Quote Originally Posted by flyingPenguin
Quote Originally Posted by Demiparadigm
you need an an avatar.
Avatar coming shortly.

1) buying in short is not a bad plan for losing players, but is a definite hindrance to winning players
2) why, if you know that you are underbankrolled, would you cash out and continue to play underbankrolled
A - To see if I could do it again.
B - That $50 is more useful in my bank account than my poker account at the moment.

I'm just checking that I'm not a losing player before I buy in with the full buy-in.

Thanks for the advice. After that initial withdrawal I'm building up my bankroll again and won't withdraw it this time. The only MTTs I've played are freerolls, but I think they're good practice. I won't buy into any without a bigger bankroll and a few successes in the freerolls.

I'll have a look at Poker Tracker and see how it treats me, as well.
If you play 10nl with only 20 dollars and you lose it all in an hour, you won't know whether you're a bad player or just unlucky. The correct move is to play lower stakes. I would recommend depositing $100 and playing nl10. That way you have ten buyins, the recommended minimum. If you can't afford that, then deposit $50 and play 5nl.

Playing with $20 and hoping to build a bankroll is like buying $20 in shares of a stock and hoping to get rich. Even if the price of the stock triples, you're still only up forty bucks.

When I started to play seriously, I deposited $300 and played the 25nl. To me, 25nl is the lowest stake that offers consistent play and a rewarding feeling of winning a big pot.