Building A Bankroll

Building a Bankroll? Tips to live by from a high stakes pro. ..
by Taylor Caby
Over the past few years, many people have asked me how I built a bankroll when I
was first starting out playng poker online. Most people understand that to be
successful in poker, you need to play within your bankroll and practice good game
selection. But many people struggle with building that initial bankroll for the limit
that they feel is worth their time playing. I'm going to explain to you my tips for
building a bankroll, including why I believe you should withdraw regularly even
though you are trying to increase the stakes you play.
Before you even start playing online, you should develop a general understanding for
keys to success. There is a vast array of good poker literature on the internet, as
well hundreds of books available for purchase. I would recommend going to your
local library and reading the poker books there first. After you have learned the
basics, I would strongly recommend subscribing to one or more of the online poker
training sites. All of these services aren't cheap, but if you ask around, you will find
that there are thousands of happy subscribers who are glad they invested their time
and money on poker training. Without a fundamental understanding of how to win
at poker, chances of success are slim.
I recommend that the beginning player, no matter how financially secure, start
playing poker at the some of the smallest levels on the internet. You probably won't
learn any faster by playing against tougher players at the higher levels, even though
you may be able to afford it. Yes, it is frustrating to deal with players who have no
clue what they are doing and put some vicious bad beats on you, but you probably
are very inexperienced as well (even if you don't think you are) and would be well
served to start out against competition that isn't extremely talented. I started by
playing at the $5 and $10 sit n goes, so believe me I know what it is like, and I think
most players should start at these levels as well. Focus on playing strategically solid
poker, and don't concern yourself too much with short term results. Your opponents
will be making many mistakes, so you simply need to play solid poker to beat these
games.
Although your ultimate goal is to increase your bankroll and play higher stakes poker,
you should be careful about trying to move up too fast. As any up and coming player
knows, poker is a game of highs and lows. There are times when you will make
every draw in site, flop sets like they aren't 7.5=1 dogs, and maintain impeccable
timing on your bluffs. Well believe me, the opposite is also true. Every player will go
through downswings, and they can be absolutely brutal. What is my point here? If
you jump up to the next level, even though you are adequately bankrolled, you still
cannot be sure that you are ready to move up. It is quite possible that you were on
a hot streak when you built the portion of your bankroll required to move up. People
also don't realize that the psychological effect of losing in a bigger game can be
devastating. For example, let's say you have built your bankroll at $20 sit n goes.
You now have a bankroll of almost $1500, and you feel you are ready to move to the
$50 games. Because there is a lot of variance in any poker game, you agree to play
at least 20 games before you reevaluate your standing. It is quite possible, that
even though you are a winning player, you may only cash in 2 or 3 of these games,
and could find your bankroll back around $1000. At this time, you correctly decide
to step back down and shore up your game at the $20 level. However,
psychologically it is tough to deal with the fact that you just lost 1/3 of your bankroll,
and at the lower level it may take weeks or even months to get back to where you
were a mere 20 matches ago. This can have a domino effect on the way you play,
and you may develop bad habits and regress as a player.
You might be thinking, this makes sense, but how can I avoid this inevitable nuiance
of climbing up the poker ranks? You can't totally avoid it, but my recommendation is
to practice good "cash out" habits. Even though you are constantly working towards
building a bankroll for the higher stakes games, you might consider taking out a
certain percentage of your bankroll each week. If, based on your ROI or BB/100
(your winrate), you calculate that you on average, you expect to make $150/week
playing poker, you might consider cashing out $50 a week, no matter how you
actually perform. I can't emphasize how important it was to me that I did this as I
was growing as a player. After I had made my first few thousand playing poker,
because I withdrew some money each week, I knew that no matter what I had seen
the fruits of my labor. Even on bad downswings, I knew that I had money in the
bank from poker and I was "playing with profit." You might even take it one step
further and decide to reward yourself with something a few times a year, regardless
of how well you are running. When you are frustrated that some idiot hit a 2 outer
againt you, the new Xbox game that poker paid for might make you remember that
there is a reason you put yourself through this stress.
Another benefit of consistently withdrawing money from your account is that
although it will take you longer to reach your desired stakes of play, you will be a
better player when you get there. You will need to put in thousands of hands more
to get to reach your goals, but the increased winrate you will achieve when you
arrive will more than make up for it. It probably won't take you long, assuming you
can beat the higher stakes games sooner than if you had never withdrawn, to earn
much more than you would have by never cashing out money.
Although I haven't played in the smaller games on the internet in quite sometime, I
assure you I know what it is like to build a bankroll. I hope you will take my words
of advice into consideration, and maybe one day I will see you at the biggest cash
games on the internet.

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Building a Bankroll? Tips to live by from a high stakes pro. ..

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