put off moving up the stakes.

jordski11

Hi, 

New to the sky poker forums so hello everyone.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice or tips for me for helping me to eventually succeed in playing higher buy-in tourneys. 

Basically I play very small stakes (£1.10 6max SNGs and I'll occasionally enter some torunaments of a buy in of around £2.30 which I've done okay in with few top 6 finishes here and there. Considering I've done okay in these I'll sometimes buy into tournaments that are a little bit more expensive (for my limited bankroll) but i I just seem to get awful luck in them and it puts me off them. Then the cycle repeats. I entered a couple of £5.75 tournaments today and went out in each case in frustrating ways. 

First time I had AK, raised under the gun to 4bb and had one person call in mid position. Flop came and I paired my ace, he called to a couple of bets of around two thirds of the pot on the flop and the turn and then I put him all in on the river with him having about 300 left. I was putting him on an Ace looking at how the board came out for him to still be calling. In the end it turned out he'd hit two pair on the river with Aces and 4s. A hand I couldn't have anticipated because I'd have thought that kind of hand would have been folded after my pre-flop raise. (it wasn't suited either) that crippled me and i went out after shoving on the next hand with 200 chips left with A10 suited.

(Also feel free to tell me if I could have played this better, was it unfortunate or could i have prevented it possibly?) 

The other time I called a shove from a stack slightly smaller than mine with QQ, he had 9s and hit a 9 on the turn. 

With a limited bankroll of about £30 in my account, I've quickly lost about £12 and it puts me off paying more to enter tournaments even though I do feel like I could do well in them. Does anyone have any advice? Should I just keep on with playing small stakes? It's just I don't get the impression that the players are much better in the slightly more expensive tournaments and on top of that there's so much more to be won. 

TeddyBloat

bankroll management

the best players on the site would regularly go broke playing £5 games off a £30 bankroll. they'd go broke more often than not infact.

you have a few options.

if you enjoy £5 games then simply play them and deposit when you need to. poker is fun, if you have a budget for entertainment then it is a cheap hobby per hour spent. if you bink you no longer need to deposit.

if you want to take the £5 games seriously then deposit 40-100 buyins [£200-500] and the inevitable 2, 5, 10 buyin downswings wont seem nearly as bad.

grind your bankroll up. read some of this thread by garyQQQ who turned 1000 poker points into £1000 over the course of many months.

https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby?action=show_static&page=poker_community_forums&plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3a57795ac2-1793-4377-b4cf-e124b0f555f4Forum%3adf77f82c-151f-4bea-aae1-fb423dcae1faDiscussion%3ae6e67ebe-a969-4d84-860b-339191ee6427

it really inspired me to make my own poker bankroll journey and treat my roll with care. it wasnt easy for gary, and you will recognise the fustration in some of his posts. but if you are clever with your game selection and shot taking you can grow a micro bankroll into a warchest for the £5-10 level and the discipline you will gain will be invaluable.

jordski11

In Response to Re: put off moving up the stakes.:

bankroll management the best players on the site would regularly go broke playing £5 games off a £30 bankroll. they'd go broke more often than not infact. you have a few options. if you enjoy £5 games then simply play them and deposit when you need to. poker is fun, if you have a budget for entertainment then it is a cheap hobby per hour spent. if you bink you no longer need to deposit. if you want to take the £5 games seriously then deposit 40-100 buyins [£200-500] and the inevitable 2, 5, 10 buyin downswings wont seem nearly as bad. grind your bankroll up. read some of this thread by garyQQQ who turned 1000 poker points into £1000 over the course of many months. https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby?action=show_static&page=poker_community_forums&plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3a57795ac2-1793-4377-b4cf-e124b0f555f4Forum%3adf77f82c-151f-4bea-aae1-fb423dcae1faDiscussion%3ae6e67ebe-a969-4d84-860b-339191ee6427 it really inspired me to make my own poker bankroll journey and treat my roll with care. it wasnt easy for gary, and you will recognise the fustration in some of his posts. but if you are clever with your game selection and shot taking you can grow a micro bankroll into a warchest for the £5-10 level and the discipline you will gain will be invaluable.
Posted by TeddyBloat

Thanks for the reply teddy, what you've said makes a lot of sense. I might look into depositing a larger sum like you say. I'm just wary of going on a bad run and anilhating the little profit I've managed to make over the short tie I've been playing. I'm a little bit obsessed with sharkscoping myself and increasing that profit figrue haha. 

TeddyBloat

haha, graph-stalking is a bad habit to get into.

unfortunately you will be uber aware of 2-3 buyin losses of a small roll anyway.

concentrate on making the best possible decisions you can each time you make one, and avoid looking at your graph regularly

bad runs WILL happen. if you have a decent roll you can absorb that loss more easily.

Daisy666

hi,i hope that your stay on sky fills your pockets with ££££,s,think you played the hand well, after all only hyndsite reveals the FH....better to be wary....88 is not the strongest after all....anyway good luck in the future, unless of course your playing me....i need all the luck i can get..............

devonfish5

Build up your b/r by playing the lowest buy-ins possible for you then when you have enough buy-ins to move up a level you are basically playing with free money won, so you can never lose & should never feel under any pressure either.
if losing is a problem you are playing above your b/r.
depositing a larger sum is ok but not my choice as we can potentially then lose a large amount.
almost anyone can build up a decent b/r if they put their mind to it & GaryQQQ has shown how it should be done.
it takes a lot of disipline & self control & having the long term vision of what you are trying to achieve.
GL dev