Texas Holdem Bankroll Management

Tonight I knew I had the write about bankroll management. Checking the message forums of the website for a home game I attend, one of the new members had written this:

Question:I told myself when I turned 18 that I would use the $100 I got for my birthday as a bankroll, and at the moment (after two tournaments) I am down twenty dollars or so. So my question is - can I bring $50 to a ring game (I expect the lowest is 1/2 NLHE) and expect to have any kind of stability? I have been reading Frez’s old blog posts, and from the sound of it, ring games attract just as bad of players as tournaments do. My biggest fear is that I’ll bring in $50 without realizing that the odds are against me. I do understand about fluctuations, but assuming I have a good table of 3-5 hours, and that $50 isn’t paying for room and board, I should be ok? I mean it doesn’t kill me to lose it, and I do know which cards to play ring game wise (and a feel for brick and mortars now), but is $50 too little? Am I shooting myself in the foot?

Perfect – I was able to answer his question, help out a new young player, and write my article all at once!Here’s what I wrote:

A few points:

First, in my blog, or any other online or offline source, people tend to talk about the odd things that happened. Nobody mentions those times you open-raise your AA in early position and everyone folds. What sticks in their head is the times something stupid happened, but those are the rare events. Don’t read too much into it. Everyone complains about their bad beats, so it seems like that’s all that ever happens.

That being said, sitting at a table with bad players in always a good thing, but it does create huge bankroll fluctuations. And that brings the topic of bankroll management.

$100 is NOT a poker bankroll, unless you are playing $3 online tournaments or .05/.10 online cash games. There are a few simple, commonly used guidelines for poker bankrolls (and we need to differentiate a serious poker bankroll from taking $100 to the casino one night as spending/entertainment money).

Limit games are easy - if you can beat the game, you need 300 big bets to play the game and not go broke from normal random fluctuations. The lowest limit live games around here are 3/6, so you’d best have an $1800 bankroll to play in them steady. Perhaps slightly more because they are all kill games.
No Limit games - lots of people use a 30 buy in rule (and a buy in is 100 big blinds at the level you play). So, 1/2 NL with a $200 buy in requires a $6000 bankroll. If you are steadily beating the game 30 is good, if you’re closer to average 40 is better ($8000).

Tournaments - the 30-40 buy in rule works OK here too, but I’ve heard some people say they like it as high as 50. For the huge online multi player tournaments (250+) even a 100 buyins is prudent. It can be a long time between cashes in tournaments where only the top 10% or so get paid. Right now you are two unlucky rivers from going broke because you only have 2 buy ins. If you wanna play the local $50 casino tournaments, you should have a $1500+ bankroll.

Again, this only matters if you are playing seriously. Thousands of people dump a $100 into the slots everyday, just in the hopes that today might be the day they hit a jackpot. Anyone can do the same thing at the poker table (and gods love ‘em, even when they call my AA pre flop raises with Q4 because it was sooooooooooted).Also, of course you have to be beating the game. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, if you are the worst player at the table you will lose it all sooner or later.

And hey, maybe you’ll have a good run in your next tournament and make $500 or a $1000 to boost your bankroll closer to where it should be. Just like there is always a chance of going broke, there’s always a chance of hitting it big. If you bust out, well, it’s not like that was the money you needed to buy your kid’s diapers and formula for the next month. Don’t play with money you can’t afford to lose!

One thing I didn’t discuss with Matt was moving up.If it takes an $1800 bankroll to play 3/6 limit, and a $3000 bankroll to play 5/10 limit, when do you move up? Or down for that matter? You won’t do yourself any harm by sticking with 3/6 all the way to that $3000, but personally, I’d probably be a little impatient. Maybe around $2500 (250 BBs) give 5/10 a shot, if you win, carry on, if not, move back to 3/6.Also, short handed games and split pot cash games have different variance. Short handed games should cause more fluctuation in your bank roll, so you want about 50% more bankroll. Split pot games though have less variance, so it’s possible to survive with a bankroll of about 2/3rds of the guidelines I’ve listed above.

You can also relax these requirements if the amount of money at risk is not serious for you. I built my online bankroll by jumping right into 1/2 limit, 2/4 limit, and .25/.50 PL/NL games with $1000 in total deposits – probably a third of what I should have had. I could afford that as spending money, and it allowed me to sign up with various sites and cover my early losses by clearing bonuses at each site. Now I’ve built my bankroll up and can play 3/6 or 5/10 without risking going broke. Check out our main page and try a new site today!

Good luck!

Frez

Frez is Bonus Internet Poker’s writer on strategy and theory in most poker games. He has been playing poker for over 5 years between a mix of online and live games. If you would like advice or to have Frez look over a hand that you have question about you can email him here. Your questions will be posted on the site and/or monthly newsletter. frez @ bonusinternetpoker.com

More Texas Holdem Strategy Articles

• Bankroll Management
• Pot Odds
• Pot Odds In No Limit
• Implied Odds and Reversed Odds
• Poker Terminology Guide