[steve-fredlund]

Welcome to RecPoker… I thought this post would stir up some thoughts. Definitely interesting from my perspective as we are in the same situation I think.

Before addressing each point, I think the most important thing is to really track your results carefully so you can analyze, make decisions, etc.

I might be in the minority but I don’t see an issue with you changing how you view bankroll management into a personal monthly budget for poker playing. You can set some parameters around that, depending on your personality. For example… Put $200/month into your poker playing bankroll and do this whether you win or lose; this is your “fun money”. If you struggle, you cap your losses (but not beyond what you would spend on another hobby); if you do well, you will add $2,400/year to the fund plus any winnings. You could still put limits on how high you play and create goals that you have to achieve to “move up”. Really depends if you have the discipline to not just go nuts and lose it all quickly.

I agree about the poker sites also; just keep on there what you are comfortable losing. I think you should just assume it will go dark one day and you will lose your funds. I’m not sure that will happen, but if you assume it will, it should allow you to manage it better. I would also recommend partnering with a few people you can trust to transfer funds back and forth with (for example in ACR) in exchange for PayPal. That will allow you to add/remove funds online without paying all the fees.

Good luck! We have a lot of online grinders here you could reach out to (i’m not one of them)… @Jim @Gloves1010 @CaptainWalleye @TaylorMaas

[taylormaas]

A lot of other questions you need to answer here as well if you are looking for the true correct answer of how YOU should bankroll manage. Things like, what am I trying to accomplish with this investment, how comfortable am I with upswings/downswings, am I done if this goes poorly.

All things considered, its most important to understand what poker is for you. For those that want to make a living off of the game, their bankroll management is going to be very different than my bankroll management who plays for a hobby.

You sound more in line with my view point of how to bankroll manage so I will speak to my viewpoints and hopefully that resonates with you. When I started playing poker, I asked myself, how much am I willing to contribute to this hobby. I decided to set aside $100 every paycheck to play. That’s what I was comfortable with, if I made money, that allowed me to play more if I wanted or to pull back contributions into other hobbies. Really, I didn’t care if I went ‘bust’. It’s not a perfect approach, but for me personally, it worked. It became an test to not bust once I was able to play off of winnings.

It does get a little fuzzy in terms of what stakes to play with a bankroll management style I described, there’s no guidelines to follow so it can be easy to play way outside your means and have things go crazy. I would suggest that if you don’t know what level you should be playing at, start low. And potentially lower than you think you need to. Then let success at lower stakes drive you into higher skilled games. There’s so little risk of ruin when you play lower stakes so that should be your starting point.

[hubs]

Thank you both for your thoughts. Those are very helpful.

My current goal is to be able to play $0.10/$0.25 online and not feel like a downswing would make me go broke. To do that, I would like 20 buy-ins minimum, preferably 40. Over time, I would like to be able to build a bankroll and withdraw winnings, possibly to play $1/$2 live.

My recent activity has been to deposit $100 on Ignition until I bust. I’ve done this 3 times, so I’m thinking about transitioning to ACR, which has better trackability. Maybe I should start by depositing $300 and begin withdrawing if I build it to over $1,000?

[doug]

I want to answer as a financial planner but it gets just too longwinded for what you want. DM me if you want a more serious financial framework. Otherwise I have these thoughts, study poker here and every other resource you can reach. Play a lot for free. I would avoid the ACR cash tables completely until you have cash to burn because fair play is not assured, and there are many multi table players, which changes the play at the tables. I have been refunded funds from ACR because of fraud at the tables. The tournaments are better and there are many MTT at small stakes. Still, if the buy-in is $2 for the cash game, you could easily buy-in 10 times a night. If you have limited cash buy some PokerStars play money chips and play tournaments until you are winning. Learning is the key, spend time learning off the felt. The RecPoker home game is a play money game that is extremely challenging.

[eanderson85]

Most of the rules are for people who want to be pro and live off of their bankroll. Most of us rec players are using “fun money”, or disposable income. If you can survive without your poker bankroll, then it only needs to last the length of your vacation.
Don’t keep more than you want to lose instantly online (one day of buy-ins for me).
Be aware of your gambling problems. Never gamble or enter a casino with what you can’t afford to lose. The pressure of having to win can cause serious tilt.
All of the details are here…
The Bankroll Bible | PokerCoaching.com