Building a bankroll (for newbies) revisited.

[thirteen]

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 It's a good read, but I feel its a bit outdated.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.

[jb9]

Rakeback.

[thirteen]

[ QUOTE ]
Rakeback.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point. I didn't really talk about it but rakeback is a must for any ring game player. It's readily available for most sites. I'm very glad to have rakeback at interpoker.

As for the two main sites I discussed... I don't believe you can get rakeback at pacific, but newbies should search to know for sure.

I know party rakeback is a touchy subject. I'll simply say that you cannot get rakeback with the instant bankroll bonus that I list. So if you plan on using that site then don't wast time trying to search for it.

Rakeback is available for the two other sites I mention, interpoker and absolute. So if you sign up at either make sure you go through an affiliate offering rakeback. Go to the rakeback forum here on 2+2 to find one.

[Lawman]

Forget Absolute: the bonus requirement has changed so that only hands raked at least $0.50 count. So anything below $2/4 (limit) will take forever to clear. Not sure what the implications are for NL but definitely not as juicy as before.

You might also want to check out Mr Wookie's recent post which updated Homer's original (someone else might care to post a link).

[thirteen]

[ QUOTE ]
Forget Absolute: the bonus requirement has changed so that only hands raked at least $0.50 count. So anything below $2/4 (limit) will take forever to clear. Not sure what the implications are for NL but definitely not as juicy as before.

You might also want to check out Mr Wookie's recent post which updated Homer's original (someone else might care to post a link).

[/ QUOTE ]


Thanks for the tips Lawman.

For those that haven't seen it, below is a link to MrWookie's post that Lawman mentioned. He goes into more detail on rake back offers. He also makes some suggestions on where to play micro-limit games.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...part=1&vc=1

[pzhon]

I don't recommend GamesGrid for those who are relatively new to poker. 1000% sounds great, except that the bonus clears so slowly that you could clear much more at other sites, and the games are tougher than on many other sites. I think I cleared about $20 of the $5000, so I would have gotten the same out of a 5% bonus.

InterPoker's bonus is actually fine for new players. Each pot reaching $5 clears $0.05, and you can clear this bonus at the soft $0.25-$0.50 and NL $25 tables, albeit slowly. Every pot reaching $20 clears $0.20. Several other Cryptologic bonuses are scaled versions of InterPoker's, except that you have to clear the entire bonus within the month. On InterPoker, you can wait for one of the promotions that pays $10 for KK (or AA today), worth another 4.5 cents per hand. You have to play at least $0.50-$1 or NL $50 today.

There are three Cyptologic sites with much easier bonuses to clear than InterPoker's. William Hill, UK Betting, and TotalBet pay GBP 5 for each of the first 5 table-hours each month. That's a great deal! You have to play at least 1-2 limit or NL 100.

Bet365 (Prima network) has a nice initial deposit bonus, and they have been running a 5x bonus up to $100 in the past few months. The initial deposit bonus can be cleared at lower limits, but the monthly bonuses have to be at $1-$2 or NL $100 or higher.

Several Boss Media network skins have easy initial bonuses to clear and very soft games.

Bodog can be a good place to clear bonuses for beginners. They have an unlimited 10% deposit bonus, soft low stakes games, and you can clear the bonus by playing tournaments, getting a 100% rebate on tournament entry fees.

I recommend avoiding Full Tilt (bonus sounds great, but is slow to clear) and PokerRoom skins (high rake, slow clearance).

For more information, see the Internet Bonuses forum, www.bonuswhores.com , or the forums of www.onlineblackjackguide.com .

[thirteen]

I've recently discovered bayoupoker.com. It's a pokerroom.com skin that currently offers a 200% sign up bonus if you use neteller. It clears at 2:1 rake contribution, so its like getting 50% rakeback while clearing. The cleared portions are released to your cashier account every 24 hours and you can transfer the cleared portions to your poker account immediately thereafter.

[NO-ID]

Hi first I like to thank U for the info. very usefull.
I been playing at pacificpoker for a while now, I like it but it starting to get a bite odd!

I want to start playing at 3-5 site to build up a solid bank roll...But I could use some in fo from a pro.
So what site do U recoment??
Is ladbrokes a good site??

hope that U can help me with some info.

thank U

[raze]

http://www.bonuswhores.com/bonus-whoring-101.php

I also recommend Tiger Gaming, they have super soft micro-limit tables .10/.20 .25/.50 and up.. I started there with 5 bucks and ran it up big.

[AKQJ10]

[ QUOTE ]
Forget Absolute: the bonus requirement has changed so that only hands raked at least $0.50 count.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm clearing at $1/2 (single tabling no less!), but (EDIT) apparently you're right. Have they increased their rake, so that hands that would have barely triggered the bonus in the past are now triggering the bonus at the higher rake?

At any rate, if I can't clear bonuses at Absolute then there's no reason to play there. The games are too tough for the respective limits, compared to other sites.