My friend and I were discussing a hypothetical scenario in which a top level online player (insert Phil Galfond, jungleman, Brain Hastings,..whatever...someone highly skilled) starts with a $100 bank roll, in the U.S. (therefore limiting him to Bovada, and/or a few other sites). How long before he hits the $100k mark? Keep in mind these players most likely will adhere to strict BR requirements, and so I would assume they'd be starting at the micros. My friend thought if they played 40-50 hours a week they could hit $100k in 1 year. I think it would take significantly longer. Also note that Bovada probably has the highest volume for USA based players but they limit you to 4 tables at once.

So how long do you think it'll take them to hit $100k?

What about $1 mil?

Given the stake limitations, and tougher fields of today, I think it could take years to hit $1 mil. But idk. It's a curious case.

I don't know how much traffic Bovada gets, but I think 4 tables would restrict bankroll growth quite severely at the lowest stakes, and there might not be enough fish at higher levels to get regular games.
You don't have to be elite to make a decent amount of money. Work ethic is more important. HansTheGreat is - to some people - just a rakeback grinder, and he went from $50 at 2NL to $100k and some shots at 1000NL in about 9 months, while putting in a ton of volume (about 900,000 hands) on Euro sites.

Making a million is much harder. There isn't enough high stakes action any more. According to HighStakesdb, only about a dozen people in the world made more than a million playing nosebleed online cash games last year.
There might have been a few crushers making more at lower stakes, but who really wants to play Zoom for 80 hours a week?

I'd go insane for sure lol. But from a theoretical standpoint Zoom may be the best option on Bovada for this particular exercise. Unless it's loaded with nits. I wouldn't know.

I think it goes like this:

week1: 50.000 hands 5NL - 10NL. BR 100 -> 600
week2: 50.000 hands 20NL - 50NL. BR 600-> 1500
week3: 50.000 hands 50NL - 100NL. BR 1500 ->4000
week4: 40.000 hands 200NL. BR 4000->7000
week5: 40.000 hands 200NL. BR. 10.000
Week6: 30.000 hands 400NL. BR 15.000
From there it goes up a little to making some 10k a week or so at 600NL / 1000NL. So he could get to the 100k in 4 months or so. Million in a few years more.

Variance is a big thing though, so reality can be very different.

Would depend a lot on how aggressive an approach they took to BR management. If they're aggressive, then variance becomes more of a factor.

You really think Galfond needs 20 BI to play NL5?

Chris Ferguson did something like this on FTP starting from free tournaments with cash prizes. He got to about $20,000 before he stopped. Daniel Negreanu tried this but stopped around 25nl. Finally many years ago, WCGRider had a prop bet to win $10,000 in a month at 25nl. He gave up. What ended up happening is he was single handedly making 25nl a lot tougher because people were studying how he played and started using his techniques against him and others.

Not likely to happen though without a massive incentive for a top player to do so.

These figures seem reasonable but Idk if he can hit 50k hands/week in the US. Bovada limits players to 4 tables at a time. The other sites (US friendly ones) might not have the volume. And some limit players to 4 tables as well (such as Sportsbook.ag).

Personally iv'e always felt that the registered pros on a site should have to play a certain number of hands per month or year at micro and mid stakes.

For example Daniel Negreanu should have to play a set number of hands in the micro stakes on poker stars and give something back to the community. I'm sure the recreational players or any player for that matter would love to rub shoulders with the pro's online which they would other wise never be able to do.

Ive never thought that to much to ask tbh but very few pros will spend 1 or 2 hours a month of their time in this way. Maybe they shouldn't have to but it would certainly be a nice gesture from the sites and pro players alike.


ive never known how all the pros get entered and funded for all the top tournaments each year and if that is stricly down to the sponsorship deals they create or iff some % of that funding comes out the kitty provided by the rake of the general players on the site.

I would agree

I don't know if it's written into their contracts, but several Red Spades have played in the micros and a few have even played freerolls for lolz. A couple of my old PSO buddies have played Kanu heads up in $10 SnGs (with Alex paying for their buy-ins), and just about everyone I know has stacked Nanonoko or Flix at some point.
I think it's great for the game that some sponsored players have made the effort to play the lowest stakes.

I think it depends on variance, its certainly not as easy as most people think it would be with the romantic notion of the top pro just crushing his way to 100k with ease, thats fantasy.

dont think you can get 50k/hands a week on bovada, that's a lot of grinding

Ah yes, wasnt aware of the tables limit. You can do 4 tables zoom though ? Or they dont have that ?

I guess at the higher stakes he would run into problems with game availability even regardless of table limits

I think they limit you to 2 tables in zoom?? But yeah, getting 50k at Bovada would be nearly impossible imo. You'd have to open up multiple US friendly accounts with as many sites as possible to pull off anywhere near 50k.

50k hands/week on Bovada is impossible without playing Zoom.

give him 500 and allow him to travel and it could be easy playing live.

can someone explain how bovada works exactly? which states is it open to?

It's open to all but Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, Maryland, and New York.

Not sure what you mean by how Bovada works.

what about sticky rice? isn't he from cali?

What about him? Cali isn't on that list, so people from Cali can play.

oh sorry just got off a long sesh haha i thought you said only open to those areas, so practically all of us can play? thats pretty sick... the games are really soft then right?

So how about the people in those states ? they cant play at all ?
Nevada ? isnt that a strange state to ban online poker ?

NJ, Nevada, and Delaware all have US regulated sites to play on (plus there are a few offshore sites that still serve those states). Maryland and New York have the distinction of having a history of actively trying prosecute the offshore sites (such as on Black Friday). Those two states also have a few options to choose from, but not nearly as many as most other states.

Yes. Famous people can run bad. Do you think he's too famous to have his aces cracked over and over again, or hit a set and lose repeatedly?