Bankroll Management & Taking Shots

If you are a member of any forum you will see this question asked frequently, "what bankroll do i need to play 'X' buy-in tournaments". The responses usually range from 30 to 100 buy-ins depending on what type of tournament you're planning on playing.I personally use 100 buy-ins as my default bankroll. But I think the bankroll you decide to use also depends on other factors.

Comfort level
Even if you're bankrolled for a higher level, if you're not comfotable playing at that level for whatever reason you will lose. Perhaps the money means too much to you, or you feel that everybody at that level is so much better than you... etc etc.
If you're not comfortable then you should continue to play at you're current level and move up gradually.

Skill Level
This was mentioned above but i feel it needs its own paragraph. Some people have alot of success early and as a result they decide to move up simply because conventional bankroll management wisdom says if you have the buy ins play this level. If you've not played enough to develop the skills necessary to beat that level you will be a fish at that level. Of course, you should also move up to challenge yourself and spur growth in your poker knowledge by playing better(hopefully) opponents.

Just lastnight it dawned on me what a huge bankroll nit i've been. I've had some success early and my bankroll is now +$2k but i still regularly play the $3 45 man turbo sngs on stars. I'm extremely comfortable at this level and the variance is marginal.

In one of my recent entries i posted about how i was crushing this level and i was gonna play more of them until i reached 500 total then move up. But lastnight after thinking about it i realized that i was again falling into a grinder's mentality.

Yes i know the blog is called The Island Grinder but that was mainly from my cash game days, and my bankroll building up to this point. why am i thinking about moving to the $6 45 man turbo sngs and then the $12 turbos? This is the way grinders think, move up methodically through the levels. This is not my goal. My goal this year for poker is to become a good MTT'er! period.

Last month i only played 11 Mtts. I will try to play at least 30 this month. I've been checking the pokerstars lobby and i like the guarenteed tournaments, and some of the regular larger buy-ins that have smaller fields. The $3 & $5 rebuys and the $8 & $16 360 max also look interesting.I will continue playing the $3 turbo sngs and the 180 man sngs as a way to keep my bankroll and confidence stable while playing larger buy-in mtts.


I'm done with the grinding.... i'm taking shots!