POKER
BANKROLL STRATEGY
By
Marty Smith
My
internet poker playing friend was out
of town a few weeks ago, and couldn’t
get his regular site to work well, so
knowing I had extra cash in my Party
Poker account he asked for a hundred
bucks to play there during his visit.
Sure fine. A few hours later he lets
me know he lost 2, $20+2 SNG tourneys
in a row, both by bad beats. His intention
at that time was to go into a $30+3
to try and make it back. He is a good
player so I wasn’t about to lecture
him on his bankroll, but herein you
will find exactly that.
The
skills involved in managing your bankroll
effectively are basic math, dedication
to learning the game, the humility to
drop down a level, and anger management.
Seriously.
The
above scenario is no doubt very common.
In fact, poker sites love reload players
like my friend. The players who know
they are good, make that, “too
good” to play within their own
bankroll are the most profitable. Inevitably,
not managing your bankroll, no matter
how good you are, will result in failure.
By the incontestable laws of probabilities
and mathematics, this is undeniable.
It doesn’t matter if you are playing
with a hundred bucks or a million, the
result is always the same. It has been
widely reported that a certain multiple
WPT champion has repeatedly played over
his bankroll and blown his WPT winnings.
It happens on any level, as the principle
is the same.
You
will need basic math skills to the tune
of knowing what 2, 5, and 10 percent
of your bankroll is. No matter what
your game you should never be playing
with more than 10% of your bankroll.
For example, if you deposit 100 dollars
into your account, you shouldn’t
take more than $10 to any game. This
is going to limit you to .50/1.00 limit
hold’em, or $5 to $10 SNG’s.
You could also play an MTT for that
entry, but I don’t recommend that
because it would be unlikely for you
to place in the money. If you think
you can lick this game right off and
deposit $1000, then you can bring $100
bucks to any table for play. Still,
this is not recommended. If you are
learning, you should learn to move up
to that level, rather than buy yourself
into it. Trust me, you will want to
avoid the painful strategy of buying
yourself into a higher limit.
Enter
humility.
Your humility should allow you to play
at a level that forces you to become
proficient and earn yourself a bankroll
to move up. If that means .25/.50 hold’em,
then that is your challenge. If you
are going to learn, learn cheap, learn
smart, and earn your way up to the next
level. You will feel so much more confident
when moving up a level in having conquered
the level before it. Others will have
paid to get in that level, and those
opponents will be at your mercy.
On
the other hand, once you move up a level
and find yourself struggling, you need
to go back down a level and refocus
your efforts and education. When to
do this exactly, is a question of math.
If your bankroll has not increased at
your new game level and comes perilously
close to that 10% guideline, it’s
time to back up. Don’t let it
get below that level, because once you
break the guideline once, it’s
much easier the next time, and the next,
and the next… This will lead to
mismanagement, and reloading. Here is
an example: You deposited $100 and started
with the 5 buck sit and go circuit and
skillfully built your bankroll up to
$250, where you correctly decided to
move up to the $10 SNG tables. You played
7 tournaments at that level and only
placed once with a second place showing.
This has dropped your bankroll down
to $203. Although another $10 entry
is well within 10%, it is more than
5%, and since you haven’t performed
well, you should gather your humility
and understand that there is more to
learn. In this case, I would go back
to the 5 buck SNG tables, and work my
bankroll up to $300, before attempting
your next move up. Once you reach that
goal, and have proven yourself a better
player, you will also have more bankroll
room at the $10 level.
It
is an invaluable experience to care
for your bankroll in this way. I have
done this several times when my bankroll
needed it to the point now that when
I sit a SNG table, I know that through
my dedication of learning the game at
each level, I am a favorite to place
in that tournament. This may sound of
a drastic move, but treating your bankroll
with the utmost respect is the key to
success.
To
play is to dedicate.
It
isn’t going to be easy to double
your bankroll at this level. Your commitment
and dedication to each stage involves
learning, patience, and intense observation.
and is a supreme test of your core personality.
Think this is overboard? I have seen
players losing it to the point of me
stopping them from punching a wall or
tossing a laptop. These are otherwise
normal acquaintances.
And
then there was anger management.
This
is not a funny movie. This is about
battling that desire to make up lost
ground by moving up a level, not down.
This is where you need to know the value
of your cards before you shove an all-in
play at that maniacal player who has
raised you yet again. By the way, at
that point, he is usually holding a
monster and has trained you like a monkey
to step right in. If you are playing
within your bankroll, losing your temper
is never really an issue, because losing
a game or a hand to a bad beat or poor
play is not going to cripple your account.
Many of your opponents will play their
entire bankroll at a table or a tournament
and you can take advantage of this,
because in that situation, they will
NEVER be able to make optimal decisions.
You can surely imagine though how they
will be tilting the moment they lose
a big hand, because that one hand may
represent 75% of their whole bankroll.
Tilting after you lose a big hand in
such a scenario, is pretty much inescapable.
Their mindset is already looking forward
to another reload, as they mentally
prepare themselves to exit the table
with nothing. I have seen this literally
thousands of times online.
It’s
in the math.
When
I say maximum 10%, I really try to play
with 5% or less. For example, I usually
have between $2,000 and $4,000 in my
party poker account. When I have more
I withdraw down to about $2,500 because
I, personally, never want to be below
$2,000 as that will restrict some of
the tables/events I play at. Let’s
say I have $2,500 now and want to play
in the Sunday Million which has an entry
fee of $215. Therefore, $215 divided
into $2,500 = 8.6% which is within the
10% guideline. However, let me tell
you why it’s STILL the wrong decision
to pay for that tournament. If that
is how you are investing your bankroll,
you need to realize the likelihood of
playing that circuit profitably. In
other words, you have basically 10 chances
to place that tourney. You may very
well be able to do that however, it
is not unusual to go through 10, 20
or even 40 tournaments without placing
– even for the pros. If multi
table tournaments are your game, you
should be looking to have a bankroll
of about 50 buy-ins. That is how dry
tournaments can get. Using the 50 buy-in
formula, you should have $10,000+ in
your account to pay for the Sunday Million.
Think
of it this way. If you are good enough
to profit in this tournament, then you
should easily be able to win a qualifier
to get in it for about 5% to 10% of
the entry fee. If you can’t win
one of those tourneys, filled with rookies,
then you have no justification for paying
the big tourney entry fee outright.
Improving
your game and learning strategies at
each level are clearly imperative skills
in managing your bankroll, but one depends
on the other, so in essence you need
to train yourself in both and reap the
rewards as you advance.
Marty
Smith is webmaster of http://www.PokerCalculatorReport.com
where all the online poker calculators
are tested and reviewed, including Sit
and Go Shark, Calculatem Pro, and Poker
Spy. He is also editor of http://www.PokerBookReport.com
