Discipline is key to long term success in poker, as is bankroll management. In this article we take a look on combining the two and taking a break from poker to improve your game.
In an earlier article we took a look at the Chris Ferguson Challenge, where long time poker pro Ferguson took a starting balance of zero and worked it up to $10,000. It took him a year an a half, but he did it. This time we take a look at an approach to playing poker that is a bit different -- not playing.
If you start off with a small bankroll, or have taken a hit to your larger roll, you are limited to the games you can play, if you are being smart about it. In a cash game the standard practice is to have 100 times the big blind (some say both the big and small blind combined) to give you enough flexibility to withstand the ups and downs of hours of play. This is your GAME bankroll, by the way, not everything you have in the poker account.
Using this model you could only play a $0.50/ $1 game if you could afford to bring $100 to $150 to the table, and if that taps out your bankroll you shouldn’t do it at all. On the other hand you don’t have the patience to sit in micro limit games like one and two cents; no matter how hard you try, you can’t take the game seriously enough to win often enough to build your bankroll.
Instead of beating your head against the wall, try using a poker savings account instead. Set aside money every paycheck to add to your bankroll.
Keep it in your savings account in your bank until you have the amount you want -- then you can take advantage of reload or new player bonuses when you do deposit the money.
This way you take a break from playing, build up your bankroll from savings, get a nice bonus, and now can play in the limits you like.
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