It is a common dream, to try and turn a small amount of money into a relatively large amount at the poker tables. Players may have a few big wins from time to time, doubling or tripling up at the cash tables, or have a lucky streak that lasts for a couple of days. But the question is; is it really possible to make a substantial amount like $10,000 from such a small starting bankroll? The answer is simply yes, and professional poker player Chris Ferguson has done it before.
It is not something that has happened lately, as Chris Ferguson took $1 to the poker tables and turned it into $10,000 after a few months of play quite a few years ago now. However, it is a great story that is good to remind people about because of what we can learn from it. It is important to remember that it was not an easy task to make so much money from poker alone, and that Ferguson only did it as an experiment to see how well he could do. Nonetheless, how did he manage to do so well?
The key to turning small amounts of money into riches is bankroll management (in fact, its key to being a winning poker player anyway). Ferguson said that he used the 5% rule, which means that he would only ever put 5% of his total bankroll on the table at any one time to help to prevent himself from going broke. Obviously at the start he could not stick to this rule having such a small amount, but after he built his bankroll up to around $20 he knew that he wouldn’t be going broke as long as he stuck to his rules of bankroll management.
It was not an easy journey either, even though Ferguson is a seasoned pro poker player. On numerous occasions, he would lose money at certain limits and have to move back down a level or two so that he could stay within his rules of bankroll management. This kind of strong will and determination is key if you want to be a long term winning player, and it just shows how the game is not all about winning in every session, even for the most advanced players.
The story of Chris Ferguson turning $1 into $10,000 is a great one that deserves to be told time and time again, so that it is known and remembered by all players. It shows that with a bit of skill and determination, any one of us could make a small fortune even if we don’t have the starting bankroll to jump into the higher limits straight away.
