Introduction to Bankroll Management Software

Knowing what games you should be playing is the first step towards being a decent semi-regular in today’s era of poker.  For cash game players, this typically means having a minimum of 30 buy-ins for a given level and, for tournament players, around 100.  Knowing what your bankroll is and where you should play, and avoid donking the whole thing off, are going to be huge factors in your overall success.  But what bankroll management software exists? Let’s find out!

The first piece of poker software that we’ll look at is Tilt Breaker.  With this program, you can buffer your bankroll from your tilt rage and have the software force you to take breaks or only play at certain levels.  Basically, you pre-program shortcuts for when you go on tilt and the program has a countdown giving you the chance to get off the tables.

After that, you are completely locked out for the duration of the tilt break.  There are also advanced features that will initiate a stop-loss, a stop-win, and a break after you have played a certain number of hands or for a certain length of time.  If you are a newbie to online poker and struggle with these concepts, or if you are an emotional train wreck waiting to happen, then this is the program you’ll need to get.  Tilt Breaker is priced at $49, which is pretty fair when you weigh its cost against the amount of money you might spew if you go on tilt.

If you want to get something simple and free, then check out Poker Score.  It’s ideal for free tracking and does a decent job of replacing old spreadsheets if you don’t have a hand history tracker like PokerTracker 3, Holdem Manager, or Poker Office.  After you define the game you play, just enter the results and the program will spit out reports such as where your bankroll is.

The first web-based service we’ll look at in this article is called PokerCharts, which allows players to analyze results.  You’ll go to the website and input a session with all of the relevant information.  Once it’s all in there, you can check out your hourly rate, profits and losses, and figure out which game you are doing best in.

The site comes with a free 30-day trial.  Like the previous software, this one is pretty old and doesn’t have the fancy bells and whistles that other programs have like being able to import hand histories automatically.

The last piece of software we have featured in our bankroll management category is Poker Dominator.  It’s a results tracking program that allows a player to evaluate his or her progress in different locations thanks to a web-based service.  It will import hand histories, but only 2,000 hands can be imported at a time according to our test.  This program will track your hands, give you stats, and show you how your bankroll is doing through reports and graphs.

In a nutshell, those are some programs that can assist you in your quest to master the concept of bankroll management.  Remember that you are the one controlling your poker destiny and if you decide to “let it ride” like a pure gambler, you’ll never get anywhere in the long run.  Good luck!  View our bankroll management tools.