Bankroll Basics - The First Step To Being A Great Player

[James]

If you're a poker player then you will know by now that your bankroll is your poker life. If you have no bankroll you cant play poker! So lets look at a few ways to manage your bankroll so you will never be without it again!

Importance Of A Bankroll
Even if you're number one in the world at playing poker you need to have good bankroll management or you will go bust! Its not the poker gods punishing you, its variance and variance is FACT. If you want to start earning a decent amount playing poker, then follow the advice in this thread its step one of becoming a great player and a wsop champion.

The Chris Ferguson Method:
I read an article a while back written by Chris about his transformation of 1$ into 20k he used the following method to make sure he could handle his variance swings. He played cash games and made sure that he always had 20 buy ins. Now these were not full buy ins they were half buy ins. So if i have 20 dollars i have 20 one dollar buy ins, which would roll me for 1/2 cent cash. like wise if i had 100 i would have enough for 5/10cent. Then if he went down to 15 buy ins he would drop a level until he was up to 20 buy ins again and would take another shot at the higher level.

Now this method i used for a while - its a good method as long as you stick to it however you have to be prepared to move down two or three levels due to bad variance. This will push your bankroll to its furthest and most people would not recommend using it as it requires a lot of discipline.

Classic Tournament Bankroll Method
This method i have used for most of my MTT's and SNG's never play below this limit! Basically always have at least 30 buy ins to any tourny you enter. If your entering a rebuy however you want to have at least 6 x 30 buyins because obviously you will be double rebuying more and adding on! remember if you fall below 20 buy ins move down a tournament level!

This method will serve you well, iv use it since i started tournament poker and it has never steered me wrong

Classic NL Cash Bankroll Method
With NL cash games if your not happy with using the Ferguson method always keep around 2000 big blinds in your bankroll. This will never steer you wrong - thats right to be properly rolled for 1/2 cent you need 40 dollars :eek: . Now when your better and your playing smaller limits you can play at around 1500 - 2000 big blinds but as your start moving up to 25/50 + i would very much recommend you use this amount in your bank as we all know how you can drop a absurd amount of money. Please note that you will want more than 2000 for 6 max and heads up 2000 is generally recommended for full ring NL.

Classic Limit Bankroll Method
With limit poker you can have as little as 400 big blinds in you account because you will be risking less for each buy in. Please note i do not play limit poker so i am unaware how well this rule will work but i think it is a general consensus with a lot of good limit hold'em players that you will need this kind of bankroll to be able to escape variance!

Rebuy Bankroll
This i will come onto on later topics because there are tonnes of different strategies and therefore different bankrolls that you need to play them. Keep a look out!


- James

[AcesFull]

cheers for this man, il be on my third bankroll once i redeposite and i will be following these guidelines will keep you guys posted how well it goes

[PokerPirate]

I'm pretty terrible at bankrolling. I deposit to play a tournament and if i win it i'll withdraw a certain amount of money to keep it safe and locked away.

Ever since i spent T$430 over a weekend on MTTs i've decided to start bankrolling, thanks for the advice.

[PFTH]

i can tell you chris ferguson's method works but you have to have a lot of patience i like it