Bankroll Question

Hi guys first time poster here, although ive been reading the forums for a while now. I've been playing poker for years but have recently (a few months ago) decided to get serious with it.

The question I have is this: With regards to bankroll, lets say I play .50/1 NL ring games. From what ive read I need a $300 bankroll to do this safely. If my bankroll increases to $600 do I move up a limit to $1/$2 NL games, continue where I am or withdraw $300 to my personnal account and count it as 'winnings'? What do you guys do with your 'winnings'? Use them to increase your bankroll or withdraw them to spend on personnal goodies?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give, ive looked around a few places a cant seem to find an answer to this.

Originally Posted by leekungfu

Hi guys first time poster here, although ive been reading the forums for a while now. I've been playing poker for years but have recently (a few months ago) decided to get serious with it.

The question I have is this: With regards to bankroll, lets say I play .50/1 NL ring games. From what ive read I need a $300 bankroll to do this safely. If my bankroll increases to $600 do I move up a limit to $1/$2 NL games, continue where I am or withdraw $300 to my personnal account and count it as 'winnings'? What do you guys do with your 'winnings'? Use them to increase your bankroll or withdraw them to spend on personnal goodies?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give, ive looked around a few places a cant seem to find an answer to this.

No way! You need about $2000 to play 0.5-1.0NL safely assuming that you can beat the game long term.

Read 'rilla's bankroll management sticky:

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...b9a6c1988913bd

If you play .50/1.00 NL with only $300 one bad run of cards and you are busted baby, no matter how well you play.

Good luck!

Yeah sorry ive put NL in my example (and thats all it was), I meant to say Limit. And that bankroll thread doesnt answer my question, although ive just read Toastys new player guide and theres some great stuff in there about withdrawing from your bankroll/moving up limits etc but I actually wanted to know what some of you did, ie. $500 bankroll, withdraw $500 when it hits $100...... etc.

It's up to you... if you want to move up stakes, don't withdraw, if you don't want to move up... withdraw. Some people just aren't comfortable gamlbing more than $XXXX, so once your BR is nice and stable at your upper limit there is no reason to keep more out there. Me I'm always looking to move up, still gamling every cent I've earned.

Actually, you need a larger bankroll for limit than NL (same stakes) .. the swings are larger.

that is correct, 300bb should be good for .50-1

as players move up, some like to extend that limit to 400-500bb. High stakes players like Thomas Keller believe 1000bb should be the minimum for even a game like $20-40.

The reason is there are fewer weak tight players at higher stakes it seems, so variance is going to be much higher (good and bad variance).

The spending advice I like is that you should build your bankroll large enough to feel safe and aggressive while you play, but reward yourself now and then, so that you continue to value the money you place at risk. How much is that? I don't know. I have a personal minimum BR $ figure in mind, and over that $ figure I spend it on goals, so that I can point out to wifey (and myself), "this is from poker, that is from poker...". And if I ever have a downturn like I've only heard about, I'll still have something to show for all my effort.

if you multi table 1000 bb is good.. swings of 250 bb are natural

I had a $600 swing the other day, thats painful =( .. I had started to feel way to sure of myself, and wasnt careful enough with TPTK and hit a couple sets. (should have know that had a monster, my own fault ... even more so for calling the ending reraise they did... oh well.)

For NL and PL you def need a larger bankroll;I play .50/1 Limit now after having been walloped during a cold stretchin 50NL and 100NL(in hindsight I was underbankrolled).I personally would need $1000 minimum to feel comfortable playing NL50 or NL100 now;I likely will spend time just grinding it out in .50/1 Limit until my bankroll is up to $800 or so.

as far as the question of when to withdraw, If you want to both move up in limits and have spending money, like me, you probably want to withdraw some winnings, but also leave some in to build up. i recently moved my BR up to $650, and i withdrew $150, and then when I get up to $700, i'll withdrawl $150, leaving $550, then get another $150 out when I get to $750, leaving $600, etc. that way you can have some cash to make this whole poker thing worthwhile, and still build up your bankroll. I'm just doing it this way so I can spend a lot of time tweaking my game at $50 NL and $20+2s before I move to $100 NL and maybe some $30+3s and $50+5s.

Originally Posted by Laeelin

Actually, you need a larger bankroll for limit than NL (same stakes) .. the swings are larger.

Limit you need 600 big blinds, for no-limit you need 15 buy-ins. So unless you're playing with less than 40BB buy ins, NL needs a larger bankroll.