Getting started in poker is a bit financially difficult for some people. To have success and move up to higher limits in poker, you need a bankroll. Unlike most gambling games, however, it’s possible to get started against some decent competition without having to put up a lot of starting capital. The way to do this is through the extensive use of freeroll tournaments. While live casinos very rarely have freeroll tournaments that are open to the public, online poker rooms often have dozens of freerolls each day. Here we’re going to take a look at a bankroll-building approach using online poker room freeroll tournaments.
The first thing you should do is get a spreadsheet program. If your computer doesn’t have a spreadsheet program, you can use the free web-based spreadsheet at Google Docs. In this spreadsheet, you should make columns for the date, time, site, and tournament ID number. This spreadsheet will be used to keep track of freeroll tournaments you can play in.
Next, you’ll need to find a few online poker rooms and sign up. You don’t need to deposit any money on any of these accounts, but you’ll want to have a screenname and an account set up. On each of these sites, under the tournaments section, there will often be a section just for freerolls. Go down the schedule, and for each one that you would be interested in playing, note the date, time, poker site name, and tournament ID number in your spreadsheet. Do this for each of your sites, and you have a schedule of freerolls to play that you can use to build up a starting bankroll over time.
The largest online poker sites right now are PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, and they also have the most freerolls. While their freeroll tournaments tend to have a lot of players, they also pay out very well and run very often. Your other good choices for finding freeroll tournaments include Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet, and Cake Poker. All of these online poker sites are licensed and can be relied on to allow you to cash out any winnings you get from freeroll tournaments as long as you follow their terms of service.
If you make a schedule and then follow it, you’ll be well on your way to building a solid starting bankroll for poker.