$6M doesn’t go far

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/03/2012 (4970 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Six million dollars is a lot of money, but in the poker world is it enough? The answer might be a little more surprising than you think.

Bankroll management is probably the single most important skill in becoming successful in poker. I am no saint when it comes to this, as I have always been very aggressive with my own bankroll. My super-competitive nature is always pushing me to move up in stakes even when I know I should be playing in a smaller game.

Over and over again we hear of people who have won huge tournaments for outrageous amounts only to be broke within a very short time. How is this possible?

Jamie Gold, the 2006 WSOP champion and winner of the biggest-ever first-place prize, found out pretty quickly that the money doesn’t last forever. Gold began to play in cash games that were far bigger than he was used to, routinely sitting with massive sums of money in front of him. Within a few years he was MIA and rumours began to surface that he might, in fact, be broke. When I saw him sit and short-buy in a 10-20 game I was playing in, I figured there was some truth to rumour.

Chris Moneymaker and Peter Eastgate were a couple of other players who blew through their WSOP winnings very quickly. Eastgate got slaughtered playing high-stakes cash games online. Moneymaker was just a terrible player so the only way for him not to go broke was to quit the game altogether.

Another player has won almost $6 million playing tournament poker and I think he may owe every player in the poker world money. He was even kicked out of a tournament after winning $1 million last year because there were so many players waiting in the wings to collect the money he owed them.

I could go on and on about how players who have been super fortunate to win a major tourney have been able to go through their bankrolls in lightning speed, but I think by now you have probably gotten the point.

The reason I am bringing this up is because of player named Gavin Griffin, who has won almost $6 million on the live circuit.

A few weeks ago Griffin posted a blog about how he was moving down in stakes. This is nothing unusual; every player in the world has dropped down in stakes at some point in his career. Griffin, however, went from playing as high as 500-1,000. He is now playing 8-16.

He was extremely honest and it was a breath of fresh air hearing someone talk so openly about his struggles. Too many players have led viewers over the years to believe they are superhuman and that the money never runs out. Well, it does.

Anyone who is not careful can certainly go broke while attempting to be a poker player. It is good to be able to learn from players who are courageous enough to speak about their troubles.

Marco Carreira is a professional poker player living in the Winnipeg area