Bankroll Management : 5 Factors to Consider 

I honestly dont understand why people dislike Jaime's stuff. It's almost as if they just can't handle all the positivity he oozes. Anyway; keep up the good work, Jaime. You're a beam of light.

Great advice Jaime! As a pro player, I use both max and average buy-in strategies to manage my MTT bankroll. My maximum buy-in is 0.8% of my bankroll (1/125th) and I aim for an average buy-in of 0.33% (1/300th). Despite an ROI >50% over the past 3 years, I've gone on numerous downswings of > 100x my ABI, so I can't afford a very aggressive bankroll strategy. I will take rare shots of up to 2% of my bankroll during WCOOPs and similar situations, but that's only for ~10 tournaments per year.

I realize in the example of edge that I said you are supposed to make $2.50 per game. I meant 25c per game in this instance 👌

I’m liking the style the vlogs are taking now. Good job

Great video! Also take into consideration the types of tournaments you are playing. Tournaments like hypers and large fields have more variance so you may want more cushion for those. I’ve always stuck to the 200 max buy in strategy and its nice and cozy for me. I even take it a step further and won’t rebuy a tournament if that rebuy puts me over my max buy in for a single tournament. I am a NIT when it comes to brm, but I have never had to reload so I must be doing something right. I also don’t deal with bankroll swings as much and haven’t had to drop down in stakes because of this conservative strategy. I use satellites as a way to shot take. I am not a professional (hopefully one day) and could reload if needed, but I want to have to age old story of I started with x, never reloaded and now look where I am. Call me old fashioned. 🤣

If all of the other videos will be at the same LVL and quality, then it will be ridiculously good content no matter what would you be talking about. Great job Boys!

My bankroll consist of 2 credit cards and family jewelry I can pawn. Can I play the Sunday Million?

Heey im new to the poker, and want to try to earn money with it just turned 18 and i was thinking about it a lot! Already have lost 30 euros in like 2 weeks or so and I understud that i need somehow be more conservative! yesterday Went to shop and bought a white board, not big, but in it i can write like my week plan of poker, like in monday i can play there and there and so on and on and i think that aswell is like bankroll management. Now when i lost this first money i tried from 0.1 to 3.30 tournaments to feel how it is and got that i need to play really low stakes like 0.55 bounty and i dont need to play more than 1 and 2 tournaments per day, myb sunday more and ye, thats about my plan how to slowly learn and in the same time i will not invest such a big money in it (ofcourse some days when i cant manage to play i learn). Thanks, Jaime for great videos, love them, keep it up like that, hello from Latvia :)

Jaime this video was brilliant. It was so clear and well explained I can’t believe so many comments are asking you what to do without providing the factors explained in the video!! Weird. It’s great content man. Would love to see more detailed vids on the edge stuff. That graph was mind blowing. I think it must be really difficult to know if you are a winning player in terms of having an edge in a given game without huge numbers. Would love to hear more on how you select games you think you have an edge in or how far along that plot do you need to get to feel confident etc. Great work

Question for Mr. Little or anyone from the poker community. I am started to build a decent cash bankroll from my home games. Is it safe to deposit in a bank? Are they going to be suspicious of depositing 1-2k cash a few times a month? I just don’t feel safe keeping all this money at home, but I also don’t want the IRS involved. Any advice?

For people trying to build a bankroll, its generally better to focus on cash games than tournaments, since they allow you to invest a larger percentage of your bankroll during a session, and are a more steady source of profits. Especially you should not play to many large field tournaments. This is kind of common sense really, since the payout structure is top heavy. So if you play in a field of 500 or 1.000 players, then "the long term" is going to be REALLY long, and you therefore need extremely conservative bankroll management as well as an awfull lot of patience, as your bankroll will slowly grind downwards to only occationally shoot up in a dramatic way. Really if we are talking about something like a 2$ or 11$ tournament on PokerStars, then for the vast majority of people, who play these, it makes more sense to talk about a poker budget than a poker bankroll. I dont mind investing some of my profits from the cash tables in an occational entry to a large field tournament, but I really see it more as a lottery ticket than anything else.

Hey Jaime, firstly i gotta say that i really like your vlogs and one can really tell that there is a lot of effort been put in in every single one of them ! So, although i have been struggeling to find people in an equal situation as iam im quite certain there is a good amount of people that have the same plan as i have. Iam currently 17 years old from Germany with the plan to try to become a professional at the game as soon as i turn 18 in 2 months. I have been going through hands and watching a ton of content since over 2 years now and iam really interested in the game. I was aiming to try out where i can get and how good i can become for approximately a year after i finish school in next summer and take a somewhat special gap year. In terms of bankroll management my plan was to go for a bankroll that fits an average buy in of 10$ and go with an relatively safe approach while always going up in stakes if my br should increase though. I would go for it full time for a year without any side income although i wouldnt be in a horrible situation if it wouldnt work out or in case i would lose the bankroll. I have also just recently purchased bens master class (my parents were supportive on that matter and didnt say anything against it or against the whole idea in general btw) and i think this is the correct approach to make sure that i push my self and my poker game to the edge and see how far i would be able to get, although iam aware of the fact that understanding and implementing all the masterclass content might take longer than a year. Id love to hear your opinion about going for such course of action and what advices you would give me! Also as i have mentioned i havent met anyone who is as young as me and has the same ambitions as i do regarding poker so id love to hear any suggesting by anyone on how to find likeminded people like that.

Hi Jaime awesome content u guys are creating! So my situation is that I'm 22 and studying but will not become happy with the jobs I can do afterwards. Since I'm 18 I play poker as a little side income and had some success at the micros but after buying RYE epxpert + Bounty this summer I finally know how to become real good from time to time. So in september I decided to go full risk and try to do my passion for a living. I think there is no better time to take risks than in your 20s. In october I started my journey playing and studying poker 6 days a week. I started around 1,5k and the first two month were going really good right now I have a 10k bankroll play 6-8 tables and my bankrollmanagement is 100 for regular 200 for turbos and 300 for hypers structures. I think i have a good edge on the 22s and under but not sure about 44s and 55s right now. My goal is to get to the high stakes online ( like matt) and i have no need to cash out regulary for the next 3 years. So I don't know if I should play the stakes my bankroll can afford and move down step by step or play the stakes i know I beat with a good edge and make smaller steps with less short term variance. I wonder what u think about my situation. keep it up man and sorry for busting u in the 44 bounty builder :D

I fucking love these types of videos Jamie. plz keep them coming

bro you doing better and better with the videos on youtube, keep posting vlogs about your sessions, record more off stream while playing, this is gold stuf, show your setup more , etc .

Good video. One thing I'd add is that in addition to downswings that we can have over large samples (e.g. 1,000 tournaments), we can have even larger downswings over shorter samples. So in the example where losing ~$200 over 1,000 tournaments was a worse case scenario, you'd probably want to be able to withstand far greater than $200 in loses.

Hey Jamie, I recently got into poker and you've been a huge motivator for me. I'm a fulltime student, and I usually spend $100 a month on poker, as this doesn't ruin me. Do you have any tips on how I can manage my bankroll? I usually go broke over time, even though I win here and there. My goal is to make poker a hobby that I can do on the side, and make a decent amount of money. Though for now it has only been for fun and for learning the basics.

One of the best videos on the subject!

thank you for your valuable support. Now i can understand some really important things.

Great points as always Jaime, probs add in the varience of the field you're playing, youd need a much bigger bankroll if you played the storm 1000 times than a 18 man sng 1000 times

Hey Jaime. So, I have a goal to stream poker. I want to be able to play 3-4 days a week and maintain a bankroll doing so. I’ve got a house, wedding coming up and things I need to pay for. I’m not the sole provider in my house as I work with my fiancé and we split most costs. My goal would be to play as much as I can, without constantly needing to pour money into the account to be able to keep streaming. On average, I have between 50-125$ on PS my the hugest game I play is 4.40$, but I try to keep most games lower, between 1-3$ and satellite my way into bigger ones. Thoughts? Great content as always :)

So Im really trying to hone in on these answers myself. I have a job at a nonprofit where im able to save some (let's say $300 a month), and Im not putting in much volume whatsoever at the tables (maybe 10 hours a week live). I have 15k saved and almost all of that is from some pretty crazy rungood of late at 2/5 full ring live. I used to be a hu reg but never was able to beat 3/6 nl (I was solidly beating 1/2 and probably a slight winner $400 but dont have the volume to say for certain). I can take more risk because I have income, but anything in the neighborhood of a 4k loss would hurt. Obviously Im not a pro, but I take the game seriously and expect to be beating 2/5 live. My problem is that playing 1/2 is torture, people are playing 50 BB stacks and theres no room for creativity or really bluffing in general. I get bored and laggy after a while and im not focused. I know however that I could easily get stuck big at 2/5. The depth of the game i play ($1k max buy in, although I buy in for 500) does give me some adrenaline and focus, and there's a much greater sense of competition which sharpens my approach. I know that these would be concerning for a pro, and is honestly this mental state is why (at least in part) I couldn't cut it as a pro I want to play in this game, and cant really imagine playing lower. However a pretty standard downswing would really suck given that Im trying to save. This is super rambling, but I would love to hear how you might approach this situation.

What would you recommend for a buy in strategy for people playing heads up sit and go only?

Jaime , if u can focus more on coaching then on streaming , please just do that man , we would really apreciate it !

jamie i love when i am playing with 300 buying never get tilt it and overall play better.

Great Video, more like this would be amazing!

The new skits are👌🏼

Love your videos Jaime... new to the channel, more stuff like this pls

Jamie stapler!! Glad to see ur back!!!

Hi Jaime, Great vlogs! So here is my situation: Student, good paying job, regular poker player. Now i was crushing the 5/10/25 dollar buy in knock out tournaments, it boosted up my bankroll like x3. But then in a day I lost it all. Do you advise me to play lower stakes or just keep playing until variance goes my way again?

Great video and easy to understand.

Hey Jamie, Your Videos have really progressed in the recent month and I enjoy watching every bit of it. Maybe you could have weighed in on some Information regarding Cash Game Brm. Would love an opinion on my situation. In my early 30's, having a part time job covering all my expenses for the month. Goal is to become professional and turn the ship around. Experianced Player, played a lot 2/4 or 5/5 live & nl100 online but wasted poker money on buyin expensive stuff. Bankroll is just a shade over 500$ currently and only online playing. How conservative would you go in such a case? Currently I am juggling with the number of 50 max Buyins, but i am highly unsure since I never had a good BRM experiance. Thanks in Advance and especially for all the positivity you spread!

How about cash games? Are the bankroll requirements the same as tournaments?

This was a really well made video Jaime.

Great video Jaime thank you. Really confirmed / denied some of BRM questions I have been asking myself recently. Quick question - 100 BI roll is the model I've been using. What about Turbo's though? Would 100 BI for reg speed and 200 for turbos be about standard? - I'm a low stakes MTT grinder looking to move up steadily and make poker a bigger part of my income. I have a job which covers my expanses and no dependants. Thanks Jaime!

great way to present this topic!

Thank you. Also looking for a poker coach possibly. Living in fl where there is a ton of places to play as long as you like to travel. Making a decent luving playing just want to see where this poker thing can take me. Yoyr thoughts?

Ok, since you kinda volunteered to give an opinion let me throw this out there. I will be putting a 5k bankroll in play in the coming months. I will make the sad admission that BRM was not a factor in previous plans, but this time it is an absolute must for me.My plan is to use 4k for cash and the other 1k for tournaments. I am an experienced player (15 years)with a decent skill set in both types of play. Lifestyle wise this is pretty much the one last ( and biggest single investment made) opportunity that I have at 37 to try and make a run at building a big enough bankroll to live the proverbial poker dream of hopefully making poker my living. Otherwise I will be settling to only play recreationally.I am looking at this in terms of a 5 year (or more) plan, so I don't need to be too aggressive. The thing is I also don't want to be way too conservative either. How are you playing this bankroll in my shoes? Thanks.

I am currently living at my moms and I have a $100 bankroll on Pokerstars. I have other income, and I am currently saving to move out of my moms place. I plan to become a professional poker player in the future, when do you think will be the ideal time to move out on my own? say for instance, I ran this $100 bankroll into $10k and I had $10k in my bank account for a total of $20k networth and I was consistently winning. What amount do you think would be ideal to safely move out?

My curiosity is, how do you factor for taxes? Is that a Dec 31st calculation, quarterly, monthly??

Where can i write u, to ask ur opinion? Ty

Nice video for the new people Jaime :)

The beginning was super funny lol

1} . . stand.dev. is calculated per 100/bb when in tournaments blinds increasin so fast there for and their values how ? ? can u even calculate -estimate this .. & .. 1a] ..in variance calculator u did not put any number for stand.dev.

You described me to the T as Jake in your aggressive approach example, even the right NAME! 😂🤯

Hey Jamie I luv the channel and appreciate the content. Here is my question ? I am a cash player and I really am not into tournaments. Recommended buy in for 1/2 and 2/5. I have the ability to play every day for a living and need some help. Thoughts.

thanks Jaime

Hey Jaime, thanks for this video. My situation is this: Just deposited $25 bucks onto site, where i have played strictly cash games and have run it up to $150. The reason for playing cash games is I find it easier to run up (in the short term) my bankroll to a spot where I can start playing more tournaments (which is what i love the most). Is this a good idea? Should i put my focus somewhere else? the site i play on does have much low stakes mtts (think the smallest offered is a $2.50 (im in the US). Thanks again for you wisdom, the the stream :) and the yt

My pstars bankroll is 800 I play micros n few $7.50 n the odd $11 on Sunday. My roi over years is 25% I have like $20k in my bank account I could play higher but never do. I withdrawal few hundred here n there n never really end up moving up. What you think I should do? Stop withdrawing money n see if I could make the move to higher stakes?

Playing underbankrolled is like bringing tournament pressure to a cash game table.

I have a bankroll of 2500 dollars I'm looking to do the average buy in system. How much should I spend on tournaments a day?

Rob from harrogate here so i started with 215 pounds and was playing on average 5 dollar tourneys online i now have 2 bankrolls i have a live bankroll and a pokerstars bankroll would is be wise to factor both together or keep on grinding in both areas my pokerstars roll has tripled to the point where i now have 1.2k stars bankroll so would olaying the 16.50 bountys and big 22s be a wise range of tourneys to be playing

I have a bankroll of $140 right now I started with 25 bucks Only play sit n go I tend to play 5 dollar ones up to 15. Am I playing to high in stakes ? What do you recommend (ACR).

Hi Jaime,i AM a Brazilian fan of yours. Sorry If i dont wright correctly all the words,i using just my knowlegd in english for this. I appreciate too much your work and you as a person man,keep the same. Actually I depósito $150 and plays $0.55 - $3,30. This is a good aproach? If i loose this bankroll,may i have a bad swing or in this stakes probably i had done a bunch of a things wrong?

thanks

Bankroll management is the key to making money at poker. 100%

I have a 50 dollar bank roll I've gone broke twice playing out of my league and trying cash games. What are good ps tournys to try and move up in that don't take 7-8 hours. I only play after work .

Really good and informative video

I wanted to ask some questions, but now this video is 4 years old and i am too afraid to ask

Hello Jamie my situation is married two kids and I Hava 200€on Bank and I am é specializing on cash money

Thanks for the tips Jaime

your stache and beard is life

Hey Bro, I got 1k so it's funny you chose that figure. Do you have any recommendations for what I should play for e.g .50-$5.50ish & sometimes $10-20 in Pokerstars? (since that's your home base) All the best, Az

Heyho Jaime (and every1 else in the comment section who is profitable in poker) i´d love to ask about my situation cus i think its pretty abnormal. I am a 19 y/o who went through 16 weeks of therapy for gambling addiction (among other addictions and OCD). After therapy i started playing again with a more "professional" approach and im on microstakes with a 60% ROI atm. I dont have a lot of games played since im back so that might just be an upswing. What i like to do is play alot of satelites and i play very aggressive. I am at university, got my bills payed so i dont have to worry about anyone besides myself. I also have a turbo/hyper rate of like ~80% of my games so variance is indeed a bigger factor for me. Do you think playing alot of sattelites is a good strategy? i like trying to get into the 22$ triple thread every day for example and i get it almost every day after max 3 sattys. what kind of bankroll do you think i should be having to play microstakes with a couple of satties to $5-$22 tourneys? is that even, like, a good idea at all?

Hey Jaime, I have like a little story and a question after that :), I am trying to become a professional poker player in the future, I do have some struggles on that since I do have some Bills to pay every month that are draining my income, even though I am adding money on my account every month on Pokerstars, I am unable to get out of the micro-stakes stage, I find it very hard playing against a lot of Bad Players or Recreational Players and I am almost every time depending on Variance because of that, I am struggling to get a big score on PokerStars, on the other hand on another Poker site I am up 450 Euros in the last 6 months and I am doing pretty well against this field of players also playing Micro-Stakes, but the field is way less, for example from 3000 Players on Pokerstars to 300-500 Players Max on this site. The question is, am I doing something wrong on Pokerstars? Should I have more patience and keep trying to break this barrier or should I just play on the other site since it's going pretty decent? Thanks and I wish you the best of luck with everything that you do and Congratz for the engagement!!!

Hey Jamie, I am 29 years old with a wife and 2 kids. I have a mortgage own a couple vehicles and both me and my wife have good well paying jobs with a lot of stability. I have been playing poker since I was 14. I played online back in the hay days 2005- onward. I use to print money online and cashed out some decent scores. I didn't play online for years and then stepping back into the game I have found it much harder online and seem to keep losing. My live results have always been good, and I would say my over all earnings from poker are positive. I put measly deposits of $50 usually and can't seem to grind it up. I start out disciplined, then I usually will go out and play something stupid like a $30 spin and go, take some sort of sick beat then tilt off the rest of my roll. I have been studying and watching a lot of twitch poker which I think has really given me an edge when I play live as a majority of the field has alot less experience in poker then me for the games I play in. So here is the thing, in life I am doing okay. As in, I pay all my bills and have extra money left over to afford to play poker. I would like to be more serious in poker as my goals would be to be able to play the $10-$50 games online as those are the games I would like to play both for the scores and caliber of player. Should I put in a big 1k deposit to just start playing those games. Or should I grind the micro, actually practice bankroll management and move up that way. Again I think I am an above average player being as poker has been one of my passions since I was 14. I however have a wife kids, and want to contribute with poker not dust off money. Thanks Jamie, best of luck to you in 2019.

I used to think you were a bit of a tool. I now think your a legend

Great video Jaime

Nah! Risk it all for the money! Play your roll, but let me know what your pokerstars screen name is so I know to play with you! So I can help you!

hahahha that beginning is epic

Bank roll management strategy = run up a stake and quit when I loose half.

bankroll tip number 1. Have Bill a friend named Bill Perkins

hello my name is JaAnus and i am very shiti situation, and now i ask you, what you do if you are me,, ,, okay i start,, i love poker, and want to be professional,,, i this year i grind my self up and make 200-10 000 euros.. but i need to build an apartment my five and newborn child and now i am death broke, my final 250 bankroll and what to too. go to work? i hate it ;D to i PLAY CASH OR TOURNEY -?

Explained in KISS form where I can understand.

Jaime could you take a look for me my sharkscope results maybe? Palmerbail1. Situation is as follows full time job, no dependants, all bills covered £300 spare a month. How would you go about it given my situation?

Just save up 10 grand (+ some for food, gas, and motel) and enter the WSOP Main Event next May and go all-in every hand. Nobody will call you except pocket aces, and YOU WILL CRACK THEM!!

Lööööölllll 100 dollars.....2 hours later bankrupt 😂😂

I need this shit

usefull for ppl beating the game and 100% know about BRM already. Not sure about the purpose of this Video tbh.

That intro is me all the time lol

These damn hipsters are more disciplined than I ever was playing up at lucky chances when they were still in diapers

Rip 50k

it is the second time you are making this video? wtf

first

Playing MTT’s for a living is nothing more then a gamble. All that matters is how many times you MUST flip and how MANY flips you win. Your skill level will help bring you closer to the final table/win but overall it comes down to a flip, and what variance you want to call with in that flip. No different then playing roulette for craps in the end.

You look so healthy 😍

I love to get advices about bankroll management from the person who plays too high constantly since the start of the twitch career :F