Where Is the Best Place to Stash Your Poker Bankroll?

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So where should you keep your poker bankroll to avoid having it stolen?

SavingsAdvice.com presents a conversation with someone who ought to know the best place to hide money — a burglar! The anonymous burglar speaks from his experience about where he looked first for money and valuables, and where he wouldn't bother looking.

The best place to keep money, the burglar says, is a bank, of course. But if you insist on ready access to your bankroll after hours:

Your best strategy, then, is to actually leave some money in obvious places for the burglar to quickly find (the same applies if you keep all your money in the bank). This can not only save your other stash of money, but may actually keep the burglar from destroying your place as he looks for where you have hidden your money. If they believe they may have found the cash that you have in the house, they are much less likely to keep looking (remember, they want to get out asap). In the end, if you hide all your money well, you may win a moral victory in not letting the burglar find the money, but you’ll likely have much more damage done to your place that will end up costing you more in the long run....

His number one recommendation for money was in toys in a young child’s room. As he explained, young children don’t have money, they have an abundance of toys and most parents don’t trust a child around money. Therefore, parents will rarely hide money there. In addition, when money is hidden, it is usually hidden away neatly and securely — a child’s room is rarely a neat place making it an unlikely place for money to be hidden. Plus with all the stuff in a child’s room, it is not someplace that a burglar can search quickly and get out (rule #2).

If you have a safe, it should be professionally bolted down so it can’t easily be removed. If you leave some token money for the burglar to find in the places they normally look for money, then anyplace you wouldn’t normally consider a place to hide valuables will usually keep those valuables safe. The underside of trash cans, inside laundry detergent, inside false packaging (but only if the packaging appears real and is in the appropriate place - “When you find a Campbell’s soup can in the bedroom, you have a pretty good idea there is money inside”) were some examples he gave.

There's a follow-up post, Don’t Hide Money In The Toilet: More Conversation With A Burglar, in which the anonymous burglar reveals the places he always looked for valuables, because they are the usual places people with something to hide hide them. Don't hide your bankroll in: the resevoir tank for a toilet, a cereal box, anywhere in your refrigerator or freezer, or in or around your bed.

Tags: poker bankroll money hiding place burglar burglary crime safety tips security cash howto