Bankroll Management for Poker Players

The following principle is key to becoming a successful poker player. Without the proper money management skills, the best players in the world would go broke. For all you skim-readers, here are the basic rules of bankroll management for Texas Hold'em.

40 buyins for NL Hold'em.
300 Big Blinds for Limit Hold'em.
40 buyins for SnG Tournaments.

Bankroll management is where you play at certain limits to avoid losing all of your bankroll due to bad runs of cards, which any poker player must expect from time to time. This is called ‘playing within your roll’ (bankroll). Conversely, if you play at higher limits where there is too great a chance of losing all of your poker money, you are ‘playing out of your roll’.

The reason why you should choose your limits carefully in poker is due to what is known as variance. Variance is a term used to describe the ‘ups and downs’ of poker where you fluctuate from having bad runs of cards to good runs of cards, resulting in varying profits and losses. If you play poker for long enough there are going to be periods of time where you will consistently lose money, not because you are playing badly, but because the cards are not falling your way. This means that if you do not have enough money in your bankroll to absorb these downswings, it is likely that you will lose it all.

Therefore every time you sit down at the poker table, whether it be live or online, we want to give ourselves the best opportunity to win a maximum amount of profit whilst keeping the risk of going broke minimal. This is where the rules of bankroll management come into play.



So what limits should I be playing at?

Cash Games
If you are playing Pot Limit or No Limit poker, the safe recommended size of your bankroll is 20 times the full buy-in of where you want to play. This means that if you want to have the best chance of making money at a $1/$2 game where the maximum buy-in is $200, you should have a bankroll of at least $4000. Another way of applying bankroll management is by only putting a maximum 5% of your entire bankroll on the table at any one time, which works out the same as having 20 times the buy-in for the game.
NL Holdem
Blinds Bankroll
5c/10c $200
10c/20c $400
25c/50c $1,000
$0.5/$1 $2,000
$1/$2 $4,000
$2/$4 $8,000
$5/$10 $20,000
$10$/20 $40,000
$25/$50 $100,000
$50/$100 $200,000

If you like to play limit Holdem however, you should have 300 Big Bets as a minimum for the limit you wish to play at. Therefore to play $2/$4 limit Holdem, you should have a bankroll of $1,200 at least.

Limit Holdem
Blinds Bankroll
5c/10c $30
10c/20c $60
25c/50c $150
$0.5/$1 $300
$1/$2 $600
$2/$4 $1,200
$5/$10 $3,000
$10$/20 $6,000
$25/$50 $15,000
$50/$100 $30,000


Tournament Games (Sit and Go's)
It is recommended that you have a bankroll that will give you 40 buy-ins to the level of tournaments that you wish to play at. Therefore if you want to play at the $20+$2 Sit n Go’s you should have a bankroll of $880.

SnG's
Stakes Bankroll
$1+$0.1 $44
$2+$0.2 $88
$5+$0.5 $220
$10+$1 $440
$20+$2 $880
$30+$3 $1,320
$50+$5 $2,200
$100+$10 $4,400
$200+$20 $8,800
$500+$50 $22,000

http://tinyurl.com/dmz6fh


40% Rake Back Deal Click Here
Join the biggest poker site in the world - PokerStars.com.