Managing your bankroll when playing live casino games will help you take your game to another level. This is where you gambling strategy should always begin.
If you can master bankroll management, you’ll master one of the most important disciplines of gambling.
First, you need to understand how to manage the size of your bankroll and how to divide it into sensible bet sizes.
However, it is important to understand that bankroll management is one area of many you need to learn to master online casino games.
Return to player and the house edge are important. Volatility is another aspect. Then, the rules of the games you play and getting a feel for how each game works are also important.
Mastering all comes with time and practice. Yet, I reiterate that it all begins with bankroll management. It helps minmise your losses and maximise your wins. It also helps beginners learn how to play different casino games faster. All this will be revealed in the guide below!
What is Bankroll Management?
Your bankroll is effectively your casino balance. The first thing you need to do before you start gambling is decide how much you are willing to lose per day, week, or month. We are taking a pessimistic view here because casino games, by design, make a profit, not the players.
If it were the other way around, we wouldn’t have casinos in the first place. Yes, we acknowledge some players do profit from gambling. And do you know what? Those who do profit always use a form of bankroll management and bet sizing they’ve mastered or adapted to suit their play. However, mastering your own strategy is something that will come with time.
The first rule of bankroll management is that you should never gamble if you cannot afford to. I.e., don’t get into debt and don’t get into a situation where you struggle to pay bills. So, the simple solution is to only deposit what you are prepared to lose and treat your gambling entertainment as a ‘hobby’ like golf or football. Some people’s hobbies include going to a bar or going to the pub for a drink or two with a budget in mind. The same budgetary rules apply to gambling online.
| No. | You can manage your bankroll in several ways, depending on your aim: |
|---|---|
| 1 | Are you trying to increase your bankroll by taking advantage of winning streaks and deposits you have budgeted for? |
| 2 | Are you simply looking to play through your entire bankroll every week or month in search of big wins to cash out, but if you lose, will you deposit according to your budget? |
CONTENT
- What is Bankroll Management?
- How to Execute a Bankroll Management Strategy
- Evolving Your Bankroll Management into Bet-Sizing Strategies
- Bankroll Management in Multi-Player Poker Games
From the table, it doesn’t matter whether objective No.1 or No.2 is your main objective. The key to good bankroll management is to gamble responsibly. Get it right, and you will play for longer, and at the same time, you’ll have fun come rain or shine.
What makes this bankroll management guide different to all the others?
Compared to other bankroll management guides, this guide actually tells you how to manage your bankroll to make educated and mathematical decisions about how much you will bet per round.
- We want you to gamble responsibly and play for longer rather than blow your money in one session.
- Below you will learn scenarios for beginners and experienced players as well as progressive betting systems to avoid.
- We also look at RTP and bet sizing to control your budget and bet sizing so you can get through the losing patches and take full advantages of winning patches.
Now between the team here Livecasinocentral, we have over 75 years of experience combined (around 25 years experience each between the three of us) playing table games starting back in the days when we turned 18 and could enter a casino and play land-based table games and the old mechanical slot machines.
| Example of Good Bankroll Management |
|---|
| Good gambling practices mean gambling responsibly. |
| Gambling responsibly means putting in place a sound bankroll management strategy. |
| A sound bankroll management strategy is learning to budget so you do not affect your daily financials. |
| For more info, read the Livecasinocentral responsible gambling guide. |
Is this guide for sports betting and slot players?
If you are a sports betting fan or play online slots, this guide doesn’t specifically navigate these two gambling entertainment niche verticals. With that being said, slot players may find the strategies outlined below useful when deciding how much you bet.
Although learning about how bankroll management management works, it is also well worth researching other topics that affect this concept to get the full picture. Therefore, we suggest reading about casino game variation to understand why casino games swing from losing (cold) streaks to winning (hot) streaks and vice versa.
What is are some examples of bad bankroll management?
Poor bankroll management is usually reasonably easy spot. Look at these points below and if any of them apply to you, then you probably have poor bankroll management skills.
- You often run out of money in just a few hands and need to deposit again.
- You find yourself in financial difficulty when it comes to paying bills because of gambling
If you lose your daily, weekly, or monthly budget, wait. Stop playing until your next pay-check or when the time is right to deposit again and reset. You have already seen how high the RTPs are in the table above, so eventually, your winning streak will come.
| What are the causes of poor bankroll management? |
|---|
| Their mood. |
| The atmosphere of the casino. |
| Drinking too much alcohol. |
| In the worst case of all, they chase their losses. |
| Peer pressure to look flush by bringing large sums of money. |
How to Execute a Bankroll Management Strategy
Allocating a percentage of your bankroll to each session is an art. When you see the table below, your first question is how is this an art? That is why it is shocking to see or hear so many players ignore it. The art is not in the mathematical formula, but in the discipline of sticking to your strategy to avoid the mistakes people make outlined in the table above. Even friends of ours who have gambled at casinos for as many years as we have still made the same mistakes. And you know what’s worse, they know exactly what bankroll management is. However, off they go to the ATM for more cash because they deviate from the original plan.
What is this magical mathematical formula?
| Rules and Options |
Well, there is no magic at all. It’s as simple as this… |
|---|---|
| The Bankroll Strategy Rule | Only take 5% to 10% of our entire bankroll (the amount you are willing to lose) into a session. |
| Option 1 |
If you have $500 set aside for a month’s gambling, only take $50.00 into the casino using the 10% rule |
| Option 2 | If you have $500 for a month’s gambling, only take $25.00 into the casino using the 5% rule. |
The bankroll management rules apply when you play casino games at an online casino or while gambling at a land-based establishment. With most table games averaging around a 98% RTP (2% house edge), coupled with the correct bet sizing strategy, you should have plenty of playing time. Plus, don’t forget to take breaks when you are tired. Go grab a water and freshen up or socialise if you are in a land-based casino. If you are playing online, take a break. Watch some TV or walk the dog, then head back to the tables.
Now, we have covered the 5% and 10% bankroll management rules, there is second rule you need to master called bet sizing. This is the practice of dividing the amount of your bankroll your commit to your gambling session and dividing into bet sizes.
Evolving Your Bankroll Management into Bet-Sizing Strategies
The final step in the bankroll management system is evolving your bet sizing strategy. As a beginner, this part of your game is the most complex to master, but it will evolve as you gain experience as long you keep it simple in the beginning. Conversely, experienced players who have already mastered the game and do not have a bet sizing strategy should consider skipping the next section and learning some of the advanced bet sizing techniques mentioned below.
In the first section we will cover the topic first from the point of view of those who are new to live casino gaming. In the second we look at bet sizing from the perspective of those of you who are experienced players. For beginners, you can read the advanced section to give yourself a target to evolve your bet sizing strategy in the future.
Bet Sizing for Beginners
The best way to approach your bet sizing strategy as a beginner is to use simple division and stick to it. First, we need a number. Using the 5% or 10% rule from the bankroll management strategy above, let’s say you come up with a figure of $50.00 to take into a session.
Scenario 1
Putting a time limit on your session
- How much time do you want to spend playing at the table?
- Approximately how long does each betting round last?
The mathematics is simple!
- You divide the time you want to spend playing by the number of betting rounds.
- For example, each betting round lasts 1 minute, and you want to play for 1 hour.
- That’s 60 hands per hour. $50.00 divided by $60 equals $0.83 per bet.
- As RTPs on most live casino games range from 95% to 99.5%, let’s round this up to $1.00 per betting round. IN this example, we are assuming you are not going to lose every hand, even if you are placing highly volatile bets like straight-up bets on roulette).
The idea is to play your 60 hands, and ignore you winnings or losses. In other words, you are keeping your winnings separate from the $50.00 you took into the session. If you win $10.00 or $70.00 from those 60 bets, then so be it.
Scenario 2
Setting the maximum number of hands you will play in a session
- How many hands or betting rounds do you want to play?
- How much of your bankroll will you take into the betting round according to the 5% or 10% bankroll management strategy?
Again, the mathematics is simple!
- Let’s say you want to play 100 hands, and you have a bankroll of $50.00.
- $50.00 divided by 100 hands is $0.50 per bet for 100 hands
A quick word of warning. Some games like Blackjack and Baccarat come with a minimum bet of $1.00 or $2.00. The $0.50 example will not work, so you need to adapt your bankroll management strategy. However, most other live games like game shows and roulette you can bet as low as $0.10 or $0.20 per betting round, so there’s even more wiggle room to adjust your betting system.
As a side note, in this scenario, you are not worried about the amount of time you want to play at the table. You simply want to place a certain number of bets regardless of time. However, as with scenario 1, you will still separate the $50.00 session amount from your winnings. Therefore, you will have bank your winnings, whether they are in positive or negative territory and stop when you have played your allocated number of hands.
Keep it Simple – Stay disciplined and learn the game!
As you can see, the bet sizing strategies outlined above for beginners, all you need to do is keep your bet sizing simple. You set 1 unit as your bet size and stick to it with no deviations. Job done!
| No. | Points to stay disciplined |
|---|---|
| Point 1 | Do not to deviate from the bet sizes you have committed to. |
| Point 2 | As a beginner, your focus is learning and getting a feel for the casino game you are playing. |
| Point 3 | Without the need to change your bet sizes, the faster beginner’s can learn the rules of the game. |
You never know, you may be one of those lucky few who start to build an instinct for when winning or losing streaks are about to hit. If you do, then kudos to you because this is tough talent to learn.
Bet Sizing for Advanced Players
In this section of this guide, we are going to show you some of the most common advanced bet sizing strategies used.
Surprisingly, despite all the experience gained playing casinos games, there are still advanced players who still do not use bankroll management or bet sizing strategies. That said, they are far and few between. Most advanced casino players will use a bet sizing strategy, and many implement their own style because they’ve been playing for long enough to understand all the caveats of the their favourite games.
From my personal experience after playing hundreds of thousands of hands of blackjack and poker at LeoVegas and 7Signs casinos, as well as at the Hippodrome Casino in London, my success in minimising my losses and maximising my bets is partly due to my bankroll management. The other part is knowing the game I am playing.
In the two advanced scenarios below, you will see exactly why these three points have been highlighted:
Scenario 1
Changing your bet sizes according to the flow of the game
This is exactly what you probably already think it is.
When you are on a hot streak, you raise the size of your bets to increase your winnings. On the other end of the scale, you reduce your bet size if you are on a losing streak. Quite risky right? Yet, there is a caveat. These players use a bet sizing range. If they didn’t use a range it would be similar to reducing bets is like buying a stock high on the stock market and selling it low when the stock starts to dip, only to later rise again.
Now this strategy takes skill and a deep understanding of the game you play. Also, confidence is another factor. Hence, you may see some bet sizing articles refer to this strategy as ‘confidence betting’.
- Risk Rating 7/10: Even though you may have a feeling you are on a winning roll, every bet you make is independent of the last. It takes a highly skilled player with a sixth sense to master this strategy. And I’ve seen and know players that do this, and it still remains a mystery to me today.
Scenario 2
Bankroll Percentage Betting (Mostly for high rollers)
Some players, mostly whales, will have a $10,000 bankroll and head directly into a game betting 5% of their entire bankroll. It’s extremely risky because it means betting $500 per bet.
I’ve seen this strategy used mostly with blackjack players while playing live dealer games and while sitting at blackjack tables in land-based casinos. They us it because there are two key advantages blackjack players have. ‘Basic strategy’ charts and the RTP on most Blackjack tables is as high as 99.5% (0.5% house edge).
I’ve also seen single-zero Roulette players using a quadrant betting strategy. They place all straight-up bets or a variety of inside bets. These bets cover a quarter of the table’s numbers from 1 to 36, and it gives them a 23.32% chance of winning.
Most of the time, you will find these various strategies do not use advanced mathematics, but you definitely need to know the casino game you are playing well if you want to use bankroll percentage betting.
- Risk Rating 10/10: With all the lessons above taught to beginners, using your entire bankroll as your session amount can result in a fast track to losing your casino bank. It is more of a strategy for high rollers who gamble, well, because they are loaded!
Risk Adversity
One of the key concept you need to grasp when playing with your bankroll management and bet sizing strategies is your adversity to risk.
- Are you OK with losing your entire bankroll in one session?
- Is losing 90% of bankroll no big deal?
- Another option is to figure out a strategy where you fine with losing 50% of your casino bankroll in a session.
Bankroll Management and Bet Sizing Vs RTPs
Part o risk adversity when deciding on how to manage your betting strategy is understanding the house house edge or RTP for each game. We could also dive deeper into variance, which is how volatile your bets are, which we will direct you to another guide covering this topic in the future.
Below are some examples of how bet sizing versus RTP can be weighed up:
Bet Sizing and Theoretical RTP
- Bet sizing is important because, as you may have noticed in the sub-title of this section, we use the word ‘theoretical’.
- Even though Blackjack Azure has an RTP of 99.59%, that doesn’t mean you’ll win this percentage back on every session.
- Losing streaks can still occur, and the trick is to play using the correct bet sizing and wait for a winning streak.
- Players can lose money by raising their bet size in frustration to compensate for a losing streak.
- Setting a budget for your bankroll and managing it into bet sizes can dramatically improve your chances of maximising your winnings streaks and minimising your losing streaks.
| Casino Game | House Edge / Return to Play (RTP) |
|---|---|
| Blackjack Azure | 99.59% / 0.41% |
| European Roulette | 2.7% / 97.3% |
| Monopoly Live | 3.77% / 96.23% |
| Baccarat Banker Bet (6 Decks) | 1.06% / 98.94% |
| Caribbean Stud Poker | 1.81% / 98.19% |
Comparing Progressive Bet Strategies To Beginners and Advanced Strategies
A progressive betting system means consistently changing your bet size according to the previous result. Below, we rate five of the most common progressive betting bet-sizing strategies.
How we rate the risk factor: 10 means the risk of losing money using this bet sizing strategy is high, and 1 is low.
High-Risk Progressive Bet Sizing Systems to Avoid
These three progressive bet sizing systems are aggressive and can be dangerous because a losing streak could see you burn through your session money or your bankroll super-fast. Hence, we recommend avoiding these options.
| Betting Strategy | Risk Factor and Explanation |
|---|---|
| MARTINGALE SYSTEM (Risk factor 10/10) |
The first in line is always the Martingale strategy, as this is the riskiest system simply because if you hit a losing streak, bets can get out of control. As you double your bet after a loss. |
| FIBONACCI SYSTEM (Risk factor 8/10) |
This system uses a sequence of numbers to increase or decrease your bet size. Although a less aggressive system than the Martingale, a losing streak can also send your bet sizes spiralling out of control and above the table maximum. |
| D’ALEMBERT SYSTEM (Risk Factor 7/10) |
This system is soft compared to the top two. We still do not recommend it for beginners, but it is also not overly aggressive. The idea is to set a bet size of 1 unit. Once again, this system can spiral out of control with consecutive losses.
|
Evidence of how risky these bets are: If a table maximum is $500.00 per bet you set your bet amount at $1.00.
You double your bet after 10 losses. That’s (1) $2.00, (2) $4.00, (3) $8.00, (4) $16.00, (5) $32.00, (6) $64.00, (7) $108.00, (8) $216.00 (9) $432.00 (10) $864.00. After bet number nine you cannot double, and this is just strating with a mere $2.00 bet size!
Low-Risk Progressive Bet Sizing Strategies
These two systems are about chasing wins rather than losses. Or rather, maximising winning streaks if possible.
| Betting Strategy | Risk Factor and Explanation |
|---|---|
| REVERSE D’ALEMBERT SYSTEM (Risk Factor 4/10) |
You decrease your bet by 1 after a loss and increase it by 1 after a win. It is as simple as that. |
| PAROLI SYSTEM (Risk Factor 3/10) |
This system is reasonably easy and complements the ‘confidence betting strategy’ mentioned above. Set a bet size, which becomes your 1 unit. When you win, double the bet, and do this for a maximum of 3 wins. Then, reset to your original bet size. |
Overall, low-risk and high-risk betting strategies are complex because you must continuously change your bets. They are weak in concept in some regards, but at the same time, they can make your gameplay more interesting with a low risk of losses. If the low-risk strategies work, you can win big. However, the disadvantage is that if you don’t win, you cancel the wins out, so when it comes to a losing streak, you may not have any wins to counter them.
Bankroll Management in Multi-Player Poker Games
Now, the reason we are including multi-player poker in this article is to help avoid confusion. We won’t delve too deeply into the topic because Livecasinocentral focuses on live casino games. Multi-play poker is a completely different ball game.
- Cash poker comes with one form of bet-sizing strategy, and tournament poker comes with another.
- There are many different variants of multi-player poker, such as Texas Hold ’em, Omaha, 7-Card Stud, and more.
Although the team here at Livecasinocentral enjoy our multi-player poker cash games and tournaments, going into multi-player poker bankroll management and bet, sizing strategies is beyond the scope of our target audience. However, we are not going to leave you empty handed, so we thought the best person to advise you is one of the players from whom we learn most of our poker skills. Daniel Negreanu.
I play my multi-player poker games at 888Poker and William Hill, and I also play PokerStars Live games in the land-based casino the Hippodrome in London. Using Daniel Negreanu’s excellent in-game scenarios, I’ve not only become a more skilled poker player, I also manage my bankroll and bet sizing much more efficiently thanks to Negreanu’s tips.
Learn from a poker expert: We have provided you with a video to watch Daniel Negreanu’s take on bet sizing strategies for multi-player poker games. Now this guy has six World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets to his name, won WPT tournmanets, and the Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
Advantages and Disadvantage of Bankroll Management
Here’s the crux of the matter when it comes to bankroll management. It can become a tedious. It takes discipline and some players just want to get online, play, adjust their bets when they have a feel for the flow of the game and a hot streak is coming. Some have a natural instinct that cannot be explained. One that allows them to spot the ebs and flows of the game and catch big wins just at the right time.
Multi-player poker player are especially known for sniffing out hot streaks. Yet, you also have to bear in mind, this is because these are multiple player poker games played versus other players. Dynamics can change quickly as players adjust strategy or new players join the table while others leave. When you are playing table games like blackjack or roulette, or even poker versus the house, the dynamics are nowhere near as diverse. Yet, pro poker players go through bad patches with long drawn out sessions, and because they stick to their strategy, well, they are pros!
Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of playing lice casino games with bank management and bet sizing strategies in play:
Pros
- Manage Risk: You manage your risk better, minimising your losses and maximising your wins through hot and cold streaks.
- Avoid Over-Gambling: Using only a percentage of your bankroll per session and setting bet sizing limits means you play within your limits.
- Play for Longer: Your bankroll will last longer because you are not putting it at risk in one session (this excludes the Bankroll Percentage Betting strategy).
- Less Emotional Decisions: As you stick to a set session limit, a losing session should not faze you. Likewise, you do not make emotional decisions like raising your bet amount to chase losses if you remain disciplined.
- Beginners Can Learn Faster: With no bet size changes, beginners can play the same size bet every round and concentrate on learning the tricks of the trade.
- Easier to Track Win/Loss Ratios: If you are really meticulous, you can keep records of your winning sessions versus losing sessions using Google Sheets or an Excel spreadsheet. This is where you’ll really begin to understand the stats of the games you play.
Cons
- Lower Win Amounts: As you are not using your entire bankroll to place huge bets, payouts are smaller when you win. This is frustrating for some casino players. We all want to win the most we can, but bear in mind that the key phrase we love to use, ‘Gambling Entertainment is a hobby‘.
- Frustrating or Boring: Playing just one bet size using basic bet sizing strategies can become tedious for some players.
- Easy to Break Discipline: If you are on a losing streak, you may also become frustrated because you want to win your money back. You may want to break your bet size strategy by raising your bet.
- Missing Winning Streaks: You might feel like you are missing out on bigger wins during a winning streak. However, remember that losing streaks are always around the corner, so try not to focus on missed wins but on the fact you are minimising losses when you run cold.
- Slow Bankroll Growth: We regularly say the house always wins. That’s because it is true. Therefore, in theory, your bankroll will rarely grow from your first deposit. However, if you set a weekly deposit amount, your bankroll will grow with each deposit. Plus, there will be times when you are ahead of the house if you hit a long-lasting winning streak.
Using Responsible Gambling Tools to Control Bankroll Management
You’ll see that quite a few pages on Livecasinocentral will mention responsible gambling tools, including our guide to using responsible gambling tools. Even our casino reviews cover whether or not the online gambling platform under review has built-in responsible gambling tools. Some do, and some don’t. Suppose you are worried that you may not have the discipline to control how much you deposit, or you may chase your losses by increasing your bet sizes. In that case, the best advice we can give you is to only play at online casinos with responsible gambling tools available.
You can find out more about mandatory responsible gambling tools for casinos operating under the MGA licensing authority here – Are there any mandatory responsible gambling tools? For the UKGC licensing, you will find more information under section ‘RTS 12 – Financial limits’ of the UKGC website’s RTS guide. Use ‘Ctrl F’ and search for deposit limits and loss limits or ‘RTS aim 12’ to find the section quickly.
| Responsible Gambling Tool | How The Tools Helps You Avoid Over-Gambling |
|---|---|
| DEPOSIT LIMITS | Prevent you from depositing to chase losses because you hit your max budget limit. |
| LOSS LIMITS | Stops you betting real money for a set time frame once you hit your loss limit threshold. |
| MAX BET LIMITS | A great tool to stop yourself from raising your bet sizes to chase losses. |
| SELF-EXCLUSION | You can ban yourself from real money gaming when you are frustrated. |
| REALITY CHECK | A pop-up appears every 15 to 30 minutes, reminding you how long you have been playing. It also tells you how much you have won or lost during the session and your current casino balance. |
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQ
Who should use bankroll management strategies?
Almost everyone. Whether you are a pro-experienced gambler or a beginner, bankroll management is essential to maintaining healthy gambling habits. Also, bet sizing plays a major role in your bankroll management strategy. Even high rollers need to be careful betting high amounts, as millionaires have been known to go bust on the stips of Las Vegas simply because they had no bet sizing strategy and a high greed factor.
What alternative external sources can teach you about bankroll management for sports betting?
It is always good to get a second opinion. Another great source where you can learn more about bankroll management is How to Effectively Manage Your Bankroll on the Techopedia website. The guide also covers sports betting bankroll management.
How can you control your bankroll management and bet sizing?
First of all, discipline is the key component. However, if you play online at live casinos and are worried you may have tenancies to deviate from the bankroll management and bet sizing strategies outlined in this guide, then the best suggestion is to play only at online casinos that offer responsible gambling tools. These tools ‘will’ help you stick to your budget and bet sizing amounts.
Which online casinos can Livecasinocentral recommend with responsible gambling tools?
- LeoVegas – operates under the UKGC, AGCO, and MGA licensing authorities.
- Wildz – UKGC and AGCO licensing
- PlayAmo – Curacao Licensing
Visit our casino review section here to read about these three online casinos and the responsible gambling tools each one offers.
How do I recover from a losing streak using bankroll management and bet sizing?
Continue playing. If you have been unlucky enough to lose your entire bankroll before your next deposit, wait patiently until that time. Basically, take a break. RTPs on live table games and game shows are high, so a winning streak will eventually come. However, if you regularly lose your bankroll before depositing again, you should check your strategy and understanding of the game. For example, maybe you are playing highly volatile bets on roulette, so try placing bets on less volatile betting options.
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