Is Bankroll Management the Most Important Skill to have in
Poker?
To get to the top
in the poker world, players need to have a well-rounded skillset that
encompasses all manner of things, from mathematical ability to the perception
of psychological cues. Perhaps one of the most overlooked attributes to have,
though, is a strong understanding of bankroll management. Professional players
who have started with virtually nothing have hit the big time by carefully
planning how to use the money they have available to them at a certain time.
Before getting into any form of poker, it is crucial to have a clear strategy
in this regard.
You may be wondering what bankroll management is
exactly. When you play poker, you should have a budget set aside which is
completely separate from your monthly living expenses. It should be an amount
that you can afford and which wont leave you struggling for the rest of
the month if you
take it away from your budget. This sum of money is your
bankroll, and you need to consider how you are going to use it wisely. If you
use all your bankroll before the end of the month, you need to wait until you
get paid and then start again.
For the purposes of this article,
lets say that you are starting off with a £100 bankroll. You need
to consider how you can use that money most efficiently and give yourself the
best chance of making it grow. Its important to stress that this should
be a gradual process. Theres no point blowing your whole bankroll on one
or two tournament buy-ins, because if you lose then you are left with nothing.
If you invest lower sums of money into tournaments and then lose, you will
still have a hefty chunk of your bankroll left to invest. A general rule of
thumb is that your bankroll should give you one hundred buy-ins. So with a
stack of £100 you want to be paying in to £1 tournaments. These
games are easy to find. At Paddy Power, for instance,
there is a wide range of games with varying buy-ins.
Some well-known
players have shown how careful bankroll management can be lucrative. Doug Polk
is one of the most famous online poker players, and is considered by some to be
the best online player in the world. The American has a long-running YouTube
channel which gives amateur players tips on how to improve their game. Polk
challenged himself to turn $100 into $10,000, and documented
the long and gruelling process. The 30-year-old demonstrated how it wasnt
easy to increase the bankroll, and it needed to be done extremely gradually.
There are swings of luck that players cant plan for as well, regardless
of how skilful they are.
Before getting into the world of online poker,
make sure you have a clear strategy when it comes to your bankroll. And
remember, building it up is likely to be a long and gradual
process.