General Q about tourney bankroll
 

For some of the regular posters out there, when you were at $2600 in bankroll, what tournaments were you playing.

A little background: I played poker a year and a half and totally sucked. I didn't read anything, didn't read posts, didn't discuss the game with anyone, and played mostly based on personal frustrations / "feel" (where "feel" is mostly all-in bluffs at NL100). I also took absurd shots at games way out of my skill level (i.e., built to 1500, jumped into NL400).

Also, I'm strictly part-time: I'd say I play 12 to 14 hours a week. I have a full-time job, tho I do spend a considerable amount of time reading 2+2 whenever work is slow (which can be frequently).

Anyway:

I'd say at around January of this year, I started to really read 2+2 tournament forums. I finally bothered to play based on stack sizes and to discipline myself not to bluff terribly.

The first couple of months were painful, but then I had a decent score - I qualified for a $75 and placed 4th for $800. Two weeks later, I played a $30 and finished 4th for $475 (AK < A7). Three weeks after, I won a $10 for $950. I also finished 89/1500 in the FTOPs PLHE tournament. I feel that my game is coming a long.

My BR is now at $2600. I have yet to win at ANY $24+2 mega size tournaments (600+). My late game (final table bubble) needs a lot of work. For the past couple of weeks, I have been playing some $30 SNGs and doing well (so far, the players there have been AWFUL) and a lot of $20 heads up games (competition here has been unimpressive as well).

Anyway, I'm not sure if any of this is relevant, but where do I go from here? Should I take some shots at the $75s on FT? Should I try to qualify for them? Should I get some experience in $50 SNGs, maybe play ten of them? Should I keep plugging away at $24s on FT, even though the fields are ridiculously larged / mixed? $20 rebuys? I'd really like to start playing against some better competition, smaller fields w/ bigger prize pools. But, I don't want to dent my BR too badly (which could be a psychological thing, as when I once had a BR of 2K, I totally sucked + was clueless + had no discipline and lost it in one night)

Barry

Re: General Q about tourney bankroll
 

I didn't read all of your post but a lot of my friends are tourney players none of which post on these boards but they do a certain % of there BR that they risk each night.

Re: General Q about tourney bankroll
 

WCOOP ME sounds perfect for you =D

Re: General Q about tourney bankroll
 

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I didn't read all of your post but a lot of my friends are tourney players none of which post on these boards but they do a certain % of there BR that they risk each night.

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Fair enough - but what percentage should I be risking? And what about taking shots / mixing things up with SNGs and cash games?

Barry

Re: General Q about tourney bankroll
 

K seriously just play what makes you feel not nervous (so you can play optimally). Playing 55's is probably good. 100s is pushing it but you can take shots at softer ones (which don't really exist). 50+5s are the way to go for you though.

Re: General Q about tourney bankroll
 

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I didn't read all of your post but a lot of my friends are tourney players none of which post on these boards but they do a certain % of there BR that they risk each night.

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Fair enough - but what percentage should I be risking? And what about taking shots / mixing things up with SNGs and cash games?

Barry

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I think they do 3-5% each night

Basically when I used to play tourneys I would do

100 BI for any freezeout
5x rebuys/addon x 100 for rebuys
75 buyins for 180mans

So with 2300 I would play 3-5rebuys, 20/180s and 25 and lower freezeouts

Re: General Q about tourney bankroll
 

Barry,

IMO GSykes recommendations are good. I'm sure you've seen or can find the bankroll management rules he set for his bankroll building experiment (it was in one of the "Pro Tips" and Michael Craig summarizes it in one of his recent blog entries). There was also another recent thread in this column that talked a bit about bankroll/tourny size.

I play exclusively MTTs with the only variant being sometimes playing sattelites to take shots/gain experience at higher buy-ins than my bankroll would support, so I can't talk to SNGs or cash games. But it looks to me like you're playing at the right level for your bankroll.

I believe taking occasional shots at higher buy-ins via sats makes sense for a number of reasons and i do it, but it is actually a bad move from a BR management standpoint. First is that this really isn't any different than winning $216, 535, or whatever and then buying in directly. If your bankroll can't support buying in directly then in theory you shouldn't try to sat in. Second is that these are normally larger field tournaments which increases variance and makes them even worse from a BR management point of view. Personally that's my biggest BR managment leak, I need to limit the "shots" I take more than I do.

Re: General Q about tourney bankroll
 

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IMO GSykes recommendations are good.

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Re: General Q about tourney bankroll
 

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IMO GSykes recommendations are good.

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His suggestions are good, but conservative considering that he has a full time job to fall back on/reload with. I'd play whatever level you feel comfortable at, but stick with 75$ or less buyins.

Re: General Q about tourney bankroll
 

how would synchronized breaks work? just have tournaments starting only on the hour?