Building A Poker Bankroll

Introduction to Building your Poker Bankroll

The sad fact is that 90% of online poker players lose money in the long run. This is due to several things, primarily the rake. But as a poker player, there is nothing you can do about the rake, it will always be there. You need to focus on the things that you can control. New poker players often make errors in how they ration their bankroll. I certainly did when I began playing.

I remember a while back when I began playing poker online, I only had a $200 bankroll to begin with. If I lost it, I decided that I would not give poker a shot again for a year. I had worked my bankroll up to around $390 after a week of playing low stakes sit and go tournaments, and I decided to play some 2-4 limit Hold-em. I figured the amount of money I had was sufficient to play at these stakes. After dropping $100 in an hour, I was thinking differently.

For limit Hold-em, a sufficient poker bankroll is at least 300 Big Bets. (A Big Bet is the amount of money wagered on fourth and fifth street when the betting limits double. So for 2-4 Hold-em, you should have a MINIMUM bankroll of $1200.) After having some of the experiences that I have had, I would advocate actually have 500 Big Bets at your disposal so you never have to worry during your bad days.

I was lucky enough to quit playing the 2-4 limit and return to my low stakes Sit and Go Tournaments before any serious harm was done, but many people are not this lucky. I was talking to my friend the other day who attends Colorado University. He was venting about how he could not win consistently playing 1-2 limit on Party Poker . When I asked him what his bankroll was, he told me it was $200. I told him what I will tell anyone who is under funded to play at the limits they are playing at; you need to find a way to build your bankroll before you play there. Obviously this is easier said than done, so let’s go over how a poker bankroll should be built.

If your starting Bankroll is:

$200 or less

You should really be playing stakes around $.5-1.00 limit or playing $5 Sit and Go Tournaments (SNG's). Beware that some $5 SNG's have an absurd $1 entry fee, which equates to a 20% rake. This is why I like beginning player to have enough money to play $10 SNG's, which in my opinion requires a bankroll of around $400. You should never open an online account with less than $150. With less than that, you don’t have a sufficient amount to encounter some bad beats and have enough money to avoid going bust.

$500-900:

Now you have a healthy starting bankroll. Consider playing some $.5-1.00 games to feel out the competition. If you don’t have any problems there, as soon as you have $1000 in your bankroll, go ahead and move up toe $1-2 limit, the competition will not really be much better. $10 SNG's are also a good option for getting some experience without risking the bankroll and making some gradual, consistent money.

$1000 or more:

Congratulations! You have a healthy starting bankroll. You should experiment with $.5-1.00 or $10 SNG's for the first week or so just to feel the competition out. If you feel confident, go ahead and jump up to the $1-2 Limit or the $20 SNG's.

***If you are a no-limit player who would rather play cash games than SNG's, here are my suggested guidelines. You should buy into a game with around 100 times the big blind. Your bankroll should consist of at least 20 buy-ins of 100 big blinds. So if you want to play $.10-.25 No-Limit your bankroll should be around $500.***

Final Poker Advice

These guidelines are pretty conservative. However you will learn quickly that is always better to be conservative when dealing with your bankroll, because once it is lost it's gone forever. I have only made 1 deposit at Party Poker and I never intend to have to make another one. Remember to always be patient; Rome wasn’t built in a day. When I started playing online poker, I was thrilled to grind out $10/ hour, which was what I was pulling down bussing tables at my job. I had some frustrating experiences, but within 5 months I was making over $100/ hour playing online poker. (Needless to say I left my job) That is a good amount of money for anyone, let alone someone who has yet to finish college. Don’t expect things to develop over night, because then you will be setting yourself up to fail. However if you are patient and build your bankroll consistently, it will allow you to gradually move of up in stakes and increase your earnings just as I did. Remember that almost nobody wins huge amounts of money when they begin playing. Poker guru Howard Lederer admits it actually took him two years to beat the low limit games before he could move up.

The best advice I can ever give you is don't over extend yourself. Play well, and when you have more than enough to move up, move up. By playing only games that are within your limits, you give yourself a much better chance of being a winning poker player. Next week I will look into strategies that will make you a consistent winner at low stakes Sit and Go Tournaments.