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Did you know...

...that you can save a lot of money when you regularly move money around by having two e-wallet accounts in a different currency?

More about e-wallets...

Building a bankroll with bonuses and rakeback

Without a doubt the hardest part of building a bankroll will be the beginning where your bankroll is so small that you probably can't even sit at a 1-2 cent game buying in for 100 big blinds without 'violating' the bankroll management guidelines (read: your roll is less than $40, 20 buy-ins of $2). You might not yet know how to play a solid 'ABC-style' game as they call it, what can make you lose money in unnecessary spots. On top of that you do not yet generate enough income for the poker room (through rake) that you can clear bonuses to add to your roll.

If you want to build a bankroll it is very important at this stage to not think about the money (other than bankroll management concerns) but to completely focus on developing a solid poker strategy foundation (don't forget to also read forums!) and, after you achieved this, start learning to multi-table. Try to slowly add one table at a time until you can comfortably play 6 tables full-ring or 4 tables 6-max. If you take the time for this, your bankroll will slowly grow on you until you can move up in stakes to say 10 no limit (5 and 10 cent blinds) with a roll of around $200. If you like tournaments more than cash games, then multi-table tournaments (18, 27 or 45 man) with a low buy in are perfect to build a roll with.

Okay, at that stage things are going to get interesting. When you reach 10 NL, especially for non Americans, there are a lot of options you can fully take advantage of in order to give your bankroll an extra boost in the form of bonuses and rakeback. I'd say, buckle up and come along for the ride!

Use kickback bonuses

First of all, if you have not yet opened an e-wallet account yet at this stage then now is the time to do so. Read more about e-wallets and opening an account in 'Moving your poker money around: e-wallets'.

Secondly, you would want to open an account at both PokerSource and PokerSavvy, two major kickback affiliates. Read more about kickback affiliates in 'An introduction to bonuses and rakeback'.

Having opened those accounts, now it is important to do a little cherry picking. Having just reached 10 nl and not yet playing a very high amount of hands per month ('playing high volume') it is important to start out with the easiest to clear bonuses. This way the risk of not being able to meet the requirements for a certain bonus in time will be minimal. Therefore at this stage your best bet will be to do a kickback bonus and not to focus on completely clearing a first deposit bonus. A lot of information about which kickback bonus to choose can be found at the forums of PokerSource and PokerSavvy. Also, a site too usefull to deny you in this regard would be kickbackbonus.com. Some tips:

And then first deposit bonuses and rakeback

Now, after clearing a couple of those kickback bonuses (you are now officially a bonuswhore) your bankroll might already have grown towards four figures. Although these smaller bonuses are easy, you might want to start looking for a big fat first deposit bonus, maybe even in combination with rakeback. You can most likely afford to play 50 nl at this point, so that clearing most of the first deposit bonuses before they expire won't be a problem. And if you're not comfortable at these stakes, you can also clear such bonuses at 10 and 25 nl when you put in more volume by multi-tabling up to 10 tables or even more.

Information about first deposit bonuses and rakeback for particular poker rooms is given in the poker room reviews.

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