Bankroll

[Gammonster]

I'm thinking of playing card-room poker for the first time in the South Bay Area of CA at the 2-4 HE table. I'm curious what anyone would reccommend as a bankroll. I've experienced homepoker for 3 years, have studied WLLHE, HEP, TOP, and HEFAP a bit.

Thanks in advance.

[crockpot]

$1000 should be more than enough if you've digested enough of those books. if not, you may want to up that number a little.

[whalekock]

$1000 is a good start. But before commiting that to poker, go there with $100. No less No more. Just so you can take in the experience and if you lose it and end up hating the casinos, then you lose just that. If you go to the Hustler and they have a 2-4 table going(usually only on friday and saturday night), they have a no flop no drop policy. Also they have a one blind system and a new player in the game doesn't have to post (forced bet on first hand). The only problem with 2-4 is that it is hard to over come the rake, unless you are killing the table.

Try the 3-6 (which is likely the lowest limit at the time), it is usually good and it is not pre-flop raise crazy like the Commerce or Hawaiian Gardens, so you can usually see the flop for one bet.

In the end, if you think you can take it, then commit more to your bankroll. Good Luck, and try to play only premium hands when you are first starting out.

[Ragnar]

The necessary bankroll varies for your limit depending on your skill level, and the nature of the game. Mason has written on this extensively in Gambling Theory and Other Topics. One simple guideline that I used is 300 times the big bet for the limit. I got this from David & Mason's Gambling for a Living. I set up an $1800 bankroll for 3-6, and it worked reasonably well. That having been said, how much you take to the casino each night, and how much you buy in for are different issues.

I take $300 to the casino and buy in for $100 at 3-6. If I get short stacked at all (below 50) I rebuy for $100 depending on whether I am playing well, and evaluate the game as still being positive for me. The buy-in is a little less than what some posters have recently recommended on the forum, but it is a common buy-in amount where I play, and I am comfortable with it. I'd probably buy-in for $100 at the 2-4 level as well. (That limit wasn't available where I played when I started.)

For 2-4 just multiply 4 times 300 coming up with a $1200 bankroll, should you wish to use this approach. You would then take $200 to the casino.

A more experienced player might take a higher percentage of the bankroll to the casino. However, if I were to lose 1/6 of my bankroll in a session I'd suspect that I'm misevaluating how well I am playing that night and how good the game is.

I keep part of the bankroll in a separate bank account and the rest in cash. I had no poker playing experience for over 35 years, but had read extensively and used Turbo Texas Hold 'Em to play over 10,000 hands before I went to a casino and this bankroll approach worked well for me. I did't have your home game poker experience which should substitute for the computer simulation experience that I had.

Ragnar