The Primer



Before you run for the hills, let me calm you. I won't be going into serious financial detail in this article. For details go to www.change-ur-mind.com. The idea is to explain what money management is and to give you some food for thought. Yes, the field of money management goes well beyond the simple stuff that we'll talk about today, but let's save that for later.

In layman's terms, money management simply means keeping track of what you're doing and what you planned to do at a casino. It's like when you go to the grocery store with an idea in mind of how much you want to or can spend and perhaps, to some degree, what you want to accomplish while there.

Set Aside Money

Before engaging in any gaming entertainment you should set aside an amount of money for your fun. This is the maximum amount of money you're willing to spend. If the moment comes when it's gone, you're done.

When you set aside money like this, it's traditionally called a bankroll. Ideally, your bankroll should be for just gambling and not other activities, such as eating, seeing movies, and so forth.

Betting Within Limits

Now that you have your bankroll, you can clearly see-at any time-how much money you have to play with. Using this new insight, you can bet appropriately.

If your bankroll is $100, you wouldn't want to walk up to the Blackjack table and play $25 hands. There's no hard and fast rule for bet sizing off a bankroll. I think you need to think about how long you want to try and play for. If you had $100 and just wanted to play for 5-10 minutes, then maybe $25 hands is fine.

For the typical player that's looking for up to a couple hours of fun, try to divide your bankroll by 20 for table games. For more details simply visit www.positive-idea.com. So, if you have a $100 bankroll, bet $5 per hand. As your bankroll increases, bet more if you wish.

The Overall Goal

Managing your money in this fashion will help you enjoy your experience more and you'll be more fiscally responsible. Most people who walk away big losers do so because they didn't know when to stop.

By setting your bankroll ahead of time, you know when to stop. And if you want to go further, you can initiate a stop loss on your money. Confused by this? We'll go deeper into money management in other articles.

Just remember this. Every professional gambler in the world knows about money management and uses it to some degree. Even if you only gamble once in a blue moon, it's good for you to at least know the basics.