so it's not worth it."

But my response is this. I DO plan on moving up in stakes in the future, not any time soon, but when I get up to, say 2-4/3-6, won't I then make more by getting a good rakeback deal then I would bonus whoring? And by not getting rakeback deals at these sites, I will miss out on getting them completely for all of time, because you can't get a rakeback deal on a site you already play for real money on.

Any ideas?

[kenberman]

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, read all these posts and I've got a question for everyone. Seems like the agreed upon way to make good money then is to bonus whore.

My question is then is it worth it to get a rakeback deal at all of these bonus whoring sites? I have a feeling ppl are going to say "No, because you will pretty much only play there when you are bonus whoring, so it's not worth it."

But my response is this. I DO plan on moving up in stakes in the future, not any time soon, but when I get up to, say 2-4/3-6, won't I then make more by getting a good rakeback deal then I would bonus whoring? And by not getting rakeback deals at these sites, I will miss out on getting them completely for all of time, because you can't get a rakeback deal on a site you already play for real money on.

Any ideas?

[/ QUOTE ]

Bonus whoring and rakeback deals are not mutually exlusive. Look at the classifieds, and you'll see plenty of rakeback people offering sign-up bonuses. Sign up for sites using these rakeback deals. When/if you do get around to playing 3/6 and higher, you'll be set up for rakeback. if not, you won't lose anything.

[droolie]

I have a rakeback through coral euro (a party skin.) I believe they are the stingiest bonus offerer of all the party skins.

[Soul Daddy]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone who tells you that is it easy to run your 1st deposit into a nice 5/10 or 15/30 bankroll is FOS or is very lucky. I'm trying to succeed for the 1st time.

[/ QUOTE ]
I would never tell anyone that, but I know that my experience has been rather lucky thus far. I started in Sept '04 w/ less than 100 BB and started playing .5/1 and 1/2 6-max(!), with little to no knowledge. I must have had an incredible run... Then I found this site, read some books, started whoring, and had a couple of big tourney scores (relative to BR).

I'm pretty certain my level of knowledge and play are nowhere near as good as my results thus far would indicate. I'm staying in the micros (ring & tourney), until I'm confident that's not the case.

[SteveL91]

I started playing real money sometime in November. I started with a $100 deposit on pokerstars, and quickly ran that up to about $450 over the course of a week. I didn't really have any comprehension of playing within a bankroll or anything, so I was moving up too fast. I was doing okay at 2/4, but one bad weekend crippled me. I dropped down, but the bad luck continued; eventually, I got so disgusted that I cashed out when I was down to about $140.

A month or so later, I gave it another try. This time, I had a better understanding of playing within a bankroll, etc. I was doing fairly well, and playing 1/2 a bit under-rolled, but only because I had 7500-10000 hands there already as a net winner. Unfortunately, I took a liking to PLO and that really screwed me over. Now, I'm grinding away at .25/.50 getting ready to move back up to .50/1.00. It's taken a while, and there have been some huge peaks and valleys, but I'm finally getting to the point where I'll be able to comfortably start moving up in limits.

I'm a net-winner after 45,000 hands, and I was winning both before and after doing any reading on the subject. I've always intuitively played a tight, aggressive game, but SSH is an invaluable resource.

I'm sure things would have gone considerably faster if I had done any bonus whoring, but I just never really got around to doing it. I honestly wasn't sure how much of an impact it would have made. A day late and a dollar short, but I'm planning on whorin' it up pretty soon.

I fully intend on playing 15/30 within a year or less. Perhaps too ambitious, but it's something to shoot for.