If you might be a poker player you will be aware at this point that your bankroll is your poker bible. If you have no bankroll you can't play poker! This article will present you with some valuable information about how to manage your bankroll and ways to never fail financially!
Importance Of A Bankroll:
Even if you're the very best poker player on the planet, you must have good bankroll management! Going bust isn't the poker gods punishing you, its variance and variance is FACT. If you need to start earning a decent amount playing poker, then stick to the advice in this thread. This is step one to learning to be a WSOP bracelet winner.
The Chris Ferguson Method:
I read a piece of writing quite some time back authored by Chris about his transformation of $1 into $20,000. He used these strategy to make certain he could handle his variance swings. He played cash games and made sure that he always had 20 buyins. These were not full buyins these folks were half buyins. If you wished to play $0.01/$0.02 cash games, the max buyin is $2 and thus you'll buyin for $1. This would mean that you would have to have $20 to get properly bankrolled for $0.01/$0.02. Likewise, if you have 100 after this you you're bankrolled for $0.05/$0.10. If you ever go BELOW 20 buyins then you need dropping as a result of an amount where you are properly bankrolled.
This method has become thoroughly tested. It's a good method so long as you stick to it. You must expect you'll hit bad variance and move down a level or two if you need to. Discipline is KEY for this bankroll method.
Classic Tournament Bankroll Method:
To be bankrolled properly for tournaments you must always have no less than 30 entry fees to the tournament you wish to enter.
Things change slightly with rebuy tournaments. Because of the nature of rebuy tournaments you will end up shoving or folding hands preflop throughout the rebuy period (please read my article on rebuy strategy). This means you need to have no less than 6 x 30 buyins because obviously you'll be double rebuying and adding on! Remember in case you fall 5 or 10 you should decrease the amount you spend on entry fees. Again, the idea of used so commonly in poker - Discipline is KEY.
Classic NL Cash Bankroll Method:
An alternative towards the Chris Ferguson Method there is a Classic NL (no limit) Method. The basic concept of using this method would be to keep at the very least 2000 big blinds for your level you wish to play. That's right! to become properly rolled for $0.01/$0.02 you will need at least 40 dollars. If you're winning on the level you are playing at and you also find the players much easier to beat, then you can drop your bankroll threshold to 1500-2000 big blinds. As you begin to progress to $0.25/$0.50 and $0.50/$1.00 I would a lot recommend you stick to 2000 big blinds as variance has very damaging affect money wise. Please note that you'll want greater than 2000 big blinds for 6 max tables and oversees.
Classic Limit Bankroll Method:
Limit poker is a WHOLE different ball game. You can have less than 400 big blinds within your account because you may be risking less for each buy in as well as the variance is smaller. In limit holdem in most cases impossible to lose your stack on one hand from your cold deck, unlike NLHE.
NB. I do not play limit holdem and so I have zero knowledge about this bankroll. The general read more consensus with players I have spoken to is niagra is the right bankroll you ought to shoot for.