Before sitting down at a table it’s essential you pick the right one to play at.

To work out what level or stakes you should play at you need to take a look at the size of your bankroll. Generally, it’s acknowledged that in Limit Hold’em your bankroll should be a minimum of 300 big bets (bets made in the last two betting rounds), but preferably more like 500.

So if you wanted to start playing $1/$2 Hold’em, you should be looking to have a starting bankroll of between $600-$1,000. If you build your bankroll up to $1,200 or so, you could then move up to $2/$4 and so on.

Be warned, though, the play will get much better as the stakes increase and it won’t be a quick or easy process building a bankroll.

Money Per Hour?

When pros talk about their hourly rate in Limit Hold’em they talk about how many ‘big bets’ per hour that they make. It sounds small, but one to two big bets an hour is considered a standard rate. This might sound like nothing, but if you’re grinding away at a $20/$40 table and making somewhere between $40-$60 an hour, sometimes more, it’s not such a bad way to make a living. At the lower stakes online, where the play is distinctly worse, you might be able to make more like three or four big bets on average per hour.

One last thing to look at when you’re deciding what game to play is whether you opt for full ring (10 players) or short-handed (five or six players) action. When you’re starting out you should probably go for full ring because you can get used to playing in all positions on the table and the play will be more passive. Short-handed action is a much more aggressive game, so only progress to this when you think you’re a winning player at full ring games first.