If you want to keep playing cash games in poker you've got to keep your bankroll healthy. We've highlighted for you the best ways to ensure that your bankroll survives and thrives by helping you to understand what affects your bankroll, how to determine variance for better bankroll management and more.

You can also learn ways to build your bankroll for little to no cost here: Build a Poker Bankroll for Next to Nothing

            This point in connection with keeping your bankroll healthy is an obvious one, but a point players still ignore nonetheless.  If you don’t know how to play poker you might get lucky a few hands, but you’re certain to lose your bankroll before long.  There’s a wealth of information online for learning the rules and strategies to every poker game out there. 

You also have the opportunity at literally any poker room to take part in play money games.  These free games give players a chance to try out the different types of game and stakes as well as giving you a chance to work on the playing that works best for you and you’re most comfortable with.

            Before entering a game you should know how the poker room rakes the games.  The rake is a portion of the pot each game that goes to the poker room for hosting the play.  The rake is going to affect how much you actually take from the pot winnings so it’s something you have to consider when determining the bankroll you need to play with.  Rake varies from establishment to establishment but the industry standard is 5% of the pot up to $3.

To determine the actual amount of wins you need to support your bankroll while playing certain poker tournaments or ring games you must factor in rake because it will reduce the pot equity and winnings.  The other players will factor into this when you’re considering rake.  This is because only one person will take the pot and ultimately pay the rake but everyone will be feeding into the pot and thus increasing the amount raked. Loose players especially will feed the pot and the rake but rarely win and pay the rake themselves. 

            Like the rake, variance is another factor that affects your bankroll, however you won’t know what it is until after you’ve played a bit.  Your variance is the difference in the upswings and downswings of your bankroll.  For a good player the variance won’t be very high because they’re bankroll should be staying fairly constant as they win. 

However, every player is subject to the luck of the cards so there’s likely to be some sort of movement in your variance.  Variance can be short-term, different from your average, long-term results.  This means you must determine the bankroll you need to support that variance in wins in order to skirt busting out before you have a chance to start taking the pot.

The stakes of the game and number of hands you play within those stakes is going to determine your bankroll needs.  To survive a bad streak early on in the game you need your stack to be able to last enough hands for variance to take over and give you a few wins.  That means you need to have a good idea of how many hands you win on average which is called your win rate. 

This is the single greatest factor in variance.  Knowing the percentage of hands you win when you stay in the game is going to make the variance easier to predict when you sit down at a table and thus the size of the bankroll you’re going to need as well. 

Another factor goes along with knowing the number of hands you need to play and that is the stakes of the game, how much it will cost you to play each hand.  Once you know the number of hands you need to play to safely manage variance multiply that number by the big bet limit.  This calculation will be the bankroll you need to play this game at these stakes. 

Now you can go with the bare minimum that you think you need or you can add a little more to your bankroll as a safety net depending on the risk you want to take.  Let’s say you’re a conservative player at a $1/$2 game you’ll probably want enough for approx 200 bets, or a bankroll of $400 in the beginning.  Conversely if you’re a less conservative player in these stakes you might only start with enough for 100 bets, or a bankroll of $200.  Regardless of whether you’re a risk taker the bankroll need to be able to support a losing streak.

            If you do suffer a losing streak its imperative that you keep your mental game in tact.  Your mental game factors into everything else because if you let it slip you’re likely to just lose more games.  Even the pros are roughed up by how the cards fall at times, but they know not to let their emotions cloud their judgment.  If you allow yourself to play on tilt your bankroll will suffer the consequences.

In addition, your regular playing style has an affect on your bankroll.  Tighter, more conservative players tend to have less variance compared to the looser, more aggressive style of player who wins big and loses big.  It translates into bigger swings in your variance.  Of course if your variance is greater your bankroll has to be as well in case a big loss comes before a big win.

 

            Just as your playing style affects your wins and losses so will the playing style of other players.  It’s inescapable that you are going to affect each other at the table, and if you’re up against players that are loose and aggressive you can expect that your variance is going to go up slightly as you adjust to their game.  However, your win rate should as well to balance things out.

How many players you’re up against is also going to have an affect your bankroll management.  During tournaments the more players there are the lower your odds will be of getting to a money position and should be kept in mind when you determine if the buy-in is worth the odds of what you’ll likely win.  This will also be the time to study how the payout structure and rebuys factor into whether you have a bankroll that will support playing in the tournament and whether the prize pool is large enough to better your bankroll.

During ring games you’re variance will go down when there’s more players.  When you’re playing head’s up you’re variance is at its highest as you’re more likely to win big or lose big.  You can’t afford to play too tight in short-hand games or you’ll just lose your stack to the blinds.  So looser play means you need a higher win rate or a higher bankroll to support you.

            You must look at your bankroll in two ways; long-term and short-term.  Your overall bankroll needs to support long-term playing so you can keep enjoying the game over time.  However, it’s beneficial to also calculate session, or short-term, bankrolls. 

This simply put is determining the amount of bankroll you’ll need to play a certain game at certain stakes for a single sit down, or a single session.  Though this is for one-time playing it will still have an affect on your overall bankroll.  So carefully consider your bankroll session so that it will ideally have zero impact, if not a positive one, on your long-term bankroll.

            Once you have a good handle on what your variance and win rate is you need to apply it in the creation of a floor and ceiling for your bankroll.  The floor and ceiling is a monetary measure of whether you need to be moving up or down a level in the stakes you play. 

The floor is the amount at which you need to move down a level because you’re not winning enough to support your bankroll at those stakes.  The floor is calculated in a similar way your variance is calculated.  Instead of taking the big bet amount and multiplying it by the amount of hands you need to win, for the floor you multiply the big bets by how many hands you can afford to lose. 

So if you’re playing $1/$2 stakes and you’ve determined your floor is 200 big bets you need a bankroll of $400.  Once the floor is hit and that $400 is no longer there it’s time to move down in the stakes before you endanger your bankroll.

The ceiling is simply the opposite of the floor, once you start winning a certain number of hands at particular stakes it’s a safe bet that you can now handle moving up one level to bigger bets.  An example would be if you’re playing $1/$2 and you’ve set your ceiling at 300 big bets and clear that while playing your bankroll should be approx. $600 and you can go up a level if you’re comfortable.

Remember that your floor and ceiling are a work in progress that will change as you move up and down in the stakes you play.  Try to curb your urge to not stick to the floor and ceiling once you’ve got them set.  They’re there for a reason.

 

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