Money!
I said it a couple times earlier and it is something that has been on my mind recently. It's really about all the important decisions you make as a card player that have nothing to do with the cards. I am by no means a pro but I mentioned it to Dave if he could contribute his expert advice, and all comments are welcome of course.
I find myself battling a losing streak and the more and more people who ask me how I did last night or at the weekend tournament and I find myself seemingly making excuses. They are all valid and I still believe thats why I lost but to everyone else it seems like an excuse. Who cares about everyone else you say? I don't but in explaining myself numerous times it kind of hit home as to what the problem was. Money!
I told myself numerous times that I could beat the game and I could read players pretty good and the ones I couldn't I would tread lightly around these are card decisions then I realized that I shouldn't worry as much about the cards but as the situations I put myself in. I won a good event or two and developed a bank roll. Here's what I did with it, *flush*. Now heres why. I routinely upped my game, started at dealers choice, jumped to B&M 2-5, then 5-10 then 10-20. It's almost like roullete, if you keep doubling your great but the one time you don't you are bust! (or better yet going all in, but into games not hands)
I sat down re-read some books picked up some new ones and focussed primarily on the non-card related chapters. So here's what a amateur thinks:
(take it with a grain of salt, unless Dave agrees, then print it and scrib King Dave Edition on the cover)
Money, it's the end result so I will compare it to a business like any other. I am not going to include the fun factor because it has no measurable value, but you don't have fun walk away now!
1. Always have outs, you minimum buy in should never equal your bank roll. Big mistake you have one bad day and your entire roll is flushed. Your bank roll should be about a very large multiple of the big bet of the game you want to play. (10-20, make sure you have $4,000 before you even sit down) ...According to Doyle Brunson (the math may be a bit off)
2. treat your bankroll as just that "poker money" if you constantly withdraw personal money to play you can lose track or bet your rent away. DON't Do That! Set aside small amounts and build it up. Once you have a roll you can move up or make withdrawals on poker money for your life needs. But don't withdraw from your life needs for your poker. Business/Entreprenuers take surplus from their bottom line as their salaries I think this is a good idea....
3. Set aside winnings for yourself, treat yourself but don't re-invest it all back into the game. Then if you ever go broke you have something to show for it.
4. Keep records. There are a multitude of tracking software packages or even make your own to track how, where, when, and how you make your money. Or better yet where you lose it. This helps you decide what games to got to and which ones to avoid. If you have to drive 3 hours to get to the Casino to play 20-40 and lose cause of the exhausting drive or really long hours you have to play to justify a 6 hour trip, you may be better off playing 3-6 online waiting for dinner to arrive from Pizza Pizza. These records will help you determine your profit centres.
5. Never lend moeny out of your poker earnings or your bank roll (with the exception of chopping, or betting on another player) otherwise why play. "all procedes go to charity" is for celebrity poker. Not us! (especially don't borrow money from someone you would never lend it to)
6. If you find yourself losing don't try harder, or get greedy and try to increase your profit at a larger limit/table. Thats bad news... can anyone say snowball? You may win some back but if you are off your game you will probably lose more then you re-gain. It is popular belief that it is better to avoid tilt and always play the way you know how. Don't get emotions involved.
7. If you do ever go broke, don't over extend yourself... rebuild! Some of you will recognize that line from rounders but thats not the only place it's been stated. It is a common practise and a good one. If it does happen, set aside a marginal amount per pay cheque or month and fund your playing. If you repeatedly find yourself needing an infusion then it's time to re-evalute your love for the game. This may seem like a contradiction to the split banks (poker vs. life) but the initial fund has to get started from somewhere. Be careful with this. Don't let it get away from you and make sure you put it in your record keeping.
I think those are some good points I won't get into things like profitable seat positions and types of games to play in cause I don't want to write a book here, although I am pretty close.
Let me know if this is any help whatsoever, consequently tell me if I just wasted your time and I will provide a full money back guarentee!
I find myself battling a losing streak and the more and more people who ask me how I did last night or at the weekend tournament and I find myself seemingly making excuses. They are all valid and I still believe thats why I lost but to everyone else it seems like an excuse. Who cares about everyone else you say? I don't but in explaining myself numerous times it kind of hit home as to what the problem was. Money!
I told myself numerous times that I could beat the game and I could read players pretty good and the ones I couldn't I would tread lightly around these are card decisions then I realized that I shouldn't worry as much about the cards but as the situations I put myself in. I won a good event or two and developed a bank roll. Here's what I did with it, *flush*. Now heres why. I routinely upped my game, started at dealers choice, jumped to B&M 2-5, then 5-10 then 10-20. It's almost like roullete, if you keep doubling your great but the one time you don't you are bust! (or better yet going all in, but into games not hands)
I sat down re-read some books picked up some new ones and focussed primarily on the non-card related chapters. So here's what a amateur thinks:
(take it with a grain of salt, unless Dave agrees, then print it and scrib King Dave Edition on the cover)
Money, it's the end result so I will compare it to a business like any other. I am not going to include the fun factor because it has no measurable value, but you don't have fun walk away now!
1. Always have outs, you minimum buy in should never equal your bank roll. Big mistake you have one bad day and your entire roll is flushed. Your bank roll should be about a very large multiple of the big bet of the game you want to play. (10-20, make sure you have $4,000 before you even sit down) ...According to Doyle Brunson (the math may be a bit off)
2. treat your bankroll as just that "poker money" if you constantly withdraw personal money to play you can lose track or bet your rent away. DON't Do That! Set aside small amounts and build it up. Once you have a roll you can move up or make withdrawals on poker money for your life needs. But don't withdraw from your life needs for your poker. Business/Entreprenuers take surplus from their bottom line as their salaries I think this is a good idea....
3. Set aside winnings for yourself, treat yourself but don't re-invest it all back into the game. Then if you ever go broke you have something to show for it.
4. Keep records. There are a multitude of tracking software packages or even make your own to track how, where, when, and how you make your money. Or better yet where you lose it. This helps you decide what games to got to and which ones to avoid. If you have to drive 3 hours to get to the Casino to play 20-40 and lose cause of the exhausting drive or really long hours you have to play to justify a 6 hour trip, you may be better off playing 3-6 online waiting for dinner to arrive from Pizza Pizza. These records will help you determine your profit centres.
5. Never lend moeny out of your poker earnings or your bank roll (with the exception of chopping, or betting on another player) otherwise why play. "all procedes go to charity" is for celebrity poker. Not us! (especially don't borrow money from someone you would never lend it to)
6. If you find yourself losing don't try harder, or get greedy and try to increase your profit at a larger limit/table. Thats bad news... can anyone say snowball? You may win some back but if you are off your game you will probably lose more then you re-gain. It is popular belief that it is better to avoid tilt and always play the way you know how. Don't get emotions involved.
7. If you do ever go broke, don't over extend yourself... rebuild! Some of you will recognize that line from rounders but thats not the only place it's been stated. It is a common practise and a good one. If it does happen, set aside a marginal amount per pay cheque or month and fund your playing. If you repeatedly find yourself needing an infusion then it's time to re-evalute your love for the game. This may seem like a contradiction to the split banks (poker vs. life) but the initial fund has to get started from somewhere. Be careful with this. Don't let it get away from you and make sure you put it in your record keeping.
I think those are some good points I won't get into things like profitable seat positions and types of games to play in cause I don't want to write a book here, although I am pretty close.
Let me know if this is any help whatsoever, consequently tell me if I just wasted your time and I will provide a full money back guarentee!
Comments
So I guess I can say that my first year of Poker was excellent in the sense that I learned a lot about the game and I still had my initial bank roll at the end of the year. My bank roll was only $250 but it was till all there at the end.
So last year I was at a home game and someone mentioned Ultimate Bet while we were playing. I got home that night after the home game, and downloaded UB, and started playing some free games to get a feel for the user interface of their application, and just to see how different it would be playing without being face to face with my opponents.
At first it seemed liked everyone called everything, regardless of what they held, well I quickly figured out that I wasn't going to get a true feel for the game playing with "play money". So I signed up within a week, and made my first $50 deposit.
I started playing 25/50 cent Hold'em tables, and found that once again I was pretty much breaking even. I pretty much learned to play poker from a relatively tight player, so my game can sometimes be boring, but again I continued to gain experience as my bak roll stayed unchanged.
6 Months after signing up to UB, and now playing 2-3 nights a week, instead of just twice a month in person... I had lost about $100 online. Believe it or not, I was still playing the 25/50 cent tables after all this time but I now had a really good feel for the game online, and had developed a system to basically class players by the way they bet/raise/etc. But despite all this, I was down $100.
I started paying more attention to why I was losing when I was playing pretty tight, and not throwing my money trying to chase a flop. Call me dumb, but it took me 6 months to figure out that my problem was that I was playing tables where the bets were too low, most of the hands I lost would be a result of a turn or river card which beat my top pair. I can't tell you how many time I lost 2 pair or 3 of a kind to someone chasing a gut shot straight and hitting on the river.... this happens a LOT when you still have 7+ people still on the hand on the river.
Before I could get a chance to play higher tables after realising how stupid I had been playing the lowest limit, my wife and I had a babe, and I basically took 5 months off Poker. (damn that was hard).
So last month, I finally decide to get back into Poker, I was heading to Vegas again for an annual conference I attend for work, and decided to bring $250 to play. First night I go to the Flamingo to play some 2/4, end up playing for 4.5 hours, and walk away down $80. Most of that burn came form a bad beat were I had 56 Suited on the big blind, and the flop came 563, turn was 6 giving me full house, and river was 7 giving my last opponent who was holding 57 a better full house. I had been raising every chance I had, but he had 3 of a kind, so I can blame him for staying in. Anyway... second night I played at Flamingo again at another 2/4 table, and this time I lost $50 over 3 hours.. lost most of it on a straight to the queen to somoene who had a straight to the King.
On the third night, I had 120 left from my initial 250, and I decided to go play some 3-6 at the Mirage. Had some good hands, and ended up walking away up $130 after about 3 hours. Flew back the next day and once again I had come back with exactly what I went in with, $250.
So this last Sunday... I decided to to put some money in my UB account again, dropped in $135. I decided to start with the 2-4 tables, and grew it to $275 first night. Monday I decided to try a $3-6 table and grew it to $400, Tuesday I played a 5-10 table and grew it to $611. And finally last night I played at a 10-20 table(for the first time in my life) and grew it to $1100 in under 60 minutes.
Needless to say, I am feeling pretty good at this time. But reading your post below makes me realise that I need to hold my horses before the Bad beats start hitting me in 10-20. Going to play some 3-6 again and breathe in a little bit and enjoy my bankroll.
Sorry about the long post, just felt I needed to give some background on why I was in a position like you describe below where I suddenly have a decent bank roll and I likely would of played 10-20 again where I KNOW I can lose everything I won very fast with 2-3 bad beats in an evening.
So thanks
Something around 200 to 300 big bets for a bankroll size is in the right ballpark I think.
When you win (or lose) an amount about equal to the size your enitre bankroll in under 60 minutes, that's clearly not the appropriate size bankroll for the game. (Or, if you prefer, it's not the right size game for the bankroll.)
ScottyZ
I have been playing online sit n go's for about 4 months now and doing ok. I wasn't really making much money so I thought I would try the NL cash games a couple weeks back. I did well except for a couple times when I took some bad (and costly) beats. So now I am back to slowly building up the online roll while still getting a good value game at the sit n go's...I have more $$ in my actual bank roll but I would rather not deposit more money online at this point.
PS: Read your private mail scotty
It is easy to say "bad beat" but to me it is just the normal fluctuation in the game. Sometimes the fish get there ... and sometimes the fish ... well they are not fish at all.
fish food? shark attack?