Without money you are not able to play or browbeat other players. The phrase "money is mastery" is really true. So every poker-player should spend and administrate his money wisely. That leads us to the topic of bankroll management.

If you want to have a proper bankroll management strategy, you have to think about profit maximization first, then follow asset administration.

Reaching higher limits and scaling down to lower limits

Your bankroll decides which limits, or which blind levels you should play. To the risk of going broke you have to be very careful when switching to higher limits.

When you are playing fixed limit, you will need 300 big blinds of the next higher level to play it and you have to scale down to the next lowest level when you just have 200 big blinds left. When you are playing no limit, you will need 25 buy ins of the next higher level to play it and you have to scale down to the next lower level when you just have 20 buy ins left.

For example: you are playing 5c/10c Fixed Limit and you have more than $30. Now you can switch to 10c/20c. If you have only $15 left you have to scale down to 5c/10c again. When you are playing no limit (buy in means 10 times the big blind, 0.5$/1$ No Limit - buy in = $10). You have $520 in your bankroll so you can switch to $1/$2 no limit. If you are down to $400, you have to scale down to the lower game again.

You will sometimes have to switch to lower limits, but do not think about this. Focus your target on profit maximization.

Record Keeping

It is very important to keep records of your wins and losses. You should make some statistics - how much you are winning at one blind level, what's your hourly rate, and so on.

You can do your record keeping in writing, but I would suggest software like Microsoft Excel or another bankroll-management tool. Tools like this you can get for free on the internet, for instance at Hespy.com or PokerDominator.com.

Dangers for your Bankroll

It often happens that you'll take a bad beat. You have a streak of bad luck. A downswing begins and you are losing money. It happens to everyone, usually due to the failure of other players, who have very loose plays but get lucky. Now the bankroll-management starts working, and you can minimize your losses. A big mistake you should never make is switching to a higher level too early. Do not think you can win your money back at higher levels faster. The chance of going broke is much higher because you do not have enough reserves and so you are not able to put pressure on your opponents. As long as you keep the following in mind, your bankroll will also hold up in hard times:

* Stop playing if you lose a lot in a day or a week
* Never switch to higher limits if your bankroll is too small
* Only play poker with your bankroll
* Keep detailed records of your wins and losses