Hey folks! I decided today, after playing several SnG's and having a fairly good time/outcome that I wanted to give something bad to the poker community. I am by no means a professional player, but I have been playing,
alot, during the past three months and recently I have begun to rapidly excel in it. I took my bankroll from 130$ four weeks ago, to roughly 800$ today.
Enough about me bragging. Hah, I wish that sentence was true. The reality is that when I started playing, I lost about 350$ to Poker. So a true net gain would only be about 400$. Still really good I think.
Anyways, lets begin. This article is targeted towards players with a flimsy (low) bankroll. Anywhere from 25$ to 200$ is about right (for starting off). I will also cover ring game bankroll management, and SnG bankroll management.
Deposits
Let's cover deposits. I think to even stay alive in the game, especially for a true beginner, your deposit should be minimum 50$. To scrape that together shouldn't be TOO difficult. Anything lower and you'll be gone, really soon and will have to reload. Most poker sites have a minimum (which is usually 25$-50$).
Ring Games
If you deposit 50$ and decide to play ring games, stick to a site that has .10c/.05c NL or Limit (whichever one you play). No-Limit would obviously be a little bit riskier, you'd probably have to reload unless you have some decent knowledge of the game. If you deposit about 200$, you can easily go ahead and hit the .25c tables.
Personally I took 120$, deposited it. Went on tilt because of something I found out about the site which I did not like at all, ended up going down to 30$. And from there, the next day, I took the 30$, sat down with 20$ at a .25c table, and grinded back up and over to 200$ in about three days.
If you start off with 50$, sit down at a .10c table with 10$. That way, if you bust, you have four more tries. If you make at any session, more than 10$, withdraw at least 5$. This way if you sit down with 10$, grind up to say, 16$, withdraw about 3$. Now you'll have money that you WON'T touch, unless you ABSOLUTELY have to, and you'll have a slightly larger bankroll.
Of course most sites won't let you take out 3$, they have minimums. That's the beauty of PokerStars

, they let you withdraw almost anything.
Say you have 200$, and are playing the .25c NL tables. I usually go up to around 35-40$ before I stop playing at a table. At this level also, be sure to reload if you take a bad beat.
For example, say you get drawn out on and you're down to 8$ from 25$, if you get a monster, you can only double that (unless you get lucky to have more players). But if you reload and catch a monster, you can double up to 50$.
Now the withdraw theory on the .25c tables is this, if you get up to 35$ or more, say you get to 37$, you can easily withdraw 5$. Now you're still up to 7$ on your bankroll. Keep building and you'll have a steady bankroll at no time, maybe you'll even be playing with all profit instead of your own money!
Sit and Go's
OK, slightly more easier concept here. Most sites have smaller SnG's than 5$, but I think these are the only REALLY profitable ones, 5$ and up. (10 Man of course).
For these SnG's (5$) you'd want about 75-100$ AT LEAST to start. (I started with 50$ and luckily got up to 125$ but not everyone is as lucky as my lucky ass is haha).
If you place in 1st, you'll get your buy-in back along with about 20$ (depending on rake). So now you basically have a "free roll" into 4 more tournaments.
Even second place get's 15$, which is two "free rolls" into other tournaments. When I place in first, I put 5$ away as winnings. If I place second, I don't put any away, only when I place first. This way you'll see your bankroll hopefully grow and also have extra cash saved up (along with cash you saved from ring games).
Soon enough, you'll be playing with just your profit. If you deposit 50$ and grind up to about 125$, you can take out about 25$, then once you hit 150$-200$, you can take out 50$, and now you've got your 50$ back and 25$ extra dollars (along with your online bankroll!).
Two Bankrolls
The theories I put in, have two bankrolls. One online bankroll, and one saved up bankroll (poker winnings).
I use firepay, so whenever I make first place or money in cash games, I withdraw and keep it in my FirePay account. This is SAVED MONEY which I do not touch or consider as part of my bankroll, I consider it as a part of my "winnings".
As my online bankroll for POKER grows, my winnings slowly grow along with it. Now of course, everyone has bad beats, but your bankroll should still be strong enough to withstand some hits.
Conclusion
Thats it! Any comments and feedback is appreciated!
Peace,
Leon