[RyckyRych]

Again, this is not something I came up with but rather something I have adopted from Jennifear, an online poker pro/teacher that I had the great fortune to be a student and later a friend. I'll type out how I've adapted her system in my own words here. I'm at work so hopefully I'll be able to finish it in time and not leave anything out. :)

As far as the bankroll management its nothing earth-shattering, you can apply your own rules and break it down how you want. What I use is this:

1-10 player fields (SNGs): 60 buy-ins
11-50 players: 70 BIs
51-90 players: 80 BIs
91-180 players: 100 BIs
181-360 players: 125 BIs
361 or more players: 150 BIs

Now I'm not a daily grinder by any means so some of my BI requirements are lower than what a grinder/pro would need. Generally a pro would need a more protected bankroll of 200 BIs for the large MTTs. You can raise or lower these figures to fit your risk of ruin tolerances.

So, using my BI requirements, if you have a BR of $1200 you could play a $20 SNG (thats total, including rake... Cake has $18.40+1.60 SNGs) or a $11+1 180-man SNG, and so forth. I'm sure that's simple enough for everyone to get, but I'm putting it down for completeness.

Now, as I said in the other thread I use a cashout method that is based on volume. In this way you will pay yourself as you play while at the same time still enable you to grow your bankroll as you beat each level of the game. This is done by paying yourself a percentage of the buy-ins you pay and this is also broken down by the size of the games:

1-10 player fields (SNGs): 3% of BIs paid
11-50 players: 4%
51-90 players: 5%
91-180 players: 6%
181-360 players: 7%
361 or more players: 8%

For instance, say you play ten $11+1 180-man SNGs. You would then "pay" yourself $7.20 for those games you've played {(10*$12)*.06}. What this does is that it ensures that you are getting paid a set amount for each game you play regardless of the whether you are winning or losing at the time. Also, when coupled with your BR management it will help tell you when you can move up or, if needed, move down.

For example, say we start off with a $400 BR and feel we are competent enough to play the $5.50 SNGs on Stars. After 100 games, we've struck some bad luck/variance and we're down $59, putting our BR at $341. At that number we could still continue playing the $5.50s since we'd still have 62 BIs... but wait! We need to pay ourselves $19.50 for volume, reducung our BR to $321.50. Since we've not been successful at the $5.50s, our BR would tell us its time to move down.

What this does is ensures that you are beating your current game at a set ROI before moving up in stakes. For SNGs I've set the rate at 3% but you can adjust that . So if I beat the game for a +10% ROI, 3% of that goes in my pocket while the other 7% grows my bankroll. If I'm not maintaining at least a 3% ROI then I'll stay at that level until I do.

Of course, we'll be playing more than just SNGs most of the time. I also play MTTs on the weekends and its those larger-field games that really can make a bankroll jump. This is why the percentage is set higher for the larger games but not so large that you can't take advantage of the big jumps in your roll.

As we all know, we still have to continue to evaluate our game as we go. Just because your BR guidelines might say you can play a $55 SNG it doesn't mean you have to play at that level.

Most players that take the game at least somewhat seriously get some type of rakeback and nearly everyone is clearing some type of bonus at one point or another. Since both of these are paid to you as a result of your volume (not profit or loss) you would pay 100% of all your rakeback and bonuses to yourself in your cashout.

Generally that's all there is to the system. There are other minor things that can be considered. For instance, if I make a deposit on a site with the goal of taking advantage of a reload bonus, I'll be sure to add that deposit amount to my next cashout to "balance the books". If you are only playing on one site you might have to wait until the promotion is over before doing that so that you don't void that promotion by cashing out early. I play on 6 different sites so I have some flexibility in this regard.

If I've left something out or I was unclear on any point, I'll edit this post as I remember them. Otherwise please feel free to post any questions or comments!