MANAGING YOUR MONEY

General Gaming
MANAGING YOUR MONEY
By Charles Jay

Anyone who knows anything about casino gaming is aware that a key point in the game – in fact, the main determinant of success or failure – is the management of one’s money at the tables. And one thing’s for certain – smart money management begins BEFORE you start to play. We said that right – BEFORE.

How many times have you heard the stories about players who went away for a week’s vacation but were “tapped out” after just a couple of days? Those horror stories can be averted through the use of a few simple money management techniques.

We’ll give you an example of a money management system for all forms of gaming, and one that can apply whether you are playing at a land-based casino or an online casino. Remember, this is not the hard-and-fast way to go, but just a useful suggestion.

First, it is important to establish a CASINO (OR TOTAL) BANKROLL, a pre-determined amount of money that is set aside as bankroll for the sole purpose of playing the game (whatever that game is). This money should be an amount which the player can afford to lose at the tables, in as much as playing with “scared” money is not a good practice at all.

One-half of the casino bankroll constitutes the TRIP BANKROLL, which is the money you actually use in the casino. Then you want to set aside money for each session, i.e., each individual time you endeavor to play. Divide the trip bankroll, which serves as your playing bank, into five parts, each of which becomes a SESSION BANKROLL. You don’t want to lose more money in any one playing session than the amount you have allocated, because it’s always better to be able to come back to play in a separate session.

BET-SIZING should be made in proportion to your bankroll. A good policy to follow is to make sure that your minimum bet be no more than 1/25th of your current trip bankroll.

Let us exemplify some of the principles of sound money management. We will use a figure of $2000, set aside for casino play. The $2000 is your casino bankroll. Half of that amount is to be used for the trip bankroll, so that means that you will actually bring $1000 to the casino, with $1000 in reserve. Remember that each session bankroll is equal to one-fifth of the trip bankroll, so you would use $200 in each session of play, and this will also serve as your stop-loss figure.

Since the minimum bet will have to be no more than 1/40th of the session bankroll figure, divide $200 by 40 and you come up with $5.

Now what does that tell you? That’s right. If you’ve got $2000 for total bankroll and you are playing at a table that has a $5 or $10 minimum bet, you are probably better off at the $5 table to greatly reduce the risk of ruin.

The maximum bet, as stated before, should be no more than 1/25th of your trip bankroll, so divide by 25, which gives you $40. Remember that your trip bankroll will increase or decrease while you continue playing, so you must make your adjustments accordingly.

The above rules are designed to reduce the risk of ruin and to serve as a guideline for players to manage money according to their capital.