Bankroll Management Thoughts from the cheap seats. - long

[Smurph64]

I have moved through the micros now twice before up to 3/6 and have had little issues with playing winning sustainable poker.

I am now on the 3rd move through them and honestly I don't want to go through them again.

I cash out when I get risk adverse. Some of you guys find that ludicrious but I think we all hit a level of risk adversity at some point, mine just happens to be quite low.

When I get risk adverse I stop playing optimal poker. That is bad. I know it's bad so I cash out. That trend has to stop.

After much debate with myself and myself, I have come to the conclusion that my fear of losing money is caused by playing with the wrong bankroll.

I know two things: 300 bb swings are going to happen, I have had two already and I know that each level we move up gets tougher. So it is silly of me to expect 300bb at the higher levels to be adequate for my risk thoughts to remain neutral.

I also know that staying at levels lower than necessary actually makes problems too as the value of that money becomes so insignificant as to allow you to donk it away, go on ego runs and tilt fests, all of which do not help you at all.

I have tried in the past to manage bankroll with short term swing control, otherwise know as stop loss levels and they are all well and good to a point.

But stop loss is an emotional response. It helps keep emotions out of the decision making process of trying to get back to scratch which is another problem so easy to fall into.

Despite having 130k hands now at the micro levels and being a winning player for that time, I still don't know how good a player I am. The numbers are still too low. Anxiety creeps in as each level is passed faster and faster.

At the micros its so easy to move up quickly, the pots double and so we go through some incredible ego situations at some point, thinking skill levels are much higher than they are, and becoming more and more addicted to the thrill of this 'extra' money.

Taking a $5 dollar investment and making a 800% return in 3 months puts all kinds of crazy thoughts into your head.

Oh imagine if it were 100 bucks and I did that, etc. So now we want to level up to compete with the rush of making mucho and we just aren't qualified for that experience.

We crash so many of us and burn. Each cashout for me happened after a short term losing streak. How deflating is that? Its brutal. I took my winnings, which now felt like losses and yes I bought a computer and fixed my car, but it still felt like a consolation prize.

I don't think its good to do this in the long term. Each learning session becomes harder to focus through, each run up although actually much shorter seems longer and more boring.

Multitabling helps of course but then it takes away from some of the quality of my poker, which is attacking idiots and maximizing by adjusting my game play to the table conditions.

So coming to the point of the topic - How do I manage my bankroll so that I can remain a risk neutral player?


I believe, with this being the 3rd run up that I have no problem with a 300bb bankroll at .5/.10 6 max. According to the numbers at this limit I have less than a 1% chance of going broke.

If I go broke at that level its nothing to rebuy. So that level is definitely risk neutral.

At the next level up .10/.20 6 max I have a 1% chance of going broke at 350 bb according to the numbers. Rebuy is $70 so that level is definitely risk neutral. I think that is my base low level now.

The next level of course gaps more than double so its a tricky level. For me adding 50 bb to each level makes a lot of sense. So a buy in at .25/.50 6 max would be 400bb or $200. This is getting close for me. So currently I don't want to have to deposit $200 if I go broke.

Its not a lot of money but it puts the perspective of how low my risk neutrality level is.

So now the question is managing moving up and moving down levels to maintain a risk neutrality ideal play situation.

I believe adding 50bb to my bankroll numbers for each level is essential. So for me the dollar tables will require a bankroll of $450 dollars and $1000 at the 1/2 tables.

What does this all mean? Not much likely but essentially I am establishing for myself my bankroll principles that are not effected by my current running of cards.

I don't want to negotiate my lvl to play at whenever I get on a swing.

My hard cap is such that if I drop below the minimum br for a lvl I drop a level.

Therefore my play levels will now be the following:

$0 to $70 = .10/.20 6 max tables
$70 to $200 = .25/.50 6 max
$200 to $450 = .50/1.00 6 max
$450 to $1000 = 1.00/2.00 6 max.
$1000 to $2200 = 2/4 6 max.

I think I have to stop there. At that lvl I plan to start cashing out until the worth of that money goes down.

Therefore I will play up to $2200 in the bank and cash out half of that for the level to go back to $1600 each time I hit that cap.

You will notice therefore that at that limit I am essentially playing with a 300bb bankroll. If I never lose that bankroll then all is well. If I do lose then I already have the money in at the lower lvl and I can go again from there.

I hope this eliminates for me the 6 lvls a month I have played since I started and balances out my emotions effectively.

I think for me the quality of my life has to change for me to move up beyond that level.

That will probably be 5 to 10 cashouts but we shall see.

Sorry if this bores you guys, it was for me that I write this and thought I would share in case it someone can learn from this or comment on it so I can learn some more myself.

Thanks.