If you're poker player you will be aware by now that your bankroll is the poker bible. If you have no bankroll you cannot play poker! This article will offer you some valuable information about how to deal with your bankroll and the ways to never go broke!
Importance Of A Bankroll:
Even if you're the best poker player in the world, you'll want good bankroll management! Going bust isn't the poker gods punishing you, its variance and variance is FACT. If you would like to start earning a decent amount playing poker, then follow the advice in this thread. This is the 1st step to becoming a WSOP bracelet winner.
The Chris Ferguson Method:
I read articles some time back written by Chris about his transformation of $1 into $20,000. He used the following solution to ensure he could handle his variance swings. He played cash games generating sure that he always had 20 buyins. These were not full buyins they were half buyins. If you planned to play $0.01/$0.02 cash games, the max buyin is $2 and so you'd buyin for $1. This would mean that you would have to have $20 to get properly bankrolled for $0.01/$0.02. Likewise, should you have had 100 you then you are bankrolled for $0.05/$0.10. If you ever go BELOW 20 buyins you will need to decrease down to a quantity where you happen to be properly bankrolled.
This method may be tried and tested. It's a good method as long as you adhere to it. You must be ready to hit bad variance and move down an amount or two if you need to. Discipline is KEY for this bankroll method.
Classic Tournament Bankroll Method:
To be bankrolled properly for tournaments you should have always at least 30 entry fees towards the tournament you wish to enter.
Things change slightly with rebuy tournaments. Because of the nature of rebuy tournaments you'll be shoving or folding hands preflop during the rebuy period (please read my article on rebuy strategy). This get more info means you'll want at least 6 x 30 buyins because obviously you will end up double rebuying and adding on! Remember in the event you fall 5 or 10 you have to decrease the amount you would spend on entry fees. Again, the phrase used so commonly in poker - Discipline is KEY.
Classic NL Cash Bankroll Method:
An alternative for the Chris Ferguson Method there is the Classic NL (no limit) Method. The basic idea of this technique would be to keep a minimum of 2000 big blinds for the level you wish to play. That's right! to get properly rolled for $0.01/$0.02 you'll need a minimum of 40 dollars. If you're winning at the level you happen to be playing at and you also discover the players easier to beat, then you can definitely drop your bankroll threshold to 1500-2000 big blinds. As you begin to move up to $0.25/$0.50 and $0.50/$1.00 I would a lot recommend you stay with 2000 big blinds as variance has very damaging affect money wise. Please note that you'll want over 2000 big blinds for 6 max tables and manages.
Classic Limit Bankroll Method:
Limit poker is a WHOLE different ball game. You can have as low as 400 big blinds in your account because you may be risking less for every buy in along with the variance is smaller. In limit holdem it is almost always impossible to reduce your stack similarly coming from a cold deck, unlike NLHE.
NB. I do not play limit holdem and so I don't have any knowledge about this bankroll. The general consensus with players I have spoken to is that this will be the right bankroll you should target.