Starting out in Cash Games

If you plan on building a bankroll and playing on a regular basis you are going to eventually end up playing cash games. Even for a tournament specialist like myself I still play my fair share of cash games thoughout the week. Why? Because when you play in no limit poker tournaments there is no guarantee that you are going to cash.It doesn't matterif you have a huge edge over a smaller field because tournaments still have a high degree of overall variance.

In order to offset that variance you will have to begin playing cash games at some point and set some reasonable goals to make a steady hourly rate. That means managing your bankroll like it is a brand new baby. In order to help explain this process I will show you how I initially began playing in cash games and built my bankroll.

First, I started playing .25/.50 with $50 Maximum Buy-in. At that time I had a bankroll of $300 and figured with 6 buy-ins I can easily offset any swings in variance when they occur. After a month I had over $700. That is certainly a very nice ROI but it was at the micro levels and I realized from watching the higher stakes online cash games that the competition was going to get tougher the higher up I went.

After a year I had $1200 and I had accomplished my goal. Sure, I was grinding it out and I never played more than $50 at a time. If I lost it on a bad beat I bought back in. If I got out played I would end my session and go back over why I hadn't played that hand so well. In other words I stayed very disciplined about my bankroll and overall approach to the game.

Second, with a bankroll of $1200 I moved up to .50/$1 and again had at least 6 buy-ins. The play was a bit more volatile than at the lower stakes but again I managed to play well and stay away from too making major mistakes over the next six months. I also never played a tournament that was more than 10% of my bankroll to buy into during this time. I took no shots at higher stakes either. By the end of six months I was up $4000

Ultimately, you have to find what works best for you. Again, I prefer to play no limit poker tournaments but I mixed in enough live cash games and made them profitable enough for me to be able to continue to grow my bankroll along with a few small tournament wins and cashes. Remember, discipline is the key to not only managing your bankroll but building it too.