Expert Bankroll Management
br /> If you feel you are in this category, then one of two things are in order. If you got here because an impartial analysis of your skills by players you trust have placed you here, then I give you a heartfelt prop on your superior ability. If you got here because you and you alone believe you are the best player ever and nothing anyone else says is going to change your mind, then you get the self-deluded award. Please leave your screen name on the message board so we can all “congratulate” you :o)
True experts make up the most elite class of poker player. They achieve this status by playing better than 98% of all the other players. While their play is in the rarified air at the very top, results often vary, so let’s start at the bottom. I would strongly recommend that all players also read case #3 as that is where I deal with many of the “big picture” issues that most experts face. And please read the paragraph at the very end of this article as it also deals with all categories.
If you truly belong in this category and you are just on an extended bad run, then one thing you should try is dropping down a bit in level. Play for a while at only 1% or even 1.25% of your bankroll. This has several benefits. First of all you may find that the games at the lower level are easier and you will start winning again. This will, in turn, bring up your confidence and make you play your “A” game again if you have been slacking a bit. Second of all, this will ease the pressure that an extended bad run can create on your bankroll. Even Doyle Brunson admitted to going almost a full year without winning, so you are in good company.
One more thing you should consider is serious training. It is no shame to be an expert player and still seek to improve yourself. I often say that after 26 years into the game, the biggest thing experience has taught me is that there is so much more to learn. I watch Todd’s and Ryan’s videos here at rpt all the time and each time I see one I take away something new to add to my game.
First the math. If you are achieving your goal of having fun when you play and you truly do not need the money in your bankroll for anything else, then you really don’t have much of a problem. You can play at 2% or drop down a little or even go all the way down to 1% as long as you still enjoy playing at the lower level. I would suggest you find the lowest level you can enjoyably play and stick with that one. Since you are not in the game to make money anyway, as long as the lower level is exciting, you are good.
The other factors involved here are more complex. I know an expert player who has been playing poker for more than 40 years. He used to win a lot of money at the game and wisely invested most of it in real estate so he is now comfortably set for the rest of this life barring any major disaster. About five years ago he started to get bored with the game. He began experimenting with complicated and unusual plays. While it’s true that poker is such a deep game that there are times when these complicated plays are correct, mostly the experts know that you should not get tricky just for the sake of being tricky.
If you find yourself making way too many tricky plays, perhaps a full overhaul of your game is in order. Find a good teacher and have them evaluate not just your level of play, but the appropriateness of your play. Do you make moves to win pots, or just to demonstrate your ability to make moves? This type of scrutiny is a good thing for all players once in a while, from experts to donks. After all, it’s not just the Nova hatchback that needs a tune up once in a while, but even the Ferrari needs to get into the shop now and then.
A good place to start is with your game. Before you make any drastic changes, find somebody impartial to evaluate your play. One small leak can eventually sink the tightest ship and maybe that’s all you need to fix. When I first made the transition from limit holdem to nlhe, I unknowingly carried with me the limit notion that drawing to the nut flush was always a good play. It was such a natural thing for me to do that I never noticed I was doing it. Fortunately, an old mentor of mine pointed it out to me and explained why it was a leak in my game. My bottom line showed immediate improvement.
As for the money, well, from this category up we start to deal with the real meat of the risk vs reward issue for the expert player. Let’s start with the risk. As an expert player, you naturally have a lower expected variance than most other players. The problem is that even with lower variance, it is still possible to have an extended bad run and go bust. Some risk-taking poker authors have advocated experts play as high as 5% of their bankroll. Let’s set this number aside as our maximum. My suggested level of play for an average player was 2%, so let’s set this as our minimum.
We now have a working range from 2% to 5%. From a risk side, these numbers translate to this. At 2% you can go 50 losing sessions before you go broke and at 5%, you can go 20 sessions. One of the key goals of bankroll management in poker is to prevent yourself from going broke. Keep that goal in mind as we move to the reward discussion.
A good maxim is that you should always give yourself the best chance to win the most money you can. Following that maxim leads us to conclude that playing higher limits would give you more chance to win more money so you should play the highest limit you can. Even from a strict reward perspective, this is flawed logic. Poker is not about winning the most you can IN ONE SESSION. Poker is about winning consistently over time.
A classic reward question is this: Is it better to win $2,000 in one session or to win $200 in each of ten sessions? My answer is that winning ten sessions of $200 is better. I base my answer on this follow up question for the 2k winner. What happened in your next nine sessions?
The beauty of following a plan based on a percentage of your bankroll is that as your roll grows, you naturally move up in level. The danger is in moving up too fast and finding yourself playing a level you cannot consistently beat.
I am a cautious fellow and it has gotten me far in poker and in life. Striking a good balance between risk and reward often involves some sacrifice to both objectives, so I suggest a middle ground of 3.5%. If you find you can beat the games at this level easily, move up a bit, but don’t be ashamed to move back down if the higher game is too rough. After all, we are playing to make money, not to brag.
If you are not having fun, and to a lesser extent even if you are, you should consider some coaching. Obviously you already have, since you are reading this at Realpokertraining.com :o) Continued education can only improve you and your game. It’s human nature to enjoy the things we are good at more than the things we are not good at.
Either way, this category lends itself well to smallish play. If you play as low as 2%, you may find your skill advantage bringing up your bottom line as an added bonus.
You are winning good money with your expert play, so I guess the only question left to answer is, “Why mess with a good thing?” The simple answer is don’t. If you have found a level that you can consistently beat and you have been very successful over a fairly long term with it, great.
If you feel you can win at an even higher level and are not sure about how to move up, then read on. First thing to do after a nice run over a long stretch is to start setting aside a cushion of money separate from your bankroll. I suggest anywhere from 10% to 50% of your new bigger bankroll. You can invest this money elsewhere or just leave it in the bank, but believe me you will appreciate having it. Also taking a few bucks and spending it as a reward for all your hard work is never a bad thing.
Unless, like Todd, you bought yourself a Ferrari as a reward, you should still have a larger bankroll to manage now. Regardless of past results, I still would keep 5% as a ceiling. Playing above that level is way too reckless and anyone can have a bad run. Since you probably have a nice size bankroll now, perhaps you can even play a lot less than that and still make a nice income. The worst thing you can do now is get greedy.
If you are going to move up, move slowly and evaluate your results constantly. Some of the best players you’ve never heard of make a lot of money playing middle limit poker and are smart enough to keep it that way.
Two things to keep in mind here. First, if you think you would have as much fun playing small, by all means do so. And second, as above, unless you are wealthy, start making a cushion for yourself.
If, for some reason, you are not having fun playing, maybe the level of money involved is not the issue. Try learning a new form of poker. Play tournaments instead of cash games, or try a game like Omaha or Stud if you are normally a Holdem player. See if the change brings more enjoyment to your game.
Keep this in mind
Please keep in mind that these guidelines are for cash players. Sng players should play in the 2% to 3.5% range as their variance will be higher. Mtt players should keep it as low as possible. 1% is still the optimal range for mtt play and even with a sick itm %, going above 2% is a recipe for disaster. Let your play win you into the bigger mtts by playing more sats.
Your decision on whether to bluff will be made based upon what position you are sitting in and your opponents previous actions. Playing your position correctly is how you increase your profit. That applies to bluffing as well as playing in general. Combining bluffing strategy with your position is the secret. You will usually be bluffing closest to the button or on the button itself. Because you are last to act and get the benefit of seeing the action as it comes around after the flop. If rags flop or if the board pairs and no one has it, then in most tight games it will be checked around. This is a bluffing opportunity. In a tight game, when rags hit the flop is it unlikely anyone made a big hand other then the small blind or big blind. Pay attention to these players because they could have been going into the flop with anything, the other players you may be able to assume didn’t hit the flop if you’ve noticed a pattern in their playing style including strong starting hands. You bet out after they check to you in these situations on a rag flop and likely take down 2 out of 5 pots right there. If there are 2 other players in the hand and this happens then you are getting 2 to 1 on the bluff. So as long as you take it down 1 out of 3 times when doing this you will break even. You are taking down 2 out of 5 so it is a profitable proposition. You can further enhance your odds, by reading the other player’s hands and being able to tell if it is one of those 2 in 5 chances you would take it down.
So its now been explained how easy it is to break even by doing this just by winning 1 out of 3 times if there is 3 people in pre-flop. Then on the turn what do you do if some people call and check down to you again? It depends. Put your opponent on a hand, why would he have called the first bet, does he have a draw, a low pocket pair or is he even slowplaying a big hand? If there is two to a suit, you can guess that someone may be looking for a flush. Two connectors, someone may be looking for a straight. Don’t just throw chips in at this point without thinking about what the other players have. Read the table and decide whether or not you should take another stab at it. Alot of the time, the best plan is to slow down on the turn and check-fold. If you sense weakness from the player and it is a good possibility he was drawing to the turn, then you can fire another bullet on the turn, but make it big enough that the player wont have odds to call you.
Don’t bluff against players you have decided are fish or calling stations. These players don’t recognize the significance of a bet or raise and will call out your bluffs with mediocre hands. Don’t bluff them. Wait for good cards and then bet them out, they will still call you, and that’s when you take their chips. You should be bluffing against average or strong players.
So you bet on the turn because you think the other players or players won’t keep calling. One of them folds, and you now are heads up on the river with one guy who keeps calling you down. Has he been and will he call you down with medium pair or high pair and low kicker? Or, maybe he didn’t make the flush or the straight. If you check now he will certainly bet or check down and have the better hand, either way you lose. Should you put a stab at it again ? You already have enough invested in the pot that you don’t want to let go. The river can be a hard place to decide whether or not to bluff. Usually if they called you out that far they will call to the river again, so unless you are increasing your bet substantially expect them to call.
If your up against a solid player you have to weigh your options, checking might be the best option because he’s already on to you and will call you out, on the other hand if it is a super-tight player you may be able to make them lay down on the river with a big bet even if they hold a solid hand.
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Part 3
Advice if you are of Average Ability
This is where most of us should fall. This is not to say that there are not large variations in ability even among average players. But, by definition, most poker players are of average ability. Remember the guidelines listed below are for the middle of the road average player. If you feel that you are closer to below average, adjust the numbers down a little. If you feel you are closer to above average, adjust them up a little. Just remember to read the advice section for players in the other skill ranges also, so that you do not adjust your numbers too much. We are, after all, talking about fractions of a percent here.
For the math challenged, there is a handy table at the bottom of the article changing percentage values into an easy division problem. Just remember this simple fact though – the numbers you are dividing your bankroll by are also the total number of sessions you can lose before burning through your entire bankroll. So, if you are playing at 2% of your bankroll and dividing your roll by 50 to get your money per session, you can only lose 50 sessions in a row before you are broke.
Another important point is that sngs and cash games typically have a lower variance than mtts. In layman’s terms, variance is the swings up or down that, from a math standpoint, are a normal part of random chance. For instance, one decent mtt win will throw your entire bottom line way over towards the positive. This means that if you play only mtts you need to give yourself more chances to win one than you do at sngs or cash. For players who play only mtts I suggest halving the suggested percentages. My golden rule here is that even an expert should only play mtts for 1% of his bankroll.
Use the guide in the section on Donk guidelines to help you convert your money per session into the appropriate cash game level.
1. A losing average player who plays to make money – Any time a player is not achieving his goal there is a problem to be addressed. Before we even talk about percentage values we need to find a way for you to become a winning player. The first step is one you have already taken as an RPT member, get help :o) Any losing player who wants to be a winning player needs to work on their game.
Spend up to 25% of your time and money on improving your game. Continue to play also, as experience is invaluable as a learning tool, but make sure you do everything you can to get your results in line with your goals.
As for your game level, you should try to play as cheaply as possible until you start booking more than a few winning sessions. If you can play less than 1% of your bankroll, so much the better, but do not play more than 1%. Once you start improving your bottom line you can adjust your percentage up, but only by a quarter of a percent at a time. So your first move is to 1.25%.
2. A losing average player who plays for fun – In many ways your case is similar to the one above. If you can have just as much fun playing cheaply, then please do that and stay at 1% of your bankroll maximum. If you really want to move up to higher limits to “make the game more exciting”, I still suggest not exceeding 1.5% at the highest.
The safest way for you to make the transition to higher limits is through improving your game. By now it should be clear that I feel investing in proper training is the best move for anyone playing poker. Even experts can benefit from good instruction. Once your game has improved enough to book more winning sessions, your level will naturally rise with your bankroll.
3. A break-even average player who plays to make money – It’s 7:00 am as I write this so my usual beer and cheesesteak have been replaced by a Burger King meatnormous omelet sandwich and a coffee, and I am struck by two things. One, my diet really needs work. And two, it’s funny how the largest class of players is also the hardest to give guidelines for.
As a general rule of thumb, truly average players should not exceed 2% of their bankroll per session. The real interesting thing is just how much those quarter percents between 1% and 2% change a player’s outlook. From the table below this article you can see that a player who plays sessions at 1% can lose 100 sessions before going bust. Bring that up to just 1.25% and the same player can now lose only 80 sessions. At 1.5%, 66 sessions can break you and at 2% that number goes all the way down to 50 sessions!
If you are following along with me you may be thinking that since 100 is much better than 50 you should just stick to 1%. The problem is that your goal is to make money and the higher levels you play, the more money you can make. So there are two fairly incompatible forces here that need to be weighed and balanced. If you are still with me here you now understand the reason why money management is not an exact science and the true meaning of “risk vs. reward”.
I strongly believe that poker is a game of skill and that, in the long run, the more skillful player will win the money. So my thought is that you should reward greater skill by taking more risk. But in general I am still very conservative. A good friend of mine and well know professional player believes that my numbers are almost twice as high as they should be. But even he agrees that better players should play higher limits.
My answer then is still conservative. Keep working on your game and adjust your percentages up as you get better. Start with no more than 1.5% and until you get to be an expert do not go over 2%.
4. A break-even average player who plays for fun – I hope you already read case #3 above because I am not going through all that again ;o)
The big difference here is your motivation. If you are playing strictly for fun then you do not have that pressure on you to move up so you make more money. The best advice I can give players who play for fun is this – play as cheaply as you can while still enjoying the game. Anywhere from 1% to 1.5% is probably optimal. As a teacher I also suggest you work to improve your game, but always keep your goal in mind and make it fun.
5. A winning average player who plays to make money – Please read case #3 above to get a better understanding of risk vs. reward.
Now that you have won some money and grown your bankroll a few interesting things happen. First of all, your increased bankroll automatically increases your play level. This is because I base my session amounts on a percentage of your bankroll. 2% of 10k is twice as much as 2% of 5k. I designed my system purposely to do this as I feel it rewards winning without increasing your risk.
Second, you can put aside some money for training and still grow your bankroll. Usually when you pay for things out of your bankroll, there is a trade off. Money spent is money not available for poker. Once you win enough though, you can set aside a portion and still have more than what you started with.
Third, both of the first two things lead directly towards growth in your confidence and ability. So the old saying that success breeds success is very true. So, you get to keep your play at 2%, use a portion of your winnings for training, and still move up in play level. Congratulations!
6. A winning average player who plays for fun – You should also start out by reading case #3 above.
The difference in your case is that, while you still enjoy all the benefits of case #5, you can make some other choices about your windfall. My suggestion is to take an amount equal to your original bankroll and either bank it or use it to buy yourself something. Then, if you are interested in improving your game, take at least the same amount and set it aside for training. You should now still have a lot more money to use for playing than you started with.
Since you are playing for fun, you can also start to explore the various other poker games. Many players find a game of 7 card stud to be very calm and relaxing after the crazy action of no limit holdem. Those who are cardsmiths at heart sometimes prefer omaha, as you need to play your cards much more so than in holdem. Whatever you decide is fine as long as you continue to have fun ;o)
How to figure out a percentage of your bankroll
1% - divide your total bankroll by 100
1.25% - divide your total bankroll by 80
1.5% - divide your total bankroll by 66
1.75% - divide your total bankroll by 57
2% - divide your total bankroll by 50
2.25% - divide your total bankroll by 45
2.5% - divide your total bankroll by 40
2.75% - divide your total bankroll by 36
3% - divide your total bankroll by 33
Part 2
Advice if you are a Donk (below average ability)
First of all congratulations are in order. Anyone who has the courage to admit, even to themselves, that so far they seem to be a donk, is already on the road to becoming a winner. After all, the hardest person to teach is the one who thinks they already know everything. If, using the questions from the intro to money management article, you fit into one of the categories below, here are some general guidelines.
First set aside at least 25% of your bankroll for training. As an RPT member you have taken a big step in the right direction. Continue your poker education by spending at least as much time watching the videos here and reading about the game as you do playing. Time management is intimately connected to money management. Hence the old saying – time is money.
When you do play, if it is at all possible, always play with less than 1% of your bankroll only. As an example, if you have an $8000 bankroll, first set aside $2000 for training. That leaves you with $6000 for playing. $6000 divided by 100 = $60, so do not put more than $60 into a session. Your best case scenario is to play as cheaply as you can, even going down to $10 or $5 sessions until you feel the training has begun to take your game at least up towards average. Once you have booked more than a few winning sessions and an objective analysis tells you that you are playing average poker, you can move up to the guidelines presented in that article. Use the table at the bottom of this article to convert your money available per session as figured above to the appropriate cash game. If you are a sng or tourney player just make sure your buy-in plus fee is less than your money available per session.
The fact that you are an RPT member leads me to believe that you also are interested in improving your game. If that is the case then you should also follow the above guidelines for time and money management and put some of your money and time into training. I find the videos here entertaining as well as informative, so hopefully this will keep you enjoying yourself as you learn.
However, allow me to get you to question your category. First of all, just how many sessions have you collected correct bottom line information from? If you have barely 100 sessions or less then it is true that short term luck may be the only factor in your results. If you have more like 500 or even 1000 sessions logged, then there may be another reason.
Remember the human capacity for delusion? Well, for some of us that works towards the negative as well as the positive. Just because you are not Doyle Brunson or even Todd Arnold does not make you a donk. After 26 years into the game and coming up on 21 years of documented wins I still feel like I have a lot to learn about poker. I read constantly, watch the videos here, and review and criticize my game daily. All I’m saying is that it is possible that you are a better player than you give yourself credit for – perhaps even average ability?
First of all, and most importantly, are you achieving your goal? Are you truly having fun playing? If your answer is anything but an emphatic yes, then, as above, you should consider expanding your efforts to improve your game. If you are motivated to do so, read the guidelines listed above in case #1 and #3.
Whatever the truth may be, you still have some extra money to manage now. Before you do anything else, set aside some of that money for training. Whatever your actual level of skill is now, you can always improve. The single best investment you can make in your long term poker finances is training. If you have won enough money, I’d even suggest hiring a private coach to both assess your current ability and work to improve your play. After setting aside some money for training, follow the guidelines from case #1 until your level of play improves to at least average.
Still, I would read all the cases listed above and make some decisions. Do you want to improve your game? Are you happy with your donkeyness? Do you think you could have even more fun as a better player?
If you decide to improve, you are in a great spot to do so. You have the extra money to hire a good coach and also continue to watch the videos here and even buy a few good poker books if you like to read. Just stay within the guidelines and don’t squander your good fortune.
Minimum Money Available to Cash Game Conversion Guide
$20 = .50/1.00 limit game = .10/.25 blind nlhe or plo
$40 = $1/$2 limit game = .25/.50 blind nlhe or plo
$100 = $2/$4 limit game = .50/$1 blind nlhe or plo
$200 = $3/$6 limit game = $1/$2 blind nlhe or plo
$400 = $5/$10 limit game = $2/$4 blind nlhe or plo
Introduction to Money Management
Part 1
It never fails. Inevitably, the first day of my lifeskills class on Money Management at Brookdale Community College somebody will ask me - What is Money Management? Instead of asking them why they signed up for a course about something unknown to them, I usually answer the question this way. In the broadest possible sense, money management is setting income against outflow and creating a budget. In some way we all deal with money. Some comes in (income) and some gets spent (outflow) and how we deal with it is money management.
So why is dealing with something as seemingly simple as this, hard enough many people who think they need it don’t even know what it is, and most people just cannot do it? The key word in that question is people. In a factory, if Robot A costs you $500 a day to operate and makes enough poker chips each day for you to sell for $450, then Robot A is losing you $50 a day and once you realize this, Robot A is history. In life, if your friend, Smilin Bob borrows $50 a day from you and never pays you back, well that’s a whole different story. First you tell yourself that one day he will pay you back. Next you remember that he is the guy who turned you on to Enzyte and natural male enhancement. For one reason or another people are very good at ignoring the truth when it suits them.
As an example, how many of us feel that we are good drivers? I raised my hand, did you? Well, if we are all good drivers then please explain to me just who are the idiots we all yell at in those other cars when they cut us off going 90 in a 45 zone while doing their makeup in the mirror and talking on their cell phones?
The truth is that we all delude ourselves. The golfer who puts down a 4 on his scorecard because the one that went into the water “didn’t count”. The dieter who eats the off limits brownie because she “was good all day”. The poker player who spends $500 on rebuys in a $50 tourney, squeaks into the money to win $200 and tells his friends only that he won $200. Try, for one minute to think of a time when you stretched the truth because it made you feel good. Way too easy, wasn’t it?
Now don’t get all mad at me. I’m not trying to tell you that making yourself feel good is a bad thing. Heck, I’m sitting here eating a cheesesteak and drinking a beer while I’m writing this, even though the doctor tells me I need to lose weight. What I am trying to tell you is this. If you want to be a long term winner as a poker player, you have to start by at least being honest with yourself. Lie to your friends, lie to your wife, lie to the dog if it makes you feel better, but be honest with yourself.
Let’s start with some honest record keeping – not the kind where a $500 buy-in and a $200 cash = a $200 win. For the purpose of keeping honest records, only the bottom line matters. Just take the amount you took out of a poker session and subtract the amount you put into that same poker session to get your bottom line for that session. So a $200 cash minus a $500 buy-in = a $300 loss for that session. Now do this separately for every poker session you play from now on and keep all your bottom lines either on paper or in a spreadsheet. Either weekly or monthly take a minute to get a running total.
One thing you should keep in mind as you do this is that this is not an indictment of your poker playing ability, this is only keeping track of your money. Just as 1, 50, or even 100 winning sessions does not make you a long term winner, the same number of losing sessions does not make you a long term loser. In math, the “long term” is a much bigger number than you can imagine. Poker skills are about making the correct decisions based on all your available information every time you act. Money management is about keeping track of your money.
We are now up to defining money management specifically for a poker player. To put this in layman's terms, the ups and downs that are a part of poker for everyone, NO MATTER HOW GOOD THEY ARE, force us to follow certain guidelines so we don’t go broke easily. Even if you follow these guidelines to the letter it is still possible to go broke, but you will have much less chance of it. So money management for a poker player is being able to follow a set of guidelines when deciding how much money you can invest in poker with the least possible chance of going bust.
These guidelines differ depending on a few factors. Things like your level of poker expertise, your bankroll level, your disposable income, and even the reason why you play poker all affect what levels you should be playing. So quickly, while you are still being honest with yourself, take a moment to answer a few questions.
1) If you have been keeping honest financial records for over a year, is your yearly bottom line positive or negative? Then take this a step further and do a little math. Add up all your buy-ins and then divide the total by how many sessions you’ve played. For example, if my total buy-ins over 100 sessions is $25,000, then I divide $25,000 by 100 sessions to get an average buy-in of $250.
If your yearly bottom line is less than ten times your average buy-in, either positive or negative, then for our purposes you are a break-even player. In our example with an average buy-in of $250 this means you ended your year anywhere from $2500 down to $2500 ahead.
If your yearly bottom line is closer to fifty times your average buy in than it is to ten times, then you are a winning or losing player. In our example with an average buy-in of $250, this means you ended your year closer to $12,500 up or down than you were to $2500 up or down.
If your yearly bottom line exceeds fifty times your average buy in by a lot, I sincerely hope that it is positive or you are wealthy. But for now, go ahead and place yourself as a winning or losing player.
2) Now, try to objectively judge your ability. Remember doing this will not brand the word “Donk” on your forehead. Nobody will ever know what is in your mind, so please try to be honest. Then, after you have labeled yourself as either Expert, Average, or Donk, get a few second opinions. Ask a few of your fellow players what they think of your ability. Try not to ask after you just sucked out with a 26 off against rockets, but do try to form a fairly objective opinion of your current ability.
3) Go over your finances carefully. Do you have money in savings or are you in debt? Are all your credit cards maxed out or all paid in full? After you pay all your monthly bills, do you have money left over or are you constantly wondering how you are going to make ends meet? Do you have a steady income from sources outside of poker or are you otherwise unemployed?
The truth is, most of us fall somewhere between these extremes. If, after going over your finances, you find that you can comfortably say you have some money left over for the year, call that your bankroll. If you have been honest in going over your finances, your bankroll will be the amount of money you can play with for the year.
Note – If you are a professional who plays for a living with no other source of income then that is a special case and, unless you are starting off in debt, you should skip this step.
4) Now complete this line “I play poker because …” If your answer is “to make money”, then your total bottom line had better come out positive. If your answer is “to have some fun” then you should make sure that you are having fun playing. After all, setting goals and then achieving them is one of the things that makes life rewarding. If you are not achieving your goal, then start working on it. Read some of the excellent poker literature, join an online training site, or find a mentor or private teacher to help you work on your game.
You should now have a basic profile of yourself complete. It might say be something like, average break-even player who plays for fun with a $5,000 bankroll, or losing donk who is desperately trying to win enough money to get himself out of debt (hands off – that profile’s mine!). The next step is to read all the specific suggestions in the upcoming articles, but pay the most attention to those for your profile.
