The Ultimate Guide to Poker Bankroll Management

This may be the most important poker lesson you ever learn. It has nothing to do with bluffing, pot odds, or starting hands—but without it, no amount of skill can save you. Welcome to the professional’s guide to Bankroll Management.

Countless skilled poker players go broke every year. It’s not because they suddenly forgot how to play; it’s because they failed to respect the single most critical element of a successful poker career: proper financial discipline.

What is a Poker Bankroll (And Why It’s Your Most Important Tool)

A poker bankroll is a sum of money dedicated exclusively to playing poker. It is not your rent money, your grocery budget, or your savings account. It is a separate, fire-walled fund that you must be emotionally prepared to lose without it affecting your daily life.

Its primary purpose is to act as a financial shield against variance. Variance is the natural and unavoidable statistical fluctuation in poker. Even if you are a big winning player, you will experience losing streaks—sometimes long ones. Your bankroll ensures you can survive these downswings and stay in the game long enough for your skill edge to realize its profit.

Without a proper bankroll, you are not truly playing poker; you are simply gambling.

The Golden Rules: How Many Buy-ins Do You Need?

The core of bankroll management is never risking too much of your total roll in a single session. This is managed using a “buy-in” system. A buy-in is the amount of money you take to the table for a single game.

For No-Limit Hold’em Cash Games

Cash games have lower variance than tournaments, but discipline is still key.

The Rule: A conservative bankroll should have at least 30-50 buy-ins for the stake you are playing. A more aggressive but acceptable minimum is 20 buy-ins.

Example: You want to play $1/$2 No-Limit Hold’em, where a standard buy-in is $200 (100 big blinds).

• Aggressive Bankroll (20 buy-ins): 20 x $200 = $4,000
• Conservative Bankroll (40 buy-ins): 40 x $200 = $8,000

This means if you only have a $1,000 bankroll, the $1/$2 game is too big for you. You should be playing a lower stake, such as $0.25/$0.50.

For Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs)

Tournaments have extremely high variance. You can play dozens of tournaments without a single significant cash. Therefore, the bankroll requirements are much stricter.

The Rule: A standard bankroll for MTTs is 100 buy-ins. Some professional players even recommend 200-300.

Example: You want to regularly play a $22 tournament.

• Standard Bankroll (100 buy-ins): 100 x $22 = $2,200

This rule prevents you from going broke after a string of bad luck where you don’t make it into the money.

Managing Your Career: Moving Up and Down Stakes

A bankroll is not static. Your goal is to grow it and move up to bigger games. But you must also be disciplined enough to move down when variance hits.

Taking Shots: When to Move Up

Moving up in stakes is exciting, but it should be done methodically. This is often called “taking a shot.”

The Rule: Once your bankroll grows to have 30-40 buy-ins for the *next* level up, you can allocate a few buy-ins to take a shot. If you lose those buy-ins (e.g., 3-5 of them), you must move back down immediately and rebuild.

Protecting Your Roll: The Crucial Art of Moving Down

This is the hardest rule for many players to follow due to ego, but it is the one that will save you from going broke.

The Rule: If your bankroll drops to the minimum threshold for your current stake (e.g., 20 buy-ins for cash games or 80 buy-ins for tournaments), you must move down to the previous stake. No exceptions.

Moving down is not a sign of failure; it is the ultimate sign of a disciplined professional who understands risk management.

Essential Bankroll Habits

• Keep Detailed Records: Track every session. Know your win rate, your total profit/loss, and how many buy-ins you have at all times. You cannot manage what you do not measure.
• Separate Your Funds: Keep your poker bankroll in a separate account from your personal life finances. This removes the temptation to spend it and protects your life from your poker swings.
• Never Play with “Scared Money”: If losing the money on the table will negatively impact your life, you are playing with scared money. This leads to fearful, suboptimal decisions. Proper bankroll management ensures this never happens.
• Leave a Losing Session: Your bankroll rules should include a “stop-loss” for a single session (e.g., losing 3 buy-ins). This prevents you from going on tilt and losing your entire roll in one bad night.