Bankroll Management for Video Poker

People who are involved with playing a lot of video poker can tell you that there are a lot of winning streaks and losing streaks involved in the game. If you want to weather these swings and stay in the game long enough to have a better shot at coming out on top, then you need to have adequate bankroll management. The type of online video poker you play, your strength as a player, and how you plan to replenish your bankroll all help to dictate what type of bankroll management strategy you should follow.

Our recommendation is to start with a 300x rule if you want to be aggressive and a 500x rule if you want to be conservative. These numbers refer to the number of bets you should have in reserve relative to the size of the bet you’re using. For example, if you’re playing with $1.25 bets, then you’d want to have 500 times that, or $625, to have a conservative starting point. From this starting point, you’re going to add or subtract values based on your particular circumstances and the types of games you’re playing.

The Influence of Game Selection

Variance is the main statistical measurement that can help to determine how frequently you’re going to run into big swings in games like video poker. The higher this value, the larger your bankroll management guidelines are going to need to be to maintain a reasonable comfort level.

This comes into play with game selection as follows. If you’re playing wild card games, then the more wilds in the deck, the larger your variance is going to be. A game like Joker Poker with a single wild might require you to add an extra 10 to 20 percent to your bankroll management guidelines. However, something like Deuces Wild where almost 8 percent of the cards are wild will require a larger addition to your bankroll to compensate for the extra variance.

How Often You Deposit

Generally speaking, most players have bankroll funds included in their weekly or monthly budget. You’ll need to take this into account when deciding how to handle your online bankroll since the whole point is to keep you in the game as long as possible without making your bets so small that they don’t mean anything to you.

If you’re depositing weekly as a part of your budget, then you can be a little more aggressive with your bankroll requirements. However, if you aren’t depositing very often, then you’re going to want to play very conservatively to compensate. Adding or subtracting anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of the size of your bankroll, in terms of the number of bets you’re using, can be reasonable just depending on how often you’re wanting to deposit, how much you are depositing those times, and what types of promotions you are getting with your deposits that help you to stretch out your bankroll even more. Overall, bankroll management is both an art and a science, so use these principles to form an appropriate money management strategy for your particular circumstances.