Learning Good Poker Bankroll Management

by Dougie Goguen | Mar 23 2011

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Learning good bankroll management can make poker fun and profitable!
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While your skills with the cards are very important to playing good poker, it's just as important to know exactly how to get the most of out your bankroll and to mitigate your risks while maximizing your profit at the tables. This is called bankroll management and just like the "real world," good control over your money at poker means that you can get bigger and bigger rewards.

Be Smart And Don't Gamble

Poker is a game of skill, yes, but it's also a game where money is put on the line. You should follow a simple rule: never play poker with money that you don't have. I can't stress this enough: poker should be something you enjoy and having to pick between playing a few hands and losing your home is never fun. Never.

Use Your Bankroll To Determine What To Play

Here's a handy rule to follow: you need an absolute minimum of 300 big blinds in your bankroll to cover your regular level play. If you play $1/$2 no limit hold 'em, you should have at least $600 backing you up and I actually recommend running with about 500 big blinds in reserve. An amount that large in relation to the game you're playing allows you to handle any variance that might come your way.

No matter how good a player you are, you'll occasionally have a bad run at the cards, and I'm speaking from personal experience. There was a three-day streak last week when I couldn't catch a decent set of pocket cards and when I did, I'd get garbage in the community cards - garbage that let other players make sets, quads and ridiculous straights. While it bothered me, it made much less of an impact on my game than it would have if I'd been playing without thinking about the money.

Be Willing To Step Down

While good money management and having a safety net can do a lot for your game, there comes times when you need to swallow your pride a bit and step down to lower-stakes games, particularly if you're in the middle of a bad run. Lower level play serves two purposes: it helps keep your bankroll in check while you're riding out the variance and it can help you regain your confidence as you take on players that you'd normally not interact with.

The key to poker is good discipline, whether it's at the tables or behind the scenes with your money. Good bankroll management is a major part of that.

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