A poker bankroll is money reserved for poker that you can afford to lose. Choose stakes by comparing that amount with the cost of entering your game, then set a point at which you will move down or stop. Our poker betting guide explains the betting rounds and decisions within a hand.
Bankroll management controls how much money you expose to losses; it does not establish that your decisions are profitable. A recreational player with a fixed entertainment budget and a regular player trying to maintain a separate playing fund can reasonably use different plans.
What should my poker bankroll be?
Your poker bankroll should reflect your affordable budget, game format and tolerance for losses. There is no buy-in count that makes every player’s bankroll sufficient.
The Felt’s bankroll chart suggests 20–30 buy-ins for cash games and 100 or more for tournaments. Its cash examples assume a buy-in of 100 big blinds, where the big blind is the larger compulsory opening bet. These are planning guidelines, not guarantees or reasons to deposit more.
The Poker Bankroll Calculator also treats the bankroll as money separate from living expenses and investments, with stakes adjusted for results and risk tolerance.
An affordable budget comes first. If your preferred game requires more money than that budget supports, lower stakes or free practice are alternatives.
- Set aside an amount that can be lost without affecting essential spending.
- Identify the full entry cost for the game you intend to play.
- Divide your bankroll by that cost to count available entries.
- Choose a reserve target and write down when you will reassess it.
For an illustrative $600 bankroll, the arithmetic is:
| Cost of one entry | Entries covered by $600 |
|---|---|
| $10 | 60 |
| $20 | 30 |
| $30 | 20 |
OddsGuru calculations: bankroll divided by entry cost. These examples do not estimate the chance of losing the bankroll.
Before choosing a target, distinguish:
- Money available for poker now.
- Money earmarked for withdrawal.
- Future income that has not yet been allocated.
How much of a poker bankroll should you use per session?
A session budget is the amount you are prepared to lose during that visit or playing period. It is separate from your total bankroll and from the amount you bet on an individual hand.
For example, suppose a recreational player selects a $40 session limit from a $600 poker budget. With $20 entries, that permits two entries. The $40 is an illustrative personal limit, not a recommended percentage or a claim that two entries are safe.
Use a short procedure before starting:
- Set the maximum session spend and a finishing time.
- Count the full entry price, including any separately listed fee.
- Include possible repeat entries within the same spending limit.
- Record the result before deciding on another session.
Useful checks include:
- Does the displayed tournament price include its fee?
- Would another entry exceed the session allowance?
- Are several tables drawing from the same budget?
Within a hand, the amount worth calling depends on the price and your chance of winning; see poker pot odds explained. Choosing affordable stakes beforehand helps avoid relying on an oversized game and hoping every difficult decision will be cheap.
How do losing runs change your poker bankroll plan?
Losing runs reduce the number of entries your remaining bankroll can fund. The Poker Bankroll Calculator identifies short-term swings, including losses by winning players, as a reason to keep a dedicated reserve.
Those swings are often called variance: results fluctuate around their longer-term average. A reserve gives you room to absorb losses, but its size alone cannot show whether you are playing profitably.
Consider a hypothetical plan requiring 30 entries at the selected stake. At $20 per entry, $600 meets that target. After a $120 loss, $480 funds 24 entries. Moving to $10 entries would provide 48 entries. These are OddsGuru calculations, not a prediction of recovery.
Possible responses depend on the purpose of the fund:
- A recreational player may stop when the planned entertainment allowance is spent.
- A player maintaining a separate reserve may move down when their chosen threshold is crossed.
- Someone unable to find affordable stakes may pause and practise without money.
Withdrawals matter too. Taking $100 from a $600 bankroll leaves $500 available for play, even if the withdrawal followed a winning session. Recalculate from the remaining balance rather than the highest balance you previously reached.
How can you assess value in a poker session?
Assess value by separating the cost of playing from the quality of your decisions and the enjoyment you receive. A winning session does not, by itself, establish that the same choices will be profitable over time.
Keep a simple record:
- Game format and stakes.
- Total entries, fees and money returned.
- Session duration and decisions to review.
- Deposits and withdrawals recorded separately from playing results.
For learning value, choose a specific skill to review. Checking uncertain showdowns against poker hand rankings is more useful than changing stakes because a particular hand recently won.
For playing value, compare fees and entry requirements before committing money. A lower price reduces the cost of participation, but does not establish that you have an advantage over the other players.
Compare current betting odds.