Building a bankroll, which site to start?

Hey everyone

I'm looking to start playing for real money and have done a few searches plus read the beginners guides to find out which site i should start building my bankroll at. I live in Canada and want to start with $50 and build from there. The guide says that i should start at PokerStars but cites a $50 bonus which is now $600. Should i still start with PokerStars or is there another site that would be better for only $50 inital deposit?

Thanks for your input.

Welcome to FTR .. I have made deposits at Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet. I recommend Full Tilt_ but heard great things about PokerStars. Good luck

I'm mostly concerned about being able to maximize my bonus and not compromise my rake-backs I'm just staring out so I will be playing $2NL to get a feel for playing.

I just found PokerRoomSchool under the bonuses tab which i had previously overlooked it offers $50 no deposit bonus plus $10 for every 1200 CDpoints you get up to $100/12000 CDpoints this sounds like what i was looking for...I think. Do you guys think this would be a good site to start building my bankroll before moving to a site like PokerStars to get the $600 bonus?

i always thought stars was better than tilt for real money play althuogh ive won alot more on tilt,at the low level ring games u get donked out more on tilt

I reloaded $200 and with 25% reload bonus. However, in order to unluck that $50, you have to earn 500FPP in 6 months, which means you have to spend $500 on Stars. That is, of course, impossible if you are not a winning player and you will have to reload again in order to unluck that bonus. There might be similar thing with $600 bonus, just to let you know.

Holy shit. Drop $50 on Stars, grind the bonus for 500 FPPs. You can easily do this in a month at $5nl playing a tagg/nit style. Now continue on to $600+. Then move your money to Full Tilt to play 25nl and take advantage of their 100% bonus up to $600. Learn the pokerz along the way and enjoy. Out.

Any comments on PokerRoomSchool? It looks the best to me since i wouldn't have to deposit anything to start. I'd really like to take full advantage of the PokerStars Bonus of $600 rather then just $50 of it.

...

Yes i know and PokerStars just changed their bonus to $600 at 100% from $50.

I think I'm one of the few that play on bodog here at FTR. They offer 110% up to 500 and you get 10% instantly. Only drawback here is that the lowest tables are 10NL which if you 'only' want 2nl doesn't work but I haven't even made it to the best part yet. I have played stars and FT and bodog has by far the most fish. The tables are really loose and it is easy to build confidence and see how much superior a good Tagg style really is. A weekend on FT is like everyday on bodog. No rakeback opps though

Just chose pokerstars, you are thining too much into this. Stars has 2nl, and you won't have to redeposit because 2nl is so weak just watch a few microstakes videos and then play.

Try Tiger Gaming. I used to play it before they quit letting Americans play.

It's been a long time, but I think they had 2NL and also had a small initial deposit bonus. Also seemed very fishy.

Biggest drawback is it's a VERY small site, but it's a good place to learn until you want to do some serious multitabling.

Because you're not American, you shouldn't go anywhere near Full Tilt, Absolute, etc yet. The Full Tilt bonus will take hundreds of thousands of hands to clear at the micros.

In fact, unless you put in super sick volume almost all bonuses are very hard to clear below 10NL. They're all time limited, and you just don't earn enough points in the small pots.

Stars is normally a good place to start at 2NL because they have a lot of games, their bonus doesn't expire for 6 months (a lifetime compared to almost all other sites), and it is actually clearable at the micros. I started there at 2NL and worked my way up, and eventually reached 500 FPP after I think about 30K hands, most of them at 5NL.

The Stars 500 FPP requirement was for the old $50 bonus - I'm not sure how many FPPs you need for the new $600 one?

After Stars, there are some decent bonuses you can clear at fairly low stakes, but it really depends on volume. How many hands do you think you will average in a month?

Originally Posted by TonyB73

Because you're not American, you shouldn't go anywhere near Full Tilt, Absolute, etc yet. The Full Tilt bonus will take hundreds of thousands of hands to clear at the micros.

Yes, this. I'd say don't even waste the Stars bonus yet. Get a good kickback deal at a Euro room to help build your roll. iPoker bonuses are fairly easy to clear.