So how do you turn $50 into a serious bankroll?

I have helped students turn $50 into a serious bankroll and I have done something very similar myself, and as long as you are disciplined the free $50 you get from Your Poker Cash could be the only deposit you ever need to make. To survive this journey you’ll need two things, actual poker skills, and bankroll management skills. I’m about to give you enough of each to survive until you have at least a few hundred dollars built up and can afford to get some coaching, buy some books, or join foxpoker.com for some serious coaching.

First let’s deal with the bankroll management issue. If you can’t follow these guidelines, you WILL go broke. It doesn’t matter how well you play, if you are playing too high for your bankroll you will always end up on the rail. The swings in your wins and losses are bigger than most people realize, and even the best pro can lose 10 or 15 buy-ins playing sit and go tournaments when they hit a rough patch of cards. I can’t say enough about the importance of being smart with your bankroll, but I’ve said all I can. Do the smart thing and play within your bankroll.

Now what games can you afford to play with the $50 that YourPokerCash has kindly given you for free? And how quickly can you turn that money into a serious bankroll?

The easiest money with a $50 bankroll is definitely the nine handed sit and go tournaments. Below you will find a strategy article that will provide you with the knowledge to easily beat those sit and gos, but let’s finish with the bankroll portion first. For now you will just have to trust me that the sng’s are where the money is.

To be within reasonable limits for your bankroll, you’ll need to start off playing the nine handed, $2+$0.25, turbo sit and gos. They are some of the most fish filled tournaments you’ll ever see. You’ll also have $50 in bonus to clear, which will release at the rate of $5 every 50 SNG’s at this level. That means that even if you break even over your first 50 sng’s, you will be up $5 and hopefully by that time you will have learned a few things and improved your game.

In order to make it through the rough patches and not lose all your money because of a few bad cards, you want to stick with the $2 sng’s until you have at least $100 and then you can move up and give the $5 level a shot. If it doesn’t work out and you drop back down to $50 don’t panic, just grind your way back up at the $2 level. The guide below will take you through the $20 level if it’s followed carefully, and by that time you will easily afford a membership to foxpoker.com to help you get to the next level and really make some money at the tables.

Now for the strategy guide

First, let’s take a look at why these tournaments are so much more profitable that the other games at this level.

1. Micro-limit players almost all lack patience, which causes them to play too many hands preflop. They also tend to overestimate the strength of hands like Ace-Queen, Ace-Jack and even Ace-Ten, making them easy targets for preflop domination.

2. The decisions tend to require less thought because the gear changes are so drastic. It’s easier to assess a table quickly when there are only a few choices, often all-in or fold. This makes multi-tabling these games much easier. In a cash game it’s much tougher to assess the table quickly and accurately and make the right decision when you have three other tables beeping at you..

3. The structure of the tournaments gives you enough time to wait for real hands, but often makes micro-limit players feel rushed. The structure seems to create a perfect set of conditions at these levels, where you have very loose and wild players for the first few rounds, but by the time it gets to be four or five handed those players will be gone and you will often be able to run over your remaining opponents with lots of aggression.

4. These games can be beaten in an almost formulaic way, making your decisions that much easier. As with any form of poker, the less time you waste on the decisions, the more time you will have to study your opponents, take notes, and find ways to abuse them.

The common thread here is simplicity. Everything you need to beat these games is fairly simple, and with the ultra-weak players, the profit here is higher than anywhere else at the micro-limits.

The nice smooth climb from one blind level to the next makes life easy for you. It allows for lots of time to find a few hands to beat the overly aggressive players before the blinds get too high, and it doesn’t give you the unpleasant surprise of watching the blinds make a huge jump that you weren’t ready for. We recommend starting with one table at a time if you are just getting your feet wet, but moving up to four tables at a time won’t take long.

A neat program to help multi-tabling are Table Highlighter (http://overcards.com/wiki/moin.cgi/TableHighlighter) – These little AHK scripts (http://overcards.com/wiki/moin.cgi/AutoHotKey) are invaluable. They are free, and available from overcards.com, just click on wiki and then on the AHK page. When playing more than one table they are both invaluable, and they will keep things running smoothly. If you play multiple tables without them, life will be harder than it needs to be.

A nice program for heads up play, something most micro-limits players are terrible at, is located here - http://overcards.com/wiki/moin.cgi/SageCalculator and it’s called a SAGE calculator. I encourage you to read up on SAGE and learn to use it, it will increase your win rate in heads up situations.

Now on to some actual strategy

The First Two Blind Levels

During the first two blind levels many players are tempted to play speculative hands with the hope of flopping a big hand and doubling up. This is the first mistake most players make when they get started playing single table tournaments. You will find that you are raised off the hand you limped with far too often. It’s also not worth much to flop a draw in these games with hands like suited connectors, because your opponents will be so wild on the flop that you won’t get a good price to see the turn. It’s better to stay tight and only play fairly strong hands, even in the early levels.

It’s important to remember here that you are looking to keep your variance down during these first two levels so that you survive until you have a chance to push a very large advantage later on. You should be happy to turn down close calls and potential double ups for safety during these levels.

Because they flop big hands instead of draws, and are much easier to play, small pairs are much better at these levels than suited connectors. Let those wild players try to push you around on the flop after you make a set of sixes. Small pairs can be played, but only in late position, and never to a raise larger than the minimum. When I say late position I mean the button or the cutoff seat. Other than those last two positions, just fold those small pairs until you are very comfortable playing and can easily determine whether the right factors are in place.

Learn to hate Ace-Queen and any other weak ace during the first two levels. Your opponents are not going to fold, and you are not a big favorite over much of anything with A-Q. This is especially true if you see a flop with it against four opponents, which is what will usually happen, even if you raise to thin the field. Overplaying weak aces is the most common mistake at these levels.

Hands that you feel good about include big pairs, tens and higher, and Ace-King. Medium pairs (66 through 99) are only really good for flopping a set cheaply. With TT or JJ you will want to think carefully about how much of your stack you are committing and how much you are willing to commit preflop. Plan it out and think ahead.

With AA and sometimes KK, you will be better off limping with the intention of making a large reraise when one of your opponents raises. If you raise from early or middle position yourself with your big pair, you are likely to get three callers and have no idea how to play on the flop, so it’s better to limp reraise and get a bunch of chips in while thinning the field. It’s no disaster if there’s no raise and you just see a cheap flop, just don’t play a big pot with your one pair hand. Which brings us to the best piece of advice in this entire article.

“Don’t play a big pot without a big hand.”

Simple enough to remember, and if you don’t remember it you won’t be a winner in these games. The more certain you are about your read on your opponent, the more you can consider breaking this rule, but I have to be very certain that my opponent is a complete maniac to play a big pot against him with a mediocre hand. You will be playing too many tables too give a lot of thought to in-depth reads on your opponents anyway.

It is okay to play a few speculative hands early on, but only if you follow these requirements. They must ALL be met or you are throwing money away. I find that a majority of my students find reasons to play speculative hands that only meet a few of these requirements, and lose money on them until they get it into their heads that they ALL need to be true to play the hand.

1. You must be in late position. You just can’t make as much money if your opponent has the advantage of position, and it turns speculative hands into big losers if you are in early position. Best to stick with the cutoff seat, the button, and the blinds. And don’t call raises in the small blind.

2. You need to have a hand that can flop a monster. Suited aces are nice, small pairs are good, medium pairs are the best. You would much rather have 66 than A9.

3. Your hand must play well against the field size. Against six opponents 22 doesn’t play that well, But ATs does. 88 plays pretty well here too, but 22 runs into too many better hands and gets sucked out on too often when it does make a set, while never catching up when it is behind. 22 does play okay against one or two opponents who play badly..

4. It must be during the first round. The blinds are smaller, the bad players are still around, and those two things add up to nice implied odds compared to what it costs you see a flop.

So if you are in late position, have a great hand to see a flop with, and it hasn’t been raised, you can consider it, but remember that it’s fine to fold those speculative hands too.

The third and fourth blind levels

Now the blinds start to mean a little something, but honestly not a lot, and not nearly as much as most players think. Don’t overestimate the size of the blinds when they are 25-50 or 30-60. Unless you have taken a real beating in the first two levels, which should be quite rare if you follow my advice, you have a comfortable stack and the blinds are still quite small.

The real difference, much bigger than the blinds, will be the players. You’ll have seen 15 or 20 hands played, so you may have some idea how they play.. At this point you will probably have lost a few players and the table will have begun to quiet down. If you are in late position with a reasonable hand, and the blinds are tight players, (preferably below 20% VP$IP), you can attempt a steal with a raise of three times the size of the big blind.

With the players a little tighter, and the table a little less foreign to you, it’s possible to defend your blinds at times, and to limp along at times when you are sure there will be no raise in front of you. Stick with most of the default strategies for the first two blind levels, but you can be just a bit more creative. In early position you will need to play only the premium hands and nothing else. Position, Position, Position!

The 50-100 level and above

You are going to have a decision to make before each hand that you are going to play. Is this a standard raise or a push all-in situation? If a standard raise is more than a third of your stack then you have no choice, and you might as well be all-in unless you are going to try something sneaky which we will talk about in more advanced guides. You will be looking for a reraise when you have a big hand and you want to get some action with it because your stack is so short that stealing the blinds won’t be enough chips to put you in a good position.

If you have less than 10 big blinds you are usually in push or fold mode. With 12 big blinds or more you can raise to 3x the big blind, but make sure to look at the opponents who are yet to act. If some of them are short stacks then you will have to call an all-in reraise from them because the price you are getting from the pot will be so good. In that case you would rather have a small pair than a weak ace, because the ace will run into a better ace so frequently when you are reraised.

Think ahead about what you will do according to your opponent’s actions preflop, because it is a rare situation in Hold’em where you can actually have all your moves planned out, and you should take advantage of it. Most players at this stage don’t realize how simple the game has become, and try to make tricky plays. Which brings us to our second important piece of advice.

“Don’t get tricky”

Trying to trick someone in these games is really a waste of time, they aren’t smart enough for it. You can make a perfect check-raise bluff when a scare card falls on the turn, but don’t come crying to me when some fool with second pair calls you because he doesn’t know any better. Bet your big hands and keep the pot small with your mediocre hands.

The large blind levels (150-300 and above)

If you have the funds, it will be great for you to get a program like Sit and Go Wizard or Sit and Go Power Tools, which will teach you perfect end-game play that will be useful to you for the rest of your SNG career. If you don’t have the cash, the SAGE calculator listed earlier in the article is free and does a good job of helping you outplay the typical opponent heads up. At the very least you should download the free trials of these programs and work with the free trial of the Bubble Trainer at pregopoker.com. These programs are much more powerful than the simple SAGE calculator linked above, but when you get to heads up, and the blinds are very high, the SAGE system is pretty strong and it will do you a lot of good to work with the SAGE system long enough to understand it and be able to play it when you are distracted by other tables.

The most important concept you will learn from the software in the paragraph above is the idea of fold equity. There are times when you would push all-in with seven-deuce off suit if you were first in to the pot, but you couldn’t call an all-in from an opponent even if you had a strong hand. Being first into the pot and having a chance to steal the blinds is huge, especially if you really need those blinds and still have enough chips that you can scare your opponents. Remember, they don’t want to lose half their stack to you, so get your chips in now on a steal rather than waiting for a hand and ending up so short stacked that your opponents have to call you when you finally try to get all your chips in.

“When the blinds are high and the bubble is not yet burst, be very tight to a raise but very loose and aggressive if you can be first in.”

Of course if you are a very comfortable stack who is headed for the money, you shouldn’t be stealing too many blinds, and if you are a small stack with three other big stacks then you should stealing like mad to try to catch up. If your opponents are all going crazy playing hands against each other you may want to wait and let one of them go out first so that you can sneak in to the money.

“When should I panic?”

When your stack is nearing five big blinds. At that point you are looking at a real problem, but it’s also very dependent on how your opponent’s stacks match up with yours. See the attached visual guides for some really good stuff on stack sizes and when to start pushing and when to stay out of trouble.

“Your goals are 3rd place and 1st place, that’s where the money is.”

Third place is two buy-ins, then second place is only one more buy-in, and first place is two more buy-ins. 4th and 2nd place are junk. Your first goal is to make the money and then once it’s three handed you are playing to win and you can forget about 2nd place unless the short stack is very small and the big stack is huge, with you in the middle. In that case you can avoid tangling with the big stack until the small stack goes out or doubles up.

Play on the flop is much tougher to put into a formula, but it’s not too hard to do well, as long as you are making smart decisions preflop.

If you flop a monster, do what you can to make some money, but be careful slow playing against a large field. If there is any chance that someone could catch up to you then you have to play fast. That means flopping a set should generally be played fast unless the board is J-7-2 rainbow and you only have one or two opponents. If the board is very safe like this, then slow playing is okay, but generally you will want to play a flopped set fast, by betting and raising. Don’t make your bets and raises too large, people like to call and you don’t want to discourage that. Just make the right size bets to win a nice pot and hopefully break someone.

If you flop a medium strength hand like top pair, it’s important to bet or raise on the flop. This helps define your hand and gives you a chance to get away from it if one of your opponents wants to play a big pot (one pair is not strong enough to get too excited about and should be easy to fold if necessary). The other major reason to bet and raise here is to punish your opponents for calling and protect a very vulnerable hand.

Stack size manipulation is an important tool for you to master in order to achieve a good win rate. It’s important to consider your opponent’s stacks and your own stack before every decision you make so that you can make wise decisions and keep yourself out of trouble. As a general rule, until you are very good at reading hands, you shouldn’t get more than 1/3rd of your stack in the pot unless you are willing to play for all your chips and have a very strong hand compared to the range of hands your opponent would get all-in with.

While I talk about formulaic play in sit-and-go tournaments, there are more skills involved than I can possibly cover in one guide. I believe this guide will help you to become a winning player, but to achieve a huge ROI and make serious money, you’ll need to keep studying. Below are some good ways to keep improving.

1. Keep studying and reading about sit and go tournaments. Join my training site at foxpoker.com when you have the money, and read everything you can about sit and go tournaments on free sites until then. Our training videos have created many a high-limit sit and go player, and you could be the next person to quit their job.

2. Get ‘Sit and Go Wizard’ or ‘Sit and Go Power Tools’. Both are excellent programs. Remember to play slightly tighter than they recommend in most cases, but a little looser when the blinds are about to hit you and they are high.

3. Find the best players and watch them. Sharkscope.com is a good tool for finding the best players, just check their leader boards and then find the people who are the best at the level you are playing. Then watch a few of them play for a day and take notes. There’s no substitute for learning from the best.

So far I have a very nice 44% ROI in $2 sng’s using mostly what is written here with a few more advanced concepts. I believe that the advice provided here will easily earn you a 10% ROI if applied carefully, and with rakeback and a nice steady income you’ll be moving up through the levels within a few weeks.

I’m off to play some more sit and go’s, I have a bankroll to build!

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