Bankroll management basics

While trying to think of things I write about in this blogg, I came up wit hte idea of writing a basic bankroll management guide, since I think this is a spot where lots of people fail. For me, it has been one of the most import things in poker. When I started thinking about bankroll management I also started to feel much more comfortable playing. There are times when I’ve sort of ignored it and I’ve paid for it.

For now I’ll just list the basic guidelines that other people recommend and add my own thoughts. These are for verious types ofhold’em.

NL ring games

I’ve heard a lot of different opinions on this. Everything from 10 to 40 buyins. I personally think 10 and even 20 buyins isn’t enough. Depending on your willingness to move down in stakes you should pick a number that you feel comfortable with. I’m currently not playing enough cash games to have experianced big variance but I can easily see myself loosing a few buyins on a bad day. I actually had one of those days last week. Since my philosophy is to start at very low levels and play until I feel comfortable wit that level before moving up, I haven’t really tried anyting above $100NL.

Limit ring games

The standard recommendation for limit play is 300 big bets (not big blinds). For instance at $.5/$1 you need $300. When I first started playing I playd above my bankroll cause I couldn’t findlow enough games on the sites I was playing at. I can easily see why the 300 big bets is need though. Despite what many people might think. I think the variance is slightly higher then in NL. You’re gonna have a lot more showdowns, and a lot more suckouts.

Sit’n'gos

The F.A.Q. on the 2 + 2 forums recommend 30-50 buyins for SNGs if I remember correctly. I’ve playd quite a few SNGs and feel that 30 buyins is a little low for me personally. It’s probebly ok for regular SNGs but for turbos I need much more to be comfortable. Maybe I just don’t feel comfortable enoug hwit hthe buyins I play, I don’t know. My worst downswing in turbos is 17 games without ITM I think.

Multi table tournaments

For MTTs I think the most common recommendation is somewhere around 100 buyins. I agree with that. And for rebuys I want like 400 times the original buyin, even though I’ve broken that rule myself a few times.

Playing above your bankroll

Sometimes you feel like playing bove your bankroll. I think it’s ok to do it once in a while as long as you feel comfortable with it. For example, you might want to take a shot at a bigger MTT. As long as your average buyin doesn’t get to high I think it’s ok to take a shot every now and then. You might also play above your bankroll while building it up for the first time, and don’t care about loosing your initial deposit. I think that’s fine to as long as you are ready to take the loss. Just remember though, if you’re inexperianced, getting a lot of hands playd for your money will help to improve your game. When I first started, many sites I playd on didn’t have a low enough level for my initial deposit, so I had to play slightly above my bankroll if I wanted to play SNGs, however, most sites nowadays have $1 or $2 SNGs so that shouldn’t be a problem.

Part 2 of this post will cover some tools you can use to keep track of your bankroll and records.

Hope this helps somebody.

Recent results

I haven’t had time to play much tournaments lately but I’ve spent some time playing cash games on different sites with mixed results.

I seem to doing very well on the $2/$4 limit tables on full tilt. I don’t have a big enough sample yet, but so far the tables seem to be slightly softer compared to the other sites I’ve playd.

I wish I could say the same about the NL tables but they seem to be the same as on stars, however I’ve playd some $50nl on betfair and these tables seem to be quite soft compaired ot what I’m used to. Still a very small sample though, and no software to track my results so it’s really hard to tell.

I’ll hopefully be able to play some bigger tournaments tomorrow night, but for now I’ll stick to full ring.

The $4 180s on stars and more

Recently I’ve been going back to play the 180s on stars a bit more. they are great when you don’t have enoug htime for biger tournaments.

I’ve been playing both the $22s and the $4.40s I just to play the $11 a lot but since they are gone, these are the only 2 choices.

The reason I’ve been playing the $4s lately is that I’ve never actually won one of those. I have a few 2nds and 3rds but no 1st. I decided to play a bunch and got a moral boost after a 3rd play finish early last week. I playd a few more and finally managed to get a win. I ran quite well, but also made a few plays on people. I must say that you can get away with a lot more in these compared to the $22s. One of the main differences in late game are that people make a lot of calls out of the blinds, then check-folding the flop. This is especially true with my small preflop raises as of late. People also seem to be willing to pay you off a lot more then in the tournaments I usually play.

Of course your kings will run into a QJs all in pre sometimes with a AKT flop but that’s just poker.

I also playd a few other tournaments last weekend without any cashes. 2 $55s and the $3 rebuy on stars plus a bunch on full tilt.

Allmost forgot,

Introduction

Decided to move over to wordpress because of all the additional features it offers. I’m going to add a brief article about my poker experiance on a separate page, but for now, my old blog can still be found here.