Here are Top 5 Poker Bankroll Management Tips for you in 2022

Building a poker bankroll tests your patience,
Maintaining it tests your wisdom, and
Losing it in one go shows your insanity.

Making money by playing online poker games is not an uphill battle for professional players. They have the capability of building a high stack of money in just a few hours. But the point here is that are they able to maintain their stack or go crazy with such accomplishments?.

This article will talk about the effective bankroll management strategies and tips that can help you become a responsible gamer despite being a crazy poker professional.

So, your training to learn HOW TO PLAY POKER WITHOUT BURNING A HOLE IN YOUR POCKET and becoming a responsible poker player begins right here.....

Before beginning with learning the strategies to save your bankroll let’s first get chummy with the terms ‘poker bankroll’ and ‘poker bankroll management.

Poker bankroll is the term that denotes the amount of money or the funds that are kept aside by a poker player solely to play poker and not for any other day-to-day expenses or needs. Serious poker players manage a different account for maintaining their poker bankroll and use these discretionary funds to play with at poker tables. They understand how important it is to maintain a good bankroll for poker if they intend to switch from poker passion to poker profession. There comes the role of poker bankroll management.

• Poker Bankroll Management

Poker bankroll management refers to the process of planning, organizing, and maintaining the poker bankroll. It is a prerequisite to playing poker just like learning hand rankings and rules of the games. Since poker is a money game that involves monetary transactions and gaining and losing of money, poker bankroll management is done by poker players as an inextricable task.

Why is It Important to do Bankroll Management in Poker?

As a beginner in poker, you may think to avoid this step out of curiosity to play and win. But if you become a consistent player and you still do not pay much heed to this very crucial step on the ladder while grooming poker skills, then you are risking your hard-earned money and your life in the poker world.

Bankroll management in poker is a key function that every player must carry out to ensure that their poker account is loaded with cash to make buy-ins when they sit to play at the poker table without getting worried about their balance in the same. Certain players do not manage their poker bankroll well to keep themselves away from creating any hindrance in their way to beating their opponents and as a result of which they get knocked out easily when not being able to put any further chips against them. So, their
poker life is highly affected when they do not manage their poker money properly.

The good reasons that tell you why is it important to manage your poker bankroll are given below:

1. Limit the Risk of Going Broker

It is not worth patting your back when you say you have bet your entire bankroll at the same time because you maximize your risk of going broke and end up on a pity note. This usually happens when you ignore giving time to managing your poker account bankroll and become overconfident about your poker actions and winnings. Then, going broke gives you a reality check that you need to work upon your bankroll management skills as it not only limits your risk of losing all your money but helps you in knowing when to stop in the game.

2. Helps to Cover Up the Losses

When you start managing your bankroll in poker, then you get a clear picture of your net profit or loss in the game. By looking at your account when you know that you are at loss, then you can easily make up your losses by following the right bankroll management strategy and playing at lower stakes to soak the losses. So, in this way, it also helps you know how to cover up your losses by maintaining the poker balance in your account.

3. Guides you to Choose Which Stakes to Play

Bankroll management in poker can prove to be an awakening path that guides you to choose the right stakes to play while facing a downswing. Sometimes, a player keeps on playing at higher stakes to cover up the losses which lead to further losses and a complete downswing scenario. This key step of managing the bankroll in poker can help you know which stakes to play at such times. Playing lower stakes in hard times can help you regain your confidence and this is only possible if you know how to plan a good strategy for managing poker bankrolls.

4. Helps Prolong Your Poker Life

For some players who had a disastrous downswing, it may be the end of their poker life. They realize later on that if they had managed their bankrolls well then they would not have faced such bad days. Bankroll management helps to prolong your poker life as it guides you on how to manage your poker funds in a strategic way and earn money with the earned money.

5. Mentors you on How to Earn Money with Earned Money

When you start managing your bankrolls efficiently, you get the key to know how to earn money with already earned money in poker. It means with bankroll management skills, you learn how to use the earned money efficiently to make more money and how much of the share of that to be used in further games to multiply that amount and also when to stop yourself from getting your bankroll diminished.

6. Helps you Become a Responsible Gamer

With an effective bankroll management system, you not only become a more wise player but also a responsible gamer whose poker money does not burn a hole in his pocket. It improves your overall gaming strategy and helps you make more mature decisions to save your money from being drained into someone else’s pocket.

There is much more in the list of benefits that you get from making a solid online bankroll management system. You will encounter them yourself once you understand the relevance of creating one for yourself.

By now, it is expected that the ‘WHY’ point of having a good bankroll management strategy is clear to you. Now, it is obvious to be ambiguous about knowing the ‘HOW’ of having the best one for yourself. So, without taking much of your time, let’s move on to knowing How to do poker bankroll management.

Here are certain poker bankroll management strategies and tips to surely help you have a magical poker account that will never run out of funds.

Poker Bankroll Management Strategies for Beginners

1. Your Poker Money is Only For Poker

It is not your savings account from which you can withdraw money anytime to carry out your daily expenses but it is your poker money which you should solely be committed to playing poker. Maintaining a good balance in your poker account will help you keep going even in tough times of poker life. The players who become exemplary ideals in poker take this point very seriously and they never withdraw money from their poker account to meet their personal requirements. They use it to make money from the money.

It is a reminder point that the stack you kept aside to play poker also known as poker bankroll is only to be used to play poker and nothing else. It is considered to be a bad poker habit if you use your poker bankroll for any other living expenses.

2. Play Within Your Bankroll or with the Amount That You Can Afford to Lose

You must have heard of the famous proverb, ‘cut your dress according to your cloth.

It means you should spend within your limits. In poker it goes like, always play with the money that you can afford to lose. It may seem to be tempting to play at higher stakes or have great buy-ins but what if the tables turn and you lose. So, invest the amount that you can make up for in the near future if you lose.

3. Have a Long-Term Goal

In poker, if you are playing professionally, it is no less than your business and in business, you must have a long-term goal or plan. You cannot play like it is your last day in poker, you always have to have the vision to take your game to the next level and that will only be possible if you plan your poker bankrolls now. Busting your bankroll crazily in one game would not let you grow and even if you win you should have a balance between what you invest and what you save for the future.

4. Swear By Your Investment Plan

Poker is a mind sport that does not judge your presence of mind only at the tables but also when you are making an investment in any of the poker games. The key to having a long successful poker life is to have a well-planned investment plan which needs to be strictly followed. No matter how much you win or lose in a defined time, do not deposit any more than you can afford to lose. If you spend more than planned in a particular game then you may disturb your whole budget and may fall short of money to play any further game or make up for your losses for which you have kept the money aside. So, always have a strict investment plan for poker which you should abide by.

5. Plan Your Bankroll According to the Type of Game

Poker bankroll differs for the type of game you are playing. The bankroll for tournaments will not be the same as the bankroll for cash games. Their budgeting also differs as the format of the games is different and is played at different stakes. In most poker tournaments, you need to have a big fat bankroll as the stakes are higher as compared to the cash games and more buy-ins are required. So, first, you need to have a different bankroll investment plan for every poker variant. Make sure to have a plan that needs to be followed strictly in times of both losses and gains.

6. Start at the Right Stakes

Most poker players are not aware of which stakes they should start with. The players who play for recreation or hobby, never consider this point to be looked into. But, for the players who see poker as their career, giving importance to this point can help them make steady but successful poker progress. This point stresses moving ahead step by step to avoid having a tragic end. How?
Just look at the example given below:

If you are at the bank of a shallow river and you need to cross it through the rocks embedded in it, can you directly jump onto the third rock without crossing the first and the second one? No, it is impossible as you need to move step by step to safely cross the river and build up your confidence that you can do it.

In the same way in poker, you need to start with small stakes in cash games and master them. Once you build up your confidence with them, then moving ahead to the higher stakes is the right thing to do. If you directly start with the higher stakes then chances of having a bad downfall are maximum. So, be consistent at one stake and then move further to the next level stakes.

Advanced Poker Bankroll Management Strategies

1. Follow the 80/20 Rule

Advanced poker players have their own strategies to make their way to the pot. If you are also an advanced player then you must integrate this 80/20 rule into your bankroll management strategy. As you know that poker is a game of variance where you must know the skill of managing the risks. So, one key formula to reduce the variance and secure your bankroll is to have 80% of the participation in the cash games and 20% of the participation in tournaments. According to poker experts, cash games give a more stable income than tournaments. In tournaments, there are only 5-10% chances of winning and earning money whereas this percentage is relatively higher, about 60-70% in cash games. So, it is always good to play cash games more to get a steady income.

2. Tilt-Control

It is natural to be happy when the situation is favorable and to be frustrated when things go out of your hands. This phenomenon in poker is very common as players involve their money with emotions in the game. When facing a downswing, players get highly frustrated with not being able to get their lost money back. This state of being frustrated and taking unstrategic aggressive moves is termed as tilt in poker. Most of the poker pros get tilted at times but the ones who control their tilt come out to be real poker heroes. They know that poker variance is highly cruel as you may be favorable in a hand but at the next moment, you face a bad beat when you are close to winning. In such a case, you should never jump back into the game to avoid further losses. The key poker strategy here is to take a break and start afresh to regain the lost confidence.

3. Going Down in Stakes is not Embarassing

Some players take it as an insult in moving down to lower stakes than they usually play even when facing a downswing. It is not a sign of a mature poker professional. Keep your ego aside and think wisely that if your bankroll has diminished due to your continuous losses then moving down in stakes is the best you can do to regain what you have lost in some time. Don’t feel ashamed in doing so as this is a very common phase that most poker players face in their poker journeys. Playing at small stakes and winning there consistently will help you increase your bankroll as well as your confidence and once you are back in your form, you can play at higher stakes easily and win with glory.

4. Keep Yourself Updated with Your Track Record

If you are a pro at No-Limit Texas Holdem poker, but not good at PLO poker then trying your hand again and again in that without being aware of the fact that you mostly lose in PLO is about having poor knowledge of your track record. As an advanced poker professional, you are expected to keep a track of your sessions and be well aware of your profit and losses and the games in which you make money consistently. It helps you to know which games to play in and at which stakes. Play the games that give you more ROI (return on investment) and at which you are more confident.

5. Keep Your Fear of Losing Money Aside

Profit and loss are part and parcel of poker play, but if you do not play poker because you are afraid of losing money then you are still an abecedarian at poker. Poker is a game that involves risks, and the ones who are ready to take risks excel in this. If you do not take strategic aggressive shots at a poker table, then how would you know the pros and cons of the same. If you play with the fear of losing money then you won’t be able to taste the sweetness of bigger wins. This does not mean that you should not give a damn to your bankroll and drain your money. It simply goes like if you want to take your game to the next level then keep a good bankroll with you and take calculated risks fearlessly.

Poker Bankroll Management According to Different Game Formats

• Do you have the same plan for every poker action?
• Of course not! Then why have the same bankroll strategy for every card game in poker?

For every poker variant, you need to have a different BRM system and strategy which guides you to have the best use of your bankroll without busting your poker account.

• Bankroll Management (BRM) for Cash Games

The rule of thumb for cash games or online cash games is to have a minimum of 20 buy-ins for online cash games, however, for some players, it may be 50 buy-ins for NLH and 100 buy-ins for PLO. The limit of buy-ins differs for each player according to their poker play strategy and bankroll limit of poker account.

The ideal buy-ins for cash games is a maximum of 100 buy-ins for NLH and 200 buy-ins for PLO.

• For Fixed Limit games, the minimum buy-in is ten times the big bet. For example, in a $1/$2 game, the minimum buy-in is $20 and the bankroll should be 20 times the buy-in.

To understand the concept better, look at the bankroll management chart for cash games.

• For No Limit and Pot Limit games, the minimum buy-in is 40 times the big blind. The maximum buy-in is 100 times the big blind. Consider the following table of bankroll calculations for NLH and PLO online cash games.

Smart Tip- Remember that to play live cash games, you do not need many buy-ins as they have less variance than online cash games. You can play with 20-40 buy-ins for live games and as soon as you face a downswing, move down in stakes immediately.

For poker tournaments or online tournaments, the bankroll management strategy is different from cash games. Since tournaments have higher variance than cash games, therefore, you need to have a larger bankroll to play an online poker tournament even at similar stakes. You can manage to play cash games with a lower bankroll, but to participate in poker tournaments, you need to have a fat bankroll.

• For multi-table tournaments (MTTs), you should restrict yourself to 2% of your total bankroll for one buy-in.
• For SNG tournaments, the minimum buy-in should be 40 and an ideal minimum buy-in for other online poker tournaments is 50 buy-ins and the maximum is 100 buy-ins.

It is very important to choose the right poker format for yourself considering your poker skills, the variance of the format, and your bankroll.

Just remember when choosing the game for you that the higher the variance, the larger bankroll along with the larger contingency plan required. Moving up in stakes may take your above numbers to a higher side. Moving down when facing the downswing and limiting your losses is the best bankroll management strategy. This is how you become a responsible gamer and understand the importance of responsible gaming offered by Acehigh poker and other poker sites these days.

Responsible Gaming - The Key to A Successful Poker Life

Responsible gaming in poker refers to following the fundamentals of poker and understanding a player’s responsibility towards his poker life. Poker is a game of money that needs to be played with discipline and self-regulation, otherwise, it may turn into an addiction and loss of money. The poker world has encountered so many examples of players who have not been responsible players even after being poker pros.

So, in order to make you a poker star that shines forever, the option of responsible gaming has been introduced at all poker sites in India. It restricts a player from exceeding the set limits of stakes and buy-ins while playing a particular poker game. It leads to fewer losses and better bankroll management. The responsible gaming guide available at AceHigh, India’s best online poker site, throws light on the following points that need to be considered to have a better poker play:

• Responsible gamer’s behavior.
• Self-exclusion in poker

It guides you to have an all-round poker development and restrain you from turning your poker passion into poker addiction. To become a responsible poker player, you can opt for the ‘Responsible Gaming’ option available at the player’s dashboard which helps him/her in the following manner:

• You can set the limit of the stakes and buy-ins for particular poker cash games and tournaments.
• It restricts you from playing higher-stakes games than the set limit.
• It helps in reducing your losses and maintaining your bankroll.
• You can also go for self-exclusion which will help you take a break from poker after a huge downswing or loss.

By opting for the ‘Responsible Gaming’ option, you can help yourself from facing the bad phases of poker life.

Playing is fun and to enjoy that fun, give a thumbs up to Responsible Gaming.

To master the art of bankroll management like a pro, follow the bankroll management tips and strategies given by AceHigh and become an exemplary responsible gamer. They help you know how to calculate the buy-ins and bankroll for a particular game format. They also let you know when to stop playing and how to face downswings without affecting your bankroll in poker.

So, take a step now to become the best version of yourself in poker and ace the winnings.

To play poker online and multiply your bankroll, click on the Play Now button and get started without any delay. See you at the tables!