New Poker Strategy - Bankroll

Hello World!

I have been on a poker vacation for most of the last 3 months. No good reason - just did not feel like playing. At one point I almost completely cashed out my bankroll to pay some bills.

But my bankroll is back and I have sat down and penciled in some strategies for bankroll management and how to start paying myself an income from my poker.

Here are the basics.

1.
Bankroll requirement for a limit is 40 Buy-Ins.
For now my Buy-In consists of 70 big-blinds.

2.

I have a daily stop loss of 4 buy-ins.
That is actually a dollar amount equal to 4 buy-ins.

3.

If I am winning, I reset my daily stop loss for each buy in I am ahead.

For example; Let's say my bankroll is $1400, my buy-in is $35, and my stop loss is $140. If my bankroll goes down to $1260, I stop for the day. But if I win a buy-in right away, then I reset my daily stop loss based on a starting bankroll of $1435.

See how that works?

This way I do not limit my winning streak, but I do lock in my winnings if my luck starts to change. In the case where I win a buy-in and then lose 4 buy-ins, I would simply limit my losses.

4.

If I lose 10 buy-ins, I have to move down to the next lower limit. I have to play at that limit until I once again have 40 buy-ins for the next higher limit.

5.

I move up to the next limit - or what is called taking a shot - when all of the below is accomplished:

a. My bankroll is at least 40 buy-ins for the next higher limit
b. >10K hands played at the current limit
c. Equal or greater than 3 Big Bets/100 hands according to Poker Tracker 3.

6.

I will play 6 tables at a time.

a. 4 tables income will be reinvested in the poker bankroll
b. 2 tables incomes will be withdrawn bi-weekly as poker income.

8 These are the ways to increase poker income:

a. Play more hands per day/week/month
b. Play more tables at a time
c. Move up to the next limit
d. Take shots at tournaments (using Frequent Player Points?)

Currently I have 11K hands at $50NL. My BB/100 is 2. My bankroll is $1700.

So I am not ready to move up to $100NL.

In order to take a shot at $100NL I need to:

a. Increase my BB/100 to 3
b. Have a bankroll of $2800.

I may determine at a later date that the best I can do is 2BB/100 hands. If that is the case, then all I need to a bigger bankroll. But I want another 10K hands at $50NL before I assume 2BB/100 is going to be the best I can hope for.

As they say, as long as you are making a profit, you can play at that limit. The only determination will be where I can make the most money.

At $50NL, 6-tabling and averaging 3BB/100 hands - my 2 table profits will be about $50 per week.

Right now that extra $200 a month will help out a lot. We need to double our grocery budget which currently is at $250 per month. When I move up to $100 NL we will then have $400 a month. We also need to increase our spending money by $200 a month.

So $100NL is my first major goal - it will bring our monthly budget up to reality.

Then I plan to try to increase my monthly poker income to $1000 a month. $500 will go towards our monthly budget and the other $500 will go towards paying off our debt.

I now have the full version of poker tracker 3 - so I will continue to post cool graphs and updates as they come.

Keep checking back to see how this poker grind continues in 2010!

- Albino Smurf