Poker Pros playing low/micro stakes online cash games and tournaments
There are professional poker players playing different poker games online everyday, so, if you play high stakes cash games or tournaments, it is nothing unusual to meet them at the same online poker table. All the biggest online poker rooms have at least one of the celebrity Poker Pro on their board, for example, Full Tilt Poker Team is full of famous poker pros like Phil Ivey and Gus Hansen.
Since micro/low stakes online tables are way below what they are after, one would therefore assume that the odds of playing online poker with them at these limits are close to zero, but that would be a wrong assumption.
Why, you may ask? Well, one of the poker pros, who had to go through and beat the micro/low stakes poker games in order to complete his so called »From Zero to Hero« challenge, was Chris Ferguson.
Chris Ferguson’s challenge started somewhere in the middle of the year 2006 with a goal of turning bankroll account on Full Tilt Poker site from $0 into $10,000. The main purpose was to show that it is possible to build a decent bankroll out of nothing and that, when it comes to poker, bankroll management is important.
His bankroll management policy was strict and he was determined to follow it no mather what (For more information on Cris Ferguson’s bankroll management read this post).
With no money in the bankroll, he began by playing online freerolls and eventually earned enough to move to micro/low stakes cash game tables. Many people were surprised when finding themself playing micro/low limit poker at the same online table as Cris Ferguson, but that was just part of the process of completing the challenge.
He made it in September 2009, highlighting the importance of playing poker according to your bankroll management, which basically means playing limits that you can afford and moving up the limits only when your bankroll is ready for it.
Daniel Negreanu is the next low/micro stakes “From Zero to Hero” grinder
In the beginning of this year (2009), another celebrity poker player decided to build a bankroll up from basically no money at all.
This time Poker Pro Daniel Negreanu took a challenge of building a bankroll from $10 up to $100,000 by playing NL holdem cash games at Poker Stars poker room.
In comparison to Ferguson’s bankroll management (He never buys into a cash game or tournament with more than 5 % of his total bankroll), Negreanu’s bankroll management seems to be a little looser (or riskier if you prefer that word).
Negreanu plans to move up to the next limit at the moment his bankroll reaches 500 big blinds, which is equal of having a total of 5 Big stack buyins for a certain limit. He will be adjusting this limit change policy as the stakes get higher and competition gets tougher.
There were (and still are) discussions going on at some of the poker forums, whether this kind of bankroll management is enough to actually make it. Some say such bankroll management is too vulnerable to short term downswings and that he is going to go broke as soon as he hits one of these famous online downswing.
Well, Negreanu seems to be doing all right so far. From the information I got at his blog, the first change of level (from $0.01/$0.02 micro limits to $0.02/$0.05 micro limits) occured somewhere in the late January and the second change of level (from $0.02/$0.05 micro limits to $0.05/$0.1 micro limits) at February 4th, when his bankroll reached $50.
According to his blog post (published late in March), his bankroll at that moment was $100, which means he was almost at the final micro level ( NL25 tables where the blinds are $0.1/$0.25), but Twitter account posts from April 16th indicate, that he is still grinding at $0.05/$0.1 micro limit tables.
Daniel thinks he will complete this challenge in couple of years, but again, there are people who think that by playing only one table at a time, it is going to take him a lot longer. It is hard to tell how much time he will actually need (although it is possible for him to go broke somewhere in the middle, since this is poker with a quite risky 5 bankroll management we are talking about), so all we can do is follow his progress along the way and see what happens.
If you would like to take a piece of Daniel Negreanu bankroll, while he is still grinding at the micro limits holdem cash games, you can do so at Poker Star poker site, but be prepared to wait in lines. His online table usually has a couple of hundred online poker players waiting to bust him.
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http://www.apersonalfinanceguide.com Susan Kishner
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