The first step to playing poker as a hobby is learning about poker strategy bankroll money management. This will ensure that you survive the ebbs and flows that are inevitable with a game of incomplete poker information online or live. It will also ensure that your play strategy isn’t affected by fear of money loss online.
That’s because poker bankroll is money you can afford to lose. Unless you’re a pro poker player, it’s separate from your living expenses. That way, if players experience a cold spell, they won’t start playing from fear, which can result in impatience and tilt. Cold streaks are inevitable and shouldn’t affect the player's strategy online when they play poker.
If you read about poker bankroll management online, you’ll see that it’s all about playing within your bankroll’s limits and how to manage your money effectively in these limits. Different types of poker require different bankroll sizes and knowing the minimum bankroll requirements for game types will dictate whether or not you can afford to play them- with your money and with your time. We’ll begin with Texas Hold’em. Hold’em poker tournaments, no-limit cash games, limit cash games and sit-n-go’s all have unique bankroll requirements, because they each have unique levels of variance. As a rule of thumb, the more variance a game has, the larger your bankroll needs to be.
Multi-Table Tournament Poker
If one's strategy is to become a poker tournament pro player, online or live, one is going to need a bigger bankroll than cash game players. There’s more variance with tournaments, and the more players competing, the higher the variance. One should aim for a bankroll with at least 100 buy-ins for regular tournaments, and double that for tournaments with over 2,000 players that have top-heavy payout structures. For example, Bovada’s Golden Spade Poker Open Event No. 111 has a $33 ($30+$3) buy-in. To play at these stakes, one's bankroll should be at least $3,300.
Cash Games
To practice effective poker cash game bankroll management, players need to take into account which poker game they're playing online or live: Texas Hold’em, Omaha, or Omaha Hi/Lo. Each of these games brings a different level of variance to the table. For the same reason, players should also note which betting structure the game uses: fixed-limit, pot-limit, or no-limit.
NL Cash Games
The most popular games at Bovada Poker online – and around the world – are the no-limit games, especially no-limit Texas Hold’em poker. As a quick rule of thumb, you should have a bankroll of 20 buy-ins for no-limit Texas Hold’em. This for a cash game can be anywhere up to the max amount allowed, although most people choose to play 100 big blinds deep.
The cheapest cash games at Bovada are 2NL, or 1c/2c blinds, which would require a $40 bankroll using the recommended guidelines for Hold’em poker. However, consider using even more buy-ins if you’re playing at 6-max tables rather than full ring. Fewer people at the table means you’ll be in more pots, so you need to account for that higher variance.
It’s also a good idea to adjust your buy-in levels higher or lower when you’re playing games other than Hold’em poker. As a split pot game, Omaha Hi/Lo has by far the least variance, since so many of the pots you play will be chopped between one player with the high hand and another with the low hand. This will allow you to play NL comfortably with fewer than 20 buy-ins. Omaha, on the other hand, can get really swingy – fortunes can rise and fall dramatically, since the difference in value between the best and worst hands is a lot smaller than it is in Hold’em poker, and more pots end up going all the way to showdown. Bring more to the table when you play Omaha so that you can ride out these swings and avoid going bust.
Limit Cash Games
Another great way to smooth out the variance in poker is to play under a different betting structure than no-limit. Most Omaha cash games are played under pot-limit rules, where the most you can bet at any one time is the size of the pot. That will lessen the impact of a bad run of cards and protect your bankroll furthering the management of it. Even better, try playing Fixed-Limit cash games, also known as Limit games for short. The biggest bet you can make in limit poker is the big bet, which is twice the size of the big blind.
Limit poker is the most popular way to play Omaha Hi/Lo, making this arguably the best game for building a bankroll – provided you play well enough to have an edge on your opponents. Limit Hold’em used to be the most popular version of that variant until the no-limit games took over sometime around the early 2000s. Limit Hold’em cash games need a much smaller bankroll than the No-Limit version; 300 big bets is a safe starting point.
Bankroll Management for Sit-n-Go’s
Sit-n-go’s are the happy medium of poker variance. They compress the time commitment and the payout structure of larger tournaments, allowing you to put in more volume while also reducing the highs and lows of your bankroll’s management progress. Again, your buy-in requirements will depend on which games you’re playing. The vast majority of sit-n-go’s are no-limit Hold’em poker, but the number of players at the poker table will differ.
Single-Table SNG
If you’re playing a classic Single-Table sit-n-go at a full-ring table, you should have a minimum of 30 buy-ins before signing up, compared to at least 100 buy-ins for a Multi-Table poker tournament. Bring more buy-ins to the table if you’re playing a 6-max or a short-handed SNG.
Heads-Up SNG
This is as small as a sit-n-go can get. You can play these more quickly than other SNGs and put in more volume, but all the prize money goes to the winner, so variance can once again rear its ugly head. Try 50 buy-ins or more with this format.
Keep in mind, to learn the basic bankroll requirements and strategy for all the different poker fun is just a starting point. There are other factors that affect how to manage poker bankroll considerations properly, such as style of play and quality of opposition. As you improve at poker, you’ll be able to account for these differences better and adjust accordingly, but for now, stick with these online guidelines until you as the poker player has more time to get all the poker information you need. Best of luck at the poker tables.