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Home >> Poker school >> Bankroll management
Bankroll management
Bankroll and money management
Many beginning poker players underestimate the amount of money that it takes to play poker (offline poker as well as poker at online internet poker rooms) for a longer period of time. The money you can afford to potentially lose and have set aside for poker is called your poker "bankroll". Poker is inherently volatile and there is a good chance that you will either win or loose quite a bit already by playing 3-4 hours - especially if you are playing at an online internet poker room as each online poker game is over so quickly.
So, as a newcomer to the game of poker, try to start out playing at very low limits to get a feel for and understanding of the game and to cut losses.
Let us repeat that again as it cannot be stated too much: The vast majority of new poker players starting out at poker seriously underestimate the bankroll needed to play at certain limits for a longer period of time. As a newcomer, you are likely to be one of these.
But this is not only a beginner issue: Many experienced poker players make horific bankroll errors as well. One of the biggest mistakes is to treat your bankroll like a buy in for poker tournament. This means that as soon as you have played poker for a couple of weeks and is at break-even or are up a little bit at one limit, you then advance to a higher limit with your entire bankroll and so it continues. This way you are almost guaranteed to eventually lose your entire bankroll (that is: all your money).
The reasons are that you are pushing your luck with your insufficient bankroll and also playing at higher levels where you not only have to adopt to different methods of operation (different playing style to be profitable) but also are playing against poker players who are most likely significantly more seasoned poker players than you. Additionally, you may play the game too passively at the higher limits as poker players have a tendency of becoming what is called "gun shy" when you cannot afford to lose a few poker hands and are inexperienced. Try to stay away from that behavior. Keep playing at reasonable limits for at least 200 hours of playing where you hopefully are doing well or at least is not losing too much money.
If you decide to try a higher limit do so for just a short period with a smaller test bankroll and get out if you keep losing money. You are most likely playing poker for recreational purposes - make sure you give yourself the opportunity to have fun for longer than a month or two!
Luckily for the few pro poker players out there, most players play for the heck of it. If you are not 100% focused on playing a winning game, but playing mostly to have a good time you belong to the 95% who play poker for fun. Then you should try to have as good of a time as possible at as low limits as possible. Don't destroy your hobby by playing too high. But there is a quick way to break-even or win in poker. By learning the basic strategies and adopting a tight/aggressive style you have a very big chance of making a small profit through your poker game. The reason is that most other players don't really play to win. You will find a very extensive collection of poker game strategies in our poker strategy-section.
By adopting these strategies as a beginner and practicing them on lower limits you should be able to become a significantly better poker player in less than 50 hours of play time and often make a profit in less than 100 hours of play time. Remember to revisit the strategy advice at least 2 times during your first 100 hours of play to ensure that you are really putting the poker strategies into practice!
Bankroll examples for Texas Hold'em
A good way to start out is by learning how to play Limit Texas Hold'em well. This is the most popular game played both online and offline. But more importantly, it is an easy game to learn and to play at a reasonable level as a newcomer. You should understand that a beginning poker player can easily lose 30-50 big bets at one table during a few hours of online poker play - even strong winning players can lose this much if they encounter a losing streak. This equals losses of $30-$50 at a $0,5-$1 limit game, which is still considered low limit.
Knowing this should help you accept the unavoidable swings that take place in poker. Good professional poker players usually need a bankroll of at least 300 times the big bet, when playing Limit Texas Hold'em, in order to play comfortably over time because of the big fluctuations. Also your playing style affects the size of your bank roll. The looser you play (can still be a good way of playing) and the more loose/aggressive games you participate in, the bigger will the swings in your poker bank roll be.
Here is a table with bankroll requirements for various limits at Texas Hold'em:
Game |
Limit |
Minimum bankroll |
Limit Texas Hold'em |
$0.5-$1 |
$300-$500 |
|
$1-$2 |
$600-$1000 |
|
$3-$6 |
$1,800-$3,000 |
|
$5-$10 |
$3,000-$5,000 |
|
$15-$30 |
$9,000-$15,000 |
|
$30-$60 |
$18,000-$30,000 |
No-Limit Texas Hold'em |
$0.25-$0.50 |
$500-$1,000 |
|
$0.5-$1 |
$1,000-$2,000 |
|
$1-$2 |
$2,000-$4,000 |
|
$2-$4 |
$4,000-$8,000 |
|
$5-$10 |
$10,000-$20,000 |
As you can see, for Limit Texas Hold'em we recommend a bank roll of 300-500 times the Big Bet and for No-Limit a bank roll of 1000-2000 times the Big Blind.
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