How to Become a Winning Poker Player Starting with $100 [Challenge]

I'm an amateur poker player aiming to become profitable in the long run. After 6 years of playing poker and some good finishes in $1 and $2 MTTs with wins ranging from $100 to $400, I remain a losing player, though poker doesn't cost me more than any other hobby.

However, I'm convinced that I can become a winning player. I believe I have the ability, and I'm going to try to prove it (to myself). My goal is simple: grow a bankroll from $100 to $250.

How to Build a $100 Bankroll Playing Tournaments?

• Maintain strict bankroll management
• Have a game plan
• Know your game plan inside out
• Adjust your game plan based on results
• Play under optimal conditions

These are the 5 main principles I'll apply to try to grow my bankroll.

What's the Right Bankroll Management for $100?

With a $100 bankroll, I'll only play $0.50 and $1 tournaments, focusing mainly on small fields with less than 300 players. The goal is to minimize variance by playing small field tournaments. Playing with at least 100 buy-ins helps absorb variance, which exists even in tournaments with fewer players. This strict bankroll management allows you to play without money pressure and enjoy poker free from stress!

How to Play Low Buy-in Tournaments?

I'll start by defining the ranges I'll play in different game situations (from early to late tournament stages, considering various effective stack sizes and table positions) during hand progression. It's crucial to know which hands to play and why to avoid making random decisions at the tables. This first step is long and tedious but very important as it forms the foundation of our game. I'll use Poker Toolkit to build my ranges.

How to Learn and Memorize Your Ranges?

After building your ranges, you need to learn them. I'll review them once daily and aim to study at least 10 ranges per week using the range review feature in Poker Toolkit. The goal is to achieve at least 90% accuracy when reviewing my different ranges.

How to Use Your Tracker to Fix Mistakes?

Using tracking software like Poker Copilot, we can identify game situations where we're losing in the long run. Consistent losses indicate that we're misplaying situations and need to adjust our game and/or ranges. By eliminating our mistakes one by one, our game improves.
I've been using Poker Copilot for several years. This tracker works on Mac, and I appreciate its configurable and accessible HUD. The goal will be to learn to use it in depth to maximize its benefits.

What Are the Best Playing Conditions for Poker?

We'll play exclusively on computer, never on mobile apps. Preferably, we'll try to be isolated for optimal concentration. A typical session starts around 7:30/8:00 PM and ends no later than 2 AM. We'll open between 2 and 4 tables maximum to properly implement what we're working on. We won't open new tables if we start losing focus.

The Mental Game of Poker: Two Books to Stop Tilting

As a bonus, we'll work on our mental game using "The Mental Game of Poker" and "The Mental Game of Poker 2" to avoid tilt and maintain our A-Game regardless of what happens at the tables.
We'll keep this as a background task throughout the challenge.

The goal is to avoid throwing your monitor out the window after taking too many bad beats in a row!

Follow the PTKChallenge

My username during this challenge is www.ptk.fish
You can track my progress on Sharkscope.com and see the precise evolution of my bankroll
I'll also update this article with a list of all articles related to this challenge.

End of the Challenge

Following this post, I played extensively from November 2020 to April 2021. After stagnating for a month, my bankroll jumped to $500 in mid-December after winning a Kill The Fish tournament with 1,699 entries. Mid-January, I won the Multiplex Poker and increased my bankroll to almost $1,000. At the end of January, I finished 27th in the Main Event KO 500k for $2,000 in winnings (including $700 in bounties) after qualifying through a $10 satellite. My bankroll reached around $3,000, the most I've ever won, so I decided to withdraw part of my winnings.

I started playing higher stakes and enjoyed the Winamax Series in April 2021. Despite a good performance in one of the tournaments, my bankroll decreased. I moved up in stakes too quickly and experienced poker burnout. My mental game couldn't keep up with the bankroll. I decided to take a break from May to September to come back stronger and possibly start a similar challenge without making the mistake of moving up stakes too quickly.

Interested in This Challenge?

Before you start, improve your game with Poker Toolkit!