Bankroll management with 600$

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LeChatPotte

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Hello,

I would like to get your opinion actually I currently have $600 and I would like to know how to manage my bankroll for poker tournaments. However, I do not want to multi-table; I want to focus on a single table. And since the winnings are huge in the $10 tournaments, I thought maybe I could switch between the $10 and $5 tournaments.

I hear a lot of stories about professional poker players who start playing poker with $200 and play in $10 tournaments, so why not me?
 
G0930

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I'd say 5 bucks buy in in avg are perfect for that bankroll.
I guess 10 is also ok but the "golden rule" would be 1 % of the bankroll. Safest way but less fun xD
 
thedarkman

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The rule of thumb is to have at least100 buy-ins. Check out the Jonathan Little YouTube channel. He started with $50 and never looked back, but don't get the idea you can do the same.
 
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LeChatPotte

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The rule of thumb is to have at least100 buy-ins. Check out the Jonathan Little YouTube channel. He started with $50 and never looked back, but don't get the idea you can do the same.
But how should I play my 100 buy-ins because my 600 euros represent my entire bankroll. If I lose my 600 euros, I lose everything.

Is this what players usually do
 
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LeChatPotte

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I'd say 5 bucks buy in in avg are perfect for that bankroll.
I guess 10 is also ok but the "golden rule" would be 1 % of the bankroll. Safest way but less fun xD
Okay so I will stay on 5$ but do you think for improved my learn I should play multi tabling ?
I'm feeling good with 2 table max but 3 is a little bit difficult
 
G0930

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Okay so I will stay on 5$ but do you think for improved my learn I should play multi tabling ?
I'm feeling good with 2 table max but 3 is a little bit difficult
If you're profit oriented it's beneficial to be able to multitable. But I don't particularly like it either. Small games like 25c mtts or battle royale I can play 7 at once .

More meaningful games I reduce it to 3 tables max. Mostly only 2 .

If you're playing just 4 fun , go with the flow, whatever number of tables feels good.
 
rhoudini

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Keep in mind that 100 buy-ins for MTT tournaments depends on a lot of factors!! First, it assumes you can beat the game with a great ROI. It also assumes that you are playing small field tournaments. If this is not true for you, you should lower your average buy-in and play with 200 or even 300 buy-ins.

For example, assuming you have $125 and you want to play tournaments of $1.10 buy-in, 11% rake and average field of 400 players and 50 get paid. Let's assume you want to play 1,000 tourneys and your ROI is 20% (it assumes you can beat the game with ease).

With this 113 buy-ins bankroll, you still have a 16% chance of going broke! You also have 17% chance of being negative after 1,000 games!
To have a 1% risk of ruin you should have a 268 buy-ins bankroll for these parameters!
The main question becomes: what is the risk you want to take? What are your skills?

My recommendation is that you visit primedope.com and play with their tournament variance calculator.
You might get surprised by the numbers. Variance can be very large in MTTs!!
 
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fundiver199

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As rhoudine say, the theory behind bankroll management is to reduce the risk of ruin for a winning player to an acceptable level. So lets say we want to play cash games in a local casino 2-3 nights per week, and the cheapest game has $1/$3 blinds. Then if we make an educated guess about our winrate and variance, we can calculate, how much money (bankroll), we need to set aside to be reasonably sure, we dont need to stop playing, because we run out of money. Maybe if we decide, that we can only accept a 1% risk of ruin, we need $12.000 (4.000BB), but if we can accept a 10% risk of ruin, we only need $6.000 (2.000BB).

However in online poker most people do it the other way around. They let the size of their bankroll determine, which games they play, which also mean, they move up and down. And then bankroll management is not about controlling the risk of ruin, but rather about controlling the size of swings. So if you can accept larger swings, then maybe its fine to only have something like 50BIs for the most expensive games, you play, especially if you also play cheaper games to keep your average buyin down. So in this example you can play $10 tournaments now, but if you drop below $500, you have to stop.

You just need to be aware, that more aggressive bankroll management means larger swings. So if you would feel really devastated, if your $600 becomes $150 or even $300, then aggressive bankroll management is a bad idea. And the truth is, most people only like variance, when it goes their way. The majority tends to tilt, when they lose a significant portion of their bankroll, and then they either donk the rest of it away or stop playing.

Finally as rhoudine also said, field size matter for tournaments. The advice about 100BIs is tailored to small field MTTs, lets say 50-300 players. For single table SnGs you can get away with less, and if you mainly play large field MTTs (>300 player), you might want to consider something even more conservative than 100 BIs. Personally I use 50 BIs for SnGs and 100 BIs for MTTs with an occational "shot" above those limits. This has worked well for me for several years, but for other people other numbers might be better :)
 
andron205

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you need to play not only those with enough entries, but where you can win more
 
neptunas888

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In theory, with a bankroll of $600, you need to play tournaments for $5.5 and cash nl5 maximum.
 
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fundiver199

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Well, if it’s less than 100 bi then it’s considered aggressive bankroll management
That is for MTTs not cash games. With $600 a cash game player should be playing 10NL and can even take a few shots at 20/25 NL, if he wants to.
 
Atararo14

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The notion of return on investment in MTT is very important, and to generate this ROI you have to play a significant number of tournaments.

Playing a single tournament is not enough to achieve this objective, which is why it is advisable to multi-table.

For good bankroll management, I think 200 buy-ins are enough to start the adventure.
 
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bababooey

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I would say 100 buy ins would be good so wouldn't look to play higher than $5 but you will have to see how it goes as you might bink early but just as likely to go on a bad run.

Playing one table means you can concentrate more but you will always get the bad beats so could get frustrating with only one table.
 
Marshmalo1994

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Hello,

I would like to get your opinion actually I currently have $600 and I would like to know how to manage my bankroll for poker tournaments. However, I do not want to multi-table; I want to focus on a single table. And since the winnings are huge in the $10 tournaments, I thought maybe I could switch between the $10 and $5 tournaments.

I hear a lot of stories about professional poker players who start playing poker with $200 and play in $10 tournaments, so why not me?
What kind of games are you used to play? As I don't know you yet, I guess that it depends on your knowledge and experience.

IMO, if you already have some experience playing and have a good strategy knowledge $5 Buy in mtts would be a good challenge. Maybe you can try play them for a while, and watch your results.
If you are a new player, I'd recommend you to play $1 and $2 (if you are willing to spend that ammount) while you study the basics at the same time.
 
kaynbergo

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I agree with the above 100 buy-ins, this is the best bankroll manager, but sometimes I mix tournaments with a large buy-in, in your case I think tournaments from $5 to $15 will be just right
 
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dompoker

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With 600 dollars you can play 10 dollar tournaments, I hope you can double the 600 dollars and reach 1200.
 
R.Melnyk77

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I think you should try it, especially since your $600 bankroll clearly allows you to do so. 5 dollars is less than one percent of your bankroll, so if you don't spend more than 3% per evening, i.e. no more than 15 dollars, then in my opinion it will be a completely safe game.
 
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Sparta77

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Nyugodtan tedd félre a papírformát. Meg tudod csinálni, ha 5 dolláros versenyeken játszol. Azt hiszem, neked minden jó.
 
hardongear

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I can answer the why not for you. Cause only about 5-10% of total players are actually winners long term. Not trying to be negative just presenting something to think about. And as I player who's been around 20+ years before Moneymaker it's not near as easy as it once was. Back then it was like taking candy from a baby. That's not near the case anymore.

That's all the bad news. Now for the bright side. Poker in 2024 is still beatable at micro stakes. It's all about game selection, mental toughness/tilt control and patience. Along with studying(weekly/monthly), already having a good grasp of basic poker strategy and knowing your preflop ranges from every position.

With $600 I wouldn't start any high then $5...Sit n Goes(SnG). And I'm proven 20+ year winning player(micro/low stakes cash and higher stakes MTT's). You should have 100+ buy-ins for the level you wanna play.

Best of luck.

Cheers!!!
 
RALF_AK

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Managing your bank roll is the surest way to have a promising future in poker... I believe the best thing is to play tournaments with a buy-in between 40 and 100 times lower than the total value and also have the knowledge and skill right for each type of tournament played.
 
Pay Mei

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from $600 they usually play abi6, which means that you can load a tournament of 1 and a tournament of 11, 2 and 10, 3 and 9, etc.
 
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Your first priority should be finding the level of games you beat, and then trying to put in as much volume at these stakes as possible.

If you're new to poker I wouldn't recommend $5.50s and $11s unless they are the lowest stakes games available to you.

As you said, you can make some decent money in $11 games... So there is some competition that will case you headaches.

IMO you should be concerned with finding where you're competitive, while implementing basic poker strategy and move up in stakes as your skills and poker knowledge increase.

I don't understand why people are in such a rush to play games they don't beat, that's not how you make money in poker. Having a small RIO in $1.10s $2.20s and $3.30s is better than torching in $5.50s $7.50s and $11s not to mention it's better to have a few hundred buy ins. Especially if we don't know when or if we're going to be profitable

It's usually a bad idea to say I have X much money I want to play Y and Z games if you got your money from outside of poker and have never played A B and C stakes.

There are people from lower income countries that can make their living playing $11-$22s and won't think much of taking all $600 before you learn the game.

Not to say you can't run up $600 to the nose bleeds like some people have, but most people run it to $0 and that story doesn't spread as well as the 1/100,000 who defied the odds and made if off their first depo

GL

EDS
 
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