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A bankroll for cash games

Your bankroll is the money you keep for poker and nothing else. Counted in buy-ins, it tells you which stake you can play without one bad night putting you out of the game.

Count in buy-ins

One buy-in is 100 big blinds at your stake. At $0.10/$0.20 that is $20, so $600 is 30 buy-ins at that stake and 12 at $0.25/$0.50.

How many to keep

A common rule of thumb for no-limit Hold'em cash games is 20 to 50 buy-ins for the stake you play, with the higher end for players who want fewer worries. Pot-limit Omaha swings harder, because hands run closer and more money goes in with draws, so many Omaha players keep more than they would for Hold'em. These are rules of thumb, not guarantees: a downswing can run longer than any count you pick.

Moving up and moving down

• Decide your numbers before you play. For example: move up when you have 40 buy-ins for the next stake, and move back down when you drop under 25 for the current one.
• Take a shot at a higher stake with a small, fixed part of the roll, and go back down when that part is gone.
• Moving down after a losing run is part of the plan, not a defeat.

Keep it apart

Keep the poker money apart from the money you live on, and never add to the bankroll to win back a loss. If the bankroll is gone, the right stake is none until you have saved a new one. Read Play responsibly if poker starts to cost more than you meant it to.

Rakeback counts

Rakeback is money that comes back from the rake you paid, so it belongs in the bankroll. Rake and rakeback shows how it adds up.

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