Thursday, September 11, 2008

Cash out strategy

I figured it was about time I put some structure into my cashouts, as I hadn't really put too much thought into it before, which is a bit unusual for me as I'd generally think things through in advance.

As with everything I like to keep it simple, so my strategy will be to cash out $1k for every $2k my bankroll grows by. So for now i'll cash out a total of around $6,000. I think i'm highly unlikely to redeposit that again, so I will effectively have halved my bankroll. This means that I will bankroll manage based on half my existing roll.

So ... that effectively cuts out playing $4/8 for the moment as i'm well under the 1,000BBs i've set myself as a basic minimum. It also limits my $3/6 to fishy tables ... but that is basically a given for me anyways as I refuse to play on tight tables.

However, at the same time, that $6k i've cashed out makes me about $40 a month in interest, so if I ever do manage to lose the rest of my bankroll, I could conceivably just wait for a month and cash back in for $40 and work from there. (well that and the fact that $40 a month quickly adds to $500 in a year so I could jump limits at the microstakes levels pretty quickly). I suspect losing $6k though is highly unlikely.

Now as far as my latest actual play goes, I put in all of 15 minutes yesterday basically on fulltilt as I could not find any fishy tables on the other sites. Boy was it an uneventful session. Played about 3 tables of $3/6 and apart from a few cbets, one hit draw and a couple missed draws, literally the rest were fold fold fold. Ended up around 10BBs though, so can't complain!

Current bankroll: $11,900

7 comments:

TiocfaidhArLa said...

Funny you should mention this topic. I was reading the Mathematics of Poker on this very subject over the last couple of days (the book is a really heavy read).

I will try to summarise a few of the concepts on my blog over the next week as they are too much for this comment.

Off the top of my head though. I think that you can have a virtual bankroll and move funds that maximise interest. When you take the funds out for use on non-poker activities, it's hard to keep the ledger accurate. It is then that you run into Risk of Ruin (RoR). A Google throws up quite a bit on the subject and Bill Chen reckons that your RoR is probably 100%.

Personally, if you don't need the funds, I would maintain your discipline and try to step up the limits. Your chart remains impressive and outpacing 10%/annum so there is no reason to think that it isn't a sound investment.

There is a concept of the Utility of money which is important too. Again, too much for here. But from your post I sense that $100 is worth more to you in the poker world than it is in real life for now.

I'm interested to hear what conclusions your own thinking leads you to. It is a very personal thing.

The blindman said...

I haven't cashed out anything yet, except to pay for live poker expenses.

My approach will be something like this:
I will take a dividend of 1/4 of the months profit on each month when the following conditions are met:
-It is at least the second consecutive profitable month.
-The monthly bankroll balance is at a peak compared to previous months.

It's very conservative, but gives me the chance to take some pocket money out for treats like takeaway Thai curry, and also adds a bit of incentive to stay consistently profitable. All without any risk to the bankroll itself.

parttimebonuschaser said...

yeah there's a few reasons for this strategy

1. I figure $1/2 is by far the easiest limit i play, so would be the easiest to rebuild from if necessary - as well as rakeback being relatively significant due to high rake at this level

2. By taking some cash out I know that i've made something out of poker and all the hours i've spent playing.

3. Even with half a bankroll i'm still rolled for $3/6 so it really shouldn't take too long to get back up ... provided I really am a winning player

4. i'm sure there would be bigger swings at the higher levels, and i'd probably enjoy it less. i mostly play for fun at the moment, and to have fun i like to win ...

i'm sure theres a few more that dont come to mind at the moment

parttimebonuschaser said...

i guess another point:

5. i'm a huge fan of passive income where I dont have to do anything ... i guess i'm a tad lazy.

parttimebonuschaser said...

The other thing to really consider is I didnt actually do my first cash out for quite some time, so i did build up a reasonable (well reasonable to me) roll initially.

Another point is that I could focus on keeping on moving up, but don't want to move up to my level of incompetence ... can't remember which book mentioned that people keep moving up until they are no longer a winning player... but i suspect it is true.

I'm sure i'll get there eventually and will have no problem at all dropping back down, but i'm in no rush.

Unknown said...

"but don't want to move up to my level of incompetence ... can't remember which book mentioned that people keep moving up until they are no longer a winning player..."

I read somewhere that- You move up a little, lose, adjust, lose less, be forced to move down. In the end you get a little better, you crush your current stakes a little more, then when your ready you can move up again and find the next level to be not so hard ;). yeah 5/10 is pretty intimidating, but i think you probally have the experiance and bankroll to do it.

James P McAteer said...

Hi - got your message about stoxpoker. will try to remember to drop you a note! I looked around most of the main sites and decided that stox was for me - videos are good so far - though having probs with the downloads. I would say go for it -you can only get better - and is a fraction of your bankroll so well worth it


congrats on your progress - very impressive.