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Bankroll stress: how money rules shape decisions

The money you bring to a game affects which hands you play and which risks you take. A bankroll plan set in advance, as a handful of written rules, takes some of that pressure off the moment you are in.

By GeorgeLiPokerUpdated

Where does bankroll pressure show up in play?

In decisions that depend on the money rather than the cards. You fold hands you would normally play, you call too little, or you take a risk to get back to even. The cards in front of you did not change. The size of the buy-in against your bankroll did.

  • Folding hands you would normally play.
  • Calling too little in close spots.
  • Taking a bigger risk to get back to even.

Is a bankroll a plan or a feeling?

Make it a plan. Bankroll management is a set of numbers fixed in advance, not a sense of how comfortable you are. The pieces are a buy-in rule, a stop-loss, and rules for moving up and moving down. Once they are written, the question "can I afford this?" has an answer that does not depend on your mood.

What is risk of ruin?

Risk of ruin is the chance of losing the whole bankroll. It depends on the size of the buy-ins and on how much the game swings. The arithmetic behind swings is in the variance guide, which gives exact figures for losing runs at win chances of 40, 50 and 60 percent.

Which money rules should I write down?

  1. Buy-in ruleHow many buy-ins you want to hold for the game you play.

  2. Stop-lossHow many buy-ins you will lose in a session before you stop.

  3. Move upHow many sessions you will sample before you try a bigger game.

  4. Move downThe point at which you step back to a smaller game.

Write them when you are calm and keep them where you can read them. Together they answer where you play and for how long before a session starts.

How do I keep the money out of the hand?

Money rules answer where to play and how long. They do not tell you what to do with a hand. At the table, ask what the pot odds and the equity say, then act. The pot odds calculator and the call or fold pages give that price for every bet size and draw.

How does a stop-loss relate to variance?

A stop-loss is a rule about a run of losses, and the variance guide computes how likely such runs are. At a 50 percent win chance, a losing run of 5 appears somewhere in 100 independent trials 81.01% of the time. A trial can stand for a session, so a stop-loss set at a few buy-ins is a rule you should expect to meet, not an alarm that means something is wrong.

That is the useful way to think about the rule. It is written to be met on a normal bad day, with a plan for what you do next, so that meeting it is a step in the plan and not a surprise.

What should I write this week?

  1. Write your buy-in rule as a number of buy-ins for the game you play.

  2. Write a stop-loss for a session as a number of buy-ins, and when you will step back down.

  3. Write the move-up rule, with the number of sessions you will sample before you decide.

Questions

How many buy-ins should I hold?
The number is a personal rule fixed in advance. This guide shows you how to set your own from the game you play and how much it swings.
When should I move down?
When your written move-down rule calls for it. Set that rule before the session, so the decision is already made when the moment comes.
Does a bigger bankroll fix this?
A written plan matters more than the size of the number, because the plan is what tells you where to play and when to stop.