What's something no poker player can live without? Better yet, no human can live without? Money. There's a reason why I wanted poker bankroll to be first topic of this poker website. It's just that - you can't live in poker world without managing your bankroll properly. Still to date, it amazes me how many players actually play over their limits and lose their whole bankrolls in just one night, even one hour perhaps.
It's a major, major mistake to play with more than 5% of your whole bankroll unless the game is extremely +EV. Unless you believe the game is amazingly profitable, don't step in without more than, say 25 buy-ins. Trust me, bankroll management is the reason to why many go broke and some can succeed in poker. Among other stuff, this might be the most important one.
Online Poker Bankroll
This poker strategy article will discuss online poker bankrolls (mainly), although some advices work in live games too. As you've probably figured out, there are significant differences between online & live poker. The fact that we can play more hands in an hour online than we can play live already tells you how we can win or lose money quite faster than in live casino games.
So, while being optimistic and thinking that you're going to win a lot of money, we should also try to be realistic. While you could win 3x as much money as you ever could in live games, you can also lose 3x more. Especially if your intention is to be a professional poker player, your life's quality is (to a large degree) dependant on how much money you've got. There's only so much you can really afford to lose, I'm afraid. Even if you win that money back one day, it's still bound to mess with your head - losing money is rarely good in poker. Neither for your self-confidence or for your bankroll.
I'm really trying to make you to understand this right now. And if I was learning poker, I'd like to have things repeated over & over again so I would surely remember that stuff later on. When you play poker, there's nothing more important than your bankroll. Treat your bankroll with respect, look after it as well as you can and never let anything to come and harm it. This is your single most important thing in poker, no "card skills" matter if you haven't got any money. You're gone, broke without proper poker bankroll management.
Poker Bankroll Management Issues
We can use the word "generally" again but here I really don't like it because we're dealing with extremely serious stuff. So let's start from this; there's really no general rule when it comes to poker bankroll management, because we're all our own individuals and this is definitely where it shows. So many online poker websites say that when you risk "only" 5% of your bankroll, you're definitely safe and that's the "correct" amount. Without knowing player's specifics, how can they tell?
They can't. It's ridiculous to basically say "something works for everyone". I mean, of course if you've got 150 buy-ins, you probably won't go broke too soon. But when we're talking about is it 3%, 4% or 5% - kind of hard to know, isn't it? So this is where you should step up and think for yourself. Are you likely to go on tilt?
If you are, a not-so-deep bankroll is quite likely a great idea because you can't blow away all your money rightaway. How big is your edge for the level you're planning to play on? If you're most probably a loser, then definitely a deep bankroll. You play against better players when you want to become better than them, and that requires more money than what a game where you're a winner does, naturally.
Key to correct bankroll management is to have enough money reserved for certain stakes, while keeping rest of your money somewhere else - there are ways to invest that money wisely, kind of keep it growing. You don't want to just leave your money "hanging" on your bank account, but to make it grow. Of course this is for everyone to (completely) decide theirselves, but I recommend doing something productive with that money. If there's no need to keep it on your poker account, withdraw it and make something happen.
Personally I like to have about 50 buy-ins on my poker account. It's "a lot", I know but it makes me feel more secure - I don't even have to look at my cashier because I know there's still money left and that's what's really important. If I have less than 40 buy-ins for certain stakes, then I'm moving down - so basically I need to lose "only" 10 buy-ins and I'll move down in limits. This has always worked, hopefully it's going to work in future, too. Largely because of my tilt control which is fortunately one of my best qualities, I don't usually lose 10 buy-ins during one poker session.
While you study your poker game, study yourself. Find out what makes you to lose money, try to get better at it but if you can't or haven't, make sure there's enough money on your poker account. Do everything you can to protect your bankroll - move down in limits if that's what it takes. And by the way, it's only natural to move down once in a while, every poker player will do that at some point. Same goes for you if you're sensible.
Oh, and by the way. Especially for players who are just starting up, my poker deposit bonus page might be worth looking at. Poker bonuses are a great way to make some extra cash and increase the amount of money in your poker bankroll.
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