Money management is a fallacious concept yet there are scores of players going broke because they didn’t properly manage the money they had.
People get confused with this concepts. One is normally called money management and one is what I call “bankroll management”. Bankroll management is very important. Even if you are a great player, you must have enough of a bankroll to sustain the inevitable losing streaks. You also have to have the corect bank/bet ratio as a unit. And I have never been opposed to that. The concept that I am always trying to explain to people is the “other” definition of money management. Money management in most people’s minds means quitting simply because of how you are doing that day, or continuing to play simply because of how you are doing that day. In other words, you are in a game and you have lost x number of bets so you quit, only to come back tomorrow. Well, that is a silly concept because it is all one game. If you are a serious player, you are playing for the long run, not by the day. You quit because the game has gotten worse, you quit because you are tired. These are all proper reasons but not because I am going badly, I’m getting bad cards that day, because I’ve lost a certain amount. This is simply incorrect. This is not my opinion, this is simply incorrect. If you will play in a game where you have the advantage, the more you play, the more you will eventually win. If you play in a game where you have the disadvantage, the more you play the more you will eventually lose. There’s no way of getting around that. If there was such a thing as getting around having a disadvantage simply by money management, you could go to the crap table and win by money management. In other words by quitting at the right time or not quitting at the right time but you cannot do that. Money management is a completely spurious idea as far as when you quit or when you don’t quit. The only thing that matters when you are gambling is to gamble when you have the edge. And when you are in that situation play as long as you can. When you are not in that situation quit at the first opportunity. That’s really all there is to say.
On the other hand, I can tell you how you can manage yourself. There are basically a couple psychological tricks that you can play on yourself, because nobody is happy when they are losing. The fact is, that if after the first hour you find yourself down $1,700, you know that it is very unlikely you can get that $1,700 back that day, especially if you play properly. So, of course, many people start using some progression or increasing the unit in order to make back that $1,700. This is silly and wrong. The correct thing to do is just to play as well as you can, hope to get your expectation for the time played, and once in a while you will get the whole $1,700 back. Well, how does one do that. And the answer that I’ve found is you have to sort of trick yourself. You have to just say “It doesn’t matter whether I win or lose, it only matters that I play and bet well. And the way you can get yourself to do that is by having pride in yourself. I’m not here to win, I’m here to play well. Be proud of the way you're playing. Be able to go home and say, you know I lost $500 today, and a bad player would have lost $900 with those same cards using his progression. You have to realize that a day you lose can make you money at the end of the month just the same as a day you win because if you lose $500 and a bad player would have lost $900 then that means there’s $400 more profit at the end of the month. That’s one trick. And the other trick is to simply realize that you figure to win a certain amount per hour in the long run. You’re coming to work, you’re not gambling, and you are constantly just playing your best in the hopes that, or in the certainty, actually, that you will eventually win what you are expected to win. And you don’t think about any individual result, you don’t think about any individual day, and, in fact, you don’t even have to count your money, while you’re playing or even after you’re playing.
Blackjack is not a football game, if you’re a serious blackjack player. In football, there’s no difference between a 30 to nothing loss and a 30 to 28 loss. But in blackjack there is because the score continues onto the next day. I’d much rather lose 30 to 28 than 30 to nothing in blackjack.
So, bet and play well and you will win your EV over the long run. There is no other way arounf this!
People get confused with this concepts. One is normally called money management and one is what I call “bankroll management”. Bankroll management is very important. Even if you are a great player, you must have enough of a bankroll to sustain the inevitable losing streaks. You also have to have the corect bank/bet ratio as a unit. And I have never been opposed to that. The concept that I am always trying to explain to people is the “other” definition of money management. Money management in most people’s minds means quitting simply because of how you are doing that day, or continuing to play simply because of how you are doing that day. In other words, you are in a game and you have lost x number of bets so you quit, only to come back tomorrow. Well, that is a silly concept because it is all one game. If you are a serious player, you are playing for the long run, not by the day. You quit because the game has gotten worse, you quit because you are tired. These are all proper reasons but not because I am going badly, I’m getting bad cards that day, because I’ve lost a certain amount. This is simply incorrect. This is not my opinion, this is simply incorrect. If you will play in a game where you have the advantage, the more you play, the more you will eventually win. If you play in a game where you have the disadvantage, the more you play the more you will eventually lose. There’s no way of getting around that. If there was such a thing as getting around having a disadvantage simply by money management, you could go to the crap table and win by money management. In other words by quitting at the right time or not quitting at the right time but you cannot do that. Money management is a completely spurious idea as far as when you quit or when you don’t quit. The only thing that matters when you are gambling is to gamble when you have the edge. And when you are in that situation play as long as you can. When you are not in that situation quit at the first opportunity. That’s really all there is to say.
On the other hand, I can tell you how you can manage yourself. There are basically a couple psychological tricks that you can play on yourself, because nobody is happy when they are losing. The fact is, that if after the first hour you find yourself down $1,700, you know that it is very unlikely you can get that $1,700 back that day, especially if you play properly. So, of course, many people start using some progression or increasing the unit in order to make back that $1,700. This is silly and wrong. The correct thing to do is just to play as well as you can, hope to get your expectation for the time played, and once in a while you will get the whole $1,700 back. Well, how does one do that. And the answer that I’ve found is you have to sort of trick yourself. You have to just say “It doesn’t matter whether I win or lose, it only matters that I play and bet well. And the way you can get yourself to do that is by having pride in yourself. I’m not here to win, I’m here to play well. Be proud of the way you're playing. Be able to go home and say, you know I lost $500 today, and a bad player would have lost $900 with those same cards using his progression. You have to realize that a day you lose can make you money at the end of the month just the same as a day you win because if you lose $500 and a bad player would have lost $900 then that means there’s $400 more profit at the end of the month. That’s one trick. And the other trick is to simply realize that you figure to win a certain amount per hour in the long run. You’re coming to work, you’re not gambling, and you are constantly just playing your best in the hopes that, or in the certainty, actually, that you will eventually win what you are expected to win. And you don’t think about any individual result, you don’t think about any individual day, and, in fact, you don’t even have to count your money, while you’re playing or even after you’re playing.
Blackjack is not a football game, if you’re a serious blackjack player. In football, there’s no difference between a 30 to nothing loss and a 30 to 28 loss. But in blackjack there is because the score continues onto the next day. I’d much rather lose 30 to 28 than 30 to nothing in blackjack.
So, bet and play well and you will win your EV over the long run. There is no other way arounf this!