How much to buy-in with

Know-nuffin · How much to buy-in with

I guess with differing bankrolls everyones $ buy-in amount will vary.

I have a few dollars splashed around a number of site.

Can anyone give me advice on what percent of my bankroll I can invest into a MTT or SnG tourney, and cash table.

Should I take into account my total bankroll only or would keeping an eye on the individual site total also be wise.

DangerMouse

The general guidelines for tournies are 100 buy-ins at the level you intend to play. I followed this rule when I first began playing and it`s served me well. I`m not sure what the official line is for sngs but I`d say a minimum of 20 buy-ins with 30-50 being more reasonable.

For cash games you`re looking at 30-40 buy-ins for NL and at least 200 BB for FL.

It really depends if your bankroll is a seperate entity. If you don`t mind reloading then you can afford to take bigger shots knowing you won`t be broke at the end of it. If your bankroll is all you have for playing then the above guidelines should keep you safe.

The same goes for sites, if you can re-load then just play within the above limits and don`t worry about going broke on that site.

Miklosik

I have an e-wallet, and that is what I consider my bankroll. I don't pay much attention to the amount of money on any particular site. I hardly ever play cash games online because I can go to the local B&M for that. I do not keep a ton of money on any site because you never know how solvent they are. My general rule of thump(b) is to spend no more than 3% on a tourney unless there is a huge overlay in which case I may go as high as 8%.

Know-nuffin

Thanks Neil.

I'm working on something to add to our excel spread sheet, that will help push me in the right direction. You seem to have similar thoughts as I have been coming around to.

I'm a little confused though by

BlackTyson

Talking about BR management is greek to me - as I never been a "highroller"

All points MightyMouse made are completely understandable and make sense and should be the guidelines for players that just have started or are in trouble with their BR.

For me there is no reason to follow these rules.

I'm playing my favourite tournaments on my fav sites - adding some special tournaments like summerchamps @ Carbon and thats it.

I can also name 'em - PLOM up to 4,40$ , Ladies only tournaments, NLHE up to 3,30$, cash tables - only Limit Holdem stakes 0,25/0,50, and SnG's up to 5,50$ <<<---- this all is within your given percentages of the BR until I make a withdraw

.
When I do a withdraw - I'll most likely make a deposit short after to get a reload bonus again

and so on...........

DangerMouse

Know-nuffin

Thank you for that.

On face value the difference between the NL and FL look very large, (even with them being very different games).

Niti's point about playing at a proven successful level is really important as is playing at a level that you are comfortable with.

I do like the idea of assigning $50 to a higher level.

I am getting close to putting a table together using some of DM's ideas, some of mine and mixing it with the formula Chris Ferguson used in his bid to earn $10k from nothing.

Still wanting more opinions and advice.

How do you usually decide what level you buy-in at.

Do many players keep doing what is familiar/successful.

Arjonius

A few thoughts on this topic area. First off, I consider my bankroll to be all the money I'm willing to use to play poker. So I only have one bankroll, which includes money on various sites, in my e-wallet. It also includes money currently in my pocket or bank that I'm willing to play with.

I don't choose my level of play based on my bankroll. I just use it as a guideline for the highest level I can play. So for example, if my guideline for ring games is to have at least 20x the buyin and my roll is $2000+, it means I'll play up to NL 100. But at any given time, if I feel like playing NL 10 or 25 or 50, that's what I'll do.

This one doesn't really apply to me since I'm a low-variance player, but if you're not - or if you're playing a game that has higher variance - you may want to consider adjusting your guideline accordingly. For instance, instead of 20x as above, 30x ore even more might be appropriate.

Moving up in levels isn't the only option. You might make more per hour by playing more tables at your current level, and with smaller downswings.

Know-nuffin

Thanks to those who have helped me with my ideas on this thread.

From there, I have added a webpage titled Bankroll management to our sister site.

If you have any comments on the page, I'd be happy to learn from them.

Mad4Cards

a question I have never had a satisfactory anwer to is.... how does this all change when multi tabling?

addam00 · hi

I really dont pay attention to bankroll because most of my money comes from freeroll... all tho i just see how much I can make from a freeroll.. i like to start with small but and then go big kinda like a rounder thing..

DangerMouse

Know-nuffin

DangerMouse

It really doesn`t make a difference. Let`s say I have a bankroll of around $1,200 and I`m playing $10 tournies. Until my bankroll drops below $1,000 it doesn`t matter if I choose to play single tournies or multiple tournies the percentage I`m risking is still in my zone.

The only time it would change was if I was multi-tabling ring games and the combined losses at the table dropped me below the figure I needed to be playing those limits.. So if I was playing $25 NLHE, bankroll of $1,050 and I was playing 6 tables and I lose a total across the tables of say $100 then technically I`m now playing too high for my roll and should drop down a level until I get back to over $1,000.

As long as you are comfortable multi-tabling it really doesn`t make any difference.

BlackTyson

We have been multi tabling a lot and as I said somewhere above - stay at your limits and its ok - the only thing that changes is your life , healthy .......
It just sucks when you are playing 10 tables for 8 hours a day

zarger11

To be honest...when Chris Ferguson was doing his "Zero to 10K" challenge, he used some very good BR rules that oyu can follow. I have been doing well with these rules....

So how’d he do it?
Starting with nothing but a Full Tilt Poker account, Chris played in Freerolls until he earned enough to graduate to games with a real-money buy-in. From there, Chris built up his bankroll by adhering to this strict set of guidelines:

He never buys into a cash game or a Sit & Go with more than 5 percent of his total bankroll (there is an exception for the lowest limits: he is allowed to buy into any game with a buy-in of $2.50 or less).
He doesn’t buy into a multi-table tournament for more than 2 percent of his total bankroll, but he’s allowed to buy into any multi-table tournament that costs $1.
If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of his total bankroll, he must leave the game when the blinds reach him.
As you can see on the next chart, getting started wasn’t easy. In fact, it took more than seven months of steady play until he got his bankroll to stabilize at about $6.50.

you can see the chart at: http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/chris-ferguson-challenge

Mad4Cards

I mutli table ring games to spread the risk and generate rake...

Arjonius

In terms of multi-tabling, there may be some impact depending on how and how well you play as you increase the number of tables. For instance, let's say you're using a guideline of 20x the buyin. If you play one table, you could use 5% of your total roll. Numerically, you could play 20 tables, with 5% of your roll on each one.

In practice however, as you increase the number of tables, your per-table EV will decrease. So assuming you set the 20x guideline based on your EV and being buffered against variance when you're playing one table, you may want to make some adjustment because your per table EV is lower. In practice, this isn't likely to matter unless you play quite a few tables.