Free poker tool
Poker Bankroll Calculator
How many buy-ins your roll covers, what your own rule asks for, and when to move up or down.
Bankroll calculator
How many buy-ins your roll covers, and what your own rule asks for.
Buy-ins available
20.0
Bankroll for 40 buy-ins
$4,000
$2,000 short
Stake this roll supports
$50
Largest buy-in under your rule
Move down
20.0 buy-ins covers less than your 40-buy-in rule for Cash Games. Either add $2,000 or drop to a stake where one buy-in is $50 or less.
Move up around
$6,000
Move down below
$4,000
Not a book figure: StackedPoker's own default. Modern Poker Theory states no cash-game bankroll figure, so nothing here is presented as a book citation.
What a bankroll rule is for
A bankroll rule converts variance into a stake you can survive. It does not make you win — it stops a normal losing stretch from ending your ability to play at all.
The rule is a number of buy-ins, so it moves with the stake: 40 buy-ins is $4,000 at a $100 buy-in and $400 at a $10 one.
required bankroll = buy-in x your buy-in rule
How the calculation works
Divide your bankroll by one buy-in to get the buy-ins you are covered for, then compare that to your own rule. Above the rule you are rolled; below it, either add funds or drop to a stake where the rule holds again.
The move-up threshold used here is 1.5x the requirement — the same margin the StackedPoker bankroll tracker applies, so the public tool and the signed-in product never disagree.
Where these numbers come from, and where they do not
Modern Poker Theory states a bankroll figure for tournaments only — at least 200 buy-ins, and 1,000 to minimise the risk of going broke. It gives no figure for cash games, PLO or Spin & Go anywhere in the book.
So the tournament presets are a published figure and the rest are StackedPoker's own defaults. The calculator says which is which every time you switch game type, because a house default presented as a rule is how players end up broke following advice nobody stands behind.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting the buy-in changes when you move up
- A roll that covers 40 buy-ins at one stake covers 20 at the next one up. Moving up halves your cushion at the moment your edge is smallest.
- Borrowing a rule from a different format
- Tournament variance is far larger than cash-game variance, so a tournament buy-in count applied to cash is needlessly conservative — and the reverse is dangerous.
- Counting money you cannot lose
- A bankroll is money set aside for poker. Rent inside the number makes every rule in this calculator meaningless.
Practical examples
- Cash Games at a $100 buy-in
- A 40-buy-in rule asks for $4,000. Moving up becomes reasonable around $6,000. This is a StackedPoker default, not a published figure.
- MTT at a $100 buy-in
- A 150-buy-in rule asks for $15,000. Moving up becomes reasonable around $22,500. This one is a published figure.
- Spin & Go at a $100 buy-in
- A 150-buy-in rule asks for $15,000. Moving up becomes reasonable around $22,500. This is a StackedPoker default, not a published figure.
- PLO at a $100 buy-in
- A 50-buy-in rule asks for $5,000. Moving up becomes reasonable around $7,500. This is a StackedPoker default, not a published figure.
Key terms
- Bubble Factor
- Near the bubble, chip EV understates the risk of elimination.
Key takeaway
Pick a buy-in count you can hold to on a bad day, then let the stake follow the roll rather than the other way round.
Frequently asked questions
How big should my poker bankroll be?
It depends on format and your own risk tolerance. Modern Poker Theory states at least 200 buy-ins for tournaments; StackedPoker's cash-game default is 40 buy-ins, which is a house default rather than a published figure. The calculator applies whichever rule you choose.
When should I move up in stakes?
This calculator flags a move up at 1.5x your requirement — enough of a cushion that one bad session at the higher stake does not immediately put you under your own rule.
Does a bankroll rule make me a winning player?
No. It only controls how likely you are to still be playing after a downswing. A losing player with a large bankroll loses more slowly, not less.
Related
Concepts, lessons and tools that build on this page.
- Free toolPoker Equity CalculatorExact hand-versus-hand equity: every remaining runout dealt and counted, not simulated.
- Free toolPoker EV CalculatorPut a number on a decision: expected value weighs every outcome by how often it happens.
- Free toolPoker Outs CalculatorTurn a count of outs into the real probability of hitting, on the next card and by the river.
- LessonDecision LabThree real hands. Every tool from this module, working together.
- LessonThink in Expected ValueJudge decisions by what they earn over time, not by what happened this one time.
- GlossaryPoker Terms Starting With B6 poker terms beginning with B, defined with examples and linked to the lessons that teach them: Backdoor Draw, Blind vs Blind Dynamics, Blockers, Bluff Candidate.
Source: Buy-in presets and the safe/move-up/move-down classification come from lib/bankroll/management.ts, the same module the StackedPoker bankroll tracker uses. Only the tournament figure is a published one (Modern Poker Theory p.264); the others are StackedPoker defaults and are labelled as such on the page.