Advice if you are a Donk (below average ability)
First of all congratulations are in order. Anyone who has the courage to admit, even to themselves, that so far they seem to be a donk, is already on the road to becoming a winner. After all, the hardest person to teach is the one who thinks they already know everything. If, using the questions from the intro to money management article, you fit into one of the categories below, here are some general guidelines.
1.A Losing donk who plays to make money - Obviously this is a worst case scenario. You are a losing player with below average ability yet you desire to earn money playing the game. As with all players of below average ability, this case calls for the less than 1% rule.
First set aside at least 25% of your bankroll for training. As an RPT member you have taken a big step in the right direction. Continue your poker education by spending at least as much time watching the videos here and reading about the game as you do playing. Time management is intimately connected to money management. Hence the old saying - time is money.
When you do play, if it is at all possible, always play with less than 1% of your bankroll only. As an example, if you have an $8000 bankroll, first set aside $2000 for training. That leaves you with $6000 for playing. $6000 divided by 100 = $60, so do not put more than $60 into a session. Your best case scenario is to play as cheaply as you can, even going down to $10 or $5 sessions until you feel the training has begun to take your game at least up towards average. Once you have booked more than a few winning sessions and an objective analysis tells you that you are playing average poker, you can move up to the guidelines presented in that article. Use the table at the bottom of this article to convert your money available per session as figured above to the appropriate cash game. If you are a sng or tourney player just make sure your buy-in plus fee is less than your money available per session.
2.A losing donk who plays for fun - I actually know more than a few folks who fit into this category. As long as you are achieving you goal, meaning you are having fun playing, and you have enough EXTRA money to enjoy yourself, no harm no foul. People spend their entertainment money on all sorts of things I think are incredibly bizarre and even dangerous. Poker is relatively harmless and can be a lot of fun. If you are truly happy, then knock yourself out. But from a strict money management standpoint, you should still follow the less than 1% rule, as set out above, if you can.
The fact that you are an RPT member leads me to believe that you also are interested in improving your game. If that is the case then you should also follow the above guidelines for time and money management and put some of your money and time into training. I find the videos here entertaining as well as informative, so hopefully this will keep you enjoying yourself as you learn.
3.A break-even donk who plays to make money - As you remember from the first article "An Introduction to Money Management", this means that over a period of at least 100 sessions or more you are ahead or behind only about ten times your average buy-in. If all the information you have used to place yourself into this category is absolutely true, meaning you are indeed a donk and that you have done the math correctly and have at least 100 sessions of data to do the math with, then go ahead and follow the advice for case #1 above.
However, allow me to get you to question your category. First of all, just how many sessions have you collected correct bottom line information from? If you have barely 100 sessions or less then it is true that short term luck may be the only factor in your results. If you have more like 500 or even 1000 sessions logged, then there may be another reason.
Remember the human capacity for delusion? Well, for some of us that works towards the negative as well as the positive. Just because you are not Doyle Brunson or even Todd Arnold does not make you a donk. After 26 years into the game and coming up on 21 years of documented wins I still feel like I have a lot to learn about poker. I read constantly, watch the videos here, and review and criticize my game daily. All I'm saying is that it is possible that you are a better player than you give yourself credit for - perhaps even average ability?
4.A break-even donk who plays to have fun - Let me start by saying that I firmly believe that the less than 1% rule should apply to any player who truly is playing at a below average skill level. But as above in case #3, there are some things to consider.
First of all, and most importantly, are you achieving your goal? Are you truly having fun playing? If your answer is anything but an emphatic yes, then, as above, you should consider expanding your efforts to improve your game. If you are motivated to do so, read the guidelines listed above in case #1 and #3.
5.A winning donk who plays to make money - Start by reading case #3 above. Even more so than in that scenario, you should be questioning your category. Are you really just a lucky donk or do you have some skills? Do you really have enough winning sessions logged to class yourself as a winner, or is all your winnings due to one big lucky win? Please try to make sure you are being honest with yourself here.
Whatever the truth may be, you still have some extra money to manage now. Before you do anything else, set aside some of that money for training. Whatever your actual level of skill is now, you can always improve. The single best investment you can make in your long term poker finances is training. If you have won enough money, I'd even suggest hiring a private coach to both assess your current ability and work to improve your play. After setting aside some money for training, follow the guidelines from case #1 until your level of play improves to at least average.
6.A winning donk who plays for fun - Even though I rarely bet on anything outside of a poker table I'd be willing to bet you are achieving you goal. It is always fun to win and if your results show a nice overall win so far, well whoopee!
Still, I would read all the cases listed above and make some decisions. Do you want to improve your game? Are you happy with your donkeyness? Do you think you could have even more fun as a better player?
If you decide to improve, you are in a great spot to do so. You have the extra money to hire a good coach and also continue to watch the videos here and even buy a few good poker books if you like to read. Just stay within the guidelines and don't squander your good fortune.
Minimum Money Available to Cash Game Conversion Guide
$20 = .50/1.00 limit game = .10/.25 blind nlhe or plo
$40 = $1/$2 limit game = .25/.50 blind nlhe or plo
$100 = $2/$4 limit game = .50/$1 blind nlhe or plo
$200 = $3/$6 limit game = $1/$2 blind nlhe or plo
$400 = $5/$10 limit game = $2/$4 blind nlhe or plo
Sujet: Bankroll Management II 
Mer 29 Avr - 13:28
