Bankroll Management And Bills

[Unclechewy95 0]

I've read a lot on bankroll management, but the one thing I have not found (maybe haven't looked hard enough) is how do you management your bankroll and your bills. What i mean is, if your bankroll drops due to a couple of bad sessions, what rules do you use for building it back up without neglecting your monthly obligations? I'm of course talking about those where poker is their only source of income. Hope this makes sense.

[FCP Bob 1,312]

There aren't really hard and fast rules that I'm aware of.

 

The one piece of advice I would give is to not spend money when you are running good. Almost everybody who plays poker thinks that the money will keep flowing in like it has been when you are running good but the reality is that it won't and overspending when times are good has ruined a lot of poker player's bankrolls.

[Vegas Knights 54]

You could try this, never lose more than 5% of your playing bankroll in one day. So if your playing bankroll is $5000, you discipline yourself to never lose more than $250 in one day. If your bankroll drops to $4000 never lose more than $200 in one day. At $2000 you never lose more than $100. Doing this helps guard against a disastrous day while you slowly work to increase your bankroll. Easier said than done though.

[Jam-Fly 8]

Ideally, you should have separate bankrolls - a 'poker' br and life money. Life money should be for bills etc. poker br should be for poker, and if things are going really well and you can afford to withdraw form your bankroll and still comfortably play your current stakes/move up as you please, you can take a little from your poker br for real world luxury spending.

 

If your money is all the one and poker money = real world money, there's not much you can do. Assuming your monthly expenses are essentials like rent, food, gas etc. then they simply have to be paid. It means your poker bankroll decreases and you may have to drop down in stakes to continue playing comfortably.

 

If you're in a situation where you're consistently winning at poker, but your bankroll isn't getting any bigger, you have to take a look at things. Your spending is probably too high and just simply have to cut back. If your spending genuinely cannot be cut back, then you're not making enough from poker to support your lifestyle, so keep poker as a hobby/side income until you can make enough to more-than-comfortably support yourself.