People often ask me if I have a strategy for how to build a bankroll
with $20. My answer is almost always the same: if you’re starting with
an amount like $20, then there’s a decent chance that you’ll wind up
going broke.
With the variance involved in poker, there is simply no way around that.
The smallest cash game limit on offer for instance is typically NL2. If
you bought in for 100 big blinds each time (a strategy you should
definitely follow) then you will only have 10 buy-ins available. Even
the best players in the world could wind up losing 10 buy-ins in a row
at NL2 due to a bad run of cards.
So the best advice therefore is to invest a little bit more in your
poker career from the start and bring your bankroll to a minimum of
$50-60. This would give you 25-30 buy-ins for NL2, which will reduce
your risk of going broke significantly. If you’re a sit and go or MTT
player, then this will give you around 50 buy-ins for the lowest stakes
you’ll find, which is still a bit on the low side but not terrible.
The main reason I don’t recommend starting your poker career by playing
with a $20 bankroll is because it might cause you to develop some bad
habits and a tendency to gamble. By having proper bankroll management
from the very start, you’re going to do the best you can to set yourself
up for success in the long run.
Now despite all of the above, I understand that not everyone wants to
invest a lot of money in poker, especially if they’re still learning and
are afraid to lose it all. That’s why today I want to give you my top
tips on how to build a bankroll with $20. Let’s go!
Which format should you play with a $20 bankroll?
The first consideration is obviously which games to play in, cash, sit n
gos or tourneys. Although your game selection will have large
implications for your bankroll, this shouldn’t be the only factor in
your decision.
When thinking about which format to play, you should choose the one
you’re looking to focus on in the long run. Specializing in one format
will give you the best shot at becoming really good at it. If you mix it
up too much you’ll likely wind up being decent at all of them, but
great at none.
Of course, if you’re just starting out then you might not know which
format you want to keep playing for the rest of your career (or a
significant part of it). This why I would recommend checking out my
guide on which poker games to play first to give you a better idea of the advantages and disadvantages of each.
And of course it’s totally fine to experiment as well. In fact, you
should try cash games, sit n gos and tourneys when you are just starting
out. In order to succeed in building a bankroll with $20, let’s take a
look at which of the formats will give you the biggest chance of
success.
Cash Games
As I noted above the smallest stakes that most poker sites offer for
cash games is 1c/2c, also known as NL2. The minimum buy-in on most sites
these days is 40 big blinds, which would give you 25 buy-ins.
While I generally don’t recommend buying in for less than 100 big
blinds, when playing with a $20 bankroll you could make an exception as
this will (at least in theory) help protect as lesser experienced player
from going broke as fast. Like I said above though, you simply can’t
avoid this risk if you’re starting with a bankroll this small.
In fact, as
Pokerdope explains in it's variance calculations, for a player who is a small winner (2.5bb/100), with a standard deviation of 100bb/100, there is a
76.83% chance that you will go broke with a $20 bankroll (1000bb) no matter what amount you choose to buyin for:
They ran these simulations over a sample size of
100 million hands by the way just in case you had any doubt. This is why I and many others constantly preach about the importance of
proper bankroll management.
Luckily though, the thing about NL2 is that it’s still an absolute
circus even in 2017. Even if you’re relatively new to the game, you can
expect to win by simply playing tight and betting your good hands
strongly on each street (also know as “ABC Poker”).
If you’re a halfway decent player then you can expect to have a solid
winrate at these stakes (much higher than 2.5bb/100), which will lower
the risk of a big downswing significantly.
Sit and Gos
The second format for building a bankroll from $20 are sit and gos. The
problem with this choice is that you don’t have the option to play it
safe as with our 25 buy-in example at NL2. The lowest sit and gos on
offer are usually $1.10 or somewhere in this region, which will only
give you around 20 buy-ins. This is extremely low by any standards.
So if you’re looking to play sit and gos to build your roll, you should
be prepared to lose it all and not feel too bad if it happens. Keeping
your expectations realistic is the best way to avoid tilt, so always try
to be honest about your chances upfront.
With that being said, sit and gos do have one thing going for them: You
can bink a couple of them in a row and give yourself a chance to build a
healthy bankroll in a very short time. This is not really possible with
cash games, so this high risk / high reward strategy can definitely
make sense. Just remember to exercise good bankroll management as soon
as you’re out of the danger zone and don’t keep gambling after that.
Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs)
MTTs are easily the worst choice for playing with a $20 bankroll. Proper
bankroll management for tournaments requires well over 100 buy-ins for
each stake. Since the smallest tourneys are also usually around $1, you
will be well short of that.
The problem with MTTs is that it is much harder to bink a win in the
short run than with sit and gos. This is especially true of low-stakes
MTTs, since these tend to attract huge player fields of well over 1,000
players. Even cashing in these is not an easy task, since you’ll have to
beat 800-900 players to do so.
Taking 20 shots at low-stakes MTTs is just a complete crap shoot,
there’s no other way to say it. Again, if you accept the risk of going
broke you can roll the dice and try it, but you’ll be better off just
topping up your bankroll upfront.
What other strategies can you use for building a bankroll from $20?
As mentioned above, when choosing the right format you should think
about your general strategy for building your bankroll. Do you want to
take a higher risk and have a better chance of building a good-sized
roll quickly? Or do you want to take it slow and steady and grind
yourself up?
These are important considerations not only for picking your format, but
also for the style of play you’ll use at the tables. When choosing a
high-risk strategy, you might want to play looser than normally in order
to score big (i.e. loose and aggressive or LAG). It’s a viable strategy
if you know what you’re doing, although I personally wouldn’t recommend
it for most people.
Poker is a marathon and you should treat it like that at any point in
your career. Developing a gambler’s mindset can create big problems for
you later on. With that in mind, here are some strategies that will help
you succeed in building your bankroll from $20.
Play Tight
If you really want to avoid going broke as much as possible with your
small bankroll, then playing tight will be by far the best strategy. By
only playing strong starting hands, you can decrease variance
significantly and reduce the risk of any downswings as much as possible.
I would recommend playing as little as
the top 15% of hands in full ring (9 handed) and
the top 20% of hands in a 6-max game.
Another reason for playing tight from the start is that I generally
recommend playing a tight style for most of your journey through the
micros. Playing a loose style only works if your post-flop game is very
strong and if you can expect to frequently outplay opponents that hold
better hands.
Remember that I’m only talking about playing tight, but never passive.
Once you do enter pots, you should be betting and raising with your
strong hands a lot in order to build big pots. This style, which many of
you will know as the TAG (tight-aggressive) style, is by far the most
optimal in most games.
Another reason for playing tight is that with a bankroll of $20, you’ll
be playing in some truly crazy games. There is simply no point in
playing weak hands in crazy NL2 games where nobody’s folding post-flop.
Just play as tight as you can stomach it and count your money later.
Freerolls
While I advised against playing MTTs when playing with a small bankroll,
there is definitely one exception: you should play as many freerolls as
you can, especially if you’re planning on sticking with MTTs later on.
While freerolls hold little interest for players with bankrolls of $100
and higher, they can be absolutely fantastic in your particular
situation. If you manage to win a huge freeroll, you can often win well
over $20, which can triple or quadruple your roll with no risk at all.
Even final tabling one will usually pay out a few dollars, which can
increase your roll by 25% or more.
As you’ll probably be at the start of your poker career with a bankroll
of $20, freerolls offer a great chance to improve and get some hands in
without having to risk your own money.
Cardschat has put together an excellent strategy guide for freerolls. Here are their top tips:
Don’t Tilt if You Go Broke
Now I know this is easier said than done, but as I mentioned before, it
is crucial to always have realistic expectations in poker. The single
biggest reason people tilt is because they overestimate their skill and
underestimate the role of variance in the game.
After all, if you’re
truly prepared for something, then why would you get angry if it happens?
That is absolutely true for playing with a tiny bankroll. The risk of
losing it all is significant and can’t be avoided. If you want to play
it safe then you need to start with a bigger roll, period. However,
exercising good tilt control from the start and learning to deal with
setbacks can be incredibly valuable in the long run.
Remember, even though you are gambling on a short roll, sometimes you
will get lucky as well and everything will work out. One thing you can't
do in poker though is fight the math so you shouldn't get too down on
yourself if setbacks occur.
Final Thoughts
While I generally don’t recommend starting with a bankroll of less than
$50, there are definitely a lot of things you can do to increase your
chances of success. Choose the right format, play a tight-aggressive
style and use as many freeroll offers as you can.
And above all: just remember to run really really well and you will soon
find yourself with enough room to exercise proper bankroll management!
To learn the strategy that I used to create some of the highest winnings
in the history of online poker in these games, make sure to grab a copy
of
my free poker ebook.
Do you have any other strategies for how to build a bankroll from $20?
Or have you actually pulled it off before? Then let me know in the
comments!
Source: http://www.blackrain79.com
