Cuz I'm Free!!!! Free Rollin'!!!

"A wrong decision is better than indecision." - Tony Soprano Sr.

So, I'm sitting here yesterday bored out of my skull when I notice there is a $3000 NL Hold-em free roll. So I figure, what the Hell, and sign up. By the time the first cards flew, there was around 10,000 people signed up for the thing... Then I suddenly realized that this was a turbo event, so the blinds went up like every 3 minutes. At 10,000 people, this event turned from free-roll into a free-for-all very quickly. I found myself chipped up a decent amount early, but not nearly the amount I would need to be comfortable in a turbo situation, so the blinds and antes quickly caught up with me and I got run out at around 2500, well out of the money.. which started at $.30 from 1600 up to about 800 or so.. Free money, but too much work... Then I went off to the ring games and hooked in about $10.

It's funny, really. I mean, technically, I shouldn't be playing the $.50/$1 games, given the $70 or so I have in the bankroll right now, so this is really the dangerous part. If I recall from my Grinder 101 courses, one should have about 300 BB in the bankroll for the level you're playing. That means I should be sitting on a $300 bank to be playing the 50/1 action. At the current rate I'm playing, that's gonna be a long time. But the real stick is this. Using that logic, I'll need to have banked $600 to comfortably play the $1/$2 rings. So, if I went "by the book", I have to grind out another 530BB at this level. At an average earn rate of 2BB/hr, which should be easily attainable, that's 265 hours of play. If I played 2 hours a day, that's 132 days of grind. 19 weeks. IF I play 2 hours a day every day. Just to get to $1/$2 ring play.

The temptation to pad my bankroll with outside cash and push into the higher stakes is already starting to nag at me. Remember, I spent most of my last couple of years playing low limit, though at the end before I cashed and took a break I was regularly sitting $3/$6, but that was Party Poker, which was like sitting PokerStars $1/$2. God I miss the glory days of Party Poker. We were like mice in a cheese factory back in the day.

Patience is going to be the buzzword around here. The idea is to learn a little more while I'm doing this. Beyond that, I haven't really figured out the end game. When have I "officially" parlayed this into a "fortune". I have a vision in my mind of sitting down at the WSOP or other major tournaments, but that's not really definite bar where I get to and say "I've made it". Winning one of those tournaments obviously would put me over that bar. I just don't have any concept of when I can say "I've made it... I've made a fortune". Clearly I have time to ponder this as I grind away at mini limits!