Poker News

Sam Mudaro

Today I will wrap up our discussion of “4-cards working together” consisting of a pair and two low cards. The chart on the right covers the remaining low card combinations. As stated earlier all combinations involving a pair of aces with any two low cards is always profitable. The pair of kings needs the help of being double suited. If you have not been following along, the hands containing the 5 with a low card lower then the 5 say a deuce would have been covered when we analyzed the deuce with a five.

How do we choose a limit? When choosing a limit there are a number of items to consider. The first thing we need to understand is the difference between a session bankroll and a poker bankroll. A session bankroll is the amount of money we buy in for plus additional monies we bring to replenish that buy in. A poker bankroll is the total amount of funds we dedicate to playing poker. It may consist of from 5 to 10 times the session bankroll. The size of each bankroll is a function of win or loss rate per hour.

If we are new to poker, have limited skills or only play occasionally we may not even consider a poker bankroll. We simply bring the amount we can afford to lose and divide it by the number of days or session we plan to play and this is our session bankroll. If we are new to poker we should we should probably start at the lower limits. This may mean a $1/2, $2/4, $3/6 or $4/8 game. For these games I would recommend a minimum buy in of $100 with a second hundred and maybe a third or fourth available at the upper end. If we have $900 to play with over a 3- day period we do not want to loose 50% of it during the first session. We may decide to seek a lower limit and softer field after losing $400 in a $4/8 game. When I sit in a $4/8 game I will generally buy in for $100/200 and be prepared to do a re-buy. If it is a split pot game I will double those amounts.

If we are a pro, semi-pro or aspiring pro we need to know our hourly win rate. This is key to determining our bankroll. Most writers and pros agree that a bankroll should consist of 300 times the large bet amount. This assumes however that we are winning at the reasonable rate of 1 big bet per hour. So if we want to play in a $10/20 game we need a bankroll of $6,000, (20×300). However if we are only winning at the rate of $10 per hour then we need a bankroll of $12,000. Other factors go into determining whether the standard amount is adequate to assure we won’t go broke. Our style of play for example is a key factor. If we are a “rock” and only play premium hands we should be able to lower our bankroll, as our swings will be of less magnitude then say a “loose” player who pushes at the pot constantly. When I sit at a $5/10 Omaha H/L low game I will buy in for $300. If I sit at a $15/30 Hold-Em game I usually buy in for $500. I will use the same buy in for a $10/20 game.

Mathematically if we have kept a reasonably record of our play and know what our true win rate per hour is over a period of say 5,000 hours. We could feel comfortably in that number. I would eliminate the first 2 to 3 thousand hours of play and be sure to segregate.

Play at different levels and game. The next piece to calculate is your swing rate. The math guys call it your standard deviation. With these two numbers you can calculate your probability of ruin, (going broke).

There are other factors to consider when choosing limits that are not empirical. How comfortable are we with the funds we are risking? This depends on our disposable income as well as our individual skill level. If we lose our session bankroll how long will it take to raise another? What is the skill level of our opponents? If we are playing against consistent full time pros, regardless of limit it will be tougher for us to maintain our win rate. We may want to seek a softer field of novice players. So what have we learned?

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