Building a Bankroll from Scratch
I’m a prime example that with enough drive a poker player can turn as little as $50 into a fortune playing poker. That’s what I started with five years ago, and since then I’ve bought a truck, a boat, a laptop and more with my poker earnings, and I’ve never had to re-deposit any money.
It took me about six months to make my first $10,000 playing Hold’em, and I realize now that I could have cut that time down considerably had I made a larger initial deposit. Some people would rather just deposit more money and play the higher limits right away, but as an inexperienced player, as I once was, I felt it was safer starting small and building up a bankroll so I could learn and grow as a player.
Building up a bankroll from scratch isn’t easy - it takes patience and determination. You will spend a long time building up a bankroll when starting from a small deposit, and you must have the patience to ride out the ups and downs of consistent poker play to attain that profit.
Determination comes into play because you have to set your goal and make it your highest priority. Everything else in life will become secondary as you begin playing poker as much as possible to meet that goal. Get in the zone before every session and treat it as if it were your last. That way, you’ll always be playing your best poker while working towards your goal.
The first and easiest way to meet your bankroll goals is through tournaments. I started out playing $10 sit-and-go tournaments with 10 people in them until I’d made about $300, then I graduated to $30 buy-ins. When I had about $700 in my bankroll, I moved up to $50 buy-ins and the rest is history as I made my first $1,000 and advanced to the cash tables.
You can also go the cash game route to build your roll. This route is harder because you have to start with playing extremely low and boring limits at first. Plus, the swings can be horrible since many inexperienced players will try to draw out on you. If you do decide to follow the cash game path, the best way is to play only premium hands - “push and pray,” as the motto goes.
The beauty of building a large bankroll is that you can play weaker holdings in hopes of flopping a monster, and when you do hit that big hand in No-Limit, you’ll get paid handsomely. Just remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your bankroll won’t be either. Give it some time, and I’m sure you’ll eventually be sitting with the big dogs.
Source: PokerListings.com