[pzhon]

The first step to building a bankroll is learning to win. If you haven't established a winning track record, you should set a budget and play within it.

You'll hear a lot of people say that you should have 300 big bets for limit, 20 buy-ins for NL, 100 buy-ins for MTTs, etc. However, these assume that you are winning at a solid rate, and 20 buy-ins for NL is much more conservative than 300 BB for limit, which is much more conservative than 100 buy-ins for large MTTs, assuming normal win rates in low stakes games. In the microstakes games, an expert can play safely with far fewer BBs or buy-ins than in a tougher game, so if you learn to play NL decently before you drop to $20, you can safely rebuild in games with a $0.02 big blind.

I recommend playing the lowest stakes NL games, NL $5 with a $0.02 big blind. Initially, buy in for $1 or $2 at a time. You get feedback a bit more rapidly than in other games, and you won't have to unlearn much if you decide to play tournaments later.