Joined: May '08
Location: Canada
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 22
Choosing the stakes for my games has been one of my largest flaws. I've noticed that when I've been patient, I've taken $10-$50 up to my cash-out point of $1,000. Thing is, I didn't initially hit a cold streak with that first small amount of money. When I do, I lose it all.
So I'm wondering what stakes I should start at with $50. I'm asking this, swallowing my pride, because I have been brutalized with the free $50 I received from Titan.
I don't see myself as a bad player. I'm good, I'm not great, but I can hold my own and usually grind it out. But given my completely horrible loss today, I think there's a problem with my bankroll management-- not my poker skills, as I believe I made the right calls.
My first hand upon sitting down were pocket aces(This was on a .10/.25 table). An early position called, I raised, and BB re-raised. Early position went all-in, BB and me both threw all our chips in(BB had me covered by a couple dollars).
Usually on my first hand on a new site I'm going to feel things out, but come on... obviously all-in is a no brainer. Anyway, BB showed pocket tens, early position showed fives. The board came down rag,6,7,8,9.
I gave myself a few minutes to settle down from that urge to tilt and took the other half of my money. I played for a bit and was doing well. Got up to about $40 and expected that I'd have made my money back soon. There was one player at the table who had a larger stack than me and after I raised pre-flop, he was the only one to call.
I had AcQc. The flop was was a dream-- 3c, 7c, 9c. I decided to check over to him. He put in a bet about 5x the pot. With that I figure he's protecting his hand-- Top pair, two pair or trips-- from having another club fall, not knowing I already have my flush. I call and the turn is Qh. I check and he goes all-in. Holding the nuts, I'm drooling and quickly make the call. The river is the Ten of clubs. He shows 8c,Jc-- straight flush.
I can't understand the betting pattern. He had the flush off the flop as well, and put out the kind of bet that would scare most people off. It seemed like he was trying to take me out of the pot rather than keep me in it as most people would when they've flopped a flush. I suppose he might have thought I had the Q,K or A of clubs along with another suit and that he'd have to take me out before a 4th club hits but those are slim odds.
Anyway, I busted and I don't think I made the wrong move but if anyone sees something, let me know. What I'd really like to know is what am I doing wrong with my bankroll? Should I play smaller tables? Take less to the same tables? Not be so apt to call an all-in?
I'm just frustrated and I want some answers. Unfortunately I think "That's poker" might be the only one.
call an all in every time you have the best hand, which you did,
play smaller is always good advice but the majority of people dont like when there wins are only a couple of dollars after an hour, if you can handle that then play smaller until you build a bankroll of a couple of hundred dollars, $50 is not nearly enough to play .10 .25 in my opinion but it is often very hard to follow proper bankroll management when you start with such a small roll.
and dont swap to sss unless you think that deep stack poker is really out of your skill level, sss is very effective because it eliminates the majority of the difficult decisions of the game, but if you are making the right bets and the right lay downs deep stack poker is much more profitable,
Joined: Jan '08
Location: Germany
Age: 38 (M)
Posts: 77
you definately have to play smaller,same sihit happens to me all the time. the funny thng is though whenever i stick to my bankroll managament rules my bankroll grows without and grows. the times i went broke where where always the days i became greedyand palyed too high. an example ,i played a lot and grinded my bankroll from 5 dollar up to 290 by palying microstakes sngs , now i need to reach the magic number of 300 . what happens instead of palying three two dollar heads up tourneys or whatever is sat down at a 1-2 dollar limit hold em table. 4 hours later i was broke. bankroll management is soooooo important,you need to be able to take hits especially online since people call a lot more and stuff. its hard to be patient enough to beat limit after limit but the winnings will be bigger as soon as you move up
Joined: Jan '08
Location: Germany
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 482
Meanwhile im famous for bankroll = stack "strategy", thinking "Hey i can beat nl 50 easy- fast doubleup -nl100-doubleup . .. " That worked one time rly good, but you should start with Nl2$ Normally 50$ is not enough to begin with no limit cause you need at least 25 stacks. My advice is multitabling at the lowest limits til 150$ then Nl5$.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: Ireland
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 136
Posted by SCDossett: call an all in every time you have the best hand, which you did,
play smaller is always good advice but the majority of people dont like when there wins are only a couple of dollars after an hour, if you can handle that then play smaller until you build a bankroll of a couple of hundred dollars, $50 is not nearly enough to play .10 .25 in my opinion but it is often very hard to follow proper bankroll management when you start with such a small roll.
and dont swap to sss unless you think that deep stack poker is really out of your skill level, sss is very effective because it eliminates the majority of the difficult decisions of the game, but if you are making the right bets and the right lay downs deep stack poker is much more profitable,
Exactly. You're playing with 2 buyins. This is obviously going to be -EV for your BR. Its horrible to grind out but I'd start at 5NL. 10bi should be enough at this level cos you should have a huge edge if you are any way decent. If you aren't that confident start at 2NL.
Be prepared to move up and down in stakes quite readily also. I have moved between 20NL and 200NL quite regularly over the past year. The main reason I haven't gone bust is that if I'm running badly I move down fast to avoid losses and recover confidence. There is no problem being hugely overrolled for a level. I've regularly had 3k in my account and played .10/.20. Being underrolled for a level is a huge problem, and no matter how good you are, playing with 2bi is -EV for your roll.
Joined: Dec '07
Location: Finland
Age: 70 (M)
Posts: 329
the opponent played horrible because the 5xpot bet is so sick bet because it scares off mot of people off and when you flop a flush you dont want that people go off
With $50 starting capital, i'd suggest you play no more than 0.15/0.30 for cash games. And sng's anything $5 and lower untill you have a bigger bankroll.
Many people want too much too soon i feel, me included i have been there. But fact is you need to be patient, manage your bankroll well, accept the limits you can afford to play.
