Poker Bankroll Management: Essential Tips for Success

Poker Bankroll Management (BRM) is one of the fundamentals to be a successful poker player. It will help you to make sure you don’t lose the whole bankroll if things don’t always go well due to variance. Your Poker Bankroll is the money you’ve got available for playing poker. The Poker Bankroll must be separate from your other finances, so you can be sure that you always have enough money for your life, even if you lose.

Good Bankroll Management also means choosing the right stakes, so you can easily survive a bad run. You can choose to cash out a fixed amount every month, but your chances to lose your complete bankroll increases by doing so. Some also decide to invest a monthly amount in their poker bankroll. A proper BRM can help you fundamentally to improve your game and move up stakes.

Moving up stakes in Cash Games Let’s say you start with 100 Buy-ins (BI) playing Cash Games NLH €5/10. If you want to move up stakes you should have at least 200 BI before moving up to €10/20. That way you’ll have again 100 BI for the new stakes. This process can be very time-consuming. In case your win rate is high, you can take a shot at the next stakes level before reaching the 200 BI. A shot-taking can use, for example, 10-15 buy-ins. If that shot was successful, you can stay at the next stake level. If not, you stay at your current level until you’re ready to move up.