Poker Bankroll Management: How to Set a Budget and Keep It

Poker bankroll management means setting aside a fixed sum of money you can afford to lose and only playing at stakes where one buy-in is a small fraction of it. Widely used conventions are 20 to 30 buy-ins for cash games and 50 to 100 for tournaments. It is a way of controlling what you spend and coping with the swings of the game, not a route to profit.

What is a poker bankroll?

A bankroll is money kept purely for poker, separate from the money you need for rent, bills, food and savings. For almost everyone, the honest way to think of it is as an entertainment budget, like the money you might put aside for football tickets or a night out. If losing all of it would cause you hardship, it is too large.

That matters because losing is a realistic outcome. Players compete against one another while the site takes a fee from each pot or tournament (see how poker rake works), so players as a group always get back less than they put in, and many people who play lose money over time.

Variance: why good and bad runs happen

Variance is the gap between what should happen on average and what actually happens in the short term. Poker has plenty of it. If you get all your chips in before the flop with a pair of aces against a pair of kings, you are a big favourite, yet the kings still win roughly one time in five. Over a handful of sessions, the cards you are dealt matter more than how well you play.

• Cash-game players can lose several buy-ins in one evening without doing much wrong.
• Tournament players routinely go many events in a row without reaching the prize places, because only a small part of the field is paid.
• Short-term results, good or bad, say very little about anyone's ability.

A bankroll rule spreads your budget across enough buy-ins that one bad run does not use it all up at once.

Buy-in guidelines: conventions, not guarantees

A buy-in is what it costs to sit down. In cash games the usual full buy-in is 100 big blinds, so £10 at a 5p/10p table. In tournaments it is the entry cost including the fee. These rules of thumb are widely used among players:

• Cash games: commonly 20 to 30 buy-ins for the stake you play.
• Tournaments and sit-and-gos: commonly 50 to 100 buy-ins, because prizes are concentrated in a few places and results swing more. Our poker tournament strategy guide explains how payouts work.
• High-variance formats: more again. Large-field multi-table tournaments, turbos and jackpot sit-and-gos with randomly drawn prize pools produce bigger swings, and many players keep well over 100 buy-ins for them.
• Pot-Limit Omaha: cash games in Omaha swing more than Hold'em, so players usually allow extra buy-ins there too.

These figures are conventions that have grown up in the poker community. They are not guarantees. No number of buy-ins protects a player who loses on average; in that case the bankroll simply sets the limit on what will be spent. If you are new, choose the cautious end of each range.

Example bankrolls by stake

The tables below simply apply those conventions to common online stakes.

Cash games (100 big blind buy-in)

Blinds	One buy-in	20 buy-ins	30 buy-ins
1p/2p	£2	£40	£60
2p/5p	£5	£100	£150
5p/10p	£10	£200	£300
10p/25p	£25	£500	£750
25p/50p	£50	£1,000	£1,500
50p/£1	£100	£2,000	£3,000

Tournaments

Total buy-in	50 buy-ins	100 buy-ins
£1	£50	£100
£2	£100	£200
£5	£250	£500
£10	£500	£1,000
£20	£1,000	£2,000

It is often more useful to work backwards. If your poker budget is £50, the guidelines point to 1p/2p cash games or tournaments costing about £1 or less, not to a single £50 tournament.

Moving up and moving down

Decide your rules before you play, when you are calm, and write them down.

• Moving up: only consider the next stake when your bankroll meets the guideline for that level. For example, a 5p/10p player might try 10p/25p once the bankroll reaches £750, which is 30 buy-ins of £25.
• Moving down: set a point at which you drop back, and treat it as automatic. The same player might return to 5p/10p if the bankroll falls below £500, which is 20 buy-ins at 10p/25p.
• No topping up to chase: if the bankroll runs out, wait until your next planned budget. Never add money you had not intended to spend, and never move up in stakes to win back losses.

Moving down is not a failure. It is the rule doing its job.

Tracking your results

You cannot manage what you do not measure. Keep a simple spreadsheet or notebook with the date, game, stake, amount bought in for, amount cashed out and time played. Record deposits and withdrawals too, so you always know your true overall position. Licensed UK sites also let you view your account history, which is a useful check on your own records.

Review the totals every month. If you are spending more than you planned, lower your stakes, play less often or take a break.

Tilt and stop-loss limits

Tilt is playing worse because of frustration, usually after a run of losses. It is when budgets get broken. Simple limits help:

• Stop-loss: end the session after losing a set amount. Three buy-ins is a common choice for cash games.
• Time limit: decide how long you will play and stop when the time is up, whether you are ahead or behind.
• State of mind: do not play when you are tired, upset or have been drinking.

How UK site tools back up your plan

Sites licensed by the UK Gambling Commission must offer safer-gambling tools, and they fit naturally with a bankroll plan. Our guide to whether online poker is legal in the UK explains the licensing rules behind them.

• Deposit limits: set a daily, weekly or monthly cap that matches your budget. Reductions take effect straight away, while increases only apply after a cooling-off period.
• Reality checks: on-screen reminders of how long you have been playing.
• Time-outs: block your own access for a short period, typically from a day up to several weeks.
• Self-exclusion: a longer block, either at one site or across all UK-licensed online gambling sites through GAMSTOP.

Setting a deposit limit equal to your monthly poker budget turns a good intention into something the site enforces for you.

Where to play

Stakes start at different levels from room to room, and so do the limit-setting tools on offer. You can check minimum stakes and safer-gambling features in our comparison of the best UK poker sites.

Play responsibly

Poker is for over-18s only. Bankroll management limits what you can lose; it does not make winning more likely, and short-term results depend on luck. Set a budget, never chase losses, and visit BeGambleAware.org for free advice and support if you are worried about your gambling.