Short stack strategy cash games – bankroll project
Sunday, August 31st, 2008 | Mark | Poker Articles, Poker Projects
“Easy come easy go” seems to be the story of my life when it comes to reaching the magical 200$ poker bankroll. I was so close 3 sessions ago when I hit 197$, but I’m now down to 135$. As usual I have made a graph which clearly shows my dismal last 3 sessions.

Here’s how it happened (posts taken from my bankroll building thread on the PokerBRB forum)
Took a beating tonight
Not my best session hour ever. Lost 3 buyins (-24$) and my bankroll is now down to 171$
Lost with QQ against AK (turn and river were AK)
Lost with AA against AKs (turn gave my opponent the flush)
Lost with 910s on a A52 board (2 of my suit) against KK
Instead of playing on, I decided to stop for the evening. No point in continuing when I am mad about my losses.
Perfect example of the short stack strategy in action
I look down at KK in early position and raised 7xBB to 3,5$. I get 2 callers.
The flop is 10 8 K, two spades. I go all in with my remaining 4,5$ and get one caller with QJ
Perfect, I get the money in as favorite which will make me a winning player in the long run.
Not tonight however since the river was an A
My bankroll is currently free-falling….
My intuition screams at me: “FOLD, FOLD, FOLD, FOLD…..FOLD you idiot”
What do I do? I call…he flips QQ and I’m down 2.5 buyins tonight.
My bankroll was soooo close to 200$ and now it’s down to 155$.
Unbearable I tell you…unbearable. I need a poker break to re focus.
I guess I can only blame myself. Twice I reraised an initial raiser all in with pocket sevens because I was convinced they had high cards.
It turned out that they had high pairs, QQ and KK respectively.
I also lost with AK against QK.
My netprofit of 125$ has been halved in 3 sessions.
Sucky Sucky is my only comment….
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3 Comments to Short stack strategy cash games – bankroll project
The joys of poker, what goes up, must come done. Keep your head up and you will turn this thing around just like you did the first time you started playing the Short Stack Strategy.
August 31, 2008
I does seem that your bankroll is a bit small to your limits. Loosing 25% of the bankroll on one session seems a lot. Have you considered moving one level down? You could try to increase the number of tables so that your “investment” is the same size. Just an idea. Good luck!
October 26, 2010
Even with a shortstack strategy you should be buying in for only 2% of your bankroll on any given cash game. That’s the most important piece of bankroll management you could exercise.
Poker is gambling (even with a sound strategy) so you need to protect yourself from variance.

(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
August 31, 2008