Total Capital

You need to consider the size of your Texas Hold’em bankroll both with respect to your overall bankroll and with respect to the bankroll you take into each game. In both cases the amount you need will be dictated by the size of the Big Bet in the limit games that you are playing in.

In Texas Hold’em the size of your bankroll will be determined by two factors – a) how much spare money that you can set aside for your Texas Hold’em playing, and b) what limits you are playing at.

When you are starting to play Texas Hold’em seriously you should start to play at the $0.50 – $1.00 limit to ensure that you cannot lose too much of your bankroll through poor play when you are learning. Ideally at this level your bankroll should be 500 times the Big Bet i.e. $500 in this case. This should provide more than sufficient scope for you to learn and not lose your entire bankroll.

Many starting players will start at a limit that is too high and with a bankroll that is too small for the limits being played. The inevitable result of this is total loss of bankroll without learning sufficiently about their game and the need to inject new funds into their bankroll.

As you improve over time the bankroll required in terms of Big Bets can be reduced. As a rule of thumb, if you have started out to play Texas Hold’em as per this book by the time you have increased your initial bankroll from $500 to $1,000 you should then be ready to move to the $1 – $2 level where you will now have a bankroll of 500 times the Big Bet. It is important to note that the $500 you have added to your bankroll should be purely from playing games and should not include new injections of cash. Using this type of strategy as a hurdle ensures that you are giving yourself sufficient time and game play to learn the skills necessary to move up a limit level.

It is also useful to keep in mind the principal of bankroll management when playing sessions of poker rather than just hands – this is described in further detail in section 11.

When analysing your investment bankroll requirement you should develop a similar table to the one above based on the risk levels of the securities that you have selected for investment.