Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
So, I've started to follow a cashout strategy that I've been working on to not get stuck in the "I cash out $X when I reach $X" kinda situation. It's starting to p*ss me off really since sometimes it might take ages to reach the goal and somehow it also feels like it takes ages to get my bankroll anywhere.
So anyways, I started following this cashout strategy (roughly based on the Jennifear one) and it seams to be working out pretty good. Since I rarely play anything other then SnG's I've created this based on that. Here's how it works:
* For every win I get from freerolls, 50% goes directly to the cash out "wallet", 50% goes to the bankroll.
* For every game I play (SnG or MTT), 5% of the Buy-In goes to the cash out "wallet".
* All winnings from SnG's will go directly to the bankroll.
* If any MTT winnings would exceed 20 buy-ins, 20 buy-ins will go to the bankroll and 25% of the remaining winnings will go to the bankroll. 75% of the winnings that exceed 20 buy-ins will go to the cash out "wallet".
* My minimum withdrawal limit (I use Instadebit) is $10 so every time I reach that in my cash out wallet, I cash out.
* I need to have at least 50 buy-ins to play at a certain level, if I fall below 45 buy-ins during that session, I move down in limits. If I fall down to, say, 48 buy-ins during a session, when I start the next session I will play the limit below.
I think that pretty much sums it up. Now, I started almost from scratch, I had 50 buy-ins for the $0,25 SnG's (lowest limit on PartyPoker where I play) so started with $12,50.
I started following this strategy a week ago (1st of October) and it's been going really well this far. I have successfully cashed out $10,61 and I have another $7,50 in my cash out wallet. Granted, the freerolls have been going great the last few days, but I still see this as a working system. I'm currently at a nice bankroll of $20,39 which means that my bankroll has grown with $7,89 even thou I've cashed out (also counting pending cash outs) $18,11.
I would very much like to say that this strategy is a success this far. What do you guys think? Have I forgotten to include anything in this post? What changes would you make to this strategy? Or is it maybe already a fully functional strategy? Any comments and opinions is much appreciated!
Joined: Nov '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 67 (M)
Posts: 3361
aye,that sounds alright to me erru although i suppose other people will have different opinions,if it's working don't change it and it's working so far for you so carry on is what i say. are you just on the one site or is it more ?,just wondering.
Joined: Feb '13
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 2372
I have a system I have just started using
After making approx. $719.47 in FR/NDB this year so far, from freerolls, I have opened a skrill account.
This is split by $371 withdrawn already this year leaving me $350 in accounts spread across 20ish sites.
So the deal is, I am withdrawing EVERYTHING to skrill in anticipation of next years poker. This is made up of £200 GBP already in skrill. The other $65 is made up of amounts less than $10. The plan is, I will grind these small amounts up to over $10 before withdrawing to skrill. If I bust, well its pennies and no big loss.
Then as of next year, I will continue on FR's (as you can see they have been quite lucrative) and play MTT's which is my normal game. I will only put money onto sites to either 1) play hand picked games or 2) get certain bonus's such as stars deposit to get entry into good games or 888 often do a 'deposit and get entry into $50k freeroll' type thing.
Aim is £1000 GBP by end of next year and £5000 the year after. I figure that will give me enough to get back into playing the big games that I do well in.
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
Thanks Teddy. Yeah it seams to be working out quite well at the moment. But we'll see what happens in a few months.
For the moment I only play at Party Poker. I do play a little bit at Full Tilt but not really that much. I have a small roll over there but it's only something like $3 I think. Nothing big to brag about so I'm just gonna focus on Party for now but who knows, maybe I'll take a shot at Tilt and explode my bankroll
------------ IceQueenAce: I just couldn't handle that many sites at ones! That's a huge amount of time put into it. I'm having a hard time getting around to playing at just the one site
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
Sounds like a plan but the most important thing is that if it suits you then stick to it!
I usually wait till i earn 500 dollars profit on cash games and then i cashout. I usually also do not play for couple of weeks on that site after i cashout.
Joined: Feb '13
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 2372
Posted by erru9107:
------------ IceQueenAce: I just couldn't handle that many sites at ones! That's a huge amount of time put into it. I'm having a hard time getting around to playing at just the one site
Well, I don't play them all at once. I have a spreadsheet with all the sites, how much is in each one, then another column where I list the dates of FR's I want to play, usually 3ish FR's every night but sometimes when promo's are on you can end up playing across 5 or 6 sites. I only play in evening really, I work full time and weekends are time I spend with my daughter.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
You better start cashing out icequeen from small sites where you have no intention on playing in the future, cause you dont know when they might be gone for ever. More than once i have lost money like that.
This is an article I found very interesting which is related to yours mate,
Setting goals can help you achieve what you want. Playing poker is no different in this regard. Many players are content to stumble through a game, just meandering around. Setting specific goals can help you get better. Instead of playing just for the sake of playing, lay out what you want to accomplish.
Goals can help drive you on the felt. They can give you something to shoot for and will give you a good reason to continually work on improving your game. Potential goals can focus on the big picture or the details. Maybe you simply want to finish first in a pokerfreeroll. This is ok; you do not have to say you will win the World Series of Poker. When you set a goal it should be reasonable. If you come up with a big goal make sure you include some incremental steps along the way. For example, if you want to increase your bankroll to $2,000 and you currently have $500, map out how you want to get your bankroll to that level. That might mean grinding at lower stakes and playing poker tournaments. During a game or tournament it is good to have goals as well. Maybe say that by the end of the break you want to have a certain amount of chips. This can help you focus on the task at hand and play better poker.
If you are content to simply sit down and play sure you will get some fun and entertainment; you may even make a final table. Consider the difference having specific goals can lead to. Instead of floating around you can have a direction and idea of where you want to go and what you want to do. Creating goals can help you get better at poker. After all, what do you have to lose?
To beginners who knows how to start things but can't end them the right way in setting goals especially in cashing out too.
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Canada
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 2387
I think that any strategy that keeps you focused on playing your best is a winning strategy. For a long time I have been consistently up and down - usually I will start with a modest amount in my account, and then as it builds I will start to go up in the levels. However after progressing through a few levels I will hit a bad day (variance), and then instead of dropping down I will go up a level or two and drop the rest of my profits. What I have been successfully doing for a few weeks now, is that at the end of every week I will withdraw whatever cash I have which is above a certain amount. What is left allows me to play levels and MTTs that are interesting, but forces me to play at my best and not to get lazy and sloppy.
Joined: Mar '13
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 33
Seems like a good strategy, however, and this is purely my feelings on cashing out, I think if you can afford not to cash out ie you have alternative income then throw all of your winnings into your bankroll until you hit the stakes where it really becomes worthwhile, by doing this you will reach that level sooner.
Being in the UK with a decent source of alternative income this is obviously very easy for me to say as I am well aware there are players here that can make those small cashouts go a long way, though here a $10 cashout will barely buy a pack of smokes (note to self quit smoking).
Once you hit the stakes where cashing out daily or weekly becomes a viable option for yourself then I think your rules should become applicable and that way you will really reap the rewards for your hard work.
Obviously if you are in a simlar position to myself then bankroll management comes first(as it should for anyone, though I am as bad as the next man for tilting off every now and again), before everything else in order to not go broke and to maintain that passive income.
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
Yeah I see your point. In my case, I'm not really in any financial trouble or so, I do make quite a nice living. The thing is only that I wouldn't mind making some extra cash from poker. And yes sure, I could keep all the money in my bankroll to reach higher stakes quicker. But I would think that my strategy makes sure that I'm not playing to high stakes for it to be profitable. It ensures that as long as I have a ROI higher then 5% I will still be able to move up in limits but if it's lower then 5% I will cash out more then I earn which means that I would be more profitable at a lower stake.
So this strategy is a way of cashing out money as much as a way of finding out what stakes I'm the most profitable at.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
It's good to have a cashout strategy, first year or so that I played online poker I basically just didn't cashout out, so inevitably sooner or later I would bust every roll, playing drunk or tired or something along those lines..
If you don't ever cashout from a poker site, then you're not a winner! Your winnings are your cashouts minus your deposits!
Also, with different countries imposing legal constraints and poker sites themselves subject to their own volatility, it's worth noting a poker site is NOT a bank and we (poker players) should all have learnt this lesson by now, by way of FTP and other epic failures in the market.
My advise is if you play infrequently (as I do now) - just deposit before every session and cashout after every session - I only play once a fortnight or so these days and that is what I do, I don't keep ANYTHING on the site.. no need, VISA deposit is instant, so I can still always play when I want to!
If you play more regularly, then simply don't leave any more than you need to make it convenient (i.e; leave enough buyins that you can comfortably play all your tables/games with auto-rebuy on, etc).
There is simply NO reason to leave a huge roll (when I say huge, I don't mean objectively, I mean relative to your stakes; how many buyins you have) on a poker site. All you're doing is losing interest on your money (that you get from a bank) AND opening your self up to risk; anything from tilting and busting your roll, getting hacked, the site going bust, etc.
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
Wow lots of great tips from everyone, my personal thing to move up the limit, is the 25 bi rule.
I play with 25bi and when i reached 30 bi for the next level then I moved up, if it falls to 25bi, then I moved down a limit and grind it back to 30bi and then I give another shot for the higher limit.
Well this was my plan but it never really took off, lost all my roll due to tilt etc lol.
Also IceQueen i read your posts and i am really glad you managed all these winnings playing freerolls, also the thing that you work and have a daughter and still managed to wins money. Great stuffs, good luck, hope you achieve your goal.
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
So, I have an update for you guys. Last time I had a bankroll of $20,39 and $7,50 in the cash out wallet (yes, my total bankroll balance was $27,89 but you need to keep the two amounts separate).
Now after a wile, here's my current stats: Bankroll: $27,97 Cash out wallet: $8,15
This means that I have a total cash out value (what I've already cashed out+pending cash outs) of $18,76 and my bankroll is at $27,97. Both of those add up to $46,73.
Now, considering that I started the month with only $12,50 I think I'm doing quite well so far. If I hadn't cashed out I would have had $46,73 which means I would have made a profit of $34,23. Now using this method, I've cashed out (done+pending) $18,76 (yes, that's MORE then my starting bankroll!!) and I've grown my bankroll with $15,47.
Now I have my eyes on the $0,50 SnG's and I'm hoping to make a decent profit there as well and to keep growing my bankroll!!
My goal by the end of the year is to have a bankroll of $50+ and be playing the $1 SnG's
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
Here's a new update:
It's been a bunch of ups and downs for me these couple of days but I'm doing alright at the moment. Here's my current stats:
Bankroll: $23,67 Cashed out: $20
As you can see, my bankroll has taken a hit of about $5 but my cashed out money has grown with just over $1. So all and all I've lost $4 but it's not the end of the world, I'm working on grinding it up again so we'll see what happens.
And after all, I did start this challenge with a bankroll of $12,50 and $0 cashed out money so I would still call this a success since I've already cashed out more then what I deposited and there's more to come
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
Well, another week has passed and I'v been pretty much stuck in a +/- nothing situation. Still only cashed out $20 but I have some money that's in my "cash out wallet" so a little bit more there. My bankroll is currently at $20,31 so I've lost a little bit.
I hope that the upcoming weekend is going to be a good one so I can increase my bankroll!
Joined: Dec '12
Location: Bulgaria
Age: 47 (M)
Posts: 1022
Posted by erru9107: Well, another week has passed and I'v been pretty much stuck in a +/- nothing situation. Still only cashed out $20 but I have some money that's in my "cash out wallet" so a little bit more there. My bankroll is currently at $20,31 so I've lost a little bit.
I hope that the upcoming weekend is going to be a good one so I can increase my bankroll!
Very nice strategy erru9107! I think I should use it as well. You are doing very well. Good luck with that!
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
Well, a full month has passed (I probably won't be able to play for a couple of days) since I started using this strategy so I thought I'd give you guys an update on the whole thing.
I started this month with the following funds: Cashed out: $0 Bankroll: $12,50
Now after one month it looks like this: Cashed out: $30 Bankroll: $21,53
This means that I've managed to grow my bankroll with just over $9 this month as well as cashed out $30. This means that I have cashed out more then double of what I started with and still managed to build a bankroll! If we sum it all up, it's a $39,03 profit for the month.
I've had a few ups and downs this months but all and all I would call it a success. Not exactly the results I wanted (had a goal of $50 total profit) but hey, it's still on the plus side
I'm now going into the next month hoping to cash out $50 using this strategy!
Joined: May '11
Location: Netherlands
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 141
Nice topic and nice strategy btw. I had/ have strugless with it 2. every time when i win a large amount of money i will cashout 80% of my winnings. With the other 20% i will try and make more money of it. Good luck at the tables and hope the strategy youve got works for you
