As some forum members are starting up their bankrolls through freeroll and contest wins, I figured it would be a good time to make a post about proper bankroll management.
The last thing you want to do after you've started up a poker bankroll is to go bust. You worked hard to earn your cash, you want to make it last as long as possible. Bad beats (and yes, bad play - we all do it) will cost you money in the short term, so the best thing for you to do is to LIMIT THE SHORT-TERM VARIANCE.
What does this mean?
Put simply, it means to spread out your bets as thin as possible, while still giving yourself a chance to earn some decent dough. If you have $20 to play with, you wouldn't want to bet it all as a 60% favorite - you will lose 4 times out of 10, after all. Rather, it would be wiser to spread it out as 2 $10 bets as a 60% favorite - and even more wise to spread them out as 4 $5 bets...
Of course, If you spread your bets out too thinly, your profits will be small, and it may not seem like it's worth it at all. What you want to do is find a middleground, where you won't be risking too much of your bankroll at any given time, while still earning meaningful profits.
That middleground varies based on who you talk to, as well as the level of play you are facing. However, for a small start-up bankroll ($50-100), this would be a good place to start:
NL and PL Cash Games: No more than 5% of your bankroll on the table at any given time. This means you should have 20 buy-ins handy. One buy-in for NL and PL games consists of at least 100 big blinds. Never enter a cash game with less than that, unless the rest of the table has a significantly smaller stack. Pots can and will get very large, so you will need a larger buy in for these games. For a $50 bankroll, you would want to start out with 1/2 penny NL and PL cash games. This would mean you'd buy in for at least $2 each game, and never more than $2.50.
Limit Cash Games: No more than 10% of your bankroll on the table at any given time. The math here is a bit simpler, you want to have 10 buy ins. A good buy-in would consist of 30 big bets. So, your bankroll would have to consist of 300 big bets. For a $50 bankroll, this would mean playing .05/.10 limit poker.
MTTs: MTTs offer the chance to win a very large amount of money with a relatively small buy in (Just last week, I won $163 from an $11 buy in, for instance). However, odds are, you will not hit big payouts terribly often. 90% of the time, you won't cash. Even when you do cash, you most likely won't hit a big payout, as those are only available to the very top finishers. It's because of this that you would want a lot of buy ins to work with if you plan on playing MTTs regularly. For low level MTTs, you should probably have 65-100 buy ins on you in order to play. Since most MTTs have a minimum buy in of $1.10, you'll notice that you won't have enough for a $50 bankroll. However, because the skill level in these micro games is so low, you can afford to play a couple of these every now and then. Just be sure to monitor your success in these games. If you're down 10 buy ins playing MTTs at this level, stop playing them. Try another game to play.
Sit-N-Gos: Sit-N-Gos are small tournaments that start once enough players have registered. While the most popular now are 8-10 man Sit-N-Gos, heads up, short-handed, and multi-table (18-45) games are available as well. For any sit-n-go with up to 10 players, 20 buy-ins would be a good place to start. (This would be $2-3 buy in's for a $50 bankroll). However, as the number of players goes up, the number of buy ins you'll want go up as well. For 18-player sit-n-gos I would suggest 30 buy ins, and 40 buy ins for 27-player sit-n-goes. If you want to stick to 45-man, 50 buy ins are what I would suggest.
Now, with the poker skill you've built up, and some proper bankroll management, you will be able to defeat the short-term variance you will face, while still earning decent money when you win
