Your bankroll is the money you have set aside to play poker with. It is important that you keep this money separate from your regular spending money, so you don’t end up loosing more money than you can afford. You should look at how much money you have in your bankroll when deciding how big stakes you should play. The higher the blinds are the higher is the stake. I usually suggest having at least 20 buyins for the game you want to play, and with buyins I mean max buyins, as a serious player you should always buy in with 100 big blinds or more to any game.

With a $200 bankroll that means you can play in a $0.05/$0.10 game where the buyin is $10. This is just a recommendation so that you avoid going broke and having to deposit more money. Even if you are a great poker player you will have days were you end up loosing, and it is important to have enough money in your bankroll so you don’t go broke when this happens. You can move up in stakes as your bankroll increases, starting with $0.10/$0.20 once the bankroll hits $400 and so on.

The step by step guide to poker ends at step 14, here you will find resources for further learning.