Building and Maintaining a Bankroll
Building and maintaining a bankroll is the lesson Paul Wasicka contributed to the site, and it remains the least glamorous, most important skill in poker. A bankroll is not winnings; it is working capital that absorbs variance so that no single session can end a career.
The core rule is separation: poker money lives apart from rent money. Once the two mix, every downswing becomes a life problem and every decision at the table gets fear attached to it.
- Keep at least 20 buy-ins for cash games and 100 for tournaments.
- Move down a limit after losing three buy-ins at the current one.
- Move up only after a sample of winning sessions, not after one good week.
- Record every session: stakes, hours, result and one lesson learned.
| Format | Minimum bankroll | Comfortable bankroll |
|---|---|---|
| Limit cash games | 300 big bets | 500 big bets |
| No-limit cash games | 20 buy-ins | 40 buy-ins |
| Sit and go | 50 buy-ins | 100 buy-ins |
| Multi-table tournaments | 100 buy-ins | 200 buy-ins |
Variance is the reason the numbers look conservative. Even winning players face downswings of twenty buy-ins, and a properly funded player treats such a stretch as weather, not as a verdict on skill.
Maintenance is a habit, not a milestone. Regular reviews, honest bookkeeping and the willingness to drop stakes keep the bankroll growing slowly and steadily, which is precisely how professionals like Ram Vaswani survived decades on the tournament circuit.