MATTHEW ROBINSON

Weblog: Giving insight into online poker

Bankroll and playing tighter keys to success

MERRY Christmas everyone, it's been a long old year but it's nearly over. With mistletoe adorning every door and half eaten mince pies sprawled around the house, now is a good time, in my bloated state, to list two important lessons I hope you've learned reading these columns.

Lesson number one is don't play too many hands. We all do it when we start out but, if you're being too loose with your starting hand criteria, you will become a losing player on the scale of Gareth Bale running out for Tottenham.

You can be too loose. Your chips are your tools and like a great hunter you should preserve your ammunition until youthink you've got a good chance of catching your prey. However, on the flipside you can be too tight. You can't win the raffle if you don't buy a ticket. But cliches aside, the optimum strategy lies somewhere between the two.

Thesecond lesson is to use your bankroll wisely. For instance, you deposit $50 into your poker account and sit down with the whole amount at a cash table above your means. You lose the lot.

The fundamental mistake is that you're sitting with your entire bankroll. Poker is a game of luck but, ultimately, it is a game that can be beaten due to its mathematical nature.

The key to giving yourself a fair crack of the whip is to respect your money and not risk it all in onego. You need to be able to suffer a few losing sessions, because they will happen, so good bankroll management is paramount.

Instead of sitting down with the whole $50, sit down at a lower limit with a maximum buy-in of $10.

All good things come to an end and so I bid farewell to 2009 and wish you all a profitable new year.