MTT Bankroll Management Guidelines and Game Selection Tips

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I spend a large chunk of my day on the TPE forum and in TPE chat talking to members.  I view every single comment for every single video and article, and at this point I’d have to say one of the most popular questions that we get is:  What bankroll do you think I should have to play (insert your stakes/schedule here)?

I’ll take this topic on because I thought deeply about this when I was first starting to play and applied some very strict rules that I believe helped me become a winning player.

That’s not to say I knew what I was doing at first.  Like a lot of poker noobs I would deposit $50 and blow it on two or three tournaments, rinse, and repeat.  Then something amazing happened.  I won a $10 tournament on New Years Day 2006 on Bodog for over $1K.  And like most lucky winners, almost half of that money was gone within a week because I thought I was ready for the bigger games.

After the shock of getting so high and falling so low so quickly, I started to do some research on bankroll management, learned a few simple rules, and have never deposited again.  Here’s what I did and how you can apply it to your own roll.

First, Define Your True Bankroll

The first step to thinking about your bankroll is to define exactly what it is.  Most of us have some money deposited on the sites that we call our bankroll but we all have varying degrees of additional funds to deposit in case we go busto online.  Your true bankroll is what you have online plus what you’d be willing to deposit.  Of course, we don’t want to deposit another dime, ever. But the reality is that if we can redeposit we should consider these funds as they will allow us to play larger stakes.

For me personally, re-depositing isn’t an option.  I have a wife, house, two kids, etc.  Once I had a little bit of money–I never want to deposit again because I didn’t want this hobby to become intermingled with our house finances.  For this reason I consider my online roll my entire roll and will adjust my stakes appropriately.

So what’s your roll?  Is it $100, $500, $1K, $5K, $10K, $20K or more?

Next, Assess Your Risk Tolerance

Ask yourself this question:  Are you looking to move up over time and create a steady income from poker but be willing to play small at first to grind out a bigger roll with low risk of ruin, or are you looking to take the big shots and are willing to burn through that roll in a few months and move on to something else if it doesn’t work out?   Give yourself a score from 1-10 on this scale with 1 being deathly afraid to lose your money and 10 being Isildur1.  Most people are between a  4-6.

What Games are you playing?

The game you play and the field sizes that come along with them will have a dramatic impact on your variance.  If you are going to grind 45 man SNGs, you can play much higher stakes on the same roll than you can play if your focus is on 1000+ field MTTs.  Since this is an MTT-focused site we will focus on MTTs, but even within that field there is a wide range of MTT field sizes to choose from.  In addition, you can mix in SNGs when you play MTTs.

Using this Information to Craft a Bankroll Management and Game Selection Strategy

OK, now that you’ve defined your BR, identified how risk tolerant you are and what games you’ll be playing, let’s see how to apply that knowledge to a bankroll management strategy.

Leveraging the Concept of Average Buy-in (ABI)

When you first ask the question of what should my bankroll be, the common answer you will get is 100x your average buy-in.  Notice that I said “average”.  Let’s define what an average buy-in is and put some general parameters around that term.  As you would expect, the average buy-in is simply averaging the cost of every tournament you play.  So, if in one night you play a $100, $10 and $1 tournament then your ABI is $37.

While the 100x rule is usually the first answer you will see, this is too risky for most players unless you are an 8+ on the risk scale.  MTTs just have too much variance to keep such a limited bankroll.

Most professionals who are not interested in depositing will use at least 250 ABI as their rule of thumb and continually adjust it downward while they are in a downswing.  Seem nitty?  Check out this thread on 2+2 about how bad variance can get.

I actually use 300 ABI as my rule of thumb.  So if my bankroll at the time is 15k I play an average of about $50 tourneys.  I find that this level of buy-in puts me in the right mindset to play where I am not so worried about busting if the play is +EV.  When I’m playing at 250ABI I tend to get too nitty.

Taking Shots

Once you’ve established an ABI for your bankroll you should be on your way to proper bankroll management.  However, there is a hidden risk in ABI.  The simple calculation does not consider how wide a gap there is between your average buy-in and your typical high buy-in.  This is a trap that many players fall into.  They play too many tournaments that are a big chunk of their roll and think by offsetting with many other low stakes tournaments with huge fields, they are adhering to good ABI rules.  This is wrong.  Consider this; if your ABI is $37 but you play at lot of $162s and then a lot of $2 massive-field tournaments to balance, you’re actually at much bigger risk than you think.  You’re probably around a $10K roll with this ABI.  But what if you go on a 30-game downswing in the $162s?  You just lost nearly half of your roll in just a handful of tournaments.  Your regular shots should not exceed your ABI too greatly.

So if you are a 4-6 in terms of risk, what size should your regular shots be? Let’s look at an example of where I have a true $1K bankroll.  If I have average risk tolerance and play a normal MTT schedule mixing in a few smaller fields regularly, then my ABI should be $4.  Chris Ferguson took a bankroll building challenge (turn $1 to $10,000–he did it) and he did not allow himself to buy into any tournament that was more than 2% of his bankroll.  For our $1K player that means a strict $20 cap.  I like that as a regular shot cap.  This means once or twice a week.  If you DO want to play bigger try to sell pieces of your action.  This is significantly more than others have stated.   I would also advice a non-standard big shot once in a while just to keep the game interesting.  This shot should not be more than 5% of your bankroll and you should not take this more than once every 3 months.

If you are a 7-10 on the risk scale then you can bend these a little.  Go with a 150-200x ABI, play your 2% bankroll sized shots a few times a week and take a bigger shot every month.

Recommendations for a $100 Roll

For 4-6 risk players, I’d focus on the $1 18-man, 45-man, 90-man and 180-man tournaments, as well as satellites into $10 tourneys.  Your ABI won’t be that ~250ABI number but your field sizes are significantly smaller.  You won’t be playing any large scale MTTs here.  You just don’t have the roll.  Be patient and grind this to $500.  I built my roll on these after losing most of it after the first score.  The games should be beatable, especially if you watch HITTHEPANDAs Bankroll Builder videos on our site.

Recommendations for a $500 Roll

For 4-6 risk players, your ABI should be about $2 with no shots bigger than $10.  My primary games would be pretty much the same as a $100 roll but you can play the $3-$6 level STTs.  You can also start mixing in some MTTs around the $3 range but take shots on $5-10 tourneys.  I’d also be playing $2r (rebuy).  Just make sure you keep mixing in those 18, 45, 90 and 180 ($4.40) man tourneys.

Recommendations for a $1k Roll

With $1K, the medium risk players can now expand their BR to between $3 – $5 with no regular shots bigger than $20.  My primary games would be $2, $3, and $5 freezouts (FO).  I’d also try to find non-guarantees that keep the field sizes down.  I’d also be playing $2r and $3r as well.  I would still be mixing in some $4 and $11/180s, $7/45s and $6/90s to reduce variance.

Recommendations for a $5k Roll

At this stage, your ABI should be between $16-$22 with no shots bigger than $109.  I’d be playing a lot of $11 and $26 FOs.  I’d be playing the $3r – $10r.  I’d be playing the $55 tourneys a few times a week.  If you do play a $109 do it sparingly.  In reality I think your best size of shots are $75 and try to keep those to field sizes < 400.

Recommendations for a $10,000 Roll

If you’ve built this far you’re really on your way now.  Your ABI should be between $35 and $45.  You can play the nightly $50 tourneys regularly.  You can dabble in the $75s and $109s.  You should be mixing in a $3r, $5r, and $26FOs to keep your ABI down.  You can play the Sunday Million or $750K once a month and a nightly $100k or nightly $75K once a month but those are your two shots and would not take any other ones.

Recommendations for a $20,000 Roll

Your ABI for this level should be between $70-$85. This is more buy-ins than previously advised but that’s because the competition becomes much tougher.  You can play the nightly $50, $75s and $109s regularly.  You can take shots at the nightly $162s.  However, you should be mixing in the $10r, $20r and $26FOs to keep your ABI down.  I still wouldn’t play the Sunday majors every week but if you play it twice a month you should be OK.

Conclusion

So what should we take away from this?  First, figure out what your bankroll is then figure out how risk tolerant you are.  Then you need to calculate your ABI.  I use 250x as the rule of thumb but you can adjust this upwards or downwards based on your risk tolerance and your ability to re-deposit.  Then I’d select my games mixing in larger and smaller fields but also understanding what my shots should be.  Once you do that you’re on your way to a proper bankroll management strategy that should hold you through the downswings and give you the chance to build your roll up to play in the bigger games.  Good luck!



35 Responses to “MTT Bankroll Management Guidelines and Game Selection Tips”

  3. thegrinders

    Nice article, what is youre recomendation..if you have 10k bankrole, how much should youre total buyins be per day, do you think?

  9. e-student

    what about cash games roll?

    I have read 300 X max buy in. So a $40 buy in requires around

    $12 k bankroll. Anyone have different ideas ?

    Thanks,E-student

  15. swet1

    300 for cash is too high, it’s more along the lines of 30 buyins for cash games. If you are playing 6max you should add some more since the variance will be higher.

  19. cassiopak

    Hey, great article. I have a $14k-$16k bankroll and I’m actually playing every regular since $8,80 to $55. $3,30R, $5,50R, $11R, $22c $11c. And I’m playing turbos since $2,20 to $27 with no rebuys.

    My ABI is around $20, but I do play a LOT in a single day, I can spend $400-600 on a normal day to $600-$800 on sundays With this ABI.

    I’m thinking about playing ONE $109 regular by day, what do you think about that? Can it cause some sort of risk to my bankroll?

    I mean, I know u recommend 250x ABI but if I had an $60 ABI and keep playing 20-45 tourneys a day I would spend $2700 in my days with most actions which seems insane for my bankroll.

    I think your article needs to be mixed with some kind of “how many tourneys do you play on a single day” theory.

    And I would really love to play those $109, I think I’ll do a week of testing then I can post here later.

    Thanks

  20. RonFezBuddy

    You bring up a really good point because from a purely theoretical perspective it should not matter if you play 3 or 30 tournaments in one day. However, I know exactly what you mean by the effect of accumulating large volume at one time. I find myself that even with >300abi if i play 20 tournaments in a day and go on a 3 or 4 day cold stretch, I am mentally affected.

    I think what you are getting at isn’t really a math problem but a psychological one. If we take 3 days of 20 tournaments. By the time we get to tournaments 50-60 on a cold spell, I don’t think we’ll be playing optimally which should affect our ROI.

    When I know i’m going to put in massive volume I go even higher on ABI as looking at a day like the $2700 one above would definitely damage my psyche.

    I’ll think about how to integrate that into the article.

    Thanks!

  21. Nockx

    I learned these percentages a long time ago,but your Bankroll Guidelines is a better approach.
    Thank You.
    This is what I learned before(but never tested or used)
    Up to maximun 5% percent of your bankroll for single table Sit n Go.
    Up to maximum 2% percent of your bankroll for multitable Sit n Go.
    Up to maximum 1% percent of your bankroll for MTT`s

  25. hapetimes

    Great article!
    any quick advice for steps? or satellites?
    how does the fact that you dont win cash affect our roll? and do you advise stepping up to step 4 for entry in sunday mill etc?

  26. Jydemand

    Nice one I have a 40k roll and play mostly sundays where I play between 12-20 Tours with a ABI arround 120 Dollars.

    I think it is a bit high risk? But playing only ones a week for these stakes help me concentrate. (I would like to play more but work-wife children makes MTT hard to fit in the schedule I play mostly PLO Cash on the side during weeksdays).

  27. DynamicPro

    Sadly i got to 8k, then my friend befriended me. now Im 7 months kicked in the dick and back to the beginning.

    Doing things all by myself this time, no sharing accounts with anyone, not staking horses anymore who run off after binking!

    I started playing poker back in june 2011, Shared my cake poker acconut with my former roommate and bestfriend of 14 years whom decided 8k was worth our friendship.

    I just joined tpe to hopfully find some help and get my $ back and my poker aspiring career back.

    Very nice post RFB

  28. triiippp

    I have been doing this so wrong for so long! Thank for you laying things out so clearly. This is super helpful. Now if I can just find the discipline to follow it consistently… 😉

  30. Fanch

    Is this per site or total bankroll? for ex. If I have $500 per site on 4 sites, I still shouldn’t play 5.5 fos? I find that insanely nitty if so..

  34. mykhalzyruskane

    This article makes a lot more sense than what you find out there! This helps alot! Very similar to managing a bankroll for traders. Wish I knew this a long time ago before blowing out bankrolls!

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