Different Approach to Bankroll- auto replenishing "Fun Roll"

OK...I'm working out this idea as I type it.

I've read a lot about bankroll management, and I understand the purpose and wisdom. But I really think that "traditional" BRM guidelines make the most sense for professional players who are relying on poker for income, or who (for some other reason) could never scrape together another bankroll as long as they live. (maybe an ultimatum from wife. maybe a personal promise or challenge from a friend or relative).

I think there are many other players who, like myself, take poker very seriously and strive to improve our game and become/remain winning players, but are never considering becoming full time pros. Many of us have jobs which provide some disposable income and traditional strict BRM guidelines might be a little overkill for our goals and needs. Not that there would be anything WRONG with following traditional BRM, but can we explore the idea that for serious amateurs with consistent external income we might be able to be more lenient with an auto-replenishing "fun roll"?


Here's what I'm thinking.

You take a certain dollar amount or % of your monthly net income that you are willing to devote to your "fun roll". So, for me after all bills and expenses are paid in a month, after doing all the responsible and prudent things that a working mom should do, after saving for retirement, saving for a rainy day and saving for other family fun such as vacations, I have $150 a month left over that I can put into my "fun roll".

Fun roll management guidelines would be something like this: no more than 33% of your fun roll can go into any 1 SnG. No more than 20% of your fun roll can go into any 1 MTT. No more than 50% of your fun roll can go into any 1 cash game buy in.


on day 1 my fun roll would have $150.
- with a $150 fun roll I could play $50 SnG or a $30 MTT or buy in for 75bbs in a .50/1.00 cash table.

after the month I manage to break even. At the end of each month, you take 50% of your remaining fun roll and set it aside for a rainy poker day. you keep the remainder in there and add your next month's fun roll.

so on day 31 my fun roll would have 75+150 = $225
- with a $225 fun roll I could play a $75 SnG or a $45 MTT or buy in for 112bbs at a .50/1.00 cash table.

after 1 more month I manage to break even again. so I take half my remaining fun roll and set it aside for a rainy poker day ($112) and I keep the remainder $113 in there and add my $150 to it.

starting on day 61 my fun roll would have $263
-with a $263 fun roll I could play a $80 SnG or a $50 MTT or buy in for 60bbs at a $1/2 cash table or buy in for 100bbs at a .50/1.00 cash table.

you get the idea.

what about the rainy poker day fund? well, if at any time you go bust in a month you are allowed to access up to half of your rainy day poker fund for the remainder of the month. (after a cool off period. I'd say 24 hours is a good cool off period).

after 12 months, you can use any portion of the rainy day poker fund up to 100% to buy yourself into a "once a year" tourney. For me, this would be 1 or 2 wsop events.

If at any time during the year you go completely bust, then you are out of action until next month when your fun roll auto replenishes and you get to start over grinding the small stakes again.

I think the fact that many of US poker players with jobs don't get an opportunity to play a lot makes it so that spending up to half of your monthly bankroll in 1 night is not that big of a deal since we maybe only get to play a few times a month anyways. So, if you have a bad month you just play twice instead of the 4 or 5 times you normally would.

ideas? thoughts? feedback? anybody else employ a similar method? do you see any weakspots?

interesting idea

Well, I get what you're saying. The important thing is to find a system that works best for your personal situation.

I've seen similar discussions before on recreational play without the a specific plan laid out. What you're talking about as a recreational player is typically considered "budgeting" for poker instead of "bankroll management". When you have a specific budget each month for poker that is essentially a recreational expense, then bankroll management isn't important in the traditional sense. The point of bankroll management is to keep from making regular deposits.

As far as your suggestion for a specific plan for your poker budget, it could be fun overall, but the %s you would use for individual games are way too high for me. I like to multi-table and could easily play a dozen SNGs in a night. If I bomb out of 3, I would be done for the month!! No way that would work for me!! I still don't think I would want a buy-in to be more than 10% of my bankroll. I like the idea of the rainy day fund and using that to go play a bigger tourney.

Very interesting.. You have really put some thought into this. I am in a very similar situation and I might want to use. Thanks

I guess I should have mentioned this is intended for live play where multi tabling does not and cannot happen...thus limiting potential losses.

Yes it is more budgeting than bankroll management (although BRM us a form if budgeting as well...)

I guess the main element I was shooting for when dreaming this up is slowly moving up through the ranks based on skills and positive results and setting some profits aside to help mitigate variance.

But while pros must set aside some profits to pay living expenses...recreational players don't have to do that (we have jobs for that) so we can set that aside for whatever purpose we want, and I think that fact SHOULD give us a little more freedom in choosing events we want to play (provided there is a profit to spend)

So if we imagine a serious recreational player who wants to play some live poker and the cheapest MTT tourney is $50...if that player only has $150 a month expendible income...then according to traditional BRM. That player should save and wait for 2 years and 9 months to accumulate the bankroll necessary to play that tourney with 100 buy ins as typically recommended.

In the meantime, think of the opportunity cost of not learning and playing the game and gaining experience.

I'm trying to develop a realistic strategy for non pros to play and learn and improve while exercising some type of BRM...

Definitely open to suggestions and ideas on this topic...

BRM is important for any level of *serious* winning player, recreational or professional, especially once beyond the lowest micro stakes. Losing players, purely "entertainment" players, or players playing in the lowest penny stakes, don't really need to be concerned with BRM, although it's still a good habit to get into and practice even before you need to.

But some people confuse "bankroll" with what you have online at a given time. That's not your bankroll. Your true bankroll is however much you can afford to play with (and lose) across all sources, assuming you can access those funds for poker (i.e. deposit easily enough for online play). If I keep $1000 online but have $100K in the bank and am willing to gamble/lose $20K, then my BR is $20K, not $1000.

Live or online it technically doesn't matter, nor does single tabling vs multi-tabling. Multi-tabling doesn't particularly affect BRM considerations for a winning player. Some people do like a little extra padding when massively multi-tabling, especially when first increasing tables and finding their true winrate because they'll likely suffer some early downswings, but once you're settled in and winning regularly it's no different than single table BRM.

You know what, many of us think we can hang in and make a few bucks at the tables. The reality of online poker is that its a crapshoot. You have to take into account that many players do not play by any odds or real poker strategy. That limits our chances to win $$ on a consistent basis. If you have a day job, I suggest its beast to play for fun and possibly a few bucks here or there. Not a career option. Just my opinion

missjacki said:

I guess I should have mentioned this is intended for live play where multi tabling does not and cannot happen...thus limiting potential losses.

Yes it is more budgeting than bankroll management (although BRM us a form if budgeting as well...)

I guess the main element I was shooting for when dreaming this up is slowly moving up through the ranks based on skills and positive results and setting some profits aside to help mitigate variance.

But while pros must set aside some profits to pay living expenses...recreational players don't have to do that (we have jobs for that) so we can set that aside for whatever purpose we want, and I think that fact SHOULD give us a little more freedom in choosing events we want to play (provided there is a profit to spend)

Click to expand...

Ok, this makes a lot more sense as a live strategy. I think it's very realistic in that context when you'll realistically only play a few times a month and it's only 1-2 BIs whenever you go play.

If I were to lose my months allotment on the first day playing online, I would go crazy. If I couldn't play any more live for the month after a couple of days I would be fine!

I'm just a little insane though. Poker is completely recreational for me, but I feel guilty losing any money I've earned. I'm just in a place with my finances where there are better places to put my money than gambling. However, I love poker and I'm willing to put in a significant amount of time. Before when I wanted to play live I would just take a couple hundred and head to the casino. Didn't keep track of my wins/losses. It was just fun time. I want to start applying my online bankroll discipline to live play, because I have less money but more time to play right now.

So here's where my strategy is at. I have several bankrolls online I've built from freerolls. I don't play in anything more than 5% of my bankroll, and I keep track of my winnings and withdraw 10% of my total cashes. I'm going to start putting those withdrawals into a separate account for live poker and use the same online BRM rules.

I know, this strategy isn't realistic for most recreational players. But, I have fun playing around with BRM. The strategy I've come up with makes me prove to myself I'm a winning player, and more importantly that my hobby isn't costing me money. The process is part of the enjoyment I get out of poker.