A Bankroll Experiment

In the midst of Chris "Jesus" Ferguson's 0 to $10,000 online poker challenge, I thought I would give it a shot, and put my bankroll management skills to the test.  Instead of starting at 0, I simple began with five dollars sent from PassiveHarry, courtesy of WDIAV and their generous user title cash benefit.  Before I embarked on my challenge, I made sure to read Ferguson's notes on FullTilt.com.  His techniques and patience absolutely blew me away... 

Although Ferguson plays online poker for real money; he mainly does so for a challenge, solely to improve his game.  In his article, Ferguson reveals that he would rather play online poker for free, compared to playing for real money.  "While playing poker, regardless for free, or for real money, you should always play the same." Ferguson says in his Bluff magazine interview.

Back to my experiment, starting with five dollars saved me hours and hours worth of time. Having to start with 0 would mean playing in poker freerolls until one built up their account to at least $1.25 cents to even play in a real poker game.  Freerolls take hours on end; hours that I simply do not have.

Anyway, with the five dollars I had, I begun playing .5/.10 cent NL Hold’em. I started at a nine person table.  This would increase the number of hands I saw and decrease the number of times I had to post any sort of blind. 

I sat down with $3, and in a matter of seconds found myself down to $2.25.  I was sitting a table with a loose cannon, and knew playing with him would only result in me losing my buy-in.  So, sitting out and standing up was in my best interest.  Down $0.75, I relocated in a new table.  Started with $3 again, I sat at a table that had 6/9 players.  In an hours time I had worked the $3 into $9.50.

After increasing my bankroll by a slim margin, I decided to bank my profit of $6, and stand up.  Moving to a new table, I put $3 down again.  In ten minutes time, my $3 turned into $6. 

Playing $0.5/$0.10 cash games are vital while building a small bankroll.  The rake of lower stakes sit-n-go's is absurd, and would hurt my bankroll immensely. 

At the current moment, using solid bankroll management skills, my cashier stands at $14.23. The most important element while performing your own bankroll management experiment is to stay strict to percentiles and not play above your limits. 

Take my situation.  Turning 5 into 14 doesn’t mean I increase my stakes.  I will continue to grind away until the money increases (hopefully) before I even begin to think of increasing my limits. Put your bankroll management skills to the test, try you're very own experiment.  You will surprisingly learn a lot about your game, and hopefully be able to recognize past mistakes you made and now correct them.