Bankroll

Bankroll Management for High-Limit Players: The Honest Version

I am going to tell you the truth about my own bankroll first, because the usual articles pretend every pro got there with a spreadsheet. I did not.

How my bankroll really happened

My first World Series, 2005, went so well that for a while my bankroll was effectively unlimited. Seven cashes in a summer, plus the cash games around them, meant I could sit in any game I wanted. It was a combination of talent and luck, and I would be lying if I said which one mattered more.

What I did right, even then, was this: I never risked much of what I had in any single game. Even sitting on well over a hundred thousand, I treated each session as a small piece of it. That instinct saved me more than any formula. A big bankroll does not protect you. A small percentage at risk per game does.

The numbers, for people who want numbers

You should have a rule, so here is a floor that I think is sane for high-limit games, where the players are better and the swings are bigger than the textbooks assume:

• Limit hold'em and mixed games: at least 300 big bets for your regular game. For $80/160 that means $48,000 set aside for poker and nothing else.
• No-limit: 30 to 40 full buy-ins. For $25/50 with a $5,000 buy-in, that is $150,000 to $200,000.
• Taking a shot: one or two buy-ins of the bigger game, decided in advance, and a hard stop when it is gone.

If those numbers look big, good. They are supposed to make you uncomfortable about playing bigger than you are. The purpose of a bankroll is not to let you play the biggest game. It is to make sure a normal bad month cannot end your career.

Your bankroll is not your money

The single most important idea: poker money is separate from life money. Rent, family, savings, those come from a different pocket and never touch the table. When the two mix, every losing session is a crisis, and you start playing scared or playing desperate. Both lose. I have watched excellent players destroy themselves because their bankroll and their mortgage were the same number.

The move-down rule

Decide now, while you are calm, when you move down. A common rule: if your bankroll drops to 60 percent of the floor for your game, you play the next game down until you are back. Write it somewhere. The whole point is that the decision gets made before you are the person who just lost three buy-ins and wants it back tonight.

What "I can afford it" really costs

I played a $1,500/3,000 hand once because I could afford it, and I lost tens of thousands of dollars learning the difference between affording and belonging. That story is in the article on moving up. The math of bankroll management is easy. The part that matters is being the kind of person who follows it on the night it is hardest to.