Champion of Poker

Sit and go poker tournaments continue to be an extremely popular variation of poker and moving into the New Year there is no sign that this form of bankroll building is likely to diminish in the near future. Poker players who partake in large volumes of these tournaments may want to move up or down depending on their success and this helps them make the most of good runs and minimise the impact of losses.

Let us assume that you are starting with a bankroll of $220 as an amateur player. This is not a massive amount of money and on my blog I recommended that even if you cannot afford this amount you save $55 for four months or $110 for two months and use that time to swot up on poker strategy before you begin to play.

$220 is my minimum poker bankroll for decent stakes. There is always the danger of being trapped at a low limit forever if you get too comfortable or do not put in the required volume to move up. $200 allows you to play $2 SNG’s and to take into account the rake you pay for each tournament. This is very important and explains why my bankroll requirement is not $200 as I like a full one hundred buy-ins.

You should play $2.20 SNG’s four tables at a time using solid SNG poker strategy. Read books and learn about ICM, push fold ranges and all the other SNG specific things you need to be aware of. You should be able to beat these types of SNG over time and when your bankroll increases to $440 you can play two tables at the higher level of $5.50 and two tables at $2.20. If you get to $550 you should move up fully to the four tables of $5.50 SNG’s and hopefully move up permanently with good results. If you fall below $350 in your bankroll go back to $2.20 tournaments only. Slowly moving up in levels until eventually you are playing four $10 SNG’s and have a bankroll of $1100 keeps you firmly within the rules and keeps you in the game. You can play up to eight tables at once if you wish but this depends on your own tolerance.

Continue to move up to the $20 SNG’s if you wish and by this time your bankroll should be above the $2200 point. In fact you should only play $20 SNG’s if you reach this point. If you choose to go professional you can use the SNG at high volume if you are successful to grind out good poker profits. At a 10% ROI your earnings playing 1000 sit and go poker tournaments per month would be $2000 per month profit. A 15% ROI (attainable for a good player) would be worth $3000 per month. Many players grind out up to 3000 SNGs in one month which is a hard grind but they earn $9000 or more each month. To reach this level you would need to be 12 – 15 tabling the SNG’s for many hours which personally for me is something I could not mentally handle for that long everyday. The swings can also be pretty fierce.

If you have a good job there is no reason that with two hours per night at $10 SNG’s you could not make an extra $250 – $500 per month for yourself this way. It is important you have a good bankroll strategy so you can always stay in the game and not risking going bust.

By Malcolm Clarke