The Honesty and Bankroll Thread

[Ghazban]

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Isn't a better definition of bankroll "the amount of money that your are willing to lose before you give up poker for ever"?

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Yes it is. Or at least 'for a while' even if you can wait until next month's paycheck or something and deposit again.

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You can define it however you want for your own situation. For me, I don't make enough money at my job and from gigs for taking money out to play poker to be viable. My great-uncle passed away a little more than a year ago and I set aside some of the inheritance I received from him and defined that as my bankroll. If I ever lose that original stake, I'm done with poker (barring a change in my financial situation).

Thankfully, despite being somewhat clueless about poker when I started (and only slightly less clueless now in terms of where I'd like my game to be), I put aside enough and played low enough that risk of ruin was quite low (and is hopefully lower now as I've gotten better) despite the fact that, when I started, I'd never even played holdem.

[fimbulwinter]

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" but honestly almost nobody plays SSNL for a living and those who do are obviously much better BR'd than that. "

I thought there were quit a few, or at least quit a few who made a large enough BB/100 to be able to.

I live with my parents helping them with their businesses (Horse stable, and Custom Cabinet Shop) so poker, in my mind, has always been a perfect source of side-income. I know not very many adults (i'm only 21) have such acomidating lifestyle for playing poker, but i'm sure there are quit a few.

I too made the bankroll mistake a number of times before coming here and learning the not so obvious lesson of 20x.

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I think you misconstrued my quote. i was saying that those who play poker as a sole source of income typically play enough to move up fairly rapidly. those who must pay the bills from cards are not the ones who i was targeting with this post, obviously.

I think those who are doing this as side income can afford to take on a little extra risk at the 25-200NL level in order to get to the 400NL+ level where there are really life-changing amounts of money to be made.

fim

[-Skeme-]

I hate poker. I'm gonna call it quits pretty soon.

[Macquarie]

Yes, different people define bankroll in different ways, so when someone asks "what level should I play" we need to know what they mean by bankroll.

Take two different situation.

One person has $500. He decides that this is the absolute max he is willing to spend on poker, and he wants to play poker for some extra income. If he loses his roll, he'll stop playing for good. For this guy, recommending a BR of x20 is great advice, he should play NL25.

One person has $500 spare cash each month. He deposits $500 in PP. If he goes broke (loses his "roll") he'll rebuy next month. For this guy, recommending NL25 is pointless. If he thinks he is a winning player at NL50 or NL100 or even NL200 he can choose to play at these levels. If he goes broke, so what? He'll just wait a few weeks and rebuy.

I agree with Fim's original post that the 20x guideline is ultra-conservative, but it is correct advice for people with the strictest definition of bankroll. For most people, who in reality have option of rebuying if disaster strikes, even if they must wait for weeks or months, a less conservative figure is appropriate.

[Go_Blue88]

i'm a little skeptical about this advice. i really don't agree with it. playing with 5 buy-ins for NL100 and NL200 is just stupid; you'll need luck. i'm always telling my friends/parents that poker really isn't gambling, i win b/c i'm a better player than most people at the stakes i play, i don't rely on luck. if you're playing with 5 buy-ins you need to rely on luck. sure, you can take a risk, and ya, maybe it'll pay off for you, but then you're just gambling.

additionally, if you jump to higher stakes than you're accustomed to playing b/c you hear the game is easy to beat, you may not be ready. 5-10 buy-ins is not enough if you plan to learn from mistakes.

the only way that i can see this idea working is if you both never make a mistake and are lucky enough not to get outdrawn.