Tutorial - Building a bankroll from nothing |
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Posted Mon Jan 22, 2007 10:35 am GMT by RichieStar
The following is a detailed, step-by-step tutorial for building an online poker bankroll without ever using any of your own money. The method described does not require the use of a credit card at any point, and you will not have to give out any sensitive personal information. There are, however, a couple of restrictions:
- If you live in the United States, you cannot use this method if you have ever had an account at Absolute Poker.
- If you live outside the US, and have had an Absolute Poker account, you can still use this technique so long as you have never had an account with Party Poker.
- You must be 21 years of age or older to qualify, however there is no check-up process used to confirm your age (you are on the honor system)
STEP ONE - Get your instant bankroll bonus
This method does not require you to win numerous freerolls to build your bankroll. It instead takes advantage of an unprecidented no deposit bonus of either $50 or $75 USD. The money is supplied by the first and best online poker room affiliate, (spam). By using their sign-up code when creating your account, they receive a percentage of all the rakes taken from hands you contribute to while playing. In order to get you to use their sign-up code, they will get you started with a free, no-strings-attached starting bankroll. If you lose your Instant Bankroll, you owe them nothing. In addition, using the Instant Bankroll promotion does not exclude you from any First Deposit or Reload bonuses issued by the poker room.
First, follow url="http://www.pokersourceonline.com/freepoker/money.asp?rc=RichieStar"this link/url to the (spam) Instant Bankroll sign-up page. You will then have three options to choose based on where you live: United States, Canada, or Worldwide.
If you live in the United States, you will be given three options: $100 free, $125 free, or $225 free, all at Absolute Poker. The $125 and $225 options require an initial deposit, so click on the "$100 Free at Absolute Poker" banner.
If you live outside the United States, you will be given the same Absolute Poker options, as well as three more Party Poker options: $100 free, $125 free, and $150 free (again, the $125 and $150 offers require initial deposits). If you have never had a Party Poker account, click on the "$100 Free at Party Poker" option. Otherwise, choose "$100 Free at Absolute Poker".
But wait, I thought you said it was $50 or $75 free, why does this link say $100? This promotion will give you an initial instant bonus to start playing with, as well as a "pending bonus". In order to qualify for the additional pending bonus, you must complete a certain number of raked hands within 30 days. Unfortunately, the requirements outlined on what counts as a raked hand and how many you must accumulate make it virtually impossible to accomplish. The stakes you would have to play at to achieve these numbers are way to high for the bankroll you will be starting with. Do not concern yourself with these pending bonuses, as trying to get them will almost certainly result in you losing your entire bankroll. At Absolute Poker, you are given a $50 Instant Bonus and $50 Pending Bonus. At Party Poker, you receive a $75 Instant Bonus and $25 Pending Bonus. This is why I recommend Party Poker to international players. Party Poker does not currently accept US players, so those in the states are forced to use Absolute Poker.
After choosing your appropriate option, you will be directed to a page listing the rules and conditions. Read these over carefully, check the box that says "I have read and agree to the Terms and Conditions", and click the "I Agree" button at the bottom of the page.
You will now be directed to a page containing a link to download the Absolute Poker or Party Poker software. If you have ever downloaded this software before, you are not eligible for this offer. Also on this page is the Referral Code you must enter when creating your poker room account, as well as a screenshot showing you where the code must be entered. MAKE SURE YOU ENTER THIS CODE - if you don't, you will not receive your sign-up bonus. Keep your browser window open while installing the software and setting up your account. When you are finished, click the "Next" button at the bottom of the web page under the Referral Code screenshot.
You will now be directed to a Confirmation Form, where you must enter some very basic information. No sensitive information is required, no credit card number needed. Follow the remaining instructions outlined on the page until you are finished with the 5 step sign-up form. When you are finished, you will be directed to the MyPSO Account Area. Bookmark this page; you will need to return to it later.
You must now wait for (spam) to confirm your information with the poker room. This will take anywhere from 1-5 business days. For me, it took 2 days. At the top of the page, there is a table called "Promotions Summary". There should be one promotion listed, either 'Absolute IB' or 'Party IB'. Under the "Status" column, it will say 'Notified PSO'. Using the bookmark you created earlier, check back on this page every day until the words 'Notified PSO' are replaced with a small banner link saying 'Talk to PSO'. Clicking on this banner will bring up a pop-up window, where you will enter your name and phone number (PSO will not share your phone number, or any other information you give them, with anybody). Enter your name and number, and within 30 seconds, you will receive a phone call. The call is very quick, less than a minute, and they will ask you a couple of questions about your account, such as your Poker Room name and the e-mail address you used when signing up. This is simply to confirm your account, and is used to help prevent fraud.
Now, when you go to the MyPSO Account Area, the "Status" listing for your promotion will read 'Completed'. Your Instant Bankroll bonus will not show up in your poker room real-money account for 1-3 business days. Don't worry, this is normal. If more than 3 business days pass without your bonus showing up, post a message in the PSO Support Forum. There is a link to the forum at the very top of the MyPSO page. PSO will respond quickly, they are very customer friendly and will work with you to make sure you receive your promotion. Once your Instant Bankroll bonus is deposited in to your poker room account, move on to step two.
STEP TWO - Build your bankroll and unlock your money
Your next step will be to build up your initial Instant Bankroll, while at the same time playing enough Qualified Hands to 'unlock' your money. One of the restrictions on your Instant Bankroll promotion is that you cannot withdraw any money from the poker room until you complete a certain number of Qualified Hands. Your goal is to successfully complete those requirements, while at the same time playing a solid game that will earn you money. Once you unlock your money, you will be able to really get your bankroll going, which I will outline in step three.
What qualifies as a raked hand and how many you need depends on whether you used Absolute Poker or Party Poker. Therefore, I have divided this step in two sections. Read the section that relates to the poker room you chose.
Absolute Poker
In order to unlock your money, you must complete 500 Qualified Raked Hands. A Qualified Raked Hand at Absolute Poker is defined as such: any hand in which you were dealt cards, saw the flop, and the pot was raked a minimum of $0.50. Absolute Poker has a 5% rake, therefore a pot must reach $10 before the $0.50 minimum rake will be taken. These are pretty strict requirements, which is another reason I recommend Party Poker to international players. It is going to take a while to complete these requirements, but if you're a solid player, and are serious about poker, it is not all too difficult.
Because you only start with a $50 bankroll, you want to stay away from no limit and pot limit tables at this point. You simply don't have enough money in reserve to survive the inevitable 'down time' that poker players will eventually experience, and if you lose your bankroll, you cannot get another one for free. For now, stick to the $0.10/$0.20 fixed limit tables. This will give you a bankroll of 250 BB's (Big Bets), which should be sufficient to keep your money safe when the cards don't come your way (the most common standard for fixed limit players is a 200 BB or more bankroll). At these limits, however, you are not going to rack up many (if any) Qualified Hands. It is possible for a pot to reach $10 at these limits, but incredibly unlikely. Even if a pot does go this high, if you fold before the flop it will not count towards your qualified hand count. Therefore, your goal right now is simply to build your bankroll until you can play at higher stakes. Play at the $0.10/$0.20 fixed limit tables until you have earned an additional $50, bringing your total bankroll to $100. A somewhat good, fairly solid poker player can typically expect to make an average of one big bet per hour at online low limit poker. If you can achieve this (which is not incredibly difficult), you will reach your $100 goal after 250 hours of play. Depending on how well you play, however, your results will vary.
Now that you have built your bankroll to $100, you can move to the $0.05/$0.10 no limit tables. However, you are only going to want to buy in for $5.00 at a time. This will give you 20 buy-ins in reserve, which should be sufficient to keep you afloat in case of a bad streak. Players can be very loose at these tables, and cracking them is not especially difficult. Play a tight, aggressive, solid game, and you can expect to pull in almost $1.50 per hour on average. Play at these stakes and buy-in size until you have increased your bankroll to $200. With good play, this can be done in as little as 75 hours. Once you have $200 in your bankroll, you can start buying in for $10.00 at the same stakes. This should raise your hourly wage to up to $2.00 per hour. Stay at these tables until you've earned yet another $100, bringing your total bankroll to $300. With $300, you can now finally move up to the $0.10/$0.25 no limit tables. Keep up the tight, aggressive play, and watch out, because as you go up in stakes, competition gets stiffer. Play the $0.10/$0.25 no limit tables until you've racked up another $200, making your total bankroll $500.
Now you have a nice hefty $500 in your bankroll. Unfortunately, you will not have accumulated your 500 Qualified Raked Hands. In order to do this, you're going to have to move to the $0.25/$0.50 no limit tables. In order to keep your 20 buy-in bankroll size, you can only buy in for $25 each time you sit down/bust out. This is where you're going to unlock your money, as many hands will surpass the $10 pot neccessary to generate the $0.50 rake you need. Remember, though, you must see the flop for a hand to count towards your Qualified Raked Hands. Don't let this fact loosen up your play too much. If you know you can see a flop for $0.50, it might be a good idea even with mediocre hands. However, the competition at these tables is much stronger than at the stakes you were playing at earlier, and you're going to have to be careful not to lose too much money. Keep playing your solid, tight, aggressive game, and be patient. You will reach the 500 Qualified Raked Hands eventually. Once you do, and can withdraw money from your account, move on to step three.
Party Poker
Before you can withdraw money from your account, you must complete 1000 Qualified Raked Hands. This is twice as many as required by Absolute Poker, however the Party Poker definition of a Qualified Raked Hand is much more favorable to the player, and this number is a lot easier to reach under the circumstances. At Party Poker, the definition of a raked hand is any hand in which you were dealt cards and generated at least $0.01 in rakes. Generated rake is calculated by dividing the total rake in the hand by the number of hands that were dealt. Party Poker takes a $0.05 rake for every $1 in the pot. Therefore, when 10 players are dealt cards, the pot must reach $2 to qualify. If 5 players are in the hand, the pot must reach $1. You do not have to see the flop, or even call the blind for the hand to qualify.
Because you only start with a $50 bankroll, you want to stay away from no limit and pot limit tables at this point. You simply don't have enough money in reserve to survive the inevitable 'down time' that poker players will eventually experience, and if you lose your bankroll, you cannot get another one for free. For now, stick to the $0.10/$0.20 fixed limit tables. This will give you a bankroll of 250 BB's (Big Bets), which should be sufficient to keep your money safe when the cards don't come your way (the most common standard for fixed limit players is a 200 BB or more bankroll). Play at these tables until you have earned an additional $50, bringing your total bankroll to $100. A somewhat good, fairly solid poker player can typically expect to make an average of one big bet per hour at online low limit poker. If you can achieve this (which is not incredibly difficult), you will reach your $100 goal after 250 hours of play. Depending on how well you play, however, your results will vary.
Now that you have built your bankroll to $100, you can move to the $0.05/$0.10 no limit tables. However, you are only going to want to buy in for $5.00 at a time. This will give you 20 buy-ins in reserve, which should be sufficient to keep you afloat in case of a bad streak. Players can be very loose at these tables, and cracking them is not especially difficult. Play a tight, aggressive, solid game, and you can expect to pull in almost $1.50 per hour on average. Play at these stakes and buy-in size until you have increased your bankroll to $200. With good play, this can be done in as little as 75 hours. Once you have $200 in your bankroll, you can start buying in for $10.00 at the same stakes. This should raise your hourly wage to up to $2.00 per hour. At $0.05/$0.10 no limit, you will build up your Qualified Raked Hands fairly quickly. Many, if not most, pots will exceed $2, and you can reach your 1000 Qualified Raked Hands in as little as 20 hours. However, you'll want to stay at Party Poker until you've built your bankroll to $600. The reasons for this will be explained in step three.
Once your bankroll reaches $300, you can move up to the $0.10/$0.25 no limit tables. Make sure you're only buying in for $15 at a time, however, to keep your bankroll at least 20 times greater than your buy-in. Once you get up to $400, you can start buying in for $20. When you reach $500, you can buy in for $25. Stay tight, stay aggressive, and stay solid, and in time you'll have a respectable $600 in your bankroll, ready to be withdrawn. When you finally get there, move on to step three.
STEP THREE - Multiply your bankroll and rebate your rake
After completing step two, you'll now have at least $600 in your bankroll and will have completed the requirements to withdraw money from your account. First, give yourself a nice big pat on the back, you've earned it. Building up that $600 requires a lot of work, and even more skill. Congratulations, not many people could do what you just did.
Now you must withdraw that money from your poker room account. There are several ways to do this, the easiest and most common being with an e-wallet. Most e-wallets, however, require you to have a credit card to sign up, and I did say in the beginning that you would not need one at any point of this process. Although the e-wallet solution is easier, if you don't wish to give out your credit card information, you can have the poker room send you a check through the mail. You will then have to cash the check in a bank account, then write a check to make your next deposit at your new poker room.
Next, you're going to sign up for rake rebate at (spam), the site that gave you the original $50 instant bankroll. Rake Rebate will refund a percentage of the rakes you generate in to your poker room account, and is a must for any serious player. You can follow url="http://www.pokersourceonline.com/rakeback/?rc=RichieStar"this link/url to sign up, or click on the "Rakeback" link at the top of your MyPSO page, the site you bookmarked in step one. You will then be given a choice of four poker rooms. Click on the "Sign up now" link for Full Tilt Poker. After you agree to the Terms and Conditions, you will be directed to a page containing a link to download the Full Tilt software. This page also contains the referral code you will need to enter when signing up, and a screenshot showing you where you need to enter it. MAKE SURE YOU ENTER THIS CODE - otherwise, you will not be eligible for rakeback. Keep your browser window open while installing the Full Tilt software. After installation is complete, click the "Continue to Confirmation Page" button at the bottom of the PSO web page. Fill out the confirmation form and complete the remaining steps to sign up for Rake Rebate.
The reason you chose Full Tilt poker is for their incredible deposit bonus - 100% up to $600. If you used Party Poker to build your initial bankroll, this is why you waited until you reached $600 before withdrawing your money in step two. You will now deposit your winnings you withdrew earlier in to your Full Tilt account, which should be at least $600. This will give you a $600 pending bonus. To get the money in to your account, you must participate in raked hands. For every hand in which you are dealt cards, you receive 1 point for every $1 taken in rakes. You can earn partial points for rakes that are not in $1 increments. You do not have to contribute money to the pot to receive the points, you only have to be dealt cards. Each point is worth $0.06 of your pending bonus, which is released in $20 increments. Therefore, for every 334 points you earn, $20 will be released in to your account, absolutely free. You will have 120 days to release the entire $600. You may not be able to release the entire sum before the time has expired, depending on the stakes you play at and how often you play.
After you have released the $600 in pending bonuses, or the 120 day time limit has expired, your rake rebate will kick in. Every month, you will receive an automatic deposit in your Full Tilt account equal to 27% of the total rakes you generated. This means that for every dollar you bet in a hand, you will later receive $0.0135, even if you lose the hand. This might not seem like much at first, but over time, rake rebates really add up, especially for the serious player.
Congratulations, you have now earned over $1000 in poker winnings without risking a single penny of your own money. This whole process may take a while, but the knowledge (and money) you earn along the way will make it all worth it. Good luck at the tables!
Did you know that participating in a poker forum can help you improve your own game? Be it by sharing experiences or simply asking for help, participation in a forum helps you focus and keep 'on topic' which will help you improve your game. You can learn from other players feedback and from their experiences. Why the THP poker forums? We offer one of the best managed texas holdem poker forums available, and the community within is far more friendly than those typicaly found on other sites. We've made a 'lurkers edition' of the poker forum available here on Holdem Poker Online, but we encourage all visitors to register and join in on the conversations on TexasHoldem-Poker.com
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