By
gidders |
Published
Nov 16 2005, 01:45 PM
Bankroll Issues – Part 1
Ask any top professional or successful poker player and they will all pretty much tell you the same thing. When you are the table, money doesn’t have any value – they are just chips; items you use to keep track of who’s winning and who’s losing. If you begin to view those chips in any other way, you are almost destined to fail. You cannot be expected to play your best poker when the amount of money you have invested is too painful for you to lose.
Now this does not mean if you are the final table of a big event playing for hundred of thousands would be too pressure packed, and you would be scared – because all of that final table money is good profit. I’m rather talking about the initial investment – say the $10,000 buy in to the Main Event. If you bought in directly, and all you could think about was that $10K and how much you could buy with it, instead of playing in the tournament – you are almost destined to play poorly.
In my opinion, players who worry about the money they are gambling with should not be gambling. Period. I would never advise anyone under any circumstance to play outside of their bankroll – or the money that they could afford to lose. Make no bones about it, poker is gambling, and there is a chance that you will lose your money. That’s all there is to it. Now, having said that - poker involves a great deal of skill and the most skillful player will eventually triumph over the not so skilled players, but on any given day or hand – there is a chance that you may lose your money. If you cannot accept that fact, you should not be gambling.
There is nothing more sad than to hear about a player who went broke from a gambling urge he couldn’t control. I cringe when I think about people who have invested their life savings in the stock market, or on a blackjack table and lost everything – to me, that is one of the most awful things to think about in the world. If you are a compulsive gambler (poker is included) and you are losing money you can’t afford to lose – you need to get help. It is a problem that many people have, and there are programs and people you can talk to. There is no shame in recognizing that you have a fault, if you are brave enough to admit it and seek help.
When I decided I needed to find a way to build my bankroll from scratch – I thought of the possible choices I had. I could play Cash Games, Tournaments, Sit N Goes, Heads Up Matches… and obviously, I decided to focus on my SNG game, because of the science-ness of them. They are always the same, and it makes for good practice.However, the more important thing that I had to decide to do was figure out the correct buy in for my skill set, and my comfort level.
When I sit down at a table, I am comfortable with the money I am gambling with. I always make sure that I am going to be able to make the most correct decisions at the table, and I don’t want the buy in or prize pools to influences any of my poker decisions.
I look at poker, in particular SNG’s as a business investment. Over time, I know that if I make correct decisions, I’m probably going to be making about 30 cents on every dollar I put forth into my business. If this is true, it really comes down to me making the most correct business decisions possible.
Should I play when I am distressed? Should I play at higher stakes after a losing session? Should I abandon all hope after a bad run? Should I just quit altogether and get a ‘real’ job?
I’m often reminded of the slogan from Office Space – “Is This Good For The Company?”. If I ever find myself saying, “No” to any of these questions, I will pass up the game and wait until the conditions are right again.
After all, online poker is available 24 hours a day – and I’ve got a business to run, baby.
In the next installment, I will talking about two types of people – Tightwads and Mongaloids.
-gidders