Managing first $50

[NMcNasty]

The expert advice is that you should play at stakes where your bankroll is 300 times the big bet, and if you play well you should expect an hourly return of 1 or 2 big bets.

This would mean that a new player depositing just $50 online would have to start at .05/.10 and would be expected to play for 500 hours before moving up to .25/.50. I can't imagine anyone with that kind of patience.

What stakes should a fairly intelligent, disciplined, but inexperienced player start out at when they are only willing to deposit $50 once?

[namknils]

I like your question, because when I started out there was no way I was going to play .01/.02. I started by depositing $100 and I got a $25 bonus from a refer a friend deal. I started at .5/1. I actually came very close to losing it all, I was all the way down to $5 and somehow came all the way back without busting.

The less bankroll you have the more chance there is that you will bust. Even if you don't have the bankroll all online, if you are able to deposit another $50 or $100 if you bust at first I would say start at the .5/1.00 games. It's all about how comfortable you are with losing. If you play there and find out you suck, then it's time to move down to the tiny limits to figure things out before you give it another shot.

[mistrpug]

[ QUOTE ]
The expert advice is that you should play at stakes where your bankroll is 300 times the big bet, and if you play well you should expect an hourly return of 1 or 2 big bets.

This would mean that a new player depositing just $50 online would have to start at .05/.10 and would be expected to play for 500 hours before moving up to .25/.50. I can't imagine anyone with that kind of patience.

What stakes should a fairly intelligent, disciplined, but inexperienced player start out at when they are only willing to deposit $50 once?

[/ QUOTE ]

You are ignoring many factors such as multi-tabling and the existence of limits between .05/.10 and .25/.50.

[Bluffoon]

If all I had was 50 dollars I would take it to the .25/.50 tables at Pokerstars and drop down to the .05/.10 tables anytime I dropped below 20 dollars. Every time I got my bankroll over 100 dollars I would take a shot at 1/2.

As long as you are playing a winning strategy (big If) this should maximize your chances of not going broke.

Slow and boring route to poker riches? Yes. But at least you will have a chance to stay in the game while you learn and gain experience.

[mistrpug]

For the record, I took a free $50 Party gave me (they just sent me an email one day) and started on their .50/1.00 tables. That was like 4 months ago and I've built a bankroll for 3/6 without depositing a dime.

I'd recommend starting lower though. I clearly got lucky.

[madmisha]

I would play Pacific. It should be awhile before you should be playing more than one table, which is a major limitation of the site.

They have plenty of poor players and a smooth increase in their games going from .05/.10, /10/.20 and .25/.50.

[NMcNasty]

Pokerstars doesn't have limits inbetween .05/.10 and .25/.50 and new players aren't ready yet for multiple tables.

[Big TR]

I too started 4 months ago with $50 at Pokerstars. I chose stars over Party becuase I read here the games were better, and that's really what I needed to do, learn. I acquiesced to the wife that if I lost it, i wouldn't put any more in. She's very risk averse. According to PT, I've played ~100 hours total.

I played the .01/.02 NL games, as well as the .05/.10 Limit games. Once I won around $25 or so, I started playing the $5+.5 SNG. I had some ups and downs, but was able to build myself up to about $150 pretty quickly on these. In the interim, I dabbled in Omaha 8 .01/.02NL. This game is unbelievably easy.

From there I have played the $.25NL and some .25/.50 limit, building my roll up to ~300.

Good Luck.

[skirtus]

Plenty of sites will match $50 deposit with a $50 bonus. Most of them allow you to work it off at the .25/.50 levels. I'd try and clear the bonus at the .25/.50 and if you lost 1/2 step back a level until you have $50 again. Once you clear the bonus pull it all out and go clear another bonus at the .25/.50 until you get $300 bankroll for .50/1.00. I think with a little effort you can do this in short amount of time.

[faith]

I'd recommend paradise. The games are much tougher than pacific and many other sites (from what I've seen anayways). But it is excellent training grounds for your first 50. I'd say stay at the lowest penny limits (.02-.04) till u get used to play if you haven't done much playmoney. As u get a few extra coins in your stash. At .05 .10 u still start with 500x big bets. .40 an hour is pretty reasonable for two tables at .05-.10. So a few hours a day for a month will push u over the 100 mark. After 100 move up to .25 -.50... I'd move up in limits when having 200x the next level and back down when below 125 or 150 the current level.

Multi-tabling makes moving through the pennylimits much faster. Towards the end of your .05-.10 prison sentence u prolly should start experimenting with 2 tables.

the penny limits are beatable with just hand selection but 1-2 competition at paradise to me is comparable to 3-6 and 5-10 at other sites.

When beating 1-2 at paradise, cash out a couple hundred to play with at 1 of the easier sites (party, pacific, absolute) to start making a bit of cash while still improving your game and climbing limits at paradise.

It's pushin' 3am and I can't really keep my train of thought on the rail, but I figure i've been coherent enough. I gave my little bro the above advice a few months ago when I threw 50 his way and he's about to move into 1-2.

By the way, if you're easily tempted to take stabs at higher limits before your bankroll is ready, u might want to cash out anything u have beyond 2 or 3 buy-ins at your current playing level... And leave it in your firepay, netteller or bank account. Just put yourself in a position to make logical decisions about what level you play in... not ones of impatience... JUST PLAY THE GAME. Don't worry about the money (assuming you play better than others at the table) it will come. It always amazes me how the same people who spend 1000's of hours over months and months playing play money won't spend a couple months at the micro-limits. Or they routinely sit with 1/2 or all their limited bankroll at 1 table...

Paradise is prolly the best training ground, absolute will prolly give u a faster progression... easy games + smooth transitions from the micro-limits to the dollar tables- software gets annoying though

looks like another train of thought got derailed there

I hope in all my random babbling somebody might be able to find something useful