Joujou113
Rising Star
Bronze Level
Which site do you think has the softest games for micro stakes: pokerstars, 888poker, or partypoker
primrose
Visionary
Bronze Level
20 is a reasonable starting point, but it depends on a bunch of assumptions, like
1. How low do you want the risk to be? (Like what is at stake here, a bummer for your hobby, or your financial security?)
2. Do you play live or online?
3. What's your winrate?
4. How will you treat your bankroll; will you let it grow or continuously take money out ?
Roller
Legend
Platinum Level
Cash Games
At least 20–30 buy-ins for the stake you’re playing.
If you want to be more conservative (especially if you’re still learning or prone to tilt), 40–50 buy-ins gives you a lot more safety. On the flip side, aggressive players sometimes take shots with 10–15 buy-ins, but that’s risky and usually leads to going broke if variance hits.
Bottom line
The more buy-ins you have behind you, the more freedom you have to play without fear of busting.
At least 20–30 buy-ins for the stake you’re playing.
If you want to be more conservative (especially if you’re still learning or prone to tilt), 40–50 buy-ins gives you a lot more safety. On the flip side, aggressive players sometimes take shots with 10–15 buy-ins, but that’s risky and usually leads to going broke if variance hits.
Bottom line
The more buy-ins you have behind you, the more freedom you have to play without fear of busting.
F
fundiver199
Legend
Loyaler
Its not nessesary to have 50 BIs for the lowest limit (usually 2NL), before you even start playing, since its very insignificant money, and you can just deposit more later if needed. It is reasonably though to have at least 50 BIs for your current limit before even thinking about moving up to the next limit. So at least $100 before even considering playing 5NL rather than 2NL and at least $250 before even considering playing 10NL rather than 5NL.
anasslaaleg
Rock Star
Platinum Level
Bankroll management is one of the most important aspects of poker, because it protects you from variance and tilt while letting you move up safely.
Here are some discussion points to open things up:
- Separate your bankroll from daily money :
Never mix living expenses with poker funds. Your bankroll should be dedicated only to poker.
- Buy-in rules by format :
Cash games: Usually 20–40 buy-ins is a safe minimum. (E.g., playing NL10 with €200–400).
Sit & Go’s: Around 50–100 buy-ins is typical.
Do you play more cash, tournaments, or both?
- Risk of ruin tolerance :
Some players are aggressive (take shots earlier), others are conservative (wait for a deeper roll). It depends on your goals and mental game.
- Moving up and down :
Move up when you have enough buy-ins and are consistently winning.
Move down if you lose a set % of your bankroll (commonly 10–20%). This avoids going broke.
- Daily budget vs bankroll :
Some players like to cap what they risk daily (e.g., €5–10) to avoid emotional overspendi
ng, especially in MTTs.
Here are some discussion points to open things up:
- Separate your bankroll from daily money :
Never mix living expenses with poker funds. Your bankroll should be dedicated only to poker.
- Buy-in rules by format :
Cash games: Usually 20–40 buy-ins is a safe minimum. (E.g., playing NL10 with €200–400).
Sit & Go’s: Around 50–100 buy-ins is typical.
Do you play more cash, tournaments, or both?
- Risk of ruin tolerance :
Some players are aggressive (take shots earlier), others are conservative (wait for a deeper roll). It depends on your goals and mental game.
- Moving up and down :
Move up when you have enough buy-ins and are consistently winning.
Move down if you lose a set % of your bankroll (commonly 10–20%). This avoids going broke.
- Daily budget vs bankroll :
Some players like to cap what they risk daily (e.g., €5–10) to avoid emotional overspendi
ng, especially in MTTs.
primrose
Visionary
Bronze Level
Unfortunately there really is no such thing as a bankroll independent of your winrate. Jonathan Little has this table:
This is in BB rather than buy-ins, but online you'll buy in for 100 (unless you're playing on GGPoker, in which case it's 200), so you can divide by 100. Here, 20 buy-ins would be what you need if you'r ebeating the game for 25BB/100 hands. You're probably not beating the game for anywhere near as much though.
You could go lower than this because if it's just a hobby, it's fine to take a small risk. But still, if your real winrate is 3BB/100hands, then even if you half it, you're still at 50 buy-ins.
Also if you're a losing player, you're guaranteed to go broke regardless of your bankroll. Gotta mention this because some people on this site give me the impression that they think proper bankroll management can somehow work regardless of your level of play. This is not the case. You have to beat the game before bankroll even becomes a useful concept.
If you're playing online, you can figure out your winrate with e.g. PokerTracker.
This is in BB rather than buy-ins, but online you'll buy in for 100 (unless you're playing on GGPoker, in which case it's 200), so you can divide by 100. Here, 20 buy-ins would be what you need if you'r ebeating the game for 25BB/100 hands. You're probably not beating the game for anywhere near as much though.
You could go lower than this because if it's just a hobby, it's fine to take a small risk. But still, if your real winrate is 3BB/100hands, then even if you half it, you're still at 50 buy-ins.
Also if you're a losing player, you're guaranteed to go broke regardless of your bankroll. Gotta mention this because some people on this site give me the impression that they think proper bankroll management can somehow work regardless of your level of play. This is not the case. You have to beat the game before bankroll even becomes a useful concept.
If you're playing online, you can figure out your winrate with e.g. PokerTracker.
dreamer13
Legend
Loyaler
You just have to be careful not to go broke. The point of bankroll management is to play at stakes you can afford so you don't have to worry about going broke or going hungry.Bankroll management is for those who need to play constantly to make money or to shut up the voices in their head. If you can live with the fact that you will go broke and not be able to play until you save up, then it's okay. Just don't risk more than you can afford to lose.
F
fundiver199
Legend
Loyaler
This table is usefull in the sense, that it illustrate the importance of one of the variables, which is your (assumed) winrate. However standard variation also matter and will depend on, which game you play. Its higher for 6-max than full ring, and its higher for PLO than NLH. Standard deviation also depends on your play style and player pool tendencies.
And finally bankroll requirement depends on, what you define as an acceptable risk of ruin. Or if you are choosing between limits its probably more relevant to talk about an acceptable risk of having to move down more than one limit, since we can never eliminate the risk of having to move down one limit, unless we decide, that we will rather risk going broke than moving down.
To be honest I think, people sometimes get to bogged down in wondering about bankroll management, while they are still new to the game. Its important to at least understand the idea behind it, and why you should not play 25NL, if you only have $152 in your account and no plan or ability to reload it. Or for that matter most likely the skill level required to win at 25NL. But as long as we are talking about playing in the micros, people should be more focused on building their skills and then get to 10NL as fast as possible.
Playing in the micros it should not be that big of a deal to make an additional deposit if needed. Yet you see some people playing 100.000´s of hands at 2NL before even trying to move to 5NL, and honestly this is just a needless waste of time. And for live poker, if you are playing the cheapest game in your local casino, only play 1-2 times per week and have a regular job, that allow to set aside some additional money for poker if and when needed, you dont really need to have a full bankroll set aside for poker.
primrose
Visionary
Bronze Level
Yeah, I think that's the main point. If it's not a lot of money for you, then bankroll management as a whole just isn't a very useful concept because going broke isn't a big deal. Bankroll management only really makes sense to worry about if going broke is important to avoid. I agree that refusing to move up stakes out of principle isn't a good idea.
However, OP didn't specify how much money they have, so I'm reluctant to make assumptions. It doesn't matter how high the stakes are in absolute terms, only how much money it is for you. If it's serious for them, then bankroll management can make sense even at micro stakes.
janwar
Enthusiast
Silver Level
When I first started playing I didn’t think about bankroll at all. I’d just jump into whatever buy-in looked fun and of course ended up going broke a few times 😅. After that I started paying more attention and it honestly made a big difference. Now I try to keep like 50–100 buy-ins for tournaments, just so one bad night doesn’t wipe me out. It takes a bit of the stress away and I can just focus on playing better.
F
fundiver199
Legend
Loyaler
Bankroll management can make sense even at micro stakes but mainly as a tool to decide, which stakes to play, usually 2NL, 5NL or 10NL. Talking about, how much money you need to have to play 2NL, makes little sense, because regardless how poor you are, you will have SOME living expenses. Even if the money came from freerolls, its not like, freerolls seize to excist the moment, you sit down at a 2NL cash table. So "going broke" does not matter. It just mean, you are back, where you started, or you need to make another small deposit.
And even more importantly if you have never played cash games before, you dont know, if you are a winning player. And if that is not the case, as you stated yourself, it does not matter, if people start with $40 or $100 in their account. They will still end up losing that money, unless they manage to improve their skills, before it happen. Its only a question on, how long it will take, so asking the question "should I start with $40 or $100" is simply not important.