Poker Bankroll Calculator — How Many Buy-ins Do You Need?
Last updated: May 26, 2026
Standard bankroll rules: 20 buy-ins minimum for cash games; 50-100 buy-ins for tournaments. Even a strong winning player has a ~20% risk of ruin at 20 buy-ins with a modest 5 bb/100 win rate. Most experienced players use 30+ buy-ins for cash games to bring ruin risk below 8%. Use the interactive calculator below or the reference tables further down the page to find your required bankroll by stake and format.
Calculate Your Required Bankroll
Recommended Bankroll
$2,500
= 25× $100 buy-in
Rule of thumb: Cash games need 20-40 buy-ins depending on skill and risk tolerance. Standard is 25 buy-ins for proven winning players.
How Many Buy-ins Do You Need? The Standard Rules
Bankroll requirements are not arbitrary — they are derived from the mathematics of variance and risk of ruin. The goal is to have enough buy-ins to absorb a normal bad run without going broke, so that your long-run win rate can assert itself.
NL Cash Games
Minimum: 20 buy-ins
Recommended: 30-50 buy-ins
Lower variance; 30 BIs brings ruin risk below 8%
MTT (Tournaments)
Minimum: 50 buy-ins
Recommended: 100 buy-ins
High variance; 100 BIs is industry standard
Sit-and-Go
Minimum: 30 buy-ins
Recommended: 50 buy-ins
Moderate variance; between cash and MTT
Live Cash Games
Minimum: 20 buy-ins
Recommended: 30 buy-ins
Same as online; larger amounts per buy-in
The minimum buy-ins (20 for cash, 50 for MTT) represent the absolute floor where risk of ruin becomes manageable. The recommended thresholds (30-50 for cash, 100 for MTT) are what most serious players target before moving up stakes.
Bankroll Requirements by Stake and Format
The table below gives minimum and recommended bankroll amounts for common stakes across all major formats. All cash game buy-ins assume 100 big blind max buy-in (standard).
Risk of Ruin — The Math Behind Bankroll Sizing
Risk of ruin is the probability of losing your entire bankroll before variance evens out, even as a winning player. It is a function of two inputs: your bankroll size (in buy-ins) and your win rate (in bb/100). Higher win rate reduces ruin risk at any bankroll size; larger bankroll reduces ruin risk at any win rate.
The approximate formula uses the Kelly Criterion and standard deviation estimates for poker variance. The table below shows ruin risk across common combinations — read it before deciding how many buy-ins to play with.
Key takeaway: at 20 buy-ins, even a strong 10 bb/100 winner has 9% ruin risk — and a modest 2 bb/100 winner has 45% ruin risk. Most players find 30 buy-ins at 5+ bb/100 (8% ruin) to be an acceptable risk-reward tradeoff for their stakes. If you are uncertain about your win rate, use the conservative 50 buy-in threshold.
When to Move Up Stakes — The Right Threshold
Moving up stakes is one of the most psychologically charged decisions in poker. The mathematical rule is simple: have 30+ buy-ins at the new stake before taking a seat. But the common mistake is treating the arrival at that threshold as permission to move up immediately.
The Move-Up Rule
- 1. Have 30+ buy-ins at the new stake already in your bankroll — not as the total after moving up.
- 2. Demonstrated win rate at the current stake over at least 10,000 hands (cash) or 200+ tournaments.
- 3. Move back down immediately if you drop below 20 buy-ins at the new level — no ego, no exceptions.
- 4. Treat the new stake as a test: play a trial of 2,000-3,000 hands before committing fully.
The reason to have 30 buy-ins in reserve (not just 20) is that you will inevitably lose some when first playing the new stake. Arriving at the new level with exactly the minimum means you are already within bad-run range of having to move back down. Starting with 30 gives you the buffer to learn at the new level without panic-folding or leaving.
Common Bankroll Management Mistakes
Most bankroll failures follow predictable patterns. Recognising these in advance prevents the most avoidable forms of going broke.
Playing above your bankroll
Taking shots at stakes where you have fewer than 20 buy-ins. Even a short downswing at a higher stake can wipe a session bankroll. Shots are only appropriate with a pre-defined stop-loss (e.g., max 3 buy-in loss at the higher stake before returning).
Moving up too quickly
Running good at one stake does not prove competence at the next. A player up 50 buy-ins over 5,000 hands may have benefited from favorable variance. 10,000+ hand samples give a more reliable read on actual win rate before moving up.
Not tracking results
Without tracking software (PokerTracker, Hold'em Manager, or even a spreadsheet), you have no way to measure your actual win rate. You cannot make informed stake decisions without accurate data.
Mixing bankroll with living expenses
Poker bankroll should be completely separate from personal finances. Using rent money to play, or withdrawing from the bankroll to cover expenses, destroys the statistical integrity of the bankroll and adds pressure that degrades decision quality.
No move-down rule
Committing to a move-up plan without a move-down rule is incomplete. Define in advance: at what bankroll level (in buy-ins at the current stake) will you move down? Stick to it. Most failed bankroll histories come from refusing to move down after a downswing at a new stake.
Bankroll management is the infrastructure that lets your decisions at the table — including all the +EV calls you make using correct equity calculation — produce their intended results over time.
Definitions
Frequently Asked Questions
How many buy-ins do I need for poker?
The standard recommendation is 20 buy-ins minimum for cash games and 50-100 buy-ins for tournaments. At 20 buy-ins, even a strong winning player has roughly 9-20% risk of going broke in an extended downswing. Most players use 30 buy-ins for cash games (bringing risk of ruin below 8%) and 100 buy-ins for tournaments where variance is far higher. These are not conservative rules — they are mathematically derived thresholds.
What is risk of ruin in poker?
Risk of ruin is the mathematical probability that a player will lose their entire bankroll before variance evens out — even if they are a winning player. A player with a 5 bb/100 win rate and 20 buy-ins has roughly 20% risk of ruin. At 30 buy-ins, risk of ruin drops to ~8%. At 50 buy-ins, it drops below 1%. Risk of ruin is the core reason bankroll management matters even for winning players.
How do I calculate my poker bankroll?
Multiply your buy-in size by the number of buy-ins required for your format. For cash games: buy-in × 30 is the recommended starting point. For a $1/$2 NL game with a $200 buy-in: $200 × 30 = $6,000 recommended bankroll. For tournaments: entry fee × 100. A $50 MTT requires a $5,000 bankroll at the recommended 100 buy-in threshold. Use the interactive calculator above for instant results.
Should I play with fewer buy-ins if I am a winning player?
No. Even strong winning players bust at 10-20 buy-ins in bad variance stretches. A 10 bb/100 win rate (strong) still carries ~9% risk of ruin at 20 buy-ins — that is nearly a 1 in 10 chance of going broke even while playing well. A 5 bb/100 win rate at 20 buy-ins has ~20% ruin risk. Playing underrolled also causes suboptimal decisions (scared money), which depresses your actual win rate further.
When should I move up in stakes?
Move up when you have 30+ buy-ins at the next stake AND demonstrated confidence in your edge at the current stake over a meaningful sample (10,000+ hands for cash games). Having exactly 30 buy-ins is not enough — you need them comfortably in reserve, not as the threshold itself. If you move up and drop to 20 buy-ins at the new level, move back down immediately without ego attachment.
How does MTT bankroll differ from cash game bankroll?
Tournaments require 2-5 times more buy-ins than cash games due to dramatically higher variance. In cash games, a winning player's results smooth out over thousands of hands relatively quickly. In MTTs, even a 30% ROI player can go 40-60 tournaments between significant cashes (top-heavy prize structures mean most entries result in zero return). The 50-100 buy-in recommendation for MTTs reflects this extended run of zero results that is entirely normal.
What is a buy-in in poker?
A buy-in is the amount of money exchanged for chips at a poker table. In cash games, the standard buy-in is 100 big blinds — at a $1/$2 NL table, the max buy-in is typically $200. In tournaments, the buy-in is the fixed entry fee (e.g., $50 in a $50+$5 tournament, plus $5 rake). Bankroll requirements are calculated based on this buy-in amount, not the blind level.
Recommended Reading
The Theory of Poker — David Sklansky
The classic foundation every serious player starts with — the Fundamental Theorem of Poker.
The Mathematics of Poker — Bill Chen & Jerrod Ankenman
The definitive quantitative treatment of poker — game theory, equity, and EV from first principles.
Modern Poker Theory — Michael Acevedo
GTO principles made practical — ranges, frequencies, and solver-backed strategy in one volume.
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