b-i-b-i-Oh

 

A key to winning consistently at poker is proper Bankroll Management. It's so important, in fact, that it's one of the Ten Commandments of Winning Poker (#7, in case you were wondering). Your bankroll is the most basic tool in your kit that you use to play this silly game. Carpenters use hammers, engineers use calculators, and poker players use a bankroll of money. The bigger the 'roll, the higher the stakes you can play at, which means you can make more money per hand. Too small of a 'roll for the stakes you want to play at, and you will likely end up playing "scared," unable to pull the trigger on a big turn bluff, on thin value shove on the river. Size matters... at least when it comes to poker bankrolls. The bigger your 'roll, the more confidence you will have playing at your given stakes.

Also, even if you aren't playing scared, having too small of a bankroll can cause you to take losses that you really don't want to take, which in turn will force you to move down in stakes. It's called Variance, and it will happen to all of us, over and over throughout our playing careers. If your bankroll is sized properly, the variance will sting, but it won't cripple you, nor will it cause you to step back down to a lower playing limit. If your bankroll isn't sized properly, and you refuse to drop down a level or two, you risk going broke. It's simple statistical math.

So how big of a 'roll is enough? How much money do you need in your bankroll for playing online cash games comfortably? Good question, to which there is no one perfect answer.  Twenty or thirty Buy-Ins (BI) is a number you'll sometimes see touted in the forums for people who are just dabbling at the game and can reload easily from another income stream if they go broke. Other folks, such as Dusty Schmidt in the book "Treat Your Poker Like A Business," says that 100 BI is the correct number to use if your primary source of income is poker. When making the mortgage payment depends on your ptbb/100 rate, you need to ensure that you never have to drop down in stakes.

The rule of thumb I've personally tried to use (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) is that I should have at least 40 BI for the cash game stakes I'm playing at. If you're playing $10NL, for instance, by my rule you would need 40 x $10 = $400 bankroll to play comfortably there and handle the statistical swings of the game.

I also allow for some "shot taking" at the next higher limit once I get up around 60 BI, but I try to drop back down once my BI's fall to 50 or so.

Note that I said "try."  I'm human after all, and I tilt with the best of them. I also get cocky and succumb to Success Syndrome when things are going well for me. Usually what happens in these cases is that Ms. Poker lets me run a bit, building up a good head of steam, before she yanks back hard on the leash and reminds me that I'm mortal after all.

My current bank roll is comfortably sized for playing at $25NL, with enough cushion accumulated to allow some serious forays into the $50NL realm. I've been doing pretty well in both arenas, with a steady +2.5 ptbb/100 earned over the past 30k hands played at both stakes.

My bankroll is not, however, sized for poker at the $100NL level.

But my ego is.

Sigh.

Which brings me to the moral of my story, which is best illustrated by way of example. I would have lost this hand whether I was at $25NL or $100NL. When you've got top boat, the money is going in. At the $25NL limits the loss would have stung but not been serious. At the $100NL limits, however, the loss put a significant dent in the 'roll that should never have happened. Read 'em and weep:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP3 ($132.45) CO ($77.95) Button ($39.85) SB ($80) BB ($263.75) UTG ($49.50) UTG+1 ($382.30) MP1 ($161) Hero (MP2) ($117.40) 

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with Q, Q 1 fold, UTG+1 calls $1, 1 fold, Hero bets $4.50, 3 folds, SB calls $4, 1 fold, UTG+1 calls $3.50  

Flop: ($14.50) J, 10, 10 (3 players) SB checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $8.50, SB calls $8.50, UTG+1 calls $8.50  

Turn: ($40) Q (3 players) SB checks, UTG+1 checks, Hero bets $22, SB calls $22, 1 fold  

River: ($84) 2 (2 players) SB bets $45 (All-In), Hero calls $45 Total pot: $174 | Rake: $3 

Results: SB had 10, 10 (four of a kind, tens). Hero had Q, Q (full house, Queens over tens). 

Outcome: SB won $171 

Trust me when I say this stung. Big time.

Now I get to spend the next week or so re-building all the money in my bankroll that I lost on this hand... plus the subsequent money lost after I went on tilt.

Bank roll management. It's not just for kids anymore.

All-in for now...

-Bug