Bankroll
The money set aside for poker, counted in buy-ins of the games you play.
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- What it means
- A bankroll is the money you play from. Measured in buy-ins, it says how many losing tournaments in a row you can survive at your stake.
- How it is calculated
- The simulator recommends the smallest roll that 95% of the simulated careers never lost, by default, and shows the no-end-date formula bankroll = sd² × ln(1 ÷ risk) ÷ (2 × ROI) beside it.
- Worked example
- With a 20% ROI and a one-tournament standard deviation of 6 buy-ins, the formula gives 36 × ln 20 ÷ 0.4 ≈ 270 buy-ins for a 5% risk of ruin.
- Why it matters
- Playing with too few buy-ins turns ordinary variance into going broke. The roll you need grows with the field size and shrinks as your edge grows.
Try it: Variance and bankroll calculator, Mental game, Cash game variance calculator
Lessons that teach it: How a winning player still goes broke, A bankroll rule made before the downswing · lessons other than the free one need an invite
See also: Risk of ruin, Downswing, ROI, Buy-in