Cash games / bankroll management - advice please

[Santino67]

Hi Stuart

I"m playing 25c/50c on Betfair. Sometimes leave table with $150 sometimes with a big fat Z. Think the important thing is to ensure over a period of time that you"re in profit and maybe set a weekly target if you play regularly. I originally started with £50 and played on /10c table to ensure i had more than 5 buy-ins. After getting to $150 I went to /20c table and now moved up to 25c/50c a while ago.

I"ve now got $400 in my bankroll and previously withdrew £200 back into my bank. I"m now looking at hitting over $500 to enable me to have a shot at the 50c/$1 table.

There will be times that you just run into big hands/don"t get many good starting hands/play poorly/have an aggressive table (great when you get cards, sucks when you don"t) and you just have to admit defeat and leave the table. If though you"re playing well and feel you"ve got the measure of the table then why leave after making a small profit? By all means leave after at least doubling your buy-in but only when you"re satisfied the timing"s right (length of time at table/tiredness/other issues)

Would also be a good idea to look at some of Monkeyman"s "Am I A Fish" blog as he"s analysed his own cash table play quite a bit.

[SirPercival]

Hilger"s Inside The Poker Mind has a long discussion about this.  Also other poker psychology books, no doubt.

I think you may have 2 nooks mixed up here namely:

The Poker Mindset by Ian Taylor, Matthew Hilger
Inside the Poker Mind by John Feeney

I haven"t read either so would welcome your (and others) view on which one to buy first.

[mal666]

Everything Eck said about buying for the max + topping up is spot on,for stop loss think buyins rather than blinds ie your playing .25/.50 with a full 50$ your effectively playing micro stacked if you plan on quitting at 40$. A more reasonable approach would be to stop at 2 full buyins down wich isnt unusual regardless of how well your playing in the actual session these swings will occur.
btw i love the fact you took a shot at 2/4 with 1 buyin your the new me, double or nothing drunken cash games are great fun.(i do hope you were drunk)
 

[oneill1970]

I think you may have 2 books mixed up here

Er, yes, you"re quite right!  The Poker Mindset is the one I meant.  I haven"t yet read Inside The Poker Mind, but the Hilger was pretty good, I found.  It pushes home their key points to remember about poker, and I find it quite reassuring to dip into when I"m having a bad time of it, thinking I can"t play and so on...

...which is most of the time!

[tonyj444]

My opinion only, I am not a cash player, but is buying in short not a sign of lacking confidence in case you lose etc?

Personally I don"t buy into cash-games short but I don"t agree that this necessarily signifies a lack of confidence.  Your stack-size plays a big part in what strategies are available to you (generally shorter stack means you have to play tighter).  I don"t think buying in short has to be due to a lack of confidence, it could simply be a recognition that this style of poker is how you are most profitable. 

If you plan on playing lots of hands (suited connectors etc.) you"ll probably want the full buy-in but if you"re only playing premium then a shorter stack cuts down your opponents implied odds and makes it incorrect for them to play hands such as suited connectors against you (this doesn"t mean that they won"t though).

[kinboshi]

will continue to look for ways to maximise the wins and minimise the losses.

Keep making good decisions and the cards will more or less even themselves out over time.  Ignore the short term results as long as you know your decisions are correct.

This.

Although it"s impossible to do this if you"re playing scared (i.e. if you"ve doubled-up for example and you"re worried that if you lost the whole stack in front of you it"s hurt your roll, etc.).

I find that some of the losing runs I"ve been on have been due to trying to change the way I play too radically.  I"ve taken on board good advice from several quarters - but then tried to bring it all into play at once - and failed.

Sometimes it can be an idea to go back to what was working, and then make small, incremental changes.  Evolution over revolution.