Great News

[JDMcNugent7]

Well maybe just for me, but I am excited to tell you all that i have finally.......
learned to play poker WITHIN MY BANKROLL!!!
YAY!
It's so much less stressful, I'm consistently winning, and making cashouts on Poker Stars about once a week.
One question tho - When can i safely move up to the next blinds and tourny buy in's ?
I have a good idea of when i would feel comfortable doing this, but is there any good rule to go by?

[Aequitas58]

How much money do you have?
What limits do you play?
Limit or No Limit?
Full Table, or 6-Max?

Etc etc etc.

Before anyone can help you, we need more information.

[ChipFish]

If you are so sure that you are playing within your bankroll, wouldn't you know the answer to when it would be safe to move up?

[Gordogg]

ChumpFish, the everloving smartass. According to Sklansky/Malmuth you are supposed to have 200 BB right? I think that's excessive. I'd say 100BB is sufficient, but what do I know?

[PShabi]

eh, it's more like 300BB Gordogg. 200 is definitely not excessive and 100 is definitely not enough.

I dropped 120 BB the first couple weeks of the month at my limit. You can drop 100 in 2 or 3 days if you do it right .

This is 3/6 limit, 6-max BTW.

I'd lean closer to 400 or 450 BB for 6-max.

[Gordogg]

See what do I know? You have to factor in the fish in my opinion. If the games are soft you don't need as many BB. I'm sure many will disagree but that's been my experience.

[Talking Poker]

100 BB is the absolute minimum to take a (possibly brief) shot at a higher limit, but 300 is the rule of thumb.

BTW, BB here refers to "Big Bets" - not "Big Blinds." So, to play $2/$4 limit, for example, you should have a $1200 bankroll (300 * $4).

[nutbag]

I think it depends on what type of "fish" you're talking about. The weak tight ones, you don't have to worry about much. But if you get into a juicy game with one or two maniacs, get ready for some variance.

I'm with pshabi for six max limit games. 300 is definately the lowest amount I'd take to a limit game.

You usually post NL hands though, and I don't know much about that, but 20-30 buy ins is what i remember reading. This is talking longterm bankroll mangement/second income though; if you're playing with more expendable money you can obviously have much more leeway.

[ChipFish]

My question was quite relevant to the original poster...
He states he has finally.......
learned to play poker WITHIN HIS BANKROLL!!!
How would he know if this is true?
Good guidelines: Limit 300BB
No limit 10-20 buy-ins (depending on aggression)
Successful tourney players will "Cash" 20% of the time (20/100)
Of those 20 cashes look for 1 final table on average.
Which brings about the question can someone make a living on MTTs alone?
Theoretically yes, Realistically Probably not.
A proper MTT bankroll should be in the neighbourhood of 100 times the buy-in.
Eg. you want to play $5+.50 MTTs Have $550 set aside for it.
Do people follow this logic? Not often. But there you have it.

As for winning $2 an hour I agree, Complete waste of time.
Pick up nothing but bad habits at the penny tables.
Play Freerolls, as much as possible.
And or play small buy-in SNGs.
After the first half hour or so most of the maniacs are out and you can play "somewhat" realistic poker for free.

After all that, I still want to know how he is so sure he is playing within his bankroll finally ( and for how long) if he is unsure of what "playing within" his bankroll even means.

[JDMcNugent7]

WOW, chipfish, can u overanalyze the situation anymore ?
Sorry i ever posted i was playing within my bankroll, I didn't mean it by any numbers or mathmatical formula, i mean i am playing where i FEEL COMFORTABLE. where i am okay with losing as much as i sit with. THAT-alone- is all i need to do to feel WITHIN MY BANKROLL.

Also, you said "Good MTT players look to hit the final table 1/100 times"? I really doubt it. That's a VERY weak goal to shoot for.

[Talking Poker]

Obviously it depends on the size of the field. Let's take an average field of 1000 entries though and say 10 people make the final table. 10/1000 = 1%. I would think a good player could do more than that... maybe 2%. But again, it really depends on the size of the fields.

[ChipFish]

Boldy boldy.