Bankroll Management Struggles..

BR Management is a pretty tough thing to keep in check. If you agree then do yourself a favor, take an hour or so to sit down and go over yours today. You’ll thank yourself for it


Like most, I had no idea what BR Management was when I started playing a few short years ago. I would deposit $25.00, find some $1/$2 mtt’s with good gtd’s and hope for the best. Guess I didn’t read the fine print for this sure win strategy as I quickly found myself waiting to make another deposit.
Thankfully, I did have a few key elements working in my favor. 1) A planned budget (and wife) told me how much I wanted to gamble with. This was also a key factor in keeping poker enjoyable while I was losing money. 2) Not using the plastic in my wallet for deposits was also a type of control I used to keep my budget in check. I would force myself to spend the extra on a prepaid card to make a deposit. Lastly, I knew I couldn’t play too high of stakes because the money (and skill for that matter) was not there but thought that $1/$2 mtt’s were well within my limits (Casual player syndrome). For the next while it was a rinse and repeat process of lose/deposit but things were looking up, I was getting closer and closer to the money which kept me motivated.

And then it happened........

The deposits, the time I spent yelling at people who couldn’t hear me. None of that mattered at this moment.....I was IN THE MONEY!! And did I get up outta my chair and do a little dance, fist pumps and all? You damn right I did. min cash ftw

Eventually, I started reading about poker and came across some info on Bankroll Management. That’s when it sort of sunk in that maybe I shouldn’t be playing the stakes I have been. So I dropped to the .10 360man and stayed there with the odd .25 90man’s thrown in as well. If I wanted to play higher stakes then I had to improve my game so I started soaking up as much info as I could find in the spare time that I had. I even signed up at DC for a month so I could start watching videos as well but that didn’t work out so well with 2 little ones at home to keep my focus away from poker. I was finding myself in the top 36 of the 360 turbo quite often so I knew that my reading was helping but realized it is very tough to build a roll at that lvl.

About a year ago, I started splashing around in the sng’s playing various stakes with no regard for my bankroll. I started having success in the $1.50 50/50’s and ended up playing quite a few of them with a few $1.00 45man’s in there as well. I was doing well, doubling my roll and then watching it hit $0.00 again. I did however, notice that my deposits were starting to last longer and longer and I could see my game improving as well. I ended up busting my roll again in March of this year. I decided to take some time off from playing and concentrate at reading to try and improve my game mentally.

In Sept. It occurred to me that I should take a look in HM to see where I’ve been having the most success.....$1.00 45man’s . So I loaded up and started focusing just on this one tourney even thought it was outside of what my BR was telling me.

Currently, my 45man stats are:
#40 / ROI:115.7% / ITM: 27.5%
I know it’s a very small sample it’s definitely showing some promise. My goal is to stay here until my BR says I can move up to the next lvl ($3.50 45man)

And now the reason I decided to make this post.....

Last night in a 45man, I started the FT in 9th place and ended up shipping it in 40 hands for $12.73 (Yay me!) I wanted to play more cards but the 45man’s stopped filling up. That caused me to get away from my BR management yet again. I registered in a few mtt’s and with coffee in hand; I started multitabling like a crazed maniac. I did end up running well in a $2.20 1r1a 4kgtd (didn’t use the rebuy), was sitting in the top 10 for a better part of the tourney but spewed off my stack after being card dead for what felt like....forever. Ended up in 21st for $20.00 @3am

Tired and frustrated with myself for losing my patience so close to the FT, I realized I had lost focus of my BR in just a few short hours. How quickly things can get flipped on their head eh? With the 21st finish, I did manage to cut some of my loses so it wasn’t all bad. Lol

Here’s hoping we can keep our heads screwed on tight with regards to BR Management.

Will

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