Money
Poker bankroll management: enough money to survive variance
A bankroll is money set aside for poker only. Its size sets the stake you can play without a losing streak ending your game. The rules below are not about caution but arithmetic: without a reserve even a winning player goes broke.
- twenty buy-ins and upcash
- fifty and uptournaments
- a hundred and upspins
- $0.01/$0.02lowest GGPoker table
A bankroll is a separate sum for play, unrelated to living expenses. Reserve guidelines: at least twenty buy-ins for cash, fifty for tournaments, a hundred for spins and other high-variance formats. Move down a stake as soon as the reserve falls below the threshold; move up when it exceeds the next stake's threshold with room to spare.
What a bankroll is and is not
Not "what sits on the room balance" but the sum you consciously allocated to poker and can lose entirely without consequences. Salary, savings and credit are not a bankroll. A deposit is a way of moving part of the bankroll onto the account, not the bankroll itself.
How much per stake
| Format | Reserve | Example at the lowest GGPoker table |
|---|---|---|
| Cash, Rush & Cash | twenty buy-ins and up | $0.01/$0.02, buy-in $1 - twenty dollars |
| All-In or Fold | thirty and up: higher variance | $0.05/$0.10 - a few dozen dollars |
| Tournaments | fifty and up | GGMasters at $25 - well over a thousand dollars |
| Spin & Gold, Flip & Go | a hundred and up | spins at $0.25 - twenty-five dollars |
These are guidelines for a player who breaks even or wins over the long run. For a losing player a bankroll only stretches the loss, so the first question is not "how much" but "am I winning", answered by stats over thousands of hands.
Moving up and down
Move up when the bankroll covers the next stake with a margin and results at the current one are positive over a long sample. Move down the moment the reserve drops below the threshold - no "one more session". That single rule separates a player with a bankroll from a player with money on an account; tilt after a loss is its main enemy, and client limits are the best workaround.
Technical limits
The client profile lets you cap deposits per period, time at the tables and self-exclude. They work against impulse: today you decide the monthly cap, and tomorrow the client will not let you exceed it. Responsible play: Responsible gaming.
Rakeback as part of the bankroll
At micro stakes rake eats a real share of winnings, and getting part of it back is money to count. Ocean Rewards returns 16% at the start and up to 80% at the top; a micro-stakes regular reaches Crab at 30%. Your own rate: GGPoker rakeback.
Keep reading
Learn
How to play poker from scratch: hand rankings, Texas hold'em and Omaha rules, short deck, bankroll management - with a plan that takes you to a first real-money table.
Rakeback
GGPoker rakeback through Ocean Rewards: what each tier returns, how Tide Points are earned, what GEMs are and how they convert, when a tier expires and how much rake each step needs.
Cashier
How a poker room cashier works: deposit routes, the closed-loop withdrawal rule, processing times, verification before payout, review thresholds and instalment payouts - with GGPoker's numbers.
GGPoker games
GGPoker game formats: Rush & Cash, All-In or Fold, Spin & Gold, Flip & Go, Mystery Battle Royale plus classic hold'em, Omaha and short deck. What suits a beginner, where rake is lower and how the formats complement each other.
A bankroll starts at the lowest stake
Open a GGPoker account: tables from $0.01/$0.02 let you build a proper buy-in reserve from a small sum.