If there’s only one thing I could teach or imprint upon another poker player it’s how important bankroll management is. There are a ton of talented poker players who are extremely capable in the games they play, but due to poor bankroll management stay stuck around broke for years.

What seems to be the standard rule for MTT bankroll management is as follows: Always have at least 100 times your average buy in. I say average buy in because this allows for a player to ‘take shots’ without over extending.

As far as the maximum amount of your roll you should put on one event, that mostly comes down to your preference, but I personally (and these days I’m a pretty big BR nit) can’t imagine putting down much more than 5% of my roll on one event.

The largest problem with playing outside of your bankroll is that for most players it tends to force up emotional involvement. Building a bankroll and then blowing it due to mismanagement is mentally crippling to almost everyone and often results in going even higher and faster.

I encourage people to not try to move up to fast and when they do to do so in moderation. Creating a bankroll so big that the stakes you play makes it nearly impossible to busto but gives you room to take a shot now and then is truly the ideal.

As always, if anyone has a question or needs me to elaborate, just ask.

Anonymous says

I think you make a good point regarding becoming emotional when you begin exceeding your bankroll an continue to play. For me, I begin to get nervous and it shows. The other players always read it and use my playing aggressive against me. A good rule of thumb is to get out when you've reached your financial limit.

10/18/07

Anonymous says

Good ideas. Too bad I don't follow them. I tend to blow my bankroll, borrow, pay back, play, blow my backroll, stop playing for a while, blow my bankroll.

Maybe I just need to learn to play poker. Do you think?

10/18/07

Anonymous says

I took a shot this week and built up a small roll but now it's time to really manage what I have. You are totally right about the emotional aspect when you lose a quarter of your roll...sickening. Great advice.

10/18/07

Anonymous says

I agree 100% on the neet for a solid bankroll plan. If you play primarily single table sit 'n go's you can reduce your requirements because the variance is lower than the multi-table tournaments. But I would still keep at least 25x for the low limits and at least 50x for any limits at $20 buy-in or above. More on bankroll management at SitNGoTraining.com .

10/20/07

Anonymous says

I read it. Now if only I can follow it. Thanks for the post.

10/21/07

Anonymous says

I recently began seriously playing poker online, i am in college and i am attempting to prove to my parents i can do this instead of working at our gym. I entered $10 in my bankroll and in about a weeks time after playing 1$ MT sng's I was right around $60. Naturally i play cash games which are my specialty. I usually buy in around the average 40BB for .10/.25 cash games and in about 48 hours i found myself broke. I am hoping i can attain some advice from you about rising a bankroll to competitive cash game limits. I often don't waste my time in the lower stakes games because of the number of fish's who catch their cards after shoving with rag hands. I would greatly appreciate it if i could gain some feedback.

11/20/07

Anonymous says

I agree on the importance of money management, but my approach is a little different. I'm at the point where I'm comfortable playing 5/10 NL...so I usually stick to that, although I'll dabble in tourneys with <$50 buy-in.
I don't really have a bank roll because my goal is to keep $2K in my account...and to cash out profits on top of that to use for discretionary spending and investing. If I do lose the $2K, I'll reload with $1K and try and build that up to $2K and cash anything extra.
I am tracking my monthly progress so I know how I'm doing. But it's hard for me to assess what my bankroll is. Is this a unique approach ? Or is it pretty common ?

Great blog..keep up the good work.

01/16/08

Anonymous says

This series is great. I have a question regarding optimum MTT size. First, background: I love poker and consider myself to be a pretty decent player. I'm in college and don't have a ton of spare cash. My bankroll is about $20. The good thing is I've been playing for months and never had the rebuy. The bad thing is my bankroll has stayed annoyingly constant over that time. I initially tried 10 cent 360 man MTTs and lost money. I'm doing better at $1 45 MTTs but still not growing my stack. My question is this: Is it worth it to invest more money (say $100) and play at a higher level? My friends tell me its a waste to play at the lower levels. Is this true? Or am I just revealing my ignorance?

hit me up.
skip303@gmail.com

12/02/08

ALLTheCookies says

wat

02/26/09

Anonymous says

start low... if you cant beat the fish , how can you beat the sharks ... work it !

03/13/09

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