Online Poker tips: Bankroll management

One of the most important fundamentals of successful online poker is managing and setting your poker bankroll (the money you allocate to play with).

Whatever your bankroll - it needs to be treated with respect. Being realistic about your poker bankroll and Playing within your limits is the key. Put simply it doesn't matter how much you could ultimately win if you don't have enough money to get there.

Too many players start off with too little bankroll for even the low limit games and then after a couple of wins, move up a level and then get themselves into trouble.

There are many guides to calculating how much is enough for what limits -

Suggestions range between 20-50 times the max buy-in in a cash game / tournament entry, or 200-400 times the big blind. Even at the lower range of these figures this is generally a far bigger bankroll than new players think necessary.

Ben Roberts (pro Poker Player) suggests “it may be worth playing in Limit games in order to build and not lose cash in a more controlled way. This is may also be a good strategy if you are hunting poker bonuses and just trying to clear deposit bonuses with minimal bankroll.

Looking back at the broad range generally recommended here are the kind of bankroll figures they suggest for No Limit games -

With 20-50 times the $25 max buy-in buy-in a for 0.25 NL cash game it would mean a $500 - $1250 bankroll.

$5+50 SnG tournaments need a $110 - $275 bankroll.”


The important issue here is that playing in too higher limit game for your bankroll will seriously affect the way you play. If you are constantly worrying about it being your last tournie or not calling a hand because it’s the last drop of cash you have - you will not make the right choices based on the game alone.

LTD POKER is the fastest growing online poker community featuring news, player profiles and Top Rated Poker Rooms. For competitive Free Bankrolls to sites such as Betfair, PokerStars and GalaPoker register an account today!