Let's build some bankroll - who's with me?

Progress Update

Day 34: 377% ($7,531)
Day 35: 378% ($7,559)
Day 36: 429% ($8,585)

Finally an upswing, I was getting extremely frustrated. After 20,000 hands at $1/$2, my BB/100 sits at a fairly low 3.6, so I very much hope that a few more days like today are coming my way.
Actually, based on my calculations, I'm still supposed to win the next 50 situations where I'm a 9:1 favorite

Chris_TC said:

After 20,000 hands at $1/$2, my BB/100 sits at a fairly low 3.6, so I very much hope that a few more days like today are coming my way.

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That's looking pretty healthy to me Chris, despite the lean period that you've been having. If my mental arithmatic is okay, the $180 per day profit is a pretty admirable return.

Day 33: 256% (337.59)
Day 34: 256% (338.07)
Day 35: 266% (350.60)

It was one of those days when I had fewer then usual playable hands, and even less premium hands. On the plus side I was able to exploit the resulting rock like table image to take a few smallish pots with semi bluffs, but the down side is that I didn’t get paid off with the couple of monsters that I did get. I guess that in cricket parlance it was just as case of bowling consistent line and length on an unresponsive pitch that was offering nothing through the air or off the seam (with apologies to the non cricket playing nations out there who won’t know what the hell that analogy is all about)!

Day 103.. 106.3%....
Day 104.. 105.2%....
Day 105.. 108.5%...
Day 106.. 109.0%....
Day 107.. 108.3%....
Day 108.. 108.3%....
Day 109.. 113.6%....

Day 106 lost in ring, won second in CCoP#5, ~evened out.
Day 107, lost CCoP#6, ring didn't help out.
Day 108 and 109 - no action, tied up.
Day 110, good day at ftp. Decided to build up my UB bankroll and took a chance playing my usual limit but way under-rolled (for the site, not for my bankroll in general. Took to the table what I take at ftp, but it was my whole bankroll at UB. Bank funds waiting for site deposit backed this up 25x) Doubled my UB bankroll in about a half hour.

Graph included from my Excel sheet. Days on axis only days ploted; not a match to text days. Finally looking like it may go up, though.

Made Silver Iron Man, 12 more days getting first deposit bonus at ftp. Then on to Bodog or UB for their first deposit bonus Silver $15,000 tournament on Dec. 8, only 634 players, so entry is worth $26. Not bad bonus, I guess.

I got tired of the freerolls on my site so I decided to deposite $50. Played the $.01/$.02 ring games for a few hours so I'm going to start updating my BR on here with you guys

Here goes.

Starting BR is $50.69


Day 1: 117% (59.48)


I'm still going to build my bankroll on FT from $0. Played in a railbirds freeroll on there today and made $0.28 lol, but I'm on my way!! My plan is to build up to $2.20 and play in a SNG to try to build up my BR.

Chris_TC said:

To pigpen and Boltneck:
I stumbled over an extremely interesting Blog, here's the link
The law school dropout's poker blog: October 2004

This was written by a Limit Hold'em player who builds an amazing bankroll. The Blog starts with him playing $3/$6 Limit and he starts moving up as his bankroll increases. Only one year into the blog, he pulls a $50,000 (net profit) month.
This thing is an amazing read, I recommend starting from the first Blog entry.

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I read almost all of this and think it is fiction. There are not enough limit tables available to eight table the limits he says he does. His rakeback line does not go up if his base line does not for periods over a month. This means his rakeback line on the graph is just a multiple of the base line since you would get rakeback even if you lost your main game.

Boltneck said:

If my mental arithmatic is okay, the $180 per day profit is a pretty admirable return.

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Wow, actually I had never even thought about it that way. I've become so used to thinking of my bankroll in relative terms that the real world monetary value may have slipped my mind a bit there.
I've never made a withrawal except for $100 once, so my bankroll hasn't been anything more than this abstract virtual number on some poker site.

By the way, what limits do you play? Do you use the standard LHE "300BB rule" or do you have different bankroll rules?

pigpen02 said:

I read almost all of this and think it is fiction.

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I honestly don't think someone would spend years of their life making up something like this. All his thoughts and stories seemed very coherent to me when I read them so I have no reason not to believe him.

Maybe you doubt him because it all seems a bit science fiction to us who play much lower limits. When I started out with $60 in my bankroll a half a year ago I would have never imagined to ever comfortably sit with $800 total on four different tables. Now I do it every day and can't way to double the limits.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if his Blog were entirely made up (including all the frustration, the bad beat streaks etc.), it certainly has the power to inspire. And even if this one guy may not be telling the truth, there really are people who make big 5-figure profits every month by playing online. The 2+2 forums have loads of graphs proving this.

I don't know how far everybody wants to push their online poker game, but I do know that we all want to make profits, build our bankrolls and hopefully increase the limits, thus increasing the profits even more. And it's success stories like this guy's that lead us the way.

I very much hope that this thread will eventually be filled with success stories, even if they're smaller in magnitude, to provide motivation to all those out there who want to get serious about their game.

My personal goal is to regularly play $5/$10 No Limit (possibly even $10/$20), and that's where I'm trying to go. It may seem like a bit of science fiction right now, just like $0.50/$1 may seem like science fiction to those starting out with a $20 bankroll, but the beauty of poker is that it's all relative. And a growing bankroll will eventually turn science fiction into reality.

This said, I wish great success to all participants, keep the updates coming, and after this somewhat lengthy post I'll see you back at the tables.

I just wanted to commend on such a great job everyone in this thread is
doing!!!

The undergrad blog was good. To me it was interesting, but it seemed like he started to go mad in the middle months. After that it seemed like the madness progressed each month following. Anyone else notice that?

Anyways, keep it up!!! You players are doing awesome.

Chris_TC said:

By the way, what limits do you play? Do you use the standard LHE "300BB rule" or do you have different bankroll rules?

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I play 50c / $1 at the moment and only play single tables. I really feel that I should (as a minimum) try to play two tables. However, I'm still relatively inexperienced and don't feel able to properly observe and concentrate if I'm constantly switching between tables - perhaps I should invest in a decent monitor!

I started out playing poker for fun (and still do), perhaps just a couple of hours at weekends and maybe the odd evening. However, due to health issues I am presently unable to work (long term at best, and possibly permanently) so I've been playing a lot more recently. I'm under no illusions about my current level of expertise, though I do hope to learn and improve. For the moment at least, I'm satisfied to make a few $'s which will supplement my income if I do ultimately have to retire early on health grounds.

Until recently I had no need for a BRM strategy as a few hundred $'s here or there if I lost would have no discernible impact on my income, though things are obviously somewhat different now hence my new found obsession with BRM!

I do stick pretty much to the 300 BB rule. I'll move up when I hit $600 (it feels a long way off right now) and move down should I drop below $200. Effectively, I will always be playing at a table where my BR is between 200 and 300 BBs.

Chris_TC said:

I honestly don't think someone would spend years of their life making up something like this. All his thoughts and stories seemed very coherent to me when I read them so I have no reason not to believe him.

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I didn't say it was not GOOD fiction, much as Snowman's diary. I did not see what his screen name was or where he plays, so there is no way to see for ourselves that he is really playing. Even fiction can be an inspiration.

pigpen02 said:

There are not enough limit tables available to eight table the limits he says he does.

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He was playing more than one site.(at a time) Some of his pictures show dual monitors with 2 or 3 different tables and skins.

Boltneck said:

I play 50c / $1 at the moment and only play single tables. I really feel that I should (as a minimum) try to play two tables. However, I'm still relatively inexperienced and don't feel able to properly observe and concentrate if I'm constantly switching between tables - perhaps I should invest in a decent monitor!

Click to expand...

I started out playing on one table myself, and it took me quite a while to get used to playing two tables. Give it time, and eventually one table will probably start to bore you

However, I still think that quality (of your play) is much more important than quantity (of tables). There are a lot of people who think that the more tables you play the awesomer you are. But I'd much rather focus on just a few tables than 12-table lower stakes.

You're going to make less mistakes, and the game is going to be much more fun with fewer tables. The only reason why I 4-table now is because I play full ring. Since there are 9 or 10 players at all times, this gives me enough "breathing room". I wouldn't want to 4-table 6-max games.

Also, Pokeroffice (almost the same as Pokertracker) is a huge help when multitabling because you don't need to make your own reads.
Just looking at the player stats reveals much more than a simple read.
If the guy's postflop aggression factor is only 1.4 and he fires out two bets at me then he's probably got a big hand.
If his C-Bet percentage is 92% then I may call his flop bet with my underpair to see if he slows down.
etc.

Chris_TC said:

If his C-Bet percentage is 92% then I may call his flop bet with my underpair to see if he slows down.
etc.

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That's what I so like about this forum - the tips that you pick up, even when they may not specifically be meant as tips! I hadn't really though of the above, so I just checked my own cbets figures. It's 90.5%, which is probably a little on the high side and makes me too predictable. Yet another flaw in my game highlighted (not to mention a potential weakness in the villain to look out for). Thanks Chris.

Day 34: 256% (338.07)
Day 35: 266% (350.60)
Day 36: 284% (374.05)

Entered my second S+G today ($5 + 0.50) and finished just out of the money in 4th place. I have so say the games look pretty soft, and once I get used to NL I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to make a decent profit here. I intend to continue to play no more than one S+G per day for now though, and play mostly my preferred “bread and butter” limit cash games.

Back to the limit cash games and I think today must have been designated “rent a rock” day on the iPoker network. Couldn’t find a table with more than 25% PFR for love nor money, and it’s usually in the 30%-40% range. As a result, the action was pretty slow. However, the variance gods had apparently taken the day off, so it was steady profit all day. You’d expect the beats to be few and far between when things are this tight, but it was almost as though the best hand was destined to win every time, it was just a case of making the most from the winners and minimising the losses on the rest. If only all days were like this.

Progress Update

Day 35: 378% ($7,559)
Day 36: 429% ($8,585)
Day 37: 395% ($7,901)

Yesterday, I was granted one day with fairly few beats, today it was back to the same old. Why is it that when I have a flush, somebody else has the nut flush? And that when I have the nut flush, somebody else has quads? I really don't know, but it's getting annoying.

At least I'll clear the Walk of Fame status on Hollywood tomorrow. It's supposed to give you decent monthly bonuses, but I'm not sure on the details yet.

Day 109.. 113.7%....
Day 110.. 116.5%....

Day 110, another good day at Ultimatebet. Have now tripled my Ultimatebet bankroll. Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars canceled each other out.

Worked on my graph from my Excel sheet. Days now represent days from Full Tilt Poker initial deposit; percent is based from total BR that day. I like the change in slope.

pigpen02 said:

I like the change in slope.

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Very nice. Don't try to take the derivative or your computer may explode.:laugh:

Day 35: 266% (350.60)
Day 36: 284% (374.05)
Day 37: 284% (374.38)

I bombed out in 6th place in my $5 + 50, then went on to play some pretty mediocre ring games (too many poor decisions with marginal hands). Being somewhat generous, I’d say I pretty much got what I deserved (which was next to nothing) – will need to play better tomorrow.

Progress Update

Day 36: 429% ($8,585)
Day 37: 395% ($7,901)
Day 38: 428% ($8,565)

There has been a significant change in my game. I was getting so annoyed with full ring (having to wait for those few premium hands all the time) that I decided to switch to 6-max.

During today's sessions, I've been playing 2 tables of 6-max and 1 table of full ring. This gives me about the same amount of hands/hour but I get to see many more flops and can play much looser.
Two big advantages: there's more action which I like, and I accumulate poker points quicker which helps clear bonuses faster.

In terms of gameplay, today was a huge rollercoaster. I started out by losing 3 stacks, then I went up to 8,400, then I went back down to 7,500, and then I went back up to where I finished.
Overall, I think I played pretty well. I made a couple of big folds, and I think I'm quickly getting used to how 6-max plays. If only I could finally hit 10K, I'm really impatient now.

Guys(especially Chris and Boltneck), I extended the graphing software to also calculate and plot best fit line. That graph is plotted separately as a 3rd image in case you don't like it.

The meaning of that line is your long term profitability. It provides the "best" estimate for your profitability. It is a line because it is assumed that your profitability doesn't change over a relatively short period of time.

Since your sessions are not of equal length and of equal mixture of games, the profit per session is not the most accurate way to compute profitability. Nevertheless, it is very close to what a more accurate method would provide.

If you like this, you can post your results with that enhancement. If you don't like the colors or fonts, let me know and I will change them.

Below is a sample output.

Chris_TC said:

Progress Update

Day 36: 429% ($8,585)
Day 37: 395% ($7,901)
Day 38: 428% ($8,565)

There has been a significant change in my game. I was getting so annoyed with full ring (having to wait for those few premium hands all the time) that I decided to switch to 6-max.

During today's sessions, I've been playing 2 tables of 6-max and 1 table of full ring. This gives me about the same amount of hands/hour but I get to see many more flops and can play much looser.
Two big advantages: there's more action which I like, and I accumulate poker points quicker which helps clear bonuses faster.

In terms of gameplay, today was a huge rollercoaster. I started out by losing 3 stacks, then I went up to 8,400, then I went back down to 7,500, and then I went back up to where I finished.
Overall, I think I played pretty well. I made a couple of big folds, and I think I'm quickly getting used to how 6-max plays. If only I could finally hit 10K, I'm really impatient now.

Click to expand...

Chris, you are doing great. Don't get impatient, you will hit $10k. And then there is $15k, then $20k, then $50k. There are so many numbers out there it is not funny.:laugh:

Wow Cheetah, you just keep on amazing me. Thank you very much! You rock! :rock:

I love how the profitability line doesn't plateau off like the normal profit lines do, this makes it much much easier to keep the big picture in mind and see where you're headed.

Day 110 116.5%
Day 111 113.6%

Day 111, another good day at Ultimatebet, but not good enough to wipe out variance at Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.

Added trend line for latter part of graph where I started playing only limit.

Day 1 : 100% (50)
Day 7 : 150%
Day 17: 198%
Day 24: 240%
Day 35: 300%

I'm not going to post an update until I can see if (posting here) it is possibly affecting my play. I assure you I haven't lost it all, or any for that matter, since my last update.

It looks like everyone's doing well. GJ & GL. cyas

STARTING BR - $110.03
DAY 1 - 108.93
DAY 2 - 125.53
DAY 3 - 115.13
DAY 4 - 85.53!
DAY 5- OFF!!
DAY 6 - 102.13

ok i've totally forgotten the formula for calculating percentages here so please be gentle when explaining it. I've been out of school for 7 years now.

Is it starting bankroll/ result x 100?