Poker Bankroll Management
Poker is an exciting game that definitely gets your adrenaline going. It’s all about making strategic moves, playing the right hands, defeating your opponents, and taking home a big pot of cash. And while the excitement of the game gives most players a huge rush, it’s also important to have a calm and collected demeanour, especially when it comes to managing your bankroll. Poker bankroll management can make or break your game, and it’s one of the most fundamental aspects of the game to keep in mind when you’re at the poker table.
If you’re a new player, or aren’t familiar with poker games, then you might be wondering what a poker bankroll is. If that’s the case then don’t worry, we’ll explain everything you need to know about poker bankroll management.
We all know that not only is poker a game about cards, but it also involves betting and managing your money. You need to know when to bet and how much you can afford to bet out of your bankroll with the cards you have. You don’t want to be in a situation where you run out of your money in the thick of the game and have to bow out even when you have decent cards. For these purposes, it is always better to know some tips and tricks that’ll help you manage your bankroll. We’ll give you some important tips that will definitely help you improve poker bankroll.
Poker Bankroll Guide
1) Think of your poker bankroll as an investment:
Whenever you’re investing in something, be it stocks or other securities, you always need a certain amount of money. This money is your investment amount and has to be carefully considered. Similarly, when you’re playing poker, the money you set aside to place bets and for buy-ins, is also a kind of investment. You need to carefully plan things out about when it comes to this amount. One important strategy is to keep a fixed amount, which will become your bankroll. Set boundaries for yourself that you won’t use more or less than the decided amount. If you think that you can just keep reloading that amount, then you’ll be in trouble. You won’t learn any discipline, nor will you hone the craft of actually building a bankroll. This is also useful because with the limited amount, any decision you take, or any move you make, will be more valuable. Thus, when you place a bet and make any moves, you will be more careful and aware, rather than reckless.
2) Choose the games carefully:
Initially, it is better to be careful when you select games. It can be tempting to try your hand and luck at the several kinds of game on offer, but when you’re placing bets, it is often better to stick it out in one game. The reason is, that all that practice will make you better in that game, and the chances of you building your bankroll will increase. Instead, when you hop around between different games, you won’t end up learning any game well enough to become a profitable player. When you don’t have the right amount of knowledge or the upper hand, it can be a risk to play games with your own money. Plus, it is always better to go for games with lower rakes, and reduced stakes, so you won’t have to put up a lot of your investment and can play without much risk attached. For this purpose, it is better to play low to mid stakes games and get some experience before moving on to higher stakes games.
3) Always play within your bankroll:
In poker, sometimes your emotions get the better of your judgement, and that can be dangerous, especially with your bankroll. When you’re doing really well in a game or are on a winning streak, it can be tempting to try your luck at a higher stakes game and see if you can make it big there, as well. Similarly, when you aren’t doing well at all, and have a string of bad games behind you, you feel like you’ve got nothing to lose and want to take a shot at a bigger game. The one thing that could go wrong when you play like this is that your bankroll will start to diminish, and you’ll soon run out of money. Thus, it is important that you don’t play beyond your bankroll, and limit your gameplay to the set amount.
However, there are times when you can move on to higher stakes games in a healthy fashion. Now how are you to determine when it is time for you to step it up? Well, we’ve got the indicators that can guide you towards a bigger game. They are as follows:
- It largely depends on the games you’re playing. For example, if you’re plating multi-table tournaments, then the variance in such games is quite high. This means that winning a few games does not ensure that you are ready to move to a bigger game.
- The other factor to consider is the type of variance that comes with your chosen game. When you’re playing games with high variance, as mentioned above, you need to have played many games and have many buy-ins under your belt before you can move up.
It is also important to remember to move to lower stakes games when you’re in a downswing to avoid huge losses and protect your bankroll.
To make your life easier, and do a lot of the work for you, there are several apps and websites that can help you with poker bankroll management, or at least give you the tools for the same. They are as follows:
- Websites and Online Services:
There are various online services and sites that will calculate and present all kinds of data related to your poker bankroll. They will analyse the results and show it via easily understandable charts and even track your bankroll to help you understand where it is going. Some of these services are Poker Dominator, Poker Charts, PokerTracker 4, and much more.
- Spreadsheets:
If you’re wary of using any of these services or want a more do-it-yourself approach, then you can make your own spreadsheets. You can input your own data and oversee all the numbers. If you’re not sure how to build one for poker bankrolls, then there are several helpful guides available online for that purpose only.
These tools will guide you along and help you, but a bulk of the work will still have to be done by you, especially when it comes to following the advice given through these apps and sites.
As we conclude, it is important to keep in mind that anybody can build their bankrolls. You just have to keep the points mentioned in mind and be mindful of where and how you spend your money. Inculcating a sense of discipline, and often playing to get more experience, can be the best tools towards a good bankroll.
Now that you’ve got all the information about poker bankroll management, it is time for you to get playing. Join us at Spartan Poker and play poker online!
