Ten Steps to a $10,000 Bankroll for Tournament Players: Ben Rolle’s 2026 Guide

#1 Learn the Five Core Concepts of Poker in Depth

First of all, you need to understand what the terms variance, bankroll management, expected value, odds, and equity mean:

• Variance is the gap between what should happen in the long run and what actually happens in the short run. It doesn’t care how good you are. It only rewards you if you survive long enough.
• Bankroll Management is a personal system of checks and balances that allows you to keep a cool head when managing your poker money, no matter the circumstances. Maintaining a BRM involves not only resisting financially destructive impulses when on tilt, but also resisting the urge to move up the stakes under the influence of emotions created by one big win.
• Expected Value (EV) is a mathematical manifestation of specific results of your actions. In poker you want to make as many EV+ decisions as possible, that’s why you should understand which EV each of your actions have. Ben says: “Remember, I don’t need to win this pot. I just need this decision to be profitable. This is all that matters. And the mindset most people struggle and are never able to apply”.
• Odds means how often something happens compared to how often it doesn’t happen — so, in poker the term describes how often you will hit your hand versus miss it. Pot Odds in this context is the price of your decision.
• Equity is your share of the pot based on how often you expect to win. For ease of understanding, Ben recommends thinking of equity as how much of this pot belongs to you on average.

Understanding them in their entirety is essential because variance can break people emotionally and mentally with its unfairness. Poor bankroll management causes bankruptcy, and insufficient understanding of EV, odds and equity leads to bad unprofitable decisions.

#2 Study Pre-Flop Ranges

Do not memorize them and do not copy them blindly. Your goal is to know them well enough to be able to apply them correctly. Understanding why some hands can’t be opened in a specific situation is vital because your brain is lazy and it doesn’t want to store and properly maintain all different kinds of ranges for various spots.

So, you have to learn what to open as a range, not a sole hand, why exactly you should open it and when it’s time to fold it.

#3 Play Cheap Tournaments for Practice

Practice playing preflop ranges — simply learning them theoretically isn’t enough. Follow this algorithm:

• Study pre-flop ranges carefully.
• Practice for 2-3 weeks until you understand open ranges for different positions good enough — your goal is to be solid, not perfect.
• Start playing poker as low as possible — Rolle says it straight: “Even if you have a $500 bankroll, start with potato stakes. 50 cents, 20 cents, 1 cent. If you want to hit a quick score — forget it. You’re gambling. Play 10 cents, one tournament maximum”.
• Observe, mark or screenshot hands, post questions in RaiseYourEdge Discord (it’s free) or in your community.
• Review hands after each session by using any suitable range viewer to check if your pre-flop decision was correct

Rolle also recommends using Hand2Note if you have the budget, as it’s a beginner-friendly tracker and makes completing these steps much easier.

#4 Focus on Your Value Hands Postflop

This is “Ben’s best advice”, as he calls it, because it is based on a simple truth:

Poker on micro and low stakes up until $50 is simply waiting for good hands and then hitting hard with big bets. 

So, your main goal post-flop is to pick a value hand and use it against your opponents. As Rolle describes it:

However, on higher stakes you’ll have to be more careful — because the players there are much savvier on average. Also, at higher stakes, the advice in this article will be a thing of the past for you. So let’s move on.

#5 Work on Your Mindset

The hardest thing in poker is not playing right but doing alright. Most poker players experience similar psychological challenges in their gaming experience: tilt, emotional overload and burnout, a disconnect between physical sensations and the feelings that evoke them, and so on.

At one point in time, it was considered normal to suppress emotions, over time it became clear that this decision, while it may be beneficial in the short term, actually causes long-term harm for players.

That’s why Rolle, like other leading successful poker players and coaches, is convinced that you need to work on your mindset — otherwise you will get all the disadvantages of tilt and won’t be able to remain successful.

You can work on your own, consult a psychotherapist, or study Rolle’s extensive (and free!) mindtest course, created in partnership with the excellent poker mental specialist Elliot Roe — the choice of the most convenient method is entirely up to you.

#6 Introduce Exploits to Your Game

If you thought that studying pre-flop alone was enough for success, you were wrong — you need to return to it regularly and improve your strategy, because your opponents are also constantly evolving, and your head is capable of forgetting the basics over time.

And as you analyze your game, you’ll eventually start to notice exploits you can implement in your game.

What are exploits? They are adjustments based on your observations of the field or specific opponent that help you to deviate strategy to make more profitable decisions.

By doing these, you become a more effective player at your stakes, as you literally use the general weaknesses of the field and the particular weaknesses of individual players against them to get the most out of each spot.

#7 Connect with People

Ben lives with the belief that being shy is just an excuse for not leaving your comfort zone, just like being afraid to communicate with people or feeling uncomfortable when people laugh at you. As he stated in his video:

He insists that without connecting to people you can’t become truly successful because they give you all kinds of experiences vital for your growth and development:

#8 Learn About Independent Chip Model

Also known as ICM, this model helps you to calculate the real money value of your tournament chips, considering prize pool and remaining players.

Understanding this model is crucial for tournament players because they always exchange their money for chips in an unequal ratio.

Ben describes the importance of ICM as follows:

Studying ICM helps you clearly understand the ultimate value of your decisions:

#9 Use Tools and Trainers

The era of self-taught poker players, learning by instinct or relying solely on observation, and elite closed communities with access to rare software, is long gone. With the advancement of technology, learning has become easier and more in-depth, as anyone now has access to poker schools and foundations, but more importantly, to tools that allow one to independently explore the game to incredible depth.

That’s why Rolle whole-heartedly recommends players to use tools: ICM trainers, drill simulators, solvers, calculators, even free quizzes and other materials.

Rolle is, of course, mostly promoting his own products, but it’s worth it — especially if you’re not ready to play poker professionally yet, but really want to try it in the future.

#10 When in Doubt — Back to the Beginning

If you find yourself in spots where you can’t confidently make the right decision, go through the steps on this page again. There’s nothing shameful about it, it doesn’t make you stupid, sometimes your brain just needs a reminder of what the basics look like in order to get rid of leaks.

Also, be mindful of what you do and why — Rolle reminds us that some player actions can signal deeper issues than just a lack of poker knowledge: