The 20 Buy-In Rule Made More Complex
A lot of people use the 20 buy-in rule (one should have 20 max buy-ins at the minimum to play a level) to manage their bankroll. This is a good rule and I used it to build my roll. With the new legislation that was passed last fall, my priorities in online poker took a bit of a turn. I was scared of companies (i.e. neteller) not being able to pay me my money and I wanted to get as much off as I could while still being able to play some online in case it kicked back up. My first priority with such a smaller “bankroll” left online than I was used to was to not go broke. I really had (and to some extent still) no way of putting money back on. I needed to keep my head above water.
To abide by my now new main goal, I had to be extra careful about my money online. I decided 20 buy-ins, if I was playing well, was more than enough to win at a level. I also ran into a problem, however. Let’s say I had $100 and the buy in for my game was $5. According to the 20-buy in rule, I was fine to play that game. The problem lied in the fact that I really wanted to stay in that game, and not drop down to say the $2 buy-in game. I knew that according to my 20-buy in rule, I could stay in the $5 game as long as I didn’t dip below the $100 mark. I decided I needed to modify my 20-buy in policy to include a cushion. Otherwise I would be losing value from the $5 game playing too scared to go broke in it (always a bad thing). For myself, I decided on the following cushions to let me play while I am there:
Continuing the above example (adapting the ratios I picked) –
- To move up from $0.50/$1.00, I would need to move my $30 bankroll up to $60. That way when I reached $60, I would have 30 buy-ins for the $1/$2 game and an effective 10 buy-in cushion. I could then play comfortably, and if I dropped down to 20 buy-ins for $1/$2, then I would drop down to the next level until I reached my $60 dollar mark.
- To move up from $1/$2, I would need to increase my roll up to $150. This would again give me the 10 buy-in cushion to play well and establish myself at the higher level while still leaving me with a substantial roll to move back down if needed.
My new basic rule from the above examples is that I need 30 buy-ins to move up to a level, but then when I drop to 20 buy-ins I move back down to the previous level. I will still take some shots in games I deem to be really good, but I have stuck by this rule for the most part and it has been very successful in managing my swings since my last big downswing in January (about the time I established this system). This rule has taken me from 5/10, to 10/20, to hopefully 25/50 again next month, and I suggest that anyone who will have a hard time putting money back online try it out. The system is a little more cautious than the one I used to use, but with the legislation being passed I think cautious is the best policy.