Decisions, Decisions!

During Fan Appreciation Weekend 2008, Sazzy asked me how much money I needed in order to play poker professionally.  It’s a good question; every player, even the very best, experience the inevitable ups and downs that come with gambling.  With poker, you want to do two things:

• Play better than your opponents.
• Have a big enough bankroll to survive inevitable losing streaks.

I answered Sazzy’s question saying that I would feel safe with $50,000 – as long as I’m debt free and have a separate emergency fund with 3-6 months of expenses set aside.

It is a general rule of thumb that you should have about 300 big bets to play limit poker.  So for instance, if you regularly play $3/$6 limit, you want to have a bankroll with at least $1800 ($6 X 300 = $1800).  This ensures that if you’re playing better than your opponents (a big qualifier there), you should be able to survive most losing streaks.

I’ve almost always kept my bankroll at right around $2000, thinking that it was about the right amount for $3/$6 limit.  Anything above and beyond that, I used for gadgets or poker supplies for my home poker room.  Lately my friend (The Consigliere) has encouraged me to start playing at higher limits, like $8/$16 at Diamond Lil’s in Renton.  The thing is, according to the 300XBB rule, I need $4800 to play seriously at the $8/$16 limit game.  Also, since moving up in limits generally means you’re playing with better players, the amount you make might decrease proportionally with the limit.  In other words, I average about $15/hr playing $3/$6.  That’s 2.5 X the Big Bet.  Playing with better players, I might only make 1 Big Bet per hour instead of 2.5; meaning if I were playing $5/$10 limit, that would only be $10/hr – actually be LESS than I make at $3/$6!

At any rate, I agree with my friend, except that I need to grow my bankroll before I can play seriously at $8/$16.  The thing is, I’m not really learning to play better at the $3/$6 tables – in fact, in many ways I may be picking up bad habits.  Still, it’s more profitable to me for the time being.

It’s an interesting decision:  do I play for money or do I play for experience?  If I play $3/$6, I’m trying to maximize my winnings and build a bankroll.  I’ve went with my friend to Diamond Lil’s and played $8/$16 for the experience, but always with the knowledge that I don’t really have a bankroll big enough for it.  Still, the experience is valuable.