Proper Bankroll for Tournaments

When playing poker tournaments, the most important thing is to manage a bankroll properly. If you over exude yourself you can leave yourself broke. This is obviously the last thing you want to happen. To avoid going broke you have to manage a poker bankroll correctly. You should almost never take a shot in a poker tournament if it risks more than 5% of your total bankroll. For example, if you decide to play a $10,000 buy-in tournament with only $100,000 total, you are going to be broke very soon if you continue down that path. If you play tournaments, you should play tournaments with less than 1% of your total bankroll ideally. This will allow you to never think about the money and will make you play to win more times than not. If you think about the money, you will be in bad shape in the long run. The only thing you should think of is slowly building up a bankroll and playing your best.

Poker bankrolls are very swingy depending on how good or how well you run in poker tournaments. A lot of the time you can run very bad for an extended period of time and then all of a sudden win a bunch of tournaments in a row. Having confidence along with a proper bankroll will help you make money when playing tournament poker in the long run. Tournament poker is very tough because there are a ton of players who seek to be the best and there are a ton of good tournament players out there. Sometimes even the best players in the world go broke though because they play tournaments that are too high for them. Most players think that because they did well in a lower buy-in tournament that you will have immediate success when playing higher stakes. This just isn’t the case because poker is a lifetime game. If you play poker every day for a whole lifetime, you should realize that the reason you still have made money is because you have managed your bankroll well, along with gotten lucky in a tournament or two.

The hardest part of managing a bankroll is getting started. If you have a small amount of money to play with, you will definitely have a lot of trouble making money. Most players in the past will tell you that they have deposited $50-$100 numerous times online before they had success. Getting a bankroll is half the battle of managing a bankroll. Managing a bankroll is very difficult if you haven’t got a lot of money to play poker with. You will find yourself in a constant struggle if you haven’t got a big bankroll to play poker with. The best way to not go broke is to have money for real life and money for poker. It can be detrimental to your life if you play poker with a small amount of money, or you play high limits with a short bankroll.

Once you have a proper bankroll for tournaments your life will be much easier and you will play with more confidence. Having confidence playing poker will make winners out of losers. This means basically that you can lose for a long period of time, win one tournament, then have so much confidence because you now have more money to play poker with. You now have the option to play bigger buy-in events, and the chance to win bigger amounts of money. This is a common trend and trap that losing players fall into and is a reason why losing players will always be losing players. If you want to win in the long term you have to manage your money. If you fail to you will be back in the poor house. Long term tournament poker winners sometimes have only had one or two big scores that have held them over for an extended period of time, but the reason they are still able to play is because they didn’t drastically jump up to play events that are above their ability. If you play poker tournaments that you feel you have an edge in, no matter what the buy-in, you will probably make money playing those games. This goes back to playing with comfort and also playing with confidence. Comfort and confidence will allow you to make progress and build your poker bankroll.