I was recently browsing the forums at PokerXFactor when a particular thread caught my eye. It read like a conversation I have heard many poker players have, and even I myself have had this conversation a few times. The thread more or less read like this (paraphrasing):
Player No. 1: "I just dropped three buy-ins playing cash games, and it's making me sick. Is dropping three buy-ins normal?"
Player No. 2: "It's normal. If you can't stand losing a few buy-ins, you're probably not bankrolled right; drop down to a lower level for a while."
Player No. 1: "I have more than 100 buy-ins for this level, though!"
Player No. 1 and Player No. 2 are really talking about two different things. In poker, you have your monetary bankroll and your emotional bankroll. Your monetary bankroll is the amount of money you have to play the game. Your emotional bankroll, though, is the amount of money you can stand to lose before it starts to impact your play or your life.
I'm going to share a story from my earlier days of playing poker. Three or four years ago, I was primarily a cash-game player. I used to play the $3-$6 and $5-$10 limit hold'em shorthanded games all the time online. Back then, limit was more popular than no-limit, so that is what I played. I had a good job, paying me good money, and I played poker mostly for "fun money" and had managed to build a bankroll that was well beyond what I needed to play in these games.
I kept trying to move up in limits, but for me, there was an emotional barrier I just couldn't handle. For whatever reason, if I ended a session down $1,000, it made me feel physically sick. I'd sleep poorly, then go to work tired, and usually play poorly again the next night due to fatigue. For some reason, once I went four figures into the red, it just killed me emotionally. If I lost $999, it was no big deal, but the second that virtual-cash odometer crossed the $1,000 mark, it struck a chord.
Basically what I'm saying is that in poker, it's important that we play within our bankroll. I'm sure that you've heard that a million times, but it's important that we play not only within our monetary bankroll, but within our emotional bankroll, as well. Poker is a large-variance game, and you need to be playing at levels where significant swings downward won't impact your play. That number happens to be different for everyone, though. For me personally, I still have troubles on significant down days. I had a middle-class upbringing, and the thought of losing thousands of dollars in a given night seems terrible to someone who always remembers to turn the lights off to save a few cents each day in electricity.
One of the ways I control this is by having loss limits set for myself. Basically, if I'm having a bad day and losing money, I just stop playing for that day. I know that by doing so, I may be leaving a good game and leaving money on the table, but I also know that if I stay and continue to get unlucky, or for whatever reason continue to lose, my play will deteriorate as the losses pile up. Rather than risk an avalanche of losses as they add up, I just walk away and come back fresh the next day.
There are a lot of other little tricks that you can use to manage your emotional bankroll. The most important thing, though, is to just know yourself and your own limits, and to work around them. There is nothing wrong with ending a session early when things aren't going your way, and there is certainly nothing wrong with playing at a limit for which you're adequately bankrolled if it falls more within your comfort zone.
Emotions and ego are huge parts of poker, and learning your own limits and how to keep them in check is of the utmost importance to a winning player. So, learn your own limits and abide by them, and both your monetary and emotional bankrolls will swell over time.
Eric "Rizen" Lynch is a professional poker player who is well-known for his impressive online results. Read Eric's analysis on his blog (rizenpoker.blogspot.com), and check out his instructional videos, available at PokerXFactor.com.
