Poker Bankroll Management

Poker bankroll management is something that all online poker players should give some serious thought to, because your ability to manage your bankroll has a big impact on whether you make money or lose money over the long term. Here’s a crash course in poker bankroll management that will put you on the right track...

Keep It Separate
Your poker bankroll should be kept completely separate from the rest of your money. This includes money that you use to bet in other ways, such as on sports or at online casinos. Naturally, your poker bankroll should only consist of money that you can afford to lose if the worst happens.

Divide By Twenty
The golden rule at the core of our poker bankroll management plan is to divide your bank by twenty before deciding whether or not you can afford to buy-in to a particular game. If you can’t buy-in with 5% or less of your bankroll, you shouldn’t play. For example, if your bankroll is £300 you shouldn’t ever spend more than £15 on a single game. This rule ensures that the cost of your games is directly related to the size of your bankroll, and prevents you from playing beyond your means.

Quit When Double
If you sit down to play a cash game, you should quit as soon as you double the amount of chips that you brought to the table. For example, if you sat down at a table with £10 worth of chips and a series of winning hands causes this to grow to £23, you would quit playing because this is more than double your original stack size. This rule requires a lot of self-discipline, because some players think that they can “milk” losing players ad infinitum, but this is rarely the case, and quitting when you have doubled your starting stack is a much wiser habit to get into.

The three principles of poker bank management that we have introduced here are not complicated or difficult to understand, but they could seriously transform your online poker performance. Not only do they allow you to play more expensive games as your bankroll grows, they demand that you climb back down the ladder if you happen to hit a losing spell.