Lessons in Poker

Laying the foundations of an online poker bankroll is not that difficult at all these days. You don’t even need to invest money: you can secure one of the free poker bankrolls that so many affiliate sites offer nowadays, and you have yourself a start. That’s when the problems begin though. In order to build your bankroll up successfully, you need to be a good player (one who’s pretty much level with the at-the-table principles of successful poker), you need to be a master bankroll manager and you need to be a scrapper. If you find it that you’re not all these things, it’ll be pretty difficult for you to build up your bankroll.

Anyway, the first step’s first: secure that free bankroll. Run a search, explore different opportunities and make sure you sign up for the best one. The bad news is that while you want to play with rakeback (or maybe even with a poker prop deal) free poker bankrolls will not allow you to get such benefits. You’re going to have to find a different solution for the rakeback/poker propping dilemma later, once your bankroll takes off. The other bad news about the free bankroll is that no matter how generous it is, it will still only give you a fraction of a healthy bankroll. This is one problem you’re going to have to deal with. Many players never register for a free bankroll: they get their starting nickels and dimes by winning a Freeroll Tournaments (like Annette Obrestad supposedly did). In such cases, your starting capital will be even flimsier than otherwise.

Take your money to the SNG tables first of all. Seek out tournaments which offer the best individual odds for players to finish in the money. Double or nothing SNGs are increasingly popular these days, and even though I personally do not appreciate the return they offer (because of the tournament fees, you won’t even double up) what you’re looking for at that stage is to make your bankroll grow, with the least amount of risk. After you pump your roll a bit at these SNGs, move on to the regular ones. By then, your SNG skills will probably be in top shape too. Build your bankroll further using these SNGs. This is the point where bankroll management comes into the picture. Never underestimate the importance of proper bankroll management: I once managed to build up a bankroll having started off a freeroll I won, and because I was not sharp enough to exercise proper bankroll management, I ended up squandering all my winnings. Of course, since then I’ve learned that getting more than 5% of your bankroll involved at the tables at any one time puts you at risk of not being able to weather the downswings. In the case of SNGs, keeping your bankroll involvement around 2% is the healthy thing to do. In the case of MTTs, have a 100 buy-ins in your bankroll. This way, downswings won’t be able to get the better of you.

Once your roll is fairly sturdy, cash some of it out and start a bankroll on a different poker site, this time by making a hefty initial deposit and by signing up to a rakeback or a poker prop deal too. That way, you’ll be able to squeeze maximum juice out of time you spend at the tables.

Remember: the value of a rakeback deal goes up as you climb the limits, so if you ever intend to make it to the big leagues, you will need a good rake rebate deal.

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