The Americas Cardroom Dilemma

(10/13/2017--I had to edit the title.  The original was "The Juicy Stakes Poker Dilemma, which doesn't make any sense.

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In my previous post I talked about how, even though I've run my very small Juicy Stakes Poker bankroll up to over $200, my Americas Cardroom bankroll is down to almost nothing.

At the beginning of 2017 I didn't have much of a bankroll on either site.  I decided that this year, instead of concentrating on live poker, where I clearly don't have the 100 buy-in bankroll to play the local $50 tournaments, I would spend 2017 concentrating on building up both online bankrolls first, then figure out my next move from there.

My current Juicy Stakes Poker bankroll is $229.66.  I built that playing $1 tournaments for a few months, then adding $2 tournaments later.  With Americas Cardroom, everything went wrong and that bankroll is down to almost nothing.

That's not surprising.  Starting with a small bankroll, one is always vulnerable.  To put in mathematical terms, my ROR (risk of ruin) was high on both sites.  I made it work on one site, where I now have enough to work with and safely continue building that bankroll.

So, what do I do about my grand total of 98¢ on Americas Cardroom?.  I could make another deposit, but I'm on a shoestring budget and I don't want to do that unless I have no other options.. I could play 11¢ tournaments and build a bankroll pennies at a time, but is a tournament where I can play for hours and make 50¢ worth my time?

I decided that yes, it is worth my time.  I need to play that 11¢ tournament two or three times a week.  I'm not going to play it every day, because it would step on other tournaments where I can make money that isn't denominated in pennies.

I played a live tournament once or twice every month last year.  I wasn't bankrolled for it, which of course affected my play.  In poker, that's called "playing with scared money."  I learned a hard lesson and lost a lot of money.  I've never going to stray from strict bankroll management again.  I'll take the hit and grind out the 11¢ tournaments for as long as it takes to be bankrolled for whatever the next level is (I think it's 50¢) and take it from there.

As I was about to publish this, I realized that there is another option.  Sometime in 2018, when my JSP bankroll is over $500, I will make my first withdrawal.  I might deposit some of that money onto Americas Cardroom.  But for now I'll stick with grinding the 11¢ tournaments.