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 A guide to managing your non-playing poker issues.
I said earlier in the week we needed this so ive spent the morning writing. Have fun!
Advance Note
This isnt a strategy guide or anything like that. Its about all the things you should be doing when you are fairly new to increase your chances of making a bankroll quickly. It is the ABC guide to going from $50 to >$2000 and how you should do it.
Im not going to tell you to play KK on Axx flop, im going to tell you where you should be playing poker, why and what you should be doing with your BR when it is less than $2000.
Preliminaries
If you are non-US I recommend you use FTR’s links to neteller and get an account. Its an e-wallet that will hold all of your funds online for you so that they can be easily moved between sites. Eventually you can link it to your bank account but you just need an account for now.
Please make sure it is in US dollahs and not your own currency as most sites play in US curreny and the conversion fees will kill you!
If you are US based you basically need to get a credit card, voucher or e-passporte to hold funds. Someone else can write an article on those as I don’t use them!
Also, read the BR management sticky and don’t post saying your winrate is not high enough! Moving up in micro stakes is about bankroll, once you have the required BR you move up unless you are really unsure you are beating the games, which really shouldn’t be a problem to be honest! I will always assume you move up at the first given opportunity (and will berate you for not doing so!)
1. The First Deposit after Play Money. (Were talking $50)
Bonus whoring is how many of the balla’s started off their rolls and its no different now. Post-AIGEA bonus whoring is a lot tougher but there are still deals out there so depositing on to the right site to start with is vital.
If you can deposit $500 then deposit into pokerstars, play small SNG’s or cash games (you are only rolled for 25nl) and clear the 100% bonus match they have (normally 50bux!) This is easy money to help while you get into the cash game itself.
You’ll find if you play 5tables of fr 25nl, this bonus clears after 10hours play (not a lot) so you’ll clear it after 3-5k hands or so. This is superb value for money!
Even if you are only depositing your first $50, stars is still the best as you will still get the 100% match up bonus. Only thing is, at 2nl 5nl and 10nl this will take a lot longer to clear, but at the same time it doesn’t expire if you withdraw and it doesn’t fully expire until after 12 months, so you can leave it there if needs be. But at this time id prefer we didn’t think about leaving stars until its cleared and just tried to grind out until it is cleared.
Once it is cleared, Ultimate Bet and skins offer good micro games so we can make our first deposit into a UB skin (not ultimate Bet itself as ill show you later) and you can grind away on that bonus.
UB’s bonuses are crap in that they take forever to clear: you can also always get a reload, so don’t worry if they are offering 110% upto $1111 and you dont have $1111 as it'll take you 100k hands to clear that amount at anything below 100nl (fwiw, i have 12k bonus on my UB account that i havent cleared in 3 years of poker)
Getting a match offer on less than $500 and lots of game choice is more important for you at this time, but we will still utilise the bonuses available at this stage, even if these ones arent great
Skins for UB worth looking at include
Bet21.com
Upper Class Poker
Green Tie Poker
(Edit: Sorry to mods if we don’t have links to these, might be worth looking into!)
Ill post a link later to show you how you find all the skins of a network.
What im saying then is that if you deposit that first $50 onto stars, get a match bonus and play micro games and grind it out, we can move between a UB skin and Stars getting lots of ok games to play in and some bonus element. Even early on we can switch between sites for games while not losing any bonuses.
Your first goal then is to clear the 100% match at stars then move your BR to a UB skin, continue to grind and clear bonus, then move to another UB skin, get the match deposit again and keep doing this on the UB network until we have $500. If you are non-US, getting to the $500 mark is more important than clearing any bonus you have on the UB network, trust me, so just use the bonuses as an aide to making money!
If you are US based, i think you need a minimum of $600 before you consider a move to your next site.
[ ] Check mark for $500/$600 Bankroll.
2. $500, the first goal complete! Time for stage 2
Now that we have $500 we can play on any site that offers 25nl. Our next move then if we are non-US based is Party and Empire poker.
In days gone past, party had 4 skins and $600 free. Now however it only has 2. Mostly party and empire offer a bonus somewhere in the region of 30% upto $150. This means we need to deposit at least $525 for the max bonus. If you imagine we can do this on both sites, one after another, that’s $300 free money (half our bankroll ZING!)
Now i bet you can see why i moaned about being able to deposit $500!
Party have made their bonus harder to clear than it was before, however its still easier than stars and the games are well known for being super soft, so you should get through each of these bonuses quite quickly. Again, it will be a similar amount of hands per $50 if you play 25nl fr.
Remember you can do both sites and as neither offer RB anymore we lose nothing from chasing their bonuses.
At this point our bankroll can be something from $750-$1000 so we are doing ok and id like to introduce some other ideas here and correct some common misconceptions.
In micro and small stakes games, bonuses represent better value than rakeback ever will. Therefore it is never better to have an account with rakeback over a bonus when your bankroll is small. However, at the same time, eventually you’ll be playing a large volume of hands so you will need rb as a bonus wont always be there. Thus don’t play on the major sites that offer RB, use their skins instead. Also, rakeback is given through affiliates and you need to sign up new at a poker room to receive it. Therefore you have to understand you cant play at some sites early in your poker career as this will hamper you later on if you want rakeback at those sites.
(Although AP have been blacklisted at this time, I signed up there without RB early on in my poker 'career' and it cost me thousands when I moved back there and played midstakes games. Be warned, mistakes are costly!
Sure, party games are sick soft in comparison to Stars, but they wont be worth as much over a small sample as that sign up bonus is, so don’t be tempted if you cant get the full bonus!
Also, a lot of affiliate site's exist where you can sign up for a poker room and receive free gifts. Now, im not going to link these here on FTR as I don’t think that is fair on the mods, but basically you sign up for stars or party through that site and you get points toward merchandise like I-pods or even better a free copy of poker tracker or PokeraAce HUD.
Now this will save you money in the long run, so I do suggest you look into this. Even looking on Pokertracker/.PokerOffice and pokerAceHUD’s websites will help you here, and I suggest you use those to get free copies (providing it doesn’t compromise your bonus on sign up)
Otherwise you will need to eventually purchase these products and I suggest you wait until you reach at least $750 or better $1k before getting these products. This is why I was quick to say don’t withdraw early on as this is where you can spend that money usefully.
Of course that was all assuming you were non-US based. If you are US based then we have to look a little differently at this scenario.
You cant sign up for party so your next site should be Full Tilt. Stars and FT make up the major sites for US players. FT offers a $600~ 100% sign up bonus so when we can get this we need to find a rakeback affiliate as FT offers RB.
Now, RB is worked out in many ways, but basically if you are chasing a bonus dont expect to get much rb but once the bonus is out the way Rakeback will show good profit for you, although bonuses will be better!
Because FT has lots of traffic and this bonus (again it doesn’t expire very quickly and you can withdraw without losing it) I recommend this is our next site. If you use the links I provide at the bottom of the article, you'll find the rakeback directory. This shows you many major sites that offer rakeback and are known to be kosher.
PLEASE GET YOURSELF REFERRED TO THESE SITES!!!
Even if you just post ‘first to PM me a referral link to XXXX site can have me’ please do so. It puts money in our pockets and can do youre micro stakes friends no harm if you can all get a $50 referral bonus from referring one another or even lifetime rakeshare etc from these affiliates.
I know this because I have several friends who earn me $200+ dollahs a month by just playing and getting rb and I do the same for them. It does add up when i dont even need to play a hand to earn $200!
So we find our affiliate, get referred ad sign up. Cool, grind away baby!
[ ]Check mark for $1000 and understanding the basics of whoring and Rakeback.
[ ]Check mark for PT and pokeraceHUD.
3. The 1k barrier.
As I said, this is goal number 2. At this stage I think you should get PT or Poker office if you havent already. I am not a fan of PA HUD but get a copy of that as well if you need to.
Our problem now is that we can play 50nl on some good sites, stars and FT for game selection for US players and party for non-US.
Chiefly now its time to find where the good bonuses are and balance that versus the need for rakeback later.
I suggest at this time you dont be afraid of splitting your roll. If you are US based then have $500 on a site like stars where you will always get games and use $500 or so to chase bonuses on smaller sites where games may not always be available. With non-US, party should be your cash cow
In terms of rakeback, you only need the best offer from each network, after that we are just whoring the bonuses. If I go by size of site first you can see where I think these are, but again consult the rakeback directory below for the most up to date standings.
Pokerstars – Doesn’t do RB through affiliates, no skins
Full Tilt – 30% rb, no skins.
I-Poker – Various RB deals, I have 35% on noble poker, but check affiliates. Lots of skins
OnGame – Various RB deals, I have 36% on mansion, but check affiliates. Lots of skins
Bodog – It does exist, you may have to look or ask. I have 25%, no skins.
Boss Media – 30% is on many skins, contact an affiliate. Lots of skins with RB and/or bonuses.
Prima – 30% at the moment but rumours of 60% exist, contact affiliates. Lots of skins with bonuses.
Other notables.
Pacific poker – RB is supposedly against their T+C’s so any offers will not be legal.
Ladbrokes – Often offers 25% rakeback if you play xxx hands so you don’t need an affiliate,
Cryptologic – Now offered centrally by the room itself. Check littlewoods, but lots of skins all with the same offers.
Everest – Nothing, but lots of reloads so works nicely.
Pokerchamps – Gives you automatic rakeback so worth looking at. Only one other skin, both do RB.
Cake Poker – RB through an affiliate, 30%~ Few skins so take it at the named site.
If you make sure you have the best RB deal at each network (you can find network info in the links below) then every other skin is open for you to just deposit, clear the bonus and leave.
Obviously, some sites do points bonuses and other related issues which are worth looking into with RB too. I happen to know Green Joker Poker on the I-Poker network offers a better points deal that RB deals for small stakes players, but it may not last or get changed!
4. Reloads
Sometimes Lee Jones and Mr Dikshit are going to want to give way money, and offer reloads. Basically you deposit $x to get a bonus maxing out at $100.
Always take advantage of these if you can, especially on sites where bonuses clear quickly like stars and party. I cant tell you how much some of us have made from reloads, but it is sick.
5. Casino Whoring
This is now dead pretty much because me and all the other whores jumped on every new deposit bonus. Please read the T+C's on these as i made approx $10k one year from blackjack whoring, but now your pretty much cant play blackjack for bonuses.
What i will say however, is that if you do get your bankroll up past $3000 its worth looking att he sticky $200 bonuses.
Basically you deposit $200 get a 300% match (so you have $800) and you bet it all on one hand or blackjack or roulette. Then if you are successful you clear it in line with the wagering requirements and will normally show a profit. Ypu lose the sticky bonus on making a withdrawl but obviously after picking up $1600 from one spin you should make money, even if you lose $600 of that!
Occasionally you will get 100% upto $500 match bonuses in casino's but these are so rare as not worth mentioning. If you see these then make sure everyone knows about it, just be quiet so the companies dont know that we know!
6. AOB
One caveat to bonus whoring is this: you cant get the same bonus twice at the same room. You can use different skins e.g party and Empire, but you cant get party twice.
However, the T+C’s of any site state only one bonus per household so use your brains please. My Girlfriend made me lots of money! (X-man, if you think this in appropriate please remove)
So that’s it. If you start like this, you can get to 1k from $50 in no time, by making the most of the bonuses out there.
Always, always, check out the latest info. If you don’t know ask and post! and by all means and whores will seek out info for you
Below ive added some links all poker players need (sorry mods for linking away from FTR) but you do need them. They include site numbers, bonus directories etc.
1. Pokersite scout, shows number of players at peak times. Also has a list of all known poker rooms on each network!
http://www.pokersitescout.com/index.asp
2. Rakeback directory, shows all affiliates who do rakeback. Please use FTR's links and support the site if they are available.
http://www.rakebreakers.com/
3. Bonuswhores, the be-all-and-end-all guide to what sites do what bonus!
http://www.bonuswhores.com/
4. CasinoCity, the best guide i know of to casino sign ups.
http://www.casinocity.com/
And i think thats it. If ive missed anything, ill add it in later![/b]
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Originally Posted by Fnord
