One of the most overlooked but extremely important aspects of poker is bankroll management. Bankroll management has everything to do with winning at poker, both live and online. It is an essential part of good poker play and if not done correctly can have massive consequences on your actual gameplay and psychological well-being. The following is a short guide to good bankroll management and a few tips regarding trouble areas and common mistakes that you can avoid.
Variance is a common occurrence in poker and can be defined as the difference between your short-term results and long-term expectation and in order to understand this properly you will need a little help from all the casas de apuestas nuevas that are trying to establish themselves in this industry. It includes both upswings and downswings. The upswings we don’t mind so much, but it’s the downswings that really hurt. Even when you get your money in with the best hand before the flop, you might only be an 80% favorite to win the hand. 20% of the time you will lose. In games such as Omaha, people go all-in with hands that are often only 55% to 45% favorite, and consequently, variance goes up. It is not unheard of for downswings of over 100 buy-ins below equity. This can have significant effects on your bankroll if you don’t have enough money to buffer these losses. As a rule, you should try and have at least 20 buy-ins if you are playing at one table of a standard game such as Texas Holdem. If you are multi-tabling, then this number needs to increase dramatically. If you follow this rule of including a buffer in your bankroll, you can avoid the simplest and stupidest mistakes that add unnecessary pressure and disadvantages in poker.
There are consequences to playing with most of your bankroll at the table. Your chips start to take on more meaning and the most significant effect is that you may start making bad decisions in order to protect your remaining bankroll. Often passing up opportunities that have a positive expected value, for example, in a situation where you are 58% to win the hand, you may fold and thus make a mistake. The opposite is sometimes true when you get down to your last few buy-ins, you make take on the mentality of double up or go bust, and take risks including getting your money in with the worst of it. I would recommend that you only play with money you can afford to lose. Playing with money that is not yours, or is in other ways required for rent or food is a disaster waiting to happen. This is how a small mistake at the table game can turn into a disaster in the real world.
Another recommendation is to have your bankroll in a financial institution that is completely separate from the actual poker site that you are planning to play at. Keeping money in a poker site earns no interest for you, it runs the risk of being lost in a single drunken session and also if your account details are ever hacked or stolen. I recommend having only 20 buy-ins at the poker site you are playing, and the rest in a secure bank account, preferably with interest, that is easily accessible. One could also spread the money across several banks and poker websites so as never to keep your eggs all in one basket.
Stop losses are useful in poker. As an example, if you were to lose 3 buy-ins, then you could quit the session and try again later. Alternatively, if you win 8 buy-ins then you can also quit the session. Withdrawing on a regular basis is reasonable as well always trying to keep the same amount of 20 buy-ins at the poker website. One particular concept to consider is a technique that involves playing at the one level until you reach a set amount, for example, 80 buy-ins, then move up to a higher stakes level, cash out all but 20 buy-ins, and try again. It is a useful technique for moving up in stakes. The reverse is also true, when you are at a level and you fall below 20 buy-ins, it is prudent to drop down to the lower stakes and build your stack up again.
