I just posted this on a different thread and thought it might be a good conversation starter. Here is what I feel is a decent rule of thumb for my gambling. (Note: I am a craps player primarily - passline with single odds, a couple of place bets. Press after a couple of wins. Occasional center bets): When tables are $5, $75 minimum budget per hour of gambling. When tables are $10, $150 minimum budget per hour of gambling When tables are $15, $200 minimum budget per hour of gambling Discuss amongst yourselves....
Well you are basically going with about 15 betting units per hour (the first two are 15, the last is 13). Seems most people who want to make sure they get some play out of their money go with 20-25 betting units for their buy in so they can ride out the ups and downs of winning and losing. The guy who sits down at a table and buys in for $100-200 to play $25 per hand (occasionally pressing to $50) is usually the one that comes back posting a trip report about how they were beaten badly at the tables and thats usually because their bankroll amount can't take much of any downward swings - even if you are playing a game with only a 1% house edge if you are betting $25 per hand you can't lose only 25 cents on any given hand.
I think your system is really dependent on the house edge for the game your playing. As a poker player I have a stop loss of 250 big blinds per session. No matter how good the game is if I lose that much I walk away from the table.
I don't see $75 lasting an hour, even at a $5 craps table. Well, I suppose if the table is crowded and you bet $5 pass with $10 odds and thats it. Or maybe I just have crummy luck? Thats probably it. . . Either way, I go to a $5 craps table with $200, for an hour session and wouldn't consider sitting with less than $140, just so I could afford a couple rough swings while having a minimum of appx. $25-$27 in play between my pass, odds and a couple of place bets. As for the $10 and $15 levels. . . I'm a low rolling S.O.B., and don't play em all that often. But, I wouldn't consider $200 to be nearly enough for an hr at a $15 table. If you had $77 bucks or so in play each time, and took 3 rough swings, theres your bankroll right there.
So that's a little different than how I operate. I like to have only a little money changed into chips and don't mind changing more if needed. Is there any real advantage in having more money in chips right off the hop as opposed to pulling out some more cash? For me, I don't like to be reaching for cash every moment...but I like to believe that I'm not playing to loose it all - so I originally change less for chips...thinking, hoping that I will win.
I don't think the OP's proposed budgets were necessarily meant to be for ONE hour of gambling, but PER hour. Let's say you want to play three hours at a $5 table, $225 should get you there most of the time. While $75 could be easily wiped out with just a handful of bad shooters, the likelihood that you run into several of those bad runs back to back to back are fairly slim.
I don't know. . . I have only played craps for a few years, but know enough to say the chances that 3 people crap out in a row in an hour session isnt "fairly slim". Hell, maybe I need to shoot with you sometime. Bring me some luck!
~10x my estimated average is basically what I tend to buyin at the tables. Craps Pass/Odds/Place 6/8. On a $10 table this is ~$40 average or so, and $400 buyin is fairly common. $200 is exactly what I buyin on a $5 table. BJ - $300 buyin, start off with $40 bets, will go down to $15-$20 after a few losses. I feel if I wanted to play for a long time on a table with good odds that I wouldn't have to rebuy, I'd need ~25x my avg bet. I don't do this because I know how quickly I like to press my bets. $150 bet with $800 on the table is easy. $150 with $300 on the table, not so easy.
Thank you - that is exactly what I meant to say. The genesis for this thread is from another posting where someone asked for a daily budget. My posting here was meant to say - if I plan to play for three or four hours, how much per hour would I budget. This is especially important when you fly to Vegas for an extended trip. If I go to my local casino for a couple of hours, it is no big deal. I go, I play, I come home. When I am in Vegas, the worst thing in the world is to have no money available to gamble when you want to. Not that I gamble 24/7 in Vegas, but I can figure out how many hours I plan to gamble (net of golf, shows, spa, pool time, eating and - a few hours to sleep) and then decide how much I need.
Thats what I'm saying... As a $5 craps player (single odds, one come bet same way; $20 average) I'd say $500 per day, will allow me to play for 8 hours (This breaks down to $50 p/h I guess) But I want the same for 25c video poker...
Tim. . .looks like we will be Downtown the same weekend. I will have to keep my eyes peeled for ya at the craps tables. $5 shooter here, mostly play GG and MSS, maybe ElCo.