Bankroll Management -Start Here

      Though I have not chosen the life of a player that lives daily off of winnings from poker. I have learned how to make more money from poker than I lose. I am not saying I have gotten rich; however, my granite kitchen countertops look really nice, my children's teeth are much straighter and I have played in tournaments I could not have entered had I pulled the money from my budget. I hear often, "How do you win? I play the same way you do, but I don't win as often." Consistency. Knowing odds. Reading the players style. Reading the players betting patterns. Using position. Staying within my bankroll. (Read "What Makes A Good Player" in the Strategy section.)  If you are unsure what a bankroll is, it is the money you have set aside for playing poker. It is nothing else. It is not your electric bill, your phone bill or mortgage money for next month. It is money that can be lost without causing stress or pain or problems within your life. Some consider it in their entertainment portion of their budget. For me, my bankroll is what I have completely separate from my living expenses and use for playing poker only.
1. Use your own money.
     For online players, if you lose, its relatively easy to redeposit. Many play off of credit cards because it is a fast and easy way to deposit. Fine, as long as you have the money to pay it right away. But, as you are fully aware, you do pay interest on the money you borrowed if you do not pay it right away. Unless you are winning more than the interest you are paying, you are losing money. The biggest danger with credit card deposits is a false impression of your own bankroll. Some players will look at $800. available on a card and play that $800. as their bankroll. A credit line is not a bankroll. Borrowed money is not a bankroll. Most of the time, these are losing players. It should be considered servitude because you are not playing with your own money, but others and paying them interest. Even if you are paying no interest, the risk is not worth it. Should you lose, you are now borrowing more to try to get it back and it weighs on you. Your play adjusts to try to reclaim the lost money and you fall further into debt. The way to ensure you do not profit or your profit is minimal is to borrow money. If you are a player that can win money at the tables, you have no need to borrow the money. If you do need to borrow the money, you might consider playing penny games and ensuring you can pay back anything borrowed within 30 days. If you can't do this, buy a poker book, or better yet...continue to visit this site and read all the information for free.
2. Push aside the inner gambler and look objectively at your skill level and your bankroll.
     So this information comes a bit late, and you have already lost more than you could afford. Now want to "make up" what you have lost. Yes, you very well could hit that big hand. It is possible to hit a royal flush and have someone double your entire bankroll on one played hand. For those that read alot about the most popular players, you will have heard about the many great players that have gone bankrupt and had to grind their way back up. Even though poker is a game of skill, the game attracts many gamblers. The nature of a gambler is to...well...gamble. Gambling within poker occurs when a player is in a game above his means. Odds do not always play out as they should. Your own skill is often overrated and the skill of an opponent is often underrated. When playing over your skill level or bankroll, normal decisions can be amplified and your normal play is often affected. An easy fold may become a "push in", and places you should call, you may fold due to the amount. There is no easier way to lose it all than play above your means, even if you have the skill to play at that level. Our impatience can make us desire to hit the big score only to watch the runner runner straight kill our flopped trips for all our money, and quite frankly when playing with good players on higher levels, it can be very difficult to get paid off for those big hands. Making money on the tables, especially in cash games, is a real grind. You should not expect any different. For the most part, it is a slow and steady process, based in solid and smart play, not a quick score.
3. Do not play above your bankroll.
     Playing above your bankroll, is playing in games where the natural ebb and flow of poker hands can cause you to go broke. As much skill as you may have, there are other players in the game trying to win as well. The skill of poker is not in the ability to win each hand but to know when to keep your losses to a minimum. The problem is, sometimes the losing streaks go longer than expected and unless you have the bankroll to absorb those losses before the winning streaks come, you have no opportunity to hit the other side of the rollercoaster. So how much should you have? It is recommended that you have no more than 80 times the big blind whenever you sit down at the table. If you are playing a 1.00/2.00 limit game you should have no more than $160. at the table. However, you should have in your total bankroll, about 300 times the big blind in total reserve. You should have about $600. If you bring too much to the table and have a huge stack in front of you, players tend to give chips away too easily and may play longer in a losing session. If I limit the amount I will play in that game, I prevent super losses. Not only do I try to keep my per hand losses to a minimum but I try to keep my per game losses to a minimum as well. Again the key is to keep the low end losses to a minimum and maximize the high end wins.
4. Strategize the session.
     Each session, I have a maximum that I will allow myself to lose, then I am done. Each session I have a relative cap that I expect to hit. If I hit the upper cap I probably will not leave the game; however, I will then change my low end cap at which I will leave the game. For example, when playing a 1.00/2.00 limit game, I start with $160.00. If I reach $320., which is a double of my starting stack, my low end cap is my starting stack plus half, $240. ($80. more than my starting stack). If I reach $400. ($80 more) my low end cap is $320. In this way, I prevent myself from losing all that I have just won and ensure my bankroll continues to move in an upward fashion. If I am playing a no limit game, I will not risk beyond my low cap on any given hand unless I have seen the river card and know I have it won.  Determine a chip stack maintenance strategy that works for you.
     Playing in a live NL game the other night, I was holding A10 suited in the big blind. One player raised 3 times the blind behind me another called and I, on the stated last hand of the night, decided to see the flop. I was up 4 times my starting buyin. The flop came out 1076 rainbow. Knowing the players behind me tend to play a bit wild, I bet out half the pot with top pair and Ace kicker. The first player that raised pre-flop, re-raised my bet all in for about the 60 dollars he had remaining in front of him. The second player pushed her stack all in. Even though, I had top pair with an Ace kicker, and the possibility, knowing the players, that I might be folding the best hand to drawing hands, I chose to fold because the hand was not worth the amount put in. It turned out to be a good fold for me. The first player flopped 2 pair 7s and 6s. The second player flopped the nut straight as she was holding 89. The pot was about 140 dollars. The turn showed a King and the river....another 6 which gave the first player a full house. The second player lost all she had after flopping the best possible hand showing. The odds were very long for the first player to win after the flop, but as poker has shown time and again, unless your opponent has no possible way of winning, a percentage of the time, you will be beaten. Don't risk what you can't afford to lose.  Remember...you must play solid poker or bankroll management will be like watching water run down the drain.