"Poker Bankroll Management: Make Your Own Luck"Practice poker bankroll management and you’ll stay in action. How do you practice this? Combine these three principles... · Discipline · Patience · Persistence with some KEY bankroll management rules, and you’ll succeed. Who should manage their poker bankroll? Any body that takes poker seriously and WANTS TO WIN! Casual or for-fun-only players benefit too, but it will take the “fun” out of it. These players would be better off setting a stop loss (an affordable amount they can lose in one sitting). They leave the poker game whenever they feel or get out if they DO lose their stop loss. Poker bankroll management for players that want to win HAVE THE CORRECT SIZE BANKROLL The general idea of a correct size bankroll is when you make it through a rough storm of cards, you’ll still have a bankroll to play poker with. Without the correct size bankroll that “rough storm” is liable to decimate your bankroll. Leaving you high and dry, unable to play poker. In limit games your bankroll minimum is 400 big bets, 1,000 big bets is better. Say you’re set on $5-$10 limit. A $4,000 bankroll (400 x $10) is the minimum you should have for this game. In no-limit and pot limit games you want at least 10 to 20 max buy-ins. A $5-$10 game usually has a $1,000 max buy-in. Your bankroll has to contain $10,000 to $20,000. With the invention of online poker, you can have a bankroll of $100 and use poker bankroll management. Online poker offers limits as small as $0.02-$0.04 limit and $0.01-$0.02 no-limit/pot limit. These limits equal a much smaller and affordable bankroll. At micro stakes, building a poker bankroll from $20 is possible. PLAY COMFORTABLE LIMITS You may have a $10,000 bankroll and can play $5-$10 no-limit, but when you do you play scared. This is natural. If you play a game where the amount of money at risk causes you to play “timidly”, the limit is TOO big. Play in a game where you’re not afraid to lose a max buy-in. The key phrase is "not afraid to lose" Play limits where you bet when you feel it will win the pot. If this means playing $2-$4 or lower, do it! Don’t let your ego get in the way of making a winning decision. Your bankroll will multiply when you do. At the start of your poker journey, you may not know what a comfortable limit is. If this is you, just play within your bankroll. If you find you’re making correct decisions and winning, stay at that limit. If not, adjust and move down in limits. This requires honesty with your self. PLAY THE LIMIT YOU WIN AT This poker bankroll management rule ties in to the one above. 100 hours of play will give you an idea of whether or not you’re winning. Stay at the same limit if you are, or move down if you’re not. Adjust the limit you’re playing if you need to. Keep adjusting until you find your "candy store" limit, where you win consistently. What if you’re at the lowest playable limit and still not winning? I’d advise you to take a break. Think about what YOU did that lead to poor performance. Fix those things. Also read up on poker material and discuss poker with winning players. Once you’ve studied and refined your game, start at the limit you left off at and implement your plan of attack! SEPARATE YOUR POKER BANKROLL How can you practice poker bankroll management, if you don’t REALLY have one? You want to keep your poker bankroll separate from other money, this way you know you always have money to play poker. Keep it in an envelope, special place in your wallet or if your bankroll is large enough, in it’s own bank account. Also keep your poker tournament bankroll and poker sng bankroll seperate. Keeping yur bankroll seperate from everyday expenses is easy if you play online poker. Money in your online poker account has low liquidity, and takes up to two weeks to get. WON MONEY STAYS PART OF YOUR BANKROLL Your discipline in poker bankroll management will be tested here. When you make a nice “score” you may get tempted to go buy that new (insert a BIG want). You need to restrain your self in this situation. Tell your self “I need to keep this part of my bankroll, so I can make more “scores”” If you spend your profit you’ll never get to move up in limits. That’s the goal, get more money, to play for more money, so you can make even more money! Profit-spending also leads to skewed results. If you start with a $1,000 bankroll, make $500, spend it, then lose $500, you have a $500 bankroll. Now it looks like you lost $500, when in reality you’re even. Profits become cushion for when the cards crash on you and also allow you to play for more money. KEEP RECORDS When you have records of every time you play, you know EXACTLY if you’re a winner or loser. Records can look something like this… Date: 6-12-2010 Game: $1-2 no-limit texas hold-em Buy-in: $200 Cash out: $230 Time: 8p.m.-12a.m. Do this every time you play. If you absolutely have to spend from your bankroll, write the amount in your records. This way you know you’re ahead, even though it looks as if you’re stuck. AVOID BANKROLL KILLERS There are two definite ways to destroy any poker bankroll management. One is the “tilt monster”. Tilt happens when you lose discipline, patience and persistence. You start to make horrible decisions. You play every hand, you put your WHOLE bankroll at risk in one game. Tilt makes you do a multitude of poor poker bankroll management choices. How do you stay off tilt? Early detection is the best way to stay off tilt. Usually when you’re on tilt you feel angry, frustrated or like nothing matters. When you notice these feelings either calm your self down or take a break to get back to your Zen state. Return to the game when your thoughts are clear. If you cant do this, take the rest of the day off. Go exercise or do something to work off the tilt. Another sure bankroll decimator is drugs and alcohol. If you are on drugs or alcohol or both, while playing poker, you wont make winning choices. When playing poker, you have to make TONS of decisions EVERY HAND. As we all know drugs and alcohol inhibit the decision making process. Thus making it impossible to win at poker. If you want to win at poker, keep away from these poker bankroll killers. Practice these poker bankroll management rules and principles, and you’ll see profit. Good luck! |
