[Bona]

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instead, this post is for the semi-casual player. The ones who take the game seriously enough to ask the bankroll question, but aren't really looking to have poker winnings represent any part of their regular income.

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That is my category



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Therefore, your goal is to make your bankroll last for as long as you want to play poker.

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That states my goal more succinctly than I could have.

I agree with everything you said about variance and how it affects your choices and style of play; but I continue to choose a somewhat suboptimal win rate in order to keep variance under control.

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If you are a semi-casual player, you don't ever need to move up.


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I think this is right on target. While I still play at relatively lower stakes (relative to most in this forum) I am playing at 3 or 4 times higher stakes than I was a year ago. I never did “move up” as in: goodbye .05/.10 hello .50/1.00. I still play at all the levels I previously have, just not as often, and I also play some at $1/$2 just not a high percentage. I am mostly .25/.50 and .50/1. I don’t know where I will be in a year because that’s really not an issue for me.

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When should you move down? If you feel like you should move down, then move down. That's the easy one.


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I agree this one is easy for me. I don’t really “move down” but if I lose 50BB or so, I go recover it in either a lower stakes game or sometimes at a different site. No real plan for this. My instincts just lead me to it. My instincts never lead me to try to recover at a higher limit. That would feel suicidal to me.

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Cashing out


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I have only ever cashed out from the sites that wouldn’t let me play there anymore ( I am a US player and am thus heavily protected from myself, and from all you poker sharks here in the land of the free. I expect to be continuously protected until my duly elected representatives find a way to get as nice a "rake" from online poker as they do from Powerball, Keno, live casinos etc. Then they will reinstate my “freedom of choice”) I digress. After those cash outs though, I immediately deposited those monies at other sites and now play on 4 sites. My bankroll has grown steadily. It consists of about 4k BB’s spread over the 4 sites. I don’t intend to cash out but you never know. It’s just a hobby after all.

I am very recently enthralled with live poker and have embarked on a separate bankroll building exercise. I decided to “loan myself” 150BB for a trip to Tunica in August (duly reported on) I was pretty happy with results especially the fact that I really enjoyed live play. Since that trip I have played 15 sessions here at our local casino poker room and the experience continues to please me. I expect to be playing 4-8 sessions a month which will probably average 40 hours a month or about 1200 hands a month. Maybe less if time becomes an issue. (or if my win rate becomes a loss rate: heaven forbid) Anyway I have set some bankroll / win rate benchmarks and goals and am keeping sound records because I am a nit that way. My live poker only, separate from on line, bankroll is now 285BB but still includes the 150BB I loaned myself. I keep it separate and safe. My plan is to let it accrue until I can pay myself back the original “loan’ while still retaining a 300BB+ bankroll. After that it will be a matter of accumulating net winnings until the bankroll looks like I should do something different. I don’t know if I will be a long term winner at this or not but it appears to me I should. My opponents playing errors are pretty frequent and identifiable. As long as they insist on making more mistakes than I do, they will continue to support my goals. I have no aspirations, at this point, about moving up in stakes level just so I can find better players and get beat up. I expect I will set benchmarks in the future for leaving a certain percentage of any winnings in my bankroll and using any excess in some fun way. Perhaps there is a cap on what bankroll I might choose to accumulate but I really haven’t thought about that. From here it seems like a remote possibility since I have only “broken the seal” on the deck of live poker, so to speak.

Yours was a very nice post Aaron. I hope to accumulate a knowledge base like yours (and the wisdom that accompanies it) faster than I accumulate bankroll. That would make me successful at poker.

My ultimate objective is to enjoy poker while I learn to play well and confidently. To do so as a hobby that doesn't cost me any money. If I make some money; all the better.