Poker Strategy – How Much Money Should I Play For

June 20, 2013 by American Poker Directory

When my wife and I were on our way to our new friends home, John and Jackie we began to talk about strategy. As we were talking about strategy in general we referred to books we have read when we went to university. My wife brought up “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, while my focal point was on Machiavelli. We stopped at a red light and looked at each other and she said “How much should we play for tonight, we need to stop at the ATM”

My wife’s question made me think about an article I read by Victoria Coren, The Professional Poker player and author. In October 2005 Victoria Coren wrote an article that was very interesting in the Guardian on How much money should you play for when playing real cash money poker?

How Much Money Should Someone Start Out With

Although my wife and I play poker all the time, this is the first time we played at John and Jackie’s and we did not know how much money hey usually play poker for. After thinking about Victoria’s writing style, and how she jokes in her article about if you don’t know how much to play for, then you should come to her home poker game.

After she jokes around she touches on the point my wife and I were making. While we want to have a good time with our new friends, we also want to play for enough real money to have fun when we win and enough real money that it stings if we are not victorious.

Victoria Coren makes a point of saying that a poker player, whether playing poker online or at a home game, cannot play right when the stakes are too high. When you have too much real money at stakes a poker players nerves get in the way and judgment is compromised. If the stakes are too high, I may through away a good hand that I normally would not.

The poker player that continually makes a profit knows how to make the right call and the right folds. Nobody can learn to do this when they are putting their mortgage payment on the line. At the same time a poker player cannot learn this if there is not a lot of real money involved. Take a look at the Victoria Coren interview – The Wright Stuff

Victoria CorenTalks About Profit

Victoria Coren talks a bit about how a poker player who wants to learn to be profitable, should take out the exact same money that they would normally take out if they were spending a night out on the town. My wife and I knew how much we normally spend when we go out, and we feel we made the right decision based on the fact that John and Jackie were our new friends.