Poker Bankroll Management Tips

If you love playing online poker, you'll find a variety of UK poker sites to play on at any hour of the day or night. And while casinos maintain a house edge so there's never a guarantee that you'll win gambling, one of the best ways to continue playing is to manage your bankroll. Maintaining needed funds keeps you playing many hands and helps your enjoyment last. And being smart about managing your bankroll keeps you from getting overextended, too. Read on to learn valuable tips to manage your bankroll, so your money can last as long as you want to play.

Tip #1: Plan ahead

One of the biggest mistakes poker players make is to fail to plan ahead. A little forethought can go a long way to retaining your bankroll while wagering. If you were going to a casino, you could simply bring along the amount of money you want to play with. But online poker requires a bit more planning so the deposit to your bankroll can last.

Even the most experienced players know that winning at poker has its ups and downs. Planning for those ups and downs, or variance, is the best way to help your bankroll last as long as you'd like to play, whether for an hour or over several days at a time. You'll find countless articles from experts helping you understand variance better to keep it in mind when planning your bankroll. Doing a little thinking ahead will also help you account for gradual losses long-term as well as short-term losing streaks.

Tip #2: Do the math

Although no bankroll management strategy is fool-proof, it's important to do some calculations up front to decide how to fund your poker playing. Determining the amount you'll need depends on whether you're playing casually or in a tournament. And while each requires a bit of math up front, a few rules of thumb will help you make informed estimates to ensure the deposit in your casino account will last longer than if you simply guessed.

For casual play, a good rule of thumb is to calculate your:

• Average bet per hand
• Bets per hour
• Total hours you want to play

Multiply these against 0.2 and you will have the total you can fund. For example, if your average bet at a poker table is 3£ and you average 20 bets per hour, and you want to play for 6 hours, you multiple 3 x 20 x 6 x 0.2 for the total bankroll of £72.

For sit-and-go (SNG) poker play, a good rule of thumb is to have 50 buy-ins in your bankroll. Experts generally suggest 30 buy-ins with 20 extra to keep you playing. So if the buy-in is 20£, you'll need to have 1000£ in your bankroll to ensure longer play.

For tournament poker play, a good rule of thumb is to have 100 buy-ins in your bankroll. So if the buy-in is 20£, you'll need to have 2000£ in your bankroll to keep you in the tournament play.

An alternative approach to calculating the needed amount for your bankroll is to do reverse calculations, where you start with the amount of money with which you wish to gamble and figure out how to maximize it to play as many hands as possible. An easy way to do this is to search for and use an online bankroll calculator. Just enter the bankroll amount and the type of game you'll be playing, and the calculator determines the various combinations of bet and games you can play. That way, you begin playing with a realistic view of how far your money can go.

Tip #3: Set and stick to a limit

Once you calculate the needed bankroll amount, it's time to fund your online casino deposit. Make sure you only gamble with money you can afford to lose, and separate your gambling money from the money you need to pay for bills and other life needs. It's also important to set the amount for your deposit and commit to not surpassing it.

Whether you're on a winning or losing streak when your set amount is spent, it can be tempting to spend more to win more. But sticking to your pre-determined limit keeps your spending within reason and avoids getting yourself into a difficult position. This is an important tip for bankroll management that's often overlooked. Sticking to your pre-determined limit will help you feel better about your experience overall. Poker players know that losing is part of the game, but losing and going past your spending limit is an even more discouraging combination that's difficult to recover from.

Tip #4: Track your results long-term

While the easy way to manage your bankroll short-term is to follow the calculations in tip #2, the best way to manage it long-term is to track your results over time to see where and how much you're spending overall.

Tracking things like how much you win on average per hour, month, etc. helps you track your spending to make more informed decisions in the future. You can track these on your own via spreadsheet, or you can invest in a bankroll application for your mobile device. Low-cost apps such as My Poker Bankroll App, Poker Profit Tracker and more are available for your phone or tablet to track your winnings for various types of poker games, helping you know where you winnings are overtime to spend smarter in the future. Now that's a bankroll management strategy that works well!