One of the problems for serious Holdem players who have limited playing experience grapple with is knowing how much of a session bank roll is going to be needed to sit down at a particular table. That is followed by how big of a total bank roll is needed. The frustration of being a newer player is limited experience of bankroll size. Watching players at the table is all they really have to judge how many big bets may be needed per session.
Some players peel off bills like they grow on trees. Others leave when they have lost their minimum buy-in. When I first started out, I used the wag system. I am playing $1 – 5 Stud, so sixty dollars is more than enough to sit down at the table with. After all the initial buy-in is only $20.00, so if I have three times the buy-in that should be plenty of money.
As Stud started sliding to the wayside and Holdem was gaining ground, I started to understand the initial buy-in didn’t mean very much. The low buy-in was to make it possible for someone curious to sit down, risk the minimum dollar amount and have the pleasure of being able to say they sat down at a poker table, and played poker!
As I was more lucky than I was skilled, I slowly started growing my bankroll. I also started to notice that sometimes my $60.00 was more than enough and other times, I was on my home after running out of money early in the session. On those trips home, without any real skill at making a bankroll size, I decided maybe $80.00 would be enough to cover those times when $60.00 was not enough.
Eventually, I realized that there were times in Holdem when $80.00 was barely enough to survive a few hands, let alone have any chance at winning a hand and entering the green side of the money number line. I was still making a profit over the month, so I decided to boost my session bankroll to an even $100.00. After all, Benjamin’s sure feel good when you pull one out of your wallet, and hand it over the to the cashier for chips, knowing that they are only holding it for you, and you will be back for plus the interest received when you are done playing for the day.
I moved up to $4 – 8 Holdem around that time from a spread limit game. Holdem was indeed good for my bankroll, and my play was improving too. Unfortunately other players were improving and their level of aggression was going up too. My session money doubled to two dimes, and after that three dimes. I thought $300.00 was sufficient for any game I might encounter. Until the night I sat down and the table was unusually aggressive. By the end of the first button rotation I was pulling out my third and final Benjamin out of my wallet and asking for chips.
So how much does a session of poker really cost? The Floor (Poker Room Manager) where I play suggests ten times the minimum buy in. Some players suggest ten to fifteen times one big bet. Others look in their wallet, and decide from there.
The truth of the matter is there are no hard and fast rules to how big your session bankroll should be. There are a number of deciding factors though. In no particular order: Your comfort zone, table dynamics, skill level, time of day, day of the week, total size of your bankroll, playing style.
Two hard and fast rules are do not play with more than you can comfortably afford to lose, and never play higher than you can afford. What you can afford is money you can throw into the trash can and not think about it again.
If you are playing Low Limit Holdem casually, whatever you show up with at the table that you can lose without harming the rest of your life is the correct bankroll. For many starting players, they make a decision between a Friday Night Holdem game or partying with friends.
For more serious players, as your bankroll grows, your experience should be growing too, and you know what table types you are comfortable with. As long as you stay in the parameters of the types of tables you are comfortable with, you know what you need for a bankroll at the limit you play. If you continue to grow your bankroll, protection of your bankroll is as important as session money. By the time that happens, you will have a pretty good poker knowledge base, and you will be accustomed to managing your bankroll and your session money.
