Wednesday, November 29, 2006

A good example of bad bankroll management

A friend alerted me to a recent program on Internet gambling aired by the BBC over the weekend. Thanks to the joys of t'internet I was able to watch it yesterday. (You can also read a summary here). No great surprise that the Beeb focused on the negative.

In a nutshell: reporter Declan Lawn gave current Internet pro, Matthew Hopkins, $2000US and asked him to double it in a month playing poker online. Matthew duely doubled it in 48hrs (he makes upto $30K/month by all accounts).

Obviously this doesnt make for good viewing so the reporter changed the rules and asked him to continue playing....at higher and higher stakes. Eventually they're sat at a $1000 buy-in No Limit table and lose the entire $6K bankroll Matthew had won.

This is a good example of bad bankroll management.

Funnily enough this quote by the reporter was not included in the TV show:
What if we upped the stakes, I reasoned? What if we played for $500 dollars a hand? Or $1000?

Matthew said it was idiocy and that I was just being greedy. He said we didn't have a big enough bank roll and that playing such high stakes could mean we would lose everything in just a few hands.

I made him do it anyway.

I like Matthews story though:
20-year-old Matthew Hopkins gave up his job in a fish and chip shop and earns up to $30,000 a month gambling online.

When I started poker I was doing a course to become an accountant and worked in a fish and chip shop.

I was told about the game by a friend who I used to play online computer games with.

I was attracted by the apparent skill edge in the game and the fact that the game was played with money.

Friends told me that it was easily possible to make a week's wage in just an hour.

In the beginning I was quite ignorant and naive when playing and like most other players I thought very highly of myself. At that time, I was losing.

But I devoted myself to the study of poker, and the probability of poker, in the way university students might devote themselves to their subjects.

When I'm not actually playing, I'm continuously reading all the books I can get my hands on in case I come across a piece of advice I haven't heard of yet.

I'm now playing quite high stakes and am earning between $20,000 and $30,000 per month.

I would much rather do this than work nine to five.

By playing poker I work my own hours, play wherever I want and don't have to worry about a boss breathing down my neck.

Also, I earn money that I could never earn in most other jobs.

http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/panorama/6177046.stm

1 comment:

fishosis said...

Yeah, I saw that program, and it was silly. A couple of guys with a bunch of someone elses money, playing at very high limits is not really journalism at it's finest. More of a beano.