Playing Texas holdem 1--3 no limit. I have a $1000.00 bankroll. Last week I profited $850.00 in 4 days. 4-hours each day. 5-hrs. Maximum. I only take $400.00 each day to play with. I'm trying to discipline myself & build my bank roll.
Any professional advice.
We can’t run away from who we are…Destiny chooses us. ~ From the movie “Rounders” ~
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Good luck Joe, prepare for a long path and keep studying. Hope you have 6 months-a year living expenses behind that 1K bankroll. Been playing about 30 years and all the experts say you should only be risking 5% of your bankroll each session. I take it you are playing live? You might try one of the online sites and play smaller until you build up to at least 10K in bankroll. I hear most failures are caused not by bad play as much as money management issues and cash flow issues.
I agree with davedillman, the general advice is to have 20-30 buy-ins in low stakes cash or tournament play to ride out the inevitable swings. Even very skilled players experience them. You had a really nice run out of the gate, but a bad couple weeks can wipe out the gains as well as you bankroll pretty easily. If there is a way to try to increase your bankroll, either as Dave suggests by playing lower online stakes (if that is legally accessible to you) or by saving a bit from your primary source of income.
I recall starting to play tournaments and having a great run for a few weeks and feeling like "this is easy!" and convinced that it would be a steady progression upwards overall. Of course, then the dry spells hit and I figured out is was a much harder and volatile game than I thought.
LOL I started out playing 1-4-8-8 limit hold'em while I was in grad school and was making $40 an hour for a few months. I also got the "this is easy!" feeling, so when I graduated I put my degree in a drawer and hit the road. Uh, Oh! Players in Las Vegas and California were way better than where I came from. I came to my senses before I totally screwed up my financial life.
Also, I've learned that nearly ALL "professional" poker players have been flat broke at least once.
Are you willing to risk that? The cruel truth is, with the bankroll you've reported, it IS going to happen to you. Make sure you keep studying so you can determine if your bad runs are due to variance or if you made some plays that one in the short run but are really -EV.
(BTW, all those players I was winning from either lost all their money or got better. I felt so betrayed!)