It is inevitable that we will all go through good and bad streaks throughout our poker careers. Personally, I am not one to view poker money as the end all be all; maybe some of you do. I do take poker seriously, however, and when my bankroll takes a hit, I admit it can get frustrating. BRM is key in order to establish and maintain a decent bankroll on a consistant basis. Yes, of course, variance will occur, but BRM does control the amount of variance that will transpire. Bad beats and suck outs will occur, but as long as you can limit your losses and play your game, you will profit in the long run.
Now, as I was reading the successes people are having with the lower limits/freerolls, it reminded me of the days when I used to have a decent bankroll going. I virtually have nothing at the moment, but that's besides the point. I'm writing this blog because I emphasize and stress the importance of BRM and would hate to see someone lose all their online winnings due to playing higher limits than what their bankroll allows. Here is my story.
A few years ago, I was the typical freeroller; multi-tabling numerous tournaments at once and aspiring to be the next Chris Ferguson. Well, through playing freerolls I did, in fact, learn to be patient and felt that I had the game to perform at the higher stakes. Therefore, while I was observing one of the high stakes cash games, I asked for a stake and, guess what, someone gave it to me for no apparent reason. I was ecstatic. $20 in my account. I couldn't wait to hit the ring games.
As time progressed and my bankroll continued to rise, I felt good about my game and felt I could compete with the best of them. However, I was still not confident in moving up ring game stakes. Thus, I stuck to the $0.10/$0.25 with my $125 bankroll. Well, of course we all go through losing sessions. Well, I was unprepared and very ignorant to variance. If I lost money, instead of taking a break, which is what should be done, I continue to play. I was an extremely greedy player that just wanted to regain the money that I had lost right away. Well, this obviously didn't work out.
I managed to lose $10 at the $0.10/$0.25 table. Therefore, I decided to reboot. Again, I lose another $10. At this point I am extremely frustrated. I have lost nearly 1/5 of my bankroll in literally ten minutes. Well, being the immature and inexperienced player that I was, I felt a quick HU cash game for $80 might turn things around for me. Well, that's when things completely spiraled out of control. I hit cold deck after cold deck (straight over higher straight, flush over higher flush, etc.). Soon, my entire BR was gone and I sat there pondering to myself, "Why was I such an idiot?"
Since that incident, I have learned what good BRM really means and can now prevent a situation like that from happening. However, I had to pay the price to learn, observe, and attain the knowledge. I just hope all of you can learn from my own mistakes instead of your own so that you won't have to go through the same situation that I did.
Never feel pressured to play outside your bankroll, regardless of how much you lost. As a rule of thumb, all buy-in tournaments/SnG shouldn't be more than1% of your bankroll. Of course, if you have under $100, you might have to increase this, but never buy-in to a tournament of more than $2 + $0.25. As for cash games, to determine the limit you can play:
You should buy-in for the minimum of 20 big blinds to limit your losses. To play a limit you should have 30 buy-ins. For example. If you want to play the $0.05/$0.10 limits, how much (minimum) should you have in your bankroll? Well, you would buy-in with 20 big blinds, which is $2.00. Seeing that you need 30 buy-ins to play this specific limit, you will need $2.00 x 30 buy-ins = $60.00. If you stick to these guidelines you can't go wrong and will reduce variance and increase your winnings in the long run.
Sorry for the long blog. I just have a very strong opinion on this matter. Good luck all and have fun.
