Essential Guidelines for Poker Bankroll Management

Your ability to navigate the complexities of poker is crucial for becoming a successful player, but it's also widely recognized among experts that having solid poker bankroll management skills is essential for achieving long-term success.

Despite the fact that no strategy for bankroll management can transform a consistently losing player into a successful one, it certainly plays a critical role in helping winning players remain active, thereby increasing their chances of sustained success. grinding out their edge indefinitely.

Your skill level is irrelevant if you frequently find yourself unable to play because of the usual ups and downs that come with the game.

There are some online poker platforms that provide enticing deposit bonuses, where a $10 deposit can effectively be matched with an additional $10, instantly doubling your initial investment.

Receiving completely free money is an excellent way to give your poker bankroll a significant initial boost!

Table of Contents

A Misguided Approach to Poker Bankroll Management

Before diving into specifics, I want to emphasize that no matter how effectively you manage your bankroll, it cannot salvage the situation for a player who is consistently losing (For further insights, refer to my other articles). Many players incorrectly think they can create a system that allows them to bounce between limits and ultimately secure winnings. improving your technical skills A notorious example of this is the well-known Martingale betting system, often used in casino games such as Roulette, Blackjack, and Baccarat. In this method, you place a bet and if you win, you maintain the same wager; however, if you lose, you are supposed to double your bet in hopes of recovering losses. The flawed logic is based on the assumption that eventually, you will win a bet.

Yet, starting with a mere $1 bet and losing eight consecutive times could escalate your next wager to an astronomical $256, far beyond what most players betting $1 would be willing to gamble. It's important to remember that with enough rounds, it's entirely possible to lose multiple times in a row. If your $256 bet goes south, you find yourself compelled to bet $512 and then $1024, all in a desperate attempt to retrieve your initial $1 loss. Additionally, casinos enforce betting caps, often preventing you from placing outrageous bets over a certain limit, complicating this already flawed system further.

Every time you place a wager, you either gain or lose a portion of your equity. For instance, a $1 bet on Roulette typically yields an average house edge of 5.26% (on tables with two green spots). This translates to losing 5.26 cents for every dollar bet. It's straightforward: regardless of the system you try to employ, if you keep making losing bets, you’re bound to lose over time.

If you consistently place $1 bets over 100 rounds, you should anticipate an average loss of $5.26. Occasionally, you may experience substantial wins or losses, yet as you repeat the process, the pattern of consistent losses will emerge. If you attempt to make large wagers in hopes of breaking even, you will find yourself losing even more due to the increased wager size, still suffering the same 5.26% house edge.

This is similar in poker; numerous players apply a comparable strategy by playing $10 No Limit (with $0.05/$0.10 blinds) and upon losing a few buy-ins, they leap to $25 NL where they face tougher competition (since you are competing for larger sums). If they encounter further losses at $25 NL, their stakes keep rising until they ultimately deplete their entire bankroll.

You may be wondering how even-money casino games Adopting an overly aggressive approach to moving up the stake levels (regardless of being a winning or losing player) is inadvisable, as it only takes a small series of losses to sideline you. For winning players, the objective is to stay in the game without interruption, allowing for consistent earnings each time you sit at the poker table. Also, exhausting your initial $10 deposit (now $20 thanks to the bonus) means you've essentially failed the endeavor, which is certainly not the goal.

Protecting Your Poker Bankroll

It is crucial to acknowledge that you will always face a risk of losing your poker bankroll, even if you maintain a substantial one. It’s important to assess your comfort level with potentially losing the funds in your account and needing to reload. If you consider $10 to be a trivial amount because you have a full-time job, you might opt to shift limits more freely. However, if that $10 is all you possess, you should guard it carefully, risking only a minimal portion of your bankroll at any time.

For clarity, your 'bankroll' consists of the funds allocated specifically for playing poker and should not be utilized for any other purposes. Fortunately, when you make a deposit with an online poker site, those funds are distinctly separated from your other finances, making it clear that they are solely for poker.

Strategies for Professional Poker Bankroll Management

For instance, if I were offered a wager involving my entire net worth on a coin flip, where a win would triple my bet while a loss would result in losing the bet, I would refuse, despite the wager being incredibly beneficial for me in the long run.

The thought of losing hard-earned gains accumulated over 14 years as a professional player would be catastrophic. Conversely, while tripling my poker bankroll would be pleasant, it wouldn’t fundamentally alter my life.

Give This Strategy a Try

If you deposit $10 into your account, and with the bonus that brings your total to $20, I recommend starting with $2 NL (blinds of $0.01/$0.02, where you would buy in for $2). Spend some time playing until you demonstrate that you can win consistently. With just 10 buy-ins ($2 x 10 = $20), you could face bankruptcy, but it's a risk you must navigate with a small initial deposit.

If you manage to win around 10 big blinds every 100 hands (which is certainly achievable at the lower stakes), you'll need approximately 4,000 big blinds to play comfortably without a high risk of going broke. I assume that minimizing the chances of going bust isn’t your primary concern, so let’s proceed with the understanding that you’ll aim to keep about 20 buy-ins in your bankroll while looking to advance your stakes aggressively, especially when you identify promising games.

Here’s a suggested plan for advancing your poker bankroll starting from $10.

Begin at $2 NL until you reach $60, then progress to $4 NL.

1. Maintain your play at $4 NL until your bankroll grows to $90, then transition to $6 NL. Should your bankroll drop to $40, revert back to $2 NL.
2. Move on to playing $6 NL until you hit $150, before stepping up to $10 NL. If at any moment your bankroll falls to $120, step back down to $6 NL.
3. Advance to $10 NL until you accumulate $375, after which you can shift to $25 NL. If your bankroll dips to $200 at any point, return to $6 NL.
4. That’s it! Expect to experience notable fluctuations in your bankroll following this aggressive strategy, but if you possess a significant edge, your risk of going broke will be relatively low.

Just ensure you remain disciplined and revert to lower limits as suggested if your results turn unfavorable.

A common pitfall is for players to assume they are suited for $10 NL simply because they reached that level. They resist moving down, perceiving those games as inferior, only to find themselves losing it all due to the inherent swings of the game. The strategy I’ve outlined is effective, as essentially, every time you step down in stakes, you could double your bankroll, helping you to remain active.

Have the self-discipline to step down when necessary.

If the swings feel too wild for your comfort level, consider adjusting the amount you need in any scenario. By maintaining a larger bankroll, you will witness smaller proportional swings, which can help you play optimally more consistently.

Many players become anxious and make critical errors when risking 5% (or more) of their bankroll. If the stakes feel overly significant, you may be playing too high. Ideally, you want to perform at your best regardless of the financial stakes involved.

As you ascend through the stakes, it's wise to maintain a larger number of buy-ins in your bankroll. This precaution is necessary because you’ll be countering more skilled opponents, resulting in a reduced edge. Eventually, you may reach a point where you no longer win consistently. In the next installment of this five-part series, I will share a proven strategy for progressing through the stakes and sustaining success.

Don’t Cash Out (Yet!)

Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter @JonathanLittle. Best of luck!

Jonathan Little is a professional poker player with over $6.5 million in live tournament earnings. He is also the author of 14 best-selling poker strategy books.