I just withdrew the entire ~$900 CAD in my Neteller account, leaving ~$200 USD in Pokerstars, ~$100 USD in Titan, and another unclaimed ~$100 USD in Dream poker from the freeroll a while back that I haven’t cleared yet.

My reason for withdrawing was that basically, I went on a big losing streak, and although I’ve been doing fine lately, I needed a change.

I wasn’t valuing my bankroll, as all I saw was digits on a screen. I needed to see the winnings in person to make me fully understand how much money I was dealing with. It sounds silly, but this whole ride with online poker has been pretty much a video game to me. Sure I know I’m dealing with real money, and in large amounts (by my standards at least), but I haven’t had the full impact of seeing the $1000+ that I’ve made so far. I can’t remember the poster’s name, but a newer member to the forums mentioned that he keeps a $20 bill, ripped in half on the wall above his computer for every losing week he has. This keeps his mind focused and makes sure he realizes the fact that he’s dealing with real money!

With the size of my bankroll (roughly $1500), I’ve played just within my BR limits with the rule of %5, but even so the impact of a few losses in a row was enough to tilt me, and thus put me in an even longer losing streak. This happened several times, and the only thing I could do was take a break to forget about it. My new plan that I hope to stick to very closely and religiously is not to play with more than %5 of my bankroll at any given time, or even less if I can help it. With around $200 in Pokerstars, I plan on playing strictly $5 SnGs and $4 MTTs until my bankroll is up to about $300, then I’ll start playing $10 SnGs and stick to the $4 MTTs, as the next level up for them is $20 - too big for my BR.

As soon as I reach ~$500 (if I do), then I’ll be taking out any winnings that go above that. At that level, %5 of my bankroll will be $25, and I know I can win consistently at the $35 level, BR size-allowing, so I’ll be fine to stick there until I’m confident enough to make a strong profit at the next level.

This is just a progress report post, more so setting new rules for myself, but I just thought I’d let you all know since this is the ‘Chuck’s bankroll progress’ section of the blog :).