Bankroll Managment
Good bankroll management in fixed limit Holdem will help you ride out the natural swings in the game. Due to chance factors such as bad-beats and cold runs of cards playing with too much of your bankroll at one table in any form of poker can lead you to go broke. Ensuring that you only have a small proportion of your bankroll on any one table means you can ride out these swings – and that your bankroll will continue to grow over time.
Your fixed limit Holdem bankroll will be measured in ‘Big Bets', the double size bets after the turn. The number of big bets required in your bankroll can help you decide which is the appropriate limit for you to play – and can also help you to decide when to move up to the next level.
The optimum level to maintain in your bankroll is 300 big bets for the level at which you are currently playing. For example if you are playing 25c / 50c fixed limit Holdem the big bets are $1 – thus $300 will ensure that you are able to ride out any downswings and maintain profitability.
However, sitting at a table with a 300 big bet chip stack is far from the optimum. This is both an overly large amount and may cause you to make bad decisions, as the impact of a single bet will not be felt. The standard stack at an online fixed limit Holdem table is 25 big bets, it is suggested that you never need to go over the 50 big bets on any single table.
Maintaining the 300 big bet rule will give you a clear indication of when you are ready to move up in levels. If the next level on your site is 50c / $1 then you have a target of reaching $600 before you move there. This will also ensure that you gain experience at your current level before moving up – experience which will be a valuable asset as you move up the limits and will help you keep your bankroll safe while playing with free poker cash.
The need to move down limits will happen to many players over the course of their poker careers. Again good bankroll management is the key to making this decision after a run of bad cards. To use the above example, if you run badly at the 50c / $1 tables and your bankroll goes back down to $300 then you should move back to the 25c / 50c tables to rebuild. Discipline here will ensure that a prolonged bad run does not cause you to go broke.
Finally a note on some other factors which affect the number of big bets you keep in your poker bankroll. The first relates to your personal playing style, a tight player will experience less variance in the game than someone who chooses to play a wide range of hands. The bankroll requirements for a player with a looser style would thus be higher. Short handed (6 person) tables also require a slightly larger bankroll – since the hands being shown down are often less strong than at a full table, leading to more marginal decisions. Lastly, your ability to reload your bankroll should disaster strike should also be taken into account. |
