Some Thoughts About Bankrolls
Bankroll management may be the most misunderstood poker concept out there. Virtually everyone who’s ever sat down at a table has a ‘bankroll theory’—how much you should have, how much you should be willing to risk in any given session, how much you should be willing to lose before you move down in stakes—but what most players (and certainly most poker theorists) don’t understand is that bankroll management is only a relevant issue for a very tiny percentage of poker players.
Allow me to illustrate. First, let’s divide the world of poker players into two groups; those that are have a positive long term expectation, and those that do not. For the players with a negative long term expectation the question of bankroll management is irrelevant, since these players can expect to lose all of the money they allocate towards poker if they continue playing. No ‘money management scheme’ can turn a loser into a winner. If one could then the craps pits and roulette wheels would be thronged with winners.
Now then, let’s divide the group of winning players into two groups—those who play for recreation, and those who rely (in full or in part) on their poker winnings to support themselves. For those who play for recreation, the bankroll issue is again a moot point. Why? Because one need only manage their bankroll if losing that bankroll will keep them out the game for an indefinite period of time. If this condition is not satisfied then all matters pertaining to bankroll management are, for the most part, irrelevant to you.
This may sound self-evident, but you would be shocked at how many players don’t seem to understand this. I cannot count the number of times I’ve read a post on the Internet where someone has said words to the effect of ‘I’d like to move up from the $1-$2 games, but my bankroll is only $400 right now’, and then gone on later to say that they have a great ‘straight job’ selling tractor parts or something that pays them 90K a year. Now, if losing that $400 will keep you out of the game for a long time then yes—you need to protect it. But if losing it simply means that you’ll have to reload with another $400 then it’s silly to play at a low level (and earn a low hourly win rate) just because you arbitrarily decided that $400 was a good amount to start with.
In short, unless you are a player who derives all of or most of their income from poker, or you are a winning recreational player who would quit playing if they lost ‘x’ amount of money, then ignore all the bankroll management literature. Play the limits that you enjoy playing and leave it at that.
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