What stakes to play and when to move up or down My personal rule for managing my bankroll is: I want to have around 30 buy-ins for the stakes I’m playing at. If you are playing poker for a living, you should obviously keep money for poker and living expenses separated. On the other hand, if you are just a casual player you don’t have to be so precise with your bankroll because you can probably deposit some money again if you go broke. If you go down to less than 20 buy-ins, it’s probably safest to step down a level and grind there for a while to build it back up. If you grow your bankroll to 30 buyins for the next level, you can try to move up. Although it may be a good idea to use a little bigger bankroll when moving to a higher level, since you will be playing stonger opponents there and it may take some time to get used to the different way of playing there. Following these bankroll management rules will minimize the risk of going broke.

Why bankroll management ? The main reason to follow some rules on bankroll management is just so you don’t go broke. If you only have $100 on your poker bankroll, you don’t want to risk all of it in a single hand. Suppose you have pocket aces and go all-in before the flop, you have an 80% chance of winning that pot, most likely you will win this hand. Now repeat the same thing 100 times, you are likely to lose that hand 20 times, so if you have your whole bankroll on the line every time, you are very likely to go broke if you play with your entire bankroll at the table. There will always be times when the cards are not going your way and you may lose several sessions in a row, even if you are the best player at the table.

Example situations: If you have $800 in your bankroll and you want to buy-in to no limit holdem cash games for 100 big blinds, you should be playing 10c/25c blinds and buy in for $25. Since the next level up is 25c/50c and you want to buyin for $50 there, you should have $1500 in your bankroll before you move up to those stakes. On the other side of the coin, if you lose some sessions and you are down to $400 in your bankroll, you should move down in stakes to the 5c/10c level and buy in for $10.

This covers bankroll management for cash tables, next month we will discuss: Cash games – Deep stacked play.

Best Poker Bonus Get the best poker bonuses, freerolls & pokerstrategy articles on The Pokerdonk!

Full Tilt Poker‘s online poker room was designed by world class poker professionals.With a huge TV presence and a team of over 40 world-class poker pros, including Phil Ivey, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, every poker fan knows Full Tilt Poker.

And rightly so, as there’s great action at any game and limit for the average player, plus the highest-stakes action online where you can watch the game’s best pros do what they do best.

Traffic volume and game selection are both top tier, and Full Tilt is also open to U.S. players and Mac compatible.We designed Full Tilt Poker to create the best online poker experience.
Sign up through a PokerTR link and get an exclusive $600 bonus at 100% match.

Play Poker with Pros.

Carbon Poker is on the growing Merge Gaming network, formed from the old Poker.com player base and software. It welcomes U.S. players and as a result offers fairly decent player volume. Players will find loose games, great promotions and very playable software that gives the site a stylish, high-end feel. The game diversity is very good, with plenty of poker variations, and the player base is active and growing.
Sign up through a PokerTR link and get an exclusive $1,000 bonus at 200% match.

Cake Poker offers Poker players a realistic poker playing experience with excellent graphics and software, excellent functionality. The Cake Poker rewards program is quite unique and profitable for poker players, offering “Cake Slices” to players who participate in real money games.

These “slices” can be redeemed for merchanise or can be used as a tournament buy-in. Cake Poker also features a Golden Cards Lottery. Everyday a small amount of golden cards are handed out to players who play in real money ring games and tournaments. You can redeem these for merchandise, or keep them and collect all 52 for $52 000.
Sign up through a PokerTR link and get an exclusive $500 bonus at 100% match.

PokerStars Bonus and Review

PokerStars is the largest poker site in the world, offering massive volume in cash games and tournaments and action at almost any game and limit 24 hours a day. It really sets the standard in the industry as far as tournaments go, with an unmatched selection and sit-and-gos at all stakes starting up virtually every second. PokerStars also offers good promotions and an exceptional loyalty program, with a huge selection of merchandise, special events and qualifiers to all major poker tournaments. The software is also top-notch and offers fast play, high reliability, great multi-table options and a high level of customization – it pretty much sets the bar for the industry there as well. Real-money player statistics as of February 2009 show 22,500 ring-game players at peak hours and 155,000 tournament players at peak hours. WCOOP Extreme Satellites The World Championship of Online Poker is the world’s largest online tournament series. Right now PokerStars.com is running WCOOP Extreme Satellites – there are hundreds of WCOOP seats worth more than $1,000,000 to be won. With all of these extra seats available, players now have a great chance to take part in the biggest online poker series in history.

pokerstars

Pokerstars Bonus

Poker Crusher™ tracks the strength, weaknesses, and betting patterns of over 1 million online poker players.

Find out what Poker Crusher™ knows about you!

We are currently tracking over 1 MILLION players.

Are you one of them?

Be a Genius – a Holdem Genius! This is the most advanced poker odds calculator ever invented. If you’re playing with Holdem Genius, then you’re getting instant and accurate betting advice based on your hole cards, your pot odds, your immediate outs, and much more!

Holdem Genius easily attaches to your online poker table so you never had to change screens, and it is supported in over 100 poker rooms.

This is the odds calculator guaranteed to make you feel like a Genius and help you instantly win more money at the tables!

Holdem Genius helped me win the first 2 table tournament I played after installing the software. Thank you. Great program. I hope it doesn’t become too popular.
Mark P.

The Holdem Genius is great the first tourny i played with it i took 1st and $4266 dollars
Jason

I have averaged $224 a day since I got the software (Holdem Genius). What I love about it is the pot-odds calculator there are times I thought I should fold when I should have called in the past. I have been playing poker for a couple years now and I make a nice side income thanks to you from online poker and now I think I do this for a living thanks to you.
Best Regards,
Chase T.

Holdem Genius isn’t only the greatest training tool I have encountered, but if you won’t let pride get in the way, it is the best way to get back on track.
Billy P.
Athens, TX

UltimateBet Poker completing its merge with Absolute Poker in late 2008 to form the new Cereus poker network, Ultimate Bet is now one of the largest poker rooms in the world, with good action 24/7, loose games and a greatly expanded player base. It allows U.S. players and the software is fast, good looking and playable. Ultimate Bet also runs some of the best tournaments in the world, with great structure and excellent game quality.
Sign up through a PokerTR link and get an exclusive $1,500 bonus at 200% match.

Over two million online poker players call Absolute Poker home, and it’s easy to see why.Absolute Poker is now one of the largest poker rooms in the world, offering good 24/7 action, loose games and a greatly expanded player base. It allows U.S. players and the software is fast, good looking and playable. It also offers good customization and very good multi-table functions.
Sign up through a PokerTR link and get an exclusive $600 bonus at 100% match.

The most common question I am asked by land based casino players when I tell people that I worked for an online casino is “Can I trust the software?” The simple answer is yes, if you trust the operator.

BetUS.com uses two of the most reputable software providers in the online gaming industry for their casino software. One company provides their flash games, the ones you play instantly on the website. The other software is for the download games, this software take a minute to set up but it gives online casino bettors a lot of variety in the games they play as well as special bonuses not available in the instant casino.

A couple of pieces of advice I give to traditional casino players that are beginning to play online is that
The game is much faster online – because it’s only you and the electronic dealer, you don’t have to wait for a change in dealers or that jerk at first base to decide whether he is going to split a pair of fives, online casino games are much faster than they are in Las Vegas or Atlantic City.
If you can play one hand a minute in Las Vegas, you can probably play eight hands of online blackjack in a minute.
With so many hands played in so little time, the wild swings that would take a couple of hour to play in Las Vegas can happen in just 10 minutes playing online, so be patient.

The money is real, it’s a little easier to walk away from a Las Vegas table when you have a huge stack of chips sitting in front of you but when you just have a balance in the corner it doesn’t seem like it’s real money. However, the money is real and all of the things you can buy with the money are real, so don’t be afraid to quit while you’re ahead.

When I play, I will set out an amount that I want to win and once I’ve reached that amount I will stop for the day. It can take some discipline if you reach your goal early into your session but the payoff will be worth it.

Those are just two pieces of advice for traditional casino players to remember when they play online but we’ll be back soon with more items that will help you maximize your casino profits.