Page 10 - April 2007 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Jim Mercurio: Poker
Toast or Bagel? What Kind of Dough Does it Take to Make a Bankroll?
his is how the story goes...
A guy buys in to a $500 no-limit game. A rush of cards and a few pots with deep-stacked
players later, he nds himself with a $10,000 stack. He looks down at two black aces. e UTG (under the gun— rst to act on the rst round) player, who also has $10,000, raises to $200. Our guy puts in a healthy raise of $1,000 to make sure that the UTG player knows he means business. Well, the UTG player re-raises all-in. e player looks down at his aces and then at his chips, shakes his head and folds the hand face-up. He then gets up and walks away.
Aces are a 4:1 favorite against almost every hand. And they’re an even bigger favorite against the hands (AK, KK or QQ) that might make this move. But the guy in the story had more on the table than he wanted to risk even in an ideal situation. Maybe the above story is an urban legend, but the moral of the story is as true as a royal ush is the nuts: Don’t play over your head.
Sure, there are stories about adventurous gamblers that took $100 and parlayed it into $50,000 in a few days by playing a series of escalating games where he was one run of bad cards away from disaster. However, if poker is supposed to be just entertainment or a paid hobby, then to avoid going broke, you should mind your bankroll.
In limit poker, Howard Lederer plays with a self-
imposed cap. If he loses 30 big bets ($12 in a 6/12 game)
in a session, he quits. His reasoning isn’t mathematical.
It’s emotional. He is probably not feeling too good about
his streak and the other players are probably gaining
con dence from winning and seeing him lose. His rule
If you are going to the casino for the night to play 3/6, then $360—allowing for two “sessions”—should be enough. If you only have $200 to risk, stay away from the 6/12 game. Last month, a friend and I sat down with $200 each in a 6/12 limit game. We both played pretty well against an average table, but in after a few hours, we had both taken natural swings: I was up $100, he was down $200.
If you want to play 10/20 limit poker in a weekend trip to Vegas, bring at least $1,500. If you are ready to start playing full time, you should have about 500 times the big blind. So for 10/20, you would want a bankroll of $10,000.
If you can’t a ord a handful of buy-ins for a no-limit session, then move down a level. Also, recreational players should look for games with a capped buy-in. e swings are smaller and fewer pros prey on the amateur’s potentially larger mistakes. A 3/5 blind game with a
$500 buy-in as opposed to a $200 buy-in is a completely
If you are thinking about playing a certain level full- time, then your bankroll should be at least 30 times the standard buy-in. You should be able to play without fear of a bad run of cards. Let’s say a maniac in late position has raised pre- op for the third hand in a row and you look down to see pocket kings. If a tinge or worry shoots through you before shoving all-in, then it it’s time to do what the guy did in the opening story: get up and walk away.
Jim Mercurio took the biggest gamble of his life when he produced the feature lm Hard Scrambled, starring Kurtwood Smith. He also created an hour of lmmaking tutorials for the bonus material. You can buy his lm at www.hardscrambled.com.
FANT-31821 Socal Gaming Guide 3/16/07 12:03 PM Page 1
isn’t a bad one to adopt. di erent beast.
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Page 10
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
April 2007
Poker: Wired Aces and River Rats