Very briefly, the challenge stipulated that I start with $20 on my favourite poker site bwin.com and the idea is to carefully build that into something more substantial. Surely my years of writing about poker stand me in good stead for this challenge I thought, but there were initial teething problems when I first sat down at the poker tables. Most of the problems were my own approach to the lower limits and until I had a semi-tilting chat session over Skype with a poker friend of mine I feared the challenge was going to end in failure. I would be pretty embarrassed to have to admit that.

My first sessions started with me being too liberal from early and middle position and it is vital for the lower limits and micro limits in particular that you are tight. There is no room for making fancy plays at this level, something I was woefully ignorant to in my early hands. When you have a good hand you bet and when you do not, you fold. It is really as simple as that and therefore your sessions are decided largely on your cards. Players are inclined to call with anything so checking the flop to barrel on the turn does not do you much good. I am just sorry it took 25% of my bankroll to confirm this concept I was already aware of in my mind!

$5 down with my bankroll begging me to re-evaluate I took a break and looked over a few hands. I was disgusted to see the sorts of hands I write articles about and criticise. Not good for an aspiring poker writer and player to admit so I gave myself a harsh verbal bashing and returned to the tables. My friend over Skype said “When you get something you bet, bet, bet like a madman”. What he meant was bet hard and do not be overly creative. A heavy dose of that strong poker pill immediately cured my fancy-play-itis and I returned to the bwin.com virtual felt a new man.

After much more simple poker that was a little boring I emerged a winner from those games and less than a dollar down overall. A 5% tuition fee was a small price to pay in order to learn that the fancy plays must be backed up with a solid foundation of ABC poker. I hope to carry on from where I left off and continue to improve my bankroll. Confidence is key in poker and I finished the session at the right time and am looking forward to my next one.

Stay tuned for more updates on my poker challenge and perhaps we will face off on the bwin.com poker tables in the near future.

By Malcolm Clarke

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So you start with $500 then and you play six tables of NL25, the plan is to drop down to NL10 if your poker bankroll drops to $300. It initially drops to $380 after you start but a good run of hands and situations sees you rising to $550 after the first week. You are also getting a good rake deal as well.

You are playing tight-solid and are merely looking to take advantage of the weak players at these levels. In week number two then you are really starting to feel out this level and you win a further six buy-ins which takes your poker bankroll up to $700. This equates to 14 buy-ins at the next level up which is NL50 but you want to get some more experience at NL25 first.

Week three sees you go up and then down several times and basically break even on the week. You are still $200 up on the month which is eight buy-ins and that increases hugely in week four when you go on a heater and win a total of fifteen buy-ins which sees your stack increase by another $375 and you now have $1075 in your poker bankroll.

You get another $75 in rakeback so you now have $1150 in your bankroll. You are seriously tempted to withdraw the $650 in winnings but you fancy having a shot at NL50. Both are viable options and you do have 23 buy-ins at the higher NL50 level which is a good bankroll to have for that level as well.

But you cannot just jump into any level with your whole poker bankroll and stay there for the simple reason being that this new level could be too tough for you. Caution is definitely advised when you move up. So you try your hand at NL50 with ten buy-ins safe in the knowledge that if you lose the $500 then you still have $650 to play NL25 with again. This is still more than you started with but if it does go wrong then this could be an indication that NL50 is too tough.

Of course there is a third option and that is to keep on playing NL25. Your sample size is still very small so you have not proved that you can beat NL25 yet. You change your mind and decide to wisely continue with your education and play NL25 for another month.

After a break even two week stretch you then win a total of sixteen buy-ins over the second half of the month which is a nice $400. You also get another $75 in rakeback which now takes your poker bankroll to a nice healthy $1550. You seem to be beating NL25 and now decide to take a six buy-in shot at NL50 to see how that goes.

Moving up and down through the levels like this can be your best weapon when it comes to making money in any online poker game.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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Even non-league footballers can play the game for a living. This may not give them the lifestyle of a top player in the Premier League but a living is a living. So what I am trying to say here is that you certainly do not need to play poker at the highest level in order to make a living. This then means that you do not have to be a world class poker player to earn money at the game.

You may have seen my articles on my bankroll challenge where I proved that a player could make $1000/week starting from as little as $500 multi-tabling NL50 games. At the time of writing that equates to £600/week and seeing as there is no tax paid on poker winnings in the UK then it is tax free.

That is a yearly income of £30,000 which would equate to around £45,000 if you were making that kind of money in a regular job. That kind of income is about double what the national average weekly wage is in the UK and constitutes a good living when comparing it to the average population.

But yet it wouldn’t bring the life of the jet set and it wouldn’t make you rich but then again, the vast majority of poker players have more mundane goals than that. There is nothing wrong in aiming high but the vast majority of people never reach those highs. So in my opinion, your goals should be grounded in reality and if they are then your chances of playing poker for a living would be greatly enhanced.

If you restrict yourself to only playing poker against novice or intermediate players then you will find that there will be far more poker games that you can extract value from. For example at a level like NL50, many players will either be weak or be playing for rakeback and multi-tabling. This will then make them weak but in other areas. Any player who is playing numerous tables but also playing too tightly is going to be weak simply because they are rocky enough to be folding too much.

So the bottom line is that you don’t have to be a great poker player in order to do well from playing poker. As long as you don’t expect to make millions from the game and set yourself more mundane goals then your chances of success will be very high. Working on your game and becoming a very good player is not worth much if you only sit in games with very good players like yourself. What types of players do I like…..give me the fish in the lower stakes poker games any day of the week!

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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I drop by again because I want to ask something. Well, since January, I’ve been playing at the $1/2 level and have gained a lot of learnings. Like the typical player, I’ve experienced the bad and good times. Specifically, I’ve learned how to manage my playing styles well and eventually for that built a bankroll.

As of now, I’m planning to move on to $3/6 level, but I’m not yet so sure if I’ll do good in such level.

Any advise on what size of a bankroll should I consider? I’m not sure, but I think you’ve advised before that it should be something like 200X the big bet.

Thanks in advance!

Jones
Jones,

Personally, I recommend 300 big bets as a bankroll to help offset some of the swings you will encounter. In this event, a bankroll at $3/$6 will be $1,800.

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Well, my main reason for dropping by is because of a one particular idea that keeps on playing on my mind.

By playing poker, I’ve learned that it is very important that you know when is the right time to leave the table. The idea seems simple but it’s actually hard to do. Any advise about such?

By the way, with what budget should I start playing 20/40 limit, 50/100 limit, and 75/150 limit? And when is actually the right time to quit when I’m losing or even winning?

Thanks and more power!

Jack
Jack,

When a game has gone bad, it is time to leave. When you feel that you no longer have an advantage, it is time to leave. When you are too tired to play effectively, then it’s time to leave. Also, if you have lost multiple buy-ins or around 30 big bets in Limit Holdem, it’s usually time to leave the game.

I would have a 300 big bet bankroll to play at any level. That would mean $12,000 for 20/40, $30,000 for 50/100, and $45,000 for 75/150. This will help to cushion swings.

The best time to quit when you are losing is when you feel you don’t have an advantage or when you reach your loss limit. I recommend you setting a loss limit. I set mine at 30 big bets.

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Ever since, I consider myself an above average poker player when in terms of winnings and the way I play home tournaments. But just recently, I’m considering making it to the casinos so I’m not sure if things will still be the same.

I’m also having problems on my games online. I just deposited $20 or $30 to eventually gain lots of experiences. But things went out of track and I was left alone with phantom swings in my bankroll. For an instance, I’ve taken $30 and with just a matter of two weeks turned it into over $400, but only to lose it in just a week. Same case with my $20 which have tuned to $100 in just one week. Do you think there’s something wrong on how I place my bankroll?

How much money do you think I should bring to the table? How about 20 times the big blind? Is it just right or it should be greater?

Another thing, what percentage of my total bankroll should I place at risk? 5% , 10% or more? Of course, as a player, I want to see my total bankroll to increase and get bigger and bigger, but I don’t want to be in possession of it too. Any advise? Most especially that I will be setting a total bankroll of $2000 and planning to place 5% to 10% of it at risk.

Thanks for any advice in advance.
Lee
Lee,

I usually like to sit down with 20 big bets when I set down in a limit game and a full buy-in for a NL game. At any one session I will risk no more than 30 big bets in a limit game and 3 to 5 buy-in for a NL game. 30 big bets is 10% of a 300 big bet bankroll, which is what I recommend to play with.

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I am a regular visitor of your site. In fact, I’ve already read almost all of your answers, advices, etc. I have also followed one of your suggestion in one of your articles – set a goal for myself. I started playing 500 up to 2k in two months and so on and so forth. But of course, just like a regular player, my way to success is also like riding in a roller coaster.

I have so many questions in mind, that’s why I visited your site once again. But I don’t want to bother you that much so I’ll just ask two questions.

1. To be honest, I am a beginner in the world of poker. And so as a beginner, is it right to have a goal relating to playing 500 up to 2k in two months? By the way, though I am a beginner, I believe I am very open to learning and really a fast learner.
2. How about my bankroll support? What game do you think I can play best? Ever since, I like no limit more than limit, as well as tourneys, but I found that the latter has a low potential of bringing in money.

Anyway, can I play 50 buy in no limit’s for example? How about 100, is this too much?

Hope to hear from you soon.
Dave
Dave,

1. There is nothing wrong with goals, but they should be realistic. 500 to 2,000 may be realistic to some, but just starting out, I would focus more on making good decision as opposed to chasing wins and losses.
   
2. You could play 50 buy in games with a bankroll of 500 but you can’t take that huge of swings in your game. I would try and maybe play $25 buyin games as you have twice as many buy-in for that game and can stand the swings easier. 100 buyin games are too much for your small bankroll.

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