You’re raring to enter an online poker tournament and get
into the flow of playing casually. You deposit $100 into
Sky Poker
or your favorite poker site and quickly scan the list of
tournaments. “Oh, there’s a $33 deep stack in 5
minutes! With slow blinds and huge stacks, I should do really
well in that, with the strategies you’ve given us!”
The only problem, noble poker player, is what happens if you lose this tournament. You’re risking an incredibly significant chunk of your bankroll (33%) in a single tournament!
Proper discipline when managing a casual poker bankroll is a must if you plan to keep your roll. In the beginner’s section, we’re dealing with a bankroll in which you can bust and not be taxed financially, something in the neighborhood of $100-$1,000.
We’ll look at this discussion through the eyes of Bob, a new player with a bankroll of $500, which is a good amount to start with as an initial deposit. If this seems excessive, try to save up enough to make your initial deposit a minimum of $250, if you can. There are a few reasons for this.
The first deposit bonus- Most poker sites offer an initial deposit bonus of 100% of the amount of money you’ve invested. This means that, after you play a certain amount of hands or earn a certain amount of that sites’ “points” for playing cash games and tournaments, you will earn money up to the amount you invested. This essentially acts as a rake-back program of sorts; you have to play a great deal to unlock the rewards on some sites, or if the amount is excessive. One particularly good example is Full Tilt Poker. They offer up to $600 as a first deposit bonus, but to unlock the entire $600, you would need to earn ___ frequent player points, which amounts to $_____ in rake! Still, free money is free money, and as a beginner, you’ll be wise to take this offer up to the fullest if possible.
The psychological factor- This stems from a few real life examples of this in action. A few friends of mine, “T” and “G,” like to make small deposits online at Poker Stars ($20-$50) and play $10 or $20 tournaments in an attempt to either make a big haul and double up or more, or bust and just redeposit. This seems fairly trivial, until one of them loses two or three deposits in quick succession. Then, they tend to make the deposits $100-$200, play larger tournaments ($50+) where the skill level is higher and their own is lower (tilt hurts, people) and do this two or three times. Net loss? $500+. If you have the $250 online in one sitting, you save yourself the psychological hit of busting your roll. Also, if you do happen to bust the $250, my advice is to take a week or two off and reevaluate your play. Take a look at some strategy, purchase another book (Harrington and Brunson will never fail you in improving some aspect of your game) and just get yourself back in the mind set of winning poker. You’ll save yourself a lot of heartache in the future by doing so.
Flexibility- Having $250 online allows you to take a few more calculated risks with your bankroll than a $50 bankroll. Want to try a $3 re-buy? If you’ve been playing well, and are up a little bit on the roll, go for it with the $250. It doesn’t represent a significant portion of your roll. If you have the $50 roll, the buy-in, re-buy, and add-on represent nearly 20% of your roll! And this is taking into account you only have the re-buy once! On the other hand, the re-buy represents roughly 4% of the $250 roll. If you want to take some chances or try some different formats of poker (badugi, anyone?) with the roll, flexibility is a must.
Having said that, hear are my guidelines for casual bankroll management.
Never play a large field (500+ entrants) tournament that represents more than 2% of your bankroll. This means with the $500 roll, you’re playing $10 or less tournaments, I generally tend to play $5-$10 tournaments when my roll is around this level; I like to multi-table, and multi-tabling these level tournaments still won’t represent 2% of my bankroll, unless I go really crazy and attempt to 5-6 table. (no comment.)
If you do choose to play cash games, the maximum buy-in at the table should not be more than 5% of your bankroll. If you’re going to play a cash table, you should generally come in for the maximum amount allowed. Therefore, if you play .1/.25, the buy in of $25 represents 5% of your bankroll.
At a cash table, if you have made a profit that represents 20% of your bankroll or more, leave the table. An example: you’re playing .25/.5 with the $500 roll, and you’re up $105. I would get up from the table and book a solid win and increase to your roll right there. Unless the table is incredibly juicy: maniac throwing buy-ins around, incredibly predictable table, etc; the haul you’ve pulled in is enough to take off the table and be proud of. No need to be greedy when you’ve bumped your bankroll up a good deal.
If you want to play re-buy tournaments, follow the guidelines
for tournaments and allot yourself a total of 5 buy-ins (four
buy-ins and an add-on) in case you lose your first double
buy-in. Basically, if you want to play a $3 rebuy, assume the
cost will be $15 before playing it. If things turn really bad
and you have to exceed the 5 buy-ins, you may do so, but if
you’re playing poorly or going on tilt from bad beats or
just running bad in general, it may be wise to quit after the
first 4 buy-ins.
Don’t take out of the bankroll unless it is absolutely
needed in your daily life until your increase your bankroll
above $2,000. Having more money in your bankroll allows you to
try bigger cash games and tournaments and thus will reward you
with bigger payouts and larger wins.
Treat your bankroll like you would a long term investment in a CD. You’re penalized if you take money out by the inability to collect further on your investment in the future. If you win a significant amount of money to you; $5,000, for example, you could consider taking a little bit out. We’ll assume your bankroll at this point is $5,500. The most I would legitimately consider taking out at this point is $1,500, but realistically, I’m not wanting to take more than $500 out, choosing instead to utilize the new found wealth to take shots at bigger tournaments and cash games where applicable. Your game can only expand as your bankroll does, and taking out funds strains your bankroll. Also, don’t move up in buy-in levels just because your cash flow has increased substantially. Some players double their bankroll and immediately double their stakes; the skill level jump from one level to the next may be more than a doubling, and may be something you’re unprepared for. Ease your way up, and determine if your game is ready for the next level before you’ve blown your entire profits away.
By following this general template for bankroll management, you’ll find that your initial investment lasts longer and grows steadily, with less wild fluctuations based on poor choices in tournament and cash play. By massaging your bankroll into growth, you’ll be able to better control it and gradually work you way up the levels of tournament buy-ins, from micro to high, and be of clear mind when you do suffer a bad run. Trust me; I follow my own advice, and it’s a rare sight if you see me in a tournament that represents more than 5% of my total bankroll. Now get your money on a site and get to playing!