Manage Your Money Like a Professional Poker Player.

As a game, poker is renowned for having produced many winners over the course of its long history. It has been so successful in providing people with new lifestyles, it has produced thousands of multi-millionaires worldwide, and it will definitely be creating some more in the not to distant future.

There are millions of poker players in the world who are chasing these dreams in the hope of becoming the next poker master. However, if you are one of these people, you need to be realistic, you will be competing against millions of others with exactly the same dream, who will be trying their hardest to become very successful poker players- the competition is tough!!

You need to realise that poker is not a guaranteed way of making money, it is not a get rich quick enterprise, and it takes a certain amount of intelligence, perseverance and dedication to become an expert. You need to learn to be skilful and have a bucket load of patience; you also need to be able to take the losses without becoming down hearted.

But most importantly, as with any other enterprise, you need to learn how to manage your money, truly professional poker players understand this. Here are a few pointers to get you started:

Bankroll:
We all have heroes that we look up to, but if you idolise professional poker players it is easy for you to get caught up in trying to follow their success. If you are interested in poker and you read news stories and articles about the subject, you will constantly be bombarded with all the success stories of winners living a luxury lifestyle; nice cars, mansions, designer clothes...

But, an important point that you should bear in mind is that these players have probably been playing poker for years, they are well into their poker careers, and they did not start off by winning massive amounts, for the most times, they built up their finances over many years.

You might be tempted, if you win a relatively large amount, $5000 for example, to go out and splash the cash straight away, but if you want to make a career out of poker you should actually save the money, make it work for you and build up a nest egg. In the short term you might have luxuries if you spend your winnings straight away, but in the long run you will not be getting anywhere really.

Limits:
Ask any regular poker player and they will tell you that you will play with a certain bankroll limit over a period of time, but you will eventually outgrow the amount and start playing with larger limits, this is a natural progression in a poker career.

Limits can go up or down; you may find that the players in one limit are too good for you, in which case you will want to move down. On the other hand, you may be finding it exceptionally easy to make money at one level, and then you should move up because you will be able to win more, the competition will be harder but because you were so good at the lower limit you should find the next limit manageable.

But remember, you need to make sure that your bankroll allows you to comfortably move up a limit, you will lose money as well as winning money, and if you end up losing your entire bankroll you will have to go right back down to the lower limits.

Hourly pay:
When you are trying to make a career out of poker you should treat it as you would another career, if the amount of money you make per hour is too low you would not take the job, so you need to find the limit that will provide you with the hourly rate of pay that you require. Chose the type of poker that you are most proficient at playing, this will take some time to establish, so don not give up your day job in the meantime.

A good tip for working out how much money you are making is to work out your wins, loses and deposits per week, say for an average of 45 hours play, and then see if this matches the rate you would be receiving in a full time job.

Pay your bills!!
When you find that you are making a reasonable hourly rate, for example $20 p/h, you will feel that you are making a reasonable living, but you need to take into account all your living expenses, your rent, utility bills, if you make $3000 a month, that does not mean that it can go right back into playing more rounds of poker, you need to take out your living expenses before you put the money back in your bankroll. Once you can manage these few simple feats, then you will be well on your way to becoming a professional player.

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