Bankroll Management

Kasi

Well-Known Member
blackjack avenger said:
I don't have my material (sch.) with me that talks about using the square root of the original risk. So I am using some fuzzy memory:joker:
I address your thoughts in two? posts under (the movie 21 thread), hint, look for the :joker:
I know you did lol. And I'm sorry if I'm beating a dead horse again. Or I'm forcing you to :whip: a stupid horse again, fun as that may be for me, lol. It's just that this is one of those subjects, amongst many I might add, that I have always had questions about.

So, maybe put another way, when you said "I believe the 5% ror is your total ror from the beginning when you decide to play the cut stakes in half style. One's chances of doubling before losing half I believe is 66%. If you lose half your stake and then cut your bets in half from that point forward if you do not resize again the ror should be 13.53%?", how did you arrive at that 5%?

Did you use the .333 chance of halving roll before doubling it so maybe .1353*.3333 * .1353 after resizing? Where I would use .1353*.1353=.36 *.1353 after resizing. I do agree with the 66.6 chance of doubling roll before halving it and also that the risk going forward after resizing is the original risk since the number of units in roll is the same as it was originally.

But going back to that .78% chance for a quarter-Kelly bettor of ever losing half his roll wouldn't that be a 50% for a full-Kelly bettor? How do you get to 5% from there after resizing?

Ultimately I guess it goes back to I've never clearly understood the underlying assumptions in that paper you cited. Was "they were only playing with an advantage" one of them? Was each "continuous" bet with their 1 unit roll always made with the same .1353 ROR but always based on the original unit roll as opposed to proportional betting where each bet is made with a constantly changing bankroll? Isn't it true, either way, the ROR can never reach 0, just approach it?

Anyway, I guess whatever, from a practical point of view, since no one lives forever, maybe you're saying to use the chances of doubling roll before halving it as a practical lifetime ROR. Just like the old adage says, if they don't get you early, you'll win money forever. And, once you have doubled original roll, one is much less likely to ever lose all from that point forward. That original 1 in 10 risk is now 1 in 100, that original 1 in 100 now 1 in 10000, etc.

And I got no problem with that. It's the best thing one can do, before one bets at all, to figure out the chances of losing half before achieving whatever in how long, etc. Maybe one could never practically halve one's stakes after losing half a roll if the original min unit was table min in the first place. Nice to maybe know that and what to expect before starting lol.

Like .1353 might not sound so bad but it also means you have a 10% chance of losing 90% of original roll at some point, doesn't it? Which doesn't sound quite as good lol.

Most of all, ignoring all this minutiae and getting back to your original question, which to me is basically the whole ball of wax, I just want any aspiring AP to be able to come home, ideally maybe even before he left home lol, and be able to measure to some degree what happened that day. I don't care when you choose to upsize or downsize or by how much, play-all or back-count, play with a high risk or low risk, play 8D and then SD, play full tables or heads-up, use the same spread for a 4/6 game even if it suddenly changes to a 5.5/6 game, bet to a 1000 unit roll when you only have 500 units, play 50 hours a year or 2000, etc. If a guy knowingly chooses an EV of $4/hr or less at whatever risk for however long he chooses to play, in my book he's no less of an AP, and probably more than most, just because he knows it and what to expect from it.

I'm probably too crude and too simplistic, and certainly have no right to even comment about it but, if one can't measure one session, is one truly an AP player?
 

blackjack avenger

Well-Known Member
Wow, I Do Mean Wow

Kasi said:
I know you did lol. And I'm sorry if I'm beating a dead horse again. Or I'm forcing you to :whip: a stupid horse again, fun as that may be for me, lol. It's just that this is one of those subjects, amongst many I might add, that I have always had questions about.

So, maybe put another way, when you said "I believe the 5% ror is your total ror from the beginning when you decide to play the cut stakes in half style. One's chances of doubling before losing half I believe is 66%. If you lose half your stake and then cut your bets in half from that point forward if you do not resize again the ror should be 13.53%?", how did you arrive at that 5%?

:joker:blackjack avenger
Fuzzy Memory
Isn't it:
.1353 sqrt * .1353 = .0497 is 4.97% the ror if you cut to half bets after losing half bank.

Did you use the .333 chance of halving roll before doubling it so maybe .1353*.3333 * .1353 after resizing? Where I would use .1353*.1353=.36 *.1353 after resizing. I do agree with the 66.6 chance of doubling roll before halving it and also that the risk going forward after resizing is the original risk since the number of units in roll is the same as it was originally.

But going back to that .78% chance for a quarter-Kelly bettor of ever losing half his roll wouldn't that be a 50% for a full-Kelly bettor? How do you get to 5% from there after resizing?

:joker:blackjack avenger
.50 is the chance of you "never" reaching 50% of bank with kelly fixed bets.
.33 is the chance before "doubling" of reaching 50% of bank with kelly fixed bets.

Ultimately I guess it goes back to I've never clearly understood the underlying assumptions in that paper you cited. Was "they were only playing with an advantage" one of them? Was each "continuous" bet with their 1 unit roll always made with the same .1353 ROR but always based on the original unit roll as opposed to proportional betting where each bet is made with a constantly changing bankroll? Isn't it true, either way, the ROR can never reach 0, just approach it?

:joker:blackjack avenger
The paper is in 2 parts, part 1 is continuous resizing theory
part 2 fixed bets
isnt the "theory" of optimal betting that one won't go broke.

Anyway, I guess whatever, from a practical point of view, since no one lives forever, maybe you're saying to use the chances of doubling roll before halving it as a practical lifetime ROR. Just like the old adage says, if they don't get you early, you'll win money forever. And, once you have doubled original roll, one is much less likely to ever lose all from that point forward. That original 1 in 10 risk is now 1 in 100, that original 1 in 100 now 1 in 10000, etc.

:joker:blackjack avenger
I am enticed by trying to apply the Kelly criterion (optimal resizing) to the real world. More a resizer then not.

And I got no problem with that. It's the best thing one can do, before one bets at all, to figure out the chances of losing half before achieving whatever in how long, etc. Maybe one could never practically halve one's stakes after losing half a roll if the original min unit was table min in the first place. Nice to maybe know that and what to expect before starting lol.

Like .1353 might not sound so bad but it also means you have a 10% chance of losing 90% of original roll at some point, doesn't it? Which doesn't sound quite as good lol.

:joker:blackjack avenger
yes, 10% chance of losing 90% with kelly fixed bets and no resizing. I think this may show why resizing at some point may not be a bad idea if you like bankroll preservation.


Most of all, ignoring all this minutiae and getting back to your original question, which to me is basically the whole ball of wax, I just want any aspiring AP to be able to come home, ideally maybe even before he left home lol, and be able to measure to some degree what happened that day. I don't care when you choose to upsize or downsize or by how much, play-all or back-count, play with a high risk or low risk, play 8D and then SD, play full tables or heads-up, use the same spread for a 4/6 game even if it suddenly changes to a 5.5/6 game, bet to a 1000 unit roll when you only have 500 units, play 50 hours a year or 2000, etc. If a guy knowingly chooses an EV of $4/hr or less at whatever risk for however long he chooses to play, in my book he's no less of an AP, and probably more than most, just because he knows it and what to expect from it.

:joker:sounds reasonable

I'm probably too crude and too simplistic, and certainly have no right to even comment about it but, if one can't measure one session, is one truly an AP player?
Nowing this would help you understand what is going on. I would think the term AP player is self descriptive, if one does not play with an advantege then they are not an AP.
 

blackjack avenger

Well-Known Member
A BJ By Any Other Name

sagefr0g said:
below is a help screen for my cvcx program where the magical or not so magical number is mentioned circa 13% lol.
what ever in the world it means. :)
I was pondering the avalanche of dealer bj's I have been facing when this came to me.

Think of the 13.53% ror as a snapshot in time of your bankroll.

If you lose $1,000 but keep the same bets then what is your ror? It is higher.
If you win $1,000 but keep the same bets then what is your ror? It is lower.

Now in both scenarios you are know longer betting optimally! In order to once again bet optimally once would need to resize their bets so that once again they are at 13.53% ror.

With optimal resizing at any one moment in time your ror is 13.53%, if you were to decide to bet going forward with no resizing your ror would then be 13.53%.

I think all your sim info assumes fixed bets.

Darn dealer bj's:joker::whip:
 

sagefr0g

Well-Known Member
blackjack avenger said:
I was pondering the avalanche of dealer bj's I have been facing when this came to me.

Think of the 13.53% ror as a snapshot in time of your bankroll.

If you lose $1,000 but keep the same bets then what is your ror? It is higher.
If you win $1,000 but keep the same bets then what is your ror? It is lower.

Now in both scenarios you are know longer betting optimally! In order to once again bet optimally once would need to resize their bets so that once again they are at 13.53% ror.

With optimal resizing at any one moment in time your ror is 13.53%, if you were to decide to bet going forward with no resizing your ror would then be 13.53%.

I think all your sim info assumes fixed bets.

Darn dealer bj's:joker::whip:
lol i had once assummed that was the way it was. i kind of asked around about the issue of resizing bets but got no responses. you shoulda been around back when i was asking those questions lol.
so but what i finally decided to do was play along win or loss with pretty much the same bets. then when i'd either get up some wopping amount or down thats when i'd think about hey maybe i better resize.
sort of i came to the conclusion that the resizing thing is a matter of practicality to some extent.
thanks for the explaination about the ~13% stuff.
 

blackjack avenger

Well-Known Member
Careful With That Heresy Talk

Oh yes, mention the words optimal resizing and you get.

"Can't do that in the real world"
"Can't bet $237.15"

Perhaps some valid points, however:

I don't think you have to bet exact optimally in order to get most of the benefits. Resize your bets up when you should and you win more, resize down when you should and you lessen your chance of going broke, seems simple enough.:cool:

Throw out the loose change, one can bet $230, $225 or even $200.

One of the worldly ways I have used and later read about was to resize based on chips. If your current bankroll can support $50 bets when you win a third more you can now bet $75 if you want the same ror. If you lose half your bankroll then cutting your bets in half is better to preserve bankroll then to risk losing it all. Maybe given real world considerations this is practical. Betting $50 or $75 is common, start betting $65 and see how much you slow the game down and how strange it appears.

How I understand it
With optimal resizing the growth rate at .5 Kelly is the same as 1.5 Kelly but the variance/risk is obviously much greater at 1.5 kelly. If you bet 2 times kelly your bankroll wont grow and if you bet over that you will go broke.

With the above it will appear given human frailties one should make sure every bet is below Kelly and resize at some point(s) is closer to optimal.

The closer to optimal, the more optimal one is:joker:
 

sagefr0g

Well-Known Member
blackjack avenger said:
Oh yes, mention the words optimal resizing and you get.

"Can't do that in the real world"
"Can't bet $237.15"

Perhaps some valid points, however:

I don't think you have to bet exact optimally in order to get most of the benefits. Resize your bets up when you should and you win more, resize down when you should and you lessen your chance of going broke, seems simple enough.:cool:

Throw out the loose change, one can bet $230, $225 or even $200.

One of the worldly ways I have used and later read about was to resize based on chips. If your current bankroll can support $50 bets when you win a third more you can now bet $75 if you want the same ror. If you lose half your bankroll then cutting your bets in half is better to preserve bankroll then to risk losing it all. Maybe given real world considerations this is practical. Betting $50 or $75 is common, start betting $65 and see how much you slow the game down and how strange it appears.

How I understand it
With optimal resizing the growth rate at .5 Kelly is the same as 1.5 Kelly but the variance/risk is obviously much greater at 1.5 kelly. If you bet 2 times kelly your bankroll wont grow and if you bet over that you will go broke.

With the above it will appear given human frailties one should make sure every bet is below Kelly and resize at some point(s) is closer to optimal.

The closer to optimal, the more optimal one is:joker:
really it seems on the surface like a reasonable tact. just common sense. one thing is i guess you need to be careful about is at least staying within what is truly optimal. are you talking doing this more or less 'on the fly' sort of thing or would you 'draw a line in the sand' so to speak for either in session or for a next session. that sort of thing depending on your bankroll growth?
so but i'm not even knowledgeable of how to go about such a tact. like i say i've been just looking at it like a long range sort of deal at high winnings or high loss's and the effect on a lifetime bankroll. so at least i think you've made me realize the distinction between what my simulator gives me fixed optimal bankroll growth betting as opposed to i guess you'd call it optimal kelly betting.
but really now the way i play as opposed to at least how i once wagered when i truly tryed to play orthodox i know i'm more or less just gambling but trying to gamble in the AP's ballpark sort of thing. like i place my emphasis on the short term, the here and now lol.
i have my meager winnings and i consider that my 'maybe bankroll' long term.
so i have a sim of how i wanna play that roll long term. like you say a fixed betting sort of thing. so but in reality when i play i place the emphasis on my trip bankroll. if i win my expectation for the time i'd be willing to stay at the casino before that time expires. i'll likely leave unless i just want to play more. and if i at some ridiculously short period of time get lucky and hit a standard deviation or so on the plus side i'm history. it's psychological for me i mean i would spend the money on something that would make me feel that good as the feeling one gets from a decent winning session but hey i'm carrying that money home in my pocket with those good vibes.
but the other side of the coin say i start out playing orthodox and things go to hell in a handbasket. i might just revert to just playing basic strategy and doing a fuzzy count mainly flat betting. just hoping maybe for luck but at least knowing i'm not losing at the rate i might lose if i was firing those big bets out there at the proper true counts. but since i'm doing the fuzzy count thing while just playing basic strategy i might just fire out some fair sized bet that i know might get me back to even if i sense in my fuzzy sort of way the situation is 'juicy'. so then i know i'm not betting kelly but in a way i'm doing bet resizing lol just over doing it. so i know it's not right. and another thing i've started doing is shooting for a goal on a given trip. my trips are normally just one day affairs. so but my simulator has goal with time constraint calculators. so i can know just how probable it's gonna be to reach some modest goal i might see as worth while. so i'll play that trip bankroll with that goal and that number of hands in mind. so maybe i make it or close. i'll probably go home happy. if things are'nt going my way for that goal and i reach the time limit i want to spend playing then i'll just walk away with that loss what ever it is. maybe lose the whole trip roll. :( hopefully not but it does happen. being a recreational player i can get away with doing stuff like that. i can even change back to serious orthodox play if things don't go well with what i'm doing. maybe things could turn around that way. maybe not but at least probably maybe they would turn out better.
so thats all not really what your talking about i know. just how for now i prefer to do what i'm doing. heck i'm basicly happy if i just win enough to pay my gas back home.
 

blackjack avenger

Well-Known Member
Close to Optimal, Yet the Cigar

sagefr0g said:
really it seems on the surface like a reasonable tact. just common sense. one thing is i guess you need to be careful about is at least staying within what is truly optimal. are you talking doing this more or less 'on the fly' sort of thing or would you 'draw a line in the sand' so to speak for either in session or for a next session. that sort of thing depending on your bankroll growth?
so but i'm not even knowledgeable of how to go about such a tact. like i say i've been just looking at it like a long range sort of deal at high winnings or high loss's and the effect on a lifetime bankroll. so at least i think you've made me realize the distinction between what my simulator gives me fixed optimal bankroll growth betting as opposed to i guess you'd call it optimal kelly betting.
but really now the way i play as opposed to at least how i once wagered when i truly tryed to play orthodox i know i'm more or less just gambling but trying to gamble in the AP's ballpark sort of thing. like i place my emphasis on the short term, the here and now lol.
i have my meager winnings and i consider that my 'maybe bankroll' long term.
so i have a sim of how i wanna play that roll long term. like you say a fixed betting sort of thing. so but in reality when i play i place the emphasis on my trip bankroll. if i win my expectation for the time i'd be willing to stay at the casino before that time expires. i'll likely leave unless i just want to play more. and if i at some ridiculously short period of time get lucky and hit a standard deviation or so on the plus side i'm history. it's psychological for me i mean i would spend the money on something that would make me feel that good as the feeling one gets from a decent winning session but hey i'm carrying that money home in my pocket with those good vibes.
but the other side of the coin say i start out playing orthodox and things go to hell in a handbasket. i might just revert to just playing basic strategy and doing a fuzzy count mainly flat betting. just hoping maybe for luck but at least knowing i'm not losing at the rate i might lose if i was firing those big bets out there at the proper true counts. but since i'm doing the fuzzy count thing while just playing basic strategy i might just fire out some fair sized bet that i know might get me back to even if i sense in my fuzzy sort of way the situation is 'juicy'. so then i know i'm not betting kelly but in a way i'm doing bet resizing lol just over doing it. so i know it's not right. and another thing i've started doing is shooting for a goal on a given trip. my trips are normally just one day affairs. so but my simulator has goal with time constraint calculators. so i can know just how probable it's gonna be to reach some modest goal i might see as worth while. so i'll play that trip bankroll with that goal and that number of hands in mind. so maybe i make it or close. i'll probably go home happy. if things are'nt going my way for that goal and i reach the time limit i want to spend playing then i'll just walk away with that loss what ever it is. maybe lose the whole trip roll. :( hopefully not but it does happen. being a recreational player i can get away with doing stuff like that. i can even change back to serious orthodox play if things don't go well with what i'm doing. maybe things could turn around that way. maybe not but at least probably maybe they would turn out better.
so thats all not really what your talking about i know. just how for now i prefer to do what i'm doing. heck i'm basicly happy if i just win enough to pay my gas back home.
This is considering resizing at some point.

Are you aware of RA indices?
Just changing those few index plays improves one's play because you are betting more optimally. One is not slightly overbetting chasing EV on those plays.

So if .5 and 1.5 continuous resizing kelly have the same growth rate, what should one bet? Given the difficulty in trying to optimally bet every hand I think the answer is to underbet Kelly. Every bet should be less then optimal (due to human error) whether it is .8, .75 or .5 Kelly I guess is subjective. Even if you just round your bets down. I think if one wants to resize less frequently you may want to start with a lower fraction of Kelly; like .5, so if your bankroll drops you are not raising risk with a smaller bankroll.

As far as your personal style. If sometimes you take some money out or add money and not playing very frequently then I would think the important thing is to try to stay at around the same level of bets to keep the long run within site. A more fixed style because your bankroll is not fixed. Set your sim for the same ror (13.53 is fine) and bet accordingly and not worry about resizing because you will just add more as needed.
 

sagefr0g

Well-Known Member
blackjack avenger said:
This is considering resizing at some point.

Are you aware of RA indices?
Just changing those few index plays improves one's play because you are betting more optimally. One is not slightly overbetting chasing EV on those plays.

So if .5 and 1.5 continuous resizing kelly have the same growth rate, what should one bet? Given the difficulty in trying to optimally bet every hand I think the answer is to underbet Kelly. Every bet should be less then optimal (due to human error) whether it is .8, .75 or .5 Kelly I guess is subjective. Even if you just round your bets down. I think if one wants to resize less frequently you may want to start with a lower fraction of Kelly; like .5, so if your bankroll drops you are not raising risk with a smaller bankroll.

As far as your personal style. If sometimes you take some money out or add money and not playing very frequently then I would think the important thing is to try to stay at around the same level of bets to keep the long run within site. A more fixed style because your bankroll is not fixed. Set your sim for the same ror (13.53 is fine) and bet accordingly and not worry about resizing because you will just add more as needed.
last i heard about RA indices was that it was supposed to be like "giving chicken soup to a dead man. what could it hurt?" from Schlesinger Blackjack Attack. so i dismissed them. can't even remmember any of them. are some of them foregoing defensive splits with a big bet out? :confused:
so i think from what your saying that pretty much how i saw the kelly situation is pretty reasonable for my level of play. i mean where i'd bet to some game plan (optimal sized with my desired ror in mind) and do so pretty consistantly unless i have a 'sizable' decrease or increase in the lifetime bankroll. 'sizable' what ever that is i should think wouldn't be to hard to judge just common sense wise.
 

blackjack avenger

Well-Known Member
RA a Better Way

sagefr0g said:
last i heard about RA indices was that it was supposed to be like "giving chicken soup to a dead man. what could it hurt?" from Schlesinger Blackjack Attack. so i dismissed them. can't even remmember any of them. are some of them foregoing defensive splits with a big bet out? :confused:
so i think from what your saying that pretty much how i saw the kelly situation is pretty reasonable for my level of play. i mean where i'd bet to some game plan (optimal sized with my desired ror in mind) and do so pretty consistantly unless i have a 'sizable' decrease or increase in the lifetime bankroll. 'sizable' what ever that is i should think wouldn't be to hard to judge just common sense wise.
I think if you were learning indices for the first time then the RA should be used, they are superior (kelly, risk vs reward) and it is just learning one indice number vs. another. If you can learn indices easily then changing a few can add value.

If you learn them all, about 6? they can improve your SCORE by about 2%. I don't mind improving my play by 2%. That can equate to about an extra weekend of play a year if playing weekly.

They are mostly? waiting for a higher TC till doubling.

I brought them up to give an example of how betting closer to optimal; without overbetting, can provide real world improvements. I would imagine the more frequently you resize (optimal betting) the more value RA indices add.
 
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