Bankroll use

[notmymoney]

first time poster so be gentle!

i've followed the forums for several weeks now and am pretty impressed with the knowledge and articulation expressed in these forums which is why i'm posting here.

(hopefully this kudo will buy me some leniency)

my question about bankroll management is when do you pull from your BR for personal things?

easy enough as it is to give advice (ie: 10% when youre at X, 5% at Y) do you also follow your guidance?

i have yet to see many threads on i did this or this with my bankroll. it always seems to be entire bankrolls (earing interest poss) waiting to be gambled with.

the question might seem silly, "spend it on whatever you want, duh!" and i will, i'm just wondering what those of you actually do spend it on and how much of a chunk out of your overall BR was it.

i'm waiting to cash a 30k check from an insanely aggresive incredibly lucky star-aligned night so that's where this is coming from.

TLR what have you spent your bankroll money on other than gambling?

 

[Martin Gayle]

There are generally 4 kinds of bankrolls

1. The pro with a replishible br
2. The pro with a fixed br
3. The hobby counterwith a replen BR
4. The hobby counter with a fixed BR

The difference between a fixed BR and replenishible BR is that someone who injects more money from other sources into the gambling BR. ie) Someone puts 5% of every civilian paycheque aside for and handful of card counting sessions each month.

A fixed BR is just the opposite. Someone has a siginificant chunk of change that they use to live off of.

With what you have $30,000, it is not enough to be a full time player without massive subsidizing of living costs from other sources. And the $30K could end up being very short lived. So if you are going pro and expect to make a living of BJ in the long run do not spend your money on ANYTHING else. You will need to add some winnings to your BR in the early going just because $30K is not big enough to make a reasonable swing at being a long term full time pro.

If you are keeping your job and want to use your $30k to gamble then spend it on whatever you want. Flights, dinner, hotels, strippers, drugs.

 

[notmymoney]

i fall in category #3: hobby counter with replenishable BR. i'm in the military, so worst case scenario everything is taken care of. no wife/no kids, maxed Roth IRA and a 4mo emergency fund. No car payment, no credit cards, no school loans.

haha, i ask people all the time about suggestions and freely tell people where im at because as a gambler you'll never be able to see when it's a problem until it's too late. no one has had any real suggestions and i'm starting to think i'm in a real small demagraphic.

everyone (mostly non gamblers) just kind of looks at me and says "eh, you seem to be ok. i don't know what to say"

no form of bragging at all, i feel as though i'm in one of those "too good to be true" scenarios and i'm seriously waiting for the bottom to fall out and be ready for it.

 

[daddybo]

i fall in category #3: hobby counter with replenishable BR. i'm in the military, so worst case scenario everything is taken care of. no wife/no kids, maxed Roth IRA and a 4mo emergency fund. No car payment, no credit cards, no school loans.

haha, i ask people all the time about suggestions and freely tell people where im at because as a gambler you'll never be able to see when it's a problem until it's too late. no one has had any real suggestions and i'm starting to think i'm in a real small demagraphic.

everyone (mostly non gamblers) just kind of looks at me and says "eh, you seem to be ok. i don't know what to say"

no form of bragging at all, i feel as though i'm in one of those "too good to be true" scenarios and i'm seriously waiting for the bottom to fall out and be ready for it.

Use it all for anything you want. You seem to have a decent grasp of money management. But if you want to continue playing at a reasonable level and have a very low risk of ruin... Then you should put aside 150 to 175 times your max bet as a bankroll. If you just want to figure a trip roll then use 40 times your max bet. These are fairly conservative figures if you are playing with an advantage. At any rate, you really don't have a risk of ruin unless you are over betting or doing something stupid. ( and Yes you will have some very bad runs at some point.)

 

[sagefr0g]

bankroll security

my bankroll, as meager as it is, is spent on nothing.
in fact i just keep adding to it.
even if i won a 'large' amount i doubt i'd spend it, just would add it to the roll, lol.

 

[shadroch]

I keep a $3,000 "gambling BR". I put $20 a week aside and when i'm planning a trip start putting away a few bucks everyday. Since my last trip in December, which was my worst in several years, I've replenished my losses and added a few hundred.
When I finish a trip, anything over $3,000 is 'mad money', to do with as I please.
One thing I started doing last year was gambling for charity. Every other winning session is donated to one of several charities. Bill Ayers World Hunger Year, Heifer.org, Maryknoll and The Wounded Warrior Project all got a piece of my winnnings last year.
I play as a hobby and donating the money helps me justify spending so much time in casinos.

 

[kewljason]

One thing I started doing last year was gambling for charity. Every other winning session is donated to one of several charities. Bill Ayers World Hunger Year, Heifer.org, Maryknoll and The Wounded Warrior Project all got a piece of my winnnings last year.
I play as a hobby and donating the money helps me justify spending so much time in casinos.

I applaud you shadroch. I know another guy...a low/mid level player who donates a fixed portion of profits to to a short list of charities and organizations that he deems a good cause. It helps him justify coming up a little light when paying an uncle. He feels he is still contributing his fair share to society and social causes and is even being more efficent with use use of funds, as his uncle has a history of wasteful spending and poor money management skills.

As for "withdrawling" funds from a non-replenishable BR, I make withdrawls every few months based on a percentage of my EV, thus hopefully allowing the BR to continue to grow. I only make these withdrawls at a time when my results are close to or above EV. In other words, if I am on prolonged downward slide, I do not compound the shrinkage of BR by withdrawling funds at that time.

 

[Jack_Black]

I have aspirations of being a pro, so I look at it from a business perspective. I keep track of my sessions, the types of games I play, and the expenses associated with them. ie, traveling, food. At the end of the month, I itemize everything, and make a basic profit/expenses sheet. I list hours of play, EV for that game, win/loss sessions, expenses, etc, then I can determine if there is a small percentage I can take out for my "salary" I've been fairly busy at my real job to get some good play time in these past couple of months, so I'm not touching my BR, but once I can log in a ton of hours, I will take a small percentage from my BR at the end of that month. Since my main goal is to go Pro, I try to resist the urge of spending it so that the BR will grow faster. Just like a regular start up business that has it's owner taking a pay cut so that his or her business will make it out of those rocky first years.

But if you're gonna just be a recreational player, I would say that spending less than your EV would be wise. Or if you're BR is replenishable, then do whatever the hell you want. Just remember that if you spend too much, you will have to play at a smaller bet level afterwards to keep from destroying the BR.

 

[daddybo]

TLR what have you spent your bankroll money on other than gambling?

Kids College tuition.

 

[blackchipjim]

bankrolls

Good one daddybo, college tution nowadays is trully a gambling bankroll.:laugh:

 

[kewljason]

Good one daddybo, college tution nowadays is trully a gambling bankroll.:laugh:

It's also a gamble. And in some case the EV is not worth the risk. I know so many people that spent good money on a degree (or their father spent good money) and they are unable to find employment in thier field and are now working a crap job in a totally unrelated field.

 

[daddybo]

It's also a gamble. And in some case the EV is not worth the risk. I know so many people that spent good money on a degree (or their father spent good money) and they are unable to find employment in thier field and are now working a crap job in a totally unrelated field.

115 *Run Rant Subroutine*

You are a smart fella. In reality everyone should look closley at themselves and decide what they would want to do for a very long time to earn a paycheck. Then weigh the financial and opportunity costs of college against the capital and time it would take to do something themselves. Many times you will find it is a -EV situation. (yea I know there are other benefits of college.) The cost of colleges are fast approaching a point where it doesn't make sense in many cases. There should be more acceptable opportunities to get an education than simply college. (As a side note.. I employ many college students. I have found that today's educational system does a very poor job of preparing kids for the real world.)

123 *End Rant * :laugh:

 

[shadroch]

As you pointed out, there is so much more to college than simply classroom learning. The experiances and friendships you strike up with most likely be the best of your lifetime. I rarely see any of my high school friends, but the bond I have with my college friends is quite strong.

 

[blackjack avenger]

A Little Math

Let's say you played with a 13.53% fixed ror and doubled your bankroll. If you don't take out any money and keep your bets the same your ror is now 1.83%.

Now, let's say you decide to take out what you won and start over with the same bets. The ror would once again be 13.53%.

However, if you do this several times your ror is overall much higher.:joker::whip:

Taking money out of the bank raises your ror or potential drawdown. If your ror is very low or you take out small amounts then taking out money is less of an issue.

 

[bj bob]

Let's say you played with a 13.53% fixed ror and doubled your bankroll. If you don't take out any money and keep your bets the same your ror is now 1.83%.

That's exactly how I set my M.O. First step, double the BR to arrive at 1.83% RoR. At that point you can start withdrawing 1/2 of your theoretical hourly EV, thus your RoR begins to gradually decline from that point while spinning off a continuous return.