When I started playing poker en ligne, I thought the key to winning was only about strategy, tells, and bluffing. 😎 Pretty quickly, I learned the hard way that the real foundation of long-term success is something a lot less glamourous: bankroll management. If you don’t protect your money, même avec un excellent niveau de jeu, tu finiras broke. In this article, I’ll walk you through how I manage my bankroll online, the rules I follow, and how you can adapt those same principles to your own game.
What is a poker bankroll and why it matters so much
Your bankroll is the total amount of money you dedicate exclusively to playing poker. It’s not your rent money, not your food budget, not the cash you need for your next vacation. It’s your “poker capital”, a working tool just like chips on a live table. 💵
When I sit down to play online, I see each decision not just as “Do I win this pot?” but “How does this decision impact my bankroll over hundreds or thousands of sessions?”. With a solid bankroll strategy, I can:
- Absorb bad runs of cards without panicking
- Play my A-game instead of going on tilt
- Move up in stakes in a structured, sustainable way
- Protect myself from going bust even during extreme downswings
Without bankroll management, variance will eventually crush you, no matter how good you are. With it, even a modest edge can turn into serious long-term gains. 📈
Separating poker money from real-life money
The first thing I always advise new players to do is mentally (and ideally physically) separate poker money from everyday life money.
Here’s how I handle it personally:
- I decide on an amount I can comfortably afford to lose without impacting my life (no stress, no regrets).
- I deposit that money on one or multiple poker sites and treat it as “business capital”.
- I never reload impulsively just because I tilted or had a bad session.
- If I need more poker funds, I plan it like an investment, not like plugging an emotional leak.
This clear separation keeps me rational. If you’re playing with money you need for bills, you’ll be scared to lose, you’ll avoid good plays because they feel “too risky”, and ironically, you’ll end up losing more.
Bankroll rules for cash games
Let’s start with cash games, because that’s where I’ve spent a huge part of my poker career. For online cash games, I follow a simple but strict rule:
Always have at least 25 to 50 full buy-ins for the stake you’re playing.
Examples:
- NL2 (0.01€/0.02€) – full buy-in is 2€. I want a bankroll of at least 50€ to 100€.
- NL10 (0.05€/0.10€) – full buy-in is 10€. I want 250€ to 500€.
- NL50 (0.25€/0.50€) – full buy-in is 50€. I want 1,250€ to 2,500€.
If I’m playing very aggressively or on a tough site with strong regs, I lean towards the higher end (40–50 buy-ins). If the player pool is soft and I’m very confident in my edge, I sometimes allow myself to go closer to 25–30 buy-ins, but I always keep an eye on variance.
Why so many buy-ins? Because downswings of 10+ buy-ins happen regularly, even to strong winning players. I’ve had stretches where I lost 20 buy-ins despite playing some of my best poker. With a deep bankroll, I can handle it, stay calm, and keep grinding.
Bankroll rules for tournaments (MTT) and Sit & Go
Tournaments have much higher variance than cash games. You can play your best, bust 30 tournaments in a row, and still be doing everything right. That’s why I’m much more conservative with my MTT bankroll.
For regular MTTs, I usually aim for:
- At least 100 buy-ins for very soft low-stakes fields
- 150–200 buy-ins for most standard online schedules
- 300+ buy-ins for high-variance formats (turbo, hyper, big fields)
Some examples:
- If I want to play 5€ MTTs regularly, I like to have at least 500€ to 1,000€ dedicated to that format.
- For 10€ turbo MTTs, I’d be more comfortable around 1,500€ to 3,000€.
For Sit & Go and Spin & Go formats, variance is also significant, especially with jackpots and hyper-turbo structures. I tend to keep:
- 50–100 buy-ins for standard single-table Sit & Go
- 100–200 buy-ins for Spins and hyper-turbo Sit & Go
It may sound excessive, but if you want your gains to be truly sustainable and not just the result of a few lucky scores, you need this kind of cushion. 🎯
When to move up… and when to move down
Moving up in stakes is exciting; moving down feels like a defeat. I’ve gone through both, and I can tell you: the players who survive long-term are the ones who are humble enough to move down quickly when needed.
Here’s how I manage my limits:
- I move up when I have at least the required number of buy-ins for the higher stake and I feel my winrate at the current stake is solid and stable over a significant sample.
- I move down as soon as my bankroll drops below the safe threshold for my current limit.
Example for cash games:
- I’m playing NL10 with 500€ (50 buy-ins).
- My bankroll drops to 300€ after a bad run.
- 300€ = 30 buy-ins of NL10, which is still playable, but I might choose to go back to NL5 to rebuild more safely.
This flexibility protects me from disaster and from the emotional pressure of playing “too high for my roll”. When I move down, I see it as a strategic adjustment, not a personal failure. I’m just preserving my business capital.
Stop-loss and stop-win: ending your session at the right time
Online, it’s dangerously easy to keep clicking “Sit back in” or “Register” when you should really log off. To avoid spewing money when I’m tired or tilted, I use simple rules like:
- A stop-loss (for example, 3–4 buy-ins lost in a session for cash games).
- A mental tilt check: if I’m angry, chasing losses, or playing faster, I quit.
I’m more flexible about stop-win, because sometimes I’m crushing a table and it’s correct to stay. But I never forget that the goal isn’t to win “today”; the goal is to make good decisions that will pay off over thousands of hours.
Tracking results and using tools 📊
Managing a bankroll blindly is like trying to play poker without looking at the cards. I always track my sessions and results. That’s how I know if I’m really winning or just running hot.
What I personally do:
- I use tracking software (like Hold’em Manager or PokerTracker) to monitor my cash game and tournament results.
- I keep an eye on key stats: winrate, ROI, number of tournaments played, etc.
- I periodically review my graph to understand how big my downswings can be in each format.
If you’re more casual, you can simply keep a spreadsheet or even a notebook with:
- Date of session
- Format (cash, MTT, S&G, Spin, etc.)
- Stakes / buy-ins
- Profit or loss
Over time, you’ll see patterns: which formats suit you best, which stakes are toughest, and how volatile your results are. This helps you decide how strict your bankroll rules need to be.
The mental side of bankroll management
For me, the biggest benefit of a healthy bankroll isn’t just financial; it’s psychological. When I’m rolled properly:
- I’m not scared money. I can 3-bet light or hero-call when the spot is right.
- I don’t obsess over each individual session; I think in terms of “long run”.
- I tilt less because a bad day is just a tiny fraction of my overall roll.
On the other hand, when you play too high for your bankroll, even the best decisions feel stressful. You second-guess yourself, avoid variance, and end up playing a weaker, more passive style. That fear costs you far more than any theoretical “shot-taking” upside.
Cash-outs: turning online chips into real money
Managing a bankroll doesn’t just mean protecting it; it also means knowing when to take money off the site and enjoy your winnings. 🎉
Here’s how I handle cash-outs:
- I set a target reserve bankroll for each stake I play.
- Whenever my roll goes comfortably above that level, I take part of the surplus out as profit.
- I avoid cashing out so much that I drop below safe bankroll thresholds.
Example: If I want 2,000€ to safely grind my current schedule, and my bankroll reaches 2,600€, I might withdraw 400–500€ and keep 2,100–2,200€ online as operating capital.
This way, poker actually pays for things in real life, while my grind remains protected. It also feels great psychologically to “lock in” some of your online success.
Final thoughts on building sustainable gains
At the end of the day, I see my online poker bankroll like a small business. My goal isn’t to double it overnight; it’s to grow it steadily, protect it during storms, and make smart decisions based on math, not emotions.
If you:
- Separate poker money from everyday life
- Respect conservative buy-in rules for each format
- Move up and down in stakes with discipline
- Track your results and monitor your mental game
…you’ll be far ahead of most players clicking buttons at random, chasing luck instead of managing risk. The cards will always bring variance; your bankroll strategy is what turns that chaos into a long-term opportunity. ♠️♥️♣️♦️