Bankroll
Poker bankroll management
A strategy with a positive expectation still has a distribution. That distribution includes long losing stretches. A bankroll is how many of those stretches you can absorb without touching rent. Without one, variance is not a concept — it is an eviction.
Cash games
A common working number is 20–40 buy-ins for the stake you are playing, more if you are high-variance (PLO, especially PLO8) or still leaking. Move down when you hit a floor, not when you 'feel due'. Move up when the roll supports it and your win rate at the current stake is real, not a heater.
Tournaments
MTTs have a much higher variance. 100+ buy-ins for a shot at a given buy-in level is not conservative — it is how you still have a roll after a month of min-cashes and bubbles. Satellites and small-field sit-and-gos sit in between.
- Stop-loss: a session cap so tilt cannot eat the week
- The roll is not 'money you can afford to lose' — that phrase is how people play scared or drunk
- If studying and playing are making you worse off in life, stop. The responsible-gambling page is not decoration
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