Another consequential aspect of poker that many beginners tend to overlook is the concept of bankroll management. In fact, there are several professional poker players who have famously neglected to master this essential skill; pros who would be destitute if not for sponsorship deals or friends willing to help them out until they hit another big win.
Maintaining an awareness of the size of your bankroll will help you to determine what size blinds you can afford to play in order to get the most game out of your money. As a beginner it is important to start off with a more conservative bankroll plan while you develop your playing style.
It is recommended that novices never take more than 10% of their total poker bankroll to the table. If you are playing fixed limit, you should have at least one hundred times the big blind, and four hundred times the big blind for no limit games. So a player with a $1,000 bankroll should take no more than $100 to a single poker game, and start with $0.50/$1 Fixed Limit Hold’em or $0.10/$0.20 No Limit Hold’em. If you only have $50, just start with the lowest limits you can find, and stay there until you build a larger bankroll.
With experience you will learn how much you actually need to compensate for variance in the course of a game. If you play a tight game, your chip stack variance should be relatively low compared to a loose player who will lose larger chunks of their chip stack chasing a strong hand. If you play passively, you won’t experience the wild up and down swings an aggressive player encounters.
Bankroll guidelines for a poker beginner strategy will keep the novice player from going broke while determining how much variance must be accounted for in different limits and levels of game play. From there, you can modify your bankroll strategy based on your own experience.
When you move up to a higher blind, go back to your beginner strategy temporarily while you acclimate to the new skill level. Being an alert poker player with proper bankroll management and awareness of your opponents habits will serve you well into the expert levels of poker.