Bankroll Management

Once you've chosen the type of poker you want to play, you need to decide how expensive or cheap a table you are ready to sit down at. And contrary to what most people seem to think, this decision has very little to do with how good a poker player you are.
The deciding factor really is how much money you have in your account at the poker site – also referred to as your "bankroll".

The most important thing to avoid is sitting down at a table where the blinds are too high compared to your bankroll. This is vital for a couple of reasons:

First of all, poker is a game where luck isn't always distributed evenly. This means that even if you play the game flawlessly, you will from time to time see your winning hand destroyed by an opponent catching "miracle cards". And when this happens you're bound to lose a big chunk of your chips.
If you for an example are seated at a table with your entire bankroll in front of you, all it takes is a few unlucky hands to wipe out your account.
This, obviously, is no good.

Secondly, there is an unfortunate psychological effect influencing your game, when you are seated with your entire bankroll – or just to big a part of it – on the line:
You simply get scared of losing. And in poker, being scared of losing almost always drives you to play your hands way too passively.
You'll start folding too many hands, because calling costs too much compared to your stack, and you'll tend to just call with premium hands instead of raising like you should. The effect of playing scared is that you'll most likely see your stack slowly dwindle away.

So respect your bankroll!

If you have any intention of turning a profit from poker, you need to pay close attention to how you manage your bankroll.
The point is to slowly build your bankroll AND sharpen your skills at the same time. Never ever put yourself in a situation where you run the risk of losing your entire bankroll.

The way to do this is to always choose games where you can sit comfortably at a table with only a fraction of your bankroll at stake.
There is no ultimate answer to how big a part of your bankroll, you should be willing to risk at one table, but a solid rule of thumb is that you should never buy-in for more than a fourth of your account.

The size of the maximum buy-in at a given table depends on the table limit. There are slightly different rules for Fixed Limit, Pot Limit and No Limit, but focusing on the most popular game, No Limit Texas Hold'em, there is a maximum buy-in at a table of 100 big blinds.

This means, that if you for instance want to sit down at a No Limit Texas Hold'em table with a big blind the size of $0.20, you can bring no more than $20 to the table when first sitting down. And as there is rarely a reason to bring less than the maximum buy-in to a cash game table, you should only sit down at such a table if you have at least $80 in your account.
Should you lose some of the initial $20, you can always bring more money to the table. But keep an eye on your bankroll – and be prepared to switch tables if you lose too big a part of your bankroll.


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