[4_2_it]

That's the guideline for limit, which has more variance. I 5-table $0.50/$1 NL and find that having 15 buy-ins ($100 per buy-in) to be optimal.

I am probably being conservative, as I have never had a downswing of more than 8 buy-ins, but I want to be protected from the mother of all downswings. My guess is that a good player could get by with 8-10 buy-ins, while a beginner may need more.

Start at a level lower than $0.50/$1 to get a feel. I spent sevral months building my bankroll from $300 to $1,000 on the $0.10/$0.25 and $0.25/$0.50 NL tables at Pokerstars. I found that I learned more from the volume of play and my donk mistakes didn't cost me $100+ (like they do now [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img])

Good luck.