YOUR BANKROLL SHOULD BE 100 TIMES YOUR SMALLEST BET
The problem with nine out of ten players is that they come to the casino with only a few dollars and a dream, hoping to turn a sawbuck into a life-changing jackpot. Twenty minutes later, they’re broke and heading to the ATM.
I see people sit down at a $10 table and buy in for $100. What are they thinking? Ten hands! That’s all they have money for if things go bad, which they usually do.
Of course, a hundred bucks isn’t exactly chump change either, which is why most people think $100 is plenty to play with. It is - if you’re playing at the $1 tables.
Most people’s bankroll is closer to Donald Duck’s than Donald Trump’s (mine included), but that’s okay. In the real world, people have wives and ex-wives and car payments and mortgage payments and childcare bills and doctor bills and on and on, so $100 is a lot of money. But you’ve got to be realistic: If you’ve got only $100 or $200 to play with, you shouldn’t be sitting down at the $25 tables, because:
{SMALL BANKROLL = SCARED MONEY}
If you sit down at a $25 table with $200, you’ve got enough for eight bets if you lose every one. So what happens if you lose the first two? Now, a quarter
minutes. Do you think you’re going to be able to play the way you’re supposed to? Are you going to double down against a dealer’s Ten even though billions of computer simulations say that is exactly what you’re supposed to do? Absolutely, positively not.
We recommend you only the best online casinos on the web. So when you come to the casino to play any table game, if you want to relax and not sweat the money, you should have a bankroll of 100 times your smallest bet.
Yes, you heard right:
{YOUR BANKROLL SHOULD BE 100 TIMES YOUR SMALLEST BET}
It doesn’t matter if you’re playing blackjack, Texas hold ‘em, or craps, you should not come to the casino unless you have 100 times your smallest bet. So if you are going to come to the casino with $100, you should limit your action to the $1 tables. If you want to play the $5 tables, bring $500.
Games like blackjack and craps can be brutal, with fast swings. The more money you have to play with, the more you can sweat the bad bets and losing streaks. The more money you have, the easier it is to be disciplined and play within your predetermined strategy without getting cold feet. You’re not going to start cursing and playing scared if you’ve got the bankroll to back it up.
I’ve seen it a million times: Your $100 buy-in is rapidly getting sucked away, and before you know it, you’re down to your last 30 bucks at a $10 table and playing stupid, quickly losing it all. Now, what do you think your car ride home is going to be like? How’s the rest of your evening going to be? Terrible! All this could’ve been avoided if you’d simply followed my bankroll advice.
Now you’re all screaming, “A hundred times the smallest bet? A hundred times the smallest bet! But I’m used to playing at $25 tables! That means I have to start with $2,500!” Well, if you were winning at those $25 tables, you wouldn’t be reading this book, would you? You may like the feeling of being a $25 green-chip player, Mr. Big-Shot High Roller, but you’ll be considered more of a big shot if you actually win at the table instead of blowing through your entire wad before the cocktail waitress can even bring you a drink.
How are you supposed to save that kind of money? Well, just set aside the little bit you would have used for your next trip and then don’t go. Do that three or four times, and before you know it, you’ll have your minimum bankroll. I know, I know, easier said than done. But if you want to win at the casinos games, you need some discipline. Having fun is for tourists.
