As I stated in my previous article, I realized that I really needed to develop a strategy to manage my bankroll. This strategy is still evolving but here is what I have done so far.

First, I record all wins and losses every day account by account. Typically I play ring games on Party Poker and Empire Poker and tournaments at Ultimate Bet and Poker Stars. Each of these sites have a line in my spreadsheet. Of course I have a lot of daily swings so I try to look at results by the week. Each week I then analyse the results. Where did I make money? Where did I lose money? What are my poker tracker stats for the week?

This seems quite basic but it is important to see where you are doing well and where you have poor results. For example I realized that tournaments were draining my bankroll and that short-handed play was costing me a lot of money.

Monthly I make a statement with the results using the following columns:
1. All deposits made during the month.
2. All bonuses earned during the month.
3. Monthly beginning balance (1+2 plus ending balance of last month).
4. Monthly ending balance.
5. 4-3
6. Tax 25%. This is a very important part of my strategy. Jumping limits can be nice but is also risky. Imagine you play all the way to 15/30 and you have a 10k Bankroll. You fall on a losing streak and lose all!! Imagine the feeling. All those hours and nothing in your bankroll. That’s why I use a 25% “tax”. For example, if I earn $200 at Party Poker, my tax will be $50. The bankroll “tax” is money I get to put in my pocket, even if I lose on other accounts. If I am down $50 on another account I simply put 0. This strategy ensures that I get some money back even if I lose my bankroll at other accounts.
7. Cash out Deposit. Do it as soon as you can. I prefer playing with other players’ money, :)
8. Cash out Bonus. This is a matter of choice but I also put the bonus in my pocket. This is why they are called Bonuses…a “Bonus” for playing poker :)
9. The net result or your modified bankroll. 5-(6+7+8)

I opened a Neteller account to transfer the money between accounts which I find works quite well.

Once I know my results, the second part of my bankroll strategy is to determine how many big bets I need to jump to a new limit. Matthew states in his book that a good player who ought to earn 1BB/hour with a normal standard deviation needs 350 big bets to ensure never going broke. I decided to use 500 big bets in a particular limit before going up. I currently am playing $2-$4 so I need 2K before trying $3-$6. That 2k will become 333BB in $3-$6. My plan is to go back to $2-$4 if ever I get under 250BB. This may look kind of conservative but doing that gives you the time to learn!!

November adventure

November was a great month for several reasons. First I won my first tournament on Poker Stars and that was really a great feeling. Although it was only a $2 buy-in, there were 550 player registered for that tournament. The day after this win I finish 4th in a $10 limit tournament with around 500 players also. Those were two exciting days! I also played a lot of sit & gos on Poker Stars and ended with a 40% ROI on over 35 $5 and $10 tourneys.

The second reason is that I had a really good month playing $2-$4. I made $446 during 28 hours for a 4BB/hour on average. This rate is quite high so I definitely was getting great cards…but looking at my stats I think my play has improved also. Before reading Matthew’s book, I was seeing 30-35% of the flops on average whereas now I see like 13% when not in blind and 25% overall. From the blinds you get to play a lot of hands when the game is not very aggressive pre-flop. I hope to continue with these kinds of stats to hopefully see similar positive results overall. I plan on starting to play two tables at a time in December to see how things work. This may be a little early but I think it is worth a try.

I ended November with a little more than a $600 profit overall which is really nice. And after my 25% tax, I was able to cash out half of all my deposits. Withdrawing all of my deposits is a goal of mine and hopefully the poker gods will be on my side in December to reach my goal. I also plan to play more ring games in December and fewer tournaments. The road to the high limits is still far away from me but if I can keep learning and improving each month I hope to reach them soon.< /p>

To summarize, be sure to develop a bankroll strategy that works for you. I think it is important to also reward yourself at least a little each month for your efforts. Track your results and be sure to analyze your play to determine where you should focus your efforts.

PS: I would like to add special thanks to Matthew who helps me edit these articles to correct my English. Believe me…it is no easy task. I also want to thank all the players for posting on the Forum. I like the hand examples a lot, especially those from Pilchard :). This is very pedagogic and I enjoy reading them as I think they are a great way to improve your game.

You can learn more about Bertrand in his Member Spotlight