Gulf Coast Poker Forums

The other day I logged on to Full Tilt Poker for the first time in ages. I was going to mess around with the software to write a review for this site, when I found $2 left in my account from a previous deposit/withdrawal. For fun, I decided to try and turn that $2 into $1,000 and post my progress here.

Obviously, with only $2 I'm not paying much attention to bankroll management principles. I'm not saying it can't be done. FTP Poker Pro Chris "Jesus" Ferguson started with -0- and turned it into over $10,000 by adhering to strict bankroll management rules.

Bankroll management is a necessity when you don't want to go broke. But I'm not particularly concerned with losing (at this point) so I'm going to take some risks and see what I can do.

So far it's gone well. I started by playing a $2 Omaha Hi sit-n-go tournament (head-ups tourneys being the riskiest of all) and took it down. I played a few more, winning a couple, and losing one here and there. I cashed in a $1 H.O.R.S.E single table tournament, which helped out.

After the dusk settled I had turned my $2 to just over $24 - not a bad start. I hope to play some this weekend so I can follow-up next week.

Like I mentioned in my first post, I'm playing a lot of the $2 Heads Up SNGS on FTP to build the roll up. Unfortunately, I had a bad run where I went down to $10. Then I made it back up to $20+. Then I went back down to just $3!! I made a comeback to $10+.

I think I'm done with NL Hold'em Heads up tourneys (for now). Way too much variance. I am still going to include PL Omaha Hi/Lo HU though. They are pretty soft and I am winning probably 75% of them.

That's it for now!

Been awhile since I've updated. I've actually been moving up quite steadily since almost going busto a couple of times. I've switched from Heads Up tourneys to full table SNGs for the most part. I'm still playing three or four tourneys at once, mixing in NL Hold'em, PL Omaha Hi/Lo, and HORSE. I moved from $1 to $2 stakes and have been ITM pretty consistently. As of today the roll is up to $57.

Before long I'll start incorporating cash games too. That's all for today!

Newest update: FTP Bankroll is up to $72 as of today. I've been playing maybe an hour or so every other day. I've been trying to mix in some WSOP satellite donkaments while playing SNGs.

The site where I got the graphic in my signature is messing up so I couldn't update it. Anyway, it may be a while before I incorporate cash games into the plan. I gave some low stakes Omaha Hi/Lo, NL, and HORSE a try and took a slight hit to the B-roll. I seem to focus better in tournaments for some reason. So I've got it to $72 and plan to move up to $5 SNGs when I hit $75. For some odd reason Full Tilt Poker goes from $1 SNGs, to $2, and then up to $5?! It doesn't matter that much. I'm sure I'll move up steadily at those stakes as well.

After my last update I moved up to $5-6 SNGs. It's basically the same level of play for more money. I've cashed consistently and have the Full Tilt bankroll up to $132 as of today.

My new bankroll requirement is 20 buy-ins for any given level.

Here's the plan for finishing out Operation: Grind-a-Grand.

$6.50 SNGs - $130 - $240
$12 SNGs - $240 - $480
$24 SNGs - $480 - $1,000

That is gosh damn amazing. IIRC, Ferguson took 7 months to reach $6.50 from 0. Now that you've broken $100, I'm 90% sure you'll make to $1,000.

And a little off topic...Ferguson creeps me out. I had a dream I got into my car and he jumped out of the backseat and tried to rob me with a knife. Is it really necessary to look like a creepy old truck driver (No offense to any creepy old truck drivers out there)? I don't think of Jesus when I see his ugly mug.

BTW. I've decided to do something similar on Pokerstars.com. I won .50 in a freeroll tourney and I've decided to try and turn this into a pot of gold. Currently, I'm playing .02/.04 Limit and up to $1.50.

This is going to take awhile.

full tilt just started doing super turbo sit n gos for cash. you start with 300 chips and 3 minute levels. its an easy way to build a short bankroll if you dont want to sit in that $3 sng for an hour to win $12.

Had a decent run for awhile and broke $200. Then things turned south and I'm back down to $172 as of today. Slowly but surely, I will succeed!



Thanks bro! Yeah I cheated a bit by starting with $2. Because of his strict bankroll management, poor Ferguson had to grind out Freerolls to get going. That's a tough job!



lol @ your dream! Although he seems like a really nice guy, you're right about him looking shabby. But, he's staying true to who he is, so you have to give him credit for that. What gets me are the people who strike it rich and have some jacked up wart (or other thing that causes people to stare) on their forehead that you KNOW they could have fixed.



That's awesome! You need to start Operation: I Want Da Gold.

Keep us posted on your progress and good luck!



Dude... these are worse than the Round 1 WSOP Freerolls. I just played 3 and it's nearly shove or fold right away. I busted early in two and took 3rd in the last one. Too many flips for me. The variance in these things must rival heads-up tourneys. If you develop a solid strategy for beating these things, please post it for the rest of us!

im beating them pretty good. you gotta play tight for the first and second round. if you can pick up hand, then shove it in. but after the first to rounds your usually down to 5 players and they pay three so you really only need to win one or two coin flips and you can cash. if your lucky enough to double or triple up early, then you can just sit back and coast to the money. i love these things, but im not playing any of the large buy in ones. im sticking to the 7 and 14 dollar ones and if im running good ill mix in a $28.

So, inspired by you (kinda) I'm doing something similar. I won .50 in a freeroll and I'm trying to parlay that into a $1000. It's pretty slow going. The only place I could even play with .50 is the .02/.04 PL games. It's been tough to even build my .50 into $4.50 that I'm currently at.

Eventually, I'll be able to get out of this miserable .02/.04 PL games (really, it's quite horrible... I don't even pay full attention half the time... in fact, I'm playing right now as I type this).

What rules did you come up with guide what levels you can play at?

To be honest, in the beginning I didn't adhere to bankroll management rules at all. I played in $1 SNGs and $2 Heads Up Omaha SNGs since I knew I had an edge. Once I reached $50+ I started protecting the b'roll a little more. In a previous update I came up with this set of requirements to move up and down in levels.



If you're playing cash games and want to use bankroll management rules, I would have no less than 15 buy-ins for any given level (and that's pretty liberal). That's why it took Ferguson so long to grind his bankroll, because he was very strict and played mostly freerolls for months.

It sounds like you've done well grinding out the micro limits thusfar. Keep up the good work!

PS. Feel free to start your own operation for us to follow here.

Man, I haven't posted an update in awhile. So here it is.

I've moved up to $11 SNGs and $5 HU SNGs. The level of play is about the same on HORSE and NL tourneys, and the PL Omaha Hi/Lo games are slightly tougher. Still consistently making the money

As of today the b'roll is up to $437. Won't be long until I can move up to $24 tourneys.