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Bankroll question
I am not actually a beginner, i have been playing holdem for a while, but i do have some questions that maybe someone can help with. My biggest problem is bankroll management. I win a little and then attempt to play out of my bankroll limits and then get frustrated and lose. OR, i take a bad beat and try to win back what i lost with bad results. Luckily, to this point, i have minimized my losses and have taken a break for a couple weeks. I am going to start playing again this week.
I will be playing mostly 1/2 limit and a few 5 or 10 dollar tourneys per week. What should my starting bankroll be? I was thinking $1000 (which i can afford) Also, how much of your bankroll is acceptable to lose in 1 day? When should you just say "today is not my day" and quit until the next day? Also, if you win, say in limit, when should you quit? I have had situations where i have been ahead 35 big blinds in one session only to lose it all and then some.
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1000 is too small for 1/2. 2000+ for sure, especially given your circumstances.
I'm not sure exactly what the upper limit on your bankroll is, but if you want to play 1-2, start with 2500 just to be safe. If you can't quite make that, start with as much as you can and play .5-1 until you get close.
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BR Required for 1/2 LHE
2 x 300 = $600
$1000 is fine to be playing 1/2 limit with.
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2500 for 1/2 limit is way way way to high. 600-1000 is perfect for 1/2 limit.
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yeah i figured 300-400 BB for lim 1/2 ($600-$800) and an additional 30 buyins for $10 tourneys ($300) leaves me at about $1K. Any takers on some of those other questions, like when to quit when winning/losing? I did read 'rillas post which was very helpful, i guess i'll follow the 5-10% rule. I guess what frustrates me the most is when i am up in lim about 20BB during a session and keep playing because i feel i am at a table that gives me positive EV but then i lose my winnings and more sometimes. So i ask the age old question, do you quit when you're ahead??
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i posted on this a couple days ago.
we all know that there is no logical mathematical reason to expect your luck to change for the worse or better after you win a whole bunch of money. especially if you are sitting at a +EV table that is still full of idiots giving their money away.
but my experience is that IF i stay longer and i happen to lose my huge lead, i start to get emotionally afflicted, and i become impatient to recover the gains i just lost. even if i'm still UP for the day, i start to feel like a loser, and play like one too. in short, i go on tilt.
so if i am up 20BB, then i leave. again, we all know that i could lose this at the beginning of my very next session. but emotionally, i can handle a session that begins with a downswing and ends with an upswing. in fact it makes me feel like more of a skillful winner to have pulled myself out of a variance hole. but i cannot as easily handle an initial upswing followed by a downswing. this is obviously a personal matter but perhaps you are in the same boat too.
for me, ending the session feeling like a winner has the long term effect of making me play like a winner. my left brain knows the start and end points of a session are just arbitrary points on a highly variant long term trendline. but my right brain likes coming out a winner and rewards me with confidence as i go into the next session.
i hope that makes sense.
ChezJ
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Makes perfect sense chez. I had a session once at 1/2 where i was up 35 BB (like $70 some dollars) in a matter of 30 minutes. There was a maniac and a couple calling stations at the table and i felt like i was playing the best poker of my life. I was isolating myself with the maniac, betting mediocre hands and winning big pots. I wanted to get up in one sense and end with a ton of confidence, but i wanted to stay figuring i could make more money. I then took some bad beats, next thing i know i am only up about 15 bucks. Then i played tighter to change it up a little but i wasn't getting cards, so i went back to even. Then i went on tilt and lost my buy in. I knew i should have just gotten up and been proud of my play, but i got greedy.
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sorry i've been a total idiot today, didn't even read you said limit. 1000 is fine.
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For nearly the same reasons Chez mentioned, I tend to leave once I've built up a decent sized stack. In some cases, that's how I turn the shortstack NL game I play profitable - buy-in with $20 to an NL$100 table, play some decent poker, leave when I've passed $100. Standard fare for my last couple sessions.
When I'm losing, I tend to stay around longer than I probably should. I find it hard to leave when I'm down, which probably indicates even stronger that I should leave. I do, however, typically keep things together and such persistance has resulted in making back 80% of my losses before leaving in most sessions.
