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Welcome to Mangatang's Step-by-Step Plan for becoming a long-term winning poker player. This plan lays out the exact method I used to turn a $20 deposit into more than $2,000 in a few months. The key to my plan is modular learning, applied while playing online and building a bankroll, starting at the lowest limits.
Read the book Winning Low Limit Hold’em by Lee Jones. This is the best poker strategy book for beginners I've ever read.
Open a free account with one of the poker sites found in the left-hand menu of this page. (I advise using either Pacific or Paradise for their good selection of micro-limit games, but I highly recommend Pacific once you move up limits, because of their super-weak competition.) Play at the free money tables for a while to get accustomed to the software and playing online.
Practice preflop play on my Preflop Simulator spreadsheet until every play seems second nature.
Now, make a small deposit of $20-$50 into your account, to begin playing for real money. (See Playing Online for help with depositing money into an online poker account.)
Start out playing only the smallest limit of Hold’em ($.05/.10).
Keep records of each session. Record the stakes you played, how long you played, and how much you won/lost. (I use my Session Log spreadsheet to record all my results.)
Re-read Lee Jones’ book, this time, one section at a time (Example: “What to do when you flop top pair with a good kicker”). This book is going to be your poker text book. While playing the micro-limits, concentrate on that section you just finished reading and apply it to your game as you play. Take note of each time you come across that situation.
Once you’ve seen that section’s situation in actual play many times, and you feel confident that you know how to play those situations, then move on to the next section in the book, and repeat the process. (This is the "modular" aspect of the plan. It's like studying in school. You only cover one chapter at a time, then take a test.)
Only move up in limits when your bankroll gets up to 300 big bets of the next level. (See Bankroll for more information.) Example: You start out with a $30 bankroll, that's 300 big bets at the $.05/.10 limit. Once you get your account up to $60, then you can move up to the $.10/.20 limit, and $150 for the $.25/.50 limit, etc. It is very important that you do not play in games your bankroll cannot afford.
If ever you go on a losing streak and fall below 200 big bets of your current limit, then move back down to the next lower limit until you have your required 300 big bets to move back up again. Example: Let’s say you get up to $300 and move up to the $.50/1.00 level, but then you run into a bad run of cards and your bankroll falls below $200. You must then move back down to the $.25/.50 limits until you can get it back up to $300.
Continue adding new sections from Lee Jones’ book, and continue moving up in limits as your bankroll increases. After the better part of a year, you should be finished with the entire book, section by section.
Don’t cash any of your account out until you reach $2,000. At that point you can continue to play at the $3/6 level and schedule to cash out monthly (or weekly) any amount over the $2,000 mark, or you can chose to continue moving up the limits. Remember though, to always keep enough bankroll to cover the limit you want to play.
At the beginning, when you are only playing for nickels and dimes, it will be tough to stay disciplined and patient. This is the beauty of my program. If you can learn discipline at the micro-limits for the time it takes to build a decent bankroll, then you have leaned to stay disciplined at any level.
All the long months of moving up the micro limits are not a waste of time, even though you won’t be making much money. This is your poker education. Most people lose thousands of dollars in the beginning and chalk it up to the price of education. Following my plan, you can get the same education, while only risking a few bucks.
Below are my personal results on Pacific Poker during my training period.
As you can see, I started with a modest $20 deposit, and turned it into over $2,000. Notice the general upward trend, with occasional peaks and valleys. The three red-circled areas indicate times I went on an 80+ big bet downswing in my bankroll. The fluctuations look bigger as you move to the right on the chart, because the big bet size increases.
Notice that after moving up to the $2/4 level, I ran into some bad cards (or I might have had an inflated ego at that point and played recklessly, thinking I was invincible). When I fell below my 200 big bet threshold, I moved back down to the $1/2 limit again. It was painful to do, but it paid off in the long run.
Always remember, the key to beating low limit hold’em is… patience and discipline.
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