Manage your roll properly and, as your skills develop, you could soon be in a position where you’ll never have to top it up again. That’s free poker and an income for life - which is a good thing right?
What is a bankroll anyway?
Your bankroll is the money you set aside specifically for playing poker. It’s not the rent money. It’s not the next car payment. It's not even the beer money. It’s the poker money, and should always be an amount you can comfortably afford.
The goal in poker is to increase your bankroll by consistently winning at the tables. Do this and manage your bankroll well and you'll never have to call on outside funds again.
How to build your bankroll and avoid going bust
Five time bracelet winner Chris Ferguson famously completed a challenge where he won $10,000 without depositing a penny. He started by playing freerolls and used the small amount of money he won to start playing real money games. He then followed a set of strict bankroll management rules to help him get all the way to $10,000.
But as Ferguson said, "This experiment isn’t about the money. It’s about showing how, with proper bankroll management, you can start from nothing and move up to the point where you’re playing in some pretty big games.”
Ferguson’s rules of bankroll management that allowed him to spin up $10K from nothing were...
- He’d never buy into a cash game or Sit & Go for more than 5% of his total bankroll, except at the lowest levels where he allowed himself to buy-in to any game for $2.50 or less
- He would never buy into any multi-table tournament where the buy-in represented more than 2% of his total bankroll (unless the tournament cost $1 or less)
- While playing any no limit or pot limit cash game, if his stack at the table represented more than 10% of his total bankroll he would leave the table before the blinds reached him
Check out the charts below and learn more about bankroll management in Raise your game
Cash games
Use the table below to quickly work out which level cash games suit your bankroll.
| Cash game stakes |
Max buy-in |
Min bankroll (where max buy-in is 5% or less of bankroll) |
| 2c/4c |
$4 |
$80 |
| 5c/10c |
$10 |
$200 |
| 10c/25c |
$25 |
$500 |
| 25c/50c |
$50 |
$1,000 |
| 50c/$1 |
$100 |
$2,000 |
| $1/$2 |
$200 |
$4,000 |
| $2/$4 |
$400 |
$8,000 |
| $3/$6 |
$600 |
$12,000 |
| $5/$10 |
$1,000 |
$20,000 |
| $10/$20 |
$2,000 |
$40,000 |
| $25/$50 |
$5,000 |
$100,000 |
Sit & Go’s
Use the table below to quickly work out the sit and go’s your bankroll allows you to play.
| Sit & Go buy-in |
Min bankroll (where max buy-in is 5% or less of total bankroll) |
| $1 |
$20 |
| $3 |
$60 |
| $5 |
$100 |
| $10 |
$200 |
| $20 |
$400 |
| $30 |
$600 |
| $50 |
$1,000 |
| $100 |
$2,000 |
| $200 |
$4,000 |
| $300 |
$60,000 |
| $500 |
$100,000 |
Multi-table tournaments
Use the table below to quickly work out the MTTs your bankroll allows you to play.
| MTT buy-in |
Min bankroll (where max buy-in is 2% or less of total bankroll) |
| $1 |
$50 |
| $2 |
$100 |
| $3 |
$150 |
| $5 |
$250 |
| $10 |
$500 |
| $15 |
$750 |
| $20 |
$1,000 |
| $25 |
$1,250 |
| $30 |
$1,500 |
| $50 |
$2,500 |
| $80 |
$4,000 |
| $100 |
$5,000 |
| $250 |
$12,500 |
| $500 |
$25,000 |
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