100$ BR - how far can you get?

[Diarmaid]

Hayatt,

When I have been playing ring games online lately, I have been using Lanky's divisor method, its used for roulette but really it can be used for any sort of gambling.

It works very well and you can profit even if you are just a moderately good player.

It would work like this.

My base buyin (unit) is $20 and I would start on the 25c-50c tables, for a $40 buy it would obviously be then a 50c-$1 table and for a $60 I move to $1-$2, for a $80 I stay with $1-$2

I start of by playing a $20 game if I lose I play a $40 game and if I lose again I play a $60 game. If I lose all 3 games then I use the divisor to recover the money and it will also leave me with $20 profit.



So lets say I have lost 3 games in a row, which is very rare for me on ring tables.
I am down 6 units  (or $120). this is how the divisor is used to recover. I'l throw in some loses too.

The amount of units played with is decided by dividing the small divisor into the larger divisor and rounding it up to the nearest unit. When you win a game (which is to double your buyin) the small divisor goes down by 1 and if you lose 2 games in a row it goes up by 1.

After every win the amount of units won is deducted from the large divisor and every loss the units are added to the large divisor.

OK here we go... -$120 (6 units) at the moment.

I'll make it as bad as possible

Win/Loss...divisor---units---total--profit
Loss.........6...13.......3.........-9
Loss..........6...16......3....... -12
Win...........7...19......3........-9
Loss..........6...16......3........-12
Win...........6...19......4........-8
Loss..........5....15......3.......-11
Win...........5...18.......4........-7
Win...........4....14.....4.........-3
Loss..........3.....10....4.........-7
Win............3....14.....5........-2

Now the divisor is down to 2 and you bring in a new divisor adding 6 to the small (2+6) divisor and 7 to the large divisor (9+7). You can bring the new divisor in when the small divisor is down to 3 either, its slower but less aggressive.

Now you have....

Win............8.....16.....2........0  Recovery complete

So in total here I made a total of 13 buyins and only won 5 of them. That a pretty terrible day at the office and I would have still not lost any money.

On this occasion the divisor went on a long time and just broke even, on othr sessions it would leave you with one unit profit.

Having said that I rarely even use the divisor but it is good to use as a recovery method I find. You have to actually lose 3 buyins first before you use it and that rarely happens me, having said that I have only being using it for about 2 weeks.


Cheers
D

[Hayaatt]

Hey diarmid.  Thanks for replying and thanks for your game plan/advice as well.

If you don't mind me asking what is your stop/loss?  What are you currently making as your goal per day?

How long do your sessions usually end up being playing online?  Do you think it is wise to play two broken up sessions per day? Or to just keep it at one per day and quit for the whole day. 

Thanks again.

[Diarmaid]

I don't play that much anymore so I have not had to use a stop loss with this method yet. I rarely even use the divisor. I would stop at +3 units, that would be plenty for one day for me.

I also play heads up, sng's with this method and sometimes 10 player sng's.

Cheers
D

[Diarmaid]

@ Matty,

Just a quick question for you, I am trying to improve my staking at the moment, I'm going to move to higher stakes soon and I think I may be playing a little too aggressive at the moment. It's ok for the lower stakes but for the higher stakes from my experience, its much more difficult.

Are you still playing with the $6.50 base buyin?



Lets say the following happens. This is a disastrous example I know but it does happen when your luck is down.

buyin....result...total
$6.50...loss......-$6.50
$6.50...loss.....-$13
$6.50...loss.....-$19.50
$16.....loss......-$35.50
$16.....loss......-$51.50
$16.....loss......-$67.50
$38.....2nd......-$11.50

As you can see now you are down $11.50, would you go back to playing $6.50 from here, or back to the second stage ($16) or what???

Maybe if you have time you might explain how you would deal with a disastrous session like the one above.

I'm taking a break from the headsup for a while, had a horrible 2 weeks there not too long ago and lost a lot, headsup can be like that sometimes, when your luck is down your completely screwed. At least on a 9 player SNGs you can wait for cards a lot of the time. and when you get one good game you win 3-4 times your buyin.


Cheers
D

[Hayaatt]

@ Matty,

Just a quick question for you, I am trying to improve my staking at the moment, I'm going to move to higher stakes soon and I think I may be playing a little too aggressive at the moment. It's ok for the lower stakes but for the higher stakes from my experience, its much more difficult.

Are you still playing with the $6.50 base buyin?



Lets say the following happens. This is a disastrous example I know but it does happen when your luck is down.


buyin....result...total
$6.50...loss......-$6.50
$6.50...loss.....-$13
$6.50...loss.....-$19.50
$16.....loss......-$35.50
$16.....loss......-$51.50
$16.....loss......-$67.50
$38.....2nd......-$11.50

As you can see now you are down $11.50, would you go back to playing $6.50 from here, or back to the second stage ($16) or what???

Maybe if you have time you might explain how you would deal with a disastrous session like the one above.

I'm taking a break from the headsup for a while, had a horrible 2 weeks there not too long ago and lost a lot, headsup can be like that sometimes, when your luck is down your completely screwed. At least on a 9 player SNGs you can wait for cards a lot of the time. and when you get one good game you win 3-4 times your buyin.


Cheers
D

What kind of bankroll would be necessary for the type of play above? 

[Diarmaid]

Matty started with a $100 BR but I would probably recommend starting with a $200. Its hard to know really, it depends on how good you are and how good you are with managing your money.


My BR is $1000 at the moment as I withdrew most of my money from poker stars, had a bad run and I want to start at lower stakes again and build it back up. Thinking im going to give Full tilt a go.

Gona give Mattys method a go for a while and see how I get on. My base stake will be the $30 tables.




The only thing I can say is if you are having a bad run at the tables, NEVER increase your stakes to try and recover, you will hit the wall. Always stay around the stakes you are supposed to be at relative to the size of your BR. If you have to lower your stakes so be it but never increase them until you are ready.

Say your base stake is $6 and your BR is $200, your base will not rise to $12 until your BR is $400 and if you drop back to $200 you need to then move back to a $6 base. Haveing said that if you lose $200 playing a $6 base you probably shouldn't be playing poker, thats where SOME of the worst players play, obviously not all of them would be bad players. LOL


Cheers
D

[MattyMattz]

@ Matty,

Just a quick question for you, I am trying to improve my staking at the moment, I'm going to move to higher stakes soon and I think I may be playing a little too aggressive at the moment. It's ok for the lower stakes but for the higher stakes from my experience, its much more difficult.

Are you still playing with the $6.50 base buyin?



Lets say the following happens. This is a disastrous example I know but it does happen when your luck is down.

buyin....result...total
$6.50...loss......-$6.50
$6.50...loss.....-$13
$6.50...loss.....-$19.50
$16.....loss......-$35.50
$16.....loss......-$51.50
$16.....loss......-$67.50
$38.....2nd......-$11.50

As you can see now you are down $11.50, would you go back to playing $6.50 from here, or back to the second stage ($16) or what???

Maybe if you have time you might explain how you would deal with a disastrous session like the one above.

I'm taking a break from the headsup for a while, had a horrible 2 weeks there not too long ago and lost a lot, headsup can be like that sometimes, when your luck is down your completely screwed. At least on a 9 player SNGs you can wait for cards a lot of the time. and when you get one good game you win 3-4 times your buyin.


Cheers
D

HeyD,

I would drop back down.  Always drop back  down.  If I win at 6$ nets me 27$, then I would always drop back down unless I'm down more than 27$.

Make sense?

Matt

[Diarmaid]

HeyD,

I would drop back down.  Always drop back  down.  If I win at 6$ nets me 27$, then I would always drop back down unless I'm down more than 27$.

Make sense?

Matt

Yea makes sense, have you ever had to go higher than a $38 buyin, when $6.50 is you base stake?

Cheers
D

[Hayaatt]

How many tables do you guys normally play at a time?  How long normally are your sessions?

Diarmid.  Any reason why you are converting over to fulltilt instead of staying at Pokerstars? 

Thanks again!

[Diarmaid]

How many tables do you guys normally play at a time?  How long normally are your sessions?

Diarmid.  Any reason why you are converting over to fulltilt instead of staying at Pokerstars? 

Thanks again!

I would normally start with 2 tables and if I happen to lose both of them I would then play one at a time until I win. Sessions are as long as you want them to be.

Playing at a different online casino is no different than just going to a different B&M casino sometimes, purely for the change of scenery.

[MattyMattz]

D - Nope, never over the 38$ tables.

Hayatt - I usually play 4 tables at once at the 6.50$ level.  If I lose them all, then it's one at a time.

Matt

[Hayaatt]

Matty,

If you played 4 and lost all 4 would you play one $16.50? or stay at the $6.50?


Turbo sng's at Stars last usually an hour no?

Thanks.

[MattyMattz]

Yep, if I lose all 4, I play one 16$ game.

And yep, turbo sng's almost always finish within the hour.

MM

[Diarmaid]

Hey Matt,

Do you play the 18 player sng's much?

I played 5 on them tonight and cashed in 3 of them leaving a healthy profit.

Was thinking of playing them with the following steps. I downloaded that tournament shark tool, very handy to know a bit about your opponents.

27   -27
27   -54
27   -81
27   -108
38   -146
38   -184
38   -222
60   -282
60   -342
60   -402

[MattyMattz]

I do play the 18 seaters once in a while, but prefer the 9 players more.

Careful with shark software as I've heard it's a violation of the rules (atleast with PokerStars) and you can get banned if caught.  Not sure how it's monitored though.

Matt

[MattyMattz]

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