Bankroll management is one of the most valuable tools that a
player can have away from the game itself. Without proper
management of the money that you are playing with, you’ll be
leaving yourself vulnerable to going broke at almost any moment.
Unless you have a virtually infinite supply of money, bankroll
management is going to be something that you need to practice
with regularity. If you are just a casual player, it’s not going
to matter all that much. However, as a general rule, the less that you bother with
bankroll management, the more likely you are to lose.

• Poker Bankroll Management Fixed Limits
• Poker Bankroll Management Fixed Limit Rules
• Poker Bankroll Management Fixed Limit Calculation

The exact definition and utility of bankroll management is
going to vary from game to game. For a cash game player, an
ideal bankroll is going to be different than that of a
tournament player. You’ll be using different metrics to gauge
how much money is needed; the variance is going to be different,
and so on and so forth. Lumping all bankroll management
strategies into one group is never going to be a logical plan.
You need to not only understand bankroll management, but you
also need to be able to cater to your own needs. What works for
one player might not work for another, so you need to be willing
to adapt to the safest plan possible.

Lesson 07 – Bankroll Management, by Jesse Weller Lesson 08 – Playing Your Opponent, by Armando Marsal Lesson 09 – Playing Styles, pt. 2, by Jesse Weller Lesson 10 – No Limit vs. Fixed Limit Hold’em, by Armando Marsal Lesson 11 – The Art of the Cash Game Grind: Save That Money, by Rob Povia.

One of the big things about bankroll management that many
disregard is the need for winning play. A lot of people think
that they would be winning players if only they had more money
in their bankroll. The simple fact is that a losing
player is going to lose whether they have one buy in or 100 buy
ins.

Poker Bankroll Management Fixed Limits

Beyond this, your actual requirements and outlines for
reasonable bankroll size are going to be largely determined by
your ability to win. Small winners will need more money in the
bank than players who are consistently winning big, month after
month. The reason for this is that small winners are more
susceptible to losses than big winners. While it would not hurt
to understand and implement proper bankroll management if you
aren’t a winning player, it’s only going to get you so far. If
there’s one benefit to managing money for a losing player, it’s that they will lose their money at a slower pace.

Bankroll Management for Cash Game Players

Cash game players need to have a lot of money on hand not
only for their long term bankrolls, but also for day to day
play. It’s not at all uncommon for a cash game player to lose a
handful of buy ins in a day. So if you don’t have enough cash
on hand at all times, there’s a good chance that you’ll need
to call it an early day. This is one of the big differences from
tournament players, because you’ll only need whatever the fixed buy
in is (unless you are in a re-buy or add on event).

The lower the limit cash game you are playing, the less buy
ins that you will need to have available. The general rule of
thumb is that lower level games tend to have less variance,
because they are of a lesser skill level. In fact, if you are
continually going broke when playing in small and
mid limit cash games, you are only proving that you aren’t
actually a winning player at all. It’s much more important to
first ensure that you are winning than it is to save money for
an inevitable loss.

Cash games, for all intents and purposes, will generally
refer to
6-max or full ring tables. For the purpose of this
article, assume that cash games are in a brick and mortar
casino. For the most part, the basic guidelines are going to
remain similar for online play as well.

In cash games at the micro stakes, 25 buy ins is a good
foundation. This is a number that provides you with decent
backing while not going overboard. If you are going broke with
this type of start at micro or small limit games, you need to
rethink your strategy. For mid limit games, adding 5 or so more
buy ins is going to work for the majority of players. As you
trend upwards into high limit games, 35-50 buy ins becomes the
norm. For deep stacked play, make adjustments accordingly. You
are going to need more buy ins when you are playing in more
competitive games, and this is the reason why each progressive
limit is harder and harder to reach in cash game poker.

Bankroll Management for Tournament Players

1. Poker bankroll management for cash games. It is a bit easier to build concrete bankroll management strategy for cash games because the win rate is the only thing you need to take in consideration. The most common stat to measure it is EV bb/100 (how many big blinds you win per hundred hands).
2. Fixed limit Hold’em: You should probably have about 300 big bets in your account to sit down at a fixed limit Hold’em table. For example: in order to play $3-$6 fixed limit Hold’em, you need a bankroll of at least $1,800 (300x$6) to play safely.

Tournament players tend to pay less attention to bankroll
management than anyone else. Typically sit and go players are
lumped in with tourney players, but they will normally adhere to
stricter bankroll management ideals than tournament players.
The reason for this lack of management is found in the nature of
tournaments. One of the big reasons why tournaments are so
profitable is found in the average player pool. Unlike cash
games, amateurs are spotted left and right and usually make up a
bulk of the field. These types of players just want to
play
poker for one fixed cost with the chance at a huge win. You
can’t blame them, and they are going to be the source of most of
your earnings.

The reason that you need a lot of buy ins for tournament play
is found in the fact that there are so many amateurs. The high
volatility of tournaments allows for the less skilled to win
from time to time. Since your edge is going to be diminished in
the short run, you’ll need to have an ample amount of buy ins
on hand to help compensate for the inevitable streaks of non-cashes. Even when you cash, though, you are frequently going to
make pretty small amounts. While cash games are a long term
proposition, tournaments are going to take even longer to
balance out, and they may never balance out at all.

It’s difficult to set a number for the amount of buy ins
that
tournament players should have because there are just so
many different types of events. You could be playing online,
offline, turbos, re-buys, deep stacked, etc. etc. As a bare
minimum, most experienced, winning tournament players will
advise a bankroll of at least 100 buy ins.

While this is
widespread as a good basis for where to start, you know that
most players in the World Series of Poker Main Event don’t have
1 million dollars to their name for the $10,000 buy in. It all
goes back to how seriously you take poker. If you are in it
mainly for the money and want to increase your chances of
success, you’ll play events that are only within your
bankroll. If you are just playing recreationally or for fun,
having a significant amount of buy ins available won’t be nearly
as relevant.

Bankroll management is a system of calculating how much money you should take to the tables when playing cash games of online poker, or what level of buy-in you should be playing at in Sit & Go or multitable poker tournaments.

The purpose of bankroll management is to prevent players taking too much money to a table and risking going bust during a bad session, or playing at a table where the risk of loss is meaningless – in which case it is likely that bad habits will develop.

However, the reason that we call this page a “guide” to bankroll management is because it should only be used as a guide rather than a hard and fast set of rules. Different players have different motives for playing online poker and different playing styles. Consequently the management of your own personal poker bankroll can be a little flexible depending on your goals.

How We Worked Out our Bankroll Management Guidelines

A buy-in for a cash game is the amount that you take to the table – rather than the blind level. For example, most online poker sites will allow you to buy-in to a No Limit or Pot Limit cash game with a maximum of 100 “Big Blinds” (In a Fixed Limit cash game, the maximum buy-in is likely to be 50 “Big Bets”). Therefore, 100 Big Blinds in a $0.10/$0.25 cash game equates to a $25.00 buy-in.

Our quick guide to bankroll management acknowledges that there is generally three types of player – the recreational player, the median player and the professional player – and calculates how much each should take to a table based on the maximum buy-in. We accept that there are areas between each of the player categories described above and that players might want to buy-into a table with less than the maximum amount.

In terms of bankroll management for Sit & Go games and multitable poker tournaments, we have indicated the maximum amount that should be invested in any particular game. When tournaments have re-buy and add-on formats, or are multi-entry events, you should adjust the amount accordingly for the maximum number of re-buys/entries you are going to allow yourself.

Poker Bankroll Management Fixed Limit Rules

Recreational Players

A recreational player´s bankroll is usually modest and an amount which he or she can comfortably afford to lose. Consequently, a recreational player can be a little relaxed about their bankroll management, for although losing is not the aim, the loss of a couple of buy-ins should not hurt a lot.

If you are a recreational player, as a guide your bankroll should have enough cash in it to afford fifteen buy-ins if your game is no limit or pot limit, ten buy-ins for “dual pot” cash games (Omaha Hi Lo/7 Card Stud Hi Lo), 200 big bets for fixed limit cash games and twenty buy-ins for SNG/MTT tournaments.

Therefore, a recreational player with an account balance of $500.00 should set their filters in the poker site lobby for the following tables.

As you start to win money, and your bankroll grows, you can increase the stake level you are playing at and afford higher buy-ins. For example, a player with a starting bankroll of $500.00 has enjoyed some success and, with the increments of their first deposit bonus and/or cashback from the site´s rewards program, their bankroll is now up to $750.00. They can now afford 15 buy-ins at the next stake level ($0.25/0.50 for NL cash games) and enter tournaments with a buy-in up to $35.00.

If your bankroll goes the other way, you should reduce the stake levels at which you play (rather than buy-in to a cash game with a short stack) or make a further deposit into your poker account.

Median Players/New Players

Poker Bankroll Management Fixed Limit Calculation

Median players are often referred to as “grinders” and they make a small, regular income from playing online poker. A major loss would be difficult to replace, so median players need to be a little more careful with regard to what proportion of their bankrolls they take to the tables.

The same really applies to new players, who should take greater care when first venturing into the unknown for the first time. We don´t expect new poker players to bring five grand to poker site as indicated in the chart below, and new players can use the chart proportionately to determine their ideal buy-in range (for example, a new player with a bankroll of $500.00 should play in poker tournament with a maximum $10.00 buy-in).

If you are a new online poker player or fall into the “median” category, you should have twenty-five buy-ins for no limit/pot limit cash games, twenty buy-ins if “dual pot” cash games are your thing, 600 big bets for limit cash games and forty-five buy-ins for SNGs and MTTS.

Like recreational players, median players and new players should move up stake levels as their bankrolls increase and down stake levels after a series of unsuccessful sessions. The alternative is to keep topping up your bankroll; however, if you find yourself topping up a $5,000 bankroll frequently, you might want to take a good look at your game!

Professional Players

Even more caution is required by professional players, for whom a series of bad sessions could be financially devastating if they do not adhere to some form of bankroll management.

A professional player´s bankroll management may well be influenced by outside factors such as staking and sponsorship but, as a guide, if you want to become a professional poker player, you should have six months money behind you and a bankroll big enough to support forty-five buy-ins for no limit/pot limit cash games, thirty buy-ins for “dual pot” cash games, 550 big bets for limit cash games and sixty-five buy-ins for SNGs and MTTS.

Bankroll Management Summary

As we said at the top of the page, bankroll management is a guide rather than a set of rules. Some players adhere to it more religiously than others, and some sites physically block a player from bringing more than a certain percentage of their bankroll to the tables. We have encountered players who have found a stake level at which they are comfortable (and at which the tables are beatable) and stayed there forever!

At the end of the day, it is each player´s individual circumstances that dictate how they manage their poker bankroll, but we hope the explanation of bankroll management and the bankroll management guidelines we have provided are of some benefit to you – and help you avoid losing your entire bankroll during your first session of real money online poker.