Bankroll Management in Practice

Thus, if you sit down with $50 and work your stack up to $100 you should leave the table and either quit or find another table. This procedure will certainly help limit your losses and increase you bankroll at a rapid pace.

For tournaments you should look to invest no more than 2-3% of your total bankroll in any one tournament. So if your bankroll is $100 the biggest tournaments you should play are $2.

Knowing these baseline figures is one thing but knowing when to move up or down levels is also very important. One golden rule you need to remember is that your bankroll should dictate the level you play at.

Just because you have $1000 and are beating everyone in sight it doesn’t mean you should jump into a $100NL game because a few bad beats and your back to square one.

For players who are looking to move up levels as quickly as possible then taking a “shot” at the next level is something you should do when you have around 30-35 buy-ins at your current level.

Set aside a couple of buy-ins for the next level and use them to test out the waters both in terms of skill and profitability. If you run well then you can help boost your bankroll and reach the next level faster and if it doesn’t then you haven’t ruined you bankroll and you can continue to grind at your current level.

Whilst moving up is nice moving back down isn’t so appealing and for many the prospect of playing $25NL instead of $50NL is like bungee jumping down the Grand Canyon without an elastic cord. As tough as it might be, the ability to move down is essential and something you need to come to terms with if you are going to practice proper bankroll management.

Now this doesn’t mean that as soon as you go a few dollars below 20 buy-ins you should move down but it does mean that when you reach a certain figure (around 18 buy-ins) you should step down and tough it out until you get your 20 buy-ins back.

In the cold light of day having discipline and practicing good bankroll management is easy but in the heat of battle, when you’ve just take your third bad beat of the day, it is easy for this virtue to go out of the window.

On days when nothing is going right and you are considering tearing up the rule book on bankroll management it is probably best to stop and play another day. Never ever chase your losses at the higher limits because once the dust has settled and you’ve calmed down you’ll realise what a fool you were.

Knowing how to manage your money won’t make you a wining player but it something you must master if you want to become one.