MANAGING YOUR MONEY in TEXAS HOLD'EM POKER
Good money management is essential to being a successful poker player, especially for a full-time poker player. Never play with money you can't afford to lose, and never play higher limits than your bankroll allows.
A general guideline for how big your bankroll needs to be is that it should be at least 200 to 300 big bets at the level which you are playing at. If you are playing $0.50/1 games, your bankroll needs to be at least $200. A winning player expects to have losing streaks and prepares for them. Of course, for losing players, there is no limit to the size of the bankroll they need.
As you increase your bankroll, you can steadily move to higher limit games. If for example you start at the $0.50/1 games with $200 and steadily increase your bankroll to $400, you can start to think about playing the $1/2 games. If your bankroll ever decreases to 100 big bets or less, you should move back down in the limits that you play at.
A mistake that many players make is to play bigger games in order to make up for their losses. Always remember that if you are losing money at your current limit, then you will most likely lose money at a higher limit. The process to becoming a good poker player is a slow one. Even Howard Lederer started out at $2/4 games and lost money for at least a year before he was able to start moving up in limits.
Most casinos don't offer games lower than the $2/4 level. However, many online poker rooms offer games as low as $0.10/.20. With a deposit of $40 to $50 , you can start learning poker with very little at risk.
We recommend that, for the player who wants to learn the game of Texas
Holdem online, you read and follow the advice given in our 10-Step
Plan for Mastering Texas Holdem section.
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