How to use proper bankroll management in Zynga Poker

: Posted on : Comments Off on How to use proper bankroll management in Zynga Poker Written by momschips Posted on March 8, 2015

What is the key to winning more zynga poker chips in Texas Holdem? Many of the top zynga poker players are asked this question on a near daily basis. I could sit and talk for hours to someone about poker if they were willing to listen. I think when people ask me that question they expect some magic response like “Well, just play these hands”, or “Play this type of style”. However, whenever someone does asks me, the first thing I tell them is they must have a good foundation to their zynga texas holdem poker game, and when I say “foundation”, I don’t mean they need to know the basics of the game, or they need to be a solid player, I mean they need a foundation for what they are trying to accomplish. The solid foundation of building a bankroll of zynga poker chips or facebook poker chips is to practice good bankroll management. This article explains exactly what bankroll management is, why you should follow it, and some standard guidelines that one may follow.

1) Why are you playing zynga poker?

Aside from the home games with your friends where you are playing to drink beer and have fun, I’d hope your goal is to win zynga poker chips. Whether you’re playing with a few million zynga chips or billions of zynga chips if your goal isn’t to win more chips, please come sit at my table. I’d assume you wouldn’t even be reading this article if you didn’t want to win zynga poker chips. If your goal isn’t to build a bankroll and win more chips, then save yourself the time and skip the rest of the article, because it will have no importance to you.

2) Why do we need bankroll management?

As we all know, zynga poker is a game of skill, however there is mathematics involved, therefore percentages and “luck factor” play a role in the short run. The game of zynga texas holdem poker is full of “bad beats”, “suck-outs,” bad runs, and bad luck. Poker is an evil game. You got all your zynga poker chips in as a big favorite to win the hand, but that donkey hit that miracle to suck out on the river. How many more times are you going to run pocket kings all in pre-flop and lose your stack of facebook poker chips?

There are many factors in zynga poker that are beyond your control that can cause you to lose. Having the proper bankroll for the size game that you are playing enables you to overcome those things beyond your control that can cause you to lose. As winning poker players, we are always looking for “plus even” situations, which means situations where the decision we make will result in a profit over the course of the long run. By not having the proper bankroll for the game we are playing, we sometimes pass up on those situations, or turn those situations into “minus even” situations for fear of getting sucked out on or not wanting to put zynga poker chips in on a draw that we actually have odds to call (or raise in some situations if there is fold equity). We can’t afford to lose, because its more than we are comfortable losing out of our bankroll at a given time. I’m sure we have all felt this way before. If you do not practice proper bankroll management, not only will you play worse, but you will go broke.

You can be the best poker player in the world, and bring your best game to the table everyday, but if you are always playing above your bankroll, you will consistently lose your zynga poker chips. The stuff I talked about earlier in this paragraph will catch up to you and cause you to go “busto” with nothing you can do to control it. Following bankroll management ensures you will not go broke if you are better than the people you are playing against when you otherwise would.

3) What is your bankroll?

That is the first question you need to figure out. In other words, how many zynga poker chips can you set aside for play? Consider it a separate “savings account” set aside for poker and nothing else. For most people, that amount is very small. For the purpose of the rest of this article, lets say this amount is $200 million chips. If you are a good poker player (or think you are), you should be able to save up or borrow $200 million for a bankroll. This is your playing funds, and if you are better than the competition, you will never lose that $200 million if you follow proper bankroll management and are disciplined. If you can afford $500 million, great, that will give you a higher start, but I wouldn’t recommend going above $500 million without experience. Those who don’t have enough chips can always elect to buy zynga poker chips online.

Ok, so you have $200 million facebook poker chips, now what? First off, I recommend always buying in for the maximum amount that you can on the table, which is 100 big blinds at a standard table, and I will assume that you are going to. Most sources I have seen, and the formula that I use is that you need an absolute minimumof 20 buy-ins, 2000 big blinds, or 5% of your bankroll for whatever game you are playing. How are you ever going to build your stack of zynga poker chips playing those dinky, micro levels you ask? The answer is discipline and patience. Building a bankroll takes time, discipline, skill and patience.

Ok, so you have crushed the small tables, you have turned your $200 million into $300 million chips, you are ready to jump up a limit, right? You are sick and tired of playing so much good poker to grind out a a minimal amount of zynga poker chips. After another week of hard work, you have $500 million zynga chips in your account. You have 20 full buy-ins at that level to play. If you want to jump a limit, go for it, however I would recommend cashing out small percentages of your bankroll when you hit certain goals to reward yourself later on down the road. Even if it is $20 to treat yourself to a nice bottle of whisky to celebrate with your girlfriend, reward yourself every once in awhile in some way. I’ve read other sources that give actual percentages of how much you should cash out of your winnings, however my opinion is that it should be personal preference.

As well as jumping up limits, you must discipline yourself to drop down limits when you take hits in your bankroll. Even though you have 22 buy-ins for the new level of play, there is a good chance you will be back down below 20 at some point. One problem a lot of players have is that they fail to drop down levels when they run bad and put themselves in poor bankroll management practice. It is a very hard thing to follow through with, but one that can be the difference in your long term success or not in the game of zynga poker.

The further up in levels that you go in Facebook poker, the better the players are. By starting out at the lower levels and working your way up, not only will you ensure you are playing worse opponents, but you will be improving your game as well, learning things beyond basics of the game. Table selection is a whole different topic for a whole different article, but playing at a level or table where you outclass your opponents is a huge factor in winning zynga chips, and as simple as it sounds, is one of the most overlooked things in the game today.

The most interesting bankroll management story I have ever heard came from Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, a well known professional poker player, whom most of you have heard of. Chris did an interview for Full Tilt Poker where he talks about his quest to build a bankroll online. Chris tried to make a bankroll out of $1! Practicing good bankroll management, he turned his $1 into over $20,000 in the matter of a few months! Keep in mind Chris is a world class pro. The only time Chris broke his bankroll management guideline is at the first level, where his .01/.02 NL buy-in was a 10 cent minimum, or 10% of his bankroll. One recommendation that Chris has is that if at any time you buy-in for 5% of your bankroll and it turns into 10% of your bankroll, that you should cash out on that table and start a new table.