Introduction to Bankroll Management

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A key component to proper poker strategy is bankroll management. You need a bankroll in order to play poker live or online. If you regularly are blowing through your roll for one reason or another, you are leaving yourself in the unenviable position of not being able to sit at the table. Here are a few tips to managing your bankroll.

Don’t Play Bigger Than Your Bankroll

Poker players often make the mistake of trying to play the biggest game they feel they can beat without taking any considerations as to whether they are properly rolled. At some point, we all will go through losing streaks. If your bankroll is not big enough to support your game, you will quickly find yourself broke or even worse, having to borrow money to play.

How big your bankroll depends on what form of poker you are playing. In limit poker, you should have a bankroll equivalent to at least 300 big bets. In NL poker, you should have the equivalent of between 20 to 50 buy-ins. Twenty buy-ins is really on the low end of the spectrum. If you’re looking to play 100NL, that would mean a bankroll between $2,000 and $5,000.

For tournament poker, you should be looking at around 50 buy-ins. If you play $500 tournaments, that would be about $25,000. The same rule applies for those playing Sit-N-Go tournaments. Treat them the same as standard tournaments. 

Choose the Soft Games – Not the Big Games 

The whole purpose to playing poker is to win money. You need to be on the lookout for games you can milk, not for games where you can “show off your skills.” The softer games tend to be the ones with most of the tourist in the live game setting and the lower stakes online.

Also, if you are an online player, you may be able to make more money by multi-tabling softer lower stake games than you could playing one or two tables at a higher stake. The key is finding weak players you can exploit.

Don’t Be Afraid to Move Down

There are times where we are going to run into a bad streak. Sometimes it is based on our play, and sometimes it is based on variance. When these streaks come, you may want to consider moving down in stakes to games that you can beat.

This will help you increase your confidence and help rebuild your bankroll. If you like playing at multiple tables, consider playing at fewer tables so you can focus on your game more. You can also talk to other players that you trust to see if there are any leaks in your game. 

Set a Stop Loss 

No matter how good you are at poker odds or strategy, you are going to have losing sessions. Sometimes they are small, and others can go spiraling out of control if you let them.

One way to avoid this is to set a stop loss on your play. If you are a limit player, a good stop loss is 30 big bets on the day. If you are a $5 – $10 player, that would be $300. In NL, about 3 to 5 buy-ins is a good stop loss. If you are a $100 NL player, that would be $300 to $500.

Most players figure that solid strategy and properly playing the odds are enough to get them by in poker. These are the same players that will go into a game underrolled and then wonder in a few weeks why they cannot afford to play anymore. Many will bemoan bad luck when in reality it was bad planning. If you manage your bankroll properly, you may not always play the game that you want to play, but you will always be playing.