Effective Tips For Bankroll Management

Good bankroll management is crucial to ensure that you are always playing within your means. Far too many people seem to ignore the amount of money they are investing in poker; in fact it’s almost like they believe that no matter how much they spend, they can always win back even more. This is a very destructive attitude, and will ensure that they go bust almost immediately.

The only way to really make a profit through online poker is by carefully managing your bankroll.

Remember that without your bankroll you won't be able to play poker, so take the time to ensure that you manage it in an effective and responsible manner.

Every player will experience those days where the cards just seem to be working against you; no matter how you play the hand you always get out drawn, your three of a kind is beaten by a full house, or your flush is beaten by a higher flush. Of course, there are also the good days when you just always seem to hit the right cards.

You are likely to experience periods where you lose money, not through playing badly, but just because of the run of cards, and therefore you need to manage your bankroll in such a way that you can easily absorb these bad times without going bust or getting yourself into debt.

As a general rule I tend to only play No Limit Hold’Em Cash games, and I like to always make sure that my bankroll is 10 times the maximum buy-in of the table. So, using this rule, if I were to play at in a $0.25 cash game where the maximum buy-in is $25, I should have a bankroll of at least $250. Equally, if I wanted to play in a $0.10 cash game, and the maximum buy-in at the table is $10, then my bankroll must be at least $100.

You can use this simple formula for sit-and-go tournaments and for limit games too. Of course your style of play will also affect your bankroll management: a tight player is likely to have a smaller variance compared to a loose player, so if you are a tight player you can probably afford to reduce the number of buy-ins covered by your bankroll.

Furthermore, these are just the guidelines I have set for myself. They work for me, as I play pretty low stakes just for fun. If you play higher stakes, or want to make a living from poker, then the suggested bankroll limits are much higher – in this case you should be looking for your bankroll to cover at least 300 times the big bet, so if you play at $30/$60 then your available bankroll should be about $18,000.

Remember, the aim of good bank roll management is to allow you to comfortably play at your preferred level and to win the maximum amount of profit whilst minimising the risk of going broke.