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I suppose its down to the individual how they play, but personally, the hands I actually player, at least 80% of them are strong hands, but of course you can’t just play on a good hand, and let everyone know your game – you need to bluff every now and then.

Know the hands you want to go in on before you start, that’s easy, but you need to know the hands your going to bluff on too, as this could be the difference of staying in or going home for the night!

Limit yourself to the amount of hands you can bluff, but also manage your money correctly. Don’t get emotional if your having a bad streak, don’t try and bluff your way through just to increase your bankroll quickly.

As mentioned in a previous post, if you have split your total bankroll into segments, using something along the lines of the 5% rule, then loosing one game isn’t really the end of the world, just re group, and come back the next day!

Any money management strategies you use are worth transferring, especially if they work, whether that be from previous poker experiences or even investing.

I learnt from experience after playing an ‘emotional’ game on Sunday night on PokerStars, I was trying to bluff a few to many hands and ended up getting re-raised, which eventually led to a loss. When the hand I needed actually came in, what was left of my 5% was so pathetic I should of just gone and got a burger, chips and a coke!!!

This section is slightly vague, I haven’t made a definite decision myself, but what seems to work for me is a 100% return on investment, which obviously increases your bankroll by 5%.

Others may beg to differ, I have friends who think that if there winning, they will carry on doing so as it’s their ‘lucky night’ and I don’t blame them, as in general they come out 200/300% on top.

I’m very conservative, if I win 60% of the time, and by a win I mean have a percentage increase on my buy in of 100%, then my bank balance is in the green overall.

The above statement starts to make management look a bit more interesting!

I’ll be honest, it doesn’t really matter.

Personally, im not a tourney person, I have patience, but only to a certain extent, I like sit and goes, winning or loosing as fast as possible, and coming back the next day.

Of course, if I was a tournament player, I’d adapt my money management strategy, probably decrease the risk a little, as the chances of winning become a lot slimmer, but of course the gains are higher in general, especially if your ‘lucky’ enough to win!

A big factor here read up on money vs emotion and see how many people in Poker forums or financial trading have lost out due to emotion setting in. If you loose your 5% on Day 1, take a step back, evaluate what went wrong, it might have been an honest mistake, or you might have gone all 50/50 on whether the other player had the flush, while you only had a straight.

Don’t worry, the beauty of money management is that it doesn’t matter, you’ve walked away 5% down, not well, but you’ve walked away, loosing, but still with 95% of your balance.

Walk away; come back the next day.

To be honest its a very basic strategy, but i’ve given it a name incase i need to refer back to it in the future, i can simply link to this post.

The name means nothing - Grants’ Five % Rule

It relates to something we’ll be speaking about alot over the coming days – money management.

My rule is based on the scenario that a player should never enter a poker tournement with any more than 5% of their bank role, its just a form of risk limitation.

By entering tournements with 100% of your bankroll, your heading for disaster, as you might win today, you might even win tomorrow, and have tripled you bankroll in the process, but eventually, you will loose.

Depending on the type of player you are, or in fact how often you tend to win, you might want to double up on my rule and go in with 10%, or even half it and go in with 2.5% of your bankroll, but whatever you do, adopt some kind of money management strategy.

Playing poker thoughtfully is working, playing poker irratically is gambling!