Many poker players, including professionals, have a tendency to burn through their bankrolls quickly.
Even the best players can ruin months of success in just one or two bad sessions.
A funny thing is that people who lose money playing live poker (about 90% of players) also complain that they can't keep a balance in online poker. Strange, right?
What is surprising is that winning players also share the same problem!
If a player is a consistent winner in live poker, we can assume that he should also have good results playing online poker.
Unfortunately, being a successful online poker player requires much more discipline and control than live poker.
Online players are generally more skilled and the game flows much faster.
If you are a good poker player, and you know that you are capable of making money, but still can't seem to maintain a stable bankroll, this article is just for you.
1 – Play within the limits of your bankroll
Starting with the most important concept: you must play with your bankroll, that is, the limits played, number of games, etc. will be decided based on it.
The simplest way to explain this is to look at the mathematical side of the gambler's ruin theorem.
One of the concepts of this theorem is: take two players and pit them against each other in a zero-sum game (something like flipping a coin, where each player has an expectation of winning/losing of exactly 0%).
One player has a finite bankroll. The other has an infinite bankroll. If we repeat this game infinitely, the player with the finite bankroll will sooner or later go broke, while the other will still have his bankroll.
In the world of online poker, it’s you against the world. That means one thing: it’s your bankroll against the rest of the world’s infinite bankroll. If poker were a zero-sum game, you’d go broke.
If you are a winning player, you can certainly expect positive returns on your investments. But you need to have enough money in your bankroll to hold you over during swings and negative variance periods.
Your bankroll, even if finite, needs to be large enough to seem infinite. Try to use the rule that says you should put no more than 5% of your bankroll into play at a table.
If you really want security, lower this number to 1% or 2%.
If you never have to worry about going broke when losing a particular game, chances are you won't actually go broke.
2 – Don’t micro-manage your cash flow
If you are following the first rule and playing with a decent bankroll, then (not considering monstrous downswings) your risk of going broke is minimal, almost zero.
You play poker with chips, not money. You shouldn't think about money while you're playing, it's completely irrelevant. Just think about buy-ins and chips.
You shouldn't fall into the trap of wanting to check your cash register every minute.
When you are in an upswing, every time you look at your box, you feel good.
The number increases, and so does your ego.
However, it only takes one bad beat to make this number go down, and by a lot. If you're still frantically checking your bankroll, this will make you feel very bad.
You want to get back the amount of money you had before, and you want it back instantly.
When you start having this mindset, you have started “chasing your losses.” You will start to force your gambling to try to recover the lost value, and that is never a good thing.
This could be the first step towards complete self-destruction.
Typically in poker, making money is a slow climb, but losing money is a free fall!
If you are looking at your balance sheet, you will fall into depression when you see that you “lost a week of work” or “it will take a week to recover what you lost in an hour”.
The only way to recover this quickly would be to take a “shot” at a higher limit, to try to hit something big, but this breaks the #1 rule, and is the beginning of the attitudes that will make you broke.
3- Take the game seriously
When you're playing real money poker, every session, pot, and decision matters. Even the smallest mistake will cost you money.
The more money you lose to mistakes, the harder it will be to generate profits, and the easier it will be for you to go broke.
Limit your distractions: As the word itself says, a distraction is anything that takes your focus away from the game and puts it on something external.
When you start playing poker online without paying attention to the game, you will definitely make several mistakes.
Every person is different: Some gamers can play just fine while watching a movie. Others need to tune out everything around them to stay focused on the game.
You need to understand your ability to concentrate on multiple tasks and then you can play optimally.
Don't play poker to cure boredom: Do you play poker because you want to play, or because it is your job to make money?
Playing poker because you are bored will make poker a fake entertainment, and that is extremely tricky.
Poker will not always entertain you or be fun, and if your session is boring, it can lead to you trying to do unthinking things to generate action in the game, and this will cost you money!
If you are bored and don't really feel like playing, it's best to find something else to do.
4 – Pay attention to your human needs
You're a human being, and human beings have needs. If you're not feeling well, or you're sick, you won't play your best poker.
The most important human factors related to poker:
Hunger: If you are not eating well or are very hungry, you will not be thinking as quickly as you should.
If you're hungry, this is yet another distraction that will get in the way of your game.
Comfort: If you're not comfortable, you're distracted. Get a good chair, a good monitor, and make yourself as comfortable as possible.
Use every tip you can to make your gaming environment the best and most comfortable it can be.
Exhaustion: If you're tired, you won't play your best poker. If you don't play your best, you lose money, it's that simple.
No matter how good the game is, if you're tired, go to bed.
Mental distractions: If you have any worries on your mind, it will disturb your thinking and distract you during the game.
It's best not to even start playing if you're in a mental state that you don't consider “normal”, such as nervous, worried, or anxious, for example.
Drugs and alcohol are also a distraction. It's one thing to play while drinking a beer or two, it's another to play while completely stoned.
5 – Realize when you are tilted and should leave the game
Tilt is the number 1 bankroll killer worldwide.
It usually goes hand in hand with breaking one of the four previous rules, or it can be caused by a simple bad beat. Tilt can lead even the best players to stupid actions, such as pointless plays, insane limit increases, and totally unnecessary flips.
The cause of tilt is personal and varies from player to player, and can be triggered by a variety of reasons. Although it varies from person to person, the intensity and the possibility of avoiding tilt are unpredictable.
Some players, like Phil Ivey, rarely get tilted. When they do, it rarely affects their level of play to the point of causing “disasters.”
Elite players aside, for the rest of us “mortals”, when you feel any form of tilt, no matter how small, it’s time to log off, get up, and do something else.
Poker will always be waiting for you when you get back.
Summary
If you follow all these rules, and have a good winning game, we can say that the chances of you going broke will be very close to zero.
Alert: If you break just ONE of the rules, all the others can break almost at the same time, like a domino effect.
Poker will always be waiting for you as long as you have a bankroll. If you lose it all, the situation is different.
Text translated and adapted from the original: Five Rules to Save Your Online Poker Bankroll by: Sean Lind
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Very good article!!
Poker Tips thanks you!
Great article!
Thanks for the compliment! 🙂