My Bankroll

Bankroll management is vital to be a successful professional poker player. There are countless resources online explaining proper bankroll management. Heres my view.

When making the leap to play for a living you should have a cushion outside of your poker bankroll to set aside for bills. Your not going to win enough to pay your bills all the time especially at first so its vital to have a cushion to take the pressure off you in your rookie year. Most people suggest 6 months of expenses saved up. That’s a good start if not more.

Then its good to pinpoint a bankroll size you feel comfortable playing with for a period of time at 1/2. At first I thought $5 or $6 thousand would be about right. My first goal was to turn $1K into $4k which would be my working bankroll I would extract money from until I got up to $6k. After quickly getting to $4k (which I was extremely lucky to do by running hot in my 2^nd month playing) I decided I was VERY comfortable playing with a bankroll of $4K. I was playing a very tight style in seemingly lower variance weekday games for the most part. Even with buying in for the maximum $300 every session I would rarely see days in which I would lose 2 buy ins.

If you arent able to start off with your desired bankroll and have to ‘grind it up’ like I did, you need to play EXTRA tight. I had actually gotten my bankroll up to $1500 in my 1^st month playing and lost over $700 in one day. I had to commit my whole stack of about $400 in a hand in which I flopped an open ended royal flush/king high straight flush draw and there was multiple hands all in ahead of me for a monstrous pot. I also would’ve secured this rooms high hand jackpot if I had hit the royal for about $1500. With the odds as well as implied jackpot odds I was getting plus the strength of my hand it was a NO BRAINER plus EV play to call. However what I learned afterwards is that if you end up going busto it doesn’t matter if you made the right moves or not. The point of your bankroll is to not go busto and if your bankroll is too small you should not be taking chances for a huge percentage of your roll. Losing that much almost took me out of the game and just a few days later I was down to my last $200 buy in. Luckily for me I made it, but it was a mistake I wouldn't make again.

Once your roll is up to where it needs to be I suggest getting comfortable with buying in for the max. When your first grinding its OK to buy in for less to reduce risk of getting wiped out but once your where you need to be, buy in for the max. If your not comfortable buying in for the max than your bankroll should be bigger.

　

When choosing what your desired bankroll needs to be, you should determine your style of play and the style of play in the games you choose to play in are. If your super tight and are playing in passive weekday morning games your BR doesn’t need to be massive. However if you’re a loose aggressive player who plays mainly late night and on the weekends you might want to up you bankroll requirements by a couple thousand.

OK, so my bankroll ‘comfort zone’ as I call it is $4k. As I said I play tight in mostly passive games. I still have outside savings money to draw from if I need it and my bankroll dips below $4K. Anything above $4K im able to spend as needed.

During my first 9 months playing I was in a world of limbo just spending my profits on bills and anything else not so necessary. If I was well above $4K I would spend freely and if I dipped below I would tighten back up. The highest my BR ever got at one point was around $5,500. I was happy playing 1/2 for the foreseeable future and had no real plan to move up to 2/5 anytime soon. I just assumed that one day I would suddenly have a 2/5 bankroll of what in my mind would be $10K and then I would play 2/5. Up to about I week ago I still had no plan.

Now with this blog comes a new plan and a new system of money management that I will share with my readers. My current bankroll not including profits earned so far this week stands at $4,731. After every 2 weeks of playing I will separate all of my profits (hopefully) and add 30% to my bankroll. The rest of my money goes to my bills and pocket money and savings. This way I have a structured plan in place while also adding to my bankroll. When my roll reaches $6K the option of taking shots at 2/5 will be open to me. $10K would be my desired BR size to play 2/5 regularly. However I would like to take a shot here and there to accelerate the process and gain some 2/5 experience and I feel at $6K id have a comfortable enough bankroll that I could risk losing a $600 buy in at 2/5 and not get tilted. I will take my 2/5 shots only if the game looks soft and will play a tight BR building style.