Learn how to manage you bankroll

Bankroll Management

2010 Jan 2

Bankroll is the money with which you are playing poker. Good bankroll management is an important step for becoming a successful player and depends roughly on 2 questions:

What amount of money can you loose?
In what limits are you playing?

As a beginner you should start on a low-stake Limits. You should do this, because you have to feel the fluctuations of your bankroll, which you won’t avaoid. Don’t select the limits too optimistic, because the bankroll with which you have to play in a long-term limits is often underestimated.
Let’s say that your starting bankroll is 500$. So, the maximum limits in which you should play is 0.5-1$. There is a rule that your bankroll has to be at least 300-500 times bigger than the big blind you are playing in. If you have lost it in a very short time, then you should think seriuosly is Texas Holdem right for you. At the begining 300-500 looks pretty much. But it is not no much, when you will see that in one session you can lose even 100 time blinds of your bankroll.

When can I start increase the limits?

First of all you should demonstrate that you can consistently good game and you are reade to increase the limits. There is the rule that you should win at least 100 big blinds where you been playing, from the starting bankroll. On our example it would be 100$, but if you have won these money very fast, we recomend you to play in the same limits for a little bit longer time. That is because of that, you can get a temporary luck.

So, from our example your bankroll should be now 600$ and you can go up from 0.5/1$ to 1/2$. As you can see now this limit is minimum of our recomendations 300 x BB (300 x 2$ = 600$). Now there are two ways:

You have to reach another 100BB (200$) with a longer period.
If you have lost your 100$, you should go back to lower limits, that means 0.5/1$.

This bankroll management is useful that you could climb comfortably and with minimum risk of losing your money.
The following table shows how much of your bankroll for each limit should be.

Limit Texas Hold `em Poker

Limit	Bankroll
0,05 $, 0,10 $	$ 30 – $ 50
0,25 $, 0,50 $	$ 150 – $ 250
0,50 $, 1 $	$ 300 – $ 500
$ 1 – $ 2	$ 600 – $ 1000
$ 3 – $ 6	1.800 $ – 3.000 $

No Limit Texas Hold `em Poker

In No-Limit Texas Hold `em poker is generally a bankroll of about 1000-1500 times the big blind is recommended to play comfortably.

Limit	Bankroll
0,05 $, 0,10 $	$ 100 – $ 150
0,25 $, 0,50 $	$ 500 – $ 750
0,50 $, 1 $	$ 1000 – $ 1.500
$ 1 – $ 2	$ 2000 – $ 3.000
$ 3 – $ 6	6.000 $ – 9.000 $