How To Take Care Of Your Poker Bankroll
Your poker bankroll is the most important aspect to protect.
Without it you have no money and when you have no money you have lost your ability to win money, and obviously winning money in poker is what we all strive for ;-)
Defining Your Poker Bankroll
The first step you have to take is to define what your poker bankroll is. Is it the money you have online or is it the money you have both online and in your bank account?
Create extremely specific rules, this way you will have a hard time breaking them without you noticing that you are trying to rationalize something bad.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What is my poker bankroll?
- How much of my money am I willing to risk?
Determining The Size Of Your Bankroll
The next step is to determine how big of a bankroll you need. If you’re playing professionally I recommend you have at least 100 buy-ins for the level you are playing PLUS 6-12 months living expenses put aside for safety reasons.
I have been through rough stretches where I neglected having a large roll or having savings put aside, and I hope you learn from me when I say that those were not pleasant times.
Luckily, I have since then learned to keep a nice cushion incase I hit a rough patch of cards.
If you’re working part or full-time then you have no need for a large bankroll if you are willing to put more money in when you hit a bad patch. About 20-30 buy-ins should do since you do not depend on poker to put food on the table.
The Psychological Benefits
Did you know that after a certain amount of buy-ins you’ll play better?
Think about it.
What happens when you’re playing on a low bankroll?
- You become more results oriented
- You are more anxious
- You hope instead of focusing on strategy
These will disrupt your mental balance and in turn will lead to you playing worse, which will lead to you making less money!
Make sure you have a big bankroll for the games you are playing so you can be comfortable and not care even if you lose 3-4-5 buy-ins to bad beats.
The bigger the bankroll, the less you care, that’s how it works for me and that’s why I play with a big bankroll.
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