Smalltimeboy~
This is a ballsy thing that you are doing.
I've done the same thing. I've taken $10K of my savings and invested it into sports betting as a newbie at Tahoe at it several years ago ... fk'n lost it all in less than a year. Horrible, fk'n horrible.
It's taken me several years to recover from that debacle. The mental/emotional pain was horrible.
There have been all sorts of good advice in this thread for you to not do this, but you seem set on doing this. Ok.
You have VERY LITTLE margin for error ... start out bad with a couple of losses and you'd be look'n at a bankroll (BR) that's below $3K with you being stressed out, looking to chase and making bad bets under duress. I know ... I've been there, done that.
Ok. Consider your $3k bankroll to be your starting point and make the resolve to work with, to invest ONLY "house money" that you'd make off the $3k bankroll once you start to win enough "house money" to be profitable.
Here's what I'd do if I were you in this situation.
For Monday, Jan 26
1) Tailing Brackson with a Portland bet is a good idea -- go with that, but bet just $150. That's fk'n it, man. Period. Don't even fk'n think of going more than this amount, ok?
2) Tail "Allstarcapper", who posts his bets in the NCAAB forum. He posts usually just one frick'n bet a day ... bet his bets. $150 per bet, max right now. Not one fk'n more dollar than this amount.
3) Tail MITM's "Falcon Plays"; he posts in the NBA forum. $150 per bet to start with. His NBA bets were marginal at 6-5 at one point, but now it's 9-5 with three wins in a row. ALL of his hockey bets have won (10-0) and hockey is about to restart on Tues. Tail those hockey bets hard and take them over his NBA bets, if given a choice between the two.
These three guys have been proven to provide consistent winners, so tail them hard right now.
If you tail these three guys today with a total risk of $450 out of your bankroll, the odds are quite good that you'd come out with at least a 2-1 day, if not 3-0.
Your margin of error is tiny, so my suggestion is to tail these guys hard, then you can consider expanding your betting once you get more "house money" to work with.
For Tuesday
Depending on how much you'd win -- if any -- from Monday's betting, take this "house money" and invest it into "Allstarcapper" and MITM's plays again; the former will have just one play, if he posts for that day and the latter will have one or two plays for the day.
Divide up the "house money" evenly between the three, whatever the "house money" may be. If you are fortunate, it could be around $400 of "house money" if all three of your Monday bets win.
If it's just a 2-1 day (about $120 net profit), then take that "house money" and match it with an equal amount from your original BR money and continue to tail those two aforementioned guys hard.
The Rest Of This First Week
If you had a profitable Tuesday, then take that original BR money and return it to your BR. Bet ONLY with your "house money" from that point on.
Tail those two guys hard and build up as much "house money" that you can, betting ONLY your "house money" and not your original BR.
Then review after this week and see where you would be at with your strategy. During this first week, don't effing make your own bets ... maybe little, bitty $10 bets with bets of your own choices and watch closely to see how those bets do, compared to how the primary bets do with the tailing of those aforementioned guys.
Don't expect to build up your BR to $20K in a few frk'n months. Maybe double up in a few months ... but then you gotta live, so do you have some other sort of money coming in? A job? An annuity from your parents? Something other than your BR to provide for your daily needs ... you want to be free to reinvest your winnings back into your BR to grow it.