Variance

Poker variance is the short-term spread of actual results around a player’s long-term expected value. In mathematical terms, player skill determines the underlying expected win rate, while variance determines the magnitude and duration of swings away from that expected average over brief periods. A skilled, long-term winning player can easily experience losing results for multiple consecutive weeks, whereas an inexperienced or losing player can experience profitable runs over a single session or several nights of play. ...

A poker bankroll is the dedicated pool of funds set aside strictly for playing poker, isolated entirely from personal savings, living expenses, and daily bills. For standard full-ring No-Limit Texas Hold’em cash games, an illustrative planning guideline is to maintain a bankroll of roughly 20-40 buy-ins of 100 big blinds. Bankroll management can reduce the risk of exhausting your playing funds during downswings, but no fixed number of buy-ins eliminates that risk. The appropriate reserve depends on your win rate, the variance of your games, your withdrawal habits, and your policy for moving down in stakes. ...