My bankroll managment connundrum

[StellarWind]

Paying down debt is a form of saving money. Essentially you are investing in a $9K bond with a high interest rate. The fact that you issued the bond a few years ago is not important.

$26K is too much money for a 10/20 player to have sitting on a poker site, especially when you don't have much other money. PokerStars has a great reputation but you shouldn't confuse it with a bank. Something could go wrong at any time and you would be in a nearly desperate situation. Plus you are earning no return on investment for the excess portion of your bankroll.

[Molecules]

Pay off the debt, losing money for no reason is -EV, its not like you are talking about having something like 12k or something and cashing out the 9k would just cripple your roll

[Hobbs.]

if you don't plan on moving up then take out the 9k and pay off your debts. OTOH, if you move up you are easily going to be making more per hour (in expectation) to offset the debt you are taking on via your student debts.

[Palomino]

Don't forget that the interest on your student loan is tax deductible...that may change things for you. Maybe move up, increase your $/hr and then pay off your debt when the US dollar recovers some. It has to recover at some point, right?

[thepizzlefosho]

my advice is pay off everything you can 4 months at a time. Student loans, apt rent (if you move out), utilities, whatever. Then the variance really has no impact on you because all you need is enough cash to get by day to day (eat, gas, go to movies, etc). You'll feel comfortable taking shots, and you won't have to worry about tilt. Plus if you go a real hot streak you can move up and play higher, or pull the excess off and invest it (diversifying is good).

just my .02

[Heisenb3rg]

[ QUOTE ]
Paying down debt is a form of saving money. Essentially you are investing in a $9K bond with a high interest rate. The fact that you issued the bond a few years ago is not important.

$26K is too much money for a 10/20 player to have sitting on a poker site, especially when you don't have much other money. PokerStars has a great reputation but you shouldn't confuse it with a bank. Something could go wrong at any time and you would be in a nearly desperate situation. Plus you are earning no return on investment for the excess portion of your bankroll.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is something im curious about....

Ive been leaving most of my money on poker stars bceause I figure theres a significant cost depositing money if I have a huge downswing.

What do the high stakes players do? How do they go about withdrawling/despositing large sums of money?
Do the people playing the 1k$/2k$ limit games have a million dollars lying around on their poker stars accounts?
that seems so risky...

A problem for me is that I want to multi-site, but its kind of biatch moving money around while avoiding the hassle/charges associated with it..

For example, imagine I have only 10k$ on stars and 10k$ on two other sites. Then imagine I go on a big downswing and lose 6k$ at stars.

Even though my total roll is still 14k$, its pretty awkward 4 tabling 10/20 when I know my roll might run out on one site.. so im essentially forced to transfer money from one site to the other... blunting my ability to game select.

I Should figure a way to transfer between all these sites without any cost...

Thanks for the words all... I was surprised at the unanimous conclusion.. I figured a few people would say "wtf, dont be a pussy, move up".

[Tryptamean]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the words all... I was surprised at the unanimous conclusion.. I figured a few people would say "wtf, dont be a pussy, move up".

[/ QUOTE ]

dude, that's what I said, just not in those words

just take one shot yo! make gamboool

it just seems to me like a lot of the really successful players have moved up in stakes pretty aggressively... but like I said I dont live on my poker money..

[kimchi]

Others have ansered your bankroll/moving up situation, but we get a lot of questions like these on BFI.

[ QUOTE ]

1) My student debt is at 9k$ and I pay a high % on it (works out to about 200$ a month)

[/ QUOTE ]

This looks like over 25% interest, which is insane. You need to take out a cheaper loan for the principal and pay this off. If you can't find/get a cheaper loan, then I'd pay this off ASAP as it's a real cash drain.

[ QUOTE ]

2) The @#&%*%# canadian dollar is shooting through the roof with no signs of slowing down, so the value of my roll is decreasing as each day passes. (my roll is in american, but I live in canada)

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm in a similar situation. My primary banking in in GBP, so my online $US roll takes a hammering.

I hedge my online roll by shorting the USD against the GBP. For this I use CFD's (contracts for difference) which are financial derivatives. (I'm sure they're available to Canadians through many brokers).

eg:
-you have about $40k USD online decreasing in value fast.
-sell $40k worth of CFDs against CAD.
-You can get this on about 5% (often less) margin, so you need to put down $2000 in your CFD account.
-since you are effectively loaning your CFD broker $40K, then you will recieve interest at LIBOR(~5%) -2% or so.
-so 3% on $40k is $1200 per year
-this interest is usually paid daily.

So:
1. Your bankroll is protected against further declines in the $US
2. You can paid around $3.30 per day interest on $2000
3. If the $US stengthens, then your roll increases in relative value while your hedge decreases.