Important: Bankroll management 101

[ukigumo]

hey... i've been reading a lot of the threads on here, and it seems like quite a few people here have a few unrealistic expectations about their bankroll, and poker in general.

Quite a few other people, (like me) know exactly what they should do with a bankroll, but don't do it anyway lol.

But, i really want to stress to you how important bankroll management is!!! It's probably THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT SKILL IN POKER!!!

Of course, being a winning player is important. But if you don't stick to bankroll management (at all), it's almost a mathematical certainty that you will go broke and have to redeposit. But, even if you don't go broke... do you know how much of an effect it has on your profit?

I want to share with you the piece of writing that really opened my eyes about bankroll management, and changed the way i thought about it forever! (i used to think, ahhh, i'll just have a spin up, or, well, i'll just take a shot at this tournament).

This is a quote from a set of articles i wrote a few years ago, where i talk about the article i read. (sorry, couldn't find the original again).

• What are the effects of betting at different fractions of Kelly?

In an excellent article by Chris ‘Fox’ Wallace, he gives examples of five players who start the year with $1,000, all of which are of the same skill level, and has worked out the maths to show what they could expect to earn in a year. Here are the results:

“Player 1 - This player is very conservative. He plays at about 20 percent of the Kelly Level for his bankroll and win rate, and sees very few fluctuations. He makes $2,138 over the course of the year for a final bankroll of $3,138 and is able to take his family on a vacation.

Player 2 – Our second player plays at 50 percent of the Kelly Level, but he doesn’t change levels very quickly or pay enough attention to his current bankroll situation. He doesn’t move up quickly enough when his bankroll has grown, and he does not move down if he has been taking a beating. This means that he plays way below 50 percent of Kelly sometimes, and at other times he is near Kelly Level. The ups and downs are much larger for him than they are for Player 1, but he makes $9,542 over the course of the year for a final bankroll of $10,542.

Player 3 – Much less conservative than our first two examples, Player 3 plays at 60 percent of Kelly, and changes the level he is playing immediately when his bankroll changes. Prepare yourself for this number, it may seem unrealistic, but I assure you that it is not. Player 3 ends the year with a bankroll of $56,693 and begins the next year as a working pro.

Player 4 – Even less conservative than the others, Player 4 plays at around the Kelly Level. He is slightly tilt prone, and tends to move up a little before he usually would, but he spends 75 percent of his time within 10 percent of the Kelly Level, with the rest of his playing time spent playing above Kelly. Because he plays at Kelly most of the time, you would expect this player to be up quite a lot, but his final bankroll is only $12,429. The time he spent playing over the Kelly Level really hurt him. Any time you play higher than Kelly, your fluctuations are huge and your income drops. It’s a mathematical certainty.

Player 5 – Much more willing to take risks than the others, {layer 5 takes a shot at higher games frequently. He plays at 150 percent of the Kelly Level for most of the year. He doesn’t tilt, he doesn’t play any differently than the rest, and he adjusts his game to keep himself at right around 150 percent of Kelly very frequently throughout the year. Player 5 suffers from massive swings, sometimes winning big, and other times losing huge sums. At the end of the year he has only $2,097 to show for his work.”

These examples show just how important good bankroll management really is! You don’t need amazing luck or skill to build a big bankroll (of course, you do need to be a winning player). The most important thing is to practise good bankroll management, and move up and down stakes immediately as your bankroll requires!

If you want any information about rough guidelines for good bankroll management, you can find a great site for calculating what you need here:
Poker Bankroll Tools

[trent32la]

I dont need any info, because i win freerolls. I dont deposit.

[ProBlackbird]

Hey trent what's wrong with information? Haha
You are not the only member around here right?

[kimk3ta]

+ its not because u win a freeroll, bankrollmanagment info couldnt be sefull for ya
It could help ya building on your bankrolls o you wouldn't need to play freerolls anymore

[aina27]

I know you're right, I will serve me to learn a bit more about it. thanks

[ukigumo]

yeah, even if you don't deposit, i think understanding the concepts of bankroll management is really important...

there's absolutely nothing wrong with just playing for fun and not really caring, either. But winning & making some money is a lot of fun too

I wanted to share this cos, the huge differences in the amount of profit really had an impact on how i thought about poker. But even if you're not interested in that, there's something else really important understanding good bankroll management gives you, and that's the understanding of downswings, and the psychological confidence it gives you in dealing with them.

For instance, from using that bankroll site i posted above, you can see that playing in those rush $1 things on FTP, a RISKY bankroll is around $70. Now, in order to understand why that's risky, think about just how long a bad streak can be... a bad streak that is statistically quite probable. At the bottom level, it's not even like you CAN move down any further, you just have to ride it out.

So, to those of you who are winning a couple of $ in freerolls, and then getting a few bad beats, winning another couple of $ in a freeroll and repeating the process, and thinking that fulltilt wants you to deposit, or fulltilt won't let you win, i think it can give you a lot more confidence to know these numbers, if nothing else.

[john911]

thanks alot,, you did a good and helpfull job...it was amazing.....

[DeadlySilent]

I think most every half serious poker player knows about bankroll management. The only hard thing is sticking to it.

[Aur3pkr]

So, basically you need using about 10 bi if you are semi good?

[dtbilinski]

Sorry if this is a nooby question but what is kelly level?