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Bankroll Management
An aspect to be taken very seriously

bonus you´re either a newcomer to Poker who´s interested in the game wanting to check out whether or not you like it, or you´re a Poker veteran who is used to losing his Poker funds. Anyway, both of those groups need to spend some time with our articles in order to cut down on the fundamental mistakes they made in the past.

The basic concept behind BM is that you only risk a certain portion of your whole stack when you buy into a certain table. Let´s face it; Poker is a game of swings! Sometimes, nothing seems to go wrong, you hold kings when your opponent raises with queens, you hit your flush-draw on the turn when another poor guy holds three of a kind or a rookie wants to bluff you out of a pot when you have the nuts. That´s when Poker seems to be like the easiest thing in the world. On the other side however, the influence of luck might totally kill you sometimes. You push like crazy; some idiot calls you and hits his 4-outer. You lose with AA against 63 and the reason why the other guy called your raise pre-flop is because his cards “were suited”. Everybody has witnessed these kinds of situations before, leading to the conclusion that Poker is a game where strategy pays off in the long term and chance might dominate in the short term. The idea behind BM is to protect you against the short term influence of chance in order to prevent you from going bankrupt.

When managing your bankroll, you always have to consider which kind of game you´re playing. If you´re playing Texas Hold´em, there´s a huge difference between FL or NL ring games and SnGs and MTTs.

If you want to buy into a micro-limit SnG, your bankroll should consist of at least 40-50 buy-ins. That means if you want to play in a 2 $ single table tournament, you must have at least 80-100 $ in your bankroll. If you prefer NLHE ring-games, than you can only play at a certain table if you´re buying in with not more than 5 % of your bankroll. In order to play in FLHE ring-games, a bankroll of at least 200-300 big bets is needed.

These numbers aren´t totally precise. Some guys feel the need to increase these settings even further in order to feel comfortable, especially when the stakes are high. If you prefer short-handed tables, you probably need a little more, same goes if you´re not the prototype of a tight-aggressive player. If you like to play in MTTs, you need a lot more than the 40-50 buy-ins you need when playing in a SnG because of the increased variance! However, these figures have to be your compass when deciding on which level you want to play in! If you´re successful on one level, only move up to the next one if you have the necessary bankroll. If you experienced some bad beats, played poorly or in case you cashed out, move down a level or even two.

When managing your bankroll, always keep in mind that the reason for doing this is (1) to protect your bankroll/earnings by hedging against bad beats and (2) to feel comfortable while playing on a certain level because “scared money ain´t gonna make money”!

To conclude this article, let´s take a close look at the most common mistakes stupid players make when it comes to BM and how you can avoid them:

1)   When I lose money, I move up one or two levels in order to recoup my losses faster.

That is by far the most stupendous “strategy” a mentally sane person may think of. First and foremost, there´s nothing wrong with taking a shot at a higher level now and then. When you´ve won a lot during a session and you´re feeling great about your game take a peek at the next level, check the players out and gain some experience.

But when you´re losing, moving up a level is the beginning of the end of your bankroll. Only stupid guys that have no clue about playing Poker do that. Think about it, you´re losing money on a certain level but instead of taking a break from Poker for a few days or moving down a level you decide to move up. When the stakes are higher, you usually don´t find as many fishes on the table and the amount of better players increases, too. Additionally, you are either scared of risking your money/chips because you´re nearing the end of your bankroll or you´re already in “I don´t care-mode” which is even worse. Guys who follow that “strategy” usually believe that Poker is like playing the lottery and if you do so, you should stop playing immediately!

Always keep in mind; building up a bankroll is much more difficult than tearing it down.

2)    I´m rich! I can afford to play where I want!

That´s another stupid statement! Your goal has to be to win money, not to donk it away. Additionally, when thinking about Poker, you must not think in terms of $ but in terms of tournament buy-ins and big bets. Being only content with certain sums of $ instead of BBs is the first step to losing your bankroll. If you feel that you´re good enough to play successfully on a certain level and you can afford to play there despite not having the sufficient bankroll to do so, my advice would be to deposit funds into your Poker account before moving to that level. Especially if you´re the type of player who cashes out pretty often. Depositing one large sum and managing it correctly is definitely better than always playing at the lower end of your bankroll, steadily depositing small amounts of money and losing track about your expenses.

3)   I´m good enough to play on that level!

You are? One advantage of BM is that you have to steadily beat your competition at a certain level in order to move up. So when you move forward to the next level, you not only accumulated the funds to do so but also the confidence and the knowledge that you´re able to beat those guys on the level you played before. Steadily means to dominate your opponents over a longer period of time when you´re having average luck and not losing much when bad beat after bad beat seems to crush you. Steadily doesn´t mean that you´re leaving a table with winnings of 50 BB once in a while or that you managed to read a bluff or two! Poker is a game of swings; playing well with great cards doesn´t mean you´ve dominated your opposition. If you move up too quickly, you´ll come down to earth even faster when you experience a down-swing against tougher competition.

Again, if you think you´re good enough to play on the level of your choice, deposit the necessary amount before moving to that level! In your own best interest, if you are not willing to risk that much, this level is not for you!

4)   I´m looking forward to receiving my no deposit bonus in order to play on a level I usually can´t afford!

Another instant classic that always makes me laugh. Guys who make such a statement usually donk away the money quicker than they received it and if they somehow manage to collect some winnings, they lose them within a few weeks. In order to play successfully, you have to build up a bankroll; nobody has ever won something by donking away money. Again, if your bankroll isn´t large enough and you´re not willing to commit your own funds, the level you´re targeting is taboo!

5)   I don´t want to move down because I´m too good for that/I experienced the worst bad beats in history/I wasn´t myself, yada, yada, yada.

OK, first and foremost, this is not school where you´re throwing excuses at your teacher for not preparing your homework. This is about playing Poker the right way, protecting your bankroll and making sure you get money out of Poker instead of pumping money into it. Next, no one cares about the reasons behind your losses: I don´t care, your opponents don´t care and last but not least, your bankroll doesn´t care. If you fall below the respective thresholds you have to move down a level no matter what, otherwise you increase your risk of going bankrupt and losing all of your hard earned Poker funds!

As I mentioned before, when looking at your Poker success, you have to think in terms of buy-ins or big bets, not $! Moving down a level can be a relieve when you previously lost a huge chunk of your bankroll. Take your time, regroup and get your confidence back. Taking a long-term approach to Poker is your key to success!

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