Strategies For Online Poker Profit, Building Your Bankroll

Before you jump in, learn strategy and prepare a plan to build your “roll”

New players start by reading these two excellent books. Read in this order.

Getting Started in Hold’em, by Ed Miller - Strong starting book for new players. Start learning a tight aggressive strategy and proper habits.

Small Stakes Hold'em, by Ed Miller - This more advanced book builds on the fundamentals outlined in the book above. Unlike many Poker books this one is a fun read and is well laid out. Read it, and then read it twice more.

Poker Tracker ($55) - This invaluable piece of software will let you track your own play, and the play of your opponents. You can see if the statistics of your play style are in the ballpark of generally accepted values for solid play and track the play styles of your opponents to get a better idea of the correct course of action. More great info and discussion about Poker Tracker stats can be found here in the Shark Forum. You'll also want to get PokerAce HUD. PAHUD will overlay the statistics of the table and each player on the poker screen, giving you an instant glimpse at the playing style of your opponents and letting you make more informed decisions. It has a great feature that will show you the bad guys mucked hands on the table at showdown. This is much easier then pulling up hand histories. It will cost you $25.

Notes on PokerTracker (PT): Most of you will not set up PT. It’s a little tricky at first and many need to read here PT Forum to figure out how to set it up and use it. A few of you will set it up, use the FREE version (1000 hands) and then never drop $55 to purchase it. Don’t make this mistake! Get PT here, now:

You need this program to track your game and develop good habits. If you need help with PT go here PT Forum and/or here Shark PT Forum. We discuss and help players often. You can even email PT support and receive help from Poker Tracker Pat, the owner and designer of the best Poker software in the world. So there are no excuses. Get PT, use it and become a serious Poker player with goals, a bankroll strategy, and a strong, tight aggressive game!

Funding Your Play - Get a Neteller account. This will allow you to quickly and easily move your funds between sites to take advantage of bonuses, building your bankroll both with profits from play and the numerous bonuses available around the web. I use a checking account set up just for Poker and move money from my checking to Neteller and then to the Poker or Casino I will play at. These transfers are free, easy and secure.

How does Neteller work? It is a free service that allows you to take funds from your bank account, and store them online in your Neteller account. From your Neteller account, you can instantly transfer funds to the online card room of your choice. Then, whenever you wish, you may transfer funds from the card room back to Neteller (this usually takes 1 to 48 hours, depends on site) and then from Neteller you can go to a different card room, or back to your bank account. After signing up with Neteller, you will need to verify your bank account that you will use to deposit. Once this has been done, you are now ready to fund your Neteller account, either by insta-Cash or a regular Neteller deposit. Keep in mind that a regular Neteller deposit takes up to 5 days to show up in your account. I set up a checking account just for Poker/casinos. Neteller Online Banking is safe, secure and fast. I love the Neteller ATM Debit card and use it for my live play. No daily withdrawal limit and all Poker BR is kept in one area for easy bookkeeping. I call it my Vegas Card.

Pick your game. I started playing Limit Poker first, and then moved to sit n gos and No Limit Tourneys. I continue to believe new players should start with Limit and move to NL after learning the Limit game, but it’s your hard earned cash. Get in a game (any game) and start learning. You need to see a lot of situations and hands. You will be starting at low limits so look around, play different games, find your favorite game and 2 or 3 sites your enjoy playing.

BONUS TIME! Bonus chasing, bonus whoring, first deposit bonuses, reload bonuses…..There are many different names for bonuses, but here’s the bottom line. You are going to build your bankroll with the help of the massive bonuses that are offered at quality Poker rooms and Casinos.

With many sites, when you try out their rooms for the first time, they will give you a bonus to be released to your account after you have fulfilled their requirements. For example Absolute Poker gives a generous $750 deposit bonus for a $750 deposit (or 100% of whatever you can deposit). This bonus is released to your account after playing in 10X raked hands. Maximum depositors will play 10 X 750 or 7500 raked hands to release $750 bonus dollars. This may sound like a crazy amount of hands but if you practice and become a strong player you will be playing 4 or 6 tables at once (or more) and can finish a bonus like this in 3-5 days.

 What this means is that you must play 10 raked hands for each $1 in bonus money. Say they offer a $200 bonus. This means that you have to play 2,000 raked hands (10x200) to clear the entire bonus. Also note that these raked hands must meet their definition, which is $.50.

What is a raked hand? A raked hand is usually defined as a hand where you have been dealt cards, and a rake is taken out of the pot, regardless of whether you did any betting in the hand or not. This is how Poker rooms profit, by raking each pot.

After I clear my bonus at my first online card room, can I do it again at another card room? Yes. It is possible for you to do this at nearly every online card room and make well over $1,500 a month in the process. Some full time bonus chasers may not have a problem making $3,000 or more a month, just from bonuses.

What is a “skin”? A skin is a site within a network of poker sites that share the same software and players. For example, Prima Poker is a network of many poker sites. Battlefield and Pokertime are Prima Poker network skins. In most cases, you can have accounts on each site within a network. Usually you will have to modify your screen name to enter a skin. Prima allows you to use the same name at all rooms.

What is a reload bonus? Reload bonuses work similar to a first time deposit bonus, except that it’s open to everyone, new and old customers alike. The online card rooms offer enough of these periodically to retain players and help losing players stay in the game.

First Bonus Stop; Bad Player Central! Titan Poker. Titan Poker is currently offering Shark linked players a 100% match on your signup, up to $500. Deposit as much as you can to receive the biggest match from Titan. This is one of the biggest bonuses out there, which makes this a great first stop. Even better, they have horrible players on their site, as they get lots of players who wander in from the Casinos of sister sites. Bonuses will clear faster at 1/ 2 and 2/4 but play the level that you are bankrolled for. After completing your stay at Titan, cash out to Neteller and continue reading below.

It’s time for a check-up from the neck up! If you did well, you feel great. Congrats, you beat some of the worst players online. If you lost, it stings a little. Poker is a skill game but it’s also a gamble. Bad players have great nights. Their flushes fill and their open enders hit the sweet 8 outer on the river, after paying you off all the way. Don’t give up or get discouraged! Poker is a roller coaster ride and you have a lot to learn. Is it time to post some questions for the Shark Veterans in our forum? Maybe you should post your Poker Tracker stats here in our PT Forum? We’ll help, if you post. Read old posts from players that needed help as well. Build good playing habits now! Keep learning, reading and improving your stats. Next up Absolute Poker!

Second Bonus Stop, Reload King! Absolute Poker. Deposit as much as you can at Absolute Poker. They usually offer anywhere from 100-200% signup bonuses when creating an account, as well as lots of reloads, nearly every week. Currently a $750 deposit gets you $750 in bonus for a total of $1500. The play can be tighter and stronger here depending on the limit that you play. However, there are still plenty of unskilled players to load up your bankroll.

Third Bonus Stop. Deposit $100 at InterPoker. InterPoker has a nice bonus and it’s a monthly recurring bonus, which you can get each and every month. The monthly bonus is typically a 100% match on your first deposit, up to $100 In order to claim it you have to play 1200 raked hands.

That’s a fair number of hands, so you won’t blow through this one in a few hours. Relax, have fun. You need to see lots of hands to improve. The real value here is that you get the bonus each and every month, so you can basically pencil this one in and work it into your routine. Plenty of weak players at this “Crypto” software site. Have fun and build your bankroll.

How are your Poker Tracker stats looking? How can you improve your win rate? Do you see your “leaks”? Are you getting proficient at recognizing patterns in your opponents play using PT? Do you know how to exploit their weaknesses? If the answer is NO to any of these questions, get to the Shark Forum now and get the answers, before heading to the donkified air of Sun Poker! Here you will pick up sweet bonuses, play loose weak players and add rakeback to your repertoire of BR builders.

All Shark linked players receive 20% of their accumulated rake back for your play at Sun Poker. This added bonus does not affect your regularly scheduled bonus each month here ($100 every month, just like InterPoker). RB (rakeback) is paid at the end of each month between the 5th and 10th for your previous months play. You can access your Sun RakeMeter here.

Additional Notes and Tips

The size of the bonus is, obviously, an important factor. But perhaps even more important is the difficulty in actually collecting and cashing out that bonus. Some poker rooms make it relatively easy to earn that bonus, and others make it difficult. The best situation, of course, if finding a poker room that offers a big dollar bonus, that pays out easily and quickly, and offers bonuses throughout the life of the player – not just during the initial sign-up.

What are Stackable bonuses? If you can have two (or more) uncleared bonuses at a site at the same time, then those bonuses are said to be stackable. Some sites will not permit you to use more than one promotional offer at a time - so their bonuses would be considered unstackable.

What is T&C? T&C are Terms and Conditions. A generic term for the guidelines a site uses for implementing their promotional bonuses. Some sites will use a different phrase for their T&C, such as “bonus rules”, etc. For our purposes, the rules concerning a bonus promotion will be known as “T&C”. T&C should always be read before depositing at a site. The T&C will tell you what you need to do to clear the bonus. How much time do you have to clear the bonus. How the bonus will be credited (all at once or in increments) etc. On some sites, they make it difficult to find their T&C. Find them, always. Email customer support and request them if necessary. Don’t deposit until you have read them. Even if you got some site information on that site/bonus from this forum, read the T&C. Poker sites frequently modify their T&C and the info you get from another forum member may not be the latest and greatest. Read the T&C.

Can I have multiple accounts at the same site? This is a violation of the general T&C of every site. Many have hubby/wife accounts or set up an account for their boyfriend/girlfriend. Do whatever you feel comfortable with.

What is rakeback? In order to entice players to sign up for new poker sites via their affiliate links, some affiliates began offering to return part of the recurring fractional rake payments they received from the poker sites to the players. Thus the players were getting some of their rake back. Initially, affiliates who did this were violating the terms of their affiliate agreement with the poker site(s) and many still are.

I prefer to play in tournaments, can I still chase bonuses? Yes, but your options are limited. Players playing in cash games generate a lot more money for the site than players playing in tournaments. Thus most sites allow players to clear bonuses only in cash games. There are a few sites, Absolute Poker, PokerStars and Bodog that allow players to clear bonus playing tournaments. It takes quite a few tournaments to clear a bonus. Thus it takes a longer period of time, but if it’s what you prefer, it is an option.

Is it better to play limit/NL/PL, short-hand or full-ring, Holdem, Omaha, or Stud to clear a bonus? I am a firm believer that you should play the game that you like to play, at the limit you like to play, and take the bonus as a bonus – something extra that you get for doing something you already enjoy. That said – if what you really enjoy is clearing bonus money as fast as humanly possible, then the game, betting structure and limit will definitely influence the rate at which your bonus will clear. 6 tabling limit shorthanded (6 players or less) you will clear bonuses at a rapid pace. Playing full tables and No Limit will be slower. More hands per hour, more bonuses cleared.

The other big assumption I make in this strategy article is that you’re at least a break-even poker player, skill-wise. Or even a marginal loser, as the bonus money will be enough to overcome that. If you’re losing money rapidly it’s time to stop playing and start reading more good Poker books and asking questions in the forum (not chasing bonuses).

How many tables can you successfully multi-table? How many tables does the site allow you to simultaneously play? This is very important, as you will clear bonuses much, much faster when multi-tabling.

What is the general player makeup of the site? Is it tied to a casino site, with lots of loose, bad players? Is it only frequented by tight, rock-like players, chasing bonuses? This obviously has nothing to do with the bonus itself, but affects what you can expect to make from your own poker play while at the tables.

What limits do you normally play? For the most part, the optimal limits for clearing bonuses are $1/2 and $2/4 or higher. $.50/1 is also fine, although it’ll take you longer to clear your bonus at most sites.

Shark Hathaway runs the Shark Powered Network of Poker & Casino affiliate sites. Join Shark and his “Shark Army” for Hold’em and Omaha Freerolls and low limit buyins with added money.