Bankroll management is when you play at certain limits to avoid losing all of you bankroll. It requires patience to build a bankroll which many poker players lack.  You don’t have to care about this principle if you see poker as a hobby, but if you want to become a winning player bankroll management is one of the key principles in poker. 


Many players are trying to build a bankroll quickly which often results in the loss of everything. This does not necessarily mean that the player lack the right skills because poker is a game that includes luck in the short perspective. A good player knows that he or she can lose money in short periods and therefore have a sufficiently large bankroll to handle losses. A lot of players also find it hard to stick to their own style of play when they know that they risk a large part of the bankroll at once. To conclude bankroll management includes both mathematical and psychological factors. 



There are some recurring recommendations in poker books when it comes to bankroll management. I do not think you need to follow these completely full, but it is good if you always have them in mind. 

If you play Texas Limit, you should have 300-500 times the big blind in bankroll. If you play $ 1 / $ 2 Limit, it means that your bankroll should be at $ 600 - $ 1000. There are other recommendations if you are playing No Limit or Pot Limit, then you should have 20-30 times a full buy in, which is usually 100 times the big blind. This means that you need a bankroll of $ 4000 - $ 6000 to play $ 1 / $ 2 No Limit.

There are a lot of poker articles on the net if you which to learn more about bankroll management.