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Increasing your bankroll for SNG players – Different Options

Most new poker players think that the easiest/fastest way to increase the size of your bankroll is to move up in buy-in size. Well, that is a possible avenue, but as a player you need to realize that theoretically, the larger the buy-in the better the skill of the average player at that level. I’m not saying that there aren’t fish at all levels of poker, but what I’m saying is that why move up if it means you become one of those fish?

I’d like to take just a few minutes to talk through all of the different ways that you can increase you online bankroll and have fun doing it too.

Increase your ROI
The first step for most players is to work on your game/skills to get a better ROI in the level of game that you are playing. Read books, read strategy articles, play more games, and learn the game better. I had been playing poker live for about 14 years when I started playing online. The first thing I noticed was that the games were different. I had to learn how to play online games. There was a learning curve. After the first 100 SNG’s or so, I realized that I had a positive ROI. Great, I’m making money now. My ROI was something like 2%. So, the first step for me was to work on getting my ROI to be something more than 2%.

So, the first way to increase your profits and increase your BR size is to become a better player, and work on getting your ROI in the games you primarily play from negative to positive 5%. Then work on getting it from 5% to 15%. Then work on getting it from 15% to 30% let’s say. By doing that, it allows you to make more money without playing any more hours or any more games because you’re making more money per game played on average.

Increase the Number of Games
The second way an online player can increase their profits is to play more games in the same amount of time. Now, there are several discussions around multi-tabling and how many tables are too many tables. The easiest answer is that the number is different for everyone. This will take some time to learn.

First let’s determine that multi-tabling is a positive thing. If you are play only one table at a time, and you are profitable, just think, if you played two tables at a time, you could basically double your $/hr. When you first start multi-tabling, you will feel like everything is rushed at first. When I first tried to play two tables at one time, I thought, wow, the game is much faster this way, and I don’t spend as much time trying to find other things to do (surf the web, read PTP articles, etc) while I’m playing poker. It was a little uncomfortable for the first 5 to 10 times I tried two tables at a time, but after those first few games, I realized that I actually concentrated more on the tables when I was two-tabling than when I single tabled. I wasn’t as distracted by other things. I was more focused.

So, after the first couple of nights of playing 2 tables, I began to feel extremely comfortable with two-tabling. Now, I’ve seen videos of guys playing 26 SNG’s at one time. I was pretty sure that 26 at a time was more than I would be able to handle. So, let’s stick with two-tabling for a minute. After the initial 10-20 games of two-tabling, I realized that I could easily play 2 games at the same time, and it had no real impact on my abilities. So, it dawned on me. Oh my god, I understand the value of playing more than one table at a time. I don’t have to get any better as a player and by moving from 1 table at a time to 2 tables at a time, I can double my profits without anything else changing.

Now, the hard part is how many tables are too many. I think that should probably be an article all on its own, and I am working on that article as well. So, look for it in the near future.

Okay, so now we’ve worked on better our skills and our understanding of the game. We’ve seen our ROI move from negative to positive to bigger and bigger positive numbers. Then, we also went from playing 1 table at a time to playing 2 tables at a time. That gives us another way to increase our profits/bankroll. Now, let’s discuss the one that most players want to do right away.

Move up in Buy-in Amount
Let’s say I started my online career with $1 45 player SNGs. I got better at the game, and I started playing more than one at a time. Now, I’ve decided I’m ready to move from $1 to $3 buy-ins. Am I ready? Only I can answer that for me. If I think I’m ready, let’s dive on in. Don’t be shocked if it takes a few games to get a feel for the differences in playing styles, average ability and other differences from the last level you played.

Okay, so I am now registering and playing $3 SNGs. Great, that’s another way to increase profits right. Let’s start looking at the ROI. Am I positive? Is the ROI number getting larger? These are the same things, we first starting looking through at the $1 level, right? Well, guess what, we’re doing it again. I’m also back to running only one table at a time, until I feel comfortable that I can be profitable at this new level. Once I am comfortable and profitable at the new $3 level, let’s throw a second table up at the same time.

So, as you can see, there is a pattern forming here. The pattern is basically a cycle that we go through as we move through our online career.

* Start at a certain buy-in level and learn how to play well at that level
* Increase the number of tables from 1 to some number you are comfortable with
* Move up to the next buy-in level
* Go back to step one

So, it’s the rinse and repeat method of increasing your profits and your online bankroll. Now, in conclusion, understand that there are several other things to think through while move through the above steps. What size does my bankroll need to be to single table at a certain buy-in level? What does my BR need to be to move up to the next level? What volume is too much volume for me? How many games to I need to play to get a good feel for my ROI?

All of these questions have been answered over and over again in several good articles out on the internet. So, see, just when you thought you were done with school, it looks like you have more home work to do.

Good luck at the tables, and I hope this article helps you increase your BR and become one of the top players you’d like to be.

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