Any form of gambling requires bankroll management in order to be successful. Poker is no exception and in tournament poker it is critical due to the fact when your stack is gone you are out of the tournament. In a cash game it is important because if you are flagrant with bad calls and dumb raises, you put yourself in such a hole that you cannot climb out without an unusually long rush. Online long rushes seem rarer than those rushes you see in live games. When you get far down, sometimes it will cause a player to try to play catch-up and by doing that the player gets even worse.
Managing your bankroll is smart for many reasons. If you play few losing hands, you will not need to win as many to make a profit. Casual calls just for action will add up over the course of an evening. If for example you call a two-dollar wager ten times and lose, you will need to win $20 to get back to even. Casual calls are nibblers at a persons bankroll and do not seem very bad due to the small amount involved. Over time these small amounts will make it harder to get ahead before the end of the evening. Bankroll management would dictate no casual calls just for action. Every call should have a purpose and a reason for its play. This rule alone will improve your bankroll management.
When you are unsure of the player you are facing when they raise, do not reraise without a very good reason. Playing conservatively at the beginning of the play is not a bad way to start. It is hard for the aggressive player to do, but it may be the way to conceal how you are playing if your reputation is aggressive. Playing the opposite of your normal play can at times be protective of your bankroll.
Never let anger show up through your bankroll. This is a very good way to deplete it very quickly if you let it happen. If you are the victim of a bad beat, try to calm down and not let it interfere with good play. If you let it get the best of you, your management of your bankroll will suffer. It takes patience and skill to manage your bankroll properly. Experience is another factor in good management. Poker is all about keeping your stack together so you have chips when you get a really good hand. In no limit Holdem or Omaha it is a sad player who finally gets a really good hand and does not have enough chips to bet it properly. This happens more often than you can count in cash games. A player has lost a very large pot and has a small stack left and does not rebuy. If he then gets a good hand to play, he cannot protect the hand, as he has no chips to play. This can be a serious problem if it persists through a series of good hands. If the low stack player does not rebuy, they will be stuck in a hard place to recover from.
Part of good bankroll management is to play well and with knowledge. Smart play and calls and raising with some discretion are part of caring for your bankroll. Playing well will probably increase the bankroll and not deplete it. Stupid calls or playing on luck alone is a sure way to lose the bankroll. Skillful play is the opposite of luck only play. A player that depends on luck by itself is lost if the luck deserts him. This player will have difficulty managing his bankroll.
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