My on-line poker bankroll hit the felt a few weeks back, but I’m back now with a new infusion of cash. The story really begins back in the old days as the whole poker boom hit. I’ll try to keep it short.
I guess I pumped $200 or more into low limit and micro-no-limit poker trying to learn what I was doing. I was reading books and picking up what I could from 2+2 and WPT broadcasts. Shortly before meeting Flipchip and the Poker Prof at the 2004 Fiesta al Lago at the Bellagio, my bankroll hit the skids. I was out of cash, and besides, it was time for vacation in Yellowstone with the wife and Vegas with the in-laws. I quit playing on-line for a while.
Well, after getting back from Vegas and watching the pros play in person, I decided that I needed a poker fix and I didn’t want to wait for all of the transfers to clear. I searched my accounts and found that I had one quarter ($.25) left in my PokerStars account. That was enough to get me into some .01/.02 NL games. Just the fix that I needed.
I won that night, and the next, and the next. Pretty soon, I had built that quarter up to $10, then $20, and $50 and on. I don’t remember exactly how high I got it, but by the time the UIGEA hit, my roll was over $325. Not knowing what was going to become of on-line poker, I decided to pull all but $50 out and just play with that on Full Tilt. I worked that fifty to over $110 before lady luck caught up and my roll found the felt. That was August.
And that is where I stayed. Except for burning some Full Tilt Points on turbo freerolls, I didn’t play on-line poker. Then, last night I entered the PokerStars Freeroll to play everyone’s favorite Canadian (DN) in Aruba. I didn’t qualify, but out of 10,000 players, I finished 1234th and scored $1. I took that dollar to the NL tables and quickly turned it into $2.24. Tonight, a nice rivered straight and a couple other small pots brought the total to $4.41.
I guess by now you can tell that it is not about the amount of money, but about winning and learning. I’m just going to have some fun and see if I can push this start into anything worth playing for. I’ll try my best and only step up levels when appropriate based on the size of the roll. (Is it time for .02/.04 yet?) I’ll try to give somewhat regular updates on my progress. I’ll enter the WSOP main event when I hit $10,000. That should be somewhere around 2023 if my luck holds.
3 comments:
Use Chris Ferguson's 0 to 10K rules. They work.
I have been freerolling over at Bugsy's Club, since they had a nice WSOP freeroll system (well, nice except that I couldn't get to round 3 :) ). When Bugsy's went to slam the door on their BPP (points) to dollars conversion, I took my 855 points and went to $8.55.
Using his $2.50 exception (you can take $2.50 to any cash table) to start building bankroll, I've built that $8.55 to $23 in just a couple of weeks of off and on play. It helps that a bunch of people have converted BPPs and are now being donkeys 40 cents at a time...
Now I'm aiming for $100 before Christmas, sticking to Chris' bankroll rules. I take $1.40 to the 0.02/0.05 tables, as a stop-limit (if I lose $1.40 at a table, it's too sharky anyway). If I get to $3 or so, I leave by next blinds and turn super-tight in between. Until I beat this weakness in my game for giving back profits, having a hard stop helps. It's better than wondering how that $4 profit became a $1 loss, at least.
The Ferguson rules definitely bring a limit attitude to NL, but I think they're smart.
Now, anyone want to buy some Bugsy's money for Full Tilt money? :)
Too many blogs I read focus on the top level and it all goes over my head - good to see someone chatting about the lower levels of the game and hopefully a rags to riches story!
Thanks PBR.
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