How Much Should You Play For?

Published on Wednesday, March 08, 2006 9:21:00 AM

Although beginners are correct to spend most of their poker education time learning poker fundamentals like what hands beat what other hands, the odds that one will hit certain draws, and how much it will likely pay off it one hits a draw (hmm, come to think of it, I think I just came up with next issue’s beginner article, because beginners may make more mistakes with drawing hands than any other kind), the time comes when they have to lay their books, magazines, and web articles aside and test their skills at the table.

As I've written before, I don't think it's particularly helpful, in an educational sense, to play free online games for very long.  They are useful to learn how a site interface works, and useful for REAL beginners to get a feel for the ebb and flow of cards and chips, but most of the useful lessons that one learns in life usually are tough lessons.  When we make a mistake that costs us some money, we tend to remember it a lot longer than when we make one that doesn’t cost us a nickel. 

HOW HIGH IS UP?

The question then becomes, "How high is up?" That is, how much should you play for?

I was at a housewarming party the other night and the host introduced me to one of his guests, a relative novice who has been doing pretty well playing at the $3-$6 level. When my host introduced me as a kind of poker celebrity (don't worry, I haven't lost touch with reality, I still understand that "poker celebrity" is practically an oxymoron), my new friend bombarded me with a lot of questions, and because I was much too intimidated by the attractive women at the party to try to start conversations with them, I was only too happy to stand there and answer them.

"When should I move up?" he wanted to know. "When should I try higher games?"

"Listen to him," said my host, who is also something of a poker celebrity oxymoron.

"Of course you have to be beating one level before you move on to another one," I started, and my host nodded sagely. "I find that to encounter a different class of players, you need to move up in stakes by at least two and a half to three times the size game. In other words, in you're playing $3-$6, you won't find players of a significantly different caliber playing $6-$12, but you will at $10-$20."

"WHAT KIND OF ADVICE IS THIS?"

My host became alarmed. "What kind of advice are you giving this lad?" he asked. "What about his bankroll? Do you want to send him from $3-$6 games straight into $10-$20? What if he can’t afford it?"

"We're talking about two entirely different questions," I said. "If you want to 'move up' to try your skill against a different class of player, you probably need to make the kind of jump I'm talking about. But if you're on a limited bankroll, and most players are, then moving up very gradually makes a lot more sense. I just don't think you can draw many conclusions about whether you're a tougher, stronger player because you move from $3-$6 to $4-8 and continue at about the same success rate."

My host calmed down, and his guest, who was indeed on quite a limited budget, continued asking questions that allowed me to feel useful and not afraid of the attractive women.

It’s very important, not only for beginners but for more advanced players, not to play for stakes that are too high. You need a separate poker bankroll, money that you don't want to lose but can lose. If you want to try to move up to a higher stake game, you need to ask yourself WHY you're moving up.

IF YOUR BANKROLL REALLY IS BIG ENOUGH…

If it’s just a matter of convenience (i.e., there aren't any $3-$6 seats available but there are at $4-$8), you're probably fine. If you had the bankroll to play at one level, you probably have the bankroll to play at the next one.

If you are also interested in climbing the poker ladder, but are on a tight budget, than you will probably need to make small, incremental steps, even those these steps won't tell you much about whether you "already" have the game to play at a higher level. 

On the other hand, if you are consciously deciding to move up to try your skill against a different class of players, you should win enough at your old level to make the larger leap I've talked about here possible.

Most importantly, you need to stay away from one of poker's greatest traps, its own variation of the Peter Principle. Many players keep moving up until they find a level they can’t beat, and stay there! They do this because, having sat with the "big boys" at the higher levels, they can't bring themselves to be seen at the lower stakes tables.

This sort of attitude has brought down not merely beginners, but some of the best players in the world, players who could consistently win at levels like 50-100 or 100-200 but whose ego forces them to play in whatever the biggest game in the room is.

So, to give you three short answers to the question "How much should you play for?" I say:

1) An amount you can afford to lose (Figure 20 big bets as the number you would lose: can you lose that without significant pain?).

2) A level that you can beat consistently.

3) An amount that makes sense to your wallet, not your ego.

This article was written by Andrew N.S. Glazer, the Poker Pundit.