Posted by Junelli 2:44 PM
"$1 into $20,000"

A little while back Jesus Ferguson challenged himself to see what he could do with $1 while playing online poker. It was part publicity promo for FullTilt, and part personal challenge to see if he was disciplined enough to stick to a VERY stringent bankroll management plan.

The plan was quite simple: Only sit down with 5% of your total bankroll, and always get up once you've reached 10%. No exceptions. Well, there was one exception at the beginning. When Jesus first started playing, he played the micro limit $.01/$.02 NL tables that required a minimum buy-in of $.10 (a whole dime). Therefore, when he first started he actually played with 10% of his bankroll. However, once he had earned a few dimes, he returned to the 5% rule.

If, in a given session, he ever reached 10% of his bankroll, he would wait until the blinds came around and then cash out.

It took a long time, but he successfully started climbing up in levels. Eventually he reached the $25-$50 NL tables where he was accustomed to playing. Of course, there were setbacks along the way. Each time he lost some significant portion of his bankroll, he would simply move down to the "new" appropriate level and resume his grind. Once his bankroll had recovered, he would move up again.

Jesus turned $1 into $20,000.

Hearing him tell that story inspired me to try something similar. For the past several years, I've had a dead-end strategy of depositing $100-$200, and playing way above my bankroll (i.e. $3-6 limit, $1-$2 NL, $30 SNGs, etc.). There's almost no way to win when you play those stakes with that bankroll. I can't afford the swings, and no matter how I played, I was destined to bust (of course, playing drunk sometimes didn't help).

So this week I opened a Poker Stars account. **As you know, PokerStars is still legal, because the law doesnt apply to them because "poker is a game of skill"**

I deposited a measely $25 and vowed to play the micro limits to see if I can grind my way up to higher levels. I'm going to try and employ Jesus' bankroll management strategy of only playing with 5% of my bankroll at any given time, and setting limits at which I get up and leave the table.

So far I have played 2 different types of games: Limit poker ($.05-$.10 and $.10-$.20) and SNGs ($3 + $.40).

I'm going to keep track of my sessions and tournament results so that I can track my progress along the way. I'll be blogging these results with some frequency.

I'm going to stay away from the NL and PL ring games for now, because in the past, I've been unable to beat them. I may dabble a little once I get my bankroll up to a safe amount. Until then however, I plan to play only micro limit poker and micro SNGs ($3 and $5).

So far I've done very well. In just 3 days my account is now at $52.96 (an increase of just over 100%). I have earned a few dollars at the limit games, but most of the winnings have come from the $3 + $.40 NL SNGs.

Here are my SNG results thus far:

10/20/2006
1st place = $15 (net $11.60)
7th place
5th place
1st place = $15 (net $11.60)
1st place = $15 (net $11.60)

10/19/2006
6th place
2nd place = $9 (net $5.60)
3rd place = $6 (net $2.60)

10/18/2006
7th place
6th place (-$5.50)
6th place
9th place

10/17/2006
2nd place = $9 (net $5.60)

That represents gross winnings of $69 on buy-ins of $49.70, for a net profit of $19.3. Total cashes = 6 out of 13.

Because my account is currently at $53 I have a tournament M of 15.5 (meaning I can play and lose 15.5 tournaments in a row before I'm broke. My goal is to get my bankroll to 20 buy-ins for each tournament level I decide to move in to. For example, if I want to move up to the $5.50 tournaments, I need to have a bankroll of $110. The $10+$1 tournaments will require a $220 bankroll, etc.

I feel that this is a sufficient amount to allow me a good buffer zone for some cold streaks, and should I be able to cash in about 35-50% of the tournaments, I should be able to show a profit.

For the cash ring games, I'm going to be playing strictly limit poker. Since my bankroll is about $50, I'm allowed to sit down at a table with $2.50 (5% of my total bankroll). When I play a limit table I'm going to try to sit down with about 50 Big Blinds. In the $.05-$.10 game that works out perfectly to $2.50. Therefore, I'll be playing $.05-$.10 until my bankroll increases.

Here are the bankroll requirements for the limit cash games:

$.05-$.10 = $2.50 buy-in = $50 bankroll
$.10-$.20 = $5 buy-in = $100 bankroll
$.25-$.50 = $12.50 buy-in = $250 bankroll
$.50-$1 = $25 buy-in = $500 bankroll
$1-$2 = $50 buy-in = $1,000 bankroll
$2-$4 = $100 buy-in = $2,000 bankroll
$3-$6 = $150 buy-in = $3,000 bankroll
$5-$10 = $250 buy-in = $5,000 bankroll
$10-$20 = $500 buy-in = $10,000 bankroll

As you can see, the bankroll requirements are steep. I can't play in a little $1-$2 game until I have a bankroll of $1,000. That's a stark contract to the way I used to play it with only $100 or $200.

But I believe this is the best way to play. I have approximately 20 buy-ins, and can survive through the inevitable cold streaks, bad beats, etc.

AND, if I'm truly a winning poker player, I should be able to turn a profit. If I can't turn a profit playing this way, then I have no business depositing more money and playing at higher stakes. This is the true test to see if I have the skills, discipline, and patience to play properly and win money.

I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Junell

ps - If you have any comments or suggestions on my bankroll management strategy, I'd appreciate hearing them. This is my first crack at this sort of thing.

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