Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn't have it and thought of other things if you did. – James Baldwin.
Mr. Angelo calls it “partitioning”. Your poker bankroll is really just a sub-set of your entire bankroll. In fact, the entire distinction exists primarily only in your mind (it may also have a physical partition if you keep your poker bankroll in a poker wallet). If you can learn to partition better than others, you will be more adept at protecting your poker bankroll, and you will gain an edge.
Too many players injure their poker bankroll by not partitioning well. They spend poker money on beer, fuel, food, etc. They then, lament the inevitable episode of variance that leaves them low or out of poker money.
Food, beer, fuel, etc. are things one needs anyway and one is going to buy anyway – with or without poker money. Therefore, make sure to buy these out of your “regular” bankroll. If you must buy them from poker money, replace that poker money with regular money so that the beer, etc. ends up on the right account.
Be diligent about adding money won at poker to your poker bankroll.
Don’t squander those winnings like a drunken sailor on his first shore leave.
What if you go through an extended period of losing? You will regret having squandered those winnings. Those winnings are your tools for playing and winning more. After completing a job, would you discard the perfectly good tools that enabled you to do the job? Would you trade them for food, fuel, beer, or whatever? Don’t trade your poker bankroll (i.e. your tools) for them either.
As a poker player with a family, I think it is even more essential to keep your poker bankroll separate from your family bankroll. If I used family money to play, I would be more worried about losing and would not be able to bring my “A” game. Playing with money one is afraid to lose is playing with “scared money” and good players will notice this and take advantage of you. With a separate poker bankroll, I can play my best game and not worry about a potential loss affecting my family. Don’t get me wrong. I do not want to lose any money at all but I also know that it is certain to occur sooner or later. Be prepared by saving your winnings. That way when you suffer the occasional loss, your bankroll survives and you are able to keep playing. More importantly, your family is not affected by the loss. I went through an extended period of involuntary unemployment not long ago. However, since I maintain a separate poker bankroll, I was able to play poker the entire time with no negative impact to the family.
Playing winning poker is a long term prospect. If you treat your poker bankroll as a long term investment and “partition” well, it will grow and you will gain another edge in the long term game.
Showing posts with label Bankroll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bankroll. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Confessions of a Rock
Here at the office, whenever it becomes known that I am an avid poker player, people look at me askew and remark, “I never would have imagined you to be a gambler” – with a certain stigma being attached to the term “gambler”. Due to their lack of understanding of the game, they immediately assume I am a wild “gamb00ler” because that image – wild bluffs and big stacks of chips being exchanged foolishly is what their mental image of poker is. I see it very differently.
Good poker players are not really gamblers, but bad ones definitely are. I think good players usually get their money in with the best hand. I am not a big chaser of draws. I usually bet my OESD’s and Nut or 2nd nut flush draws and I frequently win without making my hand. If my opponent is showing a lot of strength like raising my bets or denying me the pot odds to pursue my draw, I fold it. I do not usually suck out. I am usually sucked out on because I try to get my chips in with the best of it. While there is a chance you may lose, you have waited for an opportunity to have your opponent at a disadvantage and statistically you ought to win more often than you lose. This is not possible in roulette, dice, slots, or most other forms of gambling. There is a reason there is no World Series of Roulette or Dice, etc. Poker is a game of skill that has an element of luck. Over a long period of time, a skilled poker player is more likely to win than lose. This is not true of roulette, dice, slots, etc. If winning was all due to luck, I would not enjoy poker. For me to enjoy a game, there has to be a significant element of strategic thinking and competition against other would be thinkers. Dice, slots, roulette, and so forth have no appeal to me. When it comes to gambling on games of pure chance, the pain I feel when I lose outweighs the pleasure I feel when I win. This is a psychological effect known as loss aversion. Research shows that before we risk an investment, we need to feel assured that the potential gain is twice what the possible loss might be because a loss feels twice as bad as a gain feels good. That's weird and somewhat irrational, but it's the way it is.
I suppose a lot depends on why you are playing in the first place. If you are playing poker for the “buzz” you get from the gambling itself, you will have a different perspective than mine. There is nothing inherently wrong with this type of approach but a player like this may not be able to expect to win as often as a player that seeks to minimize the gambling aspect of the game and optimize his chances of winning regularly. I deeply enjoy the strategic elements and competition but I also play because it is the only hobby I enjoy that can pay for itself and even generate additional funds. Consider this quote:
Mike Sexton, in a tribute to the late Chip Reese, in Poker Player newspaper, December 24, 2007, issue, p. 27.Years ago, I was talking to Chip about another Hall of Fame poker player that we lost too early, Stu Ungar. I asked Chip if he thought Stuey was the most talented player he had ever seen. Chip said, "Natural ability-wise, yes. Certainly he was the quickest minded guy I've ever known. Stuey's problem is that he doesn't understand the 'object of the game.' The object of the game is to accumulate wealth, improve your lifestyle, and provide for your family, and Stuey will never get it." Chip did.
I agree with Chip. Although I am no professional that actually supports my family with poker, I take the game seriously and want to build my bankroll and improve my lifestyle via poker. I am disciplined with my poker bankroll because I feel like I had to “earn” it. I consider the money I win at poker to be “earned” rather than won since I read, study, practice, and think about poker frequently in order to build my skills. I conserve my poker “earnings” even more eagerly than my regular earnings. Why - because they were more difficult to obtain, that’s why. What do I mean by that? Well, to earn at poker consistently, you have to regularly outplay your opponents. The cards themselves will even out over time so every player will end up being dealt about the same number of quality hands. You cannot depend on consistently getting better cards than your opponents, therefore, you will have to learn to win without the best hand, too. At one’s regular job, you can “phone it in” occasionally without penalty. You can show up for work, be about 25% functional and at most jobs, you will earn the same rate of pay per hour. You cannot “phone it in” at poker. If you attempt to “phone it in” you will suffer and pay for it quickly. If you expect to win with any regularity, you must be capable of summoning forth your “A” game most of the time. When you cannot muster your “A” game, you should elect not to play. If you reduce or eliminate the times you play your “B” or “C” (or worse) game, it will reduce the element of chance and its subsequent consequences to your bankroll.
Good poker players are not really gamblers, but bad ones definitely are. I think good players usually get their money in with the best hand. I am not a big chaser of draws. I usually bet my OESD’s and Nut or 2nd nut flush draws and I frequently win without making my hand. If my opponent is showing a lot of strength like raising my bets or denying me the pot odds to pursue my draw, I fold it. I do not usually suck out. I am usually sucked out on because I try to get my chips in with the best of it. While there is a chance you may lose, you have waited for an opportunity to have your opponent at a disadvantage and statistically you ought to win more often than you lose. This is not possible in roulette, dice, slots, or most other forms of gambling. There is a reason there is no World Series of Roulette or Dice, etc. Poker is a game of skill that has an element of luck. Over a long period of time, a skilled poker player is more likely to win than lose. This is not true of roulette, dice, slots, etc. If winning was all due to luck, I would not enjoy poker. For me to enjoy a game, there has to be a significant element of strategic thinking and competition against other would be thinkers. Dice, slots, roulette, and so forth have no appeal to me. When it comes to gambling on games of pure chance, the pain I feel when I lose outweighs the pleasure I feel when I win. This is a psychological effect known as loss aversion. Research shows that before we risk an investment, we need to feel assured that the potential gain is twice what the possible loss might be because a loss feels twice as bad as a gain feels good. That's weird and somewhat irrational, but it's the way it is.
I suppose a lot depends on why you are playing in the first place. If you are playing poker for the “buzz” you get from the gambling itself, you will have a different perspective than mine. There is nothing inherently wrong with this type of approach but a player like this may not be able to expect to win as often as a player that seeks to minimize the gambling aspect of the game and optimize his chances of winning regularly. I deeply enjoy the strategic elements and competition but I also play because it is the only hobby I enjoy that can pay for itself and even generate additional funds. Consider this quote:
Mike Sexton, in a tribute to the late Chip Reese, in Poker Player newspaper, December 24, 2007, issue, p. 27.Years ago, I was talking to Chip about another Hall of Fame poker player that we lost too early, Stu Ungar. I asked Chip if he thought Stuey was the most talented player he had ever seen. Chip said, "Natural ability-wise, yes. Certainly he was the quickest minded guy I've ever known. Stuey's problem is that he doesn't understand the 'object of the game.' The object of the game is to accumulate wealth, improve your lifestyle, and provide for your family, and Stuey will never get it." Chip did.
I agree with Chip. Although I am no professional that actually supports my family with poker, I take the game seriously and want to build my bankroll and improve my lifestyle via poker. I am disciplined with my poker bankroll because I feel like I had to “earn” it. I consider the money I win at poker to be “earned” rather than won since I read, study, practice, and think about poker frequently in order to build my skills. I conserve my poker “earnings” even more eagerly than my regular earnings. Why - because they were more difficult to obtain, that’s why. What do I mean by that? Well, to earn at poker consistently, you have to regularly outplay your opponents. The cards themselves will even out over time so every player will end up being dealt about the same number of quality hands. You cannot depend on consistently getting better cards than your opponents, therefore, you will have to learn to win without the best hand, too. At one’s regular job, you can “phone it in” occasionally without penalty. You can show up for work, be about 25% functional and at most jobs, you will earn the same rate of pay per hour. You cannot “phone it in” at poker. If you attempt to “phone it in” you will suffer and pay for it quickly. If you expect to win with any regularity, you must be capable of summoning forth your “A” game most of the time. When you cannot muster your “A” game, you should elect not to play. If you reduce or eliminate the times you play your “B” or “C” (or worse) game, it will reduce the element of chance and its subsequent consequences to your bankroll.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Bankroll Building and Management
When I first began playing with any frequency I enjoyed a small amount of success that made me overconfident. Soon, I played in a somewhat bigger game with better players and quickly learned how little I knew. I lost about $100.00 in one evening (which seems small now, but at the time, was the most I had ever lost in one sitting). My wife had always regarded poker suspiciously but had not made much noise about my playing up until then. However, that incident prompted a serious conversation between her and me about poker and the costs of playing. We were not in a position for me to regularly pay $100 a session for “poker lessons” and she suggested poker might be too expensive of a hobby for me to pursue. I quickly compared it to golf and bowling and other activities that are lots of fun but not inexpensive. Long story short, she and I decided if I was to pursue poker as a hobby, it would be best if I start building an independent bankroll to fund my poker endeavors. I started with $50.00. That was in the late summer of 2005. I re-read my couple of poker books. I began reading about strategy and such on the net. I discovered poker blogs and stumbled upon a few of the ones I would continue to read to this day - bloggers such as Pauly, Tripjax, Jordan from High on Poker, Bill Rini, and many others. Most of all, I began to single-mindedly build my bankroll and to think of it as a bankroll. It was totally separate from any family funds, fun money, entertainment money, etc. All poker was funded from it and all winnings went back into it – period – no exceptions. It has been a little over two years and my poker bankroll is now reasonably well established. My wife is no longer concerned whether I win or not since it has no effect on the family other than the time I am away.
Now, don’t get the mistaken idea that I always win – I do not. However, I do employ some strategies to preserve my bankroll. I think I already mentioned it is ONLY for poker and nothing else. No sports betting. No blackjack. No dice, etc. It is not for travel, fuel, lodging, food, or anything but poker. I guard and protect it because I want it to continue to grow. That is the only way I will be able to play in higher stakes games is to grow my bankroll. I do not play many tournaments because the probability of winning is low compared to cash games. I never risk more than 20% of it at once so even if I lose, I am not crippled. I only need that much to go to casinos and so forth. The amount needed to play in the home games I play most often is less than 5% per session. This enables me to play aggressively with a negligible risk of ruin. In my homegame group, guys are frequently complaining about lack of funds to play poker with even though these same guys win their fair share. The problem is since they do not keep a separate bankroll, their winnings are frequently squandered on food, gas, beer, whatever. They treat the times they win like a windfall of cash that they cannot wait to spend when they should think of it as future buy-ins. I have tried to offer suggestions but unfortunately they either lack the interest or discipline to go the extra mile and keep their winnings separate from normal operating funds for the household. All you need is an additional wallet (which is what I use) or rubberband to keep your roll together as it grows. Mine has now exceeded the amount of cash I like to have laying around so I opened a bank account for it. Try this idea. It really worked for me. With a little discipline, you will be amazed at how quickly you can grow a bankroll of your own.
Now, don’t get the mistaken idea that I always win – I do not. However, I do employ some strategies to preserve my bankroll. I think I already mentioned it is ONLY for poker and nothing else. No sports betting. No blackjack. No dice, etc. It is not for travel, fuel, lodging, food, or anything but poker. I guard and protect it because I want it to continue to grow. That is the only way I will be able to play in higher stakes games is to grow my bankroll. I do not play many tournaments because the probability of winning is low compared to cash games. I never risk more than 20% of it at once so even if I lose, I am not crippled. I only need that much to go to casinos and so forth. The amount needed to play in the home games I play most often is less than 5% per session. This enables me to play aggressively with a negligible risk of ruin. In my homegame group, guys are frequently complaining about lack of funds to play poker with even though these same guys win their fair share. The problem is since they do not keep a separate bankroll, their winnings are frequently squandered on food, gas, beer, whatever. They treat the times they win like a windfall of cash that they cannot wait to spend when they should think of it as future buy-ins. I have tried to offer suggestions but unfortunately they either lack the interest or discipline to go the extra mile and keep their winnings separate from normal operating funds for the household. All you need is an additional wallet (which is what I use) or rubberband to keep your roll together as it grows. Mine has now exceeded the amount of cash I like to have laying around so I opened a bank account for it. Try this idea. It really worked for me. With a little discipline, you will be amazed at how quickly you can grow a bankroll of your own.
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