Bankroll Management for Poker

Bankroll management is the practice of keeping enough money for the stakes you play that a normal losing stretch does not end your career. It is about variance, not about skill. Winning players go broke by playing too high.

Why variance sets the number

Even a solid winner loses over many sessions. Standard deviation in No-Limit Hold’em cash games is large relative to win rate, so a stretch of twenty or thirty losing buy-ins is not rare. Tournaments are worse: months without a significant cash are normal for a winning player.

Common guidelines

• Cash games. Twenty to forty buy-ins for the stake you play; more at higher stakes and in tougher games where the win rate is smaller.
• Tournaments. One hundred buy-ins or more, scaled up with field size.
• Sit & Go. Fifty to one hundred buy-ins, depending on format.

These are rules of thumb. A smaller edge or a higher aversion to going broke means more buy-ins.

Moving up and down

Set thresholds in advance: move up when the bankroll reaches the number for the next stake, move down as soon as it falls below the number for the current one. Moving down promptly is what separates players who survive from those who do not.

Separate bankroll from life

The bankroll is money that exists only for poker. If losing it would change how you live, it is not a bankroll, and the responsible gambling page applies.

Bankroll and bots

A bot does not remove variance; it removes tilt. It also adds risks a human player does not have: a confiscated account takes the whole balance on that site. Bot bankroll management means keeping only a small fraction of the bankroll on any one account and withdrawing often. See Do poker bots win?.