Question for pros, how do you "pay" yourself?

[UATrewqaz]

This question is mostly for people whose sole income is from poker (be it online or B&M or both).

Ok let's say I decide to go pro, I have my nest egg of several months expenses in the bank and I have a very large bankroll (let's say 1000 BB for my chosen limit).

Alright, so how do I "pay" myself? First, how often? Monthly is simple enough, but how does it work? It seems to me you would want to make your payments over large periods rather than short, to make things more even with variance and all.

If at the end of the month I have 1100 BB in my bankroll I pay myself 100 BB? Basically whatever I have over my original 1000 BB at the end of each month is my "salary" for that month?

What if I have a KILLER month where I win 500 BB, do I take it all or just what I need for my expenses and let my roll grow?

What about those horrible months where you lose, say at the end of one month my roll is 900 BB (I lost 100 BB for the month in this example). Do I simply not take a salary that month and instead pay my bills out of my nest egg?

How do ya'll structure things if any? If I were to go pro (not gonna happen... at least not for a long time) I would want a very strict and defined schedule of how my bankroll/monthly payments worked.

[Leader]

I just have a set amount that I cash out of Neteller every week. Though it's not always cut and dry. If I don't need the money, I will tend to forget about it. Then I get really cash poor by the end of the week and have to cash out more then usual. I'm probably not a good example since I don't have many things to pay every month. I don't like the idea of saying, "I'm going to have an xBB roll," and then cashing out everything above that. If you're over rolled and not planning on moving up you probably do better just to increase your "pay" a little.

[Ryan11]

I cashout 1/2 my monthly nut on the 1st sunday of the month, and the other half on the 3rd sunday. I leave any other earnings over my monthly nut in my working bankroll.

[obsidian]

I just take out what I need to pay bills and buy what I want. The rest I leave in my bankroll (most in my ING account). Next year I am going to start investing.

[MicroBob]

I just cash-out whenever I feel like it.

It's all my money (in my bank, neteller and on the sites) so I don't really feel like it's 'paying myself' but rather just moving money around.


If I have a ton online and my checking account is a little low-ish or I have a bigger expense coming up then I move some money over there.
I have gone 2-3 months without moving any money from neteller to my bank simply because I didn't have any reason to.


Obviously how you do it is up to you.
you can do it in such a way that your online account doesn't go over 500BB's...or you can do $2k/week if that's what you expect to make...or whatever.


but it's all YOUR money.
Moving it around is just moving it around.

[augie_]

I put my rakeback in my bank account and keep everything else for my bankroll. That seems to be working out well.

[TheMetetron]

I got direct deposit set-up through the accounting department.

No more paper checks for me!

[Arnfinn Madsen]

I have made a set amount I cash out each month (I have a 6 month non-bankroll buffer in addition). I think making salary based upon results is more tilt-provoking than motivating, since monthly results are relatively independent of effort. If I run bad, it makes it necessary for me to step down/ delay stepping up, but that can be healthy in those situations anyway.

[Schwartzy61]

Not really a pro, I think of myself as a low level semi-pro.

Finishing up my degree and don't really have much in the way of expenses so it doesn't require me to withdrawal much.

But I withdrawal any rakeback and bonuses as income. My winnings I use to build my roll so I can move to higher limits.

[betadecay]

Like the majority of the people that posted, I cash out when I need to spend money. Otherwise it's sits in neteller or in the pokersites I play. Someone already mentioned they are hoping to invest the stagnant money in the future. This is also something I am hoping to do.