Bankroll Management
Introduction
This article explains
- How to approach bankroll management
- Profit vs learning
Bankroll preservation should be your top priority as a poker player. Bankroll is to poker what pawns are to chess. Without them, you can't play.
Bankroll management is a vital issue, because of the very high luck factor in the short term. Downswings can cost you a big part of your bankroll in a very short time. Every player - even advanced players and pros, know this, and have all experience periods of several days, weeks or even months during which they lost despite getting their money in ahead. In order not to lose your bankroll during such swings, you must have enough reserve for the limit you are playing at. But this is not all; the following pages will explain all the ins and outs of bankroll management in Pot Limit Omaha.
Sustainability
Before moving up to a higher limit, you must be sure that you are beating your current one. To do so, it is important to have some goals to accomplish; this will save you some bad experiences as well as give you more experience and confidence at a level that you can beat. You will also prove to yourself that you are a good player by having the patience to build your bankroll. Indeed, poker is first and foremost a game of patience: both in bankroll management and strategic play.
Flexibility
Your path through the limits should be flexible. In case you take a hit, you must move down to the previous limit. Of course, no-one really likes having to move down, but it is absolutely necessary. The most important is to approach moving down with the right attitude; it is in no way a failure, just a consequence of a bad streak. One cannot control luck and bad luck. It does not mean that you are worse than the other players, only that you don't have the necessary bankroll to withstand any more hits.
Comfort zones
Choosing the right limit also has a lot to do with comfort zones. Money has a different value for everyone.
If you play on too low a limit, you might not care about losses and play too loose.
If you play on a limit above your comfort zone, there is a good chance that you will play too tight or passive.
Beginners should not think in cents, but in Big Blinds!
Discipline
Good bankroll management will be useless if at one point you do not follow it. It might happen that you will win several sessions in a row. Even though you might feel unstoppable, this is no reason to lose your grip and move up too early. A losing session is just waiting to happen.
At no time should you move up in limits prematurely!
The 50 Buy-In rule
An ideal bankroll for Pot Limit Omaha is 50 buy-ins. Since one buys in for 100 big blinds maximum at a Pot Limit Omaha table, 50 buy-ins equal 5,000 big blinds.
Flexible bankroll management
The 50 buy-in rule is merely a starting point and can be increased in case you are not 100% confident. It is also extremely important to move down whenever you pass under a given bankroll
Moving up and down
To move up: 50 buy-ins for the next limit
To move down: 50 buy-ins for the previous limit
Table Bankroll
In poker, the table stakes rule applies: one can only bet what one has on the table. Hence we should buy-in for an amount that will enable us to extract maximum value on our strong hands. We wouldn't want to flop the nuts only to find ourselves with no chips left on the turn, letting us win only a small pot.
In theory, you should be able to bet the maximum in any given betting round. Thus your stack should always be as big as possible, which means you should buy-in for the table maximum of 100 big blinds, and not go under that amount.
Table Count
Given the low number of hands played per hour, you can directly start out with several tables.
Some players even play 8 tables or more. Hence the question: "How many tables should I play?". It is of course impossible to give a general rule for this, as this is a very player-dependant aspect of the game. You might play more or less tables depending on how much you want to concentrate, your stamina, eye-hand coordination, etc.
Conclusion
Profit or learning? It's all about "value maximization":
The highest winrate per table can be attained by playing only one table at a time. However, profit is not only calculated with winnings per table, but per hour as well. Let's assume that you can win 5 big blinds per hour on one table, and 3 big blinds per hour (per table) on two tables. In the latter case, your hourly profit is higher, at 6 big blinds per hour. When considering profit, you should choose how many tables to play simultaneously in order to attain optimal hourly profit.
In order to maximize the learning effect, it is important to think thoroughly during play. You should review played hands and look for your mistakes. This goes for won hands as well! Furthermore, you can practice hand reading (putting your opponent on a hand range). This all takes time, which multi-tablers often lack. They have to use standard moves and cannot spare much time for deep thought.
It is highly recommended to cut down on the number of tables in order to work on your game, not only if you are stagnating , but also if you are very successful playing multiple tables.
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