Player's Stories

Never Go Broke
By Bill Moloney

That is the promise I made to myself 6 years ago.

Sometime ago Al Spath asked me to share my bankroll management feelings with the group. For those of you who don't know Al, he is a PSO faculty member who specializes in teaching beginners. The beginning player will either get over the hump and become a consistent winning player or he will get tired of the losses and fall by the wayside. Al is a big help to all players at this level.

I loved this game from the start and decided when I retired I wanted to play poker full time. To do this I had to be a winning player. I didn't have to make enough money to live on, I just had to continue to show positive results so that my plan made sense.

For the benefit of the new players let me explain bankroll management and the theory of "gamblers ruin". If you play a game where you have a positive advantage but have the possibility of losing, your long term chances for success will be directly proportional to the size of your bankroll. Even a casino with their built in advantage will go bust if they dont have adequate cash to sustain the inevitable ups and downs.

I started playing low limit live and online about 6 years ago. In live play I started at $3/$6 and online I started with $5 & $10 sats. I vowed I would never move up in limits until I had a bankroll of 200 times the big blind for the game I wanted to play. There is alot of talk about how much bankroll you need. I play a very low variance game so 200 X BB is more than adequate for me. People have tried to calculate the probability of a winning player going broke with this type of bankroll. I can tell you, in my case, I believe it to be close to zero. After 6 years my bankroll has never suffered even a 30% setback.

LIVE PLAY CASH

I don't get to play live that often so I spent almost 4 years playing $3/$6. When I was $1,600 ahead from that game I moved up to $4/$8. I knew I was ready for $10/$20 and I could afford to play at that level with my own money but my poker bankroll was not yet ready.

I played $4/$8 for a year until I had the $2,400 necessary to move to $6/$12. I have played $6/$12 for a few months. I am currently at $2,780 on my way to the $4,000 I need to play $10/$20.

ONLINE TOURNAMENTS

Thanks to PSO I have learned to play No Limit tournaments. This is all I play online. I play at Bugsys and one other site. I started at Bugsys with $400. I rolled some of my winnings at Bugsys into the other site. After taking out my original $400 I now have $1,984 at Bugsys and $3,440 at the other site. Even at these bankroll levels I usually enter sats or multi table tournaments with entry fees of $20 or less. The only exception is the $50+$5 Sunday tournament at Bugsys. I have played this maybe 6 times and cashed half the time including a win so I have a special love for this particular tournament.

LIVE TOURNAMENTS

Unfortunately I don't have accurate records for this area. Since I always lost for the first few years I funded this out of my own money. I played in lots of low buyin events to gain experience. In the last 6 months I have cashed for $1,000 and for $750. I put this back in my pocket. My gut feeling is that I am even at live tournament play but Im just not sure. This is not expensive. I don't enter anything over $100 unless PSO sponsors me (TY MARK). My plan here is to fund this area out of my pocket until I score a good win. When that happens I will have the fun of managing yet another bankroll.

I keep my live and online bankrolls seperate. Although I would be willing to lend one side money from the other side, the need has never come up.

I never add or remove money from these bankrolls. I never co mingle them with my personal money. I never consider the bankroll my money. Let me tell you it makes a huge difference in how you play when you dont play with your own money.

I realize my way is far too conservative for alot of you. I do hope hearing about this very disciplined approach helps some of you. As they say, "It works for me"

Bill Moloney is a PokerSchoolOnline Member