How to Quickly Turn $100 into $10,000 in Poker [2024]

How to Turn $100 into $10000 in Poker

People often ask me how they can quickly turn $100 into $10,000 in poker. Or some variation of this.

Well first off, I have to break the bad news that it isn't going to be easy. And what I mean by that is it won't happen overnight.

You will also have to put in some serious hours at the poker tables in all likelihood to do it!

Most people also won't succeed at first. They might end up burning through several $100 deposits until they can find a winning strategy to start building such a large bankroll.

But if I was to try and quickly turn $100 into $10,000 at the poker tables today the strategies listed below are the ones that you should be using in my opinion.

Also, I will even include a few ridiculous strategies at the end (that incur tons of risk) for all you impatient gamblers out there who need to turn your $100 into $10,000 by this afternoon.

Alright, let's get started!


1. Play Micro Stakes Cash Games and Move Up With 20 Buyins


My first go to strategy to turn $100 into $10000 at the poker tables would be to play the micro stakes cash games online and utilize an aggressive bankroll management strategy.

I would start out at NL2, which is the 1 cent / 2 cent blind cash games with a maximum buy-in of $2, and move up to the next level as soon as I have 20 buyins for it.

The next level in online poker is typically NL5 which is the 2 cent / 5 cent blind cash games with a $5 maximum buy-in. So 20 buyins for this game would be $100 ($5 x 20).

How to Quickly Turn $100 into $10000 in Poker

With a basic tight and aggressive poker strategy (TAG), a little bit of tilt control and some game selection, it isn't too difficult to make $100 at NL2 these days fairly quickly.

Now there is definitely some risk attached with a strategy like this though. And that is why I typically suggest a much more conservative bankroll management strategy of 30, 40 or 50 buy-ins.

But hey let's face it, that won't be either quick or easy! So where is the fun in that? Sounds boring AF am I right?

In all seriousness though, I think 20 buy-ins can work for a decent winning poker player as long as you are willing to move back down when things don't go your way.

Which absolutely is going to happen even if your name is Daniel Negreanu.

And this right here really is the key. So many people fail to do poker bankroll challenges like this (or even win at poker at all), because they don't move down when they start losing at a higher limit.

Guys, this is part of the plan too!

You have to remember that there is a ton of short term luck built into the game of poker. But as long as you are willing to move BOTH up and down, then I think you can climb up the micro stakes cash games and turn $100 into $10000 in a reasonably short period of time.

Now I am not guaranteeing that it will be fast or easy.

It will probably take at least 6 months to a year for most people to do it, even if we are assuming that you are playing very regularly (5+ nights per week).

But overall this is the strategy that I would use, which incurs the least amount of risk, if I wanted to do a $100 to $10,000 poker bankroll challenge.


2. Play $1 and $2 Tournaments Until You Make a Final Table


Alright, let's discuss another good strategy to turn $100 into $10,000 at the poker tables which will incur a little bit more risk than the last one.

But the good news is that by using this strategy you could potentially hit the 10k mark a lot faster. And this strategy is to play a ton of $1 and $2 multi-table poker tournaments. 

This is something that I did in the beginning by the way before I became a full time professional poker player, as I mentioned in my latest video.


Now most of the time these games are really soft online with huge fields full of fish. 

But the problem with tournaments has always been that it doesn't matter how bad the other players are, you still need to get very lucky if you want to place high.

And in order to actually win a poker tournament with 1,000+ entrants you are going to have to get really, really lucky again and again over a short period of time.

The reason why is because even if you get your money in really good against the fish every single time, they will almost always still have equity.

For example:

You go all-in preflop with AA and a bad player calls you with 54. Great right? Absolutely!

$10000 poker bankroll challenge

However, a lot of people think they are simply supposed to automatically win in a situation like this. And the poker site must be rigged if they don't win.

But this just isn't true at all. As you can see above this player still has 21.65% equity in the pot which is by no means an insignificant amount!

And let's also remember that this is one of the absolute best preflop equity edges that you can possibly get in Texas Hold'em. Most of the time you won't have nearly this much of a statistical edge.

In fact most situations late in tournaments come down to a coinflip like AK vs JJ.

$1000 poker bankroll challenge

In a spot like this (with super shallow stacks, as they usually are late in tournaments), it doesn't actually even matter how bad the other player is.

Because almost everybody, no matter how bad they play, knows to simply go all-in in a spot like this. And therefore they will usually have somewhere close to 50% equity.

So in order to win one of these large poker tournaments you are not only going to have to "hold" in all of those 80/20 situations where you got the money in super good, but you also have to win most of the coinflips at the final table too.

This is why it is statistically very unlikely that you will win a large multi-table poker tournament even if you are hands down the best poker player in the field.

Yes, even if you have vigorously studied my ultimate guide to micro stakes poker tournament strategy, you are still going to need to get very, very lucky in order to win.

Now, the good news is that we have $100 to start with though. So that is a lot of bullets if we are only playing $1 or $2 tournaments. 

And if we happen to get lucky early on and win one of these tournaments (or finish top 3), then we should be able to 5x or 10x our bankroll immediately to between $500 and $1000.

Then we can start playing $5 and $10 tournaments and potentially look to hit a $5,000 score. You get the idea by now.

If we can manage to run good and spike a few deep final table runs in these large tournaments, then we could quickly turn $100 into $10,000 at the poker tables.

Let me also quickly mention that all the money is in the top 3 spots in poker tournaments. Please don't make the same mistake that everybody else makes at the final table of "playing it safe."

As long as you have a reasonable sized chip stack, then you should be playing extremely aggressive poker, playing for 1st place and 1st place only.

And absolutely no deals either! If somebody brings it up you just say "Thanks, but I am not interested. Let's play on."

However, I can't lie, there is a lot of risk involved with this strategy because the variance is so high in large field poker tournaments.

In fact, sometimes we are going to run bad, make no significant deep runs, lose our initial $100, and that will be that.


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3. Play in Some Fishy Live Uncapped $1/$2 Poker Games


The next strategy I would use to turn $100 into $10000 in poker is to simply find some really fishy live $1/$2 cash games to play in.

And more specifically, I would look for uncapped games where the stacks can sometimes be 500 big blinds, 1000 big blinds or even deeper!

The reason why I would use this strategy is because it is absolutely no secret that most live poker players are bad. Like really bad!

turn $100 into $10000 poker bankroll challenge

And if I am sitting 500bb+ deep with a few of these whales, I could potentially win some absolutely massive pots as a big favorite.

You are going to have to play extremely tight and be very patient though because let's face it, with $100 you basically have no legitimate bankroll at all for this game.

In fact, there is no way on earth you should ever be sitting in a $1/$2 cash game with only a $100 bankroll.

That is why the chances of you going broke with this strategy is very high, probably approaching 50% even for very good experienced players.

But if you can find an early double up and sit with a couple drunk fish for a few hours, you could potentially run up a monster chip stack Mike Postle God-mode style!

After that, you could consider jumping into some weak $2/$5 games where most of the players are still really bad.

But honestly, if you run reasonably well in some super loose uncapped $1/$2 games, then it is fully possible to grind your initial $100 all the way up to $10,000 over the course of a few weeks or a month.

Now as mentioned, there is a lot of risk incurred with this strategy. More than any reasonable poker player should be willing to take on in my opinion.

But this is the "quick and easy" guide to building a $10,000 poker bankroll after all. You can't say I didn't warn you!

However, the one good thing about live poker is typically the players are far worse than online. In many cases they are absolutely clueless!

So you really don't need to know any kind of advanced poker strategy or anything. The best "strategy" is basically just wait for a good hand and then play it extremely aggressively.

You are going to have to be very patient though because the one thing about live poker is that it is extremely slow and boring sometimes.

And drunk fish love to hollywood their hands, make a big scene and waste even more time. So you have to be very disciplined on an extremely short bankroll like $100 and look for a good spot.

Once you get a few double ups then you can begin to open up your range a bit and start isolating the fish with weaker hands when you are in position.

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4. Play a Game That Nobody Knows How to Play Like Short Deck Holdem


The next poker strategy I have for you to quickly turn $100 into $10,000 in poker is actually pretty simple. Play a game that almost everybody else sucks at!

So basically this is most games that are NOT named No Limit Hold'em. And in particular I think Short Deck Holdem has a ton of potential right now.

This is a game that has exploded in popularity of late mostly because of ultra high stakes cash games in Asia put on by Triton poker with famous big name pros like Tom Dwan, Andrew Robl and TrueTeller.


The action is very big with extremely wealthy Chinese businessmen willing to gamble it up for enormous sums of money in this exciting new type of Holdem called "Short Deck."

Alright, so what the heck is Short Deck Holdem already?

Short Deck Holdem is basically just like Texas Holdem except the 2 through 5 cards are removed from the deck.

Also, very importantly, in Short Deck Holdem a flush beats a full house and three of a kind beats a straight. This is because these hands are mathematically harder to make with the 2, 3, 4 and 5 cards taken out of the deck.

Now these rules aren't universal yet as Tom Dwan explains in the video above, so make sure you check before sitting down. But they are becoming more and more common.

One other interesting quirk of Short Deck Holdem is that the Ace can be played as low or high just like in regular Holdem.

This means that the lowest straight possible in Short Deck Holdem is A6789. Whereas of course in regular Holdem the lowest straight possible is A2345 (also called "the wheel straight").

Confused yet? Ya, me too. And so is everybody else!

But what this means is that most people currently play Short Deck Holdem so badly that if you can even become semi-competent at this game, then you stand to have a huge, huge edge.

Think No Limit Hold'em 10-15 years ago.

AKA, a goldmine.


5. Play $100 Heads Up Sit and Gos (Full Degen No Guts No Glory)


Alright, the last strategy that I have for you to turn $100 into $10,000 at the poker tables is only for the true experts out there. And I am not going to lie, it involves boatloads of risk.

Actually, truth be told this strategy is just completely insane!

In fact it basically goes against every poker bankroll management rule that was ever written and it is only for the true degen gamblers out there who have absolutely no patience for this "slow and steady" nonsense.

They want to get rich playing poker now, like by this afternoon!

If this sounds like you then you should take your fledgling $100 poker bankroll directly to the $100 heads up sit and go tables online and put it all on the line.

No guts no glory right? It's time to get rich quick.

get rich fast playing poker
Picture this as you! Image credit: www.pokernews.com 

Now, I would use a very aggressive style of play in these games, bluffing a lot and forcing my opponent to gamble with me if I was relatively new to poker or to heads up in general.

Even a total newbie will probably still stand a 30% or 40% chance of doubling up their initial buy-in by playing this way.

If you are a good experienced poker player though then you should just employ a solid heads up poker strategy, playing your buttons aggressively and 3-betting frequently in the big blind.

Then you can use your advanced hand reading skills to outplay your opponent after the flop with plenty of thin value bets and multi-street soul read call downs with bottom pair.

Once you win the $100 heads up sit and go, then you should head directly to the $200 heads up sit and go tables and proceed to steamroll the next victim there.

As you can see, with this strategy, you could potentially turn your initial $100 into $10,000 in a very short period of time, like in an afternoon for example.

Now sure, your risk of ruin is absolutely through the roof with this strategy, and you will almost certainly go broke many, many times along the way.

But seriously, who cares about such trivial little details like this when you are trying to get rich quick playing poker!


Final Thoughts


So can you quickly turn $100 into $10,000 in poker?

I would say the answer to that is no. It won't be quick or easy. However, with the right proven poker strategy, and taking on a bit of risk, I think most good poker players could do it in a few months to a year.

The safest way is the old fashioned online cash game grind. I would move up at 20 buyins for each limit and move back down if I ran bad and lost a bunch.

However, it might take as much as 6 months or a year to complete your $10,000 bankroll challenge using this strategy depending on how much you play.

And honestly, I would actually recommend using between 30 to 50 buy-ins if you want to be on the safe side and not get so tilted by routine downswings.

Another strategy I would consider is to grind the $1 and $2 MTTs (multi-table tournaments) online. These tournaments are typically very soft, full of tons of beginners hoping to get lucky.

If you manage to run good in a few of these and bink a few final tables, you could really blast your bankroll up into the stratosphere very quickly.

And after that you could take a few shots at $5 and $10 buy-in tournaments, hope to run good again and quickly complete your $10k bankroll goal.

However, the risk of ruin with this strategy is much higher. Large multi-table poker tournaments are hard to win because you need a ton of short term luck even to reach the final table.

And it is extremely important to remember that all the money is in the top 3 spots with tournaments. If you do manage to make a final table then you need to be extremely aggressively and go after 1st place.

Do NOT make the mistake that so many other people make of getting relaxed and "playing it safe" when you reach the final table. Talk about the ultimate face palm!

You could also look at playing some games that everybody is terrible at like Short Deck Holdem. Or if you are willing to take on a lot of risk, then some super loose uncapped $1/$2 live games could help you build a $10,000 fairly quickly.

Lastly, if you are a full on degenerate gambler with absolutely no time or patience for strategy or any nonsense like that, then I would just take my $100 directly to the $100 heads up sit and go tables.

And if you can't find a $100 heads up sit and go table running, then screw it, just pick a random roulette table and bet it all on black!

If you want to know the strategy that I use as a 10+ year poker pro to consistently profit in low stakes games the slow and boring way, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.

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Let me know in the comments below if you have turned $100 into $10,000 in poker before. What strategy did you use?

How to Turn $100 into $10000 in Poker

12 comments:

  1. Great post haha! When I first started playing poker I had to learn the hard way a few times that the slow and steady way really is the right way to build a big bankroll.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks TJ, I think many of us have to learn that lesson :)

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  2. $100 to 10,000
    great post. I am going to give it serious consideration. For several reasons i may be limited in my try as there a cap on income from social security, which I can not afford to lose. Any others thing about this?

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    Replies
    1. I am also on government income. For me I see this as a wonderful gift for me because my particular case is a life freeroll. I use all that I need for living expenses, bills and food and rent etc. I then have extra money to put onto an online account and grind away at. If I lose my roll, then I have about $50-100 I can put online and go from there.

      This means learning to cook from home, and learning how to be very diligent on your monthly budget. If you can find odd jobs that pay cash, then you can take 10% from that and put it into poker as well. I don't just mean put money into poker either because if you're putting money into your account every month it means you're losing. I mean some of that money you can put towards courses like Blackrain79 has or Jonathan Little's site or the masterclasses. You would have to follow bankroll management in your life to a tee. That's what I'm going to do this winter starting December 1st.

      Delete
    2. I don't believe playing poker is a wise move to make money if that is the situation that you are in.... You need to have a little disposable income in order to gamble at all otherwise you put yourself and your family at such risk

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    3. Hey Al,

      For those on a limited income who cannot afford to lose their bankroll then I would suggest using a very conservative bankroll management strategy like I outlined in #1 above.

      Honestly, this is the bankroll management strategy that I have always used and this is why I have never gone broke as a professional or even as a semi-pro taking a few more risks.

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  3. I'm about to go for go find a roulette table and put $100 on black right now! Haha honestly good article though

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    Replies
    1. Haha I wish you luck! Thanks. glad you enjoyed this one :)

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  4. What do you think of mixing the three types of poker together, MTTs, SNGs and Ring Games? It seems to me it would be a good idea to largely play ring games and/or SNGs and mix it with a day of MTTs for a break from the regular grind and the chance at hitting while staying 90% in a lower variance capacity for your bankroll?

    Hope that question made sense

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    Replies
    1. Hey William,

      I prefer to avoid the "jack of all trades, master of none" approach with poker. I would rather specialize in one specific format and become an absolute expert in that.

      But a multi-faceted approach might work better for some. Even though cash games are my main game, I often play MTTs or even SNGs on the weekends sometimes just to mix it up a bit.

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  5. In my opinion number 1 is only correct way how to do it. Ty for the good article.

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    Replies
    1. Hey Duudeperfect,

      I agree, this is the strategy that I have basically always used. Thanks, glad this article helped!

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