Where is the best place to play poker?
In poker, the battle begins even before sitting at the tables. Players prepare, analyze their game, discuss with others, read poker books, watch poker videos, participate in learning programs, and improve their skills using methods that suit them. Then the action moves to the “real battlefield,” at the poker table in a tournament or cash game.
What role does money management play here? Let's say, the better you manage your money, the more opportunities you have to show your advantage over your opponent. You can be a very good player and get KK on the first hand, push all your money and lose to an opponent's AA, or even vice versa, get AA and lose to a confident opponent's JTs who pushed everything preflop.
If you don't know how to manage your money, your “professional” career might end just like that. It can be said that a good understanding of money management is essential and one of the most important skills in poker.
What is bankroll management?
Poker is a high variance game, meaning you can play well, get good cards, but still lose. You might just be “unlucky.” Therefore, in poker, all results are evaluated in the long run, because short-term results are greatly influenced by luck. Simply put, your bankroll is all the money you allocate for the game, so you can survive short-term downturns and failures and be free from random luck.
All winning players face downturns, sometimes very significant ones, so poor bankroll management can mean you simply won't have enough money to recover from a downturn. It's important to understand that when talking about good money management, it is relevant only to winning players, because no matter how good the money management is, if you are a losing player, you will still lose them, it's just a matter of time.
Bankroll size
Bankroll size is a very subtle and even “intimate” matter; what may seem sufficient to one person may be daunting to another. First, you need to see if you can beat that level of play. If the answer is negative, even the most conservative management won't help here; you need to improve your skills. You need to know the game's variance and your emotional reaction to it.
Let's say the game's fluctuations are in the range of 10-30 buy-ins, so technically 50 buy-ins would be more than enough, but can you play good poker being down 30 buy-ins? And let's say you have 100 buy-ins, in this case, a 30 buy-in drop doesn't seem so scary. You need to know your game's average and maximum variance.
All numbers and advice are more of a recommendation, just frameworks, and you need to set the exact sizes and precise management yourself. You need to feel when you feel good, when you start to fear, when the importance of money affects your game. You need to set your own management rules, when to move to a higher level? How to withdraw money? How much to allocate for improvement?
However, you can summarize the factors that determine your bankroll size, such as: type of poker, type of poker game, opponents' playing style, number of opponents, your skills, your ROI/winrate, goals in poker, accepted risk, emotional stability, psychological preparation, etc.
Recommendations
What should you consider when setting your money management rules? I recommend writing down your money management rules, so you are more committed to following them, you can even sign a contract with yourself.
You need to think and determine in advance what games you will play, what levels, when you will move to higher levels, when you will go down, what you will do if things start to go badly?
What will you do if things start to go very well [this is a very serious question, there are players for whom strong winnings are the beginning of the end of their career], you need to decide when and how you will withdraw money, how much money you will allocate for improvement?
Main mistakes
- Often for players, especially new ones, money management rules seem too conservative. New players find it hard to understand why a 100 or even 200 buy-in management plan is needed.
- Players often overestimate their abilities, which is one of the classic human weaknesses, to overestimate oneself (ego at work).
- The allure of higher limits. Many players cannot resist the temptation to try themselves at higher limits, which often undermines good money management.
