Poker Bankroll Management – Bankroll Management Strategy

If your goal as a poker player is to have occasional fun there is not much need to maintain a bankroll. If your goal as a poker player is to make money it is of the utmost importance that you maintain a bankroll and adhere to bankroll management guidelines. Failure to understand and apply proper bankroll management has long been the downfall of many poker players, amateur and professional alike. You will find countless stories of big name pros who have gone broke as a result of poor bankroll management. Even though it requires only attention and no skill, bankroll management is often one of the toughest areas of poker for players to master.

What is bankroll management?

Bankroll management itself is self -explanatory, the management of your poker bankroll. Bankroll management requires consideration for the limits you are playing and the variance you can expect to face. You need to manage your bankroll according to these two factors. There are two key rules of thumb to keep in mind when determining how large your own bankroll should be. How good am I at the current limits I am playing and how high is the variance in the type of game I am playing. The better player you are the fewer buy ins that will be required. The lower variance in the game you are playing the fewer buy ins that will be required. In other words, if you are playing full ring limit Hold ‘Em .10/.25, you would need a lot less buy ins than if you were playing heads up Omaha 10/20. The increased amount of buy ins stems from the limits as well as the type of game. Low limit poker usually means moderate bankroll requirements, mid stakes poker requires deeper bankroll requirements, and high stakes poker requires the most well endowed bankrolls.

Limit games require the least buy ins for a bankroll, Pot Limit games require a bit larger bankrolls, while No Limit games require the largest bankrolls. This is Hold ‘Em only, however, as Omaha requires a large bankroll relative to Hold ‘Em no matter the type. There is much more variance in No Limit than Limit and there is much more variance in Omaha than Hold ‘Em.

The other factor was skill level relative to your opponents. If you can crush .50/1 you can get away with having a 15 buy in bankroll at .10/.25, where a mediocre .05/.10 player would need closer to 30 buy ins at .10/.25.

General No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em bankroll management guidelines

These are rules that should be adjusted according to your specific skill set and can be swayed a few buy ins either way.

No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em: .01/.02-.25/50 requires about 20 buy ins. .50/1-1/2 requires 30 buy ins. 2/4+ should always carry 40 or more buy ins.

Maintaining a bankroll

A good way to make sure you don’t ruin your bankroll is to step down when you drop below your limit’s bankroll requirements. By doing this you will always ensure you are playing with a bit of insurance. You can take shots at higher limits when under rolled as well, but you should be ready and willing to move right back down if you encounter a loss of a few buy ins.