Basic Instruction on Poker Bankroll Management

The online poker bankroll represents the money that you put aside only for playing poker and must be made out of money that you can definitely afford to lose, even though the whole online poker idea is not to lose it. The whole idea of building up a higher bankroll can be used either to go up to the higher stakes or you can just remain to play at the same stakes and keep/cash out your winnings and use them for your personal needs.

In case you are planning to play poker just for fun, you shouldn’t worry too much about bankroll management. However in case you desire to become a better or professional online poker player and to start earning some income out of online poker, the bankroll management strategy that you are using is definitely very important.

Set aside the poker bankroll and use it only to play poker

One of the most important rules of bankroll management is that the money you have in your online poker account should only be used for poker. In order to get the best results out of your online poker play it’s always best to play with the money that you can afford to lose. It’s always best to stay away from playing with scared money. The statistics are showing that those players that play scared poker are never that successful. In case you would like to be part of the winning team at an online poker game you should always afford to take risk and play in an aggressive way from time to time. And the player that cannot afford to lose that sum of money will think twice before playing aggressively.

Keep the money for stuff like rent, food, mortgage away from your online poker bankroll; you should never risk the money that is important to live your life in normal conditions.

The best way to determine the stake level is by looking at your bankroll

Each and every time you start playing poker you should let your bankroll decide what the stake limit where you should be playing is. The concept behind this is that when you will get a big downswing in your game, the chances of ending up bankrupt will be very small. This means that the bankroll you will have can start at almost any amount that you have available and that you feel comfortable to play with. Thanks to the growing popularity of online poker, right now it’s very easy to find plenty of games even at the micro stakes, so that you can start playing poker even if the initial bankroll which you have available is small. And it’s going to be up to you to know how to make that bankroll grow.

Bankroll management for Ring Games

We suggest that in case you are planning to play at the ring games pot limit or no limit you should always get the maximum amount of money allowed. The only exception from this rule should be when the total amount of money that you have available in your bankroll does not support the total buy in amount at the low stakes games. In case you do not have that amount available you should move down to the stakes where you can afford to do that. Your online poker bankroll should be enough to support at least 20 max buy-ins at the tables.

In case you plan to go for a Limit ring game, we suggest that your bankroll is at equal to 300 Big Bets.

Sit and Go plus other Tournaments Bankroll Management

At a Sit and Go poker tournament, you should have at least a bankroll of 20 buy ins, in order to decide which game is the best for your current bankroll level.

Many professional online poker players are considering the Multi Table Tournaments to be a high risk investment. The statistics are showing that on average a good poker player is able to cash in just around 15-30% of the large tournaments. But the moment when this is happening the amount cashed in is usually large. In case you consider playing Multi Table Tournaments, you should make sure that you are going to do that on a long term, since the MTTs are usually profitable if played for a longer period of time.

In order to stay out of bankroll management problems we suggest that you have a bankroll which supports at least 50 buy ins of the tournaments that you are about to enter.

Poker Freeroll Tournaments

The poker freeroll tournaments are very popular at any online poker room. The reason why freerolls are so popular is because you can be part of an online poker tournament where you can win actual money prizes for free. In case you will want to enter the journey of building a bankroll from scratch one of the best way you can start doing that is by joining each and every freeroll tournament that you find. The odds of winning a freeroll tournament are a little bit lower compared to all the other poker tournaments out there, since some of them have up to 1K players. Even if the freeroll tournaments can be time consuming, let’s not forget the main advantage: you can play free poker!

Free Welcome Poker Bonuses

Each and every online poker website is attracting their players with a generous welcome bonus. The rate at which these bonuses are awarded starts from 20% and can go up to 200%. However in order to really get your hands on a welcome bonus you will have to start playing poker for real cash and pay a lot of rake. This means that in order to really enjoy some bonus money you must be a winning poker player, if not the bonus is going to be just a little boost for your online poker bankroll.

Going Up

During the life of an online poker player, after practicing the game a lot there will be a period when the bankroll will start to grow so much that he will realize that the amount can support playing at higher limits games. If you are one of the lucky ones to notice that GO FOR IT! Many online poker players are living with the misconception that by moving up to higher limits means also moving up to a higher skill level which makes winning impossible.You will notice that there is a difference at the higher stakes game play. The higher stakes have a higher amount of skilled players, while the lower stakes are usually filled with beginners.

The famous and popular poker player Chris Ferguson used in order to prove a certain bankroll management strategy works to play only freerolls, 1 dollar tournaments and 10 cent ring games. The stakes that he was playing were definitely not appropriate for his skill level; however he did managed to succeed well by utilizing the right bankroll management strategy.

However if you have reached a certain skill and stakes level, where you feel very comfortable playing and you do not intend to go any higher, you could definitely start to cash out the winnings and use them for whatever you want.

Going Down

When you will see a downswing in your game and your bankroll is going to take a major hit, it’s no rocket science that you have to move down to lower stakes so that you will can still feel comfortably in control of your online poker bankroll. At the beginning it might be difficult to move down to lower stakes and it might not motivate you to do it, but you must know it’s the right choice to do. After you take a hit you should do the best to avoid the tilt and one of the best ways to do it is by going to lower stakes.

Stick to these bankroll management strategies no matter what happens and you can be sure that you are playing a winning bankroll management strategy. After that you can watch over time that your online poker bankroll will start to grow.