Managing Your Money - Bankroll Management

While other aspects of poker like strategy and probability are all very important to any player, managing your limited poker bankroll is necessary if you want your poker career to be successful and, more importantly, sustainable. It is easier to manager your money while you play poker online.

Your bankroll – the amount of money you’ve set aside for poker – is what defines where you play (in terms of stakes) and how you play. Knowing how to manage the bankroll is assured to help you maximize your winnings, minimize your losses and nearly eliminate your chances of going broke because of poker.

The Basics of Bankroll Management

The rule that most players know and many players live by is to have enough for five hundred large bets for games with limit and forty buy-ins for games with no limits and tournaments. The ‘big bet’ is the larger number once the bets are listed.

This number is often twice the value of the big blind. A buy-in on the other hand, is the entry fee for that particular tournament, but it could also mean a hundred times the big blind in a no-limit game.

An alternative rule of thumb would be for you to have 15 to 20 times the buy-in for any one cash games table, 20 to 30 times the buy-in for sit and go tables and 30 to 50 times the buy-in level for tournaments.

Different Folks, Different Strokes

You could also try one of these variations if you’re looking for the advantages they offer.

An aggressive bankroll – enough for 250 limit big bets or 20 no-limit buy-ins – is probably what you’re looking for if you’re a risk-taker and if you want to move up the stakes rapidly. While this strategy could get faster benefits, it could also bring disadvantages quicker.

Losses will hurt your bankroll more than usual, and there’s a very large possibility that you’ll have to move down in stakes after several losses. This kind of bankroll is quite difficult to manage and requires you to be able to know when to step down.

A more conservative flavor of the standard rule is to have enough for 1000 limit big bets or 100 no-limit buy-ins. Long-term players would appreciate this tactic more because it allows for sustainable poker playing. Losses won’t hurt that much, and even an unlucky day wouldn’t make a very big dent in your bankroll.

The rules outlined above are by no means complete. Feel free to mix and match and to try out different combinations for your gaming style on your own. Just remember to keep a limit so that you know when to alter your playing style or to move up or down in stakes.