Hello folk.
This topic is related to bankroll management and tournament play. Not sure if this is the best sub-thread for this topic - if not maybe mods can relocate.
When I have a full day of poker lined up I will often have approximately 1/5th of my entire bankroll in play - once I have chosen all the events I decide to play in.
The point that makes me think this isn't BR suicide is the fact I'm spreading it out over roughly 15-20 events, and on average my ROI has been approximately 15+%.
I have been able to sustain/increase my BR while making small incremental withdrawals.
The question/discussion I'm interested in is;
Is this amount of BR in play at one time too much? Or do you think having that amount spread out in so many events makes this an acceptable +/- EV decision?
...it's not too much at play as, when you break it down, you're using ~1-1.5% of your total bankroll for each game you play, and that's fine. basic bankroll management for mtts suggest not spending more than 1% of your bankroll in an mtt, or to have 100+ buy-ins.
so, i don't think putting up 20% of your bankroll to play 15-20 mtts is bad. however, multi-tabling that many mtts or, if it's spread through out the day, playing multiple tables at once could lead to some -ev decision making just because your attention is so spread out. now if you run huds and you make decisions based on just stats alone, then you're probably fine. but, in general, i think if your attention is focused on too many mtts, you run the risk of making some -ev decisions a lot more than if you were to reduce the number of mtts you play at a time.
I have had several days (not in succession) of min-cashing in only 2-3 events - which resulted in about a 10% reduction in BR, however this loss is nearly always eliminated over the course of a week.
...that's just how it is. you're going to downswing sometimes and you're bankroll might dip sometimes, which is why bankroll management is so important. now, did you have several bad days because of variance, -ev decisions, or both? is hard to say but, again, there is the risk of making -ev decisions when you focus is spread out over a large number of mtts.
at the same time, being able to put in large volume of games allows you to get out of downswings a lot faster. you might go on a 40 mtt downswing in 2 days, but on day 3, you're back up again. whereas, in my case, i only play 2-4 mtts/day, so going on a 40 mtt downswing can take me between 10-20 days to get out of.
if your concern is about your bankroll dropping when you downswing, give youself a drop down point. for example, if you follow a 100 buy-in rule for bankroll management, you might set your drop down point to -15 buy-ins. so, any time your bankroll dips below 85 buy-ins, you drop down in stakes. so, lets say you play $1.10 mtts and the next lowest stakes is equal to .80 mtts. (by equal to, this could be direct .80 buy-ins or .20-.40 rb/a mtts, etc. bascially below $1.10).
so, now does this not only (likely) give more than 100 buy-ins (depending on stakes), but you prevent yourself from bleeding money if you are on a downswing, you're not chasing losses, and you don't compromise your hard earned money. even better is to keep setting drop down points as your downswing continues. this could mean the difference between losing majority or maintaining majority of your bankroll when the downswing ends. the more you want to preserve your bankroll, the stricter your bankroll management should be. there is nothing wrong with following a 200 buy-in plan with a -10 buy-in drop down to maintain your bankroll when you hit bad downswings.
Also interested in reading others accounts BR management of regs who play MTTs.
...this is interesting because a) i play casually and b) i don't play higher than equal to $2 mtts. so, my bankroll management is a bit more lenient. also, there aren't a lot of buy-in games where i can i drop down from $1 mtts, so that's pretty much my lowest buy-in point. and i'm comfortable with having as low as 20 buy-ins at that stake (if it happens, usually after i cash-out) and i've gotten as high as having 600+ buy-ins for $1 mtts, too.
because my goal is just to play for fun, make a bit of money in the process while putting low volume, and don't plan to move up in stakes, i'm fine with a bit of an extreme bankroll management plan. if my goal was to move up in stakes, then having 600+ $1 buy-ins or 300+ $2 buy-ins might be a bit excessive.