hi guys,
i have a bank roll question. I am planning to play 2/3 NL 500 max BI.
currently i have no bankroll. I am starting a full time job giving me 1k a week. i can pretty much save $500 a week. for these stakes i have read that 20x BI bankroll is required = $10,000

My question is that for me to save 10,000 i will have to wait 20 weeks until i can start playing.

if i have this income am i able to start before then? Im thinking if i save for 4 weeks and start to play and keep tabs on the bankroll

Is there some othee variable that comes to play ?

any advice is appreciated

You should buy in for $300, which is 100 big blinds, and not 500.

For lower stakes, i think 10-15 buyins is enough, and if you run bad early you can choose to buy for less than 100bb or just replenish the roll. Bankroll management is more about not busting as you move up in stakes, and its hard to build a roll playing smaller (1/2 is a little smaller and could be a decent option if those games are available and conparable to the 2/3 in difficulty)

Hey, thanks for the reply i really appreciate it. Can i please ask why buying in with 100BB ($300) is better than $500?

Bank roll management existing as a concept only to measure risk of ruin. If u have $500 coming in every week then u inherently have no risk of ruin. So u can just play as soon as u get your first $500 imo.

^this

Though I'd still save 2.5 BIs first. It's hard to play proper poker when you are one hand away from being forced to quit. 2.5 gives you a rebuy and a topup which is going to be enough >90% of the time.

Yup. And as for why to buy in for $300, it's because 1) you have a limited bankroll and 2) 100BB poker is much more ABC than deep stacked poker. While deep will be more profitable once you get good at it, it's not something to play when you are new to that game and are working on a limited bankroll.

Quick question for those much more experienced. I am a full time graduate student but play poker roughly 15hrs per week the past year or so. I am getting to the point where I think I have too much cash laying around. I pretty much only play 1/3NL unless theres a really good 2/5 game going. How much does everyone keep in cash compared to in the bank??

I also play 1/3 NL, about once a week for about ~550 hours a year (purely recreational).

I typically keep ~$3K in cash at home. When it dips below $2K (which is what I bring to the poker room every session) I top it back up to $3K. When it goes above $4K I deposit the excess in the bank.

The whole point is just to have an easily accessible and well overfunded (for mental health purposes) poker roll on hand without having to pop in/out of the bank all the time. If it's fairly life changing to have your roll-around-the-house stolen then obviously bank it (but then you're likely playing too high).

Gcluelesscash-around-the-housenoobG

If you want to pass under the radar taxwise, you can open a safe at the bank for like 100-200/year, and just put the excess there as Gobble said.

Otherwise, I usually keep at least 2 or 3 buy in at all times in my wallet in case I go to the poker room.

For planned session, I bring 4 buy in.

Other than that, it just comes down to how lazy I am to go to the bank to deposit the money. I'm trying to go once a month or so, depending on how much I play/run

Depends on how safe you consider your house.
Id say keep ~1000 big blinds around for your normal stake.

Isn't it illegal to keep cash in a safety deposit box?

LOL. No.

Just out of curiosity, how would anyone know?

wells fargo safe deposit agreement explicitly states that as the box holder you will not keep weapons or cash in the box.

jus sayin

but jots makes a valid point

again jus sayin

If you really have a cash flow of $500/week, your effective bankroll is huge. Assuming a 5%/year time preference rate, that is gives you effectively a bankroll of $520,000, which is big enough to play a lot higher than 1-3. Even if you were to devote that $500/week to paying off 18%/year interest on a cash advance on a credit card (no, do not actually do this) you could give yourself a roll of $144,000.

I would save up for two or three weeks, and then hit the casino, adding to your roll as needed. Your risk of ruin is nil, because the remedy for "ruin" is to wait a week or two.

Buying in short limits your upside. Learn to fricking play deeper-stack poker. And the difference between a 100bb stack and a 166bb stack is not big enough to matter significantly. (Mostly, it changes bet sizing when you are aiming to get it in in two or three streets.)

Wait, what?

In every three-blind game I have ever played in (all in Northern California) the button posts one of the blinds, and can therefore open it up a bit in unraised pots, because of the double advantage of position and getting a discount/great pot odds for calling.

Most places that allow straddles, it is an UTG straddle. In some places they allow BTN or "Mississippi" straddles. California is the only place I have been with a formal 3-blind game, and in those games, the extra blind is usually equivalent to the SB (e.g. 1/1/3) and on the BTN. That is a pretty rare game, though, and pretty much limited to California, mostly in the northern half.

What does it say about poker chips? Take hundos home with you.

I'm talking about a mandatory UTG straddle.

That may be true, but it being against the ToS is much different than being illegal.

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Major problem with a safe is that the bank insurance is not covering it. So if there is a robbery or a fire you are f**.
But you could put chips in there.

Is it normal at 1-2 cash to experience huge swings? My last 5-6 sessions have been horrendous. I’m on a 6 buyin downswing where I think I’m playing too loose pre and cbetting stupid wide in spots. I’ve had multiple sessions where I’ve lost pretty big I feel.

In past 8 sessions, I’ve lost 2-3 buyins 4 times, had one 2 buyin winning session, and other sessions have been extremely small wins or tiny losses.

I’ll list the session dollar counts here: -740, +467, -318, -407, -70, +20, +60, -510. Is this not a normal swing for 1-2?

I’ve lost some big pots where I’ve been ahead (KK against AsQs on a 10s-8-s-2x flop board for 700-750 dollar pot) etc. I’ve been really getting smashed with big pocket pairs etc and have been faring very poorly in all in spots with decent amount of equity spots (think 30-60% equity when all in). Should we not be swinging this wild in cash? I’m really starting to question my game and the fact I tend to iso a little too wide along with cbetting aggressive in HU or 2-way flops without draws / made hands in spots where I’m in position generally (I tend to iso/ Cbet aggro when I’m in position against perceived bad players).

Just wanna check if this is standard variance in live cash? I’m just considering stopping playing or really nitting up my game as I feel 1-2 prolly can be beaten well with less variance if I just find folds a lot more. I’m very anti limping or limping behind and tend to raise or fold if people limp in front of me. The only type of hands I like to limps are small pps/ suited connectors / A-small card suited and when people limp in front of me. Sorry if this is a long ramble but want some feedback as I’ve been hemmoraging money as of late and really don’t want to spew a bunch of buyins if I suck at cash games.

Prior to all of this I was up 1300 after maybe 55-60 hrs of play and last 40 hours have hitten a downswing to being -150 now so roughly 7+ buyins I’ve punted.

Those sound like reasonable swings for a $1/2 game. Depending on the BI. Are you buying for $200 or $300? Doesn't take much runbad to screw you over in a month.

But you might actually be too aggressive, or aggressive in the wrong spots. However, those are strategy questions for their own threads. Post a few hands for review and see what feedback you get.

Depends on the game really. I've played a "1/2" where 500bb or even 1000bb pots weren't that rare. Your streak would be pretty ho-hum there

Sounds standard to me. Don't turn into a nit, just fix your leaks. Even if you're getting unlucky there's always stuff you can do better. "Low variance style" is just a softer way of saying "I'm too much of a coward to take the money people are trying to throw at me"

Thanks for the feedback. I play in a 200 max buyin game that is super nitty. Almost no 3 or 4 bets and if they happen, opponents generally have qq+ / ak+. It’s difficult also bc high % of players buy in short like 50-100 which sucks bc I tend to stay at max almost all the time even if I have to reload.

Most of my all in spots, equity has been solid on my end . Maybe a few punts and tilt spew but nothing insane when I’m getting in say 80bbs+