Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 852
I've recently undertaken a quest to build a bankroll from nothing on FT, which has had it's rocky moments, but all in all isn't going bad. My roll is stuck right now at .50 cents, due to the restrictions I've put on myself.At no time am I allowed to use over 5% of my bankroll, excluding any 1$ tournies or sit-n-go's at the begining of my challenge. So I have been playing freerolls working towards a cash to be able to step up from the freeroll phase of this challenge, and the reason I say I am stuck, is because I feel as though I have lost my patience at the freeroll level. When not everyone is playing at the same skill levels, with nothing to lose, they are in the tourney purely to gamble, it becomes easy to become frustrated. I sometimes find myself losing my patience and falling into the trap of becoming the donkey myself. It's sometimes easy to forget it's a marathon, not a sprint to the finish. This brings to mind an interview I saw with Howard Lederer, who stressed the importance of taking breaks. Poker can be a grind, and breaks are essential to keeping yourself focused. Therefore I've decided to limit myself to certain days, and hours of play, to make sure I get in plenty of breaks. Love to hear your opinions on this topic Mobster's & GL out there at the tables. Maybe we'll run into each other.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: Canada
Age: 57 (M)
Posts: 753
I totally agree with taking breaks. You can become frustrated after time. I myself have taken several breaks the last 7-8 years. The longest was 7 months. So I do know what you are talking about, although you didn't mean a break of that length. I am also trying to build a bankroll from nothing, playing freerolls. So far I have accumulated $3.48, down from $4.08. I lost a little on a ring table yesterday. But am playing in another freeroll and am hoping to make the money again. Getting close now, only 166 left, 27 pays. I wish you lots of luck hoodi, it's not easy. In freerolls remember your goals to get paid. And only call those great hands, you should do fine....
Joined: Feb '11
Location: United States
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 37
Sounds like a good plan.. I'm in the middle of trying to do the same right now as far as building from $0. By the sound of what you explained it sounds like you can use those breaks. It's very easy to fall into that and get too inpatient and even frustrated. Take a short break to clear your mind then get back on the grind again.
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6786
As freerolls are played on a shedule you should aim at playing as much of those as possible. If you start to play on your own money you can start to implement the breaks.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: Germany
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 33
hoodi420 i'm your opinion
And then I looking for a track I like make coffee or a tea lean back and enyoj a little break. After this certain moment of relaxion I go on playing....
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Lithuania
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 2805
Posted by hoodi420: You miss my point shokaku...you should always take breaks if you are frustrated or believe you are not playing your best.
good decision i allways if my poker run was on the loosing way not playing poker for real money just only few freerolls and enough or take short brakes 1-2 weaks off not playing any poker and didnt lounch the poker sites its helps for me and then i back i have some luck and my bankroll begun slowlly growing up good luck hope ssoon u ll say yes i did it i win some money and now i have great run my wining continue good luck and never loose your hope
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Spain
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 2851
You need to do what suits you best. breaks are an important part of it depending on the situations you are facing.
What is happening to you now is the utter disgust of playing in these DonkeyFests. Patience is endless for no one.
What I did once last year when I had only 32 cents on PS and needed $4 to enter some sattelites, was play the 1c/2c cash tables. Took about 6 hours of super tight play, but I built it up to $4.50. Be carefull if you don´t want to lose those last 50c.
The point is, you can look for a "change of pace", a different type of game, different "scenery". Or open up another site where the fields are less huge, and the players and "feel" are different.
But sticking to some kind of play/break scenario is also a good idea if that makes you feel more positive when you do play. "Frame of mind" is one of the bigger elements in everyone´s game.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 852
Jack, A friend of mine asked me if i had enough to play .01-.02 already, I believe he was thinking along the same lines. I may chew on the idea a bit. Which I do have enough to sit down at the short stack table's at Full Tilt and this may be a possibility. The last few times I cashed that's exactly what I did, but I always seem to get two outed when my whole roll is on the line, so I have been trying not to go to the cash tables, but the donkrolls are really taking a toll. Its hard to lay solid 4 3,4 hours just to bust out 2 before the money getting unlucky. I would also like to say I really enjoy all of your post's. They're always full of poker experience and knowledge. One last point I do try to stick to smaller field's in the freerolls, sticking with as many private freerolls as possible. I will hopefully get to the dollar level's soon, when I first began playing online it pained me so bad to play the dollar levels(I play higher live), yet I didn't take the time to master them, and "donked" my roll away. Never thought I would be looking forward to "getting back" to those levels! lol
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Romania
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 76
This just happened at my table the other night while playing a freeroll on FullTilt which was paying the first 250 players. We were down to about 270 players, when a guy at my table having a stack of about 20.000 chips shoved all in with some crappy hand (i guess it was Q 6). The table chip leader payed him with K Q and won. What was in that guy`s head I really don`t know. I guess he got bored or something. He should have just waited for 10-15 minutes more and he would have been in the money, no problems, as there were quite a lot of players with under 5.000 chips left which were slowly blinded/anted out.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 852
Once again Shokaku I don't think you understand what I am saying. I mean taking breaks from playing in general...before you even decide to enter a tournament, or cash game. I'm talking about taking plenty of breaks in between, sessions of poker. It can help to keep you from getting frustrated when you do take those bad beats and learn to let them just roll off!
Joined: Nov '10
Location: Serbia
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 2087
Im taking break. First one after 6 months of constant playing everyday minimum 8 hours.... Im going to relax myself and this forum is only thing that is related to poker that Im going to use in next few days... I hope I will play better when this break finish and I will tell to all of you how break affected my game...
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 852
Good Luck with your break Jovi! I'm sure it will do you some good. I hiked another mountain today, I still haven't taken a full break yet, but not playing a full 8-10 hours and getting out and getting active has really improved my state of mind! I'd efinately suggest some good exercise! Healthy body+healthy mind=good play! Let us know how it goes Jovi!!
Joined: Feb '11
Location: Canada
Age: 57 (M)
Posts: 753
You know, I just realized that I haven't played at Poker Stars in a few days. So I guess you could say I took a break from there. Well now. Need to get back, but there's no games that interest me. No freerolls to build a bankroll there, so that makes in incredibly tough to build one. Sure, they have the $1000 freeroll. But you have to beat out thousands of people to get to play. To me that is just old fashioned BS. Win a ticket to play in a freeroll. Fook that......
