Re: What really is my bankroll?
I seriously doubt that you are as good a player as ggbman.
If you more seriously want to explore these ideas of falling into various temptations and all that stuff getting in your way then Barry Greenstein's Ace on the River might be a good read for you.
He talks A LOT about drinking, drugs, sports-betting, sex, etc etc being the downfall of MANY great players and about the discipline required to avoid burning through all your money on this stuff (is that is something that is a problem for you...which you already admitted it is).
You may get some other ideas from the psychology forum here.
However, even if it is valid...I think it's a REAL cop-out to just say "I could have been SOOOOO great if it weren't for my drinking, spending, etc etc."
Almost everyone who doesn't win says something like this.
You are either winning or you aren't.
you are either solid with your bankroll or you aren't.
As I've mentioned in previous threads. I think my poker-skills are pretty sucky....but I'm better off than many players because I just don't have the kind of discipline problems with bankroll that others do (and I actually don't think I'm as responsible with my bankroll as I should be).
Compare these two players:
Player 1: Great skills. Horrible bankroll management. This player is almost guaranteed to go broke (Stu Ungar)
Player 2: Mediocre skills. Very good bankroll management. This player will likely NEVER go broke. There's ALWAYS a lower limit that you can play to rebuild where you can win if you are losing. Even if you are barely a break-even player you can still get by at low-limits on rake-back and bonuses alone and there isn't much reason why you should bust out.
So imo you should always consider bankroll management to be PART of your poker skills. not something that is seperate from it.
you have card skills AT the table...and bankroll management skills AT and AWAY FROM the poker table.
Obviously your bankroll skills away from the table are kinda sucky.
In this thread you seemed to come dangerously close to also treading into sucks bankroll skills AT the poker-table (by playing at limits higher than your current bankroll would justify)
Perhaps one way to get motivated would be to think of yourself as a sucky poker player BECAUSE your bankroll management problems are so bad.
You will not be a good poker-player UNTIL you tackle these issues...and win enough on your own to move up to the stakes you want to play.
Just some thoughts. Hope they are not taken the wrong way.
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