Poker Stories: Anyone else living the freeroller's dream?

ajmargarine · #1 08-04-2005, 11:45 PM

At the beginning of this year, I downloaded a bunch of poker sites and was basically learning how to play and just messing around in play money ring games and tournies. And then I lost my job, and had alot more time to play, but less money to see if I could do anything at the real money tables.

About 3 months ago, I took 4th in a 1000 player freeroll tourney that netted me a cool $40. The next day I luckboxed into a small buy-in ($5) MTT win that turned that $40 into about $200. Then, I started playing ring games mixed with tourneys and in 2-3 weeks had a bankroll of $2,000.

I've been going ever since. In the 3 months since that $40 freeroll 4th, I have cashed out around 4k and still have a 1k bankroll online. I've been playing about 80% .50/$1 and about 20% $1/$2. I haven't bonuswhored at all yet; but, that is on the horizon soon.

I was just wondering if anyone else was still living off a freeroll win from a long time ago. Got a story? Share it here if you want. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

stu-unger · #2 08-04-2005, 11:52 PM

i guess i suck. i started with a $50 deposit+bonus to test the water.

xcrack999 · #3 08-05-2005, 12:09 AM

About half a year ago, I found out that Royal Vegas was giving a $10 no-deposit bonus. I was under 18 then and had no way of depositing money to play online, so I used that to build my bankroll. Now, my bankroll is about $1900, and I can comfortably play 50NL. Woot!

GoCubsGo · #4 08-05-2005, 12:17 AM

I wish. I've entered about 50 freerolls now and can't seem to crack the money. Even when I play my best, I end up losing about 40 spots before payouts. I've done some research on freerolls, and I know of two sites that offer them pretty frequently. Besides InterPoker and PokerWorld, what are some sites with nice freerolls?

Also, while I'm not playing off freeroll money, I am playing off money from selling PokerStars play chips. Started with $15, got down to under $3 and now I'm over $150.

ajmargarine · #5 08-05-2005, 12:49 AM

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from selling PokerStars play chips.

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I seriously don't get this. When I played there I had about $1 million in play money chips. Some guy offered me $2 per 100,000 or something like that, and I thought he was off his rocker and blew him off. Why do people pay real money for these?

yellowjack · #6 08-05-2005, 12:52 AM

It might be to play with their friends who use play money.

Go_Blue88 · #7 08-05-2005, 12:59 AM

last summer my friend transferred 50 bucks into my account so that i could play 5+1 SNG's. after about a month i turned it into 230 which i was really proud of at the time. i decided it was time to try cash tables. i played NL25 full ring, 1 table, and was pretty nervous. i played like a pussy and after some beginner's luck, my roll went down to 40 bucks. i learned from my mistakes and became obsessed with improving and watched the NL 200 tables at party poker thinking, "jeebus, how do these guys play for so much money?" yada yada yada i eventually had a bankroll of 12,000 and i was playing NL 600 6 max.

Mercman572 · #8 08-05-2005, 01:28 AM

i got suckered into a $10 sng live game in college vs kids that "knew" how to play. i played like a mouse and everyone realized it. I lost after a while and didn't play for over a month.
a month later I find my roommates playeing each other for free with pennies and nickels as chips. I was able to beat them and was proud of myself. my 4th roomate, who was playing successfully at the $10 cash game with poker enthusiasts offered to teach us to play via the form of $2 buy in tournies. we took this very seriously and I learned the raising requirements my roommate had formed (mainly from 6handed or less against loose players) of raising a K8 and up.
I stumbled across various things, such as Lederers more secrets of holdem that I got off of Dc++, and found links to recommended poker books and bonus whores via something awful. I had previously deposited $50 into party only to break even and take it out before I lose some serious dough!
after reading many books and talking poker with people that knew more, I decided to give it a shot and bonus whore, risking 300 of my own money on some bonus. after that I had the $500 needed for the party skins and whored away. in the next 6 months I turned that into $4000 all from the 25NL tables (plus a free roll I placed 6th in and won 200 bucks). only 3 weeks ago I moved up to 50NL and a mdoing well! (i'm risk averse and won't move up until I feel I'm crushing a particular limit)

#9 08-05-2005, 01:44 AM

yeah, yeah, yeah, I hate you all. I lost my first $500 on Party playing at $25 NL. Deposited my "last $100" turned it into $1200, lost all but $14 of that, turned that $14 back into $1200, and am currently at $980. Up and down, I can't seem to avoid losing streaks (whether tilt or cards or tilt + cards).

Mercman572 · #10 08-05-2005, 02:06 AM

[ QUOTE ]
yeah, yeah, yeah, I hate you all. I lost my first $500 on Party playing at $25 NL. Deposited my "last $100" turned it into $1200, lost all but $14 of that, turned that $14 back into $1200, and am currently at $980. Up and down, I can't seem to avoid losing streaks (whether tilt or cards or tilt + cards).

[/ QUOTE ]

i can't understand how this would happen other than bad bankroll management. My standard deviation is around 50 PTBB/100 and my worst losign streak was 4.5 buyins, and that was because 2 bad beats for alot of money cause me to tilt a LITTLE bit and open my starting requirements some, putting me in extremely tough spots where I was too heated to make the right choice