Bankroll Management

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Good bankroll management is an essential part of winning at the game of poker.

In poker forums, many of the posted queries relate to bankroll management issues: “What kind of a bankroll do i need to play MTTs or a certain limit of Cash Games”, or “How can I assist my bankroll building efforts by bonus whoring and getting rakeback, in addition to playing?”.

Conventional wisdom is that winning players should be bankrolled as follows:

Cash Bankroll Management

Game	Standard	Example
Limit hold’em	300 big bets	$1800 at a $3/6 game
No-limit hold’em	20 maximum buy-ins	$2000 at a $100 max buy-in game in which you typically buy in for the maximum
Pot-limit Omaha	20-30 maximum buy-ins	$2000-3000 at a $100 max buy-in game in which you typically buy in for the maximum

The figures above assume no replenishment of resources if you go broke.

Multi-table tournament bankroll

One common benchmark is 100 buy-ins for multi-table tournaments (MTTs). Variance is a lot higher than in sit-and-gos, and the payout structures are massively weighted to the top of the payout ladder. It is not uncommon for a high-volume MTT player to go 20-40 games without a cash.

If you assume a 50% ROI on tournaments with a Standard Deviation of 5 buy-ins, the c*SD^2/WR formula with c set to 2 suggests a bankroll of 100 buy-ins. Keeping track of your ROI (using online databases such as OfficialPokerRankings, ThePokerDB or offline tools such as Poker Tracker) is important as you will see what kind of bankroll adjustments you need to make to ensure that you never go broke at a given level.

Rakeback

Rake is the money the poker room takes from each cash hand a player sees a flop on, or tournament juice (the added fee for entry to a sit and go or Multi-Table-Tournament). Rakeback is a rebate to the poker player of a %age of the rake taken by the poker room. A breakeven player can become massively profitable with a decent rakeback deal (say they rake $3000 in a month - they will get $900 back with a rakeback deal of 30%).

Bonus Whoring

Many sites offer a deposit bonus when you make your first deposit. If possible you should maximise the bonus by depositing whatever amount entitles you to the whole bonus. Unlocking the bonus is a simple matter of playing enough raked hands to unlock the bonus. Getting a Rakeback deal which works at the same time as clearance of the deposit bonus is a great way to go.

Taking shots

Taking shots is risky, but can be fun and very profitable. Taking a shot means playing above your usual stakes level, or playing above the level which your bankroll can sustain swings on. If a particular game is exceptionally soft, it is not uncommon for a player to move up stakes to play that particular game if they see themselves as having a big edge over the players on that particular table/game. If you are taking shots, be sure you can deposit to start a new roll again if you go busto, or be ready to move down a few levels to grind your bankroll back to a comfortable level for your usual stakes, if you do happen to lose when taking shots.