Bankroll Management for the Casual Player

Let’s talk about bankroll management. But let’s talk about it in a different way than most advice-lenders do. Most articles about bankroll management discuss it from the perspective of a professional player, or at the very least, a semi-pro player. What I want to do is discuss proper bankroll management for the casual player. The kind of player who plays to have fun first and to make money second. As a casual player, you may have dreams about that big score, about winning that huge tournament, but in the end, you are happy if you can enjoy yourself at the poker table and scratch out a small profit in the long run. Of course, if you are a more serious player, this article isn’t for you. Move along, there’s nothing to see here.

Poker Money is Poker Money

First and foremost, never, ever, ever, ever, never, never, ever, ever mix your poker bankroll with the money you need for every day expenses. Your poker bankroll is just that – your poker bankroll. For you, the casual player, poker is an entertainment expense (true, you might never lose, but let’s be realistic) just like going to the movies, going to a baseball game, or attending a concert. Just like you wouldn’t skip a mortgage payment to go on a trip to Costa Rica, neither should you skip a mortgage payment to reload your online poker account.

Not only is keeping your poker bankroll segregated from your household accounts the responsible thing to do, but it will also make your poker playing more enjoyable. Poker can be a stressful enough game to play under normal circumstances, even if you are primarily playing for fun, but having your child’s tuition hanging in the balance would add a whole new layer of pressure.

If you hit a bad stretch and have no more discretionary income with which to play poker, just stop playing for a while. It’s just a game. It’s not worth taking food off the table to play another hand.

Play Comfortably

When it comes to choosing table stakes, I recommend playing at level that will make you comfortable, not one at which you think you “should” play. There are formulas out there that determine what blind levels you should play at based on the size of your bankroll, but I don’t really buy into that. Play at a level where you can handle the competition and where you won’t break into a cold sweat when all your chips are on the table because you can’t bear to lose that money.

That doesn’t mean play at stakes so low that they don’t mean anything. The element of risk is one aspect of poker that makes the game fun. You do want to be a little nervous. But you don’t want your stakes to be so high that it would severely damage your poker bankroll if you dropped a buy-in or two or three.

Many people would look at my poker bankroll compared to the low stakes that I play and consider me crazy. I should move up, they would say. But you know what? I’m not a pro. While I try to make money when I play, profitability isn’t the end all, be all for me. And yeah, I could probably move up and do ok for myself. But I enjoy playing low stakes because I feel comfortable there. The tables where I play allow me to make a moderate profit while having fun and not fretting on the occasions when I get stacked (those are rare, right?).

That all said, if you want to “take a shot” once in a while, go for it. It can be fun to try your hand at a richer, tougher game on occasion, and the thrill of winning, and thus making more money than usual, is great. But don’t make it a habit and don’t shoot so high that it will drain your roll if you lose. Tournaments are a great way to take a shot while limiting your downside potential.

Reward Yourself

For the longest time, I would play poker and play poker and player poker, depositing and withdrawing over and over and various online poker rooms, just building my poker bankroll. Through winning play or deposit bonuses, I pretty much just grew my bankroll with no real goal in sight. But recently, I had part of my house remodeled and I decided to pull out some of my poker bankroll and put it towards the construction. However lame it might have been, I finally used some of my winnings to reward myself.

Many players probably do the same thing I had been doing. Their poker winnings went right back into poker. And that’s fine. You want to keep building that roll. But you should treat yourself, too. What good is all that money sitting in your poker accounts if you can never do anything with it besides play poker? Take some out and buy yourself something. Heck, pay down some debt that you wouldn’t have otherwise paid down if that’s your style. Reward yourself for your success.

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Useful poker terms:

BICYCLE - The best possible low hand: A-2-3-4-5. More common term: WHEEL.
OPENERS - Cards in a hand that qualify a player to open the betting.
ACTION - Money that is being bet. "NO ACTION" means a hand or game has few bettors and fewer raisers. "Gimme some action" is ostensibly a plea for calls and raises.
FLAT CALL - To call a bet. Emphasizes that the caller did not raise.
TIGHT - [1] A style of play that entails playing fewer hands than average. Antonym: LOOSE. [2] A FULL HOUSE.
SUITED - Two or more cards all the same suit. Ant: OFF-SUIT.

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