B&M bankroll questions
 

I am from Pittsburgh PA, no cardrooms here, thus i am primarily an online player with occasional forays to B&M establishments around the country.

WV opened up cardrooms this past weekend. MOuntaineer will be the room i frequent and is presently spreading a 1/2 50-300NL game.

With this in mind, is a ~$2500 BR ok to start with? Also, i am considering opening a second checking account just for my B&M roll? Thoughts? Is this standard?

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

BR s/b $5-6k + for this game...

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

thoughts on tracking BR for B&M games? do you keep funds separate?

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

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thoughts on tracking BR for B&M games? do you keep funds separate?

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YES

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

I have been playing B&M for 3 years and for the first year I played $100 & $200 NL with my biggest downswing being $1,500, I have played the $500 ($5-$10) NL for two and a half years with $5,000 being the biggest down swing.

I would still recommend a bank roll of at least 20 BI's and 25 - 30 BI's to be more conservative. It is psychologically better for me to play if I know a terrible down swing will not put a significant dent in my bank roll. I can play optimally without worrying about being felted.

I believe that your poker money should be completely seperate.

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

assuming you're a strong player (and if you're winning nl online you are) 2.5k bankroll *should* be fine.. especially if you buy in for 200 until you're upto 5k or so. i've never had more than a 6 buy in swing at 1/2 and 1/3 with 200 dollar buy ins, actually the biggest i remember is 4 and that was really really bad.

this game will probably be uber soft and as long as you aren't super lag you're variance should be relatively minimal

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

I personally would never buy in for less then the max. You want to maximizes wins.
I think a $2500 bankroll is fine if your not playing daily.
I personally just deposit poker money with my normal money but I keep spreadsheets of wins/losses.
It's easy to set up an excel file with date played, game played # of hours logged and how much you won-lost.
Then you can easily figure out hourly rate based on those #'s.

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
I played $100 & $200 NL with my biggest downswing being $1,500,

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<font color="blue"> Am there now! </font>

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I believe that your poker money should be completely seperate.

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<font color="blue"> QFT </font>

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

man thats sweet max buy at this 1/2 game is $300. the cardrooms within driving distance of here put a $100 max on the 1/2 games and it sucks. the games are really juicy but getting over the 50BB hump can be tough when you first sit.

I think you can do it with $2,500 if you are sitting with $200. obv more would be better but as long as you don't run like absolute [censored] you should be good to go.

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

I began playing the BM 1/2 NL with what I had; $300. The first weekend that I went down to Atlantic City I played weak-tight, protecting my bankroll and came away a $650 winner. From there I built it to a workable bankroll to play a bit looser and more aggressive.

The small stakes games in most casinos are easily beatable. I am the last person that will say, "ah, just go out there and crush the games" because I do not know your skill level. However, if the 1/2 game that you play in is anything like the games in AC $2500 will be more than enough to play right in these games.

Many of the players I come across have all of the same characteristics:

1. Play too many hands. period
2. They limp hand and the hands that they limp are usually trash hands, i.e. J3s 43o A2o J9s, etc.
3. They will happily cold call a raise OOP in order to reign in any "aggressive" players
4. Most of them have the attention span of a gnat and will not notice that you have not played a hand for forty-minutes and just can't seem to believe that the river allin checkraise is for real.
5. They bluff way,way too much.
6. They call too many bets.

These are just some of what you will see at the tables. GL

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

All true of the 1/2 I play in Chicago. Excellent analysis.

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

It depends on how wild it is. The one (outstanding) pro I know at my place says 10,000 for 1/2 and he's never down much.

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
I have been playing B&amp;M for 3 years and for the first year I played $100 &amp; $200 NL with my biggest downswing being $1,500, I have played the $500 ($5-$10) NL for two and a half years with $5,000 being the biggest down swing.

I would still recommend a bank roll of at least 20 BI's and 25 - 30 BI's to be more conservative. It is psychologically better for me to play if I know a terrible down swing will not put a significant dent in my bank roll. I can play optimally without worrying about being felted.

I believe that your poker money should be completely seperate.

[/ QUOTE ]

EOT

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

[ QUOTE ]
the cardrooms within driving distance of here put a $100 max on the 1/2 games and it sucks. the games are really juicy but getting over the 50BB hump can be tough when you first sit.


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You must live near chicago like chicago Y and myself. 50 BB max buyin is the absolute worst.

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

yeah, mine is 100 max

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

You should have at least 10 times your buy-in, assuming that you will play tight, aggressive poker instead of trying to out-lag the lags, or bluff out the calling stations, both of which you will find in greater quantities at a live game than on-line. For LAG play you will need much more to cover the swings.

If you plan to buy-in for the full $300 every time, then try to keep at least $3000 at the casino in a player's account. That way you don't need to lug large sums of money to and from your car every night you play cards.

If a player's account is unavailable, and/or if you don't quite have a full 10 buy-ins for a bankroll, another option would be to take 3 buy-ins with you every session (~$900). Then, if you bust out twice, leave with at least $300. I suppose this is something of an artificial loss limit, but before I opened my player's account and built up a proper bankroll, I would use this technique. I think this approach helps to exercise some self-discipline when you lose because when you bust out twice and still leave with $300 in your pocket, you are leaving because you "want to" rather than you "have to." I make a point of never, ever going completely "broke" in a single session. I always leave with money in my pocket (or account).

Obviously a bigger bankroll up to $20 buy-ins would be nice.

As to your question, "is a ~$2500 BR ok to start with?" I'd say that it's a little shorter than I'd recommend, but should be fine as long as you play TAG.

Re: B&M bankroll questions
 

Nice post Albert. It gave to me new good ideas.