Bankroll Management - Turning Pro

 

I have touched in my previous article the Basics behind Good Bankroll Management in this article in intend on giving a far more complex detailed and real life look into the bankroll that is required to play profitable poker at a set limit

Many players look to try and play professional poker with the figures that I stated in the previous article. However those figures are purely meant to be for players that use poker as a recreational activity or as a little thing on the side to earn them a little bit extra cash. To actually make poker a full time job is a totally different matter, because you have to then take into account that what ever you earn from poker and you bankroll is the money you have to live off each month, unless you have a large amount of savings.

So with everything you have to prepare and expect the worse, if you are going to survive playing poker full time. This article is merely showing you the true responsibility of making poker your full time occupation; it is not designed to put you off the idea of taking up something you love as a job. Instead it is here to better educate you on the implications that can be caused through this new and exciting carer path.

I want to show you some scenarios that can better illustrate the point behind keeping you head on top of not only your bankroll but your monthly outgoings that your bankroll is now starting to cover.

Just say that you have a medium sized bankroll for a player that should be considering taking the game up full time of about $4000 it is not uncommon for professional players to go on long loosing streaks but I am going to illustrate this point slightly different say you have a bad month and break even.
 
This may not be a bad month for the recreational player but it is for you as your bankroll now has to cover your months outgoing without making any money just say as a ball park figure you spend on average $1000 a month on you car, food and other expenses. This means that you are $1000 out of pocket without actually loosing a penny while playing poker.

Say you make $1000 the next month that brings your bankroll back to $4000 but then again you have your living expenses so over two months your are $1000 down without really doing anything wrong. In order to try and claw you bankroll back up you need to cover your living expenses and a bit more depending on the limit you are playing at this can some times be easier said than done.  

You may be able to climb yourself out of you bad patch and start making money again which is obviously a great position to be in but consider if the rut carries on and you are at best covering your months outgoings, but more likely than not you are at a loss take for example you get yourself down to only having $1000 in your bankroll you need to break even just to cover living for the next month but doing that means you have no money left and you have officially bust out to try and ensure that this doesn’t become the case I would advise you to have at least two but preferably 6 months living expenses readily available separate to you bankroll giving you a “safe” roll for if you ever get your self into a loosing streak.

Full most living comes first if you continue to consistently loose and you find out you cannot beat the game you once thought you could the best piece of advise is to get out with enough money to maintain your standard of living while you find your self another occupation, playing professional poker requires much more capital then many people think and before you consider playing it you need to take these factors into consideration and also take into consideration that playing I have given mild cases you could easily loose $4000 in a single month it is things like this that you need to have the reserves to accommodate for if that is not the case my advise is to just leave the game you love as a recreational activity or just something to play of an evening and only peruse as a carer if you have accounted for the worst case scenario and feel you can cover yourself during it.

Part 1 - Bankroll Management - The Basics

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