Gambling with winnings...

[Sandwich]

I find myself in a pattern.

I will play low limit ring games online until I amass enough winnings to enter into a tourney ($10 or $30 SNG or $30 or $50 MTT) and "take a shot" at a large win. Overwhelmingly when I try this, I end up losing the tourney and I'm back to square one.

The net result on my bankroll is basically treading water, not winning much and not losing much either.

But I want to WIN!(lol) It's depressing to think how much I could have netted if I had just stuck to the ring games. I chalk it up to: (1) I like to gamble; (2) the $10 or $20 I would win at a ring game is paltry in comparison to the larger payouts available in tourneys; and (3) I become bored very easily grinding it out at the limit holdem ring game table.

Does anyone else do this? With better results?

What do you consider an appropriate circumstance to "take a shot" at a larger payoff game?

[thirddan]

hmmm, perhaps you could set up some sort of system where you would wait until you are up a multiple of the tourney buyin before enterint the tourney... for instance wait until you are up 33 dollars before entering a 10+1 sit/go or wait till you are up 44 to enter a 20+2 MTT, this way you make a profit on your ring games and can still play the tourneys...

[bwana devil]

i did the same thing for a while and it was great actually. just when i started squeeking out a profit at limit games id get slightly bored playing the .50/1.00 all night so id join a low entry no limit tourney--but only the $5 - $10 N. id usually lose. sometimes win. but anyway, it kept me going and got me thinking about the cards differently.

now im a pretty strong micro player and have moved up a level and sometimes two. so now i sometimes play the $20.

anyway point of the story, when youre learning, the most important thing is (was for me) to at least break even. youre going to improve and if you can do it for essentially free, then do it.

if youre dying to make a small profit now, then id recommend just dropping down the price of your buy ins. otherwise, keep playing and collect the money later.

[Cry Me A River]

If you're bored, or you just want to experiment, try some play money games. Yeah, it's not all studly like real money but it won't cost you anything to just cut loose and/or try other games.

I've been playing some play money 2 handed tables lately on Paradise just to work on my head-to-head play. It's not "real" but it's not nearly as fishy as you might think either (why would a fish go looking for head-to-head tables on Paradise?). Think of it as practice, like atheletes running drills...

[dfscott]

Depends on what your goals are. If you just want to have fun, then I think this approach is fine. However, it sounds like you want to build up your BR to play bigger games, make money, etc. I understand how the grind of limit can get old after a while. I dove into SnGs for a change of pace as well. I won one early, and then went on a long streak of losses that tore a big chunk out of my BR.

I'd suggest one of two approaches:

1) Divide your winnings into two virtual piles (on a spreadsheet or something). For example, if you make $10 playing limit, apply $5 to the BR fund, which you don't touch and apply the other $5 to the Tourney fund. Only play tourneys with funds in the Tourney fund.

2) Only play a certain number of tourneys per hour of limit play. (This is the approach I took because I didn't want to mess around with tracking a separate BR.) I play about 3-4 hours of poker a night. I only allow myself to play 2 SnGs (I play Turbos, so it takes about 1-1/2) and then spend the rest of the night playing limit. For me, it provides a nice balance between the thrill of tournaments and the protection of my BR.

Remember that Tournaments have a much higher variance than limit games, so you're always going to see big swings in your BR. Don't mentally "bank" the winnings from a tournament -- the majority of the time, you'll lose a good portion of it as you "invest" towards your next win.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

The only flaw in your logic is that profitable SNG players are just as much "ginding it out" as are ring game players.

For multis, if you want to take a stab, you might want to keep the buy-in restricted to say the amount of 1BB/hr for 5 hours at your normal game, so if you play 2/4, a $20 multi that you bust out of is an amount of money you can make up in one session at your normal game.

[Sandwich]

[ QUOTE ]
The only flaw in your logic is that profitable SNG players are just as much "ginding it out" as are ring game players.

[/ QUOTE ]
By that logic I guess you could say that those who play Multi Table Tourneys regularly are also "grinding it out"....

My implicit point in all of this was that the limit ring games are the only games I really feel "comfortable" with in terms of positive BB/hour profit. But they're also the games that are the most boring to me.

Sure, upon occassion, I make a final table of a MTT, or put together a string of wins at a SNG, but even then, I often fall into the trap of using THOSE winnings toward a higher buy-in multi or SNG....

So all of you who are suggesting to put aside only PART of my winnings for "taking a shot" are absolutely right. Finding the discipline to do that is difficult for me, but I will try. Thanks for the good advice everyone.

[Leo Bello]

It is all on your subject... Gambling with winning...
When you put like that, and say things like taking a shot, you remind me my old days where i netted a profit like 50 dollars at 0.25/0.50, then would go take a shot at a higher level with my profits. that is gambling, cause you will end up losing this money if you aren´t properly bankrolled. So, build your bankroll first. Then go play with the ammount you can afford to lose, but knowing you are properly bankrolled. Your wins will be welcomed, your losses will be tolerable.

[chim17]

I take shots a lot, and I won a 30+3 MTT not long ago. However, I don't win 30 dollars and then play with it. I built bankroll up to 500, then bought into 30+3 MTT. Off those winnings I finally returned to my 3/6 game (had to cash out for school) and now take shots at 5/10 and 200 dollar tourneys (PP Cruise) and such after I win a decent amount.

[balt999]

Kurn,

I really like that concept...never thought about it that way...guess that's why we read this site.