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How to Play Better Poker by Building Your Own Bankroll Management Strategy

Ah, the question "How to play better poker", many things are required but in this article I will focus on one thing and that is the art of proper money management in poker.

Start by defining your purpose, your goal. How much risk would you like to take? If you're a beginner, I would recommend having around 30 buy-ins for the next level before you move up.

So if you're playing $200 NL and have $12,000 you could take a shot at $400 NL because then you would have 30 buy-ins for $400 NL.

Why Do I Recommend This?

Why do I recommend a strategy like this? Because it is not all about how fast you move up, and there's also a learning curve in poker. And if you let yourself follow a bit more conservative strategy, it means that you will be at a limit a bit longer. What that will do is you will learn more and have more experience as you move up to the higher limit.

But it is ultimately up to you how you learn to play poker, if you want to be extremely aggressive and only have 20 buy-ins for the next level. You could do that but I recommend having at least 30 buy-ins for the next level.

You could even go in the opposite direction and have 40 or 50 buy-ins for the next level. There's no rush, if you're having fun while playing, then all is good.

Many recommend you play X amount of hands at a limit and that's a fine way to go about it, too. I don't think it matters that much because if you lose your shot at the higher limit, you just move down and keep on winning the money back and trying again.

Eventually you'll adapt and become a bigger and bigger winner at the higher level.

Let's say you just want to start with a $100 bankroll, then that is 20 buy-ins for $5 NL, which exists somewhere, because I think most sites have micro-stakes like that. And that's how I got started, and I think it is a good way to start low.

Why?

Because at the lower limits, you just have to play fundamentally solid poker and that is what you should be focusing on first, as game selection isn't that important at the lower limits. What happens then is that you get to focus on a few aspects at a time, which is good, and as you move up, more and more aspects come into play and it is kind of like a natural evolution.

Remember to keep it simple. Decide how much risk you want to take, 20, 30, 50 buy-ins for the next level…it's all good.

Then make rules and write them down and make them specific so you do not fall into the trap of rationalizing around them and hurting your bottom line, fooling yourself is not the way to learn how to play better poker.

If you need help on how to play better poker, or anything else, send me a request or question if you want a specific article written and I'll see what I can do!

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