When you walk into a
five-star restaurant with just some loose change in your
pocket, that’s poor money management. When you play a
game of online poker with insufficient funds, that’s bad
bankroll management, too.
One of the most
underestimated skills in poker is protecting and using
funds wisely, whether you’re playing online or in a
brick-and-mortar casino. It’s as important as honing the
skills of bluffing, reading tells and calculating pot
odds. But even the professionals are sometimes sunk by a
misguided financial strategy.
The first
rule of money management in poker – as well as all
gambling – is that you only play with the money you can
afford to lose. No successful poker player can
concentrate on winning hands when he or she is consumed
with losing money that’s pegged for something else, like
the mortgage, car payment, or junior’s college fund.
Before you even sit down at the table, deciding what
you’re comfortable losing is the first step in the
process.
Rule 2 is don’t come to the table with an
underfunded bankroll. Sit down at an online poker table
with lightweight numbers and you will be the target of
every good player. You will be vulnerable, the chum to a
shark, as players associate a small starting stack with
weakness. A general rule is that you should buy into a
game for no less than 100 times the big blind.
Therefore, if you’re playing in a .50/$1 No-Limit game,
you should bring at least $100 to the table.
Under the same rule, if you’ve decided that your
poker capital for the month is $1,000, don’t take a seat
at the $5/$10 table. Risking a large percentage of your
bankroll in one shot is a recipe for disaster. The
general rule is to risk no more than 10 percent of your
total poker capital in one session.
With the proper amount of funds, you
have the ability to play aggressive and handle the up
and down swings, poor starting hands and bad beats of
the game. Start small and work your way up. The higher
limit games may look attractive, but young players can
get into big trouble trying to play above their heads.
Start with small bankrolls at the lower-priced tables,
and work your way up. It’s much more difficult to take
your bankroll to a high-end table with more skilled
players, go broke, and then try to get back to that
level playing for lower stakes.
Finally,
when it comes to money management, don’t get greedy and
don’t get desperate. Poker is about winning, which means
leaving the table with more cash than when you started.
If you’re investing in a mutual fund and make 8% every
year, you’re happy. Apply the same to your poker
bankroll and have the discipline to set a profit and
loss target, and quit when it’s reached.
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