Poker Cash Games: Learning How to Manage Your Bankroll

Cash Games, Bankroll
August 3 2008

If you’ve decided to play cash games you need to consider how to manage your money. Just jumping into any game you can is not the way to build a bankroll. Every player has a win/loss variance, and proper bankroll management will protect you against the losing streaks so you won’t go broke. When you’re playing cash games, your bankroll fluctuations can be violent, so playing in a game well below your bankroll is the way to go.

You should always have 300 times the big bet of any Limit Holdem game in which you play. If you’re online it’s probably better to have 500 times the big bet. Play tends to be looser online, making your win/loss variance wider than the average cash game. If you’re playing a No Limit cash game you should have at least 40 times the max buy-in of that game.

The next thing to do is what most players have difficulty accepting. If you start in a game and lose for awhile, you have to jump down in the stakes of the game you’re playing. If you lose 25 percent of your bankroll in a game, you should leave that game and adjust to a table that fits into the 500 times the big bet equation, or 40 times the buy-in.

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