This is a cross post from a post I made on the bitcointalk forums, but I feel it may be a good read for the gamblers on steemit as well.
When browsing the threads at the bitcointalk gambling section I very often see people losing their entire stash of hard earned bitcoin or altcoins on bets that were possibly not the best ones to make. In the past I used to play poker, and when studying strategies, the first thing that is basically hammered into you is bankroll management . After a little browsing I figured the same goes for sports betting and probably any type of gambling games.
Bankroll management:
The thing about bankroll manegement is that when you adhere to it, the risk of losing your entire stash becomes very small. It helps you choose the size of your bets and can help to keep your emotions in check on a winning or losing streak. In short, you have a playing strategy.
The first thing you have to do is determine the amount of bitcoin your can afford to lose. Let's say you have 1 bitcoin laying around for gambling. You don't want to lose that bitcoin in one sitting and preferably make some extra bitcoin from it right? So be smart about it!
To prevent you from making emotional bets you determine a strategy and stick to it! For most games it is advisable to never bet more than 1-2% of your bankroll. In this case it means to never bet more than 0.01-0.02 bitcoin on any single bet. After winning or losing 20% of your initial stack (1.2 or 0.8 bitcoin), you readjust the bet size to 1-2% of that value. This way, you are in control of your bankroll without needing to adjust the bet size every game you play.
The second important thing is not to vary your bet size in a single session. This can turn any winning session into a losing one VERY quickly. Imagine you would bet 0.1 bitcoin on the first bet and 0.01 bitcoin on the second and third bet. If you win the second and third on, but lose the first one, you are still behind even though you won more games than you lost. If you had bet the same 0.01 on all three bets, you would have been ahead!
Thirdly, make a plan for withdrawing and depositing into your gambling bankroll. Since the bitcoin on this bankroll are not needed and you can miss it (the principle of a gambling bankroll!), you should never HAVE to withdraw for any expenses. Since you don't want to risk bigger and bigger amounts endlessly if you are on a winning streak, it may be smart to withdraw an amount every once in a while. The amount and when to do this is up to you, but remember, the bigger your bankroll, the bigger your bets can be while keeping a strict strategy. As for deposits, only deposit what you can miss and set a maximum to it! If you are on a sig campaign, you could use your earnings for this. If you have leftover money that you don't have any use for now or in the future, you could use this to fund the bankroll. It is also smart to deposit (as long as you can miss it!) when your bankroll gets too small to make decently sized bets. If you lost 90% of your initial bankroll, your bets will be tiny. You may want to fill up in that case.
I hope some stricter bankroll management can help some of you and prevent you from going bust all the time. In the long run you will enjoy the gambling more as you have more control over what you do and you can keep gambling for a longer period of time.
On a final note, remember to stick to your strategy.