Journeyman

Bankroll: $2,523.45

Published on February 14, 2006 By PacDragon In Gaming

If you've been keeping track, you'll see my bankroll took a hit today. But not from poker. My wife has been on a downswing lately and hasn't really had the cash to join me at the casino tournaments. So for Valentine's Day, I gave her a small chunk from my bankroll to hers. Cash as a gift? I know, I know, it sounds like a cop out in lieu of a real gift. But it actually means a lot... she knows that there is only one thing more important to me than building up my bankroll right now and that's her. So really, it's a symbolic gesture to let her know how much I love her.

The real effect this will have is that it'll be a little longer before I can move up to $5/$10. But that's fine with me. I've been winning so much lately that I'm a little nervous about moving up too fast. Skill does provide a long term edge, but there is still a lot of short term variation. I'd hate to get overconfident about my skills, use my short term luck as an excuse to jump up in stakes, then find myself facing some competition I'm not ready for. But if I can start taking cash out of my bankroll and still have it regrow quickly, I won't hesitate to bite the bullet and make the jump. $3000 is my next goal, so we'll see how that goes.

I also need to start thinking about a method for taking cash from the bankroll on a regular basis. I need to start setting some aside for taxes, plus a chunk in savings. Previously, I was in the apprentice stage. Everything I earned had to be put back into the bankroll, so I could move up to stakes that mattered quickly. But I'm starting to enter my journeyman stage. Here, most of my winnings still need to go into the bankroll, but the stakes are high enough that I can afford to take some out.

The problem is that I can easily experience a downswing. I need the winnings to buffer those losses so I can still show a profit. So really, I shouldn't be taking money out too quickly. I'm starting to think that taking money out monthly might be the best method. Each month, I'll take 50% of my winnings for the month and put it into a savings account. I'll use that cash to pay my taxes at the end of the year, and spend whatever is left over on ale & whores. Uhh... I mean, to secure my financial future

This is really just a fantasy at this point, but my eventual goal is to have the savings account be so large that we can survive for a year on just the savings. I'll have to figure out exactly what our monthly budget is (the pros call this your “nut”), then make sure that I have my nut x 12 in savings. Then I'll have to make sure that, on average, I'm earning more than my nut each month. If those two conditions are met, I'll seriously think about making the commitment to playing full time.

Still a very long way off, over a year or more. But it's a goal I'm going to shoot for and see what happens. I've started getting gray hairs this year, which is making me realize that I don't have an infinite amount of time in this world. If I really want to make a crazy life choice like that, it's now or never. I have this strong feeling that I have this opportunity in front of me, but only if I really buckle down & get serious about it. I don't want to end up an old man regretting that I never took my shot. I love this game too much.

Comments

Jythier

on Feb 14, 2006

If that ain't love, I don't know what is.

Just remember... if you think you're going too fast, you can revise your limit schedule. Even if you jump up in the stakes, if you mess up you'll just tumble right back down and be where you belong again. So I don't think you can move too fast...

PacDragon

on Feb 14, 2006

Yeah, that's the plan. If I ever go too high, the losses will bring me back down to where I belong. But still, I should get some more $3/$6 experience under my belt. I suspect that this is the last level that contains mostly newbies. $5/$10 is probably made up of players who know what they're doing and are trying to move up, which will make for tougher competition. I might eventually run into high levels that contain wealthy, non-serious players, but I doubt $5/$10 is it. My goal for that level will just be a $10 to $20 profit per 100 hands, which should let me know that I still have an edge against good players.

SSG Geezer

on Feb 14, 2006

On-line the 10 is old ladies who are complete rocks.
You could multi-table 3-6 and do much better due to the lesser class of players.

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