Building A Bankroll - Tips For Playing Smart Poker

Bankroll management and how to build a bankroll is the most overlooked part of poker. There are millions of people playing online poker every day and in my opinion, I believe 99% of them are playing higher limits than may be practical. When you deposit money into an online poker room, you will see that the minimum deposit is $10-$20. If you deposit $20, do you know what levels you should be playing?

Many professionals recommend that you buy-in to tournaments with no more than 5% of your total bankroll. This is especially true for Texas Holdem Sit-n-Go's. So for a $20 bankroll, you should be playing in the $1 SNG's and no more!

This gives you plenty of wiggle room if you have a losing streak. No one wins consistently all of the time. You WILL have losing streaks. If you have bought in at $5, you're broke after 4 losses. At $1 you will still have 16 chances to win. That's 16 more opportunities to practice your strategy and 16 more opportunities to win a few bucks back.

If at this point you are thinking that is stupid and a waste of your time, that's great, the rest of us will keep taking your money at the tables. What most amateurs don't realize is that most professionals avid by a similar strategy.

Why would they want to risk everything on one session or tournament. That would be just plain stupid. You should always diversify as they say in the investment world, but it plays in poker also.

In order to survive the long droughts of not winning use this as a rule of thumb: Don't use more than 5 percent of your bankroll for any one buy-in.