One of the most popular challenges in online poker is to try and build a bankroll without making a deposit. The idea is that you jump into freerolls, and earn your initial money from these tournaments. Once you’ve earned a small amount of money playing freerolls, you move up to low stakes cash games and/or poker tournaments, and keep building your bankroll.
Essentially, this is the ideal model for somebody who wants to play online poker for a living because they never have to risk their own money. So what many players often wonder is how easily they can accomplish building a bankroll without depositing.
And the answer to this thought is that not making any deposit at all definitely creates a tough road ahead. Now you might be thinking to yourself, “Sure, that’s exactly what somebody from an online poker site would want me to think.” But in all honestly, it’s just the truth that it’s very difficult to build your online poker bankroll without ever making a deposit.
First off, you have to consider that it’s hard to win money in most true freeroll poker tournaments because the field size is quite inflated when compared to the prize pool. After all, who doesn’t like to play poker for free money!? Assuming you do win any money from a freeroll, it’s usually not enough to allow you to play very high stakes; and the lower the stakes you start at, the longer it will be before you can move up. Furthermore, a small bankroll doesn’t give you any chance to survive if bad variance strikes.
To sum this thought up, if you don’t have enough extra money to make an online poker deposit, then starting a bankroll through freerolls may be your only option. However, those who do have a little extra money set aside for starting a poker bankroll would be better served to at least make a small deposit. This way, you take a huge shortcut towards building your bankroll by not having to spend hours grinding in freerolls and $0.01/$0.02 cash games just to make a few extra dollars.
