Bankroll Management - How much money do you need to play poker?

Introduction

In this article I will discuss with you the topic Bankroll Management (BRM). I will explain the importance of a suitable bankroll management and answer the questions about how much money you need to play poker and with which bankroll you can move up to the next higher limit or rather relegate.

Basic considerations

I would like to start with some basic considerations about what the bankroll actually is and why the importance of proper bankroll management should not be underestimated. If you think about what you really need to play poker, you can end this consideration with a single answer. You need a bankroll, that is money with or for which you can play. Consider your bankroll as an integral part of your equipment for the game. For football you need a jersey, shorts and shoes (you may also need a ball), for swimming you need a bikini, swimsuit or swimming trunks, for hammering you need a hammer and for poker you need the bankroll. You can’t do without it.

It follows that if you want to play the game for the long term, you need to nurture your bankroll, so be careful that it is always in good condition for your game. The easiest way to achieve this is to keep your bankroll reserved for the game, so you don’t use it for everyday expenses. After all, no one would think of putting on their football trainers at the office, or their bikini or swimming trunks to go shopping, or even using a hammer to pay at the checkout.

Experience shows that you are most likely to internalize this attitude if the amount of your bankroll is within your comfort zone, i.e. is really dispensable for you. Poker is a game of risk and the size of your bankroll is subject to fluctuations. Even if it’s real money, and therefore a sufficient amount of humility is appropriate, you can only show your best game if the loss of your bankroll is bearable and the next lost hand will not cause you any sleepless nights.

With this understanding, it can be deduced that you can use your bankroll in particular as an indicator of which limits are playable for you and which are not. In any case, the following always applies: The limits you can play should be in a reasonable relation to the size of your bankroll.

It is not only the size of your bankroll, but also your personal comfort zone that determines the size of the limits. If you feel uncomfortable with the amounts that are set on a limit, it is better to step down. It is infinitely better to win at a lower limit than to lose at a higher limit because of too much respect for the size of the pot.

And this brings me to the last but no less important point regarding the fundamental considerations about bankroll management. Moving up and down between limits is part of the game. If the conditions are met, i.e. if you beat your current limit, your bankroll is big enough and the bet amounts would be dispensable for you at the end of the day, then you can dare to move up. However, if you find that your opponent is too strong, your bankroll is no longer adequate for a meaningful game, or the size of the stakes exceeds your personal comfort zone, feel free to relegate. Have I told you that it is infinitely better to win at a lower limit than to lose at a higher limit? Keep it in mind!

Three types of bankroll management

In the following I will introduce you to possible approaches to bankroll management in practice. As you can probably guess by now, these vary greatly – depending on the game and opponent, but also on limits, personal ambition and personal comfort zone.

Hobby BRM

In leisure-oriented games, many players have found it useful to choose 25 buy-ins as the threshold for advancing or relegating from limit to limit.
Leisure-oriented means especially playing for pennies with friends, or live in the casino, the smallest limits offered (such as NL100 or NL200). However, in the casino, many players find their personal comfort hard to handle, as 25 buy-ins on NL100 already mean 2500€ and on NL200 even 5000€.
More pleasant in terms of comfort zone, but with on average somewhat stronger opponents, is the online leisure-oriented games, i.e. the games from NL1 to NL10, which require bankrolls from only 25€ up to 250€.

If you beat these limits with a very good 10bb on 100 hands, you’d need 25k hands to move up to the next limit if it’s twice as high. For example from NL 5 to NL 10. If the next higher limit is 2.5 times that, the number of hands needed would increase to 37500.
If you beat the limit with still a very good 5bb on 100 hands, you would need 50000 and 75000 hands respectively, and at a win rate of 2bb on 100 hands, you would need 125000 hands or 187500 hands respectively.

Advanced BRM

In advanced games, a more conservative bankroll management has proven best for many players, e.g. with a threshold of 50 buy-ins of the respective limit. Live in the casino this is often the case at the NL500 or NL1000 tables for which you would need a bankroll of €25000 or €50000. Online the limits are smaller, but the opposition is stronger. Accordingly, many advanced players use the 50 buy-in rule on the NL20 and NL50 limits, which would correspond to bankrolls of at least 1000€ and 2500€ respectively.

Because of the higher threshold, players will also stay at the limits for a correspondingly longer time. I.e. at a win rate of 10bb per 100 hands between 50000 and 75000 hands, a win rate of 5bb per 100 hands between 100000 and 150000 hands, and a win rate of 2bb per 100 hands between 250000 and 375000 hands. If you manage to beat these limits online at 10bb per 100 hands, you’ll be a very good player and, at around 1000 hands a day, you’ll need between two and three months to move up.

Experts BRM

In expert and professional games you will meet tough opposition on a regular basis. As a result, many players have found that an even more conservative bankroll management of at least 100 buy-ins of the respective limit has proven successful.

Live in the casino you can find these games from about NL2000 and online on the limits NL100 and higher. While you should plan a bankroll of at least 200000 Euros for these games live in the casino, the bankrolls reach considerable heights of at least 10000 Euros even on the smaller expert games online.

Compared to the “Advanced BRM”, the minimum time periods on the limits are doubled with the same win rate. However, since players at expert and professional level often live off the game and let money flow out of their bankroll, significantly longer time periods can be observed.

Summary and prospects

In this article you learned about the importance of bankroll management and now you know how much money you actually need to play poker. Not surprisingly, the amount varied depending on the level of your target limit, your personal ambition and your comfort zone. You’ve also learned that the bankroll is ultimately the most important accessory in your poker equipment. Accordingly, you should look at it separately from your other assets and the amount in your bankroll should be dispensable. Then the bankroll is an excellent indicator of the level of playable limits.

Finally, when talking about bankroll management, please never forget: It is much more fun to win on a smaller limit than to lose on a larger limit, for whatever reason.