Poker Chip Money Management Your bankroll is probably the most important of all things to consider. Your poker bankroll may represent all of the money you have on you now or all of the money you have given yourself access to play with. Be very careful in considering what you are willing to risk. Make sure you bills are paid first and then you can play. There is a phenomenon called, “Scared Money” in which a player might be a really good or even a great player but, because of his/her financial situation, they are playing scared, i.e. folding when they should have stayed, being bet out easily, or not raising when they were supposed to. A savvy card player can quickly understand why scared money never wins, it can’t play the right way. As a side note, we win about 85% of the time overall and we know the game inside out. The real trick is to maximize your wins and minimize your losses because some days the river runs upstream.
This may be the most important thing to consider each time you play Texas Holdem Poker or any game of risk. Managing your poker chips will conserve and preserve your money and help to make you even more money over the long stretch. If you have ever gambled before then you have found yourself the next day saying, “Why didn’t I leave when I was up?” or “I should have left when I was winning”. Well, the next day you were right. You should have left when you were up but of course hindsight is 20/20. Nonetheless, there are things you can do to avoid these times and keep your shot at winning big going. Here is an example: You brought $300 and have access to $200 in your ATM. You know now with this amount of money you should probably play $5-10 holdem but if you hit the ATM first, you can have enough to properly play $10-$20 holdem. In this situation, if you have 2-3 hrs to spend, play the $10-$20, if you have the whole evening, maybe just play the $5-$10 poker game. Anyway for this brief discussion, you’re there for the night so you play the $5-$10. In 2 hrs, you find yourself up $300. It is a little early in the game for you but you have hit your goal so should you leave? If you have anything else to do and feel the run is over, then yes.
However, if you have nothing else to do and wish to play-on, go ahead just follow this rule. Small goal $200, big goal $400, you are currently up $300 so you can spare $100 and still hit your small goal. Stack the chips in separate piles or even better; ask the dealer to color up $200 of your $300. People won’t look at you too funny because you are accomplishing many things. You’re giving the dealer change which he always needs, you making your stack look a little smaller which will keep you or someone else from knocking them over, and your new colored chips will serve as a constant reminder of where you’re at, and to follow the money management system. It goes like this, up $300, play down to $200 or up to $400, up $400 play down to $300 or up to $500, up $500, play to $400 or $700, up $700 play down to $450 or up to $900, and so on. Always set a top goal and a bottom goal if you have achieved a win goal early. The best spin on this theory for the big win is, if you hit $500 on $5-$10 table, you can pocket $200 and go to the $10-$20 table with $300. It may be just an average stack at the $10-$20, but your potential to win more money quickly is greater. In this case, we would recommend you play the $300 up to $600 or down to $100. However, the key important thing is to leave at the moment or the very next hand after you have hit any one of the bottom tier goals. Going beyond the bottom goal is very risky and negates the entire purpose of money management. In fact, if you do go past your bottom tier goal, you are no longer playing money management, your just playing.
