Desktop View

Published: 5th February 2010 Written by Poker Tips
Updated: 8th January 2024

bankroll management poker - Poker Players should always set limits for themselves and exercise basic Bankroll management skills if they wish to become successful players. Full Tilt Poker Pro Chris Ferguson suggests that you should never buy-in to cash games with more than 5% of your total bankroll, it is hard to resist playing higher stakes.

One of the main reasons for applying Bankroll management strategy is to prevent poker players from going broke quicker, it is a slower process of building your bankroll but in the end it could save you from some big loses when you experience a bad run.

We have included some examples of what cash game stakes or tournament buy-ins you should be playing based on your current bankroll.

Poker Strategy Bankroll Management

Managing your poker bankroll is a strategy which is just as important as any other poker skill, to be successful, players should keep to their limits and only increase as their bankroll increases.

Bankroll Management – Tournaments

Tournaments can be deadly to your bankroll because only about 10-15% of the players registered will cash in the event, you might play as many as 20 tournaments without a cash, but if you play within your limits you should have enough funds available to survive the downswings.

In general players cash in one out of every ten tournaments they enter sometimes they only win their buy-in back. To be really successful you need to finish in the top two places this should help you move up in limits.

Examples:

Bankroll$10$25$50$100$200$500
Tournament Buy-in50c$1,20$2,50$5$10$25

Bankroll Management – Cash Games

Never bring more than 5% of your bankroll to the table when you are playing cash games. If you are winning leave the table when you have reached your goal profit which should be around 10% of your total bankroll on the table

Examples:

Bankroll$10$25$50$100$200$500
Limits$0,01/$0,02$0,02/$0,05$0,05/$0,10$0,10/$0,25$0,25/$0,50$0,50/$1

Bankroll Management – Sit and Go

There is a big difference is buy-in amounts when playing Sit n Go games, players will be more successful in winning single table games because there are only 6- 10 players. It will be harder to cash when playing Multi-table tournaments depending on how many players in the game.

Single Table Tournament

Only buy-in to a SNG single table game for less than 5% of your bankroll

Bankroll$10$25$50$100$200$500
Buy-in50c$1,20$2,50$5$10$25

Multi Table Tournament

Only buy-in to a SNG multi table game for less than 2% of your bankroll

Bankroll$10$25$50$100$200$500
Tournament Buy-in20c$50c$1$2$4$10

Full Tilt Poker Academy

Learn form the Pros at the Full Tilt Poker Academy, all you need is a FullTiltPoker account to access valuable lessons from some of the best players in the world. Earn Academy Credits while you play and learn pro poker skills to help you become a successful poker player.

Full Tilt Poker Referral Code – WAP