The Poker Bankroll

In poker you'll lose and you'll win. You will need a bankroll so that you can survive these swings. Losing 2-5 buy ins in a poker game is common and will happen often. You need to be ready for this and in order to with stand it, you need a bankroll.

The bare minimum rule for a poker player is you should have at least 20 buy ins for a cash game and 50-100 buy ins for tournaments. In poker, it is easy to lose 5 buy ins on a regular basis. Sometimes it may seem impossible to redeem from but if your a good player, you will.

Having a big bankroll is that the larger it is the smaller the swings will appear. They won't affect your mood and you'll be able to get through the downswings much easier. The more important rule of having a big bankroll is to not go broke. When your broke, you can't play and if you can't play you can't win. So making sure you have a big enough roll to withstand the swings, you'll be okay.

To show how much variance there is in poker here is an example of a real-life poker player. Ilari Sahamies loses and wins 1 million dollars on a regular basis. He plays majority on line against the toughest opponents. Considering the highest stakes he plays is $500/$1,000, losing one million isn't a lot (only 10 buy ins). To Ilario, if he didn't have a bankroll of at least 5 million, he'd be broke and have to start back at the penny tables. But since he has good bankroll management he is able to win and lose that kind of money.

Lets say you start playing poker and the table your sitting at is a $1/$2 game. A buy in would be $200 and good bankroll management would mean you'd need $4,000 to play. Having only $1,000 you'd probably go broke, even if you were the best player in the world.

Having a bankroll is the most important part of poker, make sure you use this 20x rule at your next game.