Poker Articles - Bankroll Management

One of the most important things that new poker players overlook is the money management side of poker.  My own personal view is that whether you are playing for fun or for a living you should always treat your bankroll like a pro treats his.  If you are aiming to become a successful player then you should start as you mean to go on.  This means looking after your money......

There are many differing opinions on how much money you should have in your bankroll to avoid going broke and there are also many personal factors that influence this figure.  Generally, if you are a reasonably good player and can do better than breakeven on average then a figure of 250 big bets would be a sensible level to maintain as a bankroll.

So what does this mean?  It means that you should take your total amount of money, divide it by 250 and restrict yourself to playing at that limit or below.  So if you have $500 in your bankroll then you would play no higher than $1/$2 until you have reached $1000.  Once you hit $1000 you can move up to $2/$4, thus maintaining a 250 big bet bankroll.

As you can see, the figures above are quite surprising.  You need a large amount of excess money in order to ensure that your probability of going bust through the random variance and swings is minimal.

It is said, traditionally, that a good player can earn 1 big bet per hour.  I believe this advice to be erroneous in the context of loose low limit online games.  If you are playing $1/$2 on Party / Interpoker / Pacific where you have anything up to 65% of the players seeing every flop and most of them are clueless fish (who will play 95s UTG and call raises cold preflop with A2o) then your expected earn rate is way in excess of this estimation.

So if you are playing $3/$6 and below online at sites with lots of fish and you consider yourself to be a tight aggressive player and have studied the game then I would suggest a figure of 3BB/Hr or above to be more realistic.

What this means is that you can play above the recommended levels based on your bankroll, as you expect to gain much more quickly than you lose.  My recommendation is therefore to risk one third of your bankroll at a higher limit than the 250BB rule would allow. 

If you lose that third then you can drop back down to your normal level.  However, if you are a winning player then statistically it is more probable that you will gain quickly and your bankroll will expand more quickly, thus allowing you to leap to the next level permanently, more quickly.......

So with a $500 bankroll I would suggest risking $160 in $2/$4. 

If you lose this $160 then continue to play at $1/$2 with the remaining $340.  (This still gives you 170 big bets)

As with anything in life you are faced with the risk/reward ratio dilemma whenever you sit at the poker table.  If you want to reduce the risk then raise less preflop with marginal hands.  If you wish to increase the potential reward then raise those marginal hands wherever you are in situations that you believe offer you at least a small positive expectation.

An example of this occurred the other day while I was playing online:

I was dealt 7c8c in late position and 6 players entered the pot before I was due to act!  I immediately hit raise since I had positive expectation on this hand.  (Imagine betting $10 on a coin flip and being paid $26 every time you win instead of the $20 you would expect to win.)

Raising the hand caused a larger fluctuation in my bankroll but I had excellent odds on the gamble so it made sense to make it.

Summary:

*Try to maintain a bankroll of 250 big bets.

*Good online players can realistically earn more than the 1bb/hr figure that is traditionally quoted.  3bb+ is achievable.

*Risk one third of your bankroll at a higher limit to advance more quickly, if you are confident you are a winning player.

*Reduce bankroll swings by not raising marginal hands preflop.

*Try to adopt the attitude of a pro, even if you just play for fun.  Look after your money well.

- Celeryman.  EMAIL the author.

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