Building a bankroll online

Background: I’ve been playing Texas Holdem for close to a year now. I started playing online last Summer. I deposited $100 and experimented with a variety of formats including large multi-table tournaments, cash games, and single-table tournaments. By December 1st of last year I had close to $300 and had more or less formulated my techniques. I started using Gnumeric to track my progress and for statistical analysis.

Observations: Poker is a game of luck and skill. Because of the luck-factor, you have to track a player’s progress over a statistically meaningful period of time. On any given day the best player in the world may lose money. But in the long run, the good players come out ahead. As you can see from the graph, I had periods of a couple weeks where I basically won no money. But if you look at the whole graph over the 3-month period you can see that the trend is basically linear with a slope of about +15.

Tips: I’ve learned some lessons the hard way. If you are interested in playing poker online for real money, please consider the following:

• Pick a format and game that you enjoy and can beat. I mostly play No-Limit Holdem cash games and single-table tournaments. Occasionally I’ll play a multi-table tournament. The payouts are higher if you make one of the top spots in a multi-table tournament, but you’re not going to make the tops spots as often.
• Do not play limits that your bankroll cannot sustain. I cannot emphasize this enough. Since you are going to have bad-beats from time to time you do not want to risk a large portion of your bankroll at once. My rule of thumb for No-Limit cash games is that your bankroll should be about 1,500 to 2,000 times the big blind. Keep playing at that reasonable level until you’ve built your bankroll up enough to move to the next level.
• There are going to be people and hands that drive you nuts. Don’t let them get you on a tilt. Sometimes when I lose a big hand to someone who played it really poorly and got lucky, I will simply stop playing, maybe even for the rest of the day. Let the hand go and remind yourself that in the long-run you will win with correct play.

Summary: My little three-month exeriment turned out pretty well. I’ve turned $275 into over $1,600 playing on average about an hour a day. My next installment will focus more on strategy than money management. I’ll continue to record my bankroll data as I move up to higher limits. Should be interesting…

Tags: Poker