Money management

THEBOMB88

Hi everyone, ive been playing poker now for a few months and as everyone is aware when your first starting out your going to lose abit. My problem is i put money on my account  say £20.00 get up to about £100.00 then decide im great at the game and go in to a stupid double up for £80.00+ and lose it all then have to start all over again which i now have to do again. So my question is. When is it the right time to start hitting those bigger tables and should i stick to the smaller double ups or go on more mtt to make my profit go further. I do like double ups as its an easy way to get money but they do get boring hense why i go and play £80.00+ Hope this all makes sense and someone can help. Cheers Sky

Lambert180

Bankroll Management is absolute key if you don't wanna keep going bust over and over.

It kinda depends what game you play, but you need to have a set amount of buy-ins for each game to stay safe.

For the micro stakes cash games, you wanna have 20 buy-ins really but 10+ buy-ins is an absolute MUST, so for 4NL (2p/4p), you wanna have £40 bare minimum but £80 is more comfortable, then when you get to £160, you can move to 8NL (4p/8p), then £200 you can move to 10NL (5p/10p) etc.

Tournaments I'd recommend you have aroudn 50 buy-ins, so if you have £100, try and stick to £1 and £2 tournies. You can play the odd £5 here and there if you're not too worried about going bust but doing it regularly will be a sure way to go bust quickly.

Anything else like DYMs, HU SnGs etc, I'd say you want 20-30 buy-ins at least.

KAM99

You're not alone in your lack of control when it comes to bankroll management, as many professional players have been known to go bust for having this very lack of self-control when it comes to the stakes they play. The fact is in this game if you do not play to a strict bankroll management plan you are virtually certain to go bankrupt, because you will just not be able to handle the variance.

So as, Lambert, says you do need to have enough buyins for the various levels and you should only move up when you have enough to cover playing at the next level, and just as importantly you must be prepared to step back down if you drop below the threshold for the current level you're playing. It doesn't matter how much of a step backward it feels like, it's important if you hope to have any longevity in poker.