Originally posted by Wacko118
Oh yeah, at the lower limits, even 1/2 dont bother with stealing. They wont fold anything, ever.... I think i successful stolen once or twice in several thousand hands.
Razz may be different from other stud games. Stealing is often successful in razz even at the 0.25/0.50 level since the bring-in often has an obviously indefensible hand. Defending often means giving up on the next street or two anyway. So, stealing is profitable even in microstakes games. If you have (KK)8, and you are in steal position against (xx)J, you will show an immediate profit by stealing, and if you get called, you will have a profitable follow-up if you get something lower than a jack and your opponent catches something higher than a 9.
For bankroll management, there is a general formula which applies across poker variants. This lets you create a razz-equivalent to whatever amount you use for NL hold'em or STTs or LO8.
Bankroll = Comfort x (Standard Deviation^2) / Win Rate.
Comfort is a parameter which measures your personal risk tolerance and your ability/willingness to move down when you hit a streak of bad luck. A comfort level of 2 is generally considered aggressive. A comfort of 4 is generally considered conservative.
I hope your tracking software reports your standard deviation. This is a measure of the typical swings in a period of play.
Your win rate depends on your skill and the softness of the games. If you are a marginal winner, due to mediocre skill or tough games, then you need a much larger bankroll than someone with a high win rate. This is one reason a fixed number of big bets does not fit everyone, or even the same person who moves up.
For example, if you choose a comfort level of 3, your standard deviation is 12 BB/100, and your win rate is 2 BB/100, then the formula suggests that you should have a bankroll of 3 x (12^2)/2 = 216 BB. If your win rate is 0.5 BB in the same games, then you need 864 BB. If you fall below the recommended amount, that's ok, but you should move down before your bankroll drops to half of the recommended level, at which point you would view playing as an expense rather than a way to build your bankroll.