Five tips for low stakes MTT players for building a bankroll

Team partypoker’s Louise “lou045” Butler has won more than $560,000 from online poker tournaments and is currently the number one ranked female in the Irish online poker rankings, according to PocketFives.com. Louise has penned this poker strategy article to give you five tips on how to build a bankroll if you a a low stakes tournament player.

I started taking poker seriously about three and a half years ago. At that time, I was a cash-poor backpacker living and working in Australia so I couldn’t afford to put a lot of money into poker so I decided to put a single $300 deposit into an online account, try to manage my bankroll and grow it. I know there are lots of people in the same position now as I was then so in this article i will share some advice on what to do/not do to build a big bankroll from a small deposit and work your way up to bigger stakes.

1.) Select your games carefully

Play within your bankroll if you cannot afford to reload. Make sure you mix in some small field tournaments with the big fields- this will reduce your variance and give you a chance to improve your end-game faster. Always look out for good value tournaments-anything with an overlay is great! Avoid tournaments with excessive rake!

2.) Be selective about the poker content you read and watch, even if you don’t have a lot of money to spend on courses/study material.

There is lots of free and low cost poker strategy content available online but some of it is really bad. Look for articles and videos made by players who are still actively playing poker and winning. Reach out to better players and ask them to direct you to good low-cost content if you get stuck. Of course, also stay tuned to the partypoker blog where my fellow Team partypoker members often give you an insight into their strategies.

3.) As your bankroll grows take shots occasionally at bigger buy-ins.

A good way to do this is by playing satellites to bigger events. The $1 million guaranteed Big Game at partypoker give you a good chance to win seats to bigger games. When you play bigger buy-ins you should play less tables, concentrate and try to learn from what the better players are doing. Keep an open mind and don’t assume moves you don’t understand are fishy. If you see a good winning player doing something weird, try to work out why the player might make that move; investigate it and learn from it. Keeping an open mind and realising you have lots to learn is, in my opinion, the key to success!

4.) As your bankroll grows invest time and money into improving your game.

My biggest regret about the last few years is how slow I was to invest money into software and courses. My second biggest regret is playing too much and studying too little. I fell into the trap that a lot of low-stakes winners fall into in that I could comfortably beat $11 & $22 tournaments so I would just load up tons of tables and go into autopilot mode. This is not the best way to improve as a player and it definitely doesn’t teach you how to win against the better players. It is crucial to spend some of your growing bankroll and your time on studying and improving your game. You must invest money into courses, software etc. to become a better player and to succeed in the long run.

5.) Have fun

Poker is a game that is supposed to be challenging, rewarding and FUN. Remember this and don’t be too hard on yourself when you are on a downswing and enjoy the upswings without getting too ahead of yourself. Enjoy Monster Series, I hope you all crush it and I look forward to playing with you!