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The Proper Way To Build Your Bankroll With Free Money

Guide To Winning Poker (3)

Poker sites are lining up to give you free poker money
Poker bonuses are a terrific way to build your bankroll
It’s important to make the most of this free poker money though

Make Sure You’re Making The Most Of The Money That’s Out There

If you’re just starting out, or if you are playing with a small or even modest sized bankroll, taking advantage of the willingness of poker sites to give you bonus money can and should provide a huge boost to your poker career. In order to do this right though, you need to make sure that you’re aware of all the considerations that go into managing this properly.

Far too many players blow off these opportunities by either being way too impatient or just not having much of a clue about what they are doing, and usually it’s both. These offers are extremely valuable, or at least have the potential to be, and you want to make sure that you get the most out of them. Once you use an offer at a particular poker room though, it’s gone forever, so you want to make sure that you understand what you’re doing as early in the process as possible. The information I’m about to give you here will make sure that you will get the most out of these great deals.

How Some Players Mishandle This Free Poker Money

I want to start out by going over some of the pitfalls that players find themselves in. You may be thinking, how can you go too far wrong with getting free bonus money from poker sites? Well there’s two main ways that you can hurt yourself here. The first one is allowing these deals to persuade you into busting out way too often, which obviously is something you want to avoid. The second problem is not taking proper advantage of the potential of these bonus deals. Where in the first case you’re blowing off your poker money, in the second you’re blowing off opportunities, and both will limit your progress. As I’ve said, once you make your first deposit at a given poker room, you won’t ever be making a first deposit there again, so you want to make it count.

It’s important to realize first of all that you’re going to have to learn the game and be profitable for bonus deals to help you the most. What you’re after here is to use them to exponentially increase your bankroll, and they indeed can do that for you if you handle them properly. For instance, an extra $600 now, given that you’re a winning player and you manage your stake progression and risk of ruin properly, isn’t just an extra $600 down the road, it actually works out to much more than that. By allowing you to move up stakes sooner, in the end this bonus money can end up being worth 10 or 20 times more than its original amount.

Free Poker Money Is A Very Valuable Stepping Stone If Used Correctly

For instance, if you only have $600 and get another $600 in bonus money added, you can now potentially earn twice as much per hour. So when you double up again, you’ll still earn twice as much an hour at the new stake, and this continues on until you’ve reached the highest stakes, which are very high indeed. This is just counting one bonus deal, and if you add dozens to this you can see how powerful this extra money becomes in the long run.

However, what very often happens is that players make a small deposit to try to get doubled up, end up playing a stake way too high for their bankroll, go broke long before the bonus money ends up being freed up, and then do the exact same thing at another poker room. In the end, they have both blown off way too much money and used up several bonus deals which may really have helped them grow their bankroll if they were patient enough to wait for the proper time. This is obviously a terrible way to build your bankroll, as it doesn’t build it at all, it just has you losing a bunch of money.

Make Sure You Use This Free Money Sensibly

The problem with going after initial deposit money with smaller deposits is that in many cases you really can’t safely play the stakes that you need to in order to earn the bonus. The first rule in bankroll management is never to play a stake that you can’t stand the variance at. Even if you’re a pro you can go bust playing too high for your bankroll. You need to be playing a stake high enough to accumulate the frequent player points you’ll need to get within the allotted time period, and you are often going to need more than just a small deposit to do that. As an insider, I can tell you that poker rooms see these small initial deposit bonuses as sucker bets, and they know that they won’t have to pay it out all that often because so many players will lose all their money first.

Now if you’re in this boat, with only a little poker money to invest, the first thing you want to do is think a little longer term. Are you planning on putting in a small amount like $25 or $50, try things, out, and then throw in some more a little later? Your time may be better spent looking to learn the game and at the same time saving your money so that you can put more in initially and give yourself a better chance of claiming the bonuses offered.

As well, it’s wise to spend a fair bit of time learning away from the table before you get started with real money poker, for instance reading this series of poker lessons, as this will lessen your chances of busting out with your first few deposits. Even if you’re an experienced player, who isn’t quite profitable yet, it often pays to take a step back and focus on learning the game more and save up a bit while doing so, then come back with a bigger and better next deposit.

Don’t Be Afraid To Jump Right In Though

You don’t want to drag this out too long though as there’s really no substitute for learning by doing. A real good place to start is with the no deposit bonuses that are out there. There are some poker sites that are willing to make a deposit for you, and we’re talking a decent sized one as well. So even if you don’t have any money to invest you can get in on the action with these deals. Many of these offers are completely legit, the site putting up the money has deals with the poker rooms where they get rewarded from your play there, but this is only profitable for them if you last, so it’s in their interest for them to help you get better. So generally they offer a series of lessons along with a quiz, and if you pass they deposit some money for you. If you don’t, they let you take the test again, and you don’t even have to go through the lessons if you feel capable of passing the quiz on your own. You don’t want to waste your time with bogus offers though so it’s important to be referred from a trusted source, and we’re here to help you with that.

So you really can’t go wrong with no deposit bonuses; there may be some additional bonus money you can free up but generally the timeframes are longer and they can be achieved realistically without having to play over your head to do it. You aren’t limited to just one either, and it makes perfect sense to take advantage of several. Even if you have money to deposit, you still need to seriously consider these offers, as you can deposit your own money at a poker room that isn’t offered by these no deposit deals, preferably one that the bonus money is within your range, and that way get the best of both worlds.

Regular Deposit Bonuses Are Very Valuable As Well

Getting back to the regular initial deposit bonuses, it’s fine to start out with one of them, especially at a poker room which doesn’t make it too difficult to free up the extra cash. The other thing you want to look for is their freeing it up in increments rather than making you qualify for the whole thing first. Many poker rooms do it this way though. The real important thing though is to make sure you are patient enough to wait until the time is right to go off on bonus hunting excursions, meaning pursuing other deals beyond the first one or two.

There are dozens of them out there and you can add tens of thousands of dollars in free money to your bankroll this way if you are smart about it. As a rule, beyond the first one or two, you want to try to shoot for at least a few hundred dollars of extra money with each one, and preferably the whole thing, and by waiting until you can make a bigger deposit you’re also better ensuring you will have enough money to play the stakes where the bonus can be freed up comfortably.

Keep in mind that, once again, a couple hundred dollars of bonus money missed adds up to a lot more than that down the road, so see these as opportunities to really jack things up for you and always make sure you’re getting at least a good chunk of what they are willing to give you. As well, the better of a player you become, the more likely you’ll be able to keep all this extra money and not just lose it back, so that’s another reason to be wiser and more patient with these terrific deals.

In the next section we’ll continue the discussion by moving on tomanaging your bankroll in action.

Ken’s Guide To Winning Poker – Index

Starting With A Solid Foundation

Aggression Series

Position Series

Various Poker Strategies

Mistakes Series