Taking money out of your bankroll

[granny50]

I have been playing for a (mediocre) living for about 1.5 years now. The only reason I quit my job at a fastfood place was because I figured I would be making a lot more playing cards. I have been playing all this while to pay off debts, be able to eat out every once in a while,etc.

Now, however I can actually earn for myself and was looking on advice on how people who play for a living take money out of their account. Do you allot yourself a monthly allowance, a weekly allowance or do you withdraw more when you're hot, less when you're cold, etc?

I have been withdrawing a certain amount, but as a result I have been spending so much money that I am sure that if I were to hit a bad couple of months, I wouldn't be able to really handle the loss.

I'm still moving up in games, so I can't play thinking that I have a set bankroll, and anything I make above that will be for my income since playing higher games, requires slightly bigger rolls.

Thank you for any help.

[La Brujita]

My two cents is you have to be very smart about money management. I know those are bad words in poker terms but I am referring to creating a budget for yourself.

Ideally you should have enough saved that is untouchable to pay things like rent, health insurance, car insurance, taxes etc.

You should also have as much cushion as you can possibly afford in terms of bankroll, negative weeks etc.

I believe in being very conservative with money outside of poker.

After that, I also think you should have a budget for how much you want to spend on eating out, strip clubs etc.

Mind you I am not telling you what you have to do, those are just my thoughts.

[PokerAce]

I'm about to go pro and I've done a lot of thinking on this.

What I'm going to do is take a fixed amount out of my bankroll every week for expenses, regardless of how I do. I'm going to keep my bankroll at a certain level, taking the excess out and placing it into savings. When I'm ready to move up in limits, then I'll let my bankroll grow.

I feel the best thing to do is to not let your results affect your withdraw amounts. You get the same amount to spend regardless of if you had a good week or a bad week.

Maybe once every couple of months, take some of the extra money you saved and blow it on something cool that you really don't need /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Sasnak]

[ QUOTE ]
I believe in being very conservative with money outside of poker.

After that, I also think you should have a budget for how much you want to spend on eating out, strip clubs etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Stating you're "conservative" with money outside of poker followed by the "strip club" as a line item is irony at it's finest. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

"Yeah I'm saving up for a new largemouth bass mailbox for my trailer, so I'm cutting back on the strip clubs a bit for the old lady."

[kickingit]

I am not playing pro or anything, just a poor college football player. My thought would be to figure up all of your expenses for the month. ie… food, rent, strip clubs, hookers and so on. Open up a nice savings account and deposit 1.5 months to 3 months of expense money back. This is case u have a bad run. Then just keep doing what u are doing now building your roll and paying for what u want and need.

[RevAgain]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm about to go pro and I've done a lot of thinking on this.

What I'm going to do is take a fixed amount out of my bankroll every week for expenses, regardless of how I do.

[/ QUOTE ]

This seems like very sound advice - it should hopefully mean you are less likely to chase losses if predisposed to do so.

[Your Mom]

[ QUOTE ]
I am not playing pro or anything, just a poor college football player. My thought would be to figure up all of your expenses for the month. ie… food, rent, strip clubs, hookers and so on. Open up a nice savings account and deposit 1.5 months to 3 months of expense money back. This is case u have a bad run. Then just keep doing what u are doing now building your roll and paying for what u want and need.

[/ QUOTE ]

So you don't play in the SEC, huh?

[tylerdurden]

[ QUOTE ]
So you don't play in the SEC, huh?

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly what I was thinking. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[La Brujita]

[ QUOTE ]
Stating you're "conservative" with money outside of poker followed by the "strip club" as a line item is irony at it's finest.

[/ QUOTE ]

Believe it or not I was actually trying to be funny. I am glad it worked.

[SuitedSixes]

-Maintain a bankroll of 2X what is recommended for the next level. (I'm a SNG guy)

-Have three months of paychecks saved up.

-Every week remove 90% of the 'over' from your bankroll.

[gmanko]

To find out how much I need to keep in my bankroll I would use something like StatKing to record my session results at each limit and use the bankroll tool to determine how much you need to keep given your win rate, standard deviation, monthly living expenses, and acceptable risk of ruin (I have mine set to 1% rather than the default of 5% just to be safe).

[jzpiano14]

Is statking free and if not what does it cost, and where is the website I can find info on it?

[James282]

I leave 500 BB in my account. When I get to 675 BB, I withdraw. One man's way.
-James

[SinCityGuy]

[ QUOTE ]
Now, however I can actually earn for myself and was looking on advice on how people who play for a living take money out of their account.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is easier said than done, but I made sure that I had enough savings to pay my living expenses for an entire year in addition to my poker bankroll.

I know what my hourly rate is, so once a month I multiply that times the hours that I've played and withdraw that amount (plus my rakeback payment). This method has served me well.

[TheMetetron]

I can live comfortably off of $1500 a month for rent, school, food, going out, etc. So that is what I have done is every month withdraw $1500 on the first + 35% of my total yearly earnings (for taxes). The $1500 goes into my checking account for the month, the rest into my Tax Savings account. The excess gets kind of split up between growing the bankroll and going into my personal savings in a haphazard way.

I'm sure I will refine this whole system as I continue along.

[NateDog]

[ QUOTE ]
I can live comfortably off of $1500 a month for rent, school, food, going out, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

I miss those days, sort of.

[TheMetetron]

LOL... such is the life of being 20 and not needing much. Going to have to buy a new car soon though (like 6 months). Not looking forward to it.

[gmanko]

StatKing costs about $30, if you download from Conjelco.com there is a 50 session trial version, and if you buy a license from there you save shipping (PA residents pay tax tho).

I feel it is well worth it - now I know what kind of bankroll I need.

[dogmeat]

There are as many different ways of doing it as there are players. The idea of saving three months of expenses as a backup and also having a 300BB bankroll is a good idea.

FWIW: I used to put away 10% each month into a savings account, 15% into another account for taxes (I pay quarterly), and then I withdrew what I needed for monthly expenses. Everything else stayed in my bankroll.

Now that I have a comfortable bankroll of 1000x my BB game I just take everything else out from my poker accounts at the beginning of the month. The same 25% comes off the top for an emergency and taxes, then I take what is left and it goes into a Roth IRA for me, an education IRA for my 3-year old daughter, my wife's IRA and our vacation fund. Maybe not the best plan, but it works.

Dogmeat /images/graemlins/spade.gif