Poker bankroll management, building and strategy – online poker guide

How did Gus Hansen build his poker bankroll?

Sunday, February 14th, 2010 | Mark | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | 2 Comments

Poker pro Gus Hansen

This article belongs to the Poker Pro series

Gustav Hansen, or Gus Hansen as he’s known on the World’s poker scene, belongs to the poker superstars along with names such as Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu to name a few.

Gus Hansen aka “The great Dane” was born just outside Copenhagen on February 13th 1974. Since then he has undoubtedly become the most famous Danish poker player throughout the times.

In this article I will sum up how Gus Hansen built his poker bankroll,  which currently allows him to play in all the major live tournaments as well as the highest online games on Full Tilt poker.

Gus Hansen in his early gambling days

In the 1990s Gus Hansen traveled around with a group of guys from Denmark trying to build a bankroll and making a living playing backgammon. The group was known as “The Danish Backgammon Boys” and they were almost always stuck. Gus had the wildest swings of the lot, one week up a million and the next week down a million. Despite his bankroll swings, Gus always remained positive. As long as the games kept rolling he was convinced everything would work out. Many of you probably don’t know that Rasmus Nøhr, currently a well known Danish musician, was one of backgammon players in the group. Rasmus Nøhr quit the backgammon scene in the late 1990s in favor of pursuing a career as a chef. This was around the same time Gus Hansen moved to Las Vegas with a very small bankroll and a plan to increase it on the poker tables, which he believed to have a future. Rasmus Nøhr did not succeed as a chef and actually lived on the streets for some time until his music career took off. Gus Hansen was the first to invest in Rasmus Nøhr’s career by founding the recording company “Rec og Kort” and signing Rasmus as his first artist. Unfortunately the album “The happy pizza delivery guy” was never released and Gus Hansen shut down “Rec og Kort” to concentrate on his poker career in the states.

Gus Hansen’s achievements

Gus Hansen’s bankroll has increased significantly through his many cashes in major live tournaments. Since 2002 Gus Hansen has made in excess of a whopping 7500000$ in live tournament winnings. Pretty sweet bankroll boost if you ask me . Here’s a list of Gus Hansen’s biggest bankroll boosts:

• 2003 WPT L.A. Poker Classic, 1st prize 507190$
• 2003 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, 1st prize 556480$
• 2004 WPT PokerStars Carribean Adventure, 1st prize 455780$
• 2007 Aussie Millions, 1st prize 1500000$
• 2008 WPT World Championship, 2nd prize 1714800$

Another great bankroll boost came when Gus Hansen sold his stake in the online poker room pokerchamps.com. The site and software was sold to Betfair for roughly 15 million $.

Finally, although it did not increase Gus Hansen’s bankroll, I’m sure his street credibility climbed when he was accepted into the Poker Walk of Fame together with the godfather of poker Doyle Brunson and legendary James Garner from one of the all time greatest poker movies “Maverick”. To this day no other poker player has been accepted into the Poker Walk of Fame.

Gus Hansen’s recent year

Gus Hansen’s bankroll took quite a beating in 2009 on the highest stake Full Tilt poker tables. According to highstakesdb.com, Gus Hansen lost almost 6 million $ online in 2009. And with no major live tournament wins under his belt either, 2009 was a terrible year for The Great Dane. In December 2009 Gus Hansen decided to take a break from online poker to study his game and it seemed like this has helped. So far in 2010 he has increased his bankroll with more than 2 million $.

Gus Hansen’s weaknesses

Gus Hansen is a gambler at heart and as a result his bankroll takes some wild swings from time to time. He likes to bet on almost everything and has lost a lot of money on large sports bets and in the high stakes live cash games in “Bobby’s Room”, the high stakes venue at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas.

Some of the more humorous bets Gus has made include:

• A 200000$ tennis game vs. fellow poker pro Patrick Antonius. I don’t actually know if the game was ever played. Rumors have it that Patrick Antonius backed out of the bet due to an injury.
• A 35000$ boxing match against his good friend Theo Jørgensen. Gus Hansen lost this match. You can easily find it on Youtube along with this gem where Gus Hansen and Mike Matusow bet on a game of tennis.
• When playing high stakes poker in late 2009 against Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan and  Eli Elazra, Gus Hansen was offered 2 million $ bet if he could stay away from sex in one full year. The guys could not agree on the terms of the bet, so Gus Hansen ended up declining it.

Despite Gus Hansen’s large bankroll swings, I’m pretty sure he has a good amount of cash set aside for his retirement if he goes broke again. I wish him the best of luck in 2010.

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

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Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro

Littlewoods Poker

Sunday, February 7th, 2010 | Mark | Poker Room | 2 Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Room series.

For some time I have been looking for a new poker room because I feel convinced the sites I have played on until now are TOTALLY RIGGED (deep down I know this is not the case but it is nice to have something to blame for your misfortune). In all seriousness it’s nice to change poker rooms once in a while to get a change of scenery.

In my search for a new poker room online site, I recently came across Littlewoods poker and decided to write a short review about them. Littlewoods poker belongs to the Pacific Poker network, which is owned by 888 holdings PLC (listed on the London stock exchange). The Pacific Poker network headquarters are located in Gibraltar and this is also where their game servers are located.

Littlewoods poker together with the other poker sites sharing the Pacific Poker network have on average around 1500 players at any given time. This is not a lot, however most of the players on Littlewoods come from casino games, which apparently results in some very juicy poker tables.

The Littlewoods poker website has a nice poker lounge feature where you among other things can learn how to play poker and catch up with the latest poker news on the Littlewoods poker blog.

When it comes to poker tournaments there’s really not that many of interest for me on Littlewoods poker. I mostly play online poker tournaments that start from 18:00 – 20:00 GMT. These days my bankroll is non-existent, so I usually go for low buyin tournaments with large guaranteed prize pools since I don’t mind playing against a large field. The Littlewoods poker tournament schedule has zero tournaments matching my criteria so I won’t be opening an account here.

What is your take on Littlewoods poker? Have you ever played there? Have you ever considered depositing money there?

Tags: Poker Room

The PokerBRB league is taking a break in February

Thursday, February 4th, 2010 | Mark | Poker Freeroll, Poker News | No Comments

The PokerBRB tournament and freeroll league is taking a break in February. The reason is that we will be expecting some downtime while we change host from the awful UK2Net to our own dedicated server at EUKhost.

In addition we will come up with some new competitions for our relaunch in March.

Look forward to seeing you again at the tables (all 594 of you who have currently registered)

Tags: Poker Freeroll, Poker News

Sit N Go Texas Hold’em 101

Saturday, January 30th, 2010 | admin | Poker Articles, Poker Rules | 3 Comments

Submitted by Stuart, from OneStopPoker.com, this article belongs to the Poker Rules series.

This article is for those who have not played Texas Hold’em Poker and wish to understand how it is played in online poker tournaments.

1. THE BLINDS
For the first two players left of the dealer, they will put into the pot the small blind (first player left of the dealer) and the big blind(second player left of the dealer). These blinds will start low say 20 chips for the small blind and 40 chips for the big blind (usually shown as 20/40). The blinds will continue to move higher, usually in 10 minute intervals. This keeps the game moving. The blinds are so named because the two players putting them into the pot are betting before seeing their cards. After each game the dealer position moves one place to the left thus insuring that each player will put in blinds.

2.  THE PLAY
Each player is dealt two cards face down before the first round of betting (unless you are one of the blinds).
Next, three cards called ‘the flop’ are put face up into the center of the table. Now comes the next round of betting.
Then a fourth card is dealt face up to the center of the table. This card is called the ‘turn’, followed by another round of betting.
Finally, the fifth card is dealt face up to the center of the table. This card is called the ‘river’, followed by the last round of betting.
After all the betting is completed, the player with the best five card poker hand made from the 7 cards (the two face down cards dealt at the beginning, usually referred to as ‘hole cards’ or ‘pocket cards’, plus the five cards in the center of the table, wins the hand. If the best hand is the five cards in the center then the pot is split among all the players left playing that hand.

There are many strategies on how to play and win at Texas Hold’em and a variety of books available on the subject. I will review and recommend some in later blogs. Also, I will give you certain tips you must know to be a winner at Texas Hold’em tournaments such as Sit N Go Tournaments.

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Check out our Poker Freeroll and Tournament League.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Rules

Building a poker bankroll-top 10 not to do

Friday, January 29th, 2010 | Mark | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Top 10 Lists | 2 Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Bankroll Building series.

I’ve tried to put together a list of my top 10 “not to do” when it comes to poker bankroll building. If you disagree or have anything to add (perhaps you have your own recipe for building a poker bankroll) please feel free to add a comment.

Do not start your poker bankroll building project without a plan

Planning is crucial in order for any project to become a success (I should know since I work as a project manager for a living). When it comes to poker bankroll building you need to lay out the foundation before you start. Are you aiming to copy Chris Ferguson, starting with 0$ and grinding it out in freerolls and micro limit SNGs or No limit Hold’em? Chris Ferguson succeeded in building a 10000$ bankroll this way. Are you going to build your bankroll through cash games, MTT tournaments or SNGs? What is your plan? You need to have this sorted out before you start.

Do not play out of your profit zone

Your profit zone is the limit where you can comfortably grind it out and make a regular profit (e.g. 5$ 10 max SNGs, 0,25$/0,50$ 6 max NL Hold’em etc…). If you’ve never played poker before you don’t know yet what your profit zone is and hopefully it will move up in limits as you get better. If you’ve played poker before you probably have a pretty good idea what your profit zone is. Here’s my point when it comes to poker bankroll building projects. If possible start up your poker bankroll building project in your profit zone as this will give you the best start. If you start out below your profit zone you run the risk of getting bored and if you start out above your profit zone you run a serious risk of loosing your bankroll.

Keep in mind that people play in games beyond their skill level, buy-in level and outside their profit zone because:

• They are attracted to the potential of the one big pay off
• They think they’re a better poker player than they really are
• They think anyone can get lucky once
• They figure the fastest way to re coop money lost at the lower levels is to win one big game
• They think poker is a game of pure chance
• They think they play better when up against better opponents (i.e. fewer donkeys)
• They have more money than brains

Don’t be one of these people!

Do not start your poker bankroll building project without (realistic, but at the same time ambitious) goals.

Setting goals for your poker bankroll building project is equally as important as the initial planning. Without goals you’re destined for failure. They are what will keep your motivation up and give direction and meaning to your projects. Be ambitious but realistic when setting your goals. Building a large enough bankroll to pay for your dream holiday for example, is in my opinion an ambitious but realistic goal. Make sure that the goal is something you really want. Often this is not the actual money itself but the stuff we can buy from it.

Do not carry out your poker bankroll building project without motivation

If you take care with your planning and choice of goals you should not experience long periods with lack of motivation during your poker bankroll building project. Short spells of low motivation however are unavoidable. I have often found that blogging about my poker bankroll building projects has helped me keep my motivation high. Therefore consider starting your own blog about your project or find a forum with equal minded poker players to share your ups and downs with.

Do not carry out your poker bankroll building project without discipline

Here’s a great definition of the concept discipline:

…..persistently act in the direction of a goal regardless of external adversity or internal state.

Many associate discipline with pushing yourself hard to achieve a certain goal. But this is not the way to succeed in the long run with any challenge especially Bankroll Management. To succeed it is essential to maintain the joy of playing poker. Discipline in this context is the ability to persistently act in the direction of a goal regardless of adversity and the emotional state while keeping in mind that you are doing it because it’s fun.

Discipline is what will keep you on track in your poker bankroll building project with regards to bankroll managements and avoiding tilt. In my opinion you will never succeed in a poker bankroll building project if you do not have discipline.

Do not carry out your poker bankroll building project without proper bankroll management

Bankroll management can be defined as:

………the continuous adjustment of your playing limit according to the size of your Bankroll while factoring in your poker skills and the level of risk you are willing to take.

Obviously this is important. Without proper bankroll management you run a high risk of ruin. In addition if you do not use bankroll management you might not realize that your bankroll is large enough to move up in limits.

There are a few rules of thumb regarding bankroll management, but I recommend you do your own research here because there are a lot of different opinions on this subject.

• For No limit cash games your bankroll should be 20-50 times the maximum table buyin on the limit you play.
• For SNG’s I would say your bankroll should be 40-100 times the buyin you’re playing
• For MTTs (multi table tournaments) you will need more than 100 times the buyin you’re playing (the reason for this, is that you due to the large playing fields in MTTs will not win them nearly as often as SNGs

Do not play at a poker room without a rakeback or bonus deal

Having a rakeback or bonus deal while you play will add $$ to your bankroll building project while you play. So there’s really no reason not to sign up through a rakeback site and get this added value. If you’re a break even player against the opponents on your limit, a rakeback or bonus deal will ensure that your bankroll continuously increases. Since anyone can become an affiliate of a poker site and start promoting rakeback and bonus deals, there is almost no end to the number of online poker rakeback pages available today. If you decide to get a rakeback or bonus deal for your poker bankroll building project, I recommend you check out PokerBRB.com. Here you’ll get better than average deals and the added benefit of a free online poker tournament and freeroll league.

Do not play poker outside your poker bankroll building project

This point on my list might sound strange to some of you, and I’m not even sure I agree with it My thought was that if you lime me play poker with your friends once in a while, chances are the stakes will probably be higher compared to your poker bankroll building game. I have a poker buddy and during our poker weekends I usually spend more $ in tournament buyins than I would during two months, when I just play alone. If you’ve just paid 200$ to play in one of the large Sunday tournaments, won’t the transition back to 5$ SNGs be difficult? As I wrote earlier, I’m not sure about this one, so any input from you guys reading this article would be greatly appreciated.

Do not go on tilt

This is a no-brainer. You tilt, you loose. So don’t do it. There are thousands of online articles giving good advice on how to avoid tilt. I like to throw my water bottle through our living room, but I don’t know if that will work for everyone.

If you go broke do not start a new poker bankroll building project before you’ve analyzed what went wrong in you first attempt

Did you play outside your profit zone? Did you lack poker skills in the games you played? Did you lose motivation?

Find out what you did wrong and learn from it so your next poker bankroll building project has a higher chance of success.

Thanks to Anders and JGiles for providing some of the material for the list.

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Check out our Poker Freeroll and Tournament League.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Top 10 Lists

Another Full Tilt Poker 50$ freeroll on Poker Bankroll Blog

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 | Mark | Poker Freeroll, Poker News | No Comments

Our buddies from WOSB are hosting a 50$ freeroll on Fult Tilt tomorrow at 14 EST. Follow the link to learn more about how to get the password. The results from this tournament will count towards the PokerBRB freeroll league leaderboard.

If you do not have a Full Tilt Poker account you can read more about our great Full Tilt Poker sign-up bonus here.

Tags: Poker Freeroll, Poker News

Rush Poker – will Full Tilt Poker’s new poker concept revolutionize online poker

Friday, January 22nd, 2010 | Mark | Poker Articles, Poker News, Poker Room | 4 Comments

Full Tilt Poker have invented an ingenious new poker concept fittingly named Rush Poker. The general idea of Rush Poker is to play as many hands as possible by minimizing the time you have to wait between hands. Rush Poker is extremely fast, enabling players to play in excess of 300 hands per hour on a single table.

Here’s how Full Tilt Poker’s Rush Poker works:

When you join a Rush Poker game you are placed in a pool of other Rush Poker players at your chosen limit and poker variant. These players are then distributed randomly on poker tables. The main difference between Rush Poker and regular poker appears once you fold your hand. In regular poker you have to wait until all the action has finished before a new hand starts – this is not the case in Full Tilt Poker’s Rush Poker. In Rush Poker, once you fold a hand you are immediately moved to a new table and a new hand is dealt to you. This is what enables you to play a massive amount of hands per hour. On the down side, you will have no time whatsoever to make reads on your opponents. Rush Poker is multi-tabling taken to the extreme.

I for one am looking forward to seeing what new poker strategies spawn from Full Tilt Poker’s Rush Poker concept. We might even see Rush Poker tournaments in the near future.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker News, Poker Room

Latin Ballroom or Pass the Trash

Friday, January 22nd, 2010 | admin | Poker Articles, Poker and Life | 2 Comments

Submitted by Jonathan, this article belongs to the Poker and life series.

Jonathan runs the Why do I play poker website, which as the name suggests is all about sharing each others motivations for self punishment on the felt.

I’ve been married for 10 years, have 2 kids and almost no time to myself. If you count my internet porn babes as company, then I do in fact have no time to myself. When I get a call to join a neighbor’s home game on a random Wednesday night, I think to myself, “What would I rather do? Watch the finale of So You Think You Can Dance with my wife, or hang out with the guys smoking pot, telling lies and acting like a 15 year old.” Hmmmmmmmmm

I arrive at the game a bit giddy. This night is going to be fun. Buy in is $80 and it’s dealer’s choice. Everyone hates NLH at home games. It’s too slow, too restrictive…requires too much talent! I know this going in. We are going to play games that are just a hair above roulette in skill level. Shit, I was going to be watching Tiffany and Raj do the Latin Ballroom, even if I lose $80 at stupid games of chance, I’m a winner. I’ll gladly play 3 hours of “Pass The Trash” if I can escape the suffering of a round of comments from the faggy dancing judges about how much Raj extended his arms during the pirouettes. Not that I have a problem with gay or dancing. But really? Is this even a contest?

Tonight I am catching bad cards. Couple that with missing some of the “subtleties” of Pass the Trash and I am thru my first buy in. It’s only 8:30. Raj is still doing pirouettes. RE-BUY!

At 9:07, my second buy-in is gone. Raj or chips? Raj or chips? Raj or chips? It’s a tough one, but at this point I need to acknowledge the grace and beauty of Raj’s dancing. He actually does have a place in my life. When all the money is gone and there is absolutely nothing left to do, Raj is the answer.

I come home. My wife remarks that I am home early. Bad night. I take my place on the couch and manage to show some enthusiasm when I ask, “Hey did I miss Raj and Tiffany?” “Nope”‘ she says, “just in time.” I force a smile and say, “Great! Can’t wait to see them really nail this Latin Ballroom.”

Sometimes I play poker to postpone the inevitable.

Why do you play? Let me know at stories@whydoiplaypoker.net

If I subjectively pick yours as the story of the month, I’ll deposit $100 in to your online poker account at Full Tilt, Poker Stars or UB.

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Check out our Poker Freeroll and Tournament League.

Tags: Poker and Life, Poker Articles

My favorite blogs from Blogcatalog

Monday, January 18th, 2010 | Mark | Off topic | 5 Comments

There are literally millions of blogs online today and most of them have very little to offer me. I have very rarely found blogs which I find interesting enough to visit on a regular basis (besides my own of course). A weeks weeks ago I therefore set out to find some quality blogs through Blogcatalog – a social blogger community. Below is a list of the 9 blogs I found, and a short summary of each individual blog.

Emancave -an electronic version of the sacred mancave

A mancave is a place where men can be men, and indulge in all the things women find stupid. The emancave is an electronic version of a real-life mancave. You will find a bunch of articles here, all relating to important man stuff. Women should only enter with extreme caution.

My life’s To-do list

Danny put together a list of all the things he wants to do in his life. This is a great place to find inspiration if you are lacking big projects in your life.

iCan’t Internet – All a blogger needs

I’m a blogger, and chances are if you’re reading this post you have a blog of your own as well. On the ICan’t Internet blog you will find many helpful articles on how to improve your blog and promote it through online social networks.

Retro-Gaming and Emulation – Memories recent and modern of retro games

Growing up during the 80’s and 90’s I have seen my fair share of great games for the Commodore 64, Atari, Amiga 500, Sega Mega Drive and so on. Bubble Bobble is still one of my all time favorite games . This blog let’s you take a trip down your gaming memory lane.

Conditional Cognition – because knowledge is not absolute

Sounds trippy? It is! Is the author simply over thinking trivial everyday happenings, or is there a deeper understanding to be found in the world we live in. You be the judge.

Young Cadence – University of Music

Jeff and Robbie made this great blog about music. Browse through their posts and if you’re lucky you will find your next favorite artist.

Hot Aussie Chick – Poker Down Under and Every Where Else

Most poker bloggers are male, but that does not automatically guarantee quality. Here’s a great poker blog written by Danielle, director of PR in an online gaming software company. Definitely worth a visit.

POKERKNAVE’s blog

Follow the thoughts of PokerKnave – a professional gambler who pursues the 3 B’s – birds (women that is), booze and betting, but not necessarily in that order. I will be posting selected blog post from PokerKnave’s blog on a regular basis….now you’re warned

Poker Hot Chick – The Princess of Poker

Lina takes pride in writing quality posts about poker and making money online. Combine this with loads of great pictures and an good blog design and you have a poker blog worth following!

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Check out our Poker Freeroll and Tournament League.

Tags: Off topic

Sit N GO – POSITION IS POWER!

Sunday, January 17th, 2010 | Mark | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | 4 Comments

Submitted by Stuart, this article belongs to the Poker Strategy series.

WHAT IS POSITION?
Table position is where you are sitting in relationship to the dealer or ‘button’.  For this discussion we will assume a full table of 10 players.
‘Early position‘:  The two positions left of the big blind or three left of the button.
‘Middle Position’: the next four seats.
‘Late Position’ (the best position): The next two seats.

PLAY in EARLY POSITION
The first person to bet (after the blinds, which are mandatory) is the first early position player.  You will hear this as ‘he is under the gun‘.  In this position, you have no information about this hand from any of the players.  You might have a good hand, but with no information, it is prudent to check (limp in) or raise only the minimum.  With no information you can not determine the strength of any of the other players.  I have seen many ‘great hands’ played too aggressively from early position only to be swept away by a better hand or a better hand after the flop.  All early position hands should be played tightly.

PLAY in MIDDLE POSITION
From the middle positions you have a read on some of the players and can better determine the strength of your hand.  From middle position, if you have a good hand, you can loosen up a bit and bet up to the standard (three times the big blind).  Remember that you still have a few players that you have  gathered no information.  DO NOT get too aggressive from middle position as it can cost you in two ways.
1.  If you are too aggressive, the other players just might fold leaving you with just the blinds as winnings.  By being less aggressive,  you stand a better chance of increasing the pot.
2.  If you are too aggressive, you might run into that ‘buzz saw’ hand that flops the flush or straight with an 8,9 suited.

PLAY in LATE POSITION
From the late positions, you have seen and gotten information on most of the players and can make your betting decision with more authority.  Depending on the strength of your hand, you have ALL options open to you.  You can:
1.  (with a poor hand) Fold or (if no one has raised the big blind, you can decide to through in a ‘test bet’ to get more information.
2.  (with a mediocre hand) call or raise a small amount.
3.  (with a good or great hand) raise the standard or decide to ‘slow play‘ by just calling the bet.
As the table loses players, you must adjust your play by the size of your chip stack and the information you have learned from the players that are left.
Be aware that these are basic position play moves and will NOT guarantee you a win!  It’s Poker!
I get many questions on position.  Feel free to comment or use the Q&A. You will hear from me quickly.

TO SUMMARIZE

Position gives me opportunities
If I am ‘in position’, I can win with an inferior hand.
If I am NOT in position I can lose big with a superior hand.

One Stop Poker Recommendation
A recommended book you should read is Harrington on Hold’em.

You could be posting your articles on the Poker Bankroll Blog. Read all about it here.

Check out our Poker Freeroll and Tournament League.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Strategy