Building a bankroll (for newbies) revisited.

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I'd like to offer newbies some advice on building they're beginner bankroll.

I've read Homer's original Building a bankroll (For Newbies). It's a good read, but I feel its a bit outdated. Some of the bonuses listed as a place to start, such as interpoker, are very tough to clear at the low stakes, and since there are no micro stakes NL games here, the risk of ruin for a NL player is high. Other bonuses, such as William Hill's pay to play (where you get a bonus for 5 hours of play), is currently only available to .50/1.00 stakes players according to their site. So its no help to newbies anymore.

I started with a very small bankroll of $50 and through decent play and some bonuses I was able to grow it significantly.

Start at Pacific Poker.

The reason is that they will give you the bonus money up front in your account as soon as you make your deposit. So, a typical starter bankroll of $100 will become $125 and you can play with that money right away. You must wager 20x the bonus amount to cash out the bonus money but this is fairly easy even playing NL $10.

Also, I'd HIGHLY recommend finding a current pacific player to refer you to the site before signing up. You'll get an additional $25 deposited in your account. This extra $25 was very helpful to me since I was playing with such a small original deposit. If you don't know anyone personally that plays there, then find someone in the forum who does and PM them. Most people will be happy to refer you because they also get a bonus. Again, this bonus is cleared by wagering 20x the amount.

I cleared both bonuses in 4 weeks playing NL $10.

Another reason to play at Pacific poker is that it's known for having very fishy small stakes games. NL 10 and NL 25 regularly have tables with 50% - 60% of the players seeing the flop in full 10 handed ring. Play tight ABC poker and you'll make money here.


Next step...

Party Poker... now I know that Homer says in his original post that it's horrible to recommend Party Poker to newbies. However if you sign up through an affiliate called Instant Bankroll(instantbankroll.com) you have two very attractive bonus options... Option requires no deposit to receive $100 free to play with (you actually get $75 up front from the affiliate to play with and will get the remaining $25 from party after clearing the bonus). Option two is to deposit $50 or more of your own money and after clearing the bonus, you'll get $100 from the affiliate and $25 from Party Poker.

I chose the second option because the bonus clearing requirements are the same, and I was rolled to play NL $25 where I knew I could clear the bonus quickly. The requirements to clear are simply play 500 raked hands, that's it. It does not matter how much rake is taken. If the hand is raked it counts. I 4 tabled NL $25 and cleared the bonus in two nights with only 5 hours of play. I was properly rolled for and comfortable playing NL $25 at this time, if you are not, please play the smaller limits. Party offers smaller stakes in both limit and NL so play where you are comfortable even it if takes a little longer to clear.

Party Poker micro stakes are full of inexperienced players. Play ABC poker and you should be able to make money while clearing your bonus.


Next step...

My next step was interpoker, but like i said this bonus is slow to clear at NL $25, plus it seems that because its primarily a european site the majority of the traffic is during the day and tapers off during primetime US hours. A good thing about interpoker is that rakeback is readily available from a number of affiliates.

A good option may be Absolute poker. I have not played there yet but they have a 200% sign up bonus running and it is released in $10 increments which is very useful to players building their bankroll.

Also, Games Grid(gamesgrid.com), which is very new, is offering 1000% (thats not a typo) sign up bonus that is also released incrementally. You have an entire year from sign up in order to clear it. However, traffic is very low. I downloaded the software(though I have not deposited) and usually only one or two tables of NL $10 is running.


If anyone has anything to add, or any questions, let me know. I hope this is useful to some starting players.