Hello everyone! I am new the the site and am so far enjoying it. I have a question and I can't seem to find a straight answer, what's a good buyin/bankroll for 2-20 spread limit holdem? Is a buyin a 100×'s the small or the big? Also what's a good bankroll for 2-20 spread limit? 50 buyins?

Hey, welcome to the forum.



This is a hard question to answer, and it has two big parts which could vary a lot. The game could play really big or really small. All bankroll questions also revolve around your skill relative to your opponents and the rake.


Let's start with the game. Assume the blinds are 1&2. The spread is only to 20, so would guess that the math says you don't get implied odds like 200NL. Even less than like an unlimited buyin 1/2 NL game, where you could be playing for 1K stacks. So, if this game full of tight old men, you get a raise to 4 or 6 and then one person calls. That's a tiny game, only a bit bigger than 2/4 LHE. Next table over where someone is straddling and every bet is $20, the game is twice as big as a 10/20 LHE game. It matters where your game plays on this spectrum.


The second part matters in every game, how much better you are than the competition + rake. We can't know that. Most people over-estimate their win rate -- they write off losses, they think hot streaks are a result of skill/focus.


I guess there's a third part. What does a bankroll mean to you? When you lose it, do you just cut back your beer budget and reload? Do you go homeless? As a recreational player in small game, I'd consider my budget for buyins more than a bankroll. Can I afford the occasional $200 to go play this game? Great. Save a few wins so I can skip the ATM before the casino. If that goes well and my sock drawer is filling up with $100s, maybe shot take the local 20/40.

So first things first, as Doug said, how beatable is this game? What’s the rake structure like? How bad is the opposition?

Let’s assume the game is marginally beatable and that the best winners are pulling $15/hour from the game. Let’s say you pull $10. Let’s say that equates to a 5 poker tracker big bet / 100 WR (where $4 is a ptBB in a 1/2 game). If this were NL, that would be 44 buy ins for a safe bankroll. That’s roughly 4400 bb, or $8800. I think that’s probably a decent amount to have if you plan on playing this game as an entertaining second income (you’d be unlikely to downswing enough to lose it all). Bare minimum, I’d say you’d want to look at $4.5-$5k


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk