I have always tried to find a way to personalize bank roll management. Since I play lower stakes tables, online, I finally found a good way to work this out. This may not work for you, if it doesn't then keep wating for whatever makes sense to you to happen.
I will focuse on the hardest hand to play, which I think is pocket Aces. If you have pocket Aces, are in the big blind, and every player at the table shoves all-in, would you muck? Ok, lets make this a little easier. You have pocket Aces and one other player has gone all in pre-flop, you are the only player left to act, you are going to call. At this point, about 15% of the time you are heads up you will loose the hand. And since many times at lower stakes you will end up with more then one other player in the hand, your odds of losing your money keep going up.
So, ask yourself, are you prepared to lose all the money you have on the table and still have enough left in your bank roll to keep playing your game confidently? If not, you are playing over your head, that is outside your bank roll.
Thus, my version of bank roll management is simple. If I were to lose my entire buy-in, plus potentially any winnings I had built up, will that cause me to freak out? Will it put me on tilt? Will it force me to have to move down in stakes? Will it basicly be more of a negative experience then is acceptable? If so, then I am not using good bank roll management.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Refresher Course.
Getting back to basics can be a good thing. As we move up in stakes, sometimes we need to take a step back to maintain discipline. Pride is not a good thing when playing poker. You do not have to prove yourself to anyone. What you do have to do is maintain control.
One way to refocus is to drop back down a level or two. On cash tables, I also recommend restricting your buy-in as well. Force yourself to stick to your game plan. This should help you admit and/or discover what was going wrong with your game.
Sometimes the only problem is the fear of losing. Stepping up from a $5 buy-in to $10 is not a big step. But the next level of $20 or $25 is going to have a mental impact. When you get to a $100 game, well you better be prepared. It is very easy to play $5 games with a $200 or less BR and show no fear. You will be playing $50 and $100 games with a $500 BR, or maybe just risking your $200 or less you have. Now the pressure is on, even if you won't admit it. One big hand and you lose 25%, 50%, or most of your BR.
Lets put this into perspective. At the lower levels, you took risks and enough paid off. For a lot of players, the risks do not pay off enough and they are forced to play better poker. But for you, they are paying off. So up you go in stakes, you think you are playing good poker. Then you hit a level where those risks are not paying off. You realize that the style you are playing is against the odds many times, so now you have to make some changes. Step down a level or two and learn to play better.
As weird as it seems, you will actually win more at the lower levels as you improve your game. I feel that buying in short at this point forces you to make better decisions. If you can learn to play your large pile of chips, as if you are short stacked, you will force yourself to play better poker. Yuor chip stack will not stop someone from calling you with what they think (or know) is a better hand. When your pocket Kings miss the flop, betting into a Ace on the board would be not make sense if you are a short stack, so why would it make sense if you have a large stack? If you will not chase when short stacked, learn to stop doing it when you have a big stack.
One more train of thought here. Since we play poker to win, never assume higher stakes mean larger winnings. You can move up to a $100 table and after several hours walk away with $125. But back on the $25 table you may have been walking away with $75 after a few hours. I'd rather make $50 on the lower table then $25 on the higher one. And if you run into a cooler, the lower stakes still have an advantage when it comes to protecting your BR. Eventually you want to tripple up on the $100 table, if you can do that on a $25 table. Move up in stakes to make more money. if that is not working, find where you make the most money and work on your game there.
One way to refocus is to drop back down a level or two. On cash tables, I also recommend restricting your buy-in as well. Force yourself to stick to your game plan. This should help you admit and/or discover what was going wrong with your game.
Sometimes the only problem is the fear of losing. Stepping up from a $5 buy-in to $10 is not a big step. But the next level of $20 or $25 is going to have a mental impact. When you get to a $100 game, well you better be prepared. It is very easy to play $5 games with a $200 or less BR and show no fear. You will be playing $50 and $100 games with a $500 BR, or maybe just risking your $200 or less you have. Now the pressure is on, even if you won't admit it. One big hand and you lose 25%, 50%, or most of your BR.
Lets put this into perspective. At the lower levels, you took risks and enough paid off. For a lot of players, the risks do not pay off enough and they are forced to play better poker. But for you, they are paying off. So up you go in stakes, you think you are playing good poker. Then you hit a level where those risks are not paying off. You realize that the style you are playing is against the odds many times, so now you have to make some changes. Step down a level or two and learn to play better.
As weird as it seems, you will actually win more at the lower levels as you improve your game. I feel that buying in short at this point forces you to make better decisions. If you can learn to play your large pile of chips, as if you are short stacked, you will force yourself to play better poker. Yuor chip stack will not stop someone from calling you with what they think (or know) is a better hand. When your pocket Kings miss the flop, betting into a Ace on the board would be not make sense if you are a short stack, so why would it make sense if you have a large stack? If you will not chase when short stacked, learn to stop doing it when you have a big stack.
One more train of thought here. Since we play poker to win, never assume higher stakes mean larger winnings. You can move up to a $100 table and after several hours walk away with $125. But back on the $25 table you may have been walking away with $75 after a few hours. I'd rather make $50 on the lower table then $25 on the higher one. And if you run into a cooler, the lower stakes still have an advantage when it comes to protecting your BR. Eventually you want to tripple up on the $100 table, if you can do that on a $25 table. Move up in stakes to make more money. if that is not working, find where you make the most money and work on your game there.
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