Rebuilding my bankroll--is this a good plan? Plus: PS + FTP questions

[Quicksilvre]

At one point, before I spent all day tarding around OOT and BBV4L, I was a poker player. I even used real money, at both WPEX and Party. In fact, I wasn't half bad at it. Unfortunately, I was a total donkey about bankroll requirements, especially when it came to SNGs. I was playing $11s with less than $100 in my roll. Understandably, I eventually went busto. Not including Party bonuses, I think I made a profit of like $35, total. At this point I didn't want to play too much poker, and in any case Party kicked out all of its US players.

But, now I want to get back into the game.

Dear readers, please take a look at my plans. Alert me if you see anything that's really out stupid:

1. Re-read SSHE and the limit-hold'em and O8 sections of SS2.

O8 was my favorite game when I was playing. LHE was tied for second with NLHE, but I was much more likely to stick to a reasonable game in LHE.

2. Get an ePassporte account and deposit $300.

I already know that money is coming in a week or two. After fees that leaves me with $285.

3. Deposit into Full Tilt Poker, through a rakeback affiliate.

I was a (very) small winner while I was playing, something like $25 per month (~3000 hands). I didn't use Poker Tracker (more on that later) so I don't know what my win-rate was exactly, other than it was probably "low."

4. Grind out that deposit bonus.

I would be playing .25/.5 LHE, with a move up to .5/1 if I have a three winning sessions in a row. There I would move back down if I lost in two sessions in a row. I would never play a LHE game with fewer than 200 BBs.

If I could find a game of LO8, I would play 1/2, moving up to 2/4 or down to .5/1 following the same criteria as above, except my minimum there would be 75 BBs.

5. When/if I reached $400 on FTP, withdraw $50 and sign up at PokerStars and grind out that bonus.

With $50 I would start around .10/.20 for LHE and .25/.5 for LO8.

6. Find a comfort zone. Purchase Poker Tracker when/if FTP reached $400 again.

7. ??????

8. Profit.

Now, my questions for my peers:

Does my plan suck? In particular, is my bankroll reasonable for the game I'm playing?

How good are the O8 games at Party and FTP?

Is it difficult for someone used to full-ring LO8 to switch to PLO8 (which seems to be more popular on both sites) or six-handed play?

If I start playing at Stars and fall in love with it, would I be a fool to play there and ignore the rakeback deal at FTP?

How important is it for me to have Poker Tracker, considering the limits I plan to play at?

Thanks for giving this a read.

[Teddie]

i deposit in stars first then when you get your roll up too $600 go to full tilt

[ofdabeat]

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In fact, I wasn't half bad at it. Unfortunately, I was a total donkey about bankroll requirements, especially when it came to SNGs. I was playing $11s with less than $100 in my roll. Understandably, I eventually went busto. Not including Party bonuses, I think I made a profit of like $35, total.

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lol, you probably are awful at poker for this kind of results on party pre-ban.
Why don't you read miller beginners book and play tight/solid until you know better?

[xxGreat1xx]

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In fact, I wasn't half bad at it. Unfortunately, I was a total donkey about bankroll requirements, especially when it came to SNGs. I was playing $11s with less than $100 in my roll. Understandably, I eventually went busto. Not including Party bonuses, I think I made a profit of like $35, total.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol, you probably are awful at poker for this kind of results on party pre-ban.
Why don't you read miller beginners book and play tight/solid until you know better?

[/ QUOTE ]

Why do so many people feel the need to come in the BEGINNER forum and bash BEGINNERS by telling them they are no good. I bet they wouldn't be posting in the beginner forum with beginner questions if they were experts. Get a life

[AKQJ10]

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lol, you probably are awful at poker for this kind of results on party pre-ban.
Why don't you read miller beginners book and play tight/solid until you know better?

[/ QUOTE ]

Why do so many people feel the need to come in the BEGINNER forum and bash BEGINNERS by telling them they are no good. I bet they wouldn't be posting in the beginner forum with beginner questions if they were experts. Get a life

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Yes. ofdabeat is plainly out of line here, and I'm glad the community is drowning his message out with supportive posts.

But more to the point, OP shows more self-knowledge and understanding of bankroll than ofdabeat. Even when Party was as loose and terrible as the Foxwoods $1-2, and accessible to US players, that's no guarantee you wouldn't go broke if you played above your roll. For a poster to go insulting someone else when they plainly don't understand jack [censored] about BR management, and probably about poker in general, is pretty humorous.

[ofdabeat]

Ahaha ofdabeat is such a bad guy! And is probably very bad at poker and life! Let's support the guy with 2000+ posts and 35$ of profit because being bad is not nice !

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lol, you probably are awful at poker for this kind of results on party pre-ban.
Why don't you read miller beginners book and play tight/solid until you know better?

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Very insulting why don't you ask for a ban?

Eheh now we learn OP has read books so it's even worse.

[QuickLearner]

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Very insulting why don't you ask for a ban?

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I'll ask. He can second.

[EN09]

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Even when Party was as loose and terrible as the Foxwoods $1-2, and accessible to US players, that's no guarantee you wouldn't go broke if you played above your roll. For a poster to go insulting someone else when they plainly don't understand jack [censored] about BR management, and probably about poker in general, is pretty humorous.

[/ QUOTE ]

When I first started online a few years ago it was with a $50 deposit on 'stars. Just testing the waters to be certain it wasn't a scam, or I was getting ripped off, or if it was "rigged" and all. I recall winning and getting hit in the face with the deck and doubling up in LHE playing 1/2 with my 'bankroll' - whatevah that was!

Now I had $100 and decided this was so easy I'd take my $100 to 3/6. A couple of $30 pots had me close to $150. Nice. Ka-ching! I could do this every day and get rich I thought!

Over the next 30 minutes I was back down to the $50 I started with, then $25. So moved down to .50/1 and lost the rest of it there. Wow, that seemed quick... Now I had no $$$ on 'stars and a serious case of being bummed out. I wanted to play but had no chips, and the 'play' thing wasn't gonna work.

I WAS HOOKED THOUGH! This online game was better than any home game I've ever played. Right in my living room, boxer shorts and all.

Now I'm a major BR believer. Worked my way up to 5/10 LHE than took some serious downswings, part bad play, confidence busting beats and losses, etc. Moved down to 3/6. Then down to 2/4. Then back to 1/2 and even .25/.50.

Now I'm building back up at the 5NL & 10NL games and having fun, and doing better. My bankroll? $1,000+. I did manage to turn my next $100 deposit into some nice coin. A couple of vacations were taken a couple of diamond necklaces were purchased for my wife. I decided to never again play my 'roll down to the nubbins. If I was losing, I was moving.

And I vowed to never allow my roll to get below $500 because I never wanted to have to tell my wife "I need to redeposit". I'm not playing on household money, mortgage money, grocery money and she can't say I'm a losing player even though there are, and were, times I lost $600 - $800 in a session.

Playing with a short 'roll isn't +EV for most people.

Playing with sound bankroll management is the foundation of our game.

EN

EDIT: Which is why I'm here at 2p2 and have gone from 'lurker' to hopefully a more knowledgeable player by being more active in the community.

[Arjonius]

This may seem ingenuously simple, but building the first $1000 or $2000 of bankroll is largely about playing games you can beat at a decent rate. Since that means you shouldn't be playing at any tables where the max. buyin is more that $50 or $100, it shouldn't be hard to do on any site or network with a reasonably number of players. The only difference in this regard is that the larger ones have more tables to chooses from.

Also, I wouldn't put to much emphasis on bonuses. Don't get me wrong; they're nice. However, if you're a winning player, the bonuses will take care of themselves. Don't do what I see too often, which is to play more hands and/or more aggressively in order to clear a bonus sooner.

[Quicksilvre]

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In fact, I wasn't half bad at it. Unfortunately, I was a total donkey about bankroll requirements, especially when it came to SNGs. I was playing $11s with less than $100 in my roll. Understandably, I eventually went busto. Not including Party bonuses, I think I made a profit of like $35, total.

[/ QUOTE ]

lol, you probably are awful at poker for this kind of results on party pre-ban.
Why don't you read miller beginners book and play tight/solid until you know better?

[/ QUOTE ]

As I said, I was a donk with my bankroll. The point of my post was asking advice on that front. I didn't play too many hands either; I found it difficult to do more than 100 in one session. That, I know, is something I had to work on.

Incidentally, if you read my OP you will have noticed that I had read Ed Miller's book and planned on re-reading it. Did you even read my post?