Cash Out Strategy for Online Poker: Get One!

I get asked the question quite a lot. “How often should I be cashing off?”.  As usual there is no one size fits all. If you’re a recreational player just looking to have fun, your bankroll requirements are drastically different to someone who plays for a living. However, there are some cash out strategies you can employ that will make your life easier and hopefully get you moving up stakes. In this article, we’ll be offering some practical advice to help you improve your cashing out routine.

Don’t cash out at micro stakes

Anyone who is playing micro stakes ($10 buy in and less) should not be looking to cash off their money. If you’re playing this low, you’re either playing for experience and trying to win, playing for fun, or trying to grind up a bankroll and move up stakes. Whichever group you’re in, cashing out doesn’t help you.

If you are playing for fun, cashing out will only mean you have to re-deposit later anyway. That is a waste of admin time and also frustrating.

If you need a bankroll to keep you going and moving up to higher stakes, cashing out will reduce the number of buy-ins you have.

Lastly, with $10 buy ins and below, you’re probably sitting there with a roll of $250 or less. Therefore, anything you cash out is likely to be a small and relatively insignificant amount anyway. So is it worth taking money off?

Only cash out profits

I recommend your cash out strategy only involve withdrawing actual profits. Otherwise, if you’re just cashing out money that was sitting in your roll to protect you, you’ve lost some insurance. Provided your deposits were a sufficient amount to allow you to play properly, there should be no reason to withdraw capital invested.

The primary reason people cash out from their actual bankroll is to protect from losses. In other words, they’re playing scared poker. That’s why I think players should generally only cash out profit or free bonus money perhaps if they’ve been playing at one of the best rated casinos and met the wagering requirements.

Some people also cash out because they need it for their personal life. But this is wrong as you should never be gambling with money you need for your day to day living. That’s why its vital you keep a separate bankroll for poker from daily life.

Cash out at regular intervals

Like any good habit that comes with money, routine is important. That’s why I suggest setting up a cash out strategy at regular time periods. I think monthly is the best as it’s a cool thing to look forward to but fortnightly is fine too. Any more than that is probably too often and withdrawing quarterly or yearly seems far too long to wait to enjoy winnings.

The important thing about cashing out regularly is that you get enjoy tangible winnings. It’s something to get excited about.

Cashing out stops you moving up

For most of my readers who are always looking to move up and crush the next poker stakes, it’s worth noting that cashing out does slow this down. Even if you cash out a percentage of winnings each month, that means less cash available for the next jump in stakes.

This disclaimer isn’t right for everyone because some people hit a level and are quite happy cashing off all their winnings every month. This is a great way to approach part-time poker playing.

For instance, if you have $2,500 at NL $50 and make $500 a month, there is no need to keep the bankroll at $3,000 as you have 50 buy ins already. Cashing out your winnings and the rake-back earnings can be a great side income.

Summary

Wherever you are in your poker journey, have a plan and cash out strategy ready. There’s nothing worse than ad hoc depositing and cashing out all the time. The players who are structured and organized away from the table are likely to fare better on it. It’s one less thing to worry about which means you can focus on the more important parts of your game.