by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Sep 20, 2019 | Updated on Sep 20, 2019
Proper bankroll management is one of the most essential elements of a successful poker career. The size of your bankroll will determine whether or not you’re ready to up your game and move to a higher level. If you mismanage your poker funds, it could result in a crash that will ultimately crush your poker dream.
Some of the top poker pros in the world fall into this trap and mess things up with their bankroll management but not all of them share these failures. Poker pro Phil Galfond had no hesitation in opening up and sharing how his poker game suffered due to bad bankroll management.
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Galfond said he was a huge risk taker back in the early days and lost huge sums of money as a result. At one point, he lost half of his $95K fund playing 50/100nl. Things got worse when he burned through $400K playing 300/600nl. Since then, Galfond has learned to slow down and take a closer look at his poker priorities which has helped him get back on his feet.
Galfond is a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, with total live earnings sitting at almost $3 million. He launched his own poker site Run It Once earlier this year, with a goal to provide a fair, honest and transparent site for every poker player.
Learn To Manage Your Bankroll
Galfond’s honesty and courage to publicly talk about his bankroll mistakes in the past is commendable, but what is more inspiring is how Galfond dealt with these downswings to ultimately become a top poker pro. Instead of trying to recoup his losses by playing the same high-stakes games, Galfond decided to drop down and just grind until his career was back on track.
You can lose massive amounts of money in just a couple of minutes at the table, but recovering those losses may take quite a long time. However, with the right amount of humility, patience, focus, and perseverance, everything will eventually fall back into place and Galfond’s recovery is testament to this.
Many believed that Galfond became successful in poker due to his ability to play high-stakes games. But his recent revelation shows that he actually took the opposite route — going back to where he started, at the lower levels, until he was confident to move up again.
Galfond’s confession is something every poker player can learn from and make changes to their game so that they don’t blow their bankroll.
