Bankroll management applies to any form of gambling. In sports betting, poker and casino there is a great deal of variance so if you are betting too big a percentage of your bankroll you will inevitably go broke!

• On this page you’ll find content that doesn’t quite fit in our strategy section. Things like bankroll management and how to quickly move up in stakes and other valuable parts of our sit and go guide. We’ll also use this section to show you what tools sit n go players need, as well as how to use them.
• Bankroll Management for Sit and Gos. Sit and gos come in a variety of shapes and sizes. You can choose from small stakes games, mid stakes games, high stakes games, and so on and so forth. In addition, there are a number of variants when it comes to the speed of games. There are regular sit and gos, turbo sit and gos, ultra turbo sit and gos, etc.

I’m going to start this article by outlining good bankroll management for each form of wagering we talk about here at BetOnIt.org (sports betting, poker and casino). After stating the bankroll management system I will proceed to explain why.

Bankroll Management System

Sports Betting – A unit should be about 1% of your total sports betting bankroll and you should never bet more than 5% on a single wager.

Poker – If playing no limit cash games you should always have 20 times the max buy-in for a cash game in your bankroll. So if you are playing at the $1-$2 tables that have a $200 buy-in you should have at least $4,000 in your poker account.

In limit games you should have at least 300 times the big blind because it’s not possible to lose an entire buy-in on one hand.

For sit and go’s you should always have at least 40 times the SNG buy-in in your account. So if you’re playing $10 + $1 SNG’s you should have at least $440 in your account.

Bankroll management for Sit and Go’s is largely dependant on what kind of player you are. There is a large difference between the bankroll requirements for an online professional and that of the recreational player who enjoys playing for fun and profit.

At multi-table tourneys you should really have 100 times the buy-in in your account because with larger fields there is much more variance than in sit and go’s.

Casino – I’m going to be honest here. At the casino you are going to lose your money overtime (sports betting and poker you can be a long term winner). For this reason I don’t care as much about variance. Basically just play with what you can afford to lose and bet amounts based on how much entertainment you want to get out of your money.

Sit And Go Bankroll Management Calculator

How Variance Kills Bankrolls

Many very skilled sports bettors and poker players continually lose money because they don’t follow basic bankroll management principals. Even if you are a sharp sports bettor or a shark at the poker tables if you get greedy and bet too much of your bankroll you will eventually go broke. It’s simple mathematics. Then you will reload your account, get greedy again and inevitably go broke. A sports bettor can win 65% of their bets against the spread, but continually lose money to the bookie based on poor bankroll management. This is why online sportsbooks generally have no problem promoting their site to bettors they know are sharp. Human nature will often take over and a sharp bettor who is winning will start to think they are holding themselves back by not betting more and making the maximum they can with their skill.

Let’s look at an example:

Say John is betting 5% of his bankroll on every bet. He has $1000 in his account. He places 5 $50 bets on the NFL on Sunday and goes 4-1. Boom, John now has $1150 in his account (not accounting for vig)! The next week John continues with our 5% system and bets 5 games for $50 each. He wins 4 again bringing his roll to $1300. The next week he decides he is leaving money on the table so he ups his bets to $200 (about 15% of the bankroll) and once again bets 5 games. This time he goes 1-4 and just like that he is down to $700. Instead of learning from his mistake and dropping back down to $50 or even $35 now, John wants to earn the money back so he puts $175 on 4 games. Loses them all and he’s broke. That’s after going just 1 game below .500 over four NFL Sundays. This happens all the time.

If you are betting too much of your bankroll you will inevitably run into a bad spell and go completely broke. It happens to the best sports bettors in the world. There is no reason to think it won’t happen to you.

This same example can be said about playing online poker.

Follow the guidelines listed above and if you are a winning sports bettor or poker player you will make money overtime. If you throw bankroll management out of the window, mark my words: You Will End Up Broke.

Playing heads up sit and go's can be one of the most paying forms of poker you can play. Most players sitting at those tables are just bad, they could not fold top pair no matter what and may push any ace x preflop on blindlevel 3. That's the fun part. When you know how to play the game, it's more or less easy to beat. There is only one problem you may face when climbing the ladders of heads up poker, it's bankroll management. How many buy ins should you have? What kind of downswing can be expected? How do you manage tilt and losing sessions?
Bankroll management keys

Poker Bankroll Management Spreadsheet

1. keep a minimum of 20 buyins for the level you play at, it's better to have 30. During heads up sit and go's a lot less luck is involved. You face a single opponent and unless you suck at poker or have to push marginal hands all the time, you should be able to beat the games fairly easy up to 50$. When you sharkscope heads up players you find plenty of guys running pretty bad so to say.
2. Don't move up on limits to fast. This is one of the mistakes people usually make, 'oh I have 5 buyins for that limit, let's take a shot.' You lose that and move on to the next higher limit giving yourself 1 buyin. You lose that and my bankroll is gone again. Well it should not be like that, but you get the picture. Just stick to a roll where you can take at least 10 losses and still feel comfortable.
3. Move up when you can. I'd say move up once you hit 30 buyins for the next level. Conservative players can go for 40, gamblers for 20. Poker is about taking shots at the higher levels without losing your bankroll. The higher you go the more sophisticated or stupid players get. People with money will gamble, not as bad as in a casino, but still they are there. And headsup poker attracts them.

What kind of downsings can you expect?
That's pretty much depending on your skill level. Poker is luck, headsup is luck, but overall I have recognized that headsup poker is less about luck than other forms of poker. Usually it's easier to get a read, put the other on a hand and get your money in good. You can't expect more. There will be suckouts, there will be losses, but on the long run, headsup sit and go's are beatable in my eyes.
Tilt and losing sessions

Sit And Go Bankroll Management Online

Heads Up Sit And Go Bankroll Management

Sit And Go Bankroll Management App

How to avoid them is one of the key lessons every poker player has to learn. Nobody is the same and it's hard to give advice. Usually it's good to quit when you are losing. Just call it a day. It's tough online, you can always find a running game, but you have to learn it. Some players can take losses like they don't matter, others go on tilt. Emotional players have problems, but will make ballsy calls and plays that the others players would not make. It's a fine line, and probably, in no limit a human with emotions going with his reads may beat a computer playing his cards.