Keys to help manage your money
Posted: 2008-05-02 14:27:33
The reason we play tourneys, cash games and even sit and goes live and online is the goal of winning money. Some people will play and money means little to them and they just want to get better. Money is our way of keeping score of how we are doing.
You first of all need to learn the pitfalls of bad money management in poker. How to notice it and show enough self controll to quit when you are at your loss limit.
There are some golden rules that make lots of sense when playing tourneys or cash games that you should stick to to help you in your bankroll management.
You may ask yourself "Why do I need bankroll management?" The answer is easy. With proper management you should never go broke playing poker. As you may well know poker has many peeks and valleys and if you can't weather these peeks and valleys you are destine to go broke.
Just think about how stupid it would be to know you are just one bad game away from losing all your cash. I have seen it happen over and over to many very good players. They mostly want to play lots higher than their bankroll should allow and when they his a valley which means a little bit of a down slide, they are broke and often trying to borrow money.
When playing limit poker in an average game try and never lose over 30 big blinds, Now if the game is really juicy and you see some bad players trying to give away there money then you can lose up to 40 big blinds. After you have lost your limit QUIT the game. If you get up 20 big blinds early and you play for a while in an average game and finally get 10 big blinds loser in the game, just quit.
They reason you set limits on your losses is that you can play tomorrow and on a decent day win that money back. If you were to keep playing and get to be like a 50 or 60 big blind loser you have very little chance of winning and when others see that you are running bad and losing a lot. Also, you are going to have a really tough time of bluffing your opponents because they will be much more curious and they will often think you are deep down on a little bit of tilt.
Also playing limit poker you should not lose over 5% of your bankroll in one session. So, lets say you are playing 5 and 10 dollar limit, The stop/loss for that game is $300 which means you should have a $6000 poker bankroll to be playing this 5/10 limit game. Notice I said "poker bankroll" This is not your shopping money, your rent money, this is money just used for your poker. So if your poker bankroll gets down close to $3600, you should then be playing 3/6 limit.
No limit is a little different as its much easier to lose more in this game. You still need a guideline in order to never allow yourself to go broke. If you are playing 1 and 2 dollar blinds I think you should buy in for about 50 big blinds with the exception of having a really bad player at the table and you are almost 100% certain he is going to give away his chips. In this case I might buyin for 100 big blinds as I know I want to play a big pot with this person, but in most cases 50 big blinds is a good amount. Now your loss limit in this game should be 3 buyins in a good game and 4 buyins in a great game, So the most you should ever lose is $400 if the game is really super good. Here again you should not be risking over 5% of your poker bankroll in any session. This means you should have about $8000 to be playing 1 and 2 dollar no limit. Which makes sense because this game plays a little bigger than a 5 and 10 dollar limit game.
Tournament poker is a little different as we all know. You may play lots of tourneys and not cash and when you do you don't make much money because often over half the money is paid in the top 3 spots. It's possible for most any player to go through very bad swings before you have a good size cash you should allow for this in your bankroll. One good rule for this is to never risk over 1% of your poker bankroll in one certain tourney. This means you should often be playing satellites to enter these tourneys. Another good thing when you satellite your way into these tournaments is when you barely cash, which you will often do. You will be having much more profit then if you paid your way in.
If you follow these guidelines you will know when you can play higher limits as you have earned your way to play higher and you should never go broke as you might have to play cheaper and find a level you are winning at.
The hard part is stopping when you know the game is still good but the upside is knowing that you will never allow yourself to go broke again. I think the good side far out weighs the bad side here. If you keep this in mind your decision is much easier and when you do quit you will not feel as bad as you now it was just not your day and then you can come refreshed and play again at a later date.
It's also very important that you never play to long as this affects your decision making process. When you get tired you do not think as well and might get a little more lazy. So, limit your time at the table in cash games, I think 6 hours is often about as long as I care to play and still feel super fresh and at my best. I have seen friends play much longer and often give away all their profit, that's crazy. You never want to put a limit on how much you want to win. Give yourself a chance to win really big but not at the cost of playing when you are really tired.
I hope you find these helpful and learn these lessons the easy way and not the hard way which I have learned many times over my years of playing. So feel free to learn from my mistakes.
Proud UB Team Member
Shawn Rice
