So I was busto on Full Tilt for probably the 5th time in as many months when I played in the WSOOF freeroll last week and won $10. As many of you know, I started my entire (pitiful) online career by winning less than 1/2 that much in a freeroll on Stars. 10's of thousands of hands and hundreds of Tournaments later, I'm still pluggin away at it.

I made an interesting (to me) observation about my perpetual losing on Full Tilt... I've done relatively well over there in tournaments (mostly MTTs) and blow it all on cash table all the time. Probably from playing scared mostly since I've never been properly rolled and it seems that it's less forgiving of such mistakes over there.

Long Story short.. I've decided to take that $10 (plus the $0.03 I had on there already ), and play nothing but MTTs to see how long I could make it last and maybe even make it grow to A LOT of money.

Here are my guidelines I'm sticking to:

• $1,2,and $3 MTTs (including SnGs) OK, but otherwise no more than 10% of the bankrollin a single entry.
• 10% max rake on any entry (No $1+.25 Bullshit-Rake SnGs)
• No Cash games allowed
• No Single Table SnGs allowed
• No R&A tourney's allowed
• Buyins to larger than 10% of the bankroll OK only if achieved VIA satellite (late addition to the guidlines)

I'm keeping a spreadsheet of all the entries including the Date, Game Type, Entry fee, number of players, Net $ result, Running Bankroll, and (this is a good one) Amount of Time Played.

So far, I've played in 8 tournaments over the last week. I've made two final tables (my only cash's so far (in 90 player SnGs)) and have logged over 9 hours of play & counting.

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Check out Bigloser's Blog: The Genesis of a Micro-Grinder...

http://www.feltpoker.com/blogs/bigloser (updated 5/25/08 )

Your risk of ruin is pretty high, but it's not your whole bankroll on the line so no matter. GL!

No doubt. This is just for fun. I figured I had a couple of choices of what to do with the $10: Sit down at a cash table with 1 buyin and nothing to reload with, Ask someone to transfer it off ( a valid option, but I do that too much already), or try this. I've already played in way more tournaments with this "found money" as I should have been able to, so I figure let's see how long I make it last.

Hey, maybe forum members can set prop bets to see how many tourney's I last before I bust, OR maybe even make a boatload of cash?

For the record, I'm at 10 right now with $8.23 in my bankroll (no, the two final tables weren't top finishes). I'm guesstimating the over/under to be around 24 entries. Anybody else hazard a guess?

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Check out Bigloser's Blog: The Genesis of a Micro-Grinder...

http://www.feltpoker.com/blogs/bigloser (updated 5/25/08 )

With a deeper bankroll, I have no doubt you could do this (it seems you've found your niche in tournament poker), and I hope you go on a good streak in the beginning to withstand the variance, so you don't lose your initial $ in the beginning.

Good luck! Guidelines sound good, but I don't know much about tournament poker.

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one of the best deal in low stakes MTTs is poker stars $3 +.25 Turbo, 45 player, 5 tables.
seven players cash.

The stars $4 +40, 180 player tournaments, only one in ten cash, and slightly higher rake percentage.

That's what I'm hoping for, obv. I'm mostly playing in the $3+.30 90 Player Bounty Deepstack Turbo SnG. I took two second place finishes in these a few months ago and the competition is pretty horrible. The deepstack let's you take many small risk chances early to build a nice stack. Once you have $6-10k it's smooth sailing to the final two tables and maybe one or two well timed steals brings you to the FT & ITM. After playing 5 or 6 of these in my little experiment, I'm amazed I haven't won one yet, so I'm due. 1st place pays $70+, so I'll be nice and comfy if I can pull one of those off.


Wrong venue unfortunately... And before this little experiment, I might have said, "Turbo? No.", but they're starting to grow on me. The average villian starts going nuts right out of the shute in Turbos, which IMO isn't necessary. Sure, you need to play more hands sooner than in a normal tourney, but you don't have to play stupid either. I've found that unless I get great cards early, I sit back a bit and wait until they all but self destruct and scoop many small to medium sized pots with little to no risk.

While we're on the subject of juicy games, if anyone has any small stakes sure things on FTP they want to let me know about, let me know.

Oh, yeah... I'm editing my original guidelines to allow bigger buy-ins only if achieved VIA satellite. Wouldn't it be sweet if I can parlay this $10 into something really huge? Stay tuned...

__________________
Check out Bigloser's Blog: The Genesis of a Micro-Grinder...

http://www.feltpoker.com/blogs/bigloser (updated 5/25/08 )