How to Turn $25 Free bankroll into $500
Chris Ferguson made an interesting experiment, where he decided he would take $1 and turn it into $20,000 – and succeeded! HE said he’d try it so if you see him play a $0.01-$0.02 table, you’ll know why! Of course, we’re not all Chris Ferguson so let’s focus on a more realistic goal which is to turn $20 into $500.
The first condition is that you know how to play poker well. If you only have 10 games under your belt, expect to lose that $25 fast! It is assumed that you’ve done your time at the play money tables and learned about things like reading opponents, bluffing, table position, table image, trapping, etc. At a play money SNG, you should finish consistently in the top 10% before you can consider attempting to convert your $25 in something much larger.
The second condition is time. Don’t expect to get to $500 in a day, or a week, or even a month depending on how frequently you play poker. This will take a while to accomplish because you’re going to try to minimize the risks.
The third condition is that you must obey the bankroll management principles. Sure, you can play a 6 person $25 SNG (winner takes all), win it and end up with $150. Then you can play in a $150 winner takes all SNG and win $750 and voila! In just 2 hours or less you’ve accomplished the goal! But is it realistic that you will win these events? The problem with this plan is that as soon as you lose event 1, you’re left with nothing. The odds are not in your favor. If there are 6 equally skilled players in the SNG, then your odds of winning the SNGs are 1 in 6, not 1 in 1. There’s no safety net, no buffer zone. That’s why you need to hit a low stakes cash game and grind your way up in levels. It’s much easier to make money consistently in cash games than it is in SNGs.
You will be tempted to play a big tournament, or risk a lot of your money on a single event when you’re bankroll begins to grow. Maybe when you hit $50 you’ll think to yourself “I can take $25, play a tournament and risk it. If I lose, I’m back to square one and I’ll start over that’s all.” Don’t think like that. This is not an approach that is supported by bankroll management principles. As you make gains, you want to protect them. It’s not about protecting your initial amount of $25. If you made this grow to $50, then that’s your new bankroll. That’s the amount you want to protect and grow. Forget the $25, that’s the past. You’re now working with $50.
The secret in making the bankroll grow is in playing the appropriate stakes. To determine this, take the total value of your bankroll and divided it by 500. That’s the value of the BB at your NL cash table. So if you have $40, you should play at a $0.04-$0.08 table ($40 bankroll divided by 500 = $0.08 which is the big blind amount of the table). The risk of jumping to a $1/$2 table with $40 is that one bad hand alone can make you lose all your money. Most online poker players play at limits that are too high for them.
When you get an initial $25 free poker bankroll from this website, use it to test your skills because if you do well, you could be eligible for more free cash bonuses in the future, and these will contribute to your $500 objective. For instance, if you get a free $25 poker bankroll for Titan Poker or TonyG, you’ll be given another free $25 once you acquire 500 points! But that’s not all, every time you acquire an additional 5000 points, we’ll credit another $50 to your poker account (up to $200 in free money)! This is why it’s important to protect your bankroll and make it grow. If you can manage your poker bankroll well and make it grow, more rewards will come your way. If you can’t, then you’re out of luck. For more information, check out all offers for no deposit poker bonuses.
Once you accomplish your $500 goal, keep applying the principles of bankroll management. Don’t go crazy just because you “made it”. Reward yourself, you deserve it! But that doesn’t mean you should cash out $500 and party. Leave that money in your account, and try to turn that $500 into $10,000 now. You can do it! Good luck!