I am a cash game player, and just had a nice score in a freeroll. My question is, being a cash game player primarily, is it ok to take that money and put it in my BR which would essentially put me into the next limit, or should this money not be added to my bankroll. Im not really sure what is the "correct" thing to do because I know normally we dont want to increase our bankroll by adding our own money.. but this money came from playing poker, so maybe this is the exception?

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks

I’m not sure where you heard that you shouldn’t add money to your poker bankroll. I 100% disagree with that. It should be fine to add this money.

Established winners have bankrolls. Everyone else has gambling budgets.

If it was so much money that I would be mad at myself for losing it then I would withdraw enough that I could lose whatever's left without being mad.

It's okay to add outside money to your bankroll, but adding that money doesn't mean you have to move up in limits if you are not comfortable doing so.

If you're a losing player it doesn't matter if you add it to the bankroll, it will all be gone anyways.

If you're a winning player you add it to the bankroll and play the highest stakes where you know you are winning. If you haven't proven yourself to win at the current level, nothing changes.

As others have said, there's no reason why you wouldn't add "outside" money to your BR. Let's say you were a really skilled player but on a short roll. If you had outside income to add to your roll, it could make perfect sense to put $X/month into your playing roll. A playing bankroll for a pro is a tool that allows you to keep earning money, and it has value because without money, you can't play poker and win. So if you play in games with a $5000 buyin where you have some decent hourly, lacking chunks of $5k means you don't get that hourly. Protecting the ability to play in this game is worth a lot.

Some recreational players use BR to keep score of their skill level. If I'm playing in games where I earned the money to play there by playing poker, I'm probably a winner. Right? So if I play a couple satellites, hit a WSOP bracelet event, and then bink $150K, do I now play in games that require a $100K+ roll as a favorite? I'm probably a huge dog in those games. So "adding tournament money to my roll" suddenly makes me a loser because I'm moving up to playing in games where I have no edge. This is self correcting, because I'll move down to games where I'm a winner as I lose my roll. However, that doesn't sound fun.

From a bankroll management (BRM) viewpoint, you care about your edge (WR), your swings (SD), and your willingness to go broke (RoR). If you add on money and move up stakes only because you have enough $ for buyins, you have a chance that you now aren't a winner. That's the problem with adding money, as you're breaking the rec player shortcut of using the money in your roll as a stand-in for learned skill. All of this to say "play in games where you think you're a favorite to win and you'll be fine."

Add it in.