Maintenance of Capital
Maintenance of capital should occupy the top spot in any bankroll management system. Without capital, you cannot play poker (playing for play money has the same relationship to playing for real money, as being asleep has to being awake). It is not just that you need money to bet in poker. Rather, if you were to compare successful poker to successful chess, then consider the bankroll as equivalent to the king. Success in chess without the king is impossible.
Maintenance of capital is an important theme because, in the short term, poker poses a great threat to money. This threat is what is known as a downswing, or a streak of bad luck. If things go poorly, a downswing can cost a large part of your bankroll in a short amount of time. All players, even advanced or pro players, will experience periods when it just doesn't happen for days, or even weeks at a time. They will keep losing in situations where they are actually the favorite to win. To avoid going bankrupt at these times, you need enough padding to sustain yourself at the limit you're playing. If you run out of cushion, you'll have to choose a limit with lower bets.
Sustainability
Before advancing to a higher limit, you need to be winning sustainably on your current limit. This way you are more likely to reach your goals, and avoid unpleasant surprises. For one thing, sustained success confirms your preparedness to attempt the higher limit. Secondly, your experience at succeeding against opponents inferior to yourself will increase your confidence. In the psychological war that is poker, a healthy confidence is the first and foremost requirement. Also, a disciplined adherence to bankroll-specific rules will prove that you have the patience that is characteristic of a strong Hold'em player. Here I will say it explicitly: no limit Hold'em is a game of patience! This applies to both bankroll management and strategy.
Flexibility
Your rise through the limits must be flexibly based on your bankroll. If a downswing causes your bankroll to suffer too much loss, it may be necessary to move back to the previous limit. Clearly, this can constitute a psychological barrier, since nobody likes to go backward. Despite this, it will be absolutely required in some cases. It is important to have the proper attitude toward this. Do not view it as a defeat, it is more the result of a streak of bad luck, and luck is a factor outside your control. Moving back in limit does not necessarily mean that you are inferior to the players on the limit you're leaving. It just means that you don't have sufficient capital to play there sustainably right now. Of course, it also means that you are intelligent, and flexible enough to respond swiftly and correctly to crisis situations.
Comfort zone
The choice of limit also has to do with your own comfort zone. Money has a specific value for every individual. If you play on limits that are too low, you might not pay enough attention to individual bets and become sloppy. On the other hand, if you play on a level that is beyond your comfort zone, it's easy to become paralyzed. You may behave too passively when the strategic demands of a position require a certain level of aggression.
According to our bankroll management system, a beginner should start on the lowest limit possible, with blinds in the region of a few cents. Now, it may, of course, happen that a beginner is independently wealthy, and cents or even small dollar amounts are of little consequence to them. Does this mean that, according to their financial comfort zone, they should immediately jump to a higher limit? In no way! This would be a huge mistake! They would have little chance, and would almost certainly meet with frustration and defeat. Their poker career might even come to a premature end. They really don’t have a choice: like everybody else, they must work through the individual limits in order to stay continuously motivated by successful experiences. They are welcome to dream of advancing to those lofty limits, and this may even be a kind of financial stimulation for them.
Discipline
Even the best system of bankroll management will not protect you, should it not be followed. Please stick strictly to the prescribed rules, no matter what happens. As well as the downswings mentioned above, you may also experience an upswing, which might also see you winning multiple sessions in a row. This is empowering, but is no reason to lose your grounding. The next streak of bad luck is waiting just around the corner.
The Table Bankroll
The table bankroll is the money that you bring to the table with you, what you have "on the table in front of you." It is also called your "stack".
Table size
It's best for beginners to play full ring games (7-10 players). Tables with fewer than 7 players are called shorthanded (SH). SH is more difficult and should be left to the advanced players.
Table count
To start, you should just play one table at a time. After a while (different for each player), you should experiment with a second table. If you feel underwhelmed with two tables, you can try to add a third, and so on.
Some advanced players and pros in our forum play at four or even more at a time. This leads to the question: "How many tables makes sense?" Of course, there is no canned answer for that, since the requirements for each member are too different, like age, powers of perception, hand-eye coordination, condition, etc.
Profit or Learning?
The following should be noted about the term "maximization of profit":
You get the best per table performance when you play at just one table. For the pro, however, it is not the per table performance that counts but the per time performance. Let us assume that I earn 5 big bets/hour (BB/h) when playing at a single table and 3 BB/h, per table, when playing at 2 tables. In the second case, my total earnings per hour are higher at 6 BB/h. So, to maximize profit you should pick the number of tables that returns the maximum per/hour earnings. Making profit is important in order to build up the bankroll necessary to move to the next limit. The higher the limits you play, the higher your earnings will be, and the more your poker playing will pay off.
To maximize learning, however, it is important to think carefully during the game. You should review hands played and consider where you made your mistakes. This is not only true for hands you lost, but also for hands you won! Furthermore, you should practice your hand reading (placing your opponent on a probable range of hands) to perfect your skill. This takes time. Multi-tablers are forced to make decisions quickly. They therefore often have to execute more standard moves, and cannot give the deeper consideration that is required to individual hands. I recommend to all whose performance is stagnating that they reduce the number of tables they are playing and let more things run consciously through their minds.
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