Poker Rackbacks: Get a Bankroll Going from Scratch
Nowadays, in order to become a real-money online poker player, one doesn’t need to bring any money from home anymore. Sure there are tons of added benefits if you do bring your real money and deposit, like getting a nice sign-up bonus, or a rakeback deal. Rakeback is an extremely important edge in poker, but if you do not actually deposit, you won’t really be able to enjoy its benefits.
Most poker rooms which offer rakeback do not subtract the sum from the sign-up bonus, so as a depositing player, you’ll be enjoying double rake reduction until you’ll have unlocked your bonus.
Let’s get back to the initial idea though, that you do not intend to spend a single cent on poker, and therefore, it isn’t your slightest intention to make any sort of deposit.
In this case, there are two ways to start up a bankroll. The first one will call upon your poker skills right from the get go. There are countless poker rooms out there which have completely free freerolls on offer. Be careful with freerolls though: many of them cost actual FPPs (frequent player points) so they’re not exactly free after all, and some of them require you to be a depositing player to qualify. Naturally, you won’t have access to any of those freerolls, at least not in the beginning. What you need are freerolls which do not require that you have a real money account at the room, and which pay out real money prizes. Make no mistake about it, reaching a money position which pays anything close to a starting micro-bankroll will not be easy. Such freerolls will usually be in a Multi-table format, and you’ll probably have to survive more than a thousand players to get to a prize of any significance. Easy it isn’t but it is sure possible, if you’re a skilled MTT player. Once there, you need to take your money and start playing in STTs.
Another way to kick-start a bankroll is to take advantage of a free bankroll offer. There are poker rooms out there which offer players free bankrolls, transferred right into their real money accounts as soon as they sign-up, no deposit required. If you find that unbelievable: don’t. The competition for players has escalated to such a degree, that it makes perfect sense for some rooms to come up with such offers. Rest assured, the room offering you the free bankroll does not work against its own interests. There are certain restrictions of your free bankroll, but it is a great deal nonetheless. You cannot cash out the money until you have unlocked it, by fulfilling the turn-over requirements.
Such bankrolls might not amount to much, as they can be anything from $10-$50, but they will provide a cash-core for you to buy into STTs with. Why STTs? Simple. They offer the best odds for under-bankrolled poker player wannabes.
In cash games, you’ll pay rake on every hand you play. No, it’s not the winner who pays all the rake, but everyone who puts money into the pot, so let’s not even go there. The bottom line is, you’ll be taxed on every hand played, and on your meager bankroll, without a rakeback deal to support you, that is the last thing you need. Stay well-clear of cash games for this reason. MTTs offer much better odds, because you only pay a one time tournament fee upon sign-up, regardless of how many hands it takes you to reach the money, or to win. You won’t have bankroll issues either, because all players start deep-stacked in a tournament. The number of competitors you’ll be going up against though, will be a pretty serious setback. In a MTT, you often have to beat hundreds of players to the money. Because the potential return on your investment is much larger than in a STT, it is still worth to play in MTTs, if you have a large-enough bankroll to absorb the variation. That, however, you do not have at this stage, so you’re better off sticking to Single Table tourneys, because – even though the return is much smaller on you buy-in, the odds of your making the money are much better.
After you build up a more or less solid bankroll this way, cash out, and make a deposit at a room which gives you a good rakeback percentage. Taking it from there is child’s play, and before you know it, you’re a full-fledged online poker player, without having invested a single penny into the whole deal. |
