Bankroll Question

So, forgive me if this is really elementary, but I have a question re: managing a bankroll.

From my perspective, my poker bankroll is separate from the rest of my finances. I would never stake my bankroll with money that I NEEDED elsewhere in life. Apart from professional players, I assume the same is (or rather, SHOULD BE) true for any poker player.

That said, I do not understand the standard figures that I seem to encounter with regards to what a poker bankroll 'ought to be.' Specifically, as a live player, I am told to have a bankroll between 25-50 times my standard buy-in. What is the point of this? Does this mean that I should not be surprised to see a swing as much as 12-25 times my standard buy-in (half of the recommended 25-50 buy ins)? That would be a VERY lousy swing (losing your buy in 12-15 times).

Are there other issues I am failing to consider? Can somebody clarify this for me?

Variance live and online are very different things. The game plays differently and a winning player live generally has a bigger edge at one table than an online player has on a single table (especially multitabling) so you can expect smaller swings.

With that being said, variance in poker is huge.
In one session you will hopefully never lose 10 buy ins, but if you play long enough sessions and keep doing it for a long time, you will have some pretty sick downswings and 20 buy ins is a completely reasonable bankroll to deal with those swings.

Using bank roll managing tatics is to stop u from going busto. Plus it give u a relief of mind that ur not playin with ur whole bankroll at the table.

It's also used to stop u goin busto bcos of varience. U will have bad days where ur AA/KK will b outdrawn and ur gonna loose a few buy-in's. If u tilt a bit then u mite loose more. U loose 10 buy-ins and ur still rolled for that stake that u come back another day and challenge it or u move down a level and grind ur BR back up.

Ur playing live so I could b guessing u play $1-$2? I've herd that these stakes are filled with fish and are very loose. I've herd some people say they raise to $15-$20 preflop and get a few callers. Ur gonna need deep pockets in these type of games. Ive seen people call big raises preflop with summit like 95 vs QQ then hittin runner runner specials on the river.

Plus if ur loosing 12-15 buy-in's then u need to take a break and review ur game lol.

BRM is to stop u goin busto m8. I've been there in the past: deposit $50, blow it all on 0.25c-0.50c or 0.50c-$1 then reload. Not much fun I tell ya.
I made a deposit of $50 in Oct and I havnt done a reload since.

Here is just about all you need to know...

Read Rule #3 in this thread...https://www.cardschat.com/forum/learning-poker-57/

There are some pretty good comments in this thread as well...https://www.cardschat.com/forum/general-poker-13/comfortability-vs-brm-97551/

GL :top:

If the money in your BR doesnt matter much to you having a 20-30bi is fine imo but if your playing profesionally i would like have atleast 100bi.

20bi downswing for even proven winners at any given limit isnt uncomon.
if u play enough volume you will get some pretty sick swings and statisticly a good winning player could even hit a 200bi downswing.

There is alot more varience in poker then most people think.
Check out this graph from http://www.pokervariancesimulator.fr/ .
The difrence in profits over a small 100K hands sample of some one with a good winrate and a realtively low varience style is huge do to varience.

Suited Frenzy said:

Here is just about all you need to know...

Read Rule #3 in this thread...https://www.cardschat.com/forum/learning-poker-57/

There are some pretty good comments in this thread as well...https://www.cardschat.com/forum/general-poker-13/comfortability-vs-brm-97551/

GL :top:

Click to expand...

Thanks Suited this helps me too

The more buyins you have, the less likely you are to go broke. That's pretty obvious. But there's more to good bankroll management than just that. For instance, there's moving down when or even before your bankroll drops to the minimum number of buyins. If you have say 50 buyins and lose 15, you might want to consider dropping down even though you still have enough to continue at your current level. Playing decent poker and running into a bad patch is one thing, but what if that's your impression but it's incorrect because you've actually developed some kind of leak?

And as long as you're playing poker as a hobby, you should only use money that is set aside only for poker and that will not impact your life / lifestyle if you happen to lose it all.

And there's an emotional aspect to BRM too. I read that Bill Gates only plays $3/$6 limit. Obviously, he can afford much higher, so it seems likely that the emotional (dis)comfort factor weighs heavily in his level choice.

just do what most do go broke a couple of times then practice BRM
or learn from others mistakes
even though most people would never get to play live 100x at the casino is alot of cash for some people

I just don't really understand the point of a bankroll that's say, 100x your buy-in unless the idea is that a reasonable expecting losing streak would be 60-80 buy-ins type of deal....that would be an astronomically bad run....losing your buy-in 60+ times?

I am planning on playing 2/5 NLH (live) with a 20k bankroll. That seems to well under what the consensus bankroll is for this game, but it still doesn't add up to me...

Simply put, I'm a very good live poker player who is very green when it comes to approaching this from a professional frame-of-mind.

109s said:

That would be a VERY lousy swing (losing your buy in 12-15 times).

Click to expand...

Here's my stats for my NLHE play at 100NL for the past month or two:


There's your 13 buy-in swing right there, just from missing draws, losing coinflips QQ vs. AK, ect. Notice I should've won 324 bucks, but I'm down ten Benjamins.

And it should be obvious why you need a 100 buy-in bankroll if you're playing professionally. Not only do you have to prevent yourself from going broke, you have to prevent yourself from ever having to *move down in stakes*. For a casual player, moving down in stakes when you have a 15-20 buy-in downswing is no problem. But when your rent payment requires that you play at a certain stake level, its pretty important that you can stay in the games that can produce enough money for you to live on. Maybe 100 buy-ins is a bit much, but if I was playing professionally, I'd want at least 75. I currently play with 60 online, and I felt had to move down after that swing.

Plus you want to be able to take those shots at the juicy $5/$10 game that has 3 drunk rednecks & their wives all vomiting money (and actual vomit) on the table.