Hi guys! Bankroll question~ first post + misc questions

[Eddy Yang]

Hi guys. I'm not new to poker, I've been playing for several years online and some in some bm card rooms.
Anyway, I 've been lurking around here for a bit, and I really like the educational community this site seems to promote... Nice to meet you all ^^ I'm Eddy... happy card games!

I've been out of the poker loop beside some friendly games. Trying to get into the game again... I'm living in Asia now so online will be the way for me to play.

In short let me tell you my "career".... I started playing under a friend's tutelage. We never really did much "bankroll management". We played our hardest, sometimes we even risked the whole amount of money in our pokcets! We played all over the place.... but our usual game was NL. I have some limited experience in Pot limit hold'em and some seven card stud.... I'm above average in Big2 (does anyone here know that game?).

I've played from about .10/.25 NL all the way up to a brief run at 10/20 NL.

Somewhere during that wild blissful days, I did all right... learning the basics and how not to get killed and on most days coming out with a decent winning. I never learned books or read articles.
I progressed from loving King Four suited (because they were clubs) to folding flush draws, folding low pocket pairs... it varied of course to the situation...

My friend and I made about 1k - 2k a month playing part time (which was HUGE... we were students); and we had our fair share of going bust. I guess you could say for a short time we were pros ^^ we ate off our winnings, bought school books, paid for a car accidnet with it...

I'm looking at getting back into the game with much more discipline. The main game is NL hold'em.
I have several questions: several of them about bankroll management..... thanks in advance! I ordered them for organization: feel free to answer anything!

1. I have about 1k - 2k (let's make it 1k for the discussion) for the initial bankroll... For online play, what games do you think are appropriate with this bankroll?
According to the 20 buys (i've been told pros keep 100 buy ins), at the 20 buy rate... that would make it around $50 buyins... .25/.50 NL? Any thoughts about this for online play?

1*side question: Sometimes I think the games online are a bit offset because of the availability. Would it be better to try to play at higher blinds? Sometimes I feel people would never have called my bet/all in if it was at a larger table... but they did because it would "ONLY be 25$".... What do you think? For serious playing, do you think there is a min level?

2. I have multi tabled (up to even 6 before). I've found that when multi tabling, I don't seem to feel a decreased level in ability... But the positive feeing I do feel is that the tables seem to "balance" out and good runs are even better. It's like "diversifying the portofolio".
How would this affect question #1? Would I need to multiply the number of tables to the bankroll?? I think I would like to run 3 tables at a time....

3. I am aware of bonuses and I do plan to use them to the fullest... But I am not so familiar with rakeback. I've read up a bit on it, but I can't really seem to figure out if it's safe or not and how/why it works.....

4. Tracking play with programs. How important do you think it is to track plays/sessions and datamine?

5. anything else that would help an aspiring side-job pro?

Thanks for any help/advice/insights!
Eddy

[PJo336]

1. There are serious players at all levels, and you can be one of them. Start with patience and play 50NL. Im not sure about the offset, seems like something that could be true for some and not for others. certainly not for me.

2. At 1000 dollars, you could easily multitable 2-6 tables at 50NL, and if it doesnt decrease your ability. DO IT. More tables= mores hands= more profit which is what we want right?

3. Get rake back NOW. Raketherake.com or rakereduction.com, but there are many many others. GET IT, no joke it will change the whole aspect of ur win/loss ratios.

4. Get poker tracker. Only 55 dollars. Get it now, thank me later. You can track anything and everything and most importantly, find WHY you lost that last buy in or that one big hand. This kind of information is so valuable to a serious and even non serious player.

5. Be patient. Dont take shots till you are comfortable and your bank roll is as well.

Besides that GL to you and keep posting here, including hands in the strat forumn you were confused about. It will help 10 fold as well

-PJO

[MrWooster]

[ QUOTE ]

4. Get poker tracker. Only 55 dollars. Get it now, thank me later. You can track anything and everything and most importantly, find WHY you lost that last buy in or that one big hand. This kind of information is so valuable to a serious and even non serious player.


[/ QUOTE ]

Nice reply - would also like to suggest getting PAHUD with Poker Tracker - it overlays real-time statistics from PT onto the poker software and can be very useful to help you make decisions based on what stats the villain has.

[AP0CALYP5E]

There is also Poker Office which has a HUD built in.

[fxrenegade]

Big2? I know that game. It's a popular game in my country. Most Chinese knows that game. Yeah, get poker tracker if you plan to multi-table. I'm not rolled for your limit, I think the veterans in this forum will be able to offer much better advice.

[CPHoya]

Rakeback is absolutely key. I screwed up and play on Full Tilt without it (had no idea what I was doing at the time I signed up) and I'm pretty pissed.

[Nsight7]

[ QUOTE ]
Big2? I know that game. It's a popular game in my country. Most Chinese knows that game. Yeah, get poker tracker if you plan to multi-table. I'm not rolled for your limit, I think the veterans in this forum will be able to offer much better advice.

[/ QUOTE ]
I know it too! My Chinese labmate taught it to me and now I play it regularly with my wife and friends. I plan on analyzing it in detail at a later point.

[fxrenegade]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Big2? I know that game. It's a popular game in my country. Most Chinese knows that game. Yeah, get poker tracker if you plan to multi-table. I'm not rolled for your limit, I think the veterans in this forum will be able to offer much better advice.

[/ QUOTE ]
I know it too! My Chinese labmate taught it to me and now I play it regularly with my wife and friends. I plan on analyzing it in detail at a later point.

[/ QUOTE ]
[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] It's a great game. You can lose quite a bit of money with it, if you don't know how to play it well. Another great skilled game.

[fxrenegade]

[ QUOTE ]
Rakeback is absolutely key. I screwed up and play on Full Tilt without it (had no idea what I was doing at the time I signed up) and I'm pretty pissed.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't make that mistake. You right... I think if you're planning to join FT, it's good to sign up for rake back. Did I mention that RB on FT is dealt?

[Eddy Yang]

Thanks for answering the questions so fast guys!! Great advice! Ok... I'll be looking at $50 buy in NL...
Yes, Big2 is definitely a great game.
Many players of Big2 have not played much fast paced NL holdem or other games like many of us here.... So I've found they're very easy to read. I have used soem poker skills to accruately get tells: the two biggest tells I found were how they arranged their cards after being dealt them, some people put their cards in order by card rank... Another monster tell is watching their face carefully, another thing many players don't really take seriously [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I'll definitely read up on poker tracker and this rakeback... And I'll probably put up another post about it. I still don't exactly get it. I'm not a neanderthal, but I'm not super techy ^^

Alright guys!
Thanks a lot!
Eddy~!