With my renewed interest in online poker came the unavoidable task of tackling bankroll management. Whether you play poker as a hobby, want to make some side income, or hope to TPMM (turn pro make millions) the most important thing is managing your money. At first I thought this was an area that didn’t get enough attention, but with some research I’ve found that there are a lot of great things out there on the subject. I would like to share some of the things I have found so far and how I’ve started to address the situation.

If your just getting started with poker then bankroll is the first thing you should address. Here are some things to consider.

  • How are you going to fund your bankroll?
  • Make sure that you only play with what you can afford to lose.
  • What limits will you be playing?
  • What are your goals for the Month, Quarter, Year? Make sure your goals are relative to your bankroll.
  • How much do you need to play to accomplish your goals? (how many hands, tournaments, ect)

If you’ve been playing for awhile then you may need to review or truly assess the situation just as I have. Craig Cunningham at Poker Works wrote an article about common mistakes beginning players make with bankroll management.

How do you know if you have a bankroll management problem? Here are a few signs:

  • Replenishing your bankroll. Dipping into your pocket for more chips is different than having to come up with something in your pocket in the first place. If your bank statement has a few poker related withdrawals, then you probably are playing at stakes beyond your bankroll.
  • Wins and losses of >15% of your bankroll. Swings like this mean that you’re putting too much of your bankroll at risk during any one session. Notice that wins of >15% of your bankroll is included in this. Too often we only focus on bad sessions as an indicator of problems with our play.
  • Losses impacting our decision making. Most of us think of tilt as something that happens after a bad beat, we go on tilt. Tilt can also be a state of mind over a period of time. It comes in two forms: trying to make something happen by loosening up significantly or wimping out either being bullied or tightening up too much.
  • Not having a bankroll. For some casual players, each session is a new start. They dip into their wallets or purses and off they go. For the long term players, you need data and accountability of your progress and the bankroll is one of the key metrics.

#1 Record Session Details

The first step to proper bankroll management is to start recording your sessions. I started out with a notebook next to the computer to record session details and added live games to that as well. The major set back with a hand written notebook is sorting through the data later. You should record the date, time in, time out, buy-in amount, cash out amount, type of game, and limit you were playing. For tournaments I also like to record the number of players, the juice, and the place I finish. The important part here is that you have to be brutally honest with yourself because the numbers do not lie. Here are some more conventional tools that I recommend.

Recently, I moved to a spreadsheet I found from FCP forums that was created by Cwik. I think this one suits my needs the best and is very simple to use. There are some great people on FCP and I highly recommend you consider joining the forums there.

If you prefer something a little fancier then there is another great spreadsheet on FTR. The only thing I don’t like about this one is that it is not easily customizable.

The folks over at 2+2 have a spreadsheet geared specifically for SNG’s.

Once you have the tools you need to properly record your session details you should decide on how much you can afford to “deposit” into your bankroll. How are you going to fund this account? Is it with your Christmas money, a bonus from work, or $100 each month from your paycheck? Whatever the method, make sure it’s an amount that will not hurt you financially. Everyone goes broke, some more than others but I’ve never met a player who hasn’t gone broke. Eventually with proper practice and tracking you will have a stable bankroll where you will no longer have to worry about funding your bankroll account.

For my current turbo SNG challenge I’ve decided that I will deposit only $25 if I go broke and work my way up through the ranks using this chart. I’m going to fund my bankroll with $25 out of my paycheck a maximum of twice a month if needed. Knowing that I’m limiting myself to $50 a month for online poker, I’ve managed to focus on my game more and I’m not surprised that I’ve made my deposit last twice as long as normal.

These posts are intended to be a review/reminder to me about my journey to better bankroll management. I hope that sharing this will help new players and players like myself address leaks in their game to become winning players. In my next post I will discuss game selection, big blind/buy-in ratio, rolling bankrolls, and tournament requirements.