Poker Strategy - Bankroll Management

If you want to play winning poker and you’re in it for the long haul you will need to learn about bankroll management. Bankroll management allows you to take control and be able to sustain the variances in the game. You will not always be able to win, and by using proper management skills your wins will outweigh your loses allowing you to stay ahead.

Most people have a general rule of thumb that you should have at least 40 buy-ins for entering tournaments and sit and gos as well as 100 big blinds for most cash games. Plenty of people jump into games using either a significant portion of their bankroll or worse – all of their bankroll without consideration to what if they have a losing session.

One of the biggest problems with many players is they assume that they need to play higher limits in order to make a decent return on their game. We have all done it where we get bored and think that the $36 pot would have been better if it was at the $3/$6 or $5/$10 games. Unfortunately like most people who think this way you will find that as you increase the level of the game, so does the competition and you’re more likely to lose after a few short sessions.

 Another issue that players face is when they stop beating the game. If this happens to be you your best move and probably the wisest one you can make is to drop down in levels until your bankroll can sustain the other game again. A general rule of thumb is if your bankroll takes a 30% - 35% hit than you drop at least one stake and rebuild it. This will at least allow you enough buy-ins to continue to sustain the swings of the game and be able to rebuild your bankroll so you can jump back up to the next level.