Mark is the name, and I’m the owner and one of the main writers of Poker Bankroll Blog. The people behind Tips4poker.com have been nice enough to give me the chance to write a guest post for their site.
Before starting on the central topic for this article, I want to give a short introduction to my blog. Currently it has more than 350 articles covering topics like poker bankroll management, poker mathematics, poker strategy and much more. My ultimate goal is to become one of the top online poker article databases. I have in total 6 years of online poker experience which gives me plenty to write about. But since I run my blog on a hobby basis I don’t have enough time to write about everything myself. As a result, I have decided to give fellow poker writers the opportunity to contribute to my blog in order to build my article database and get different point of views on the many aspects of poker.
As far as I know, all poker players experience bad beats on a regular basis. The reason for this is that poker is in essence a game of probabilities (some critics will state it’s a game of luck but that’s because they don’t know better). Even if you’re ahead of your opponent with a J10 on a KAQ rainbow flop, there’s always the possibility she catches a Q on the river for a full house. The element of chance is the primary source of variance in poker. Variance combined with your poker abilities is what makes your stack size vary from hand to hand, and your bankroll fluctuate on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis. If you’re a poker beginner, negative variance will most likely be due to your lack of experience, but even poker pros have bad runs.
Sound bankroll management is your top weapon against variance and the associated risk of ruin. Clearly you’re much more likely to lose a 200$ bankroll playing two 100$ DON SNGs compared to playing 5$ SNGs. With sound bankroll management you will always have enough SNG buyins in your bankroll to survive bad runs. When it comes to SNGs, most experts recommend a bankroll around 50 buyins on the level you’re playing to minimize the risk of going broke in the long run. However, since the variance in DON SNGs is lower compared to regular SNGs it suffices to have 25 buyins.
Before you make your bankroll deposit, make sure you realize the consequences of your bankroll management choice. If your deposit is intended for quick thrills and the possibility of building a bankroll in no time, by all means go ahead and risk your entire bankroll on one DON SNG. Just be prepared for a low success rate. If, on the other hand, you’re looking to maintain your bankroll over a longer period of time then stick to the 25 buyin rule of thumb. By doing so you also make the choice to grind it out in small buyin SNGs until your bankroll is large enough to move up to the next level.
If you’re new to poker your chances of sustaining a bankroll will increase a great deal by learning all the poker rules. I’ve put together a series of articles describing all the knowledge you’ll need to start playing poker. You might also be interested to know there’s a new poker site available with freerolls every 15 minutes. I’ve written a review of High Pulse poker site where you can find more information.
