I Need Therapy. Bankroll Therapy.

About a year ago I initially started out with a 50$ bankroll. Played a bunch of 10$ stts, 10$/20$ mtts, gained alot of experience and basically rammed it up to 2k. I wasn't really thinking about moving up limits at this point and cashed out $1950 to buy lots of goodies for myself and left $50 in my poker account.

To sum it up, the rest of the year was just an experience/learning bonanza. I can say with 96% certainty that i was beating the following games:

up to $30 SNG's
$100 NL cash games
2/4 Limit Holdem
$50 Omaha Hi/lo
and now $50 PL Omaha

If im beating all these games then whats the problem right?
Well lets go back to that 50$ still in my account. I started out playing .5/1, moved to 1/2 with $100, moved to 2/4 with 200$, then eventually moved to 3/6 with like 300$,
then went down back to 50$. I repeated this a few times, always pissing my winnings away at stakes above and beyond what my bankroll could handle. It's not to say that im not beating the limits higher then i pointed out, but its possible that variance just screws me over (afterall, i have been reading these forums quite alot, i just haven't posted anything till recently) Back to the point, after like the third loop i decided to try something else, always quitting when i only have 50$ left. Did the same thing with NL, started at 25nl, got up to 200NL and pissed it away. Now its the same with Omaha8, started at 25pl got up to 100$ pl, pissed it away.

I can beat the lower limits yet everytime i win $$ i just HAVE to go to a higher limit. Anyone have any solutions as to how i can properly manage my bankroll psychologically. The mind will tell me not to move up without the proper bankroll but the gamble in me will always trample over.

[spaminator101]

wait until you have the bankroll for the higher game before you play them
duh /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[peterchi]

You CANNOT play 2/4 with $200. Your chances of going bust before you turn that into anything significant are too high. I can confidently say that I am a winning 2/4 player (and I usually play higher), and I dropped $250 at 2/4 last night. My guess would be that this happens to me about twice a month. edit: And if you think about the within-session swings too, I'd say I hit something like this almost daily.

If you are sure that you are a winner at 2/4, then suck it up and throw $1200 (300BB) into your poker account. It sounds like you already know this and just want someone to say it. You must have enough money in your roll that you can shrug off at LEAST a 50BB downswing as if it doesn't matter. Because it shouldn't.

More likely though, you have some leaks to work out. I would tell you to build your bankroll up to $1200 by playing $.5/$1 rather than just throwing it in there from your wallet, but it sounds like you already know you should do this and just can't resist playing above your bank. Well... hopefully hearing it from someone else will help.

Good luck.

[jba]

you are probably a moderate to poor poker player.

you definitely have very poor bankroll management.

if you really do lurk here a lot, then deep down you probably already know all of this is true, yet you deny and continue. You should probably quit playing poker and find another hobby.

[Grisgra]

[ QUOTE ]
you are probably a moderate to poor poker player.

you definitely have very poor bankroll management.

if you really do lurk here a lot, then deep down you probably already know all of this is true, yet you deny and continue. You should probably quit playing poker and find another hobby.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bingo. As Ed Miller says in his article in this month's 2+2 magazine, there's really no excuse for playing over your bankroll. It's just too easy to build it up quickly before you take shots at higher limits.

[EStreet20]

[ QUOTE ]
the gamble in me will always trample over.


[/ QUOTE ]

That could be the sign of an addictive personality. You either have to get over it in order to become a winning player or quit altogether. I used to take "shots" at higher limits occasionally, however now that I pay my bills (I also work full time but I use holdem to pay all of my monthly recurring expenses) I no longer do.

Good luck,
Matt

[LImitPlayer]

He's not the greatest player in the world, he's a little lose and carries his hands to far but he's good enough to beat the party .50-1.00 and probably good enough to beat the Party 2-4 game

He basicly deposits $50, wins at the Party .50-1.00 for 2-3 nights, then after a couple of days of playing and winning at the .50-1.00 games he jumps up to 3-6 or 5-10 with anywhere from $100-200 in his acount. He busts out at limits where the players are better and his limited bannkroll can not handle the varience. He then tells me online poker is rigged, swears off online poker,and I then tell him I give him 3-4 days before he redeposits. Rinse and repeat this cycle over the past 8 months and that sums his bankroll management in a nutshell.

Bankroll management is a very important part of poker and without it you will not be a succesful long term winner.

Some people can not understand this no matter how much you try and tell them

[yanicehand]

[ QUOTE ]
I can beat the lower limits yet everytime i win $$ i just HAVE to go to a higher limit. Anyone have any solutions as to how i can properly manage my bankroll psychologically. The mind will tell me not to move up without the proper bankroll but the gamble in me will always trample over.

[/ QUOTE ]

Some people don't like to listen to this answer, but that usually means its more correct than they think:

G.A.

[Matador225]

You know what you are doing wrong and what you should be doing. No one is going to be able to give you any advice that will help you. Its all on your shoulders. Good luck.

[stu-unger]

here is an analogy for what u r saying: u go to the doctor and say everytime i jump out of the window i break my kneck. the doctor says not to jump out of the window.

now that we all understand the situation- Don't jump out of the window!

[punter11235]

You recognized the problem great.
No advice is going to help you here. Just work on your discipline.
(I like to quote Steve Badger here : "Discipline defined as ability to do things you know should be done is by far the most important thing in poker"; oh and in life too)

Best wishes

[dogmeat]

Congratulations on being such a fine player. The list of games that you "know" you are beating is very impressive. What will really impress everybody here is to build a bankroll - and to be honest, we don't care whether you do that at .25/.50 or $15/$30. So, let us know when you have a $10,000 bankroll that you have saved from playing.

Certainly a fine player like yourself can figure out the best way to accomplish this. If you can't, then the best thing to do is quit playing. I don't know anybody that is a successful poker player who can figure this out, but can't do it.

Dogmeat