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 bankroll’. Subsequently, 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 bankroll’.
The reason why you should choose your limits carefully in poker is due to the 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 we 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. - 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 $1/$2 limit Holdem, you should have a bankroll of $600 at least.
- Tournament Games
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 $10+$1 Sit n Go’s you should have a bankroll of $440.
So What limits should you play according to your bankroll:
| NL Holdem | Limit Holdem | SnG’s | |||||
| Blinds | Bankroll | Blinds | Bankroll | Stakes | Bankroll | ||
| 5c/10c | $200 | 5c/10c | $30 | $1+$0.1 | $44 | ||
| 10c/20c | $400 | 10c/20c | $60 | $2+$0.2 | $88 | ||
| 25c/50c | $1,000 | 25c/50c | $150 | $5+$0.5 | $220 | ||
| $0.5/$1 | $2,000 | $0.5/$1 | $300 | $10+$1 | $440 | ||
| $1/$2 | $4,000 | $1/$2 | $600 | $20+$2 | $880 | ||
| $2/$4 | $8,000 | $2/$4 | $1,200 | $30+$3 | $1,320 | ||
| $5/$10 | $20,000 | $5/$10 | $3,000 | $50+$5 | $2,200 | ||
| $10$/20 | $40,000 | $10$/20 | $6,000 | $100+$10 | $4,400 | ||
| $25/$50 | $100,000 | $25/$50 | $15,000 | $200+$20 | $8,800 | ||
| $50/$100 | $200,000 | $50/$100 | $30,000 | $500+$50 | $22,000 | ||
Style of play and variance.
The style of your play can also determine what limits you should play in relation to the size of your bankroll. If you are a tight player then you should expect to receive a slightly reduced variance to that of a loose player, therefore you may be able to afford to reduce the amount of buy-ins in your bankroll.
This is because tight players will often only enter pots with strong hands and regularly go to showdowns with winnings hands, thus reducing the chances of seeing big losses. Consequently, if you are a loose player and play a large number of pots, you may want to increase the size of your bankroll to absorb the extra variance you may receive.
Absorbing losses and moving on.
A second reason for why you should exercise good bankroll management skills is to help you deal with the psychological impact that losses can have on your game. If you have a bankroll of 10 full buy-ins for a cash game at the $200 NL game and lose 4 buy ins, your bankroll would deplete from $2000 to $1200. Because of your small initial bankroll this looks like a big loss and may cause you to tighten up your game and play ‘scared poker’, because you are afraid to lose more money.
Now if you had 20 full buy-ins for the $1/$2 game, your bankroll would change from $4000 to $3200. Immediately you can see that visually this does not look as bad as the loss in the first instance. Therefore you will feel more comfortable that you have the ability to win back the lost money without feeling the need to change your game.
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