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What is perhaps the single most factor that separates long-term winners from eventual losers? If you gave one of the common answers, like luck or game knowledge, you are incorrect. The answer is money management. Sure, luck helps and knowledge of the game you are playing is a must. However, unless you learn to manage your money properly, you are destined to fail. Money management is not simply playing within your limits. It goes way beyond that. Today we talk about one aspect of money management-the daily bankroll.

A simple way for most people to get started is to create a bankroll for your night out or whatever. For instance, let's say you will play Blackjack today. Decide what is the most money you are willing to lose. For our example, let's say we are setting our daily bankroll at '100. Now we could rush off to the '25 table and try to stake our claim to fame, but that would be foolish. To win over the long run it's important to be able to withstand losing streaks.

One good way to do this is to divide your daily bankroll by 20. This will give you 20 bets to start with. It also helps those new to money management figure out how much to wager. In our example, we have a '100 bankroll. After we divide it by 20, we end up with '5 units. The ideal situation is to find a table where we can bet '5 hands. It might be tempting to run off to a '5 table, but '1-'2 would be much better. This will allow you to fluctuate your bet downward if desired.

Keeping a general idea of what your current bankroll divided by 20 will allow you to raise your bets. For example, if your bankroll grows to '200, you can now start laying out those '10 wagers. If you hate math, just stick around your original figure and have fun.