Bankroll software and Re-buys

Our forum is filled with BR management advice, below included. You should however be using some kind of bankroll management software to keep track of not only how much you have but where it is most wisely put to use. Phaedrus75 in the forum says: Still, I do think it is a little above a $400 BR. You should be playing MTTs with a roll up to an absolute MINIMUM of 50 buy-ins (personally I think 100 buy-ins is more appropriate). The 50 Buy-in figure is used by those who can afford to go broke and reload. Once you get a roll that will be devastating to lose, then BR management shifts to what is called management of a "protected" roll. The protected roll guidelines are roughly double those posted by Sun137 in the BR Section.

Single bulleting rebuys is a legitimate strategy, however T&F is correct in that it does put you at a pretty big disadvantage. Not taking the add-on is IMHO a huge mistake. The add-on gives you more chips than you original buy-in (usually 2000 compared to 1500). Also you do not pay rake on the add-on. If you don't take that very cheap 2000 chips, the compound cost is pretty big as the tournament gets deeper. You'll normally finish the re-buy period with a stack of around 8-10K.

To make a final table you are going to need close to 1 million chips (Sun has also mapped this out precisely, but his spreadsheet is presently on an old hard drive and I haven't transferred all of the contents yet). Anyway, to go from 10K to say 1 million, you are going to have to double up roughly 7 times. Not taking the add-on represents a hit to your stack of about 256,000 over the course of those double-ups. It could easily be the difference between a final table or not.

Using your poker software to build your bankroll.

For example, If you can make a final table with 7 doubleups starting from 10K, but 6 double-ups starting from 12K, then not having to take that extra possible coin flip is pretty important. If you assume your double ups were all coin flips where you are an average of 50/50 each time, then you make a final table 1.5% of the time if 6 double ups get your there, but only 0.8% of the time if you need 7 double-ups.

Now I hear you saying, but I am a good player and I get it all in as better than a flip most of the time. That's great! But you are still going to get it in 50/50 at least 3 or 4 times. If its 3 times, then you are 12% to win all your flips. If its 4 times then you are 6% to win them all. So the better the player you are, the more significant and important that extra 2000 chips becomes. To the flip every time player, it increases his final table chances by less than 1%. To a good player, not having to take that one additional flip increases his chances by 6%.

Even if I am a monster chip leader after the re-buy hour, I still take the add-on.

So if you are going to single bullet it, but also take the add-on, then its a $20 tournament, in which case you should be rolled for at least $1K.

BR Management is a bit of a hobby horse of mine I guess. Way too many people treat it way too trivially. However it can be mathematically proven that good BR management is way more important than good playing ability. If you gave my mum (mom for you yanks) $10K and Phill Ivy $250, my mum would bust him eventually in a HU cash session unless it was a game where Phill was properly rolled to play the stakes chosen.