Moving from Playdough to Real Dough

[JanelleBB7]

Did you lose your bankroll because of management or was it because of terrible bad beats?

I certainly hope not to lose my bankroll, but I do understand that it is a possibility. I guess if I do i'll just have to get a weekend job lol [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[dubiousdrift]

Clif, great post!

Here's my experience;
I deposited $50 on Full Tilt, ran it up to about $250 and lost it all. I deposited another $50, ran it up to $150 and cashed out $70 shortly before the UIGIA hit the fan. I got a $50 freeroll over at Absolute and ran it up to $75 or so before loosing all but $2 of it. I went over and played .02/.04 limit, until I had between 7-10 so I could go put $5 on the NL tables. Did that a few times until I caught a nice run and am now back up to about $50.

I can tell you that *every* time:
- on the way up, I was focused, attentive and playing about as well as I could play - given my knowledge and experience.
- on the way down, I was not focused, I played late, got tired, got stuck, got tilted and was not attentive at all.

Learning where your leaks are, and closing your leaks will be the most important skill you can learn starting off - and often your leaks don't come from loosing money in marginal spots. My biggest leaks don't come from my betting patterns, they come from not quitting when I should.

Now I'm off to read the post that post that bearwired linked to - it looks like a good one [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Play Well!
- dubiousdrift

[foal]

I recommend starting at Poker Stars if you're bringing in only 50 dollars, because they have lower limits there.

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Did you lose your bankroll because of management or was it because of terrible bad beats?

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The point of having a proper management is that terrible bad beats or coolers will not bust you.

[suppasonic]

How do you initially get your money onto stars?

From the posts I've read, do I just go my bank account -> ePassporte -> Stars?

[Quicksilvre]

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bank account -> ePassporte -> Stars?

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Depends on where you are. In the US, this is the most popular way. If you live in Europe, it is likely there's a more direct payment option, like a bank transfer or even straight off of your credit card.

[suppasonic]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
bank account -> ePassporte -> Stars?

[/ QUOTE ]

Depends on where you are. In the US, this is the most popular way. If you live in Europe, it is likely there's a more direct payment option, like a bank transfer or even straight off of your credit card.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, I'm from the US, thanks.

[Lyrrad]

To respond to some unanswered questions:

Cash vs SNGS/MTTs: Do what you enjoy more. You can make money at either, but if you don't, then you are more entertained.

45 vs 90 vs 180 MTTs: The less the # of players in a tournament the lower the variance. This means that it's easier to figure out if you're a winning player or not the smaller the fields are.

[Poker Clif]

[ QUOTE ]
Did you lose your bankroll because of management or was it because of terrible bad beats?

I certainly hope not to lose my bankroll, but I do understand that it is a possibility. I guess if I do i'll just have to get a weekend job lol [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Janelle,

The basic answer is that I got confused when I started playing for real money.

I played a lot of MTTs for play money, and that's what I thought I would be doing for real money as well.

Once I started playing real money MTTs, I discovered that I couldn't stand the variance.

I move betweent two cities right now, and in neither can I play whenever I want. IN one place the computer and the TV are in the same room, and in the other I share a computer with two roommates. (Both of these situations should be improved by the end of the year).

So, if I played an MTT that went for four hours, and I didn't caah, that was my shot for the day. I was trying to plan, be organized, and work toward certain hourly or daily win rates. Going a day or two and not winning anything just drove me crazy.

So, I was working around other people's schedules and sitautions, while at the same time trying to figure out what I was going to do if it wasn't MTTs.I eventually settled on SNG. Still tournaments, but at least I had a chance to affect my bankroll every day.

Before I played for real money, I had no idea that PokerStars had SNG from 9 players to 180, so I experimented with different sizes.

I also tried 1/2 cash, having never played a play money cash game, so I wasn't prepared for how different it was than tournaments. More leaks in my game and my money.

Then I started reading about mutitabling on 2+2, so I thought I should try that.

I was trying to win money, without being sure of exactly how I wanted to do it, and that's how I went through a couple bankrolls while I was trying to figure it out.

I think I'm going to start working my way back into MTT's, while playing enough SNG's to have some kind of regular poker income. Because of the variance of MTTs, any goals will probably be weekly rather than daily or hourly.

My goal is to tun poker into an at least decent part-time job, with a goal of making something like $10 an hour. I have no idea how long that will take--maybe a few months, maybe a year.

After I hit that goal, I'll reevaluate. I think that to make some serious money, it's going to have be the occasional big score of an MTT, becuase I stink at multitabling. But there is some money to be made with even a 5- or 10-dollar entry into an MTT.

Anyway, that's how I lost two bankrolls, where I am now, and my plan for the next 6 to 12 months. Any questions or comments are welcome.

[batair]

I think people overestimate the differences in playdo and vary low limits like the penny ring.Now im not saying that their close all the time, but some of the higher limit playmoney games i have played in were actually tighter and tougher then some of the penny cash games i have played in.I played at pokerroom in the 10k preflop locked rooms where the avg players per flop was like %15 to %25 and thats way tighter then most penny games.

For me the transition was kind of easy mostly because i played vary vary tight in playdo and i think thats the key to making the move to real money games.In playdo its easy to play loose and still win but if you play a tight game i dont think the move is as hard.

If you only have $50 i would start at pokerstars but thats only 10 by ins for the 1c2cNL cash game so you might want to think about saving up another $50 so you will have 20 by ins.If your going to start at fulltilt i would not play their with less then $200 that would give you 20 byins.But if your only going to play their with $50 then you should not play the NL cash games thats only 5 by ins to start with and you would have to be vary good or run vary hot to survive.I would stick with the $1 sit and gos maybe some $1 multi trnys and freerolls to build your bankroll.

Also you should keep your playdo because its a great place to go blow of steam and get tilt out, my play money bankroll has saved my real one many times.

[jmitchell42]

wow, never thought of using my play account to blow off my tilt times. great idea! thanks. heh, not being sarcastic at all. i will use that idea a lot.