Learn Texas Holdem

Question: Thank you for the response on the last question I had, however I have another. I consider myself to be an above average poker player, however that is based on playing home tournaments and consistently in the money. Therefore take that with a grain of salt. However this spring I am considering making a real push to see just what I can do at the casino. I have had some problems however on line. Right now, I deposit $20 or $30 on line to play with and gain experience. I am prone to phantom swings in my bank roll. For example, I have taken $30 and with a couple of weeks turned it into well over $400. Then again I lost it awfully fast as well. This happens to a lesser degree constantly. I'll take $20 and turn it into $100 in a week and then lose it in a week. My feelings are that I am putting too high a percentage of my entire bankroll in play at a given time. If I have $400, I'll place half of it in play. It turns into an all or nothing type of venture for me. That being said, my question is two fold: First, how much money should I bring to a table at a time? Is 20 times the big blind about right? Should it be greater? Maybe 50 times the big blind? What is sensible? Secondly, what percentage of my total bank roll should I put in play at one time? 5% 10% More?

I certainly want my overall bank roll to increase rapidly, however I want to remain in possession of it as well. Therefore I am willing to sacrifice rapid growth for consistency.

Right now it matters little because all I am risking is $20 here or there. But in the spring I will be creating a total bankroll of $2000 and heading to the casino with a portion of that. My thought is that if I have $2000 in my total bankroll, I can expose $100 to $200 every time I go up there. That would place 5% to 10% of my bankroll at risk, every time I go. Is this too conservative or too liberal? Thanks...

DJZ

Answer: That's a good question, bankrolls in poker are really important. There are a few reasons why you don't want to overextend your bankroll; first, when the amount of money you are playing with is more than you are comfortable with, the quality of your play goes down and you are more likely to go on tilt; second, obviously you take yourself out of the game completely if you have a really bad day; thirdly, you don't want to have to drop down to smaller limits if you take a couple hits.

Having a sufficient bankroll allows you to play at the same limit when you lose or win. That's key winning poker and it goes against what some experts recommend when they advise giving bigger games the occasional shot. It is fine if you want to take a stab now and then but I always hate losing a lot at a game that I don't play in regularly and then have to go make it back at a lower limit. So for example, if you normally play $5/10 holdem, you don't want to sit down in a $20/40 now and then and get raped and have to make it all back up at the $5 game.

When you go to live cardrooms, the buy-in if it is limit holdem is usually based on the stakes. So if you play $3/6 holdem you usually buy-in for a rack of white chips ($100 -- a rack is always 100 chips). They use $1 chips for games up to $4/8. Then for larger games they use $2, $3, $5, $10, $100 chips, etc.

Then in the no limit games you'll most likely play at the cardroom, there will be a max buy-in like they have online -- $25 tables, $50, $100, etc. If you have a $2000 bankroll, I think it would be ok to play in games where you buy-in for $100. $200 buy-in games would be the outer limit for what I would suggest you play with $2k. It is pretty easy to lose 3 racks/buy-ins in a day and if that was $200/shot you would lose a third of your whole bankroll, which isn't good.

Next, your bankroll isn't the only consideration for what limit you should play. Your skill level relative to your opponents is also important. If I were you, I would start out slower then my ego suggested and let nature take it's course. Move up in limits only if you can consistently beat your current limit.