I tried online poker for the first time today

[Bluegrassplayer]

I put twenty dollars onto pokerstars. (don't say I should only have a bankroll of 1 buy in, my debit card has enough for more than 20 as it is and that is essentially my bankroll) I got the 20 up to 100 then dumped it all back on 3 very big suck outs.

Should I be taking my money off the table after I've tripled or doubled up on one table to cut back on variance? How much wider do I need to broaden the hands that I put people on now that I'm playing online? Any just general advice for someone moving from live to online?

[slush420]

first general rule.. get tracking software like pokertracker, pokerace hud and/or realtime hud. that's the best way to figure out opponent's range. I think if you're playing outside your bankroll limitations it's probably a good idea to leave while ahead. if you have more than 10% of your bankroll on one table you will eventually get gamblers ruin and risk losing it all even with optimum play

[catoandtonic]

Twenty dollars is not really enough to employ an effective bankroll strategy. If you are going to take a shot with $20, then you should stay at the smallest stakes available until you can build a roll for higher stakes. If you made it to 100, and lost it on 3 suckouts, then you were playing way to high. As a general rule, you should never be gambling with more than 5% of your bankroll.

I would research bankroll management and also Kelly Criterion. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion)

Also, I would spend alot of time sifting, reading and learning through all the threads in the beginners forum for the past couple of months. There are some gems in there that experienced players could use. The stickies in unl and ssnl are also a wealth of info. It could take quite a while to read all the material, but I promise it will pay dividends.

[ShipitFMA]

They have poker online now?

[Bluegrassplayer]

Well as I said while I'm playing online my debit card will be my bankroll, so the $20 was not my entire bankroll, I have well over 20 buy ins. Thats not what I'm worried about, it's the variance involved here. I will check out the beginner's forum though, thanks.

[bingrich]

Variance is part of the game. Since you're new to online, then go ahead and leave when significantly up if you know you'll feel like [censored] losing it all back. As you gain more experience you'll learn to deal with the swings. If you find yourself on a juicy table though you shouldn't leave unless you're tired or on tilt. If you think you're being outmatched and get lucky, hit and run. But yeah, get PT and PAHud and work on your game if you want to improve.

[Bluegrassplayer]

[ QUOTE ]
They have poker online now?

[/ QUOTE ]

Is that just bad terminology on my part or is this more of a "We've landed on the moon" line?

Thanks for the tip, looking back I definitely should have left after winning 3x my buy in seeing as how I am trying to put as little from debit onto stars right now. I'll look into getting PT tomorrow.

[HY77]

Play within your bankroll. Even if you are playing well at a limit, variance can kill you. I learned this the hard way and I am glad I did.

[Bluegrassplayer]

I currently play 200NL live and am very conservative, I keep 40-50 buy ins for it, so 25nl is well within my range. Thanks for the advice though.

[DiamondDog]

[ QUOTE ]
They have poker online now?

[/ QUOTE ]

What's the betting it's rigged?

[thac]

Bluegrass, if you can (sounds like it), I would deposit 500 or so and start at .10/.25. It plays pretty loose and passive like live 1/2, and you can definitely win a lot of money just from 25nl.

Try to buy PokerTracker (www.pokertracker.com) and PokerAceHud (www.pokeracesoftware.com) relatively quick. It'll help you keep track of players and tell you how loose/tight each person is. From those you can make a range of hands, and it's a bit easier than live play because you have an accurate number that you can see.

Try like 1000 hands of .10/.25 and post any questions you have in the MicroBrew thread (it's like a low-content chatroom thread) and we'll be happy to help! Good luck transferring into the online world.

[Bluegrassplayer]

Great thanks all of the advice, I will make sure to do this.

[corsakh]

I wanna see the suck outs /images/graemlins/laugh.gif