Building a bankroll from nothing
Do you know how the poker pros started out? They started out by building a bankroll from nothing and worked their way up. And so can you.
I could link several examples, but let’s just go with the best: Tom Dwan, aka "durrr". Here’s a quote from the Wikipedia article:
“Dwan began playing online poker at Paradise Poker with $50 his father had given him for his 17th birthday…. Dwan initially focused on $6 sit-and-go tournaments and ended up losing $35. With his last $15, he continued to focus on these sit-and-gos until he was able to turn a profit. After finding he could beat these games, he turned to cash games, where he built his bankroll starting at low stakes and slowly climbing his way up, eventually reaching the largest games found online.”
Let’s list the process:
- Get Online Poker Money
- Play Within Your Bankroll
- Become a Winner at that Limit
- Move Up
Get Online Poker Money
The best way to do this? Get a free bankroll! Tom Dwan deposited $50 online and built millions off of that. Just let the poker site give that money to you and go from there. This is the absolute risk-free way to break into online poker. Most every poker site has deposit bonuses, but then you have to spend money of your own.
Play Within Your Bankroll
Here’s where a lot of people go wrong (even Dwan messed this up!). Start at the smallest limits that you can, and prove you are a winner over several weeks of play. You will hear a lot of information about how you need 20 buy-ins for this level… or 50 buy-ins… or a million buy-ins. No one really agrees on the absolute best number, but everyone agrees that the more buy-ins that you have available at your limit, the less chance that you have of going broke.
Become a Winner at that Limit
We’re not going to go over the massive amounts of strategy here. Rather, don’t be too quick to jump up in limits before you’re a winner at your current level. A common mistake is often the player saying "I can’t play seriously because the stakes are so low the money doesn’t matter to me". This is actually awesome! You need to keep that mindset, because when you get to the level where the money does make a difference, it can negatively affect your mindset if you are not mentally prepared to play at higher limits. Play to win, no matter what the stakes.
Move Up
Once you’re a proven winner and your bankroll has grown to the point where it would be ridiculous if you went broke, that’s the time to move to the next level. With higher stakes comes higher competition, but don’t be intimidated. Play your game, and adjust to the new tricks these opponents will throw at you.
Good luck!
