| Bankroll Requirements |
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Does the size of your bankroll really determine what limits you should play? The answer to that question
lies in your motivations for playing poker. If you are a casual play who does not take the game seriously, then bankroll size probably
does not matter. Afterall, you go to the casino, buy chips, play, then go home. You hope to have won some money, but in the end, you
view the experience as entertainment value. Who knows when you will get back to the casino.
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What if you are a serious player and want to advance up the limits? Well, then the size of your bankroll
definitely matters. Most people play limits that are too high for their current cash reserves. I recommend that you put all your
poker money in a separate place from your regular money. That way you can watch it grow and shrink. Yes, your bankroll will shrink
as you go through the normal variations that we all face in poker. How much should you have? The answer is more than you might think.
Calculating bankroll requirements are slightly different for Limit and No Limit poker, but there are
correlations between them.
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| Limit Holdem Bankroll Requirements |
For Limit holdem, the calculation is very straight-forward. You generally want to have about 400 Big Bets. Some
people like to only have 300 Big Bets, but 400 is a safer number. What is a big bet? It is the amount that you must wager on the turn
and river. For example, if you are playing in a 1/2 Limit Holdem game, the Big Bet is $2. You can easily calculate bankroll requirements
for each limit. Here are the numbers:
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| Limit | 300 Big Bets | 400 Big Bets |
| 1/2 | $600 | $800 |
| 2/4 | $1200 | $1600 |
| 3/6 | $1800 | $2400 |
| 4/8 | $2400 | $3200 |
| 5/10 | $3000 | $4000 |
| 10/20 | $6000 | $8000 |
| 15/30 | $9000 | $12,000 |
| 20/40 | $12,000 | $16,000 |
| 25/50 | $15,000 | $20,000 |
| 30/60 | $18,000 | $24,000 |
| 40/80 | $24,000 | $32,000 |
| 50/100 | $30,000 | $40,000 |
| 100/200 | $60,000 | $80,000 |
| 200/400 | $120,000 | $160,000 |
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No Limit Holdem Bankroll Requirements |
No Limit Cash game bankroll requirements are base on buy-ins.
When you play a cash game, you should always play deep-stack poker. You should NEVER buy in for less than 100 Big Blinds. For example,
in a 1/2 NL game, you never want to buy in for less than $200. For the purpose of defining a buy-in, we will define it as the amount
required to post 100 Big Blinds. To have an adequate bankroll for a limit, you should have at LEAST 25 buy ins at that level. If
you are playing 1/2 NL, a buy in is $200. Thus, you should have $5000 in your reserves to be playing this limit. Here are the numbers:
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| Limit | 1 Buy In | 25 Buy Ins / Required Bankroll |
| 0.01/0.02 | $2 | $50 |
| 0.05/0.10 | $10 | $250 |
| 0.10/0.20 | $20 | $500 |
| 0.25/0.50 | $50 | $1250 |
| 1/2 | $200 | $5000 |
| 2/5 | $500 | $12,500 |
| 5/10* | $1000 | $25,000 |
| 10/20* | $2000 | $50,000 |
| 25/50* | $5,000 | $125,000 |
| * Casinos often cap the buy in amount at lower levels. When you move to these higher limits, the buy in can be uncapped, meaning you can buy into an 10/20 NL game for $300,000 if you wanted to do so. |
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| Pot & Hands Odds |
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When you hear somebody say that a person had the pot odds to make a call, do you wonder what they mean? This section will explain both Pot Odds and Hands Odds. |
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| Hand Rankings |
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Do you have trouble remembering the ranks of hands? This section will explain hand ranks, what constitutes each rank, and list the ranksin order. |
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| Starting Hands |
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People lose the most money in Holdem becuase they have very loose starting hands requirements. This section discusses general guidelines for starting hands requirements. |
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