Suggestions for Bankroll Building

[BetweenTheBars]

Hello everyone,

A friend of mine suggested this site for discussion so I thought I'd join and improve my game. I don't play online at all, my poker playing is limited to frequent trips to the casinos just across the Oklahoma border. I've been wanting to deposit online but with all the unstability right now and lack of deposit methods, I have decided to wait and see what happens.

Anyways, I have a question regarding building a bankroll. I've been playing at $3/6 Limit at the casinos for about 8 months now, but before I turned 18, I played in underground cardrooms and home games where ever I could find them. I've read a lot of good (and not so good) poker literature and feel that my fundamentals are solid.

My problem is simple, $3/6 Limit is not where I would like to be playing to build a bankroll. I would LOVE to playing much, much lower. In the course of those 8 months I have had decent success but my winnings end up finding their way to other entertainment purposes. I have a part-time job on campus and manage a full schedule while still finding time to put in good hours at the casino so I'm in now way saying I want to drop out. I just want tips on how to stop filtering my winnings away from poker.

If you need to know any more information so that you can give more specific advice, I'd be happy to help you out.

Thanks!

[deacsoft]

Well, since your not willing to deposit on-line right now the options for building a bankroll are kind of limited. There's psobably not a .50/1 or 1/2 game at the area casino. You're probably going to have to play solid in the 3/6 game or try to find (or start) a lower limit regular game.

As far as spending your winnings goes, there's really no seceret there. It's mostly just discipline. Create a budget and stick to it. Setting goals and reasonably rewarding yourself for hitting those goals can help your motivation to save.

[swingdoc]

Yep, not gonna find too many B&M cardrooms that have lower limit games than 3/6. They just end up losing money having to pay the dealers, etc. Building up your bankroll is all about separating your poker money from your living money.

Personally, I keep my B&M bankroll in a Transformers lunchbox. This way it's in one place, not mixed with my living money and easily accessible. I'd strongly recommend a metal lunchbox for security purposes.

[2handed]

Have you thought about selling drugs? Thats a joke, but you should see if you can find an additional source of income to live off so that you can keep your poker winnings separate. The rake can be brutal at 3/6 and 4/8 so you need to keep adding to this roll with your winnings, not frivolously spending them.

I started at 4-8 my first year in college and got a job at subway from someone i met in the cardroom. This job covered all my living expenses like food, gas and beer. I quit my job once I had the roll for 10/20 and 2/5 NL since I knew could do better financially just playing poker while in school.

Now I am 21 and in my third year of college and thanks to live poker I have some nice toys and I am rolled for 20/40 which I play twice a week and make solid money at. Discipline is the key my friend, and trust me it is worth it.

[2handed]

I didn't see part about part-time job and full schedule in first reading of OP, but still if you are serious about poker you can find a way to get together the roughly one thousand dollars (180-200 BB) I believe it takes to play 3/6 safely using solid play.

[VBCurtis]

OP: If your poker bankroll is mixed in with your spending money, going busto isn't such a big deal. If you have $300 allocated for 3/6 and lose it, you just have to wait a month or two before you have another $300 to play on. With this in mind, building a $1000 roll so you feel you can "ride out the swings" ends up costing you more in missed play or missed fun.
Decide how bad/inconvenient it is to lose your BR before you set a number of BB as your roll.
If moving up is important to you, make the lifestyle sacrifices to save up and move up. If you keep spending the poker winnings, it must not be that important-- you are solely in control of this.
Finally, document *exactly* every session-- hours played and results, at least. day and time of session also help in the long run, as you'll find certain times/days make more than others. Your poker book will show you what your BR "should" be, if you didn't spend your winnings. That might give you enough guilt to stop spending all the poker roll.
-Curtis

[AKQJ10]

[ QUOTE ]
Yep, not gonna find too many B&M cardrooms that have lower limit games than 3/6. They just end up losing money having to pay the dealers, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

The rake at $2/4 isn't appreciably less than $3/6. Maybe there's the occasional pot that doesn't make it to $40, but most $2/4 pots do.

IIRC the California $1/2 games may be raked differently, but they're so outrageous about rake anyway that it's a totally different topic.