Leaving money on poker sites: How much is too much?

If you're only playing freerolls &/or games you've won tickets for via freerolls, why would you keep ANYTHING on ANY site? Some suggesting they don't see the reason for keeping $$'s online, blah blah blah... well of course you wouldn't. You don't play anything that costs anything.,
People who play for money will mostly have different situation. I mean if we were talking to a group of low stakes MTT grinders, then you'd likely see most keeping anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500 on each of the sites they play on (or at least for a total bankroll). If we were talking with a group of Mid Stakes MTT grinders it'd likely be closer to $20,000 on each site (or for a total bankroll if it's easy to move it around)
It's not unheard of for winning players who might even be typically winning at ROi +20% winrate over a large sample size to be on a 500 buy-in downswing. I know & follow a couple of MSMTT grinders who play for a living. One is currently on a 90buyin downswing in just the past week (- 60 buy-ins just on Sunday alone!) and another who is on a 500 buy-in downer. (with an $80 abi).
Look at Daniel Peterson... a winning HSMTT reg. who is I believe on a $400,000 downswing. Or how about Bert Stevens (giraffeganger) who was on a -$500,000 downswing prior to hitting a $2.3 million score.
I personally like to keep a min. of 25 bi for 25nl on each site I play on, but won't withdrawal anything til' I'm over $1,000 on a site. I'm hoping to play MTT's (still... but have had health issues keeping me from it) and would plan on keeping $5,000 online and wouldn't withdrawal until above at least $10,000.
I noticed a player's bankroll on GG a few months ago while they were streaming. I imagine some of the players would keep much, much more than this, you can see some of them are playing over $50,000 in entry fees on just one day.
ScreenHunter 32030
 
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Poker Orifice said:
People who play for money will mostly have different situation. I mean if we were talking to a group of low stakes MTT grinders, then you'd likely see most keeping anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500 on each of the sites they play on (or at least for a total bankroll).
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Exactly. And as I said already, if I did not trust the sites enough to have that kind of money sitting there, I should probably find somewhere else to play. Its really silly to withdraw money and pay currency exchange and/or wire transfer fees only to then have to redeposit it a few weeks later due to some losing sessions. Even if there are no such fees like is the case for me on 888 Poker, I dont want to bother their staff with processing withdrawals only to then deposit again the next week or month. Either I trust them enough to have $1.000+ sitting there, or I withdraw all my money and dont play there at all.
 
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Gritz18 said:
Whenever I can, I make a withdrawal; I don’t see the point in leaving money sitting idle on the site. They could change their withdrawal rules, or your country might block access to the site for some reason—so it’s much better to have that money earning interest in my own bank account.
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Yes sure there is absolutely no point in leaving any money on any site if u freeroll only.

He was asking what people do with their bankroll, their buy-ins. Not what people do with the change they win in freerolls they not want to invest in games.
 
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Mazembe said:
I withdraw regularly, so it looks like I'm starting over again
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One thing about leaving the money there and having a big balance is that you will start to play bad because I know you can rebuy anytime etc
 
Sunz of Beaches said:
He was asking what people do with their bankroll, their buy-ins. Not what people do with the change they win in freerolls they not want to invest in games.
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Spoken like the all-powerful god of Cardschat—the guy who knows everything and inserts himself into every single conversation. Why don’t you go mind your own business?🤫
 
Gritz18 said:
Spoken like the all-powerful god of Cardschat—the guy who knows everything and inserts himself into every single conversation. Why don’t you go mind your own business?🤫
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Well this is a discussion forum and im free to give my opinion. My strict wife tries to hold me back all the time but i simply can't. I could also comment on your post "Spoken like a true freeroller" but i wont.

Again: if you dont plan on playing on those sites, why would u keep money on it?

And your other point that sites maybe change withdrawal conditions or block access is also not really valid for most players. They maybe change withdrawal conditions for freeroll winnings or certain governments block sites but then u can mostly still cashout beforehand, depending on the site and if the site is regulated or not.
 
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Mazembe said:
One thing about leaving the money there and having a big balance is that you will start to play bad because I know you can rebuy anytime etc
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OR you could be a huge bankroll NIT (like myself) and not want the balance to decrease at all, motivating one to play their best every time they play (< this is part of the challenge involved with playing the game of poker)
 
Gritz18 said:
Spoken like the all-powerful god of Cardschat—the guy who knows everything and inserts himself into every single conversation. Why don’t you go mind your own business?🤫
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Sunz was making a valid point. How relevant is maintaining a bankroll on a poker site if the player is only playing freerolls? If there are no WD fees, taking the $$'s off once it exceeds the minimum WD amount would maybe be the plan... because it makes zero sense to leave anything on the site. It's be like me leaving $100 on a casino site that has slots & blackjack, because I play neither for $$'s ever.
 
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If I make regular withdrawals—one a month, which isn't much, around $110 to $130—it works out fine. I once stopped playing for about 7 months, and when I came back, the cash was still there—on 888.
 
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Coolcassv9. said:
If I make regular withdrawals—one a month, which isn't much, around $110 to $130—it works out fine. I once stopped playing for about 7 months, and when I came back, the cash was still there—on 888.
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I think its 2 years and after that they will take the money from your account. Not exactly sure though but there is an inactivity rule on 888.
 
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For me, withdrawing money or leaving it in the account isn't the main issue, because I can always deposit it again if needed. The more important thing I'm trying to work on is setting a daily loss limit and sticking to it, especially on bad days. Honestly, I still struggle with that sometimes, regardless of how big my bankroll is.
 
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Never leave more than you can afford to lose overnight and never leave more than you need for your current stakes
 
Leaving money on poker sites: How much is too much?

If the site you're playing on is licensed in your country (while I don't like some aspecs of the government regulations regarding poker online- I have to agree that it improves the overall safety/security in all aspects) and also has good reputation/reviews (especially regarding 'big' withdrawals), while you're a serious poker player that wants to move-up stakes with decent bankroll management and discipline... I'd say you can leave any amount - most sites nowadays process withdrawals very fast, so if you really need to go into the poker bankroll for some (unexpected) IRL stuff it won't be a problem and won't matter if the money is in your bank account or in your poker account* you'll even save quite a bit on the long run from different fees both for deposits/withdrawals... Still, if you don't have the best bankroll management and discipline - than I agree with many members above that said you should keep enough money for 1-2 poker sessions...
 
Sunz of Beaches said:
I think its 2 years and after that they will take the money from your account. Not exactly sure though but there is an inactivity rule on 888.
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There is but its pretty easy to get around. Just log on every 6 month or so and play an orbit on a 2NL cash table or the cheapest Spin n Go. Thats why I always leave a few $, when I dont play there.
 
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fundiver199 said:
There is but its pretty easy to get around. Just log on every 6 month or so and play an orbit on a 2NL cash table or the cheapest Spin n Go. Thats why I always leave a few $, when I dont play there.
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Yeh sure. Another option is to have an ewallet with a few Dollars and whenever u dont plan on playing you move your money there. That's also something for people who dont trust the site 😅 there are inactivity fees but with most wallets login every 6 months will do it.
 
Set a goal for your bankroll, (for example. $100, $200, $500, $1000), play at the limits that your bankroll allows for a while, and everything above that bankroll you withdraw for your own use, after a while, you create new bankroll goals and increase buy ins.
$100 bankroll - you play tournaments for 25 cents, 50 cents.
$200 bankroll - you play $1, $1.50 tournaments
$500 bankroll - you $2, $3, $4 tournaments
$1000 bankroll - you play $5, $6, $7, $8 tournaments
by respecting these limits, studying poker and practicing, in the long term, you will be profitable and you will always have a healthy bankroll.
 
hardongear said:
try a new site for the first time then I'll deposit $50 and I'll do that when and if I wanna play cash there because I'm not interested in MTT's under $5 usually so end starting at 2nl and working my way too $500.


That's impressive! When do you move up form 2nl to 5nl? (& 5nl to 10nl).
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If I was able to deposit $50 and run it up to $500 I'd probably be doing this on a few of the new'ish' sites I haven't tried out yet.
In the past for new sites I too will often just deposit $50 to try it out and will play some MTT's $5 - $10 and just hope for the best. Sometimes it works, more often it doesn't, lol.
 
No form of bankroll management is going to matter if you're unable to beat the games you're playing.
 
Sunz of Beaches said:
Yeh sure. Another option is to have an ewallet with a few Dollars and whenever u dont plan on playing you move your money there. That's also something for people who dont trust the site 😅 there are inactivity fees but with most wallets login every 6 months will do it.
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Sure and if multible sites accept the same ewallet, this can also be a cheap and fast way to move poker money around while still keeping it separate from your rent money etc. But I would not bother to transfer money from a site to an ewallet, just because I am taking a break for a few weeks. The ewallet is just as likely to go bust as a reputable poker site, so its not like, your money is significantly more safe there.
 
Poker Orifice said:
If I was able to deposit $50 and run it up to $500 I'd probably be doing this on a few of the new'ish' sites I haven't tried out yet.
In the past for new sites I too will often just deposit $50 to try it out and will play some MTT's $5 - $10 and just hope for the best. Sometimes it works, more often it doesn't, lol.
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Yeah I think you play way too much volume for my $50 deposit method and likely not enough cash tables anyways. I've run my $50 up too $500 playing micro stakes MTT's simply because of the MTT variance and micro MTT's aren't much different then freerolls which I've never won much playing either. So when I deposit $50 on a new site or any site I stick mainly 99% of the time to 2nl cash till I feel I comfortable with the software(RNG) and/or I have around $150 then I move too 5nl where I stay until I reach $500. Only then will I switch to play MTT's on the weekends.

With that said sometimes I end up busto or I simply decide I'm done and don't wanna play there anymore and withdraw. Like with WPT Global recently I ended up withdrawing cause well never played there much and had my money in there over or around a year now.

Cheers!!!
 
hardongear said:
Yeah I think you play way too much volume for my $50 deposit method and likely not enough cash tables anyways. I've run my $50 up too $500 playing micro stakes MTT's simply because of the MTT variance and micro MTT's aren't much different then freerolls which I've never won much playing either. So when I deposit $50 on a new site or any site I stick mainly 99% of the time to 2nl cash till I feel I comfortable with the software(RNG) and/or I have around $150 then I move too 5nl where I stay until I reach $500. Only then will I switch to play MTT's on the weekends.

With that said sometimes I end up busto or I simply decide I'm done and don't wanna play there anymore and withdraw. Like with WPT Global recently I ended up withdrawing cause well never played there much and had my money in there over or around a year now.

Cheers!!!
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I'm the same with WPT. (time to pull the plug there).
I actually play mostly cash games... easily 99% of my time is on cash tables. (sigh... I really would prefer to be playing MTTs)
 
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Keep in mind that about 80% of players lose money online. Most of these players play for fun and won't switch to a new site for a significant (30-50%) rake reduction. For me, losing $100 is a lot.
 
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