How do you handle a big win? Reinvest or withdraw?

[ParlayPrincess_88]

So I just hit a really nice parlay and won like $800 which is way more than I usually win on a single bet. My account is now at $1,350 which is the most it's ever been since I started betting.

I'm trying to figure out what to do with the winnings. Part of me wants to withdraw like $500 and treat myself to something nice since I won it. But another part of me thinks I should leave it all in my account and use the bigger bankroll to make bigger bets and potentially win even more money.

I've heard people say you should always withdraw your winnings and only keep your original bankroll in play. But I've also heard people say you should reinvest your winnings to grow your bankroll over time. I'm not sure which approach is better.

What do you guys do when you have a big win? Do you withdraw some of it or do you keep it all in your betting account? And if you do withdraw, how do you decide how much to take out?

I feel like if I withdraw too much I'm limiting my potential to make even more money. But if I keep it all in and then lose it back I'm going to feel really stupid for not taking some profit when I had the chance.

 

[SharpEddie47]

This question reveals some fundamental misunderstandings about bankroll management that I need to address directly. The fact that you won $800 on a parlay is completely irrelevant to how you should manage your bankroll going forward.
Let me explain the correct way to think about this. Your betting bankroll should be a fixed amount of money that you've allocated specifically for betting. This amount should be money you can afford to lose without impacting your financial stability. Once you've determined that amount, it doesn't change based on individual wins or losses. It changes gradually over time as your overall profit or loss accumulates.

When you win $800, that doesn't mean you suddenly have extra money to spend. It means your bankroll has increased from whatever it was before to $1,350 now. If your bankroll is $1,350, your unit size should be calculated as a percentage of $1,350, not as a percentage of some original amount.
The idea of withdrawing winnings while keeping your original bankroll in play is nonsense from a mathematical perspective. Money is fungible. The $800 you won is exactly the same as the original money in your account. There's no reason to treat it differently.

However, there is a valid reason to withdraw money from your betting account, which is to maintain proper bankroll sizing relative to your total financial situation. If $1,350 is more than you should have allocated to betting given your income and expenses, then you should withdraw some of it to bring your betting bankroll back to an appropriate level.

But that decision should be based on your overall financial situation, not on whether you just won or lost money. If $1,000 is the right amount for you to have allocated to betting, then you should withdraw $350 regardless of whether that $350 came from a big win or from gradual accumulation over time.
The psychological urge to withdraw winnings and spend them is understandable but it's financially irrational. You're essentially saying I want to keep my losses in the betting account but remove my wins, which guarantees that your betting bankroll can only decrease over time. That's exactly backwards from how a professional bettor thinks.
The professional approach is your betting bankroll is your betting bankroll. It grows when you win and shrinks when you lose. You adjust your unit sizes proportionally to your bankroll. You withdraw money only when your bankroll has grown to a point where it's disproportionately large relative to your total finances.

Princess specifically, here's what you should do. Determine what your appropriate betting bankroll should be given your income and financial situation. Let's say that number is $1,000. If your account is at $1,350, you could withdraw $350 to bring it back to $1,000. But if your account is at $1,350 and $1,000 isn't enough given how much you're betting, then you should leave it all in and adjust your unit sizes upward proportionally.
The worst thing you can do is withdraw the $800 to spend on something and leave yourself with $550, forcing you to either reduce your unit sizes dramatically or deposit more money to get back to where you were. That's the path to constantly depositing money and never building a sustainable bankroll.

 

[CoachTony_Bets]

Eddie's explanation of proper bankroll management is mathematically correct as usual. But I want to add some psychological perspective because I think there's value in occasionally taking profits even if it's not optimal from a pure bankroll management standpoint.
When I first started betting seriously about 10 years ago, I would leave everything in my account and reinvest all winnings. Mathematically this was correct but psychologically it was challenging. When my bankroll would inevitably decrease during losing streaks, I'd feel like I had nothing to show for all the time and effort I'd put into betting.

After a few years I started implementing a rule where I'd withdraw 25% of my profits quarterly if my bankroll was above my starting level. This served two purposes. First, it gave me tangible evidence that betting was actually profitable for me. Second, it protected some of my winnings from inevitable variance.
I'm not saying this is mathematically optimal. Eddie's approach of keeping everything in the account and adjusting unit sizes proportionally is more efficient from a pure growth perspective. But betting isn't just about mathematical optimization, it's also about maintaining discipline and motivation over long time periods.

Princess in your specific situation, I'd recommend the following. First, decide what your appropriate bankroll should be. If you were comfortable with around $1,000 as your bankroll, then having $1,350 is fine and you should probably leave it all in. Adjust your unit sizes from betting $20 to $30 per game up to betting $25 to $40 per game to reflect your larger bankroll.
However, if the $800 win came from a parlay which is a high variance bet type, you might want to treat it slightly differently. You got lucky on a parlay, which is great, but that doesn't mean your underlying edge has changed. You could withdraw maybe $200 or $300 as a reward for the win and leave $1,000 or $1,100 as your active bankroll.

The danger Eddie is warning about is the gambler mentality of withdraw all wins and keep depositing to chase losses. That's absolutely destructive. But occasionally taking some profit off the table, especially after a lucky high variance win, can be psychologically healthy as long as you're not constantly churning your bankroll up and down.
The key is having a systematic approach. Don't withdraw money randomly based on emotions. Have a rule like withdraw 25% of profits quarterly or withdraw anything above 150% of starting bankroll. Whatever rule you choose, follow it consistently rather than making impulsive decisions based on individual wins or losses.

 

[FadeThePublic]

I'm with Eddie on this one. The idea of withdrawing winnings while keeping your original bankroll is recreational gambler thinking, not professional bettor thinking. Money in your betting account is your betting capital, it doesn't matter whether it came from deposits or from profits.

That said, I do withdraw money from my betting account regularly, but not because I won. I withdraw because I have a target bankroll size and once I'm above that target I pull out the excess. My target is $15,000 and whenever my account gets above $17,000 I withdraw down to $15,000. This happens maybe two or three times per year if I'm running well.

The reason for maintaining a target bankroll rather than constantly growing it is that bigger bankrolls mean bigger bets which mean bigger variance which means more emotional stress. I'm comfortable with the risk of betting $300 to $400 per game at my current bankroll level. If my bankroll grew to $30,000 I'd be betting $600 to $800 per game and even though the risk as a percentage of bankroll would be the same, the absolute dollar amounts would stress me out.

So I keep my bankroll stable at a level I'm comfortable with and I withdraw the excess profit. This is a personal choice based on my risk tolerance and life situation. Someone else might want to constantly grow their bankroll to maximize long term profits. Neither approach is wrong, it depends on your goals.

Princess here's my practical advice. You won $800 on a parlay which is awesome but also kind of lucky since parlays are high variance. If you're still learning and you're not consistently profitable yet, I'd suggest withdrawing maybe $400 and keeping $950 as your bankroll. That way you've locked in some profit from the win but you still have a solid bankroll to work with.

Then commit to not depositing any more money. If your bankroll grows from $950, great, you're profitable. If it shrinks toward zero, you know you need to fix your process before putting more money in. Using the parlay win to give yourself a cushion to test whether you're actually profitable without risking additional deposits seems like a smart move.

But if you're going to keep depositing every time you get low, there's no point withdrawing anything. You're just creating extra transactions without any benefit. Either commit to testing your profitability with your current bankroll, or commit to treating betting as entertainment with a monthly budget.

 

[ParlayPrincess_88]

Okay so Eddie is saying I should think of the whole $1,350 as my bankroll and adjust my bet sizes accordingly. Tony is saying it's okay to withdraw some as a reward as long as I have a system for it. And Fade is saying I should withdraw some and then see if I can actually grow the remaining bankroll without depositing more.

I think Fade's advice makes the most sense for my situation. I'm going to withdraw $400 which gives me something to show for the win, and I'll keep $950 as my betting bankroll. Then I'm not going to deposit any more money and I'll see if I can grow that $950 over the next few months.

If I can turn $950 into $1,500 or more without depositing anything, that proves I'm actually profitable. If I lose it all down to like $300, that tells me I need to fix my approach before putting any more money into betting. Either way I'll have useful information and I'll have gotten $400 out that I can spend on something nice.

The point about not constantly depositing is a good one. I definitely have been in the habit of depositing $100 or $200 whenever my account gets low, which means I don't really know if I'm profitable or not. I've probably deposited like $1,500 total since I started and my account is at $1,350 now, so I'm actually down $150 overall despite just winning $800.

That's kind of depressing when I think about it that way. Without this parlay win I'd be down like $950. So maybe I'm not actually good at betting and I just got lucky on one parlay. Testing whether I can grow the remaining bankroll without more deposits will tell me the truth.

 

[SharpEddie47]

Princess I'm pleased you did the math on your total deposits versus current bankroll because that's exactly the kind of honest self assessment that most bettors never do. You're down $150 over your lifetime despite the recent win, which means you're not profitable yet. That's useful information.

Fade's suggestion to withdraw some money and then see if you can grow the remaining bankroll without additional deposits is reasonable for someone in your position. It creates a clear test of whether you're actually profitable going forward. Just make sure your remaining bankroll is large enough to handle normal variance. $950 should be sufficient if you're betting $15 to $20 per game.

Tony's point about psychological benefits of withdrawing profits is valid for some people. My concern is that for most bettors, especially those who aren't yet consistently profitable, withdrawing winnings reinforces bad habits. It creates a cycle of deposit, lose, deposit more, occasionally win big, withdraw, account gets low, deposit again. That cycle prevents you from ever knowing if you're actually profitable.

The professional mindset is your betting bankroll is separate from your personal spending money. You don't touch your betting bankroll for personal expenses and you don't inject personal money into betting beyond your initial allocation. The bankroll grows or shrinks based entirely on your betting results, which gives you clean data about your profitability.

But I acknowledge that for recreational bettors, some mixing of betting money and personal money is inevitable and maybe even desirable. The key is being systematic about it rather than impulsive. If you're going to withdraw money, have a rule for when and how much. Don't just withdraw randomly when you feel like treating yourself.

Princess's plan to withdraw $400, keep $950, and not deposit more is actually a good plan for her situation. It combines some immediate gratification with a realistic test of profitability. If she can grow that $950 over six months she's learned something valuable about her betting ability. If she loses it all she's learned she needs to change her approach.

The worst possible outcome would be to withdraw the $400, lose the $950, and then immediately deposit another $500 because you want to keep betting. If you're going to do this experiment, commit to it fully. If you lose the $950, take a break, reevaluate your entire approach, and only come back with a better process.

 

[CoachTony_Bets]

I think Princess has arrived at a good plan that balances the different perspectives we've shared. Withdrawing $400 to celebrate the win while keeping $950 to test her profitability is reasonable.

One thing I'll add is that the no more deposits rule is crucial. That's what will give you real feedback about whether you're improving. I did something similar when I was starting out and it was incredibly valuable. I gave myself a $2,000 bankroll and told myself I wouldn't add any more money for a full year regardless of what happened.

That year I learned more about betting than the previous three years combined because I couldn't paper over my mistakes with fresh deposits. When I made bad bets I saw the bankroll shrink and I had to figure out what I was doing wrong. When I made good bets I saw it grow and I knew I was doing something right.

By the end of that year my $2,000 had grown to $2,600 and I knew I had developed some real skills. If it had shrunk to $500 I would have known I needed to either get much better or quit betting entirely. Either outcome would have been valuable information.

Princess I encourage you to keep detailed notes during this experiment. Write down not just your bets and results but also your thought process, what you're learning, what's working and what isn't. That reflection will be valuable regardless of whether your bankroll grows or shrinks.

And be patient. Six months is a reasonable timeframe for this experiment but don't panic if you hit a rough patch early. Variance happens. The question is whether over a full six month period with 100 plus bets you're trending in the right direction.

 

[FadeThePublic]

I like Princess's plan and I like Tony's addition of the detailed note taking. That will help her learn regardless of the outcome.
One more piece of advice Princess. Since you're testing whether you can be profitable without additional deposits, this is a perfect time to implement all the stuff we've talked about in other threads. Proper unit sizing, tracking CLV, being selective about volume, line shopping, all of it.

Treat this as your chance to do betting the right way from scratch. You have $950, which if you're betting 2% units means $19 per bet. Make 3 to 5 bets per week maximum. Track everything in a spreadsheet. Review your results monthly. Be disciplined about only betting when you have genuine conviction.

If you do all that and your bankroll still shrinks, at least you'll know you gave yourself the best chance and maybe betting just isn't for you. But if you're sloppy about process and you lose the bankroll, you won't know if you failed because you can't win at betting or because you weren't disciplined enough.

This is your opportunity to prove to yourself whether you can actually do this. Make the most of it.

 

[ParlayPrincess_88]

Thanks everyone for the advice and for not being too harsh about me being down $150 overall lol. I knew I probably wasn't profitable but seeing it in actual numbers is kind of a wake up call.

I'm going to withdraw the $400 today and then commit to the experiment of growing the remaining $950 without any more deposits. And I'm going to implement everything you guys have taught me - proper unit sizing, only betting my strongest plays, tracking everything, all of it.

I'll report back in a few months and let you know if I was able to grow it or if I need to accept that I'm not good at this. Either way it will be good to know the truth instead of just constantly depositing and never really knowing if I'm profitable or not.

This has been really helpful. I came here asking about withdrawing winnings and ended up with a whole plan for testing whether I can actually be profitable at betting. That's way more valuable than just advice on whether to withdraw or not.

 

[SharpEddie47]

Princess that's an excellent attitude and I'm genuinely rooting for your success in this experiment. The fact that you're willing to honestly assess your situation and commit to a disciplined approach puts you ahead of most bettors who never question whether they're profitable.
One final piece of advice. When you withdraw the $400, spend it on something that you'll remember. Not just random purchases that disappear, but something specific that will remind you of this decision point. That way in six months when you're evaluating your results, you'll remember this moment and the commitment you made.
And regardless of the outcome, you'll learn something valuable about yourself and about sports betting. That knowledge is worth more than the money itself.