Big stack strategy: bankroll management
1. Introduction
To just play without considering your future in poker is always the worst option. This article gives you a similar roadmap as in the short stack strategy with which you can consistently climb up the limits without gambling your bankroll away when a downswing occurs or due to mistakes which naturally happen in the beginning when you start playing with a big stack. When you act in accordance to this roadmap, you'll avoid the risk of losing large amounts of your bankroll which would limit the possibilities of any further development.
Bad bankroll management often means the early end of your poker career. That's the reason why you absolutely must stick to the guidelines given. You can even make them more conservative way in case you don't feel confident on a new limit or if you're making too many mistakes.
Particularly here, we must warn you not to switch too early to the big stack strategy. You need a bankroll of at least $100 which you can make with the short stack strategy or maybe in Fixed Limit. Nothing is more dangerous than sitting at the tables with too little money and a relative new strategy. Then you can only survive with a lot of luck and depending on luck is exactly the wrong approach in poker.
You're concerned only with your long term profit as you are going through the limits from the small amounts to the really big amounts just like many members of Pokerstrategy have done it. They succeeded because they concentrate on the strategic point of poker and a strategy which aims for long term profit is exactly what you need, a solid and sustainable bankroll management scheme.
2. The 20-stacks-rule
In order to play the big stack strategy on a limit, you should have at least 20 stacks of this limit in your bankroll. The more you advance in the limits, the more conservative you should treat this rule since 20 stacks is the absolute minimum limit. It won't hurt to have more in your bankroll, which is practically mandatory in the higher limits. There you should have around 50 stacks available for a limit.
In the beginning, it is essential to observe the following guideline:
- You can move up to a higher limit when you have at least 20 stacks available and feel confident enough to beat this limit.
- You have to move down, no matter what, to the previous limit when you have less than 20 stacks of the current limit left.
3. Following the roadmap with the big stack strategy
After you have successfully made $100 with the short stack strategy you may play at one of our partners that offers No-Limit $0.02/$0.04.
Our partners Full Tilt Poker and Mansion do not offer these lower limits, so you have to wait until you have the 20 stacks for their lowest limit. An earlier attempt with the big stack strategy would be suicide.
Step 1: NL $0.02/$0.04
Move up to step 2: $200
Step 2: NL $0.05/$0.10
Move up to step 3: $500
Move down to step 1: $100
Step 3: NL $0.10/$0.25
Move up to step 4: $1250
Move down to step 2: $200
Step 4: NL $0.25/$0.50
Move down to step 3: $500
Once you've arrived here, it's up to you when you are going to move up to the higher limit.
4. Conclusion
Even the best poker player can't take advantage of his skills when he is not able to manage his bankroll. Stick to the guidelines introduced in this article, create an even more conservative bankroll management if you like because a player doesn't go broke due to his mistakes, but rather because of a bad bankroll management.