Topic: Poker bankroll building challenge. (Read 387 times)

Personally I had some hope that this journey could turn out to be favorable, after all poker is a game from which you can actually obtain profits as you are playing against other players and not the house, it is not easy but unlike other games out there the possibility exists, and yet it seems the challenge ended quite abruptly, most likely what happened is that thsceptic lost a few hands and then he got tilt and tried to recover his money in a few hands and lost the rest ending the challenge right there, which show us once again how critical money management is no matter how we try to raise our capital.

Unfortunaley yes, no replying here for a month probably means he didn't get his target results. But maybe he didn't have time or was sick and couldn't update us here. Building a bankroll from scratch through freeroll tourneys is very hard work. I wouldn't say that 99% of bankroll challenges fail and that they are losers. It makes a big difference if they start with capital or only rely on free money. I also try to focus on my bankroll constantly in Poker. It might not be a challenge but a continuous requirement. Moving up or down in stakes is based on the bankroll. We need to be able to cover a series of bad beats to not go broke completely. It can happen that we go Allin with AA per flop and still lose. If our bankroll can't withstand that happening a few times we are screwed. That's why I find these bankroll challenges so interesting, it's a good way to remain focused on our capital and not risk too much.

Building a bankroll challenges 99% of the time end the same. He should have just thrown a dice and be done with it. People think certain strategies will bring them success when gambling and all of them think their strategy is the right one and everybody else's was wrong. And here we got another loser which belongs to the 99%.

The OP has not used his account in more than a month, so he either failed his own challenge or simply lost interest in updating this thread, which is a shame, I like posts about the journey of gamblers independently if they happen to win or lose at the end, as it gives you a more realistic view of what a real gambler goes through when they actually are serious about the possibility of earning some money while they gamble, so it is a shame that we most likely will never know what happened.

Looking at the fact that there is no more updates and OP is not active since more than month ago, I guess he is failed with his own challenge.
High likely he lost all his balance in the 3rd day, that's why he did not give more update about the challenge.
I hope I'm wrong as he had nice run in the first 2 days, or perhaps he decided to stop the challenge after the 2nd day and withdraw his earning.

It is difficult to control if you do not have the will. Wonder why there are pro poker players? This is because they mastered their emotions. Emotions plays a big part in poker more than skills because no matter how skilful you are but you suddenly became emotional you will lose track of what you have planned and that can greatly affect your gameplay.

I can disagree with what swogerino said when it comes to free roll. It is not a waste of time if you love to play poker and if you do not have an important things to do. You only need to keep your expectations low because your are not forced to play there. You should accept no matter what is the outcome, win or loose at least you enjoy the game.

I am not sure if you are still playing a lot of poker right now, but if you do would be nice if you share some more information from your journey. Poker is my favourite casino game that I have been playing for more than 10 years myself. Always enjoying watching or reading something about poker. In case you want to do some hand analysis here in the forum it would be cool too. I will try and help. Investing too much time in freerolls is not good if it takes away your energy. The problem I have with freerolls is that a lot of people will go all in every second hand, so within a few rounds there will already be people with a few times the starting stack. And once you are chip leader on the table it becomes much easier to take advantage of missplays by other.

Well yes, skills is something that must be taken into account, however at any moment emotions can come to the fore, which are something that is difficult for some to control, you can have the best hand, but suddenly a single mistake and You lose, I say it because it happened to me, if this happens online, in real life it is something similar, only you look at the different gestures that people have, and in freeroll it is something else.

nice topic
are you studying Poker and learning specific strategies or just learning by doing @thsceptic ?

good luck on your journey
it's a big challenge to start from zero, but definitely not impossible

This is indeed a challenge because you will need to rely on luck and chances more than strategies and skills because these kinds of freeroll is inclined to luck. This could either be fun and a headache. I guess you'll just have to choose what you want it to be. I must say you are patient for doing this because doing freeroll is such nerve-wracking for limited time given everytime. Really rooting for you to have consecutive winnings and i hope that you'll be able to withdraw your prizes easily and hassle free because I've read some cases that they were having a hard time getting their funds and prizes the moment they want to withdraw already. In addition, I hope you won't be so obsessed in winning that to the point your boundaries will be crossed over. Still put up with your set limitations in this challenge.

Please keep us posted for the updates of this challenge of yours to see if it is going smooth or in the rough patch.

Ok so keep us updated. Some questions:

In which site are you playing?
Is it fiat only?
Is 7150 INR like $100?
How long have you been playing?

A lot of people have done that but sometimes it's worth it if you have experience to deposit, take advantage of a deposit bonus and play directly at a cash level that is beatable for you.

Again please read the whole post (If you really care) I only won 200 INR from freerolls ( which took almost a whole day of grinding). The rest of my bankroll comes from multi-tabling cash games and real money tourney which I started with the 200 INR which I won with freeroll. And it seems that you are not well aware of the poker world please tell me the name of any poker platform which does not offer freerolls (in one or other forms) and force you to deposit for cashing out. I guess you are coming from a casino perspective and trying to make an analogy between a no deposit bonus and freeroll. They both are quite different in nature because freerolls allow them to maintain enough liquidity for their low stake cash games, so I am lucky though not in the sense you are talking about. Almost 99% of poker platforms offer freerolls either in their main platform or one of their skins.


Please go through the whole post I am playing with real money.

Anyways, you can come back again for another challenge now with pure real money.  It's a good time to show us what you got.

The pressure in playing with freerolls and real money is different hence with the latter, there's a time you will hesitate on some of your moves because there's real money at stake and you can't afford to lose that one while building a new challenge.

But you don't need to win always. At least you tried your best.

But why quit from it when you get to play from literally zero money to 7,000? A game of poker may be energy consuming but if you are playing with zero bankroll and end up with 7,000, even stress could go away. Remember that people are spending so much money on poker and other gambling games to drive away stress. But here you are having stress by playing with no money and even making a lot from it. It's very lucky for you to have a casino like that which offers free games and allows withdrawals without a deposit.

You have a gross misconception about my 'original plan'. Please take a moment and read before replying it is the second time you get it wrong.
I have never said that I will be only playing freerolls. Freerolls are just a stepping stone to get the initial money so that I can play real cash games since I was starting from zero balance.
Since I managed to build my bankroll up to 7k starting from freeroll now I think I should do away with them because they are sucking too much mental energy and screen real estate.

Freerolls does have basically those terms specially on wagering requirement therefore you should take out consideration on dealing with this first rather than on those real fund gameplays.

Bankroll building challenge is what we do aim most not only on poker but also in sports betting as well and since this is strategic based then it could really be possibly be done
but always vary on how well you do play of course. Good luck OP!

Well, you can beat the challenge if you really wanted --but if I were in your place, I will use to bet first the cash or real fund that I deposited right after the freerolls. Or much better pay attention first with the TOS because usually, freerolls per see will require an amount of wager before you can use your freeroll and earn on that. We are the same, I really love to play poker too, but the thing that we are different is that just because I don't have money to gamble on this big casino. However, good luck and hopefully you can show us here with your winnings.

It seems that you very quickly deviated from your original plans. Maybe you should first earn some amount of real money in order to play simple money games and not freerolls and then start the challenge? As for the analysis of hands, I think it will be interesting only after you show great success in poker 

After getting this initial thrust to my bankroll. I want some help from the learned members of this forum on how should I approach this challenge? Not only that now I have decided to do away with freerolls as they are sucking up too much of my energy and screen real estate. I will be playing on different websites also because some of them are offering quite good value-for-money tourneys. In case you are interested in hand analysis please let me know so that I can share them also.

Oh, in this case, the acceleration of the deposit will take you more time. For a long time I played freerolls and even won prizes there, but it took a lot of time, and in my opinion, if you want to run a marathon, then you should strain yourself and make a deposit with real money to start playing seriously right away.

While I congratulate you on trying to produce content for the community here, it seems like this is doomed from the very beginning. Most amateurs have a very hard time learning poker - first because the house is taking a cut of every hand and second because you are swimming with sharks. The majority of people you'll play against on poker rooms are hardcore skilled grinders and the best of them have the ability to multi-table effectively. If you stand a chance against them you first need to play at a certain basic level and secondly you need a bank roll that can tolerate variances. Most of us have swings in play with a few bad losses, but if you've wiped out 2/3 of your initial deposit on the first day then it seems like you're setup for failure. Maybe take your remaining money and run. Your initial bankroll needs to be 50-100x the buy in of whatever tables you're playing.

Good strategy for you that keep calm while facing aggressive player and it necessary because sometimes aggressive players often to bluffed although he had bad cards and seems you were able to control the game eventually and for me in poker game it's hard to win on freerolls tournaments although you only can able to win once from 10 freerolls i think it's good achievement however seems you were more good while playing sit and go table instead of freerolls

In poker if you are patient and smart enough to not venture in "adventures" you can win against any opponent.The problem is at these skills,very few people are patient enough to not get mad at the cards they are getting and really don't make moves dictated by anger.

If you keep these in mind always you can most of the times win in poker.However I would not play freerolls with really low prizes as in a poker tournament we usually lose a lot of time that maybe we can put at a more good use than just sitting and play freeroll poker.

Good to see you update your thread. I like the way you play because that shows you are familiar with poker and have good control over yourself. I am happy to see you finally have some balance from your winning. I am curious how much money you will get in a week and if you can still have your luck in a week, your money will be increased. Hopefully, you can win some on this day so it will give you more money. But be careful because you can meet a strong opponent.

looks like ur already off to a great start.

teach me how to win, dude.

i needs the money.  

although, i think sooner or later u will end up losing it all.

because most (if not all) poker sites r rigged.

and house shills are dealt better cards.

Yes, starting balance was zero. You can directly cash out any winnings directly to your verified Indian Bank account. Almost every Indian poker site conduct freerolls regularly.


Yeah in long-term you are right but I will be playing those for just to have starting capital since I want to build bankroll from scratch.Updated already. I will try to update frequently.

Though prima facie your argument is true but you can play tight and if you play enough of them its just a matter of time. And at the final table you will be facing easier opponents.

Without any doubt bankroll management is very hard to master and one of the important skill but now a days players are going to theoretical about it which is slowing them down (If you want to play poker only for lifetime may be that is the way but it is not intended this time).
Thanks a lot for consideration.
Yeah its difficult but that's the whole point of doing it beside that I am not setting any upper limit and you cannot go below zero so it will at least an experience.
I am not sure if  you are talking about Chris Ferguson


Yeah initially I will be mulitabling with a more ot less tight approach.No there is no 30$ my initial bankroll was zero. You are right I will be playing both freerolls and real cash games but in order to play real cash games I will make bankroll from freerolls.

Why does everyone write that OP is going to play freerolls? As I understand it, he has real $ 30 on his balance sheet and he is going to play with them first, and freerolls will be an additional help.
In any case, I wish him good luck and it would be nice if at the end of each day he wrote down the number of hands played and the final balance.

I admire your determination to accept this kind of challenge but if it's fulfilling on your part, I hope you'll have fun and enjoy what you're doing. Sometimes, challenging and proving something for ourselves gives us the feeling of contentment but I hope you could handle things well. Best of luck to you, Op.

Yes, best of luck to OP. He may be doing it out of fun or to prove something and challenge himself, but for whatever reason it is, I could only say good luck to him as well. I don’t know how this will go, but I will stay tune and check on OP’s update regarding it, if there’s a progress with this mission or trip of him. I just hope that OP will make good use of what he will earn and be wise in deciding what to do next.

I can only say good luck with the challenge and be careful manage your money and do not use too big amount, even if you get free coins or money to start. Usually, when we can get free money or coins, we will not be careful instead use it all-in at once because we think that we can get another free coin or money. You will screw yourself if you think like that and in the end, you will deposit your money. That is because gambling can easily tempt you to use your own money instead of just hoping for free money. So be careful.

I'll give some advice that could help you to have a good result from this challenge.
What is the freeroll grind ?
The freeroll grind is a method of grinding where you play a lot of tournaments in order to get the required points to enter other tournaments in order to reach a high level.
The basic idea is to have a lot of small wins during all the tournaments, aim for playing a lot of tables and at the same time try to play your own game.
You must have in mind that it's going to be hard to get a good result if you don't follow this advice!!!the key points that people usually forget are$$ play cash games first and never do freerolls when you're in bad mood because it is obvious that you can't play at your best with a bad mood!!

Goodluck op! This seems like a trip towards trying to gamble without actually spending anything or something?  Honestly doesn't look like it's going to end up with something, freerolls have abysmal startups, and if you'd need to be really lucky to actually get something worthwhile, not to mention the probable issues when withdrawing money when you haven't exactly deposited any money in the casino. Not to mention that it'd probably be a lot easier to lose your entire bankroll than win one.

good luck getting money from the tournament ! Actually in the past ,I had tried several gambling websites that held poker tournaments like that ,but I was often unlucky ^{limited patience in my head} because I didn't use any strategy just for fun ! tournaments like that have to use strategy to win with the highest points

With a free roll program it seems almost impossible to really achieve anything. I do remember that there was an American poker professional who turned 10 $ into 1000 $. Not sure about his name, it was around 2010 I think. The guy with the cowboy hat. That could theoretically still be possible. Very difficult from Freerolls. Worth trying. Maybe it's better to try a strategy with low stakes?

Good luck, I think it's the hardest if you're going to start with freerolls. But that's a good challenge that you've got, you can prove to yourself that you either make it or enjoy it.
Once you're able to survive, I think you'll do a rerun but with no longer a freeroll. But before that, we're all waiting for the progress that you're going to have with this challenge.

Bankroll management is one of the hardest things in poker because the swings we can experience when playing no limit holdem is insane. When playing other variants like potlimit then the swings are not so big as we won't be losing our whole buyin with one bad beat. When I first started out with poker I went up the buyins too quickly and ended up going broke a few times. It's best too play dynamically with our bankroll, so as soon as we lose a few buyins it's best to lower our stakes again.

Building a serious bankroll without any starting money is very difficult. Freerolls are usually full of players, so even if you can win 10 or 15 USD it comes down to number players. If you are competing with thousands of other players than your chances are very slim. In my opinion it's better go look for a good casino with 100 or 200% deposit bonus. Like that you have already a good balance to start with.

Good luck with your challenge.

Good luck! It's all that you need in freeroll poker games with so many players and a quick timer! Only with a lot of luck, you can survive all those all-ins through the game... it's definitely not about the skills, it's about picking the right moments for an all-in and having the luck to win... all cards are playing, and too many times I had crazy outcomes on many hands!

I guess this is just fun... have a good time playing free rolls if you have free time, and if you are lucky you can make at least some bankroll and start playing paid tournaments, it's where poker is completely different! Good luck!

If you really want to challenge for one week, I hope you can update your thread every day so we know what you will play and how much you win or lose. The freerolls seem tempting because they are worth 15$ -30$ and you can get them frequently throughout the day. Hopefully, you can win for money and you will not have a problem withdrawing the money. If you have skills in a poker game, I think you can try to play that because, who knows, you can win the games.

Is this really worth your time to play freeroll poker several times in a week with such low prizepool on every freeroll? How much you'll get to win the 1st prize? Is that a winner take it all or the prize pool is distributed to several winners?


Looking at the image, I can see a name SpartanPoker. I did quick google search about this site and it looks like a local poker site in India.

so, u'll be playing with 0?

what happens if you win any money?

will they allow you to withdraw?

as far as i know there are conditions on the amount won.

and it can't be withdrawn instantly.

u can pm me the name of the casino which run no-deposit freerolls.

AFTER DAY 2 session 2     BANKROLL  = 7150 INR



AFTER DAY 2 session 1     BANKROLL  = 7000 INR


This session was much easier for me as I have accustomed to playing on multiple cash tables. I decided to buy in in a 50k GTD tourney with 110 INR. I managed to reach the final table and made a deal for almost 6k INR.


I played cash tables side by side while playing the early stage of the tourney. After initial variance, I managed to build my bankroll steadily. below is the graph for my cash game session.


After having some thought I decided to cash out 6.5k from the site to my bank account, just because it feels good and If needed I can always deposit back. From now I will be focusing on low buy-in tourneys and cash games at stake 0.5/1 as well as 1/2.





AFTER DAY 1 session 2     BANKROLL  = 605 INR


So after winning freeroll I decided to play cash games and sat down at 3 tables with max buy-in (50 INR) blinds were 0.5/1. I played exploitatively and trappy. This session can be summarized as me trapping a big fish with almost 500 bb starting stack. As I have only 4 buy initially I played super tight and waited for a strong hand with fish. I managed to trap him for almost 373 bb pot but he hits his lucky turn and I lost all which I grinded. But I bought in again and started grinding again and slowly building my stack again. Then again I trapped him but guess what he again got lucky for a 300 bb pot. At this moment I felt so tilted but somehow controlled myself and bought again for 50 bb. I knew that I am playing good and it is just a matter of time that he will hand me over his entire stack. So I keep playing and after some time I trapped him again and this time he could not get lucky and I won 251 bb pot. I knew now he will play more aggressively and I have to just wait for strong holdings which happened soon and he lost 451 bb and 134bb pot after that he was completely tilted and got busted soon. Below are the screenshots of hands against him;



Below is the graph of 220 hand which I played in this session;

   AFTER DAY 1 session 1     BANKROLL  = 200 INR
So final after playing 10 free roll I manage to win one
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so final balance now is 200 INR


I will be taking this one-week bankroll challenge from now on. Let's see how much money I can make out of it playing poker for the whole week. I will be playing on two Indian poker platforms (no need to mention the name as I am not promoting them). Both run freerolls worth 15$ -30$ frequently throughout the day.
Below is the screenshot of my initial balance.