Tips for Being Able to Successfully Manage Your Bankroll

If you are new to world of poker, you may not be familiar with the term bankroll. A bankroll can be defined as the money that a poker player sets aside specifically for the purpose of playing poker. Although this may seem like a minor detail, being able to successfully manage your bankroll can help you become a better poker player and increase your frequency of winning.

Although being able to successfully manage your bankroll can play a major role when you are playing poker in a casino or with your friends, it plays an even bigger role in online poker. Because online poker rooms make it so simple to purchase more chips, many online poker players make the mistake of continuously buying more chips immediately after they run out. A countless number of new and experienced online poker players suffer from this problem, and it is one of the leading reasons why statistics show that ninety percent of the people who play online poker end up losing money over the long term. If you want to be in the small ten percent of players who win money from online poker over the long term, it's time to pay attention to how you can successfully manage your bankroll.

Above all else, you should never, under any circumstances, play with money that you need for necessities. Casinos refer to this type of money as "scared money," and choosing to play with it puts you at an immediate disadvantage. If you find yourself in a situation where you do not have any disposable income to play online poker with, you need to exercise some self-restraint and avoid dipping into any money that needs to be used for more important purposes.

The next key component to being able to successfully manage your bankroll is knowing what kind of stakes you will be facing as you play online poker. By taking the time to determine this information, you will be able to avoid ever finding yourself in a situation where your bankroll is completely depleted. Although you need to figure out what works specifically for you, here are some guidelines that can help get you started:

$200 or Less Bankroll: $5 Sit-&-Go Tournaments or Tables with a $0.50 to $1.00 Limit

$500-$900 Bankroll: $10 Sit-&-Go Tournaments, Tables with a $1.00 to $2.00 Limit or $0.10 to $0.25 No-Limit Tables

$1000+ Bankroll: $20 Sit-&-Go Tournaments or No-Limit Games where you can afford 100x the big blind