If you might be a poker player you will know at this point your bankroll is your poker bible. If you have zero bankroll you can not play poker! This article will present you with some valuable information about how to manage your bankroll and ways to never go broke!
Importance Of A Bankroll:
Even if you are the top poker player in the world, you'll want good bankroll management! Going bust is not the poker gods punishing you, its variance and variance is FACT. If you want to start earning a decent amount playing poker, then keep to the advice in this thread. This is the first step to transforming into a WSOP bracelet winner.
The Chris Ferguson Method:
I read an article some time back authored by Chris about his transformation of $1 into $20,000. He used these solution to be sure he could handle his variance swings. He played cash games making it sure that he always had 20 buyins. These were not full buyins they were half buyins. If you wished to play $0.01/$0.02 cash games, the max buyin is $2 and so you'll buyin for $1. This would imply you'd probably have to have $20 to be properly bankrolled for $0.01/$0.02. Likewise, if you had 100 then you definately you happen to be bankrolled for $0.05/$0.10. If you ever go BELOW 20 buyins you will want dropping into a quantity where you are properly bankrolled.
This method has been proven. It's a good method so long as you adhere to it. You must expect you'll hit bad variance and move down a quantity or two if you wish to. Discipline is KEY for this bankroll method.
Classic Tournament Bankroll Method:
To be bankrolled properly for tournaments you need to will have a minimum of 30 entry fees towards the tournament you want to enter.
Things change slightly with rebuy tournaments. Because of the nature of rebuy tournaments you will be shoving or folding hands preflop in the rebuy period (please read my article on rebuy strategy). This means you need to have no less here than 6 x 30 buyins because obviously you will end up double rebuying and adding on! Remember should you fall 5 or 10 you'll want to reduce the amount you spend on entry fees. Again, the phrase used so commonly in poker - Discipline is KEY.
Classic NL Cash Bankroll Method:
An alternative on the Chris Ferguson Method there is a Classic NL (no limit) Method. The basic idea of this method would be to keep at the very least 2000 big blinds to the level you need to play. That's right! to be properly rolled for $0.01/$0.02 you may need a minimum of 40 dollars. If you're winning on the level you are playing at and you also discover the players better to beat, then you can definitely drop your bankroll threshold to 1500-2000 big blinds. As you begin to progress up to $0.25/$0.50 and $0.50/$1.00 I would greatly recommend you adhere to 2000 big blinds as variance has very damaging affect money wise. Please note that you will want greater than 2000 big blinds for 6 max tables and manages.
Classic Limit Bankroll Method:
Limit poker is a WHOLE different ball game. You can have as low as 400 big blinds inside your account because you may be risking less for each buy in along with the variance is smaller. In limit holdem it is usually impossible to shed your stack on one hand coming from a cold deck, unlike NLHE.
NB. I do not play limit holdem and so I don't have any exposure to this bankroll. The general consensus with players I have spoken to is that this will be the right bankroll you should strive for.